Topic: Posts

I didn’t get in to graduate school this time.

Feh.

I’m going to start putting out feelers for another try, but maybe not next year I need a break from this applying thing, and I don’t want to be beating a dead horse or anything. And looking for (another) job. I’m good income wise until the end of august, if need be, but I think it would be good to find something solid and suited that I could do while I retool.

Also, this research project that I’ve been working on this semester is something that I could continue to work on for a while, and something that I think could easily lead to me into interesting next steps.

It’s good to keep busy and this helps, but the truth is that this sucks royally. Just saying.

But there are worse things in the world than working and focusing on writing and knitting and spinning, and I look forward to sharing those moments and experiences with you here. And also sharing other things here because really those sorts of thoughts are much more interesting for both of us than the endless introspection.

Be in touch would you? I will be too.

I caved yesterday and bought roving. Hand dyed roving at that. This entry is about various developments in my slate of projects.

Given that I had, basically none of my own fiber in the house¹, and that I get a hefty discount on stuff at the yarn shop I’ve been working at, and the fact that this fiber has been sitting on the shelf staring me down for weeks, and so I got it. The color name is Blueberries and Cream, it’s Merino, I got 8 ounces. Wait, I’ve found a picture that I’m stealing from the companies website

I think the blues are a little bit brighter in real life, but that’s pretty clearly a flash effect.

Anyway this morning I spun the first third of the roving. My plan is to have a DK/Sprt weight 3 ply. The first strand I’m broke the colors up pretty well and spun them in the order that they came on the roving. The next strand I’m going to intentionally mix up the colors, and the third strand I’m going to figure something else to do, I might break up the fiber and then spin a regular sequence, but we’ll see.

My hope is that I’ll be finishing up the plying right as my shetland roving arrives. I hope the spin that the same way as this (3ply DK/Sport weight,) even though it’s all one color.

Also, I’ve finally reached the point in the Latvian mitten Sweater where I have to unzip the provisional cast-on and knit the hem facing. Ugg. This is a two-or-so inch long piece of fabric that is… 110 inches wide. It has to go up and down the cardigan opening, around the neck opening, and all the way around the bottom edge of the sweater. This is the third sweater where I’ve had to do this massively annoying procedure to this year. And while I’ve been leaning towards not doing cardigans for a while, I’m swearing them off for the next several garments.

But because the knitting is so tedious, and so large (because of course the whole damn thing has to fit in your bookbag/lap, it’s not really feasible to work on this “here and there” like you might with most knitting. Anyway, because of this, I’ve cast on for the ribbing of my next sweater.

I reason that this is acceptable because:

• I hate knitting corrugated ribbing.
• I haven’t chosen the charts/pattern for the body of the sweater, just the stitch count.
• If I cast on now, I won’t be tempted to turn the border into some sort of provisional cast-on that will require unzipping/hemming later. Judge for yourself.

I started a tag for spinning related posts that I hope to use as having a wheel of my own (again) means that I’m spinning more.

I finished the last little bit of the BFL. Well almost. I still have about 80 grams of the stuff set aside with a drop spindle, but I don’t think I need to spin it up like the other to make anything. But I might.

I was going to do this Mohair/Alpaca/Finn thing, but I’ve since decided against it. Alpaca is nice, but I’m not sure that it’s the kind of thing that I particularly like to knit with. I’m very into wool, and I know myself well enough to realize that I don’t really know how to spin alpaca, and I don’t have enough desire to want to learn how to do that at the moment.

If I move north and need gear that warm, or lace goes into style for men, maybe I’ll reconsider.

In other news, though people on ravelry have been helpful with my double drive plying issue, I think this boils down to the fact that this yarn that I’ve been working with is very lofty, particularly when plied, and double drive though very even (and good for it) doesn’t provide as much tension for plying as the breakband method does.

Though if anyone has the Alden Amos book at hand and wants to share his imparted wisdom, I’d be ok with that, if I’m missing something.

So next up, seeing that the alpaca blend thing is a no go, is going to be the Grey Shetland that I just ordered. It should be here soon enough, but I think I’ll take the opportunity of the break to finish the sweater that I’ve been working on (just a hem), some writing responsibilities, starting the next sweater (woot!). There’s also some hand painted roving at the yarn store that might come home with me. If it’s still in the shop.

In the past several years, most of my spinning has focused on making various two ply yarns, and I think what to focus on spinning conventional three-ply for the next little bit.

I’ve also decided that, while I’m uninterested in spinning bulky novelty yarns; unlike a lot of spinners, I’m not particularly interested in spinning fingering and lace weight (sorry Ted! I’m not worthy!) mostly because while I knit with a lot of fingering weight (jumper weight shetland mostly), it seems to me that this is the kind of yarn that I would never want to spin for myself, whereas things in the Sport/DK/Worsted range is stuff where my allegiance to the machine spun fiber is much less strong. A place where the economy works out a bit better for me.

And three ply seems like it will be fun.

But until I get more fiber, we’ll have to wait and see, and move on to other topics of interest.

Onward and Upward!

