I Almost Forgot to Add a Title

Status, Dog Sweater: complete, except for the fact that I have to actually undo part of the neck and sleeves so it will fit. So … not really. I could lie. She fits in it okay. But it’s not right yet. I blame Audrey. She used to be a pound and a half heavier, which is a lot for a roughly 10-pound dog, and it kinda screwed up my original measurements.  What do you do with an extra 2 inches of width on a dog sweater?  Hard to figure.  In lieu of that, this:

The “Freedom of Information Act” Questionnaire:  (seems a topical name) Periodically I like to mess up the flow of my blog by inserting sudden question-and-answer sessions. I found a good one on the Stitch Bitch blog, interesting because actual bloggers made up the questions. The first 5 are from Doaleigh, who I don’t know, and the second 5 are from Sitch Bitch, who I do know in that internet-ey way. There are rules, below, but no one should feel burdened by participation or close rule-following, because I clearly didn’t follow the rules too precisely.  Like Ms. SB, I will answer the questions I ask.

1. If you want to participate, leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” (And your e-mail address if I don’t already have it, please.)
2. I will respond by e-mailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

DOALEIGH QUESTIONS

1. Would you rather be beautiful but always smell terrible or be ugly but smell lovely? Hm, a choice between ugliness and ugliness. Neither. (I really am not a rule follower.)

2. The old adage says to regret nothing, and that’s probably true. But if you could change something you’ve done, what would it be and why? I consider regret to generally be a self-flagellating exercise in futility best ignored (ranks second to guilt, which I just have no time for), but nevertheless, I’m pretty sure I regret not eating lunch today.

3. What are some of your nicknames? Tell us the stories behind them. I was small and nerdy, so I got appropriate nicknames from that – Little People and Four Eyes. Junior high nicknames relating to being a silly junior high girl. My brother has about 3,000 for me, typically highly inappropriate and nonsensical. I am often called Mouse at new jobs by coworkers who don’t know me  (later they call me stubborn). My uncle calls me Trout, and won’t tell me why, and I’m not convinced he knows anymore either.

4. What is one of your own favorite physical features and why? Also, you should show us a picture (if appropriate). Another pic? No. I like my eyes, which seem to change color sometimes.

5. When was the last time you cried and why? Audrey. See last post.

Bonus question: Who is John Galt? I don’t know who that is. Since AVS mentioned it, I never read Ayn Rand. That wasn’t my brand of quack philosophy.

STITCH BITCH QUESTIONS

1. The local news media shows up on your doorstep. It turns out your neighbor is a serial killer. You cannot say, “He was so quiet. This is such a shock. This kind of thing doesn’t happen here.” What do you say? (You can choose the neighbor.) I would fail to be surprised. I just had a neighbor arrested last year for something disturbing. Serial killers, I suppose, have to live somewhere, and it’s no good stereotyping where I think they ought to live.

2. What’s the greatest invention created in your lifetime? I pick the Macintosh. Perhaps if I did not mine would become angry. Actually, because I have no idea what I would do with myself without my Mac. I am a big nerd.

3. What was your best job? Being a TA. Even though the academia thing didn’t much work out, I enjoyed teaching and grading and the questions from students, and I really liked the professor I worked for.

4. Over the next 18 months, we’re all likely going to have to cut back. Where will you make these cuts? What luxury will fight to save? Will you actually come to blows? I will probably not cut back anywhere. We are already very conservative and overly analytical people, so it really be ridiculous for us to do this more.

5. Are you a good speller? Yes. While there are a few words that trip me up consistently (usually because I truly feel they ought to be spelled differently), mostly I am very precise. I once regularly won spelling bees. I have trophies. With bees on them. Please proceed to find the spelling error in this post, yes, I know it’s here.

I do wonder what I will do if someone asks me to interview them.

The Dog Sweater

While Audrey was seriously ailing, I just could not stop thinking about a sweater I was making for her.

When I’m upset about a given situation, I usually fixate on some object, and can be found weeping brokenheartedly over whatever it is as if the world is ending.  It’s usually not the object itself that’s upsetting, it’s that I’ve picked an object that symbolizes what it is about the situation that’s really bothering me.

