Question 12

12) Crocheting is...
a) tedious
b) time-consuming
c) faster than knitting, but boring as all get out
d) something I used to do much more
e) all of the above

Poor, neglected blog. I'm late again, and I haven't even named my newest 7 dragons yet. Heck, I haven't even entered my new egg into my spreadsheet. This school thing is sure time-consuming. More on that later.

I haven't done much knitting this week, either. Partly school and partly getting my mom ready for her vacation -- she left Friday morning for 16.5 days. Ahhh, the peace. And I get to shut off the cuckoo clock. Shhh, don't tell. ;) Actually, the reason that this didn't go up on Thursday was because I didn't even get to the computer until very, very late, and then I didn't have enough brain power to write coherently. My mom has a truly amazing gift for creating panic when faced with packing. You'd never think that she's been taking at least one major vacation a year for the past 50+ years. The reason it wasn't posted on Friday is because I slept most of the day, recovering from Thursday. I have no excuse for Saturday.

Sorry, I wandered a bit there, didn't I? I was talking about knitting. I think that part of my problem at this point may be that I don't really like to knit sleeves. I currently have 3 sweaters-in-progress that are at the sleeves stage. I have another one that's approaching the sleeves. I think I may not like them because I have to pay attention and count rows, and I'm not too fond of doing that. Or maybe it's that sleeves come in pairs. Then again, so do socks, and I can whip those out when using worsted weight yarn, and the sleeves are all in worsted weight or thicker, so I'm not sure that holds water. At any rate, I present Potato Chip Sock number 7a. This is made with the yarn I got from Warm Woolies, held triple. It looks huge because it is -- the foot is 11 inches. This will be for their 10 for 10 campaign, and those socks have to have a foot length of at least 10 inches. I erred on the side of caution.




So, school. It started last Monday. I've got 2 classes that meet twice a week, and one that's online. As some of you may know, I still haven't met the professor for my evening class -- he was on vacation this week. The first week of the school year. Without leaving any information for his substitute beyond the syllabus and the fact that we were to cover Chapter 1 and part of Chapter 2 (but not how much of it). An interesting approach to teaching. It's really funny, because 90% of our grade is based on 2 tests (midterm and final), so the syllabus reads like he's a bit of a hardass. And then he, he ditches the first two classes. I am puzzled. And sort of looking forward to meeting him, even though I suspect he'll greet us with a quiz, particularly since most people probably aren't expecting it. (There was a phrase in the syllabus that made me think this.)

The other class is Intro to HIT (Health Information Technology). It's interesting because it's a class that's specifically and only for HIT students. It may become interesting in a broader sense after we get through the first couple of chapters. I'm working hard to learn everyone's names, since I'll be working with these women for the next 2 years. This is a little difficult since I sit in the back row, and therefore may not recognize them if we meet face to face. It's coming along though.

I ... um ... haven't done much of anything with my online class yet. Oops. (Although the first assignment isn't due until 9/14, and the first week of classes isn't over yet. By several hours.)

Answer to Question 12: All of the above. My mom and sister tried to argue that crocheting can't be both time-consuming and faster than knitting, but that's just because neither of them can do either. Besides, the question never says that knitting isn't also time-consuming. At any rate, since I learned how to crochet years (decades) before I learned how to knit, it is indeed something that I used to do more. However, I do find it tedious. It may be faster than knitting, but it surely doesn't feel like it. Then again, I haven't knitted as many baby blankets and afghans as I've crocheted, so perhaps if I do that, I'll find knitting tedious as well.

But that's just a very good reason not to cast-on for any kind of blanket.

These questions are coming from my 'How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?' quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, 40% among my sister's friends, 41% for my mother, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.

More Dispiriting Scores

I forgot to post the explanation for the questions with my last post. So here:

"These questions are coming from my 'How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?' quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better."

Normally, I would figure that wasn't important enough to mention. However, I've got 2 new scores to add. My mother (who isn't on Facebook and doesn't read -- or even know about -- my blog scored 41%. (This is because I didn't ask her a couple of the questions, like I did with my sister.) My Sister's Friend, Julie, got a 40%. Yes, that's right. My sister's friend scored better than any of my friends. (She also doesn't know about my blog, and she's new to Facebook.)

Question 11

11) Who is my favorite fictional character?
(NOTE: published fictional character)
a) Mary Russell
b) Dag Redwing (later Dag Bluefield)
c) Ivan Vorpatril
d) Ista dy Chalion
e) Miles Naismith Vorkosigan

Good heavens, is it Thursday already? How did that happen? I have no knitting photos (again) because I've hardly knit at all this past week. I'm not entirely sure why, but I'm leaning towards blaming the cuckoo clock. I've been very, very tired since we got it hung up. It's closer than I'd like to my bed (then again, everywhere in the house is closer than I'd like the cuckoo clock to be), and I think that it's twice-hourly festival of noise may be disturbing my sleep. It doesn't wake me up entirely, but I think it might partially. Perhaps I'll get used to it.

