Stuff and Things and Whatnot

It’s clearly been a ridiculously long time since I’ve been an active blogger. The last nine months have been pretty tricky, and it’s only in the last few weeks that I finally feel like I’m getting fully back into the swing of things. Thank goodness for that.

Here are some of the things that have happened since I last blogged:
1. I worked dramaturgy on Much Ado About Nothing.
2. I presented a big old program at the conference for my professional organization.
3. We visited Mike’s parents.
4. My meds stopped working.
5. I gained, like, fifteen pounds.
6. I felt like myself again.
7. We went on vacation with the Hoffmans.
8. I had two root canals.
9. We got a dog.

There’s been all sorts of other stuff in among the high (and low) points, but that covers the bulk of what’s been going on.

So now that we have this clever, clever dog, I’ve decided to spin off the knitting portion of what’s here to my other domain — hipknitic.com — and give Stuff and Things a different spin. There will be new designs in both places, so keep watching this space (if there are any of you left watching) for updates on the renovation.

I just took a look at the preview for the Spring 2008 issue of Interweave Knits, and I swear, there are, like, eight projects that I would happily make for myself. Eight. Unfortunately, there are also, like, eight projects that I have going on right now that I’ve promised to people that I should really be working on instead of dreaming about starting new things.

However, I did go through my entire stash this last weekend and cataloged and took pictures of it for Ravelry (Ravelry users check it out here). Among lots of other stuff, I have about eight sweaters’ worth of yarn, not including a couple of “ugh” projects that could potentially be frogged and harvested, so while I’m admonishing myself for lusting after new projects, I can at least take solace in the knowledge that I don’t have to spend any money on yarn for a while…

Check out the Fort Wayne Knitting Meet Up thread! Co-editor Katie (aka strayingpower) had the brilliant idea for all us Northeast Indiana Ravelers to meet up one of these days, to put names with faces, maybe work on a big group project, and otherwise get us all connected.

When might you be available for such a meeting?

I’m exploring yet another alternate career as a dramaturg, the person who works with the director and actors and helps to make sense of the text of a play before it gets staged. First Presbyterian Theater is doing my absolutely, all-time favorite Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing, and so I get to exercise my English major muscles and help with vocabulary and usage in the initial table reads of the script.

Totally fun, except that it’s past my bedtime every night, and I am exhausted. These crazy theater people live their lives a good two or three hours later than I do, and it’s starting to take its toll. And I knew it, too: I’ve had this experience before, and know what it does to me, but Beatrice wouldn’t let me stay away. Thankfully table work is over next week, and it will be another couple of weeks before I’m called back to be on book and check the accuracy of the text, which means a couple of weeks to try to catch up sleep before my schedule gets all thrown off again.

It’s such a dilemma. I love our technology toys — the new HDTV, Guitar Hero, the iPhone on our home wifi network. I enjoy playing with them, exploring the features and figuring out how to make it all work together in our house. I’ve always adored television (the writers’ strike is really starting to hurt me!), more so when we got TiVo three years ago, and even more now with beautiful HD. And I think we’re almost at the point where we’ve decided not to wait for the old computer to die: we’re just going to go ahead and get the Mac we’ve been talking about for, like, four years now.

The problem with all these wonderful entertainments is that they’re resource hogs. Between the cost of the phone bill and the cable and internet bill, we could be fully funding an IRA. And the time! Sheesh! In that regard, TiVo is a double-edged sword. Back in the day, if you had to be out when your favorite show was on, you either taped it or not, watched it or not. But TiVo always records it and keeps it in a list, a list that grows and grows faster than you have time in which to watch it. It’s nice to know there’s almost always something worth watching when I feel like sitting down in front of the TV, but there are some shows I feel like I could let go of, only when they’re in the Now Playing list, it’s hard to ignore them. So I feel like I have to “catch up” on TV, and it takes on some of the same character as catching up on laundry or weeding. Not so fun.

And then there’s all the online stuff. Ravelry. Facebook. Flickr. This blog, even. I feel pretty strongly about maintaining an online presence, both for personal reasons and because it’s important for me to keep up professionally, and I want to be a consistent updater. But when there’s been a full day at work and I’m already tired and there’s a ton of TV to watch, me sitting at the computer is highly unlikely.

Some days, I just want to chuck it all — TV, video games, computer, everything. I have this utopian vision of being able to read and listen to music more, going to bed earlier, getting back to a routine, feeling like my responsibilities are under control. I hate feeling like I’m in a time crunch, and the next month or so is going to be pretty stressful on that front (more to come on that). So what can give? If the writers’ strike keeps going, I’m hoping it’s TV, but if the Now Playing list starts to stack up again… I don’t know.

