lolajl: November 2005 Archives

While checking up on the latest from Instapundit.com, I came across a really interesting post on blogging styles. See for yourself which category you fall into.

I've been busy with knitting and the job search. Now that the ball has been found, I've been busy with the vest. Got the armholes all bound off and the shoulders, and now I'm casting on for the front. I'm not going to be putting in buttonholes because I like to wear this vest open and it's a plain design.

Other matters with which I've been busy is job hunting. Today was a good week since I've been getting phone interviews and requests for me to contact the recruiters and headhunters. And now I'm working on a mini-application to showcase my coding skills, since I signed a confidential agreement with my former company that I could not divulge any work or codes that I'd done there. This mini-application is going to be a sweater pattern generator. Key in the measurements for a person, select a sweater type, such as raglan or gansey, and have it spit out the pattern. No, it's not going to be online since my hosting company does not currently have ColdFusion involved, and anyway, there's a pretty good generator at The Knitting Fiend and at The Knitting Fool.

On a hunch, especially after an almost-thorough cleanup of my bedroom, I had Bruce call mother to see if the missing ball was there. At first she said it wasn't there. Then, 15 minutes later, she calls and says it's there, after all. Whew . . . it will be retrieved when we stop by later this weekend, given a good scolding and spanking for measure, and then put to use to complete the vest in time for the next cold blast.

I've been busy the past few days getting ready for Thanksgiving. Turkey Day, we spent the afternoon with my parents, Aunt Ellen (father's friend who hosted the dinner), Aunt Dianne, and family friend Charlotte. We had the usual fixings, and the conversation was lively and a bit of a verbal sparring to see who could come up with the wittiest comments. Of course, one of the main topics was Kai, whose appearance was made over at the other grandparents 50 miles south of us.

Meanwhile, I'm knitting away on the vest. Making great progress, and I've finished the desired length and put the stitches on sleeve. Okay. time to sew the steeks and cut. Done. Where's that ball of yarn . . . I know I had 4 balls and used up 3. Look in the corner next to my bed - not there. Okay, I'm thinking, maybe it's in the office. Nope, not there. Look under my bed. Aiiieeee, not there! By then, I'm panicking - I'm running around for 1 hour looking for it before we have to leave for Turkey dinner. We've agreed to leave at 2pm, but departure is delayed till about 2:30 because that ball is hiding somewhere in plain sight, snickering at me.

Today, it has yet to show up, even at this bright early hour. I'll admit, it's a mess . . . I'm not going to take a picture of my bedroom, the office, or the other bedroom because it will make Flylady fans cringe. I would have looked for it some more yesterday, but we were busy preparing our own post-Turkey Day dinner (yes, we cooked our own turkey . . . gotta have some leftovers to make turkey soup, casserole, etc. etc.). We had G. and R. over . . . was supposed to have R.'s friend V. over but V. had other things to do. Oh well . . . it worked out in the end. We gently pushed G. to take R. back to the metro (yes, one is male and one is female and neither are attached at the moment).

I made cranberry relish, which turned out well as always. I made the regular recipe batch, and put half of it into 2 quart bags to put in the freezer. We want to see how well it freezes. Here's the recipe . . . it delivers quite a bit of a bite, unlike those yucky, bland canned cranberry sauce. As G. commented, it has a bit of a Christmasy taste.

Cranberry Relish

Source: Elizabeth Powell (Servings: 8)

1 cup sugar
1 onion, finely chopped
6 whole cloves (I just used 1 tsp. of ground cloves)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 whole cardamom seeds, crushed (I think I used 1/2 or 1 tsp. ground cardamom seeds)
1 pinch cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup vinegar
2 cups cranberries, fresh
1 cup seedless raisins
⅓ cup brown sugar
1 cup water

Combine all ingredients in large soup kettle. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer 45 minutes. Serve chilled.

