Holy Toledo, we actually got trick or treaters! That didn't happen once in all our time in Madison. At least we had some candy. Phew.

Here's some visual candy for you, knit-or-treater.



(I know. A mirror shot? I never do mirror shots. But take into consideration that I didn't even have a mirror until 3 months ago, and forgive me.)

Tell me the truth, now. The Fair Isle star things across the chestular region, which unfortunately coincide with the row of white. Is that A Thing? A Thing That Is Awful? They line up pretty close, to be honest, and this wasn't clear to me until everything was sewn and blocked and buttoned into place. On one hand, it's too late to change anything. On the other hand, if this is a "no way this must go now" thing, then this will be a gloriously cozy bang-around-the-house sweater, and not so much a wear-to-work sweater.

I'm unfashionable, so this is the closest I get to a Fashion Quandry: Bewb Star Sweater? Or just a regular sweater?

(J says he likes it, but he's the person least likely to object to a Bewb Star Sweater.)

The Fair Isle Sweater. Dear lord, that sweater. The. Fair. Isle. Sweater. Which I hadn't touched in about 5 months. Which I started--when?--Oh, there, I found it, over two and a half years ago.

That one. I picked it back up last weekend.

The knitting's all done.

The ends are all woven in.

Is this a sign of the Zombie Apocalypse? Probably not, as I still haven't washed, blocked, and button-sewed. But I am very happy, and looking forward to taking pictures.

Suddenly, my yarn box is looking a little peaked. Hmm.

Hey, look! It's a thing I finished a long time ago and didn't have time to take a picture of because of the constant costume sewing.



These are the socks that started out as the Biscotti yarn. The yarn itself is a handspun fingering weight 3-ply superwash wool/tencel blend. I knitted the socks toe-up on size 0 needles, and for some reason was in the mood to do Magic Loop rather than the usual dpn's.

The pattern was my usual toe-up gussetted-heel Frankenstein. Every 20 or so rows a new pair of ribs were added in, just to do something a little different that wouldn't get in the way of the yarn. I was worried at first that this would look like my foot was giving people the finger, but now I think it looks a bit like an Art Deco skyscraper. It's such an easy thing, and so nice looking, that I'll probably do it again.

I knew when I was plying the yarn that the plies at the very beginning and end of the skein were less uniform in color than in the middle of the skein. I was hoping for the stronger color transitions to be more visible, so I knit the first sock from one end of the skein and the second sock from the other. This worked fairly well--the colors are definitely crisper up on the ankle, though you can't see that so well in this picture.

One thing I was fairly surprised by was how different the two socks were in color. I knew that there was much more of the reddish color in the second half than the first (the second half is the right-hand sock), but I hadn't realized how much darker that part of the yarn was. They really don't match at all--not only is the second half darker, but it's much less yellow in tone. Still lovely, just different. If I did this again I might either unroll the whole ball of fiber to see how consistent the color changes are across the whole length, or else spend a bit of time planning at the beginning, and break up the fiber into a few sections as needed to keep the color progression similar for both halves of the fiber.

The socks themselves are fantastic; one of my knitting friends commented that they felt a bit stiff when I was working on them, but in the wash they softened beautifully. They're very comfortable on, and they're a good length, color, and style for me--keeping my feet warm waiting for the bus in the winter, and then being comfortable enough to be on my feet in the lab. I'm a little disappointed with how differently they came out, but since I'm happy with every other aspect of their making, that feels pretty trivial for something that will be hiding under my shoes and pants most of the day. I might up the plying twist a teensy bit in the future, as there were one or two sections that felt a little loose. But overall, great, and worth the trouble.

This is just to say
that I ate the second donut
that I bought for you at Wegman's
and which you probably would have eaten while watching anime

Forgive me
I dropped the first one in the parking lot at the doctor's office
after a 12 hour fast for bloodwork.
My blood sugar was so low, and my hands were so cold.

