The Decorator Crab

*Tap tap tap* Is this thing on?

Hmphf - it's been a while since I've blogged (understatement). I guess that life got busy (but it always has been) or that I prioritized other things before blogging (more likely). I started blogging as a way to find a place in the knitting community, back when I was a new knitter, when I didn't have any knitting friends to share the journey with. Since moving back to Corvallis two years ago, I have found an abundant, thriving knitting and spinning community, so blogging has gone by the wayside.

I used to be pretty strict about restricting my blogging to knitting and crafting content. Given the recent frequency of posting (uhm, ZERO per month), I think it makes sense to expand the scope of the blog. Life provides a lot more fodder for conversation when taken as a whole, and knitting may actually be the least entertaining thing that I do. Not that I am particularly entertaining, because I am fairly average and boring. But. There is still the blog.

I haven't fleshed this out completely, but I may try to post random tidbits a few times a week, just to feel out the idea of blogging about whatever mood or topic strikes. I make no promises about keeping up - I still travel too much and am in the midst of canning season (i.e. There Goes Your Weekend What With All of The Canning of Goods). So, whatever, we'll see how it goes.

The Crafty Crab isn't dead just yet!

I can't stand posts without photos. Here's my "new" (purchased in May) spinning wheel, before I finished it with Pure Tung Oil. It's a Louet S75DT, and came with a free skein winder as a part of the Louet 35th Anniversary special.

I saved up for months to buy it, and I Really Really Really LOVE IT.

Here is my new Ravelry Ravatar:

I use the Official Seal Generator to make my seals - it's totally fun.

And, to boost my non-craft content, here is a great photo of Johnny, our beloved and hysterical Chihuahua, taken by Erin Kate (a totally fantastic, amazingly talented photographer based in Salt Lake City, Utah):

ETA: I have updated my web page (relatively recently), and I also contribute to posts the Oregon State University Glider Research Group Blog. These links fall in line with my inclination to expand content here.

In which she rejoins the Blogosphere

Greetings!

Well, I realize that I don't have any readers left out there after this extended period of blog silence, but I like to carry on under the delusion that someone will read this. I was away from my blog in order to write and then defend my Ph.D. thesis, and now I rejoin the world as a new crab. Sort of. I am now "Craftycrab, Ph.D." I'm not changing the blog name or anything (heh), and I don't use it in my signature or anything, and please don't call me Dr. Crab, but it sure as hell feels great to be done!  Now I will have time to blog!  And to leave comments on YOUR blog!!  Yes, I feel like a new crab, that is for sure.

I am currently blogging from Iquique, Chile, where I am currently involved in a new research project. But, I will return home in a week or so, and will then begin blogging again in earnest. I just couldn't wait until then to peek my head in around here! In the mean time, you can see what [little] that I've been up to on my Ravelry page (if you are a member of Ravelry - sorry Mom and MinIL). I'll get it all updated over here eventually, once the dust settles.

It already feels great to be "back"!!

Bupkis.

Zilch. Zero. Nada. That's how many pictures/projects I have that are worth posting today. As I mentioned in the last post, my knitting has been tragically boring these last couple of weeks. Finished another Ballband Dishcloth from MDK, finished a Panta for my Mom, started another dishcloth for my MIL, you get the point, ad nauseum.

I have no valid excuse for such a knitting malaise, except to say that it could be related to the number of hours that I have been putting into that monkey on my back my dissertation lately. Imagine spending several continuous hours reading about linear regressions, data transformations, confidence intervals, etc. etc etc., and then at the end of the day you realize: I am no closer to figuring out what I was looking for than when I began five hours ago. In fact, I might be more confused than when I started!  *sigh*

I've been doing this routine for days and days now, and the realization is usually followed by a "healthy" glass of red wine. <aside>Anyone who tells you that graduate school does not drive them to drink is not to be trusted. Clearly, they are not human</aside> At any rate, I am so wiped by the end of the day that I can't even handle non-fiction reading before bed. It's light fiction or nothing. Likewise, it's light knitting or nothing. Hence, no blog material for you.

