Friday Gauge Check: Embracing Change

Friday means it’s time for our Friday rituals, the ceremonies of escorting one week out and preparing the next one. Which, around here, is the Gauge Check, where I take a look at my week and figure out where I’ve come from and where I’m going. Sometimes there are goals, sometimes I just talk about what’s going on in my life and my crafting. You are all welcome to join in in the comments.

I pulled into the parking lot five minutes early, content to sit and wait, putting in a few rows on my vanilla sock.  I’d spent the past few hours running errands, first to Jo-Ann’s to pick up some sewing notions and a little bit of fabric, then to New Seasons to buy ingredients for risotto, so it was nice to sit and relax for a few minutes.  The Kiggins was showing The Neverending Story at 6:15, which would give us plenty of time to get from the campus back to downtown.

He opened the door and got into the car with a sigh.  “It’s so nice to have a job I don’t hate.”

I smiled, finishing the row and tucking my sock away.  “I’m so glad you like it.”

True story, guys.  From today, even.

Jack got the job he was interviewing for!  They called on Monday to make the offer, and he started Wednesday.  He likes his co-workers, and he has only good things to say about the company.

I, on the other hand, got one of those “we decided to go with another candidate” emails – but if I had to pick one of us to land the job, it would’ve been him.  Not that I wasn’t heartily disappointed, but… well, there were some definite drawbacks to the job that I was trying to big-picture out of the way, so it’s probably for the best that I didn’t get it.

This week also brought the delivery of my Christmas present from Jack, which I am inordinately pleased by.

Now, I will preface this by saying (for those of you who have not met me in person) that I am a huge Hello Kitty fan.  I have a truly ridiculous collection of Hello Kitty paraphernalia, all of which I get regular use out of.  My favorite purse of the moment is a Hello Kitty variant of a Louis Vuitton pattern, and nearly all of my various knitting bags have Hello Kitty on them.  I’m not above buying T-shirts out of the little girls’ clothing section and accessories at Claire’s.  (While I’m a curvy girl, I have tiny hands and wrists – small enough to wear kids’ gloves, watches, and bracelets.)  Don’t judge; my love is pure.

So while I loved Bettina while she lived with me, and I’d been looking at older sewing machines at thrift stores since I got here, I really had my heart set on one specific machine.  It helped that it was a known maker of quality sewing machines, and it came recommended highly by someone whose blog I read and whose opinions about sewing I respect, but really?

It had me at Hello.

Isn’t it adorable?  I can’t wait to get started sewing.

As I mentioned earlier, I went to Jo-Ann’s and picked up a good pair of sewing scissors, a little bit of fabric, and miscellaneous notions.  I have a first project in mind; Jack’s e-reader really needs a cover, and he prefers the type that holds the reader in place, rather than the envelope-style ones generally found in knitting circles.

My crafting report will likely have a sewing segment starting next week, and I will happily report back my adventures in learning to sew.

I managed a few more rounds on the Spillyjane Mitts, several inches on the vanilla sock – I’m almost done with that, I think – and four or five pattern repeats on the Sneaky Mountain Shawl.  I’ve made enough progress on it that I’m thinking about breaking out a longer cable to see how big it’s actually getting, not scrunched up on the needles.  I have to say, though, that lace really does look terrible before it’s blocked, and I have to keep reminding myself that it will magically turn beautiful when I’m done with it.  That said, I did have the “Oh!” moment with it the other day, when I looked at the lace and actually saw the feather-and-fan pattern.

Does anybody else have that moment?  When you’re looking at the thing you’ve been working on for however long, and suddenly it looks like the object you’re making?  Generally with socks it’s when I finish the heel turn, and suddenly it looks like a sock!  It’s like magic.  I had that with Sneaky Mountain – mostly it looks like garbage, but there were a few minutes where I could see a feather in the pattern, and a fan, and I had a momentary burst of hope that I was actually creating a lace shawl that would be a thing to be proud of.

I’m still obsessed with hats, though I haven’t actually cast any on.  It’s a case of pre-startitis, maybe; I want to make a hat, but I haven’t found the hat I want to make.  Any recommendations?

Here’s another “Does anybody else do this?”  I was at the thrift store on Thursday, looking for another sweater.  (I decided that the circular needles I was using for my sweater swatch wouldn’t work for an actual sweater, as they have a tendency to pop off the cables, and I can’t imagine them holding up under the weight of an entire cardigan.  So now I need to pick up some more Harmony needle tips in an appropriate size, and I didn’t get down to Happy Knits.  Thus, sweater knitting progress for this week is exactly nil.)  What ended up coming home with me was a slate-blue fingering-weight cashmere pullover with a matching scarf, in part because right now the odds of making myself a fingering-weight cashmere sweater are between slim and none.  While I was there, though, I found a lovely cabled hoodie (akin to the Central Park hoodie) and an open-front cardigan, cousin to the Februrary Lady Sweater in construction, if not in execution.  Now, I’ve been thinking about knitting the Central Park hoodie, or something akin to it, so I looked at this as an opportunity to see what it would look like on me without having to do all the work first.  Good news: it looked fantastic.  So fantastic I almost bought it, except that it was a) 100% acrylic and b) poison green.  Also it fit in the bust but it was weirdly baggy in the underarms, which some good shaping will take care of when I knit it myself.  Central Park is definitely staying in my queue.

The February Lady Sweater, on the other hand, was one that I thought wouldn’t suit my figure at all.  I’m actually glad I tried it on, because I think if it were made so it fit correctly (this version was a little small) it would look good.  While I’m not planning to knit the adult-size Lady Sweater, I do think the Wildflower Cardigan from Coastal Knits is truly lovely, and it’s in the same style.

That’s been my week, for the most part.  I have some more stuff that I’m still processing right now, but I’ll likely talk about it next week, when it’s been processed a little further.  It’s sort of in a stage where I don’t want to say it out loud before it happens and it’s too late to take back.

How’s your week been?  Check your gauge, or tell me about your favorite kind of hat, in the comments.

~ by Amber on January 13, 2012.