Perhaps no news is good news? After the bulk of a week in one kind of a haze or another, I’m just working on getting on with my life, at least for the present. I’m going to be spinning a lot in the future, no matter if I get into graduate school or not. I’m going to be knitting and writing knitting patterns. There are the 14 sweaters to knit. I’m not going to stop this blog or stop drinking tea. In a few weeks I’ll be working full time until August 31st. I have another novella or ten to write.

Life continues.

I’ve also realized that the organization of this school is somewhat… arcane and odd. For instance I submitted my application on paper (because there wasn’t a digital option), and the whole thing is administered by the department rather than a graduate school proper. It takes them a little while longer to get to things. I can cope with this. And I just have to be the faster zebra, so I’m resting comfortably in the belief (delusion?) that no news is good news.

Anyway. I got the new spinning wheel on Tuesday, as I mentioned and I’ve been spinning a lot. I plyed about 80 grams (my standard skein size) Tuesday evening, and then spun and plied two bobbins of singles on Wednesday (190 grams), and spun two more bobbins yesterday, though I didn’t get to ply it all last night.

My current spinning project has been some amazingly lofty and soft Blue faced Leicester (BFL, commonly pronounced biffel) that I got over the holidays at The Yarn Barn in Kansas City. I have probably 60 grams set aside for a drop spindle project for when my hands hurt too much to knit, and i don’t want to sit in front of a wheel (or couldn’t before I got the new wheel, and about 82 grams left for wheel spinning (I’ve been making sport-ish weight two ply). Of about two pounds that I bought.

The next spinning project is going to be three ply, two of which will be a brown mohair/alpaca (30/70?) blend, and the third ply will be white finnsheep wool. Someone can do the weighted percentages. 33% wool, 47% Alpaca, 20% mohair? Something like that…

After that I have my eye on some grey shetland from copper moose (an online spinning company) that I might buy a couple of pounds to spin a 3 ply DK weight for a sweater. A sweater like Alice Starmore’s St. Brigid? Something.

Anyway, I have blog posts about knitting developments, tea developments, and writing developments, so I’ll leave this post here, and go do some spinning before I get back to more writing thing.

Be well, and I’ll keep you posted as I learn more, for sure.

still no news.

I have myself convinced that if I don’t get a rejection slip by 1pm in the time zone that the school I’m waiting on, my chances of getting in go up, and continue to go up with every successive half business day, on the theory that as long as I’m in play, my chances go up: other people on the wait list ahead of me are more likely to have made alternate plans as time goes on, and so forth.

This is all speculation, of course, but if it makes me feel better, I’m taking it. I’m about as frayed as I ever get, though I think I’m almost faking it pretty well. Almost.

My first trial run with the nalgene french press when poorly, though I totally blame operator error, and I’ll give it another try.

llThe new spinning wheel is, simply put, amazing. I spun 3.75 ozs of singles this morning, still the BFL that I’ve been chipping away at for months, and I’m working on the second bobbin. My mom reminded me that we got 8 oz of spinning fiber (alpaca wool? alpaca wool, silk? brown? I think.) for christmas, and I might take my share of this when I’m done with the BFL. Which will probably be in the next week or two. After that, I want to make an order from R.H. Lindsey, to get some corriedale and merino and maybe some other this and that, though I’m intrigued, they have uncarded grey merino loose wool that might be fun. And if I got a flick carder, the processing might not be such a bother. And its grey, which I’m fond of. Anyway, it rocks.

Ok, I’ll be in touch, of course.

love, tycho

no grad school news.

lots of knitting and coding interviews, almost done with sweater.

sleeping well, and upbeat, possibly with reason (speculative), so it could all come crashing down.

having day out. academic stuff, errands. Tea.

More knitting. the sweater looks really good, but I think without hem/zipper it’s going to look like crap so I’m reminding myself to withold judgement for a while.

Ok, for real. Sigh.

Think good thoughts, I could hear at any point in the next little bit. really. I think delusion is the only way people live through these kinds things.

Onward and Upward!

still no news about grad school.

the longer I “stay in play,” the better, probably, though I am looking forward to this whole drama being over.

my dad said the other day, that “zebras don’t need to run faster than lions to stay alive, they just need to run faster than other zebras,”

which is both funny, and true. at any point, I could be the slow zebra, but the chances are that there are slower zebras out there, and the longer I’m in play, the better.

and it’s funny. funny is good.

my spinning wheel came today. but I went for a kind of brisk walk after being out and running around a lot today, and I’m just knackered. more news on this forthcoming.

also, I got a new nalgen bottle and a a french press type thing for making tea in it. I haven’t quite mastered the insertion/removal thing with grace but some day I will have it. I also got a couple more varieties of black tea, including one with vanilla and thus I suspect to have enough tea to get me through the beginning of 2009, unless I get into graduate school, in which case, the end of october, max.

I think what you’re witnessing is the live bloging of angst, and so I’m going to go and do something else entirely.

love, tycho

So this is the week. Hopefully. I’m getting palpitations just thinking about it. I’ll keep you posted if I get in.

