OMFG. I must make it - now! I get an email every day from Interweave's Knitting Daily (link), and this bag was featured yesterday. The pattern is by Pam Allen from Interweave's Bag Style, but is available as a free download if you are a subscriber to Knitting Daily. The project is up on Ravelry, but it looks like no one is working on it yet. Time to dig through the stash to see if I have anything that will work!
I don't usually post on the weekends, but it's the big 3-0 for ol' Crabby today. So I can do whatever the hell I want! This includes, but is not limited to: having a big breakfast, crocheting on the bag, working in the gardens, crocheting, drinking with lunch (who am I kidding - I do that every weekend), getting dressed up for no reason, or not, and crocheting some more. Sounds good to me! Senior Crab is still out of town, so I am having a quiet day all to my self, doing whatever strikes my fancy. This strikes my fancy:
There's nothing quite like having a quiet morning, sitting on the couch with your coffee and your knitting (or crochet), and listening to your favorite NPR shows while a little dog sleeps next to you. I love it!
I have taken a bit of a different strategy with the second side of the LTL bag. As I am wont to do at times, I planned out a schematic of the squares instead of just making them willy-nilly. Cecily provided a virtual block that you could color in, but my pseudo-Photoshop program (Fireworks) was having trouble with the magic wand tool and couldn't tell the difference between the middle color and the edge color. So, I had to make my own block pattern with the available "autoshapes." Here is the result:
I had an actual plan in organizing the colors in this layout, and on paper I like it better than the result of my approach with the first six blocks. We'll have to wait and see if the actual result is as pleasing to me as the virtual one. As a bit of foreshadowing though, I like what I'm getting so far!
Okay - enough time in front of the monitor, I'm going back to the real world so that I can take full advantage of my day.
Ever heard of a Theremin before? Me neither, 'til I found this link on BoingBoing. I've watched this video like five times, and it still blows me away. So cool!
Go have yourself some fun by designing your own craft room emblem with the Official Seal Generator. My five-minute effort sports a trademark crab and says "Art is long, life is short" in Latin. [I found the Latin phrase on Wikipedia]. You can choose from circle, triangle, square, or pentagon shaped emblems, and there are a ton of color and icon options. Now, go forth and get crafty!
In lieu of knitting content, a bit of humor.
25 SIGNS THAT YOU HAVE GROWN UP
1. Your houseplants are alive, and you can't smoke any of them.
2. Having sex in a twin bed is out of the question.
3. You keep more food than beer in the fridge.
4. 6:00 AM is when you get up, not when you go to bed.
5. You hear your favorite song in an elevator.
6. You watch the Weather Channel.
7. Your friends marry and divorce instead of "hook up" and "break up."
8. You go from 130 days of vacation time to 14.
9. Jeans and a sweater no longer qualify as "dressed up."
10. You're the one calling the police because those %&@# kids next door won't turn down the stereo.
11. Older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you.
12. You don't know what time Taco Bell closes anymore.
13. Your car insurance goes down and your car payments go up.
14. You feed your dog Science Diet instead of McDonald's leftovers.
15. Sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt.
16. You take naps.
17. Dinner and a movie is the whole date instead of the beginning of one.
18. Eating a basket of chicken wings at 3 AM would severely upset, rather than settle, your stomach.
19. You go to the drug store for ibuprofen and antacid, not condoms and pregnancy tests.
20. A $4.00 bottle of wine is no longer "pretty good shit."
21. You actually eat breakfast food at breakfast time.
22. "I just can't drink the way I used to" replaces "I'm never going to drink that much again."
23. 90% of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work.
24. You drink at home to save money before going to a bar.
25. When you find out your friend is pregnant you congratulate them instead of asking "Oh shit, what the hell happened?"
>>>>> Bonus:
26: You read this entire list looking desperately for one sign that doesn't apply to you and can't find one to save your sorry old ass.
My husband added this to the list:
27. "Hangin' with the boys" means watching Discovery Channel on a Friday night with two cats and a Chihuahua on your lap.
Don't know about you, but more than a few of those applied to me...
I'm returning to normal life after my trip down to Oregon, so bear with me while I get my ass back into gear. Instead of giving you knitting content, I give props to Rabbitch for what might be the most hilarious quote that I have ever read with regard to yarn. "Dudes, this is string made from sheephair, it's not the handspun pubes of Jesus." Bwah-hahahahahh!!!! I laugh out loud every time I read it! For the whole story, be sure to see her post...
Well, before I could write up a post about going to Montreal I went on another trip. This time I headed down to Mexico for a wedding. We stayed at the Costa Azul resort, which is north of Puerto Vallarta, and had a kick-ass good time. Highlights included the wedding (of course), skinny dipping in bioluminescent waters after the wedding (no photos - sorry), making new friends, and buckets of free ceviche. [My love for ceviche borders on unnatural. I ate it every day, just like when we went to Costa Rica.] It was also a much needed break from a week of frantic work in between trips.
I've been knitting here and there, but to be honest, not as often as I usually do. I have been burning the candle at both ends, and by the end of the day all I can do is flop on the couch, drink wine, and zone out on junk TV. I've been focusing on finishing smaller projects that are already on the needles. My first Jaywalker sock is done (yes!), and it fits perfectly (YES!). I'll spare you a photo until I get the pair done. I'll be finishing another washcloth tonight, which is a small victory (because finishing anything is an achievement at Casa de Crabby), but it's tragically boring blog material. Will anyone be excited by felted bowls? Pillows? Eh, things could get pretty grim around here!
I've been doing a lot of thinking about the "First Sweater Project," but can't commit to it fully until my work schedule lightens up a bit. Hopefully this will happen before I finish my dissertation, but I am fearing the worst in the work load department.
