I told my husband that since I'm not working, I wouldn't spend any money on the internet. I've already broken that promise today by purchasing At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much, which I found via Knitty. I'll do better starting tomorrow...

Posted by: Sarah at 11:10 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 51 words, total size 1 kb.

This summer, with no job and a puppy to watch, I have done a lot of knitting. I never thought there was such a thing as too much knitting, but apparently there is. I have been having dull pains in my forearms, and both my index fingers are shot: I made a puncture wound in my left index with a 4.0 cm, and I have a rugburn-like callous on my right from holding the yarn. My husband has put me on the disabled list: no knitting for at least two days. And I was gonna start these gloves for my dad, perfect for his two favorite hobbies (cigars and fishing).

What do you do with your free time if you're not knitting?

Posted by: Sarah at 11:42 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
Post contains 124 words, total size 1 kb.

Since all I've done this summer is knit and make sure the dog isn't chewing on the coffee table, I've been fairly productive. The sweater on the left is for the husband, and the other two are for me. I'm nearly done with a fourth, a plain white one. (I hate how photos always make my work look like those Magic Eye posters.)

Also via Zabibbo is Good, here's a humorous account from a man who lives with a knitter:

Living with a knitter is not easy. To which degree varies based on the knitter's personality as knitters come in all flavors. The sociological kind is common, to which knitting is a crusade, the polarized kind, to which an SKP and a K2TOG are mutually exclusive, the helping type, which needs to help you even when you never asked for help and the guru type, which only lives in Nepal. Some knitters are militant to their partner, which is, they want their mate to be involved. This can develop in requesting for help winding a hank (which can have catastrophic results), help choosing color and design (which turns into masochism easily) and can go as far as outsourcing a design to the mate. The latter, technically called "black hole initiative" is definitely hairy business and can go as far as what is known as "annihilation", don't try it if you are the Romantic type.

I suppose I'm somewhere between sociological and polarized. I have asked my husband for advice, wherein he makes something up and then realizes later that I was serious. I stopped asking. I have offered to teach him, but I think he wants to keep the mystery of knitting a mystery: as he said once, "You know, I have no idea what it is you're doing. You click those sticks together and a sweater comes out."

And SKP is most certainly different from K2TOG.

Posted by: Sarah at 06:00 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 321 words, total size 2 kb.

The husband sent me a cute article: It's True: Guys Join the Knitting Craze. I love the motto "Man Enough to Knit; Strong Enough to Purl."

His good buddy in the Air Force, one of the manliest men I know (carves his own baseball bats, used to work as a taxidermist) crochets. It adds an interesting dimension to his personality, but to him it's just another way of using your own hands to create something.

I've tried to encourage my husband to learn to knit, but he's not buying it.

I finally made something for myself that I can post on the blog. It's a scarf that took me the entire season three of Alias (read: four days glued to the recliner) to knit.

Posted by: Sarah at 08:36 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 128 words, total size 1 kb.

I almost started to write "This will be me someday!", but then I realized that it's already me. I knit about four hours a night too!

Posted by: Sarah at 03:22 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 30 words, total size 1 kb.

1 So, what do you make with all those hours of knitting...?

Posted by: Beth at January 21, 2005 09:30 AM (PF2ZS)

2 Well, I'd love to show you, but everything I've been making for the past six months are presents for people who read my blog. I can't show any of my work! But I started a scarf for myself last night, so I'll show it when I get a little deeper into the pattern.

Posted by: Sarah at January 21, 2005 10:12 AM (7ZJX3)

3 Is it a soothing experience. I hear that it is.

Posted by: James Hudnall at January 21, 2005 11:41 AM (FV8Tp)

4 Oh, Hud, you don't know the half of it. Some people have the drugs, others have the booze...I have the knitting.

Posted by: Sarah at January 21, 2005 11:49 AM (b7/cA)

5 I went through a time from about mid-teens to early twenties where I did tons of cross-stitch and embroidery. It got me through some really tough times. It's soothing, and you end up with such a feeling of productivity and satisfaction from creating something of beauty/usefulness. Of course, Sarah, we all know that only old fogies knit!

