Spera Knits

New camera, and some knitting pics

2007-12-22T18:30:00.001-08:00

mark_slipper.JPG
Originally uploaded by cabasaan

Here's a pic from my new camera; it's also showing the new felted slippers I made for my stepdad. He's wearing them amongst the remains of the Christmas revelry. After felting, I hand-sewed the non-slip surface onto the slipper. I still think they're a size too small, but he says they fit really well.

bottom_slipper.JPG
Originally uploaded by cabasaan

Holiday Knit List

2007-11-10T00:10:00.000-08:00

Roomie 1 (E the boy)- Felted clog slippers that take 2 days
Roomie 1.5 (E's girlfriend, the weekend roomie)- kittie hat from first SnB book
Roomie 2 (R) - My so-called scarf -about 10% done
Mom-Sweater vest, should be a quick knit since it's on size six
Mark-Felted clog slippers that need monogramming and bottoms put on

It's not that big of a list. Right? Right? I'm feeling a little overwhelmed!

FInished the Hepburn!

2007-10-31T18:39:00.001-07:00

IMG_0315.JPG
Originally uploaded by cabasaan

It's done, and I think it looks great...The finishing was very finicky, to say the least, but I'm pretty happy with it. I even constructed the frog closure myself. I used a crochet edging, and picked up the collar. I was going to do buttons, but button bands and a close-fit, tailored sweater are not the most flattering things ever on a girl with a little extra.

IMG_0317.JPG
Originally uploaded by cabasaan

Here's a detailed view of the shoulder join; I'm very proud of my seaming technique. It also shows off the cable and the lace pattern.

The wages of sin

2007-10-28T00:56:00.000-07:00

I got to wear my beautiful corset in public for the very first time! I picked it up at the RenFair with a friend; it's a gorgeous, handmade affair, and so pretty...but not something I can wear out every day. However, it's Halloween party night here in the city with big shoulders, so I thought, what the hey, and wore it to two events. The first one, a party with cheese and chocolate, I wore the black side out. The second was the Goth Nocturna Party at the House of Blues. I am slightly inebriated, and it's 3 am. I have church tomorrow, so I know I'll be paying for it. I also wore my beautiful handmade blue silk skirt. As a crafter, I believe it's very important to support fellow crafters, and buy from them, so I try to buy hand made, and local whenever I can. Plus, the workmanship is gorgeous, and I got a million compliments!

On the knitting front, I'm almost ready to felt the huge slippers I'm making for the roommate and for my dad. (The first pair is experimental, and done, so I will felt tomorrow, and then make the second pair) I plan on needle felting their initials on them after felting. I also bought some non-skid rug backing instead of suede slipper bottoms, because both men live with hardwood floors and have complained about slipping on them. I have to experiment to see how they look.

I'm soooo glad I'm not moving! My roommies are family, and there's nothing like partying with them to really bond. E's my kid bro, and tonight he was great in making sure I made it up the stairs, and had a good time at the club with all of his friends.

On another personal note, I'm actually dating again, and I actually like the guy I'm with...

Falling in love with a UFO-again

2007-10-09T21:35:00.000-07:00

I picked up the pieces of the Hepburn cardigan again. Feeling the beautiful yarn, I started seaming and realized how lovely it was!

The reason why I'm not knitting? My fingers are tingling after this weekend's marathon sessions. Between the bus ride, and being up north, I ended up knitting way too much!

Inspired to blog

2007-10-03T08:47:00.000-07:00

Alright, I've been totally inspired to blog. I'm still missing a digital camera, which was the reason why I let the account lapse last time, but my roomie has one that she'll take pics with.

Just joined ravelry, and it's the bomb!!! I can't believe how much time I've already dumped onto the site, and I still keep finding something new. I love all the features....especially organizing my stash. I never knew I had so much yarn. Okay, the yarn popping out of everywhere should have clued me off, but I didn't process the amount until I started posting my stash. I have one bin finished out of ten, plus all the yarn that is stuck in weird places.

Time for a yarn diet to match my real life one!

Finally, time to post

2006-07-14T14:22:00.000-07:00

As I've already stated, I'm not the best blogger. I have to admit, spending all day at work, several hours at night, and most of the weeked writing/working on my computer tends to kill my joy of writing a blog. However, I have some downtime right now at work-bit of a break, so I thought I'd take a brief sec to post.

I finally finished my orange shawl!!!

