Story Conclusion, and Tagged

All yesterday afternoon it bothered me that my coworker's wife was using the same yarn over and over, so I went stash-diving after work and came up with a gift. Nothing big--just a skein of Wool-Ease--but for heaven's sake, something to knit. I brought it in this morning and gave it to my coworker to pass along, and he laughed. "I told her about our conversation," he said, "And it turns out she was fixing an error! That's why she was ripping back. She's going to buy more yarn. She was so mad at me--'Well, she must think I'm the biggest idiot!' she said."

"I don't think she's an idiot at all," I assured him. "Some people are process knitters, and they don't really care about the finished product, but I was concerned because I want your wife to have a finished knitted thing!" I am not a process knitter--or at least, not purely a process knitter. I want things. Pretty, knitted things that I have made.

I'm just glad things turned out to be not so strange, after all.

"If only that jerk Odysseus would send me some yarn money, I could throw the damn thing away every night instead of having to pull it out!" (Penelope Weaving, by John William Waterhouse)

In other news, I've been tagged! Knitting Magic Girl tagged me for the 8 random things meme.
Rules are as follows:
· When tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you.
· Then post the rules before your list, and list eight random things about yourself.
· At the end of the post you must tag and link to eight other people.

1. Despite that fact that I consider myself to be a reasonably interesting person, I have a hell of a time writing "About Me" sections or doing these memes.

2. I secretly dream of doing voice-over narration for National Geographic animal shows. Doesn't that just sound like the coolest job? (hushed voice) "Observing the Wahlberg's Epauletted Fruit Bat in its natural habitat, we can see that these graceful flying mammals often stuff so much fruit into their mouths that there's no room for their tongues, leaving them with a comical expression of childlike defiance." I'd be great!

3. I think everyone should be courteous. Please and thank you, people--they're not that hard to say. Also, if you spill, clean it up! (I'm talking to you, jerky coworker!) People who are rude and/or inconsiderate make me want to smack them. But I am too well-mannered for that.

4. I really like learning about bugs--seeing them on TV, reading about them, even admiring them from afar. Bugs are endlessly fascinating. However, I don't particularly want to touch them, and I definitely don't want them in my house.

5. I want to get a masters degree someday, but I'm afraid I'll never make it happen because of sheer inertia.

6. I love office supplies. One of my college roommates and I (when we were really bored) used to go to Staples and play office.

7. I named my female cat George. Not Georgina, not Georgette, Georgia, or Georgie--George. I see nothing wrong with this.

8. I am a chocolate snob (dark chocolate only, please), but not a coffee snob (Folgers is fine).

Now, to tag people! Mom, David and Abby (separately!), Samara, Katie... and, uh, three more people. If you're reading this and you haven't been tagged yet, consider yourself tagged! And if I didn't list your name, don't be offended--if you don't post comments, I'm not sure you read me regularly, so I don't want to be silly and tag people who won't see that they've been tagged. And... GO!

Post #2: A Story

I know I just posted an entry, but then I had a conversation that needs to be documented. So here it is.

One of my coworkers told me a few months ago that his wife had been wanting to learn to knit, so I told him he should buy her a gift certificate for a class. He did, and she went, and she absolutely loves it. I ran into him in the kitchen a few minutes ago, and this is what he said:

"I woke up at about 4:30 this morning to go to the bathroom, and my wife was up, sitting on the couch, just knitting away. She hadn't been to bed--she stayed up all night knitting! And she's only got a certain amount of string, so she knits it all up, then pulls it out, and knits it up again!"

"You know, you can buy more yarn," I told him. "There are entire stores devoted to yarn. She took her class at one of them!"

"Yeah," he said. "There are."

"I guess you know what to get her for Christmas!"

He looked delighted. "Yeah, that's a great idea!"

The poor woman--she needs more yarn, and he hadn't even thought of buying her some for Christmas!

Wrock and Wrap

I had a great time watching the Whomping Willows on Tuesday. The Whomping Willow himself was a great performer--he stayed in character as a tree inhabiting a human body, and kept his cool through two broken D strings. Also, it's apparently perfectly acceptable to knit through a wizard rock show--or if it's not, there were a bunch of us being rude together. I tried to take a picture of Whompy performing with three knitters off to one side of him, but it turned out way too dark to make anything out. We will have to make do with a picture of my hand stamp (above) and just imagine a guy with a guitar and some people knitting.

I have a couple of fresh pictures of Grandma's Gift Wrap, but they're not very good. (Are we noticing a theme with my pictures? I think the theme is "Ann sucks at photographing stuff made out of yarn." We'll just take that as a given from here on out, and I'll stop apologizing for it, 'kay?)

Here's the wrap in all of it's 56" glory.

Ooh, stripey!

Here's a close-up.

The colors are closer to right on this one, even if I can't manage to straighten out the damn stripes for picture-taking. This is what happens when I take pictures of my knitting at 7 a.m.