I've been going for smaller projects because with them (unlike with my dissertation) I can see progress in the short period of time that I can motivate myself to knit. A little effort on a small project always shows some progress, and this is enough to keep me going when I am mentally exhausted. On the upside, I am trying to be more adventurous with my smaller projects. I am starting to experiment with felted bowls, which is something that I've been wanting to do for a while. I have a few skeins of Wool of the Andes Bulky to play with, but I'm still working on my first bowl.  I want to get a feel for how much increasing & decreasing is necessary (and when) to get the shape that I am going for. Once that is figured out, I can start doing some colorwork and adding textural details. I've got some fun ideas floating around in the ol' noggin', but we'll all have to be patient about seeing them come to fruition.

Home again, home again, jiggity-jog

Ah, so wonderful to be back home, on solid ground, and in the company of my favorite boys (C, Johnny dog, and the cats, Maverick and Goose). I’d have written sooner, but to be honest I have been wandering around the house kind of aimlessly for the last two days. Well, not aimless, exactly – I’ve baked a vanilla bundt cake, a three berry crisp, and made fresh cinnamon applesauce since I’ve been back. I guess the nesting instinct kicked in strongly when I got home!

The trip back from Monterey Bay to the dock in Newport, OR was wild. We left MB late on Thursday night and drove straight into a gale. I went up to the bridge several times on Friday to enjoy the show as waves crashed over the bow of the ship, and the highest average wind speed that I saw was just over 35 knots (40mph).  Whee!  It was like a carnival ride!  Scientists and ship’s crew alike were downed with sea-sickness, but I got through it without much fuss. It was difficult to get the timing right to catch the crest of the waves, but this photo is close. Keep in mind that the bow of the ship sits some 25 feet off the water. This is not to say that there were 25 foot seas, but the 12-15 foot waves were sufficiently large to bring a lot of thrashing and crashing on our 274 foot vessel. I quite enjoyed the ride.

During the transit I made a simple beanie for one of the ship’s crew members who went above and beyond the call of duty in fixing our head (toilet). The ship has a vacuum flush system, and fixing a clog involves a lot of pressurized air. I won’t describe the whole scenario, but let your mind wander to the most disgusting possibility – it happened to Smitty. So, I happily knat up a beanie out of Noro Big Kureyon, on size 7 needles. It was soft and simple, and the colors were lovely (and certainly masculine enough for a guy who uses wrenches as often as his brain, and who has many many tattoos). I failed to get a picture (the shame!), but trust me, we both loved it were rather pleased in the end.

Arrival at the dock on Sunday brought a proverbial shitstorm of activity, after which everyone scattered like ants from the hill. We had time for one beer at the Rogue before hitting the road (a HazelNut Brown Nectar, one of my favorite beers of all time). In the flurry to leave I failed to get email addresses from a couple of crew members who I wanted to keep in touch with, so if you’re reading this and you work on the TGT (slim chance), email me at amanda"at"amandawhitmire"dot"com, or leave a comment for me with your info. I’d love to hear from you.

Being home has been wonderful, despite the fact that I am kind of disoriented. The entire house was immaculate when I walked in, which I loved and appreciated coming home to. Even better, the plants aren’t even dead or dying. For the most part, they are thriving! The hydrangea is in full bloom, and through some special form of neglect I got it to bloom in both pink and purple. I thought that the pH of the soil determined the color of the flowers, so I am at a loss to explain the present situation. Regardless, I am enjoying it. I took a nap in the hammock by the stream yesterday – now that’s what I call being home.

On the knitting side of life, there were three new books waiting for me when I got home: Mason-Dixon Knitting, Knitting Rules!, and the Vogue Knitting Ultimate Knitting Book. Thanks for the gift cert. to Amazon.com, Mom! I’ve flipped through all three and am delighted with the selections. Mason-Dixon will be the first one to see some action for a real project. I have been itching to knit decoratively & functionally for the house, so look for some dishcloths and felted boxes soon. I bought some yarn for baby bibs, too, since every woman I know seems to either be pregnant or have a newborn baby. Quick! Someone remind me to finish school and get a job before I get knocked up, too!

Anyhow, it’s nice to be home, and I’ll see if I can keep up with the blogging now that I am on dry land.

Greetings from Monterey Bay!

Science is finally starting to happen out here after days of transiting from Seattle and working out the bugs in our equipment. We have been taking surveys of the currents in the region, and grabbing water for preserved specimens and live experiments. Finally – some real Oceanography!  Most of the year oceanographers are desk jockeys who work up data and write up results. Time at sea is all too short and often hectic, but I always enjoy it. If the weather is good, and it has been, everything else is gravy. I’ll post pictures of/from the ship and commentary as I have time (sporadically at best).

