In which I must add "crapademics" and "when knitting goes awry" as blog post labels.

Hrmph. Ever have a day when you wish you had just stayed in the safe, comfortable, and WARM confines of your bed? Okay, that's a rhetorical opener, because I know that you have. Everyone has, and I have, too. Today, in fact.

The universe appeared to be in proper working order upon my exiting the bed this morning, despite the freezing cold that is my apartment. I forged the cold, which was expected, albeit unpleasant, and since it was expected, it was handled with a long, hot shower and wrapping myself in a suitable number of clothing layers. I was looking forward to a day of working at home in the blissfully quiet confines of my apartment. In reasonable comfort, considering my layers of clothes. Before settling into a long day of productive work on studying for my imminently approaching preliminary exams (that qualify me to begin my PhD), I sat down for a small bit of knitting. Just a little. Just to give my fingers a little taste, finish off the back panel of my cable and rib jacket, and then get down to the business of boring-but-necessary school work.



As you may glean from the above photo (not the most stunning of photographs, but suitably so, as you shall see), I came oh-so very close to finishing the back panel of row after row after row of ribbing. Now, if that above photo appears to you as if I might have succeeded in my pre-work task, you might want to take a careful, close look at it again. Focus your attention to the left side of it, particularly the last few vertical ribs...



Yes, there it is. Right there. A HUGE mistake. A twisted rib that should, in fact, continue in twisted rib all the way up the back. Not stop half-way and become regular rib, as it, in fact, does. Right. Well. The options are obvious. 1) Rip out half of the back panel and re-knit it. Um... no, thanks. Do you know how much I hate knitting ribbing? Let's just say that it's enough that thus far I have only managed to knit two pairs of socks. Because I hate the monotony of ribbing. (Don't ask me why this sweater seemed like a good idea to me, because I have absolutely no logical response). 2) Subscribe to the "Aw, fuck it" school of knitting and move on with my life. And continue the cable and rib jacket, without any re-knitting. Just a little forgetting and being glad that the mistake rib is on the back and on the edge, likely to be mostly unseen. Too bad I'm an insufferable perfectionist. Who, it will surely be the case, will obsess over this mistake. Though I do like to blurt out a good, aw fuck! every now and again. And as impressive and joyful as Cara's miraculous cable-fix was, I'm afraid that kind of fix just doesn't apply here.

At this point, the back panel remains unripped.

And so, I resigned myself to doing my work. As part of said work, I contacted the appropriate persons in my department in an attempt to schedule my preliminary exams for late April (ack, ack!). I soon after received an email from the department secretary stating that I was not eligible to take my prelim exams this semester. Huh? (Can you sense the impending disaster-of-the-day part deux?) I quickly responded, asking for more information, unable to fathom what the bloody hold-up could possibly be. The response to my response was, well, disaster part deux. I had, it seems, missed the deadline to apply for PhD candidacy, a small bit of paperwork that is required in order to take the preliminary exams. Aw, FUCK. How this small but über-important detail slipped my mind is beyond me. I have not yet related this little development to my prelim advisors yet, but it would seem that my prelim exams will not be taking place at the end of April. They will, instead, be happening, I am supposing, sometime at the end of summer or next fall...

So, tell me, do I rip or leave it as is and just live with the mistake? The cable and rib jacket, that is. The prelim fiasco, unfortunately, cannot be ripped, and I will, indeed, have to just live with the mistake.

February Gray-Blues.

February chills are upon us here in Philly, and the February blues are as well. The blustery days are gray and cloudy and frigid. I am finding it particularly hard these days to gear myself up to make the commute into school. It seems to make so much more sense, morning after morning, to just stay in. Keep that ol' cold at bay. Have some stolid brick walls between me and the gray-blue elements. Work, however, is not so forthcoming in said confines. But access to coffee and knitting is. And, thus, my days are filled with half-read articles, half-drunk mugs of coffee, and half-knit cable-and-rib jacket back panels.



Project Spectrum has arrived. Mother Nature, it seems, is ready to participate. Grays, blues, and whites? She's all over that action.




I am ready, too.



Are you?

WIP Up: In which I realize that I have a KNITTING blog and may not have been living up to appropriate content standards.

The archaeology extravaganza is forthcoming, I promise. However, in the process of perusing my own blog, I came to the realization that my last post to contain images of those certain pointy, stickish things and windy tails of strings of any kind was December 10th. Granted, it was an FO post (that's gotta count double, somehow, right?), but, wow, has the knitting content on this here KNITTING blog been sparse (read: nonexistent!) for over a month now. So, I have decided to rectify the situation with the following Sunday evening WIPs extravaganza!



Oooh...the cool, cool smokey blue-grey beauty. I've had my eye on this Cascade yarn for a good, long while, but had little inspiration (read: lacked any and all decisiveness) on what sweater I should make with it. Then, at some point in the past few days a light bulb went off in my head. The light bulb? The Rib and Cable Jacket à la Debbie Bliss. I've been swatching and experimenting, trying to figure out how to make the pattern, which calls for cotton or a cotton blend, yield to the wooly Cascade. It's taken a few tries, scrunched looks, ripping, retrying on smaller needles, etc. to finally have a happy beginning to a new sweater project.



I am in absolute love with the wintery color (Project Spectrum 2.0: check.) of the yarn, and I heart the consummate stitch definition of Cascade wool. I am also already in love with one certain detail of the Cable and Rib jacket: the sweet twisted ribs interspersed among the regular ribs of the back panel.



Next up: the sweater I've been promising to knit for my mom. A small step in the direction of progress has been made, past the declaration that it will be made. I've cast on a sleeve and have acclimated myself to the Silky Tweed, which I actually really like working with. It's much lighter and easier on the fingers than 100% wool. So, Aud it is. In that gorgeous reddish-orange tweed.



The Silky Tweed reminds me of the delicious, delicious tins of saffron that I brought back from the UAE.



The world's most expensive spice by weight. And one of the most beautiful.



My mom's Saffron Aud will be beautiful.



And perhaps there will be a small contribution from me to the Green Sock KAL (oh, how that Lolly keeps us all so busy!).



The very, very small amount of knitting I was able to squeeze in during my month in the UAE came in sock form. In Monkey form, to be exact (oh, how that Cookie A. keeps us all so busy!). Monkey with a lil' Sundara magic called Burgundy over Moss.



And, last but not least...



The black sheep of my WIPs...my Central Park Hoodie. Inching along ever so slowly. Some day I'll join the ranks...

Have a wonderful Sunday evening, all!