Here's a pic of me wearing it:

The images look a bit better in their original flickr format.

I'm starting on my new aran, with the kettle-dyed yarn.

The orange shawl; the saga continues

2006-06-07T22:37:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on my orange "pumpkin" shawl, as my roommates call it. It's got a great technique going for it-the outside edge is not bound off. Instead, the border is knitted on to the live outside stitched. Right now, it looks crap, but that's the nature of unblocked lace.

The two pics are of the orange shawl- I actually really like the color, but it is very pumpkin. Notice on the closeup how the border is being knit onto the edge-very cool!!

On the homefront, I am very happy with my two new roommates (the two guys sitting on the couch, playing video games). I can't explain how happy it makes me that my house looks like a home. There are no boxes anywhere, everything is organized, and I can walk through the hallwayy without tripping over anything. Every room is usable, and we have two completely seperate living rooms- a bonus for three people. Tonight, a friend spontaneously stopped by, and I was able to cook dinner for her without having to clean the kitchen or make excuses for the state of the house. No more weird smells! Go Shannon for helping us!

Also, I got a comment on my blog- from a person I've never met. How cool is that?! Even if I don't reply, I love comments; they make me feel very fuzzy.

Best Birthday Weekend

2006-05-30T08:47:00.000-07:00

I'm finally back at Mom's house after spending a lovely weekend up at the cottage, which is actually semi-finished! The hot-tub is up and running, which made for a very nice get-away. I spent most of my time up north indulging in a few of my favorite activities: knitting, hiking, swinging in a hammock, and playing with my beautiful toddler niece, M. She's the cutest lil' baby on the face of the earth.

This is a view from the upper deck of my parents' place.

I absolutely love going "Up North" (as us Michiganders call anything north of Bay City). I've been going up to the same area since I was born. My grandparents owned a cottage three miles from this one; every weekend when I was younger, we'd go up and just have fun. I must admit, childhood memories aside, this cottage has much more amenities: hot tub, air-conditioning, hammocks, 4 wheelers, boats, etc.

More pics:

Isn't M just adorable!!

My brother got me up at 8 am for a 5 mile hike through the Huron National Forest, so I did feel like I got some exercise. I love hiking there, but I have bites on top of bites from the bugs.

I infected Mom with the sock bug, so she spent the weekend knitting a pair of lovely socks. Of course, we visited a yarn store. I bought some absolutely lovely Dale of Norway pattern books. I'm so tempted by fair isle sweaters now!

I already miss my hammock. I spent most of my birthday there, swinging in the breeze, and knitting.

Now, back home on the megabus. I'm not looking forward to this week; we're moving a new roommate in and an old roommate out. Urrghhh! Moving!!!

Alright, I'm a bad blogger

2006-05-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

I'm a horrible blogger. I know that I haven't updated in a while, but I'll be posting more later. Tonight, I'm heading out to the wilds of Elmhurst for a knitting store. Have ewe any wool is having a two-for-one sale, and of course I need more yarn. Cascade 220 is their staple, and I'd love to find some superwash to do hiking socks with.

Once again, I'm hanging out at Filter, partially because the 'net's spotty at home and for personal reasons that I'm sure you all know. So, I'll have pics that I'll post later tonight.

Project updates:
1) I finished the blue kimono sweater, and I will post the sweater pics as soon as I get home.
2) The orange leaf shawl has ten more working rows (I'm not counting the rows of straight stockinette) and the border.
3) I started a felted messenger bag that will have "F**K CANCER" on the flap. The goal is to work on my fair isle technique, but since it's felted, the technique won't be as important.

On the personal front, I'm still struggling with fatigue. I'm told that that's normal 3 months out of surgery, but I'm still amazed that I'm not the person that I was. I had my checkup recently, and I still found that I spent the week in a state of semi-terror waiting for new results to come in. My mother, a 15 year breast-cancer survivor, says that she still feels that way. Joy- something to look forward to in 15 more years.

Pics to come!

Minions of Satan: 1 Hapless customer: 0

2006-04-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

Once again, I have tangled with the Minions of Satan aka the utilities company. It turns out that yes, we were paying our neighbors' bill, and yes, we overpaid. We used quite a bit less gas, as we thought we were paying for it, and thus acted in a conservative manner towards the very expensive resource. The people next door have their gas shut off, since they've NEVER paid a gas bill in 9 months (one would think they would notice they weren't getting paid, but anyways).

