Finished Object!

Socks are charming little projects, which can be carried handily in a bag and drawn out during dull moments. However, it's difficult to finish them if you stuff them in a drawer.

I started Cookie A.'s Monkey socks from Knitty last semester, but only finished them this week. To tell the truth, the pattern started to frustrate me, but I did complete the pair at last.


More details are on Ravelry, but for all the non-Ravelry folk, here are the details:

Pattern: Monkey
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Yarn in Sand Ridge
Needles: Size 1 Bamboo dpns
Verdict: Good pattern, well written. The socks fit nice and snugly.

A Tribute to S.I.B.

I have a fantastic roommate.

Before you go to college, all of your well-meaning friends (mostly the older ones) counsel you to not expect to be best friends with your roommate. "You'll just live with them," they say, "so it's a businesslike arrangement." You're told to be reasonable in what you think your roommate will be like.

The Residence Life Office here matches up students well, taking into account their likes and dislikes, circadian rhythms, even their Myers-Briggs results. Even so, I was not positive that they would do a decent job. I was quite afraid that I would end up with someone whose loud, wanton ways would drive me crazy.

Then I met Sarah, my amazing roommate. We are highly compatible -- her F type complements my T -- and she has an incredible ability to overlook my more atrocious caprices, like my very noisy coffeemaker and tendency to strew my clothes everywhere. Every day we discover ways in which we are similar, sometimes reading the other one's mind, but we also learn the ways in which we deviate -- and we definitely have our differences.

Besides her high tolerance level for my nonsense, Sarah is also very creative, making beautiful cards for people on their birthdays and covering the walls of our room with her calligraphic brilliance. When we got back from the Christmas holiday, she presented me with my gift: a recipe box.

[It is not crooked. I just can't take normal pictures.]

Not only did she paint the box with a fantastic goddess/fairy/muse/nymph, she wrote Rensad ryn adin on the cover. I was so dumbstruck by the gift that Sarah had to remind me that rensad ryn adin was from the language I created. The phrase means "to eat and to drink" in Pannat.


I can't thank Sarah ever enough -- not just for the beautiful recipe box, because her friendship extends way beyond that -- for her gracious spirit, her charming presence, her perfect advice, and her enduring patience. This post is thus dedicated to her and her wonderful self.

Surely it's not 2008 already?

Poor little abandoned blog! It's not for lack of events in my life that I haven't posted. I suppose the end of the semester was simply too overwhelming. As for NaNoWriMo, let us not even speak of that false start...

In the area of knitting, I have been a busy little bee. I finished the Gryffindor scarf for my little sister in time for Christmas. In truth, it was all knit up a while ago, but I delayed the finishing because I find putting on fringe so tedious. My monkey socks are on the backburner because they are sort of driving me mad.

The main project I'm working on now is St. Brigid, a sweater that I have admired, adored, and longed to knit for about, oh, three years now. I'm working it up in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, in Firecracker Red. It's a heathered yarn and I'm pleased with how it's turning out.


That's the back of the sweater, with about four repeats of the main charts. I love the Celtic cables!

NaNoWriMo!

In a moment of insanity, I have joined a community of similarly crazy writers who will each write a 50,000 page novel during NaNoWriMo. It's a national event to get writers to go ahead and write a novel, rather than equivocating and saying it will happen eventually.

Now, I hardly expect to create a Pulitzer-worthy novel--in fact, I would be happy if I simply finish with a novel in hand! But I do love the ambitious quality of the movement, and so I have joined it.

Ravelry, Love, Socks, and Chai Tea

[for non-knitters, there is non-knitting-related content further down!]

Having explored Ravelry's functionality further since my initial post, I can safely say that it is an amazing resource and community. It's a brilliant idea and so useful when creating something new. I wanted to knit Monkey [a Knitty pattern] but the pattern is written for a top-down sock. I prefer to knit socks toe-up but wasn't sure how the stitch pattern would appear upside-down. A quick search on Ravelry for completed Monkey socks revealed multiple pairs of sucessfully knitted toe-up socks with a charming upside-pattern. Rather than trawling Google results to find a specific modification on the pattern, I could access a veritable cornucopia of finished socks with notes on the yarns chosen and the changes made. Fantastic!

Ravelry's photo sharing settings require Flickr, so I have obtained an account [hence the sidebar addition]. I've posted photos of my new Victorian wristlets, one completed monkey sock, and some sundry items.

Yesterday was a delightful day as I drank chai tea and read a new cookbook, Veganomincon. It's funny, clever, and full of new recipes to try. It has even convinced me that I ought to expand my spice rack beyond the boring cinnamon, pepper, and ground ginger that I currently own. I'm put off by the cost of spices, but when they are available in bulk in a nearby store, I really have no excuse to stock up on at least some small amounts...

Besides several books, my latest reading material has been my dear friend Lauren's blog, Writings in Cursive. How could I not love the blog of a history major studying abroad in Scotland? Her writing is excellent and she takes wonderful photos, so everyone should go visit and enjoy her blog.

Ravelry = True Love

This week is crazy thus far, but I have to share my joy because I am finally on Ravelry! I got on the waiting list back in June or July and today, I received my invite at last. I hope to get a nice link in the sidebar menu eventually, but for now, my username is sparrowlight if anyone is on there. : )

Second City

Last night the legendary and incredible comedy troupe Second City graced our campus with their presence.

Beyond sketches, songs, and strange skits, a good portion of the show was improv--a ridiculous situation if there ever was one. How people can stand on stage and whip out lines after lines of dialogue or hysterical actions without knowing beforehand what they will have to do is beyond me. Certainly, they can practice with weird prompts during the rehearsal, but it's impossible to predict precisely what a group of [crazy] college students yell out.

What made the show particularly brilliant was that the troupe clearly either researched Davidson first or talked to students beforehand. They referenced Davidson's culture and events, which made the show even funnier. Also, for the last act, they brought Oops! on stage--Davidson's own improv troupe, who held their own with the professional group.

It was strange to have that event be on a Wednesday night, when it felt more like a Friday night type of event, but it was a great interlude to the week nevertheless.