I brought some yarn and supplies out here with me, but failed to plan well enough in advance. In a clear misdirection of priorities, yarn was the last thing that I got around to packing for the cruise. In fact, the cab showed up in my driveway as I was frantically grabbing yarn and needles to stuff into my bag. Certainly a less than ideal situation when a person is isolated from land, and therefore from yarn shops, for three whole weeks. “I’ll look up patterns online if I need them!” I thought. Well. The Internet is slow as hell out here and horribly patchy. I’ll be lucky if I can get this post uploaded in the first few tries. But, I’m not complaining because many vessels don’t have Internet access at all, and this is better than nothing.

I finished the Toesties yesterday, and will post about them soon. Now I’m on to the next project - a smaller version of the Cozy shawl from Knitty. I had to use some ingenuity to wind up my yarn into a center pull ball since I couldn’t round up anyone willing to hold yarn for me. It turns out that laptops make great yarn swifts and stay put while the boat rocks back and forth. And since we don’t have a shortage of laptops on the ship (I can see nine from where I am sitting right now), there is always a makeshift yarn swift around. Nice. For Cozy I am using some mohair yarn that a friend brought back for me from New Zealand, and I am itching to get started! I’m also making progress on the hemp purse that I have been working on, but don’t have all of the materials to finish it while I am out here. If I finish Cozy and the purse (as much as will be possible), I have some Noro Big Kureyon with me for another Kitty Pi. If things get desperate at the end, I have leftovers from the slippers that I can make a scarf out of. Let’s hope I get home by then!

More soon from the R/V Thompson in Monterey Bay. Over and out.

And you thought I was dead

Nope, just hibernating here in grad school land.  The weather is nice, but the hours suck.  I'll be back soon with FO posts (that's right, MORE THAN ONE!) and updates. 

Happy Halloween

Hope you all join the goblins and ghouls for a magical night tonight!  Or, at the very least, stay home and give out good candy to children who are already strung out on Ritalin or Zoloft.  I'll be doing the latter, even though half the candy is already gone, currently residing on my ass. 

I tried my hand at carving pumpkins last night (thanks, Justyn!), and you shouldn't be surprised by the result.  Hint: see blog title.  Apologies for the craptastic photo - I took it with my phone, in the rain.

The Hallowig turned out very well, if I may say so (and I may), and once again the magic scratchy acrylic softened up in the wash.  I paired the "wig" with a neckwarmer from SnBN to complete the look, although I have to admit that I still don't have an answer for, "What are you supposed to be?"  Clearly I am "Cute Knitted Wig Girl."  Pshaw!  The kids who came to the door tonight are the only people I've seen today who were actually dressed up for Halloween.  So, no silly questions from non-festive hosers allowed.  I expect some credit for at least doing something.  Now, I'm headed to SEA-TAC airport to pick up darling husband - I better see some costumes, dammit!

No knitting in 7 days!

That's right guys and dolls - I haven't touched the needles in a week.  It's madness, I tell you.  MADNESS! 

I am down in Corvallis, Oregon (home of the Beavers!) so that I can take my oral exam on Monday.  Let me tell you how much I am looking forward to being roasted for three hours on all aspects of my dissertation: about as much as I look forward to my annual encounter with a speculum and stirrups.  Maybe  less!  But, it's  a hoop that I have to jump through, and once I'm considered "worthy" of proceeding, it's smooth sailing until my defense (in two years). There are no words to describe how much I look forward to stepping out of that room and being done with all of this stress!

Okay, I'm going to go sit down with lady Clapotis for a few minutes.  I mean, it's been a week for Christ's sake. 

A new blog - sweet.

So, here we go - another thing to do when I am procrastinating working on my dissertation.  Excellent. 

For anyone who is interested, I chose 'Naxia' as my blog title b/c it is the scientific name of the common decorator crab.  These awesome creatures take bits of seaweed (and other found objects) and adhese them onto their backs in an effort to blend in with their surroundings.  We had one in the aquarium at my junior college, and we gave it bits of ribbon and artificial turf to decorate itself with.  I thought that the thing was pretty endearing, myself. Anyway, back to my point.  I am a crab (astrological sign of cancer) and I am crafty.  Thus, I am Naxia - a decorator crab. Natch!