(On second reading, I thought I ought to clarify: I'm in good health. The blood test was just for the yearly checkup, to make sure my always-borderline cholesterol was okay.)

So, the NYS Sheep and Wool roundup:

First, the perfect time of year to be in the Hudson Valley. They're about 2 weeks behind us on foliage, so while most of the trees here look a little careworn, up there everything is in full Glorious Fall mode.

Second, if you want to go someday and have the slightest discomfort with crowds, don't go on Saturday. I have no phobia about crowds and was feeling so packed-in that I didn't even buy anything the first day. I was told about hour-long waits for Socks that Rock yarn in the early afternoon (Madam bought some with no wait at all around 4:30, so the run was short-lived). 45 minute waits for baked goods. 40 minute waits for some sort of fried artichoke thing. Cray. Zay. Sunday was busy, but much less intense.

Third, I saw a fair number of famous knitting people just wandering around not doing book signings or anything. Ann and Kay. Helloyarn. AmyBoogie. The Yarn Harlot. Jess and Casey. A woman I saw an article about in Spin Off. A bunch of familiar-looking people that I couldn't quite place.

As Madam and I spent a lot of time whispering "Hey, isn't that the person who designed [x]?" back and forth, I realized I'd been having the same conversations with J last weekend at Sitacon. Is that a Loli Orochimaru? Hey, look, Moondoggie! That girl's costume looks familiar, oh YEAH she's from old-school Mortal Kombat.

Same conversation, same incomprehensibility to any outsider. I wonder if these people enjoy being famous for 2 days a year.

Fourth, hooray for hanging out with Spider again! I'd met up with her in Boston for what seemed a very short time, so it was fun to hang out some more.

Fifth, purchases. I'd mentioned last week what my plans and goals were. Cotton, sock fiber, interesting things I hadn't worked with before. I found a lovely booth that had TONS of naturally colored organic cotton, exactly what I was looking for. So, so soft and nice. I didn't end up with a charkha but I did get this wonderful support spindle:

An acorn! How clever! Because the tip of the acorn that sits in the bowl has such a small area, and because both pieces are ceramic, it spins forever and ever. Spinning the cotton is super-easy, I'm really loving it.

I saw a surprising dearth of sock fibers (all the superwash had been made into sock yarn already apparently), and a total lack of any handdyed fiber that wasn't a wool blend. So the cotton's the only fiber I bought.

The interesting and totally unplanned thing I did get was a small Ashford inkle loom. Inkle weaving is a technique that makes a flat sturdy band. It's something I've looked at before, thinking it would make a nice sturdy-yet-decorative edging, and would be an entertaining way of learning some weaving techniques without plopping a few thousand dollars on a "serious" loom. So I got a teensy little inkle loom and a book.

I've played around with it a little bit, and it's a total blast. I strung it up with some fiber leftovers and am getting a good sense of how it works. It's pretty quick, even doing a pattern. There's a sweater I started over the weekend that I'd like to weave an edging for, but I'm going to have to put some thought into how to incorporate it in a cohesive way with the rest of the pattern.

Sixth, running the numbers.

Clapotises: 26 (7 of them shop samples, and there were surely more. Every hour or two I remembered I was keeping track, looked around me, ticked off 3 or 4 more, and went back to what I was doing.)
Calorimetry/Panta headband type things: 8
We Call Them Pirates Hats: 2

Seventh, I convert people to the evil ways of spinning. Madam left around 2 on Sunday, and my bus back to Ithaca wasn't scheduled to leave until 4. I wandered a bit with my luggage, but that got old real quick, so I found a sunny bench, plopped everything down, and pulled out my spindle (just my cheapy Ashford. Should have brought something pretty like Jim's.) Now, there were piles of raw fiber in every building. Spindles, wheels, people demonstrating and trying things out everywhere. I figured ahh. Finally, a place to just spin and not get looked at, because I'll be so normal.