Making really good progress on the vest. I'd hoped to get the shoulders all bound off by end of yesterday. But Bruce and I were busy all day - after church we went with our friend G. over to The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.

There's an exhibit which opened last weekend, Sacred Arts and City Life. It's a very interesting exhibit about Novgorod the Great, which was a major town in Rus' due to being a trading outpost (and the oldest medieval city in Russia) before the ascendancy of Moscow under the tsar in 1478. Due to the property of the soil, which is able to preserve moistness due to a layer of clay, artifacts such as leather, wood, pieces of bark on which writings were etched, have been preserved, giving a unique look into life as lived during the medieval age. On displays were icons, from the 1200s all the way to the middle 16th century. You could see how the style of iconography changed as the years went on. It was really fascinating to see the early style, which one doesn't find much in icons nowdays. There is an admission charge - $10 for adults, but it's well worth it, especially to view other exhibits such as gothic and renaissance art, and to see examples of what one would have found in a wealthy Dutch home in 1640. I definitely plan to go back there again, especially to visit the museum shop once I have my cash flow started up again.

This is all I can show you of Wegmans in Hunt Valley. But trust me ... if you love food and cooking, you absolutely, positively have to go there. No ifs, ands, or buts. Wegmans is to food like Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is to wool. The whole time I was there I was walking around in a daze. Here's an example . . . 10 different kinds of apples. And you can get Valrona chocolate there. If you want to eat, you can either go with a nice sub made to order, or for a real treat, get one of those dinner entrees that cost 15 dollars. Oh, and you get a choice of 10 flavors of coffee that you can sip as you walk around the store. There's plenty of places to sit down and eat on the 2nd floor level.

The only downside is that this location is at least 2 hours away from me. And there's two locations in Virginia which means about a hour and half drive in normal traffic conditions. Hopefully in the near future there will be one opening in Montgomery Co., or in southern Maryland. You folks in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania sure are lucky.

I finally got the skein from England that I will be using to swatch for Patti's sweater coat. It has a very nice feel, and there was a floral scent - lavender, I think. Right now I have it on the swift and in the process of winding it into a center ball. It's slow going, though, because the skein's diameter is smaller than the usual that the swift isn't spread out wide. I have to unwind a bit, then crank the ball winder. Slow-going, but it'll eventually get finished.

The vest is progressing very nicely as you can see below. Since these pictures were taken, I've added about 2 inches or so. I love this kind of knitting, where work progresses at an even pace, with a bit of design elements so as not to make it boring. Knocking on wood I'll be up to the shoulders by end of weekend.

Ack . . . the vest is still in a mobius strip mode. I'll have to cast on for the 3rd, or 4th time. Desperate times call for drastic measures . . . out comes the paper clips and that should keep the stitches from fiendishly twisting their way around the needle.

Oh, and in other news, I'm 18 years old again today, and Hubby has gifted me with an “Olympus Stylus 600 6MP digital camera! Small enough to put in my pocketbook, so that I can secretly take picture of that drop-dead gorgeous sweater on the back of this person front of me.

I've suspended work on the Norge to get the shawl-collared vest started, which will be made out of Plymouth Galway. This vest will replace the one that I'd made when I was much skinner and very much a newbie knitter. I believe it was my first steeking project. Now, of course, I've put on a few pounds, and this vest is too snug for me, plus it is rather holey.

It's slow-going, though, because I keep making a few goofs. The latest mishap seems to be two purled stitches in what should be p1, k1b ribbing. I can't just let this go, firstly because it's in the first pattern row, and secondly, it would bug me to no end; since it's very early on, it's easiest to just ribbit back so as to fix it.

Meanwhile, I'm looking for another job. I got laid off due to a contract loss and no work available elsewhere in the company. I've put up a link to my resume on the right. Right now, I'm looking for a FT programming position, in DC or Montgomery County. I could do Northern Virginia, if public transportation is nearby. I live waaaay out here in Bowie, and Bruce doesn't want me driving by myself late at night. So, if you hear of positions for which I may be qualified, you're welcome to call my attention to these positions and forward the resume. I'll notice that it will be going through another revision, as my DORS counselor has suggested.