It’s not what happens so much as it is that it’s happening. Not that I don’t have strong feelings/prefrences, I do, it’s just stressful.

I’ve decided that I will, g-d willing, and I get in, I’m going to start on a celebratory road trip in about a week, as it’s the only good stretch of time when I don’t have commitments that I need to be here for. In the next couple of months I have: May Day dancing, work commitments at the yarn store, morris dancing, teaching commitments, and then my summer job starts in late May. So it’s now or never.

Possible stops (and rough order) include:

• Champaign-Urbana, IL
• Nashville, TN
• Chapel Hill, NC
• Harrisburg, PN
• Philadelphia, PN
• Boston Area, MN
• Chicago, IL

And I just need to get back here by sunrise on May 1st. Well, enough time before sunrise to find/clean put on morris kit before sunrise. Which, might be as little as 60-90 minutes, and as much as several hours.

I also listed the places in a rough order, so that I don’t have more than 8-10 hours at any one point. Except for Boston to Chicago. Maybe back to Philadelphia/Harrisburg to take the edge off that. Also, you figure with a state as big as Ohio, I have to have some friend there, but alas. We’ll see. If you’re in one of those places or in between one of those places, keep in touch/watch this blog….

It’s fun to plan these things, it takes the edge off, if I don’t get in I’ll probably take a similar road trip at the end of the summer in between jobs/movements in my life. I’ll keep you posted, of course.

Brief rundown of other news:

• I taught a really cool knitting class this morning. It was more of a workshop, and since I’m local we’re spreading it out over three months, so people have an opportunity to get a big project done. I’m liking it. I’ll write more about this.
• I’m beginning stage one of a big academic project tonight, which is why my posting today is more reflexive and brief than usual. Aside from all the busy.
• I went to a chamber music concert that a friend played in. It was fun, I got a lot of knitting done. In fact, I had a slight knitting mishap yesterday and had to rip back about 3 inches of knitting, but I think I’ve finally regrouped. I’ll write more about this later.

Ok, I have to run.

Onward and Upward!

So, I apparently have turned into a lazy blogger. I’m not sure what to say about this. I have, probably four more days on the waitlist maybe 5 or 6 which means I’ve been on the list for 28+ days. My heart races just thinking about it.

Knitting is going well. I’m 4-5 inches into the yoke, so probably at least half done with this section, but each round has fewer and fewer stitches. I’m decreasing what amounts to 8 stitches every three rounds, and though all of Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Seamless Yoke Style sweater “structures” work with colorwork designs, you have to monkey with the decrease rates because the vertical to horizontal gauge is different in stranded work (stitches are more narrow). Keep this in mind.

My mother and I went shopping this morning. I found a book bag at REI (my old one is getting ratty, and broken) and I ordered it online as soon as I got home. We also went to “The Container Store” and I got a couple of little glass (and plastic) airtight jars to hold loose tea, and I’m quite like them, so I’ll have to go back to get a couple more at some point. We also got--and this was the reason for the trip--bathroom/shower accessories, of which we were in great need of.

I’m working through my tea bag stash in an effort to move to loose leaf tea more full time. I have two experimental varieties of tea bags (and one known quantity) left hanging around that will probably take a while to get through, but I want to have less stuff in stock before I go forth and buy more lose tea…

And speaking of tea buying, I want to get one of those strainer/french press things that you can get to use in a nalgene for when I’m on the road in the future…

Anyway, back to the knitting, I must get this done soon, because I want to move on to the next thing, and I’m so close!

Stay well!

So I’ve been working on, well g-d only knows what today, but apparently it didn’t involve blogging. I have gotten things done, and I’m probably half to 3/4s of the way done with my document for my class on sunday, and making progress on my sweater.

These are good things.

I haven’t talked much about it here, but I suspect that most of you are aware that I twitter. That is that I post things to my twitter page throughout my day. Links, thoughts, notifications of new blog entries (ok, that’s automatic, but still). It’s a great deal of fun, once you get into it, and I heartily recommend it!

Anyway, one of the things that I’ve been doing of late, is when a lyric of a song strikes my ear/fancy, I’ll post a snippet of it on twitter. Usually I don’t go for the most recongizeable lyric, like I’ve posted bits of “The Times they are A-Changing” that aren’t “come gather around children” or “the times they are a-changing,” and other such.

And it’s sort of cool when people twitter back the name of the song or the next lyric, or something, it’s sort of like a sing along.

Recently I’ve been twittering parts of the 69 Love Songs collection by “The Magnetic Fields,” which I think is full of great little lyrics like “Papa was a rodeo, mama was a rock and roll band,” and “Like the Moon needs poetry, you need me” and “Not for all the tea in China  Not if I could sing like a bird  Not for all North Carolina.” And it’s so delightful that an obviously quirky band like The Magnetic Fields is so well known that people can generate the next lines and what not from memory.

I’ve put the iPod back onto random, so who knows what’s going to stick in the next few days but I’d like to continue to do this kind of thing, and it would be great to have little sing-a-longs with you too.