Category "...In Progress"
July 08, 2005
studious housewifery
I have been spending my days, as of late, variously trying to remember how to speak french and flittering about the apartment doing chores that never seem to amount to an overall increase in home-cleanliness. The french is starting to come back, so at least that part of the equation adds up to something. And I suppose the carpet looks a little cleaner. I vacuumed. Did I mention I vacuumed? Unfortunately, it was after the Knittin' Kittens came over and we sat on the then-dirty carpet to craft... I am afraid that the french class I am starting this monday is going to kick my ass. It, Carribean literature, looks like it will be fascinating, but there is a whole fuck-ton of writing. In french. That is a metric fuck-ton and not a short fuck-ton. In case you were wondering.
Progress is being made on Kyoto... these damned 16.5 inch sleeves seem to be taking a newt's age, but I guess that is how a kimono looks. I need to be reminded of that fact at least two times a night. Me: "Don't these sleeves look like they will be baggy and disgusting?!"
In other news: Kidd Video.
Anyone remember this as being one of the most fantabulous pop music adventures possible in a cartoon? (Before Jem, of course) Perhaps I am just too old? I think it came out the year J was born, just like the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon that I also loved. From my viiiiiiiideo to my raaadio! Priceless.
Another slice of randomness, this time courtesy of Metafilter:
Its all about the cock pushups. For real. I saw this and I could just hear Christine saying, "Do you think I'm a wimp cuz I go home every night to Starla there?!" Damn.
So, in short, nothing profound to say so far today. Summer = deadly plummet out of academia and into the Mundane Zone. Hoping to remedy this with an injection of postcolonial literature, but still fear it will be far beyond my current frenchosity. Even if I don't end up taking it, there will always be J's beloved Wittgenstein Youth Brigade Reading Group to tear me away from staring at pretty pretty pictures of yarn on the computer...
mmm yarn.
Posted by loyd0008 at 01:18 PM | Comments (2) | ...In Progress
Category "...In Progress"
July 03, 2005
kyoto-a-long and christian capitalism
Today, for lucky lucky Villain, is the last day of the St. John's Bible From Hell Show at the museum. Not that the project itself is a flawed one, just that the idiotic, geriatric, self-righteous bastards who have been coming to the show are just about the worst, most insensitive, least intelligent museum patrons that I have ever witnessed during my tenure as a shopgirl. If I have to say, "Yes we have the book from the show and it is on the table RIGHT FUCKING BEHIND YOU, but you didn't feel the need to actually LOOK around the store, rather to simply inflict yourself upon me and ask the same question that every other bastard has been asking me all day long. You know, the table that all the other fuckers are swarming around??!" Or, in the edited version, "We sure do!! They are on the table behind you!!" one more time, I am going to vault over the counter and throttle whosoever crosseth my path. Thus sayeth the Villain. Amen.
In other news, Taryn, my dear friend and fellow museum-sufferer, has gone away to Taiwan with her sweetie (who is being forced into servitude in the Taiwanese army for his obligatory two-year stint). The trip sounds rather perilous so far, but at least she will have our Intercontintental Kyoto Knitalong to keep her mind off things! We are working on this lovely little number. I have, um, already finished the back and am working on one of the fronts, because I seem to have nothing better to do. This assumes that I have conveniently forgotten about my long-overdue Kant paper, prelims, next semester's syllabus revisions, and the fact that I start a French class next week and can't seem to remember a damned thing. Funny, that.
Le Sigh.
I did manage to make another skirt! It looks pretty good (same pattern as the pinups) but for the fact that I fucked up the zipper. Well, not terminally. It went in fine (though when I say this, I mean it went in and looks relatively normal, because the directions on the zipper packaging are well-nigh indecipherable) except for a bunch of extra fabric at the base. This, I managed to make into a couple of pleats that look, if I do say so myself, almost intentional. Woo.
Well, back to being grumpy and dreading work. Ta-ta.
Posted by loyd0008 at 11:31 AM | Comments (6) | ...In Progress
Category "...In Progress"
June 03, 2005
slutty snugness
Well, I managed to block Cold Shoulder today. I wore it yesterday sans blocking and while J *loves* it (its his favorite thing I've ever knit?!?! next to the black/red sweater for him, of course) I think the sizing is off. I increased to my normal bust size; this somehow left the arm gapingly huge and a substantial fold of material in the bust area. When picking up stitches for the neckline, I had to freakishly decrease. It fits ok, but not *just so*. We went to The Yarnery and J bought me some more Sierra to make a second one. The new yarn is a lovely little blue; this time I will err on the side of slutty snugness.
Speaking of slutty snugness (one of my favorite topics) I just knit up a cute little tshirt from Loop-d-Loop. It took about two days and some stash yarn for which I had always planned some kind of sweet tank top on size 6s. Nope. 15s, baby. Nothing like instant gratification. It is in a beige and aqua color and looks just right with my new aqua blazer. I should buy a little camisole so that I don't get arrested for public nudity, but perhaps my tiny, flesh colored tube bra will suffice. Or, I'll get arrested. Either way it is a hot little number.
Also a hot number is the red halter in Calmer (gifted to me by an always-full-of-surprises J). It is molto stretchy and I may have to add a bit of elastic to keep my bra from showing. We shall see how much the blocking helps. Everyone seems to just loooove Calmer. I know its soft and all, but, I found it a bitch to knit with. It was stretchy at all the wrong times and thus my stitches are a bit uneven (pre-block, anyhow). Also, so expensive! I am such a bourgeois knitter: can't abide the acrylics but can't afford the swanky stuff. I have made a few things (like my Tempting, below) from aristocratic yarns, but they were all gifts. I am afraid that most of my projects wouldn't come out well enough to justify spending hundreds of dollars on them... So, middle-class I remain.
All of these things accomplished and the apartment (sort-of) cleaned, I embarked on my sewing sojourn. Nothing doing. Apparently when my needle attempts to descend, it gets stuck on the presser foot. It has even left a little dent. I tried bending it a bit and adjusting the foot, but it still gets hung up. I can do zig-zag alright, but I don't think that will work for the whole skirt. Damnit. Just when I thought I was getting somewhere.
In other news, I and a group of my nerdy friends are going camping on Sunday in order to bond and do nerdy things together involving dice and sometimes cards. It promises to be a good time, thought it also promises to rain for the duration. We return on Tuesday and then leave Thursday for the Virginia Odyssey. Actually, Delaware first. I know, I know: What's in Delaware? Everytime I think of it I am reminded of Wayne and Garth in front of the blue screen "Hi... we're in... Delaware...." The extended family decided it would be a grand idea to rent a house and cram a million people into it for a week! Delightful. At least the road trip down should be fun. That's right, we're driving from Minnesota to Delaware. I have done this several times by myself. It is long, but not too terribly difficult. The new challenge will be that this time J is learning to drive. Only the shadow knows why he never learned before. All that is certain is that this will be the big practice run before the license. It is about 44 or so hours round trip. I will have to work on things that don't require me to look at my hands so that I can be a Good Teacher. I'd rather sleep. Oh well. Time to got to AAA and get maps! So long...
Posted by loyd0008 at 02:43 PM | Comments (0) | ...In Progress