Now, here's where it gets strange. Minions of Satan does not want to give us a credit because they are blaming our landlord for mislabeling the meters. They say that we should go to our landlord for the money due to our overpayment (our landlord thinks this is bullshit-quite correctly). Meanwhile, they will not turn on the gas next door until the neighbors have paid their bill. I expressed my puzzlement with this to the "customer service representative" in the following verbatim interaction:

ME: "So, you're going to bill my neighbors for all of the gas they have not paid for all winter."
CSR: "Yes."
ME: "You're also telling us to go our landlord for our overpayment, not you, and that you're going to re-start our account."
CSR: "Yes."
ME: "Doesn't that mean that you will get paid twice-that's two times- for the same amount of gas? And we still might owe you money even though we overpaid?"
CSR: "Yes."
ME: "Can I speak to your supervisor?"
CSR: "He's only available from 1-4 Mondays and Wednesday."

So, guess what I'll be doing tomorrow.

Elvis Your Still the Best-actual quote

2006-03-24T21:42:00.000-08:00

Alright, I know there's quite a few pics, but we've been very busy over the past two days, and I'm just giving the highlights. We drove pretty much all day yesterday, and stopped off in Cairo (pronounced Kay-ROE; Southerners) and at the Wickliffe Mounds in northern Kentucky. Both places were absolutely fascinating as historical sites. Cairo is the spot where the Ohio and Mississipi converge- Mark Twain wrote about visiting the city in some of his riverboat writings, and the Lewis and Clark expedition wintered there before embarking. Note my pontification stance- and the interested expression on R.Z's face - he says he enjoys my historical explanations.

Wickliffe Mounds also holds historical significance as a pre-historic Native American village site. I'm holding a drop spindle in my hands- a replica of the one in a nearby display case. They used the drop spindle to spin stinging nettle and the bark of cedar trees for weaving. I use mine to attempt to spin wool, but the tool from an ancient prehistorical site felt the same in my hands as the tool in my craft area- a powerful connection to women I've never met.

After arriving in Memphis, we went out to Beale St, home of the Blues, to hear wonderful live music, and eat ribs- the shot of RZ and I in one of the local juke joints.

Memphis has a state park within city limits- an interesting phenomenon for us dedicated urbanites. Whenever I go hiking, I always remember how much I love it, and how I should do it more often. RZ was the primary navigator, as he indicates through the traditional stance. All the wildflowers were in bloom, so it was an amazing hike, although very hilly.

Of course, we did visit the outside of Graceland- we're still debating if we're going to pay money to go inside. "Elvis Your Still the Best" on the sidewalk outside- our American school system at work.

Roadtrip!

2006-03-22T22:51:00.000-08:00

So, the weekend plans for the cottage kind of fell through, due to an excessive amount of family involvement- my stepfather's sister and her kids are there, and my stepfather is heading up as well.

However, our alternative plans have been working out really nicely. We're heading for Memphis, TN on a whirlwind roadtrip. We are in Salem, IL. Also, note the action shot of our hotel activities.

Com Ed is a manifestation of Satan-yes I'm sure

2006-03-18T13:09:00.000-08:00

Method #102 for procrastinating on the dissertation: update blog. So, I promised myself I would definitely write my 1000 words today- It's been quite a while since I've actually made my writing goals consistently. So, here I am, waiting for my bath to fill, so I decided to update this blog.

The pic is of S.D. and I at the dying of the river- yes, the river is supposed to be emerald green. It took a while to get that way, though. The pic was taken by Mrs.D, S's mother- great lady, and a survivor of a knitting group brunch.

I've been very busy dealing with the utilities company this week, because they are manifestations of Satan. Sister Mary Jo was right (my CCD teacher, and a dedicated Marxist). As she always said, Satan would manifest through corporations, stomping on worker's rights, and spreading evil throughout the world (the Catholic church- gotta love them for being the first organization to introduce me to protest ideology).

Anyways, our power was shut off Thursday for the non-payment of the bill. No, we were not delibrating not paying- it turns out WE WERE PAYING OUR NEIGHBORS' BILL FOR TEN MONTHS. Com ed has us down as --41 as the address, even though our lease says --39. --39 is the neighbors, who never received a utility bill for any services, so Com Ed shut down our power for non-payment-and weren't going to turn it back on for THREE business days.

To make matters more complicated, my roommate has her major exam to receive her creds yesterday and today, so she's slightly stressed (understatement of the year). She took off for a hotel, and I tried to navigate Satan aka Com Ed on the next day. I spent the night at J & S's-thanks, gals!!!