I do have a bit of knit-related content, if anyone's interested. I've been subscribing to Interweave Knits for about a year-and-a-half now -- since shortly after I began knitting so much. Several knitbloggers recommended it, and I enjoyed the free trial issue enough to subscribe. The articles are interesting and informative. There's almost always a pattern that I want to make. I even like the ads. I usually flip through it quickly and then spend 3 or 4 weeks reading it at a far more leisurely pace. Basically, if you're new to knitting magazines, give this one a try. (If you're not new, you probably already get it.)

In contrast, I received my trial issue of another knitting magazine today (which I'm not naming because I didn't like it at all). I found the articles frustrating, for reasons ranging from bad grammar/vocabulary to insulting and patronizing tone to sheer idiocy of the author. As far as I could tell, their yarn feature's theme was "pink," which is a nice enough color, but not really enough to connect 20 very disparate yarns. A couple of the patterns were nice, in a "That's pretty, but I don't know anyone who'd wear it" kind of way. A couple of them were just insane. I don't know people who'd be caught dead in the same room as those items, much less wear them. For example, there's a "capelet" that's made out of 1 strand of heavy worsted held together with 1 strand of yarn that I'll call super bulky only because I don't know of a thicker category. The recommended gauge is 1 stitch or 1 row = 1 inch. The pattern uses size US50 needles. Those have a diameter of 25 mm! (For comparison's sake, a reasonably thick wool sweater would be about 5-6 stitches or 6-7 rows to the inch, on US7 needles, which are 4.5 mm in diameter.) And this capelet is photographed with a "little black dress" type of outfit, hairdo, etc. It reminded me of nothing so much as a show poodle, like this. *shudder* Although I think the poodle pulls it off better.

I had to laugh a bit at how uniformly horrible it was. I did get 1 useful piece of information out of it though. You see, Interweave Knits had an ad for a company that does craft cruises, with classes in knitting, crochet, mixed media, and other crafts available on the "at sea" days of mainstream cruises. I was looking at their website, checking out the knitting cruises in a "if I win the lottery in the next 6 months" kind of way, and I liked the look of 2 of the cruises. However, the instructor for one of those cruises wrote an article in the second magazine. Having read it, there's no way I'd take a class with her as the instructor, much less a cruise-worth of them. So if I win the lottery in the next 6 months, I'm definitely signing up for the cruise to Bermuda. Heck with the one to Canada & New England.

(If anyone's really interested in the bad magazine, leave a comment and I'll contact you with the name of it.)

Answer to Question 11: Mary Russell. She's the wife and partner of Sherlock Holmes in the books by Laurie R. King. Yes, his wife. And she reads Theology at Oxford. It's a very interesting series.

The rest of the characters are by Lois McMaster Bujold. (You remember her, right? The answer to my favorite author?) Miles Naismith Vorkosigan is the protagonist of most of her Vorkosigan saga/series. Ivan Vorpatril is his cousin. Ista dy Chalion appears in The Curse of Chalion and is the protagonist of Paladin of Souls. Dag Redwing/Bluefield is the male protagonist of the Sharing Knife series. (He takes his wife's last name when they marry, as is the custom among his people.)

Question 10

What is the very first thing I would do if I suddenly won millions?
a) Make a will
b) Pay off all my bills
c) Buy my own place
d) Seek medical treatment I currently can't afford
e) Hire a personal assistant

I have no knitting photos for filler this week. I did finish Clue 1 of the WW MKAL1 Sweater, but it looks very much like the photo from last week, except that it's now 12 inches long instead of 8 or 9. I have also added some length to the Potato Chip Sock. You'll get a photo of that when there's a pair, since that shouldn't take too long. (Note: shouldn't, not won't)

I don't think I've told you yet that I started my scarf for the OFA's Red Scarf Project. (Red Scarf Fund donations can be made here.) I'm making a variation of the DNA scarf this year, but it's not long enough yet to show well in a photo. Plus I'm using a dark yarn, and I'll need daylight to get it properly photographed.

And that's it for knitting news this week. I've barely done anything, because of an amazingly wonderful gift that a friend sent me on Sunday. I don't know if I'm supposed to talk about it, so I won't, but it's ZOMG SO BLOODY SHINY!!!!!!!1!!111!!ONE!!

*ahem* Not that I'm ridiculously excited about it or anything. I don't know how you got that impression.

Just in case anyone really was holding their breath for it, here's a bit about my Taco Bell Epiphany mentioned a couple of weeks ago. As most of you probably know, I had pneumonia pretty badly in early 2007. While I have recovered, I still have not achieved the level of general health that I had before getting sick. This is ... not always on my mind, but it's never very far from my thoughts. I'm not sure if this is morbid preoccupation associated with depression/dysthymia, or if it's a semi-normal part of getting used to life with a chronic ... medical condition. (I mean, it's not exactly a chronic illness. I dunno. Apparently I'm less good with words than I thought I was.)

