This Bird has a new town!

I'm in Seattle now! Yippee! What I see from where I'm sitting:

The flight was unpleasant. I must have been delusional when I thought it would provide a good stretch of knitting time. It was the middle of the night--time for sleeping, NOT knitting. But the extended waiting time in the airport was very productive. And yet I am STILL not done with the body of this red sixteen-point tee. I feel like I'll be knitting 4x6 checkerboard stitch for the rest of my life. Ugh.

When I started on the body of this sweater, I figured that it would take me 120 rows, or 10 pattern repeats, to reach the called-for 12 inches from underarm to lower hem. The finger in this picture shows the place that I should have been done.

However, this was assuming that I had the correct row gauge. Apparently, my stitch gauge is about right, but my row gauge isn't. Instead of getting 10 rows/inch in checkerboard pattern, I'm getting 12 rows/inch. Which means 24 extra rows (of 2 pattern repeats) to get the required length. Ugh. I timed myself the other day and learned that I can knit one round in 5.5 minutes of intense, focused knitting. And most of my knitting time is neither intense nor focused. Leaving out the math, this boils down to a WHOLE TON of knitting time for this sweater. I think I might have to give up my hope of finishing this sweater in time for my party (which starts in about 45 min). The other issue that's facing me with this sweater is the yarn remaining to knit the sleeves. It looks like I'll be lucky to have one full ball left over for the sleeves. I really hope I get that little yarn scale I asked for from mom for xmas so that I can weight out the yarn as I'm knitting and know just I've used half of what's left.

Countdown

Only 2 more nights in NYC. I'm so excited but also freaking out. I made another stop on my Farewell EastCoast tour this weekend with a quick trip down to DC to visit Anna and Matt.

It was so much fun to hang out with them. I really hope they decide to settle in Seattle. We went out to super yummy dinner with some of their friends, went to a couple of farmers markets, played some poker (I won), watched the oscars (I won this too--too bad we didn't bet). Anna wore this super cute little cardigan from Boden and I was so fascinated by the stitch pattern that I spent a good 10 minutes studying it and taking notes so that I could copy it. :D This is what the knit side looks like

but the neat thing about this cardigan is that this is the inside. The purl side is showing (don't have a pic of this) and it looks really cool. I'm going to try to recreate this for one of my sweaters this year.

Speaking of knitting, I've made a good deal of progress on the Sixteen-Point Tee. But it is slow going. I guess I didn't realize that knitting a sweater on size 5s would go significantly slower than knitting a sweater on size 7s or 8s. Even after knitting the entire bus ride to and from DC and all through the oscars, I've just divided for the sleeves.

But I'm still hopeful that it will be ready to wear to my party this Saturday--I have today, tomorrow, and let us not forget the flight on Friday: 5.5 hours of prime knitting time. If only I'd done a gauge swatch at the outset, instead of after knitting for a week.... Oh well.

As a soundtrack for the knitting, I've been listening to a lot of Andrew Bird. His new CD is called Noble Beast and it is so lovely. His voice, the harmonies, the music, his violin! I love it. And there's some prime wistling on here too--you know I love wistling!

Other music coming out of my speakers lately: the soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire. Fun music. I especially like the two versions of M.I.A.'s Paperplanes it has. I think it might be time for me to get an M.I.A. CD into my collection. Hmmm.

What I've been reading: Just finished Revolutionary Road. Without a doubt, a good book. However, I felt like I was reading the screenplay of the movie--the similarities were so great.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, I'm just used to books giving me more than movies. This happened a few times--the book gave a bit more background about what the characters were thinking and feeling in certain scenes that I didn't get in the movie. And this isn't to say that I wish I hadn't read the book. I just wish it had been more. Now, if I'd read the book first, then seen the movie, I probably would have remarked at what a good job Sam Mendes did at capturing the whole book in his movie. And this is true. But I don't think this book is a must read. Just go see the movie. One big difference: the very end. And I think I like the movie's better. More uplifting after such a heavy story.

What I've been watching: I've already extolled on my love of Hulu, but let me just reiterate it's greatness. In my queue right now: Last night's Daily Show and Colbert Report. I broke my no-movies-until-employed rule last week and went to see Waltz with Bashir. Probably the best movie I could break the rule for. This movie is an animated documentary about an unsavory bit of Israeli history. So well made. Moving. Left me speechless afterward.

I would like to take a small moment to say that I love Mini Eggs. I'm not sure what it is about them--the crisp candy shell so different from M&Ms? the awesome cadbury chocolate inside? Maybe it's just the fact that they're only available during a part of the year. Or maybe it's that their arrival on store shelves heralds the upcoming arrival of spring.