Audrey's Unfinished Sweater

In this case, I found myself crying over an unfinished sweater, one I started about a year and a half ago, and have not made much headway on since then. I’d been figuring I could put it off, that I had plenty of time to finish it, because Audrey is just 8.5 years old, and what’s another winter or two when I have so much to do all the time?  And then to find that maybe she’d be gone before I could finish it … So I cried over it and well, I guess it was just my turn to get smacked upside the head by the realization that I don’t actually have all the time in the world.

There I was with this sweater, and I’m thinking that my priorities in life are out of alignment.  If I do not have all the time in the world, it stands to reason that I ought to do what’s important first, and get rid of what I don’t care about. And what’s important to me is the people/animals I care about, my ongoing need to make/create things, and particularly to create things for others, learning and experiencing new things, and my strong sense of personal philosophy and ethics.  These things are really crucial to my well being and happiness.

While I think my life generally reflects those things, I still think I make too many compromises.  I know perfectly well what I think I ought to be doing and why, and since I’m not exactly the type that’s comfortable with compromising, just what do I think am I doing?  It’s not as though I’m going to get this time back that I spend on things that are not near and dear to me, or that aren’t in line with things I believe in.

So I am back working on that sweater, by the way, which will be finished this week, although it’s been a balmy 70 degrees here. It will be ready if it gets cold, and I will feel better knowing I put the time in now, and I made an effort to take care of my pup, because I noticed what she did and didn’t like about sweaters and did something about it.  It might be a small step, but in the right direction at least.  I’m also back working on my birches quilt also, which is why I’ve pulled out pictures of branches here with this post.  Inspiration from nature is always helpful.

Now if I could just get past the fact that I decided to make the sweater with part wool, even though I know perfectly well I’m allergic to it …

Ta daaaaaaa … Sweater!

It just hasn’t been a good month for projects.

Sewing, mending, some things I thought about with cork, even cooking.  At first it was just the pup’s illness, but then I got the flu (which still lingers) and all my good intentions went pfffft - up in smoke!  So last Thursday was an odd day – I was so tired I  just barely managed to heat up Lean Cuisine for supper, a new low. I was supremely lucky to receive on Friday a most appreciated and delicious gift from a friend of saffron-chickpea stew to ward off the continued boxed-food extravaganza.

Oddly, it was also on Thursday that I completed my first garment in any craft: a crocheted sweater.  Woo!  As it happens, I’ve been working steadily on the sweater through these last three weeks.  The repetitive nature of yarn craft is a soothing and meditative exercise when one’s mind is elsewhere and one’s body wants to do nothing but rest.

I’m so pleased with it I’m actually going to show you a picture of me wearing it, which is not normally something I would do.  Is it the perfect sweater? Nah, but who cares? It’s wonderfully symmetrical.  It fits pretty well, really.  It’s certainly a pleasing color. My stitches are remarkably even.  My ends aren’t visible.  What more could I ask, except that I actually attach the wooden button I meant to sew on.  The crocheting went pretty well except for sleeve #1, of which I had had to redo all but 4 rows.  I wasn’t paying very good attention, because I started the sleeves just when Audrey got sick, and so it took a wee bit longer.

This sweater is:  Matinee Swing Jacket , made with Cotton-Ease in lake blue. I suspect the yarn will relax a good deal as it’s washed more times. Right now wearing this feels kind of like wearing a squishy blanket – it’s a comfortable, thick fabric, even though it’s not heavy or really too warm.  The day I wore this it was 75 degrees here, and I was okay. I’m fond of the raglan style, it  was an easy armhole style to start out with .

The stitch for the whole thing was half-double-crochet, which means this sweater is really, really stretchy.  Why do people say crochet fabric isn’t stretchy?  This one stretched about 2-3 inches after I blocked it.  That was interesting, I’ve never really done blocking before. I put it in the washer – fearing greatly it would fall apart in the process – to loosen the yarn.  Then I just sorta stretched it into place while it dried.  I can’t see how blocking it once is ever going to be a permanent shaping solution, I’m guessing this will be a repeated thing.

Hopefully I will be up to getting some more work on my birches quilt done soon, it is my goal to do one little quilt a month this year, so I’d better get to work.