Anyway, it suddenly occurred to me (and I have no idea what about driving to Taco Bell triggered this) that breathing problems are not exactly new to me. Yes, they're worse now, but they're not new. I mean, if I think back objectively, I was orthopnic when I was in 3rd grade, for heaven's sake! Granted, I didn't know what orthopnic meant back then, and no one (parents or doctor) told me that it's Not A Good Thing, but I couldn't sleep when lying flat. I had a wedge-shaped pillow that kept me closer to sitting upright than your average bedrest pillow would nowadays. (Those weren't as common back in the ancient times of my childhood.) And it wasn't just when I was in 3rd grade, but that's the earliest year that I'm absolutely certain I was using that pillow. I was hospitalized with some sort of lung problem when I was about 18 months old. Maybe I wasn't a lazy child, I just didn't like to run (literally run) as much as my friends did because of that whole breathing thing, and the trouble I had with it.

Maybe I started out as a healthy baby, but every time I got majorly sick, I just didn't bounce back to quite where I'd started from. So I was a healthy baby, was hospitalized, and then was a mostly healthy kid. Except for the wheezing and the orthopnea, which I was told were allergies (except that I was supposedly only allergic to mold and the problems lasted all year long). Then in 6th grade I had mono and was out of school for around a month, maybe a little longer. Sports got harder after that. I got really sick when I was away at college, in February. And I failed all my classes for the Spring semester because I had trouble walking all the way across the (really not that huge or anything) campus, even after I was better. And then the next big one was the pneumonia in 2007.

Maybe I didn't fuck everything up somehow. Maybe I'm just sick. Oh.

Answer to Question 10: Make a will. I'd probably do most of those things, but the will would be first, because it's all well and good for money to go to the nearest relatives and all that, but if I've actually got enough money to shake a stick at, there are other people and places to which I want it to go, as well. Then I'd pay off my bills, hire a personal assistant, buy my own place, and maybe get around to seeking medical treatment. (Note: This quiz was written before the Taco Bell Epiphany, so that wasn't really taken into account when I figured out the answers. Having had the TBE, the medical treatment would definitely be sought, perhaps even before I got my own place. Definitely after the personal assistant though.)


(These questions are coming from my "How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?" quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.)

Question 9

9) What is my favorite season?
a) Spring
b) Summer
c) Fall
d) Winter
e) Doesn't really matter to me.

I know, I know, I'm late this week. In my defense, I was hardly able to touch my computer on Thursday and Friday *twitch* since my mom had commandeered it for an online renewal course for her chemo certification. *twitch* I'm still suffering some withdrawal symptoms, even though I've got it back today. *twitchtwitch*

My sweater progress also suffered from this separation, as the patterns are all stored on my beloved computer, (my printer having long since given up). Normally it's easier to deal with the patterns on the screen anyway, but it does have its downside. I have finished one sleeve on the WW MKAL2 sweater (the aqua one). One more sleeve and some seaming, and it will be finished. I haven't worked on the WW MKAL3 sweater (red) at all this week, but I haven't posted a picture of it at this stage yet, so it's in the group shot, as well. I'm up to the sleeves clue on that one, as well. The dark green is the WW MKAL1 sweater, never before seen on the blog in this incarnation (yarn). I'm still working on Clue 1 for that one. The purple bit is the start of another pair of Potato Chip Socks, in a larger size this time. I'm using 3 strands of wool because it's the free wool that Warm Woolies will send (if you meet their Yarn for Volunteers requirements), and these skeins are somewhere between sport and worsted weight. (Meaning that one measuring system tells me it's sport and another says worsted.) Three strands seems to be the same approximate thickness as all the other PCSocks that I did with the recommended 2 strands of worsted, so they should be okay.


Answer to Question 9: Spring. Summer is right out -- all that heat and humidity. Blech. Winter can be lovely (I even enjoy the "character builder" days ... as long as there aren't too many in a row), but snow does make things more difficult, so it's not my favorite either.

Spring and Fall both have the transitional weather that I like (temperatures, amount and type of precipitation). For a long time, I used to say that Fall was my favorite, because the coming of Fall meant relief from Summer and its yuckiness. However, for the past several years, I've been enjoying Spring more, even with Summer looming at the end of it. Part of it is that, as my mobility issues have increased, getting around in the winter is more and more difficult. Fall provides relief from Summer, but Spring now provides relief from Winter. Spring has looming Summer; Fall has looming Winter. The more trouble I have in the Winter, the happier Spring makes me -- and this past year in particular gave me a troublesome Winter.

Fall has also lost ground as I've come to violently dislike the Fall and Winter holidays. I was never much of a fan of Thanksgiving. I no longer like Christmas at all. And Halloween has all those kids. *shudder* (I live with 2 cats. I have a cane. I'm practicing my yells of "You young whippersnappers." Soon I'll be a card-carrying member of the Old Fogey Association. I'm sure they'll be happy to waive the age requirement.) True, Spring has Easter (of which I am also, shockingly, not a fan), but at least that holiday has the decency to appear on its own, not as part of a gang.

So, Spring it is.

(These questions are coming from my "How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?" quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.)