Kai's visiting grandma and grandpa tomorrow, and since I've got some free time on my hand, I'm going over to spend time with them.

It's all well and good when you work on just one project at a time and you have a full rack of needles in different sizes and length. It's another thing when you've got two projects going on (one of which may be a project started 3 years ago and only 20% completed).

Here am I, working on the Norge 200 cardigan and I'm using 3.25mm needle for the hemming portion. The length is 24“ and I'm finding it a bit too tight for comfort. So I decide that I need to look for one that is 32” inches long (by the way, I almost exclusively use Addi Turbo needles, for sake of consistency and because these don't have weird bends like some of the needles that I used early in my knitting career. Yes, the cost of the needles has increased over the years, but you got to go with the best tools that you can find). I take out the gauge from Springwater Fiber Arts which I have accidently broken in half, in such a manner that one gauge hole cannot be used unless I manage to wrest the circular needle into control and slap the broken gauge around it.

And then I pick up one uncompleted project after another, to see which needle is the same size as the current needle. When I find a couple of candidates, these needles get yanked out, while I make a mental note to write down the size used for the unfinished project, and then grab my tape measure to see which needle is the longer.

Now that I've finished the hemming and the bottom color pattern, I've switched to size 3.5mm needle, in 32“ length. Suddenly, I realize that I'd bought a new circular needle and I vaguely recall that it was a size4.5mm, in 40” length. Or was I hallucinating? I move piles of paper, look in my current knitting bag, and try to recall what I was doing last week with hopes that I would remember that shopping bag, to no avail.

So, I start up another project, an MS vest in Plymouth Galway, of which I have but 4 skeins, not enough for a sweater but enough for a vest. Again I retrieve a needle from another UFO. After knitting the first pattern row I find that I've somehow created a mobius, which is not what I'd intended, and off comes the yarn and untangling, only to be recast and carefully aligned in broad daylight. I do not get much work done on it last night because I've been pulled into kitchen duty by G. and constantly reminded to check the sheperd's pie and homemade buttermilk biscuits (by moi) while G. takes the phone call and Bruce sits on the sofa watching tv after fixing G.'s bathroom lights.

Earlier today I pack the vest project in my backpack as I meet with the DORS counselor as I work on finding a job that will keep me supplied in fleece and yarn, I discover that I've left the pattern at home. Rats. Since I cannot just hop on the metro and go to Knit Happens as they're closed mondays, I then drive up to Knitgenia's territory to visit the yarn shop. My worst fears are realized as I look at the almost-bare wall to see what sizes of the Addi Turbo needles there are, I nonetheless ask for 4.00mm in 40“ length, only to be told no, and would I like to order one (as I wonder why haven't they put in an order to refresh their stock). I decline, as I know this size will exist at other locations within driving distance.

So, I go home and start clearing off this pile on my desk. Lo and behold, I find that 40” needle on the desk. The only problem is . . . it's size 3.25. Now, how many hours from the moment this entry is posted until 9:30am, when I will set forth in my car and zoom down to the metro station so I can go over to Knit Happens?

After browsing the net for a large quantity of cashmere yarns at a good price (this, after all, is going to take a lot of yarn since brioche stitch requires a lot of yarn), I came across ColourmartUK on eBay. I've ordered a skein of yarn in dk weight, as well as free samples. Hopefully these will arrive in about a week or so.

The Norge 2000 sweater is processing, after being restarted for the 3rd time. Yes, I really should have knit a swatch, but I was a bit impatient to get started. I'm making good progress on it, and hopefully I should have enough to show you all by the end of this weekend. I still haven't gotten back to the Ridgeway Lite sweater - I want to make more of a progress on the Norge sweater before I do go back to it.