Knit and the City

Four days in the 'burbs, much retail therapy, and 2 lbs later, I'm back in the city, and once again, hooked up with high speed internet. My father insists on clinging to his dial-up - why do I need it to be any faster? he says. And, I guess if you're retired, and you have all day to wait for one measly page to load up, I guess you're right - why do you need it to go any faster? But, old fast and wrong over here can't bear it, so no broken heart this time to account for the gap between posts - just technical difficulties.

So, here is my latest fast and wrong - my niece's cardigan. I started a cardigan for my niece over the summer. I'm one sleeve away from finishing it. But, it's cotton - blech. And, then the seams have to be sewn - blech. And then, a ruffle needs to be picked up around the whole thing - blech. So, I decided to do a simple top down cardigan with my gifted Debbie Bliss bubble gum pink yarn. I pulled Barbara Walker off the shelf, and my eyes glazed over as I thought about the math. There must be a pattern - someone must have already done this work for me - so off I went, and I found an Ann Nordling top down cardigan, sized for gauges running the gammut of 3.5/inch to 5.5/inch. But, the cardigans were a bit blah - no pizazz. So, instead of putting a floppy collar, I put a ruffle (hmmmm - sounds suspiciously like the cardigan I'm one sleeve away from finishing).
Then, I decided to do an edging from Nicky Epsteins' On the Edge Book. Hmmm. . . looks like that has to be sewn on . . . sounds like that cardigan that is one sleeve away from completion.


So, I still have 2 sleeves to knit (hmmmm . . . 2 sleeves, one sleeve - you do the math) (not to mention the fact that those armholes look a tad bit big . . .), an edging to finish and sew, and a button band to pick up. What was I thinking???? And, I don't really like the edging for this cardigan - it's not really childlike - and, uch, I think I might ruffle all around - JUST LIKE THE CARDIGAN THAT'S 90% DONE ALREADY.

Sigh. Needless to say, I've put it dowm for a bit (hmmm . . . just like the other cardigan), and I've been working on Geyl. Geyl is growing like baby elephant. You can't tell from the picture (which looks much like the picture I already posted), but there's a gazillion stitches on the needle, and from the caston edge to wear I am now is about 18 inches. The pattern calls for 9 skeins of Koigu. I'm only through the third ball. I feel like I'm knitting a bedspread. But, its Koigu, and its pretty, and we'll see how it goes.

So, I'm off to Key West on Wednesday. I'm going to a Continuing Legal Education conference sponsored by NORML, the group that advocates the legalization of marijuana (no, our office doesn't pay for this -- they send us a grant). I heard there are interesting party favors on the table. Too bad I don't smoke. On one hand, it will be nice to get out of Dodge, but on the other hand, I'm not sure if I'm in the right place to be alone in party town. I've really been ok. I did turn my phone off for the majority of the break - it's not that I'm avoiding a phone call, because that's not happening - but I'm so used to the phone ringing like clockwork at certain times - in the morning on his way to work, lunch, mid afternoon, the end of his shift, even if it was at 2:00 a.m. - I'm like Pavlov's dog - it's not that I want it to ring, I'm just trained to hear it.

I reactivated my jdate account, and I got this IM from some 30 year old kid last night. He asked me why it's hard to meet men. Instead of replying, it's not hard to meet men, it's hard to meet men who aren't jackasses, I said, well, I work at a jail, yadda yadda. I meet cops and robbers and it's sometimes hard to tell the difference, yadda yadda . . . and then this kid had the nerve to start asking "have you given up hope?" I said, I don't know what what you're talking about - "well, you can't give up hope of meeting someone . . ." and he went on, and I stopped him, "look little buddy, did I say I was unhappy or hopeless? and I don't need a pep talk, capice?" "Um ok," he said, and quickly closed his window. Maybe I do need to go to Key West and take up a new hobby . . .