But, in a lucky break, our next door neighbor is an attorney at one of the big law firms downtown that has just sued Com Ed. He had a list of the statutes that they violated in turning off the power on a day that was colder than freezing. As soon as I mentioned the magic words "attorney" and "Statute # blah blah blah," they came within a half hour and turned back on the power.

Long and short of it, we have paid all of our neighbors' utilities (including gas) for ten months. The gas bill was especially high, since they took no energy saving precautions. We were much more conservative, and turned down the heat when we noticed how high the bill was. The utilities companies are going to back-bill them, and we get credited for all the money we paid into the accounts. Hopefully, we will have a positive balance. Fun has been had by all!

So, that was my saga of the utilities companies and the Great Power Outage of 2006. Bath water has been drawn, so I'm off to take a bath and read a great book that's for the dissertation.

lessons from a (too) long convalescence

2006-03-03T19:28:00.000-08:00

Alright, I admit; I'm a bad, bad blogger. For someone who basically makes a living writing, I must admit that I've been a slacker about updating a voluntary blog. In my own defence, I'm really boring right now. Lying around doing nothing 95% of the day doesn't leave me with much to talk about. The absolutely worst part of it has been that I've only finished one, that's right, one project- a hat for R.

So, some lessons that I've learned during my four weeks of convalescence:
1. Doing nothing has its own inertia. When I'm lying in bed, and I'm too lazy to change the channel from Judge Judy, you know I have a problem...
2. Daytime television is actually addictive. Very addictive. Dr. Phil can be totally fascinating-really.
3. Cats really aren't trying to comfort the sick person by curling up and purring. They're really just bed-hopping kitty whores who love warmth.
4. Laundry and housework falls to the bottom of the list really quickly.
5. Thinking that I'm going to get a lot of work done on the diss and on the web pages...not gonna happen.
6. The kindness of strangers-ain't nothing compared to the kindness of friends, but boy, the cancer card can get you out of paying library fines!

Two weeks post-op

2006-02-16T21:34:00.000-08:00

Two weeks post-op! I'm recovering very nicely; I've even been to stitch n'bitch Tuesday. It's really important to me to start getting back to my normal routine. Even more importantly, I wanted to thank in person all the people who sent me emails, and kept me in their thoughts and prayers.

Tonight, my friend Val ( http://iamvalerie.blogspot.com/ ) and her Aussie friend Rick came over bearing Chinese from Chinatown. Very good, and I head a head model for misslunablu's urban hat. I made it a bit bigger. For a full update on the evening hijinks, including pics of my hat, check out L's blog: http://gardenpurls.blogspot.com/.

chuggin' away

2006-02-13T20:53:00.000-08:00

I've completed about 50% of the kimono sweater!! And I got to try it on today, because the doctors have taken out all of the tubes. It's a good day, all in all.

Doctors...blah

2006-02-13T14:33:00.000-08:00

So, I had post-op checkup number one. Part of the hardest part of the recovery process is accepting that I will have limitations on mobility and on my life for several more weeks to come. My major limitations, the one that I'm going to really struggle with, is the weight. I can't carry more than 10-15 lbs for the next 4 weeks. I had to argue for the extra 5 lbs; my laptop bag weighs 11 with just the laptop, no books. So, after negiotiation, I get 1 laptop, 1 book.

On the positive side, I'm doing really well in terms of healing, so that feels really great.

the thing about crisis

2006-02-10T21:57:00.000-08:00

It's been a little over a week since surgery. I'm really pleased to discover how well I'm actually doing; there's little pain, and mentally I'm beginning to wake up. Tomorrow, I think that I'll start work again. There's no reason I can't have some productive web time for a change.

Emotionally, the nights are still a struggle. I still think a little too much about the choices that I've made, and what I should have done.

There's a note of grace in every day. I have some amazing friends, and they have offered me a level of support that I'm amazed at. For all the choices I've made, I know that I've done something right to have these people in my life.

There's this thing about crisis; it burns fierce and hot and it hurts. I had choices, and they've changed. I've lost a set of possibilities, and I can't help but wish that I didn't. I hope to hell this teaches me something new, that I get grow. I hope I become tempered by this. Most of all, I hope for grace.

First post

2006-02-10T11:50:00.000-08:00

Alright, here's my first post. Yes, eventually, I'll join any bandwagon.