So yummy!

And then there was 1

Pre-movers......................................................Post-movers

Yea for Hulu!

So, the movers are here moving the roomies' things out of the apartment as I type. :( Oh, and the elevator broke after they'd moved about half the stuff, so that makes things more interesting. Of course, they'd saved the big awkward things for last. Hmm. "Stellar" Management. We won't miss you!

Among the things being moved out today: the TV. But this is ok. I just spent 3 minutes setting up my Hulu account. Did you know you can subscribe to shows and it will email you when one of your subscribed-to shows is updated? What a wonder!


As soon as these movers are done, I'm getting out of this apartment. I don't want to spend any more time here than absolutely necessary. It's just too weird and sad.

Ribbit!

Sunday, 2pm: "Chana? If you get this message before you leave your apartment, could you bring your ball winder? I need to frog this sweater and I already packed mine." Voice full of despair.

10 minutes later: (text message to Chana) "Crisis averted." 3 hours of knitting while playing games at party.

Monday, 8pm: 8 inches of red sixteen point tee frogged.

The above event is too painful to describe in full.

Check your gauge.

Important concept or the most important concept?

After going down two whole needle sizes to US5, I'm back on track with the project. I'm not giving up. I have such high hopes for this sweater! I want to wear it at my Welcome Home Party. The bus ride to and from DC this weekend should give me ample knitting time. Plus I have all next week work-free to knit (there won't be much else for me to do, considering my entire apartment is packed up).

On an up note: the party was soooooooooo much fun.

I'm really going to miss these people.

Cough, cough!

Thanks dust. It's awesome breathing in you all day!

Packing went into overdrive yesterday, in preparation for our party today. The apartment is sooooo packed, it's unsettling. I've mailed 11 boxes, my sewing machine, 7 padded envelopes of books and a poster tube, and spent just over $350. Plus a few hours in line. I have 5 more large boxes, 1 small box, and my printer to send, but that's going to wait until next week. For now, those boxes are functioning as furniture in my room. :)

What I've been knitting: I've made more progress on the sixteen-point tee. I'm done with the yoke increases and I've started on the body. The body is worked in a K4,P4 x6rows checkerboard pattern, so it should go fairly quickly--not a lot to think about there. I really need to put it onto waste yarn so that I can try it on, I want to make sure it doesn't need a few more increase rounds.

Well, party starts in less than 1 hour--I better clean up a bit! Let me just leave you with this funny picture. My favorite part is the caption underneath: "Great idea, or greatest idea?" Hehe. Reminds me of something Steven Colbert would say about former-prez Bush.

Things I will not miss about NYC:

1. Creepy drunk guy who lives on the first floor. He was my patient once about 2 years ago for a broken ankle (he tripped in his apartment while under the influence) and ever since then, whenever our paths happen to cross in the building (all too often, since he lives across from the elevator), he serenades me in his drunken warble. And totally creeps me out.

2. The utensil drawer in my kitchen. Always too crowded.


"Things" I will miss?


My roommates are awesome.

What I've been knitting: After I managed to somehow cast on the wrong number of stitches (off by 12? what!?) and proceed to knit for a good solid 2 hours before realizing my error and frogging, I'm back on track with the Sixteen-Point Tee from the latest Knitscene. I really hope this turns out cute. The Cascade fixation I'm using is almost the color of Christine's shirt up above. This is my first time knitting with yarn that's part elastic, and it's interesting. I have to consciously keep myself from knitting too tightly. I think this will be a great spring/summer/fall top. :)

Three days of board review course and I'm almost done with the first of my Traveler's Stockings. As predicted, once I made it through the cuff, the rest was smooth sailing. I think these are going to enter the gift stock. They don't fit me quite well enough to keep. But I really do think they're lovely.

So, I've kind of decided to attempt to do this "knit a sweater every month" thing that some other bloggers are doing. I don't want to fully commit to it, in case something comes up or I run out of money to buy yarn (entirely possible). But I've already picked out the pattern I'm going to knit for March: the Rainbow Yoke sweater, also from the latest Knitscene (I swear, I adore at least 1/2 the patterns in this issue, a rarity for me). I'm going to use a pale grayish blue heather for the body. I just need to get the Kuryon for the yoke, but I'm going to wait until I get to Seattle to get it. I really don't need anything else to pack up right now!

This Sunday is our House Cooling (Come Take Our Stuff) Party. Then I work my last 4 days next week (M/T/Th/F), then I'm continuing my Farewell Tour with a trip to DC for the weekend. That leaves 4.5 days to get totally ready to go. Yikes!