In non-knitting news, three cheers for Lori for mentioning climate change on her blog. I have similar concerns about how to balance my diverse interests with what to talk about on the blog. Long-time readers are used to my posts from research cruises, which I always love writing and sharing. The response to these posts was fantastic, judging by those of you who de-lurked to share your experiences with the ocean in response. But, balancing a knitting blog with science commentary is a delicate situation, and I always strive to communicate my thoughts on science & oceanography clearly.
Being involved in marine science puts me square in the middle of the climate change discussion, since the ocean and atmosphere are so intricately linked. Scientists are supposed to remain neutral on questions of advocacy and resource management in order to preserve the integrity of research. But, often times I find that people don’t trust the policy makers and want information directly from authoritative scientists. It’s a difficult situation. I won’t linger on this, but as a person with some experience in science I feel the need to at least mention the climate change issue. Climate change is real (I can’t believe people still argue about this), human activities are to blame, and it’s happening fast. But, don’t take my word for it. Read the IPCC report here, or visit the Pew Center on Global Climate Change for excellent overviews and in-depth information. Then get angry and figure out what you can do to reduce your carbon load. If you are still awake and you want something fun to do, go see what your ecological footprint is, here. The results might surprise you!
I've just returned from a long trip that took me through Santa Barbara and Montreal and back again, all for research and research-related activities. I went to SB for some field sampling in the Santa Barbara Channel, and to Montreal for the Ocean Optics Conference, which is always my favorite one to attend. I am exhausted and travel-weary, and very glad to be back home with the boys. To entertain you while I get my bearings and get my ass in gear, here are a few photos from the trip (more coming later).
This is what happens to anything that gets left in a productive coastal ocean for three months (note: the fuzz wasn't there when this thing went into the water). In my biz we call this biofouling. We also call it trouble. Without proper safeguards, many bad-ass oceanic biota will grow over your equipment in no time at all, and your research will be quickly and properly screwed. The problem that you see here is attack of the encrusting bryozoans. These critters are actually animals, believe it or not, and they feed with wee tentacles that sweep the water for tiny food particles. Say it with me, "Cooooooool!" The green circle is a copper shutter that covers the business end of the sensor while it's not "sensing." Copper does a good job of inhibiting biological growth, as you can see.
Here is a good shot of the leaves turning in Montreal. I was out for a long walk on a partly cloudy day, which made for some wonderful photographic opportunities (if I actually had any skill at doing such things). More details on the trip in a later post, but I will say that I enjoyed the city and wish that I had been able to get out and see more of it. It felt very european to me, a feeling that was enhanced by the constant Quebec French (quebecois) being spoken around me. The only downside: it was impossible to find soy milk in the cafes there, and I was really jonesing for a soy latte when I got home. Kooky Quebecois!
Last, the card from Hubbo that was waiting for me when I got home. It still makes me laugh to look at it, so I had to share. The caption says, "I really really really like you." Awwww...I'm such a lucky lady. More soon, after I get my shit situated.
There just isn't enough time. I look at the projects that I am working on, and that ain't a small number, and then I look at the stash and think, "There just isn't enough time." There are so many projects that I want to do, and I have so many ideas for things that aren't fully formed yet. The idea of knitting for the house has really hit it big with me since I picked up Mason Dixon Knitting. There's the dishcloths, the felted boxes, and, god help me, the log cabin quilt. At first I thought that the log cabin was neat because it combined ideas from my two favorite crafts, knitting and quilting. Then I saw the log cabins over at January One, and my heart leapt. The green. So. Beautiful. The pattern. So, geometric! I am SO into Type-A behavior, this one really got me. And then, her random log cabin. RANDOM. I could SO get into something structured, yet random. But, there isn't enough time. Or money for yarn, but there are ways around that (sell the car?).
Then there's the other stuff that I want to knit (read, "have to knit"). Sweaters. Socks. Baby stuff. Gifts of all kinds. A rectangle shawl. A triangle shawl. Felted bowls. Felted pillow covers. The list goes on. Looking at my stash I realized that for me, the stash is all about possibilities. I almost always buy yarn with a project in mind. There has been the occasional purchase when the yarn was just so lovely, so beautiful, that I had to have it. Just, because. But, for the most part, the yarn is all about what I can make out of it. Looking at the stash I realize how much that there is to do, how much is waiting for me every time I walk into that room. Yikes.
So...I don't know where this leads me, except to say that I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by...me. By what I want to do, by what I have planned, and by how little time that I have to sit quietly and actually do it. Motivation. That's what this is. Motivation to finish school and afford my self some peace. Some time to relax. [Yeah, right - like that's ever gonna happen. Like this bullet train of a "career in science" is ever allowed to slow down, let alone stop.] Anyway, don't mind me. I'm just blowing off some steam. I'll come up with some OCD scheme to organize "my process," and I'll tackle one (or three) thing(s) at a time. Life, which is completely wonderful at the moment, will go on, and knitting will get done. I'll be okay Mom, don't worry.
Witness the horror that I observed upon walking into the lab yesterday morning (at 3:45AM). I found Barbie decapitated (again) and bound. She was reaching desperately for her own head, which was placed rather ghoulishly on Aquaman’s staff. True, she looks rather fetching in her new dress, but still. If this doesn’t bring on the bad juju, I don’t know what will. At least we’ll be laughing when the juju strikes!
This morning I found this little scene. The knowledgeable observer will notice something wrong with this picture immediately (I did, and I don’t know what that says about me). Clearly Aquaman is “the Gimp,” or the slave, in this B&D situation, and yet he assumes a position of dominance over Barbie. To quote a classic movie, “Inconceivable!” No longer content to sit back and watch our lady be disrespected, my fellow watch-mates felt inspired to rearrange. And so they did. And they came up with this.
Now, that’s better, isn’t it?