I'm aiming for about 67 or 68 inches, which I think is about how tall my grandmother is. I should probably start laying it out on the floor to measure it, rather than holding it up by one end, but if I did that it wouldn't stretch out so nicely! Wait, that's bad, the stretching. Crap. That's the whole reason I should measure it on the floor.

Can I have an extension on Christmas?

A Little Bit of Pretty

I haven't been posting many pictures lately, have I? Well, here's one!


It's not very exciting, just a square of waffle stitch for the Rape Crisis Center afghan, but it is kind of pretty. I like the way the colors are stacking. And I got almost an inch done while I was waiting for physical therapy this morning. (I also did a little knit-propagandizing, to both the physical therapist and her student, after they each expressed interest in learning how to knit.) I asked them about my hand, and they gave me a stretch to do and recommended that I knit with a pillow on my lap to help my posture while knitting, on top of what I'm already doing. (She agreed that it's not carpal tunnel, by the way.) And for my knee, I got an ultrasound, a massage, and a battery.

Yep. There's a little battery taped behind my knee, doing its iontophoresis thing and magically forcing an anti-inflammatory drug through my skin. Nifty.


I worked a little last night on Dad's Christmas present. I'm going back and forth between thinking that I can actually finish my Christmas knitting in time, and thinking that there's no way. At the moment I'm leaning towards "no way," but that'll change in a few minutes, I'm sure. I'm not giving up, though!

I'm guessing I'm not going to do much knitting tonight--in lieu of Stitch and Bitch at Jane's, there's a wizard rock concert! Whee! I'm looking forward to it, and I'll try to remember to take some pictures to post later this week.

On the Mend

It's Monday, and I made it back to work. Hooray!

I spent the 4 days of my convalescence knitting up a storm. I made some progress on Grandma's Gift Wrap yesterday--although I did have the fun of ripping out about 3 1/2 rows to go back and fix a tiny little error that made the whole thing look very silly. I swear, with all of the tinking and reknitting I've done on this, I've knit enough to be done. It's the tinking part that's the problem. (I just keep reminding myself how glorious it will be when it's finished--no mistakes, all flowing just as it should. I need the reminders--it's frustrating as hell to have to keep redoing the same rows over and over.) I admit it, the women at Stitch and Bitch saw the ugly side of me--at one point, I threw a little tantrum and thrashed the Wrap with my free needle. I will do my best to act like a grown-up from now on. *looks ashamed*

Saturday I felt well enough to go to my second job, and after that I went to a knit-in to make afghan squares for the Rape Crisis Center. Alas, I didn't manage to finish even 1 square before leaving, but I did finish it (and cast on another) while watching Cool Hand Luke after dinner.


Tonight I'm having dinner guests. Two of my three guests are people who come over so often they barely count as "guests" anymore--they know and love me, despite the piles of clutter on my coffee table, despite the occasional clumps of my hair on the carpet, and despite the spots on my bathroom mirror. The third guest, however, is a work friend who has never been to my apartment. (She's seen my desk and my car, though, so she has a good idea of my housekeeping skills. Okay, it's not a problem of skills as much as a severe lack of motivation.) And I was not doing any cleaning while I was sick--especially not dishes--so my apartment is in particularly bad shape at the moment. When she told me her husband was out of town and she was on her own tonight, I was overcome by friendship and goodwill and insisted she come over for dinner. Only later did I realize that I'll have to blindfold her for the first 20 minutes she's over so I can do a quick surface cleaning. Maybe I'll tell her it's some kind of hazing ritual that all of my friends have to go through...

Friday

I'm halfway done with the knitting portion of my dad's Christmas present! Hooray! I still haven't determined whether or not he secretly reads my blog--I'm thinking not, because I think he would have 'fessed up, but asking him would probably tip my hand, and the next thing you know, he'd be all over it. So, to sum up: no pictures, still. There are some on Ravelry, for the Ravelry-able. I'm willing to e-mail pictures to the non-Ravelry-able, on request.

The thing is... I'm halfway done because I spent all day knitting yesterday. I called in sick to work, and again today--I think I've got the flu. If not The Flu, it's definitely something flu-like. So I've been just sitting on the couch, keeping hydrated and trying not to move too much. This is what happens when you start a retail job during flu season.

A four-day weekend would be much more fun if it didn't involve illness.

With Sincere Apologies to John Keats

Upon the mysterious cracking of my mug

THOU still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Lexington or the dales of Green Bay?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What soups and drinks? What wild ecstasy?

Tasted beverages are sweet, but those unsipped
Are sweeter; therefore, ye coffee pot, brew on;
Not to the sensual tongue, but, more endear'd,
Brew to the spirit drinks of no taste:
Fair soup, within the bowl, thou canst not leave
Thy noodles, nor ever can those crackers be stale;
Bold Drinker, never, never canst thou swig,
Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve;
It cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and it be fair!

Ah, happy, happy noodles! that cannot lose
Your firmness, nor ever bid the Broth adieu;
And, happy spoon, unwearièd,
For ever dipping mouthfuls for ever new;
More happy soup! more happy, happy soup!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever steaming, and for ever fresh;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.