We bought a new coffee table at Ikea on the way home from my parents’ house after Christmas:

It’s a hair lower than our old coffee table, so it’s a little more comfortable for me to put my feet up on it, and it has more mass than the old table, which makes the scale better for our living room. The best part though?

The secret drawers on either end, one for me and one for Mike. Mine has plenty of space for all the knitting stuff that used to sit on top of the coffee table.

The little tote bag on the right was a gift last Christmas from my friend Katie, and it’s the perfect size for my knitting needles. She also made the little fabric bin that’s currently holding a sock project. Pattern books, my knitting tool kit, my new favorite knitting tool (the extremely fabulous Polder Pocket Scale, perfect for measuring how much yarn is left in a skein) — it all fits like it was born to be in there. I love it.

In the weeks before our first anniversary, Mike and I had a little chat about what we wanted to do for gifts. We agreed we didn’t want to get into a present-oneupsmanship game that could spiral quickly out of control and decided that we would buy ourselves a joint gift each year, but I was a little stuck on what that joint gift should be. The vision I had was of a new vacuum cleaner, and I really didn’t want us to fall into the habit of giving ourselves something so mundane and unsentimental.

Then Mike had the idea: art. We would buy a piece of art for each anniversary. We would live with these pieces in our home and see them every day and remember where we bought them and which year of our marriage they commemorate. Buying art together also required us to acknowledge and honor each other’s aesthetic taste by looking for pieces we both loved.

Here’s our third anniversary art:

We bought it at A.T. Hun Gallery in Savannah, Georgia during our fall vacation. We saw several pieces there that we were interested in, and although we each liked this one at first, we bypassed it and continued to look around. Each of us kept coming back to it — it has surprising depth and a subtle sense of motion — and we finally realized that it was the piece.

So, here are some things you’ll be hearing about in upcoming blog posts:

• My anniversary is around the corner.
• The joy of furniture with hidden storage.
• Simplicity versus plugging in.
• Is there any way I can become independently wealthy in the next few months?
• My excuses for not blogging are about to get much, much better.

…but if anyone’s looking for a gift pour moi, check this puppy out: it’s the Baker’s Edge Brownie Pan.

Pushing Daisies fans will have noticed the fabulous long scarf Ned wore in the Corpsicle episode. At about the same time I watched it, my brother requested a matching hat and scarf for Christmas, and Ned’s Toasty Scarf and Hat was born.

Ned’s scarf is a blueish gray, but my brother has an orange coat, so my version uses Cascade 220 Heathers in color 9408, a warm brown. I worked this on US 8 Options needles; information about gauge to come, along with finished length and yardage requirements.

Scarf
CO 52 sts.
Begin ribbed edging:
Row 1 (WS): (K1, sl1p wyif)x2, p3, *k2, p2; rep from * 8 more times, k2, p3, (k1, sl1p wyif)x2
Row 2 (RS): (K1, sl1p wyif)x2, k3, *p2, k2; rep from * 8 more times, p2, k3, (k1, sl1p wyif)x2
Repeat rows 1 and 2 until the ribbing is approx. 8″ long, ending with a WS row. (It took me 23 repeats plus one additional WS row.)

NOTE: At this point, you may wish to weigh the yarn remaining in your skein and subtract it from the original weight to determine how much yarn the edging used. This will help you to squeeze the most possible scarf from your yarn while ensuring you leave enough to complete the matching edge.

Begin basketweave cable pattern:
Row 1 (RS): (K1, sl1p wyif)x2, p3, *C4F (slip 2 sts to cn, hold front, k2, k2 from cn); rep from * 8 more times, k2, p3, (K1, sl1p wyif)x2
Rows 2, 4, 6, 8: (K1, sl1p wyif)x2, k3, p38, k3, (K1, sl1p wyif)x2
Rows 3, 7: (K1, sl1p wyif)x2, p3, k38, p3, (K1, sl1p wyif)x2
Row 5: (K1, sl1p wyif)x2, p3, k2, *C4B (slip 2 sts to cn, hold back, k2, k2 from cn); rep from * 8 more times, p3, (K1, sl1p wyif)x2

Continue as established until the scarf is the length you desire, less the 8″ edging, or until you have used as much yarn as you can leaving enough for the edging, ending with row 6 of basketweave cable pattern.

Work ribbed edging pattern to match the first end of the scarf. BO all sts in patt.