Not the case at all. Maybe because I wasn't selling anything, but people were coming up to me all over the place, pointing me out to their kids, staring, the whole deal. I wasn't even spinning anything fancy, just some wool I'll 3-ply later. There were a bunch of non-fibery gentlemen waiting outside for their ladyfriends to finish, and they were particularly interested. It had been a long weekend and I was pooped, so hopefully my responses weren't too antisocial. Then one of my local friends wandered by with like 5 pounds of fiber, and we caught up on the way back to the bus. The ride home was more entertaining than a bus ride has any right to be. Met a bunch of people, saw some neat projects. I still haven't caught up on sleep but that'll happen soon.

*flop*

NYS Sheep and Wool was wonderful. I have millions of things to talk about (note to self: Biscotti Socks, Talho costume, new spindle, inkle loom, Huntington Castle Pullover, various lunches), but first I have a new craft to obsess over for a few days, and some unwinding to do from a whirlwind few weeks.

Aaaanndd, from one geekdom to another: Rhinebeck's this weekend! Whoohoo! Madam is coming all the way from Wisconsin for a fiber and NYC festival of fun.

"I should make some kind of shopping list," says she, and I've been thinking the same thing. I've got some goals and plans.

Goal #1: Spin some cotton. I haven't at all yet, and I feel like it's a big gap in my knowledge. So I'll be looking for a takli (cotton-spinning spindle), and/or a charka (cotton-spinning wheel thing), or at the very least some prepared cotton fiber. I know, I know. "Sheep and Wool festival". Maybe not the best place to succeed in this goal. but I will try, and ask around.

Goal #2: Spin some more for socks. Now I'll grant that I can pop over to Susan's any time (or, even better, ask her to deliver some fiber directly to our Wednesday knitting group), but now I'm curious as to what else is out there. So I'll be looking for some sockable fiber in interesting colorways. I'm usually so into the monochromatic thing with my spinning, playing with color might be a fun lesson. But I might also get overly picky and end up with nothing. That's always more of a risk for me than overbuying.

Goal #3: Learn some more about fibers I haven't really worked with before. Bit of a secret because it involves presents. Again, maybe antithetical to the whole sheep and wool festival, but oh well.

That's what *I'll* be doing on Saturday and Sunday. Now, to decide on a project to keep me entertained on the bus...

J and I went to Sitacon this weekend and had a lot of fun. There were a few things here and there that had some sense of student (dis)organization; the hallways were easy to get lost in, and maps made things a million times better but only showed up on the second day. The cafe they were running was always closed when I was hungry (it was open about half the day, but closed at 1pm? Really?). A panel I was really excited about, about travelling in Japan, got postponed for about a half hour before being cancelled.

But! There were lots of cool people. There were some hilarious and awesome cosplayers (there was a perfect Moondoggie, which is a character from the series that J and I dressed up for too, and a hilariously in-character Vash The Stampede). I went to two panels that the Ninja Consultant podcasters put together--one of crazy Japanese commercials, the other promoting a bunch of less-well-known manga--both of which were about the highlights of the weekend. Me and J got to be the King and Queen in a game of Cosplay Chess (kind of like that renfaire thing where people play all the chess pieces). There was tons of queerness everywhere, and it always makes me happy to find little unexpected niches of people dressing exactly how they want and loving exactly who and what they love.

(Key moment, during Cosplay Chess:
"J: Is that person male or female? And are they cosplaying the same or the opposite gender?
Me: Does it even matter? They're too adorable for words.")



I should really talk some about the work that went into these costumes. I'll get into it more some other time, but they're both characters from the series Eureka 7 (I can't find good still pictures of the two of them at this point in the series, but they both show up during the first minute of this Youtube clip). J's vest but has all sorts of little straps and things, and I put that together from scratch. The pantsuity deal was based on a dress I like. The bolero thing was heavily modified from a commercial pattern. Overall I was really happy with how it came out, though the white satin was a bit see-through (I had a white tank and opaque tights underneath, so no one could see my goodies, but in all the pictures the tanktop is really obvious).

