While I fumble around for some pics of my [not so] recent knitting, let me fill you in on some goodies and gossip.
First up, the lovely friends who came over to help with the garden/sit and watch other people work in the garden have announced their engagement π This will be no surprise at this time to our friends, but I feel something celebratory is necessary on here to cheer them on. Sue phoned last night to let us know, and opened the conversation by saying very loudly and cheerfully ‘Hello! I’m sitting here drinking pink champagne!’. Given the timing of her call (a bit after 9pm) my first thought was ‘how much has she drunk? She must have been on it a while given her jovial tone…’. THEN I asked her why π Good job I did! There have already been jokes about me knitting her a lace veil for the day, but given my current lace knitting standards, I suspect she will need to make sure it isn’t scheduled for at least 5 years…
Second of all, I’ve spent a lot of time studying this week, and I’m now officially using the usual distraction and procrastination techniques. I’ve read lots of studies, including work on the disintermediation of the librarian (a fancy way of saying that people don’t ask librarians about stuff as much as they used to) and the advance of the millenials and how they know more about using technology than the people teaching them do. I now have to integrate them into my work, which is the boring bit. I hate revising and adding to what I’ve done, mainly because I tend to switch off after I’ve finished in my head. I’ve also dyed my hair a violet black. And nearly dripped dye all over the place (hint to other people – if you are going to dye your hair, try not to use Feria – it is nasty stuff). I used to dye it all the time, but once I noticed that I was getting a couple of greys (I still think I’m too young for that, but as another friend reminds me, she was grey at 17) and decided I’d age gracefully. Then when I got my hair chopped, I was inspired to dye it again, but held back with the age thing in mind. But I realised something. Youth is for enjoying, and as I don’t have any additional hairs, hair is officially for dyeing too.
Here is a bonus lesson for the day. Studio Ghibli are ace. Princess Mononoke is ace too. But it is not as ace in the dubbed version as it is in Japanese. It isn’t dubbed badly, but it loses far too much of the original Japanese culture in translation. Neil Gaiman couldn’t have done it much better than he did though, bless him. He was a gooooood choice. Also, I have a Sunshine Buddy on my desk at work that was purchased purely on the basis that it looks almost exactly like a wood sprite from the film, even the same colour π All I need is for him to make that rattling sound.
Finally, just one last little tidbit before I give you some eyecandy (but don’t get too excited). The library geek in me just loved the Improbable Research column in the Guardian about ‘The definite article on the definite article’. Yup, someone worked very hard writing about how to index ‘the’ and how to decide where it fits, and what did they conclude? The obvious – use the guidelines and your own discretion. How did any librarian manage before this study?! Strangely I had a discussion with one of the guys I was supervising in the RFID conversion about this – he asked why Godfather 3 had a dewey suffix of GOD, but The Godfather was under THE. Simply, it is quite obvious if you think about it – how many people use THE Godfather 3 rather than Godfather 3? And isn’t The Godfather THE Godfather? So if an A-level student and I can manage to work that out, how come it took the researcher 4 pages of discussion and probably lots of funding to decide that? Basically, because there is a need to discuss openly, because otherwise how could someone work out how to index an album by The The? She has her reasons I’m sure for writing it, but what she wrote is why people go to library school and learn indexing and classification and stuff. Do you see? π
Ok, so as a gift for good behaviour and getting to this part of the entry, if you aren’t pulling your eyes out or crying in boredom, here is something to look at.
First up, the crochet thing. Apparently it does get easier as you go along π
It is almost done. I have lots of joining and weaving in to do before I dare check it for length again, but yay! It might even be finished on time!
Next up a little gifty for a little girl in Poland called Agata. She’s a relation of DB’s brother’s girlfriend, and apparently loves knitted toys, particularly in pink. Let’s hope she likes this, and doesn’t mind the fact that I ran out of pink yarn and had to double what was left with white (or face two different coloured ears. Did I make the right choice?). The pattern is in Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Thanks to needle felting on the face, it just took the time the book promised π I love her. I doubt I’ll make one for myself, but there is something very cute about her little legs and arms! I took care not to overstuff her – I figured she might need bendy limbs, but she is still soft and squishy and lovely to cuddle.
And a close up of her sleepy smiley face.
π
In other knitting news, I bought and started Wendy’s Sizzle pattern. All was going beautifully till I had almost finished the back, and realised it was too big π I got slack while knitting, and couldn’t tell how big the finished thing would be till I’d finished the bust increases. So now Sizzle is sozzled and in a yarny pile in a bag waiting till I decide whether to reswatch with new needles, go down a size, or both.
In the meantime, I’ve started something else instead π I thought it might be a nice treat to work on when I’ve been at work and then had to study. I’m finally knitting up the luscious Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK for the Knitting Pure and Simple cardi 241 – a top down raglan with a v neck, shaping and moss stitch borders. And it has my favourite part – some very tasty wide cuffs. I’m hoping to keep the sleeves quite long too, to make a sleek soft, gently draping garment. And I need to learn bell sleeves anyway, cos they are good.