procrastination station

I am totally renting the machine this weekend.  Glory!  I have to call G Street and get them to be a bit more specific about deposits and pick-up windows, but all should go well.  Now, the only question is whether I head out to the one by Chick-fil-A or the one in the same city as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s grave (we don’t talk about Zelda here).  Chick-fil-A is owned by an abhorrent git, but I hear they have good waffle fries.  F. Scott Fitzgerald is probably the reason why I will commit my life to spinsterhood and prose.  Oh, decisions.

I have traced and cut out a pattern.  Here it is in blurry, romantic, dormitory evening glow, in case you were wondering:

Also, here be a visual aid for the knitting situation, in case you find yourself caring (I don’t):

If my geometry is correct, it takes more yarn to add the same amount of circumference to whole the farther out you get, so volume is not an accurate measurement if we’re trying to compare the amounts of yarn (I guess weight would do it, yeah?).   Also, yes those are my flannel sheets.  The elegance, man.  I can’t wait to send out internship applications and wait for prospective employers to land on this here goldmine of genius.

I’m off to sleep early so that I can get up before dawn to study for my Arabic exam and pretend to work on my paper.  Tell me, reader, were your college/university years the best of your life?  I’m hoping that that’s a really sad lie as I’d love to have leisure time and sleep reenter my life’s equation at some point.  I dream big, obviously.

i just assume that no one knows what they’re doing

I sew with nice fabric.  For me, it almost always costs less than ready-to-wear clothing and it just seems worth it on so many levels.  Now, with knitting, I’m not so sure.

I bought some starter yarn (Liberty Wool in aubergine) which cost $8.50 per skein.  Each skein is about 122 yards.  I’m almost done with one skein and this is what I have:

I reckon it’s about four or five inches of (horrid) stitches.  I’ve just been mindlessly knitting (not purling—or am I?) to get the hang of it.  I think I might need at least 10 skeins to make a scarf and not a potholder.  Eek!  That’s more money than I’d pay for a regular old wool scarf.  Hell, on sale you could get a really plush cashmere scarf.  Is it worth it?  Specifically, is it calming enough of a hobby?  I’m not sure.

This isn’t becoming a knitting blog.  The deal is, my sewing studio of choice (i.e. the only one in the District) has apparently been booked solid by an instructor.  So, I’ve no place to sew.  G Street Fabrics charges $15/day for machine rentals (though they do rent Berninas like fancy people).  I’m a bit torn.  This coming weekend, if the universe is good, I won’t have very much school work and I’ll have loads of time to sew.  But I’m also going home the following Wednesday.  But!  I’d love to finish some muslins and go home to sew the final products.  But!  I have to write a fairly important paper when I’m home.  And!  I should be writing a fairly important paper right now, but I’m taking an ill-advised break.  Sigh.  We’ll see how it goes, then?  Grumble, grumble, grumble, harumph.

 

stuff i did while i wasn’t here

I washed a lot of silk.  I hung some of the yardage on the back of my bedroom door and some bits got stranded.  Then I used a plastic J. Crew shoe bag on the edge of the door prevent damage.  Who said I wasn’t an absolute MacGyver gangster?  Oh, yes, that would be everyone.

This photo was taken because my mum disapproved of the cardigan in the first post.  I’ve long since given up on pleasing her.  The silk was incidentally in the background and what’s better than a visual aid?  Also, I screen-capped it because I find the “Is this Charlotte Witherspoon?” bit to be endlessly amusing.  I really don’t want to know what that says about me.

I voted.  I put the sticker on my computer because it was getting fuzzies from my coat.  Then I put the knitting next to it because I was actually trying to photograph the knitting on the only undistracting background I own.  Then we got this weird photograph.  My people won.  (All that middle backstory was totally necessary.)  I’m thrilled, but sometimes I feel like we forget that you can be happy about winning without being happy that someone else lost, you know?  You don’t know?  That’s fine, reader.

I took up knitting as my stress-busting hobby.  I don’t know if I’m knitting or purling and I’m not quite sure it’s supposed to look like this.  Whatever, man.  (Yes, it is a middle-of-the-night photograph.  Nothing but the best for you, of course.)

Also, I think I got overzealous with the casting on and am actually making a really small afghan rather than a really large scarf.  Halp!  I’m considering getting some sort of diagnostic am-I-frakking-this-up knitting consultation.  Mostly because the above is four days’ worth of work.  I know.

More later, I think.  Hopefully with some sewing, once I get my iron in the mail.  (I took it home with me for Columbus weekend because I only have good ideas.)  Please forgive the typos, I require sleep.