More crafty talk later. This was a big sewing project for me, and I learned a LOT. I was just too busy working on it to write about it here, since the whole thing came together in about a week.

Walking to the bus this morning. Topic: A 1984 Miss Alaska contestant plays the flute. (I cannot emphasize enough the not-getting-into-politics-here nature of this entry.)

Me: I'd like it better if she did the.... you know... with flaming ends.... *cue elaborate pantomime: twirling imaginary nameless thingy in my hands, flinging it into the air and spinning twice before "catching" it, then bowing*

J: Oh, yes, that. The word you're looking for is "aphasia".*
------------
I do this all the time, though it seems to get worse when I'm spending extra time doing linguistic-type work (like when I was going to capoeira and learning Portuguese songs, or right now, when I'm spending a lot of time with Japanese language tapes.) I worry that this behavior makes me sound uncultured and dumb, because it comes up especially when I'm asked a question I'm unprepared for but know the answer to. Pictures come up, bar graphs and interrelationships, but not the damn WORD.

I don't have much choice in the matter, so far as I can tell, so I suppose people I gesture at will just have to deal with it.

*Baton twirling, if you couldn't figure out from the description, though the more satisfying word was "majorette".

I mentioned recently that I've been trying to make lunch for J and I every single day. It was sort of an odd time of year to start trying this, as I've been out of town a bunch in the last few weeks, but mostly I've stuck to this pretty well. J considers lunch-packing and putting things away after dinner to be an unpleasant chore, so as long as he's doing the dishes (which *I* consider an unpleasant chore), which takes a similar amount of time and energy, it's a fair trade.

I haven't been taking pictures of the lunches every day, but these lunches aren't incredible works of art or anything. They're reasonably representative.



Left box: Cucumbers and spinach. Sweet peppers stuffed with quinoa, black beans, rice, and mushrooms, with more of the stuffing underneath. Pita, some nuts, orange grape tomatoes, and seitan.

Right boxes: More peppers with quinoa, seitan, cukes, and grapes.

I haven't been happy with previous quinoa experiments, but this one worked well. The black beans gave the grain a bit more body, and adding a little extra liquid in the form of some leftover tomato sauce meant that the grain didn't get as dry as it had previously. It'd definitely be something I'd consider as a dish for guests in the future; slightly fancier than usual but still homey, easy to make and prep in advance. There was some parmesan on top, but it would be trivial to veganize them by using breadcrumbs instead.

There wasn't much to the recipe. I prepared the quinoa like it said to in one of my books--1 cup of washed grain to 2 cups of water, I think--and added in canned, rinsed black beans, frozen corn, some tomato sauce, and some dried mushrooms for some flavor. Spices were heavy on the cumin and garam masala end of the spectrum. When the grain was done I plopped it into the peppers and nearly-broiled them until the top of the filling was browned and the peppers were cooked. The little peppers weren't very filling because there wasn't much grain in each little guy, but the peppers had charmed me at the farmer's market, so that's what I had. A larger sweet pepper would have worked just as well.



More leftovers from the quinoa, the day after, along with the leftovers of dinner that night. Dinners with more than one lunch-worth of bento are nice for this, and there's enough other stuff in the bento that I don't get completely sick of the second round of leftovers.

Top bento: Carrots, spinach with hummus, grape tomatoes.

#2: Spaghetti with sauce and cheese, chunk of bread.

#3: Hummus with snowpeas, sesame sticks, apricots, grapes.

#4: Quinoa with beans and corn (see next entry), chunk of bread.

Notes: Cutting the grapes in half makes them fit the box better (that section of the box is about 1.5 grapes high, so a single layer is lonely looking and two layers get squished.)

Y'know, I could have lived a full, happy life without seeing squirrel-humping happening in my tomato plants, 2 feet away from me as I eat my morning oatmeal.

Female squirrel didn't seem to appreciate the gentleman's ministrations, so I scared them off. Go defile a squirrel-lady's honor in some other human's veggies, sir.