Posted by: Beth at January 22, 2005 07:49 PM (rHy9P)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

I finished two more projects this month. I'm working at a rate of a sweater per month during the deployment, which keeps me occupied. The first one is that pink and white sweater I was waiting on the yarn to finish. The second is for me too; I've always wanted to have a bright striped sweater. (I can never seem to get the colors to come out right when I take photos of my projects though.)

Posted by: Sarah at 12:46 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 80 words, total size 1 kb.

My home computer has major problems right now, so blogging might be rough this weekend. Plus I have final papers to grade, so don't expect much.

Knitting update: Still waiting for the pink and white yarn. It's in the mail, thanks to my mother-in-law, and I'm anxious to get that project done. Especially since it's still sweater weather here in Germany. I have started a new sweater already and finished the back last night (photo later when my computer stops acting like a jerk). In the meantime, I found a pattern I'd really like to try, save two major obstacles: 1) the yarn is honkin' expensive and 2) intarsia knitting is something I've never done before; I even had to google it because I didn't know what the heck it was. Plus I have a ton of projects I should already be working on first, but I keep pulling up this pattern and looking at it longingly. So many patterns, only two hands...

Posted by: Sarah at 09:07 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 165 words, total size 1 kb.

My husband has been gone for four months as of yesterday, and today is our wedding anniversary. I made him a special gift that he certainly doesn't need when the temperatures are pushing 130:

He wrote me a funny email this morning:

I don't have much else to say except I love you and I'm very thankful that
you're my wife. I'm also thankful that an AC-130 didn't bomb our wedding two
years ago. Cause that happens, ya know. I should be able to call today, inshah
Allah.

Happy Anniversary, Blue 6. I sure do miss you.

Posted by: Sarah at 02:11 AM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
Post contains 99 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Well congrats on the anniversary, bummer you aren't able to spend it together. I wonder now that I am happily ensconced in middleage, and married, just what I would do without my wife? I get serious agita thinking of it. Well again best wishes to you and your husband.

Posted by: Bubba Bo Bob Brain at June 15, 2004 02:26 AM (4pVZJ)

2 Sarah - congratulations on two years. Perhaps it helps that you are surrounded by those who know first hand what deployed anniversaries are all about. My best to you and your husband! Tim

Posted by: Tim at June 15, 2004 04:38 AM (asDJU)

3 Happy Anniversary, from a British reservist in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Posted by: Flarkey at June 15, 2004 05:42 AM (K4HSE)

4 happy anniversary you two love birds....i feel that the two of you will be together for #3... my son, michael has missed so many events over the past 13 months also....on mother's day last year when he left friedberg germany with the 1AD, he left behind his wife of one year and 4 months and their 9 day old son...there will be a lot of time to make up between michael and his son.... have a great day sarah and do something special that would reflect on your's and your husband's love for each other....have the radio station play "your" song or see a movie that the two of you enjoyed together...invite friends over and have an anniversary party but by all means celebrate the day....this day will not come again.... hugs, teresa proud army mom of michael/camp victory

Posted by: teresa at June 15, 2004 07:59 AM (uyPup)

5 Happy Anniversary to you and your husband! Maybe this will be the one you and your husband will talk about when you are celebrating your 50th Anniversary. Best to you and Chin Up. Toni

Posted by: Toni at June 15, 2004 08:23 AM (SCyTi)

6 Sarah, Happy anniversary!! Dana Marietta, GA

Posted by: Dana at June 15, 2004 09:32 AM (ah3a+)

7 Sarah, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!! I wish you both many more wonderful years together! Kelly

Posted by: Kelly at June 15, 2004 10:46 AM (5UIQo)

8 Happy Anniversary, Sarah! June 15...what a lovely date for a wedding. I hope you do get to talk to Blue 6 (Lt. Grok?) today. And even though he doesn't need that handsome sweater now, he sure will when he returns to Germany...especially since I hear that most of the men and women out there are becoming somewhat accustomed to the heat. It's going to take a long time to adjust back. Hey, tell us about your wedding!

Posted by: Carla at June 15, 2004 11:12 AM (r5M6F)

9 Happy Anniversary!! Another special day that will be much, much better next year!

Posted by: Beth at June 15, 2004 01:16 PM (Y/dYM)

10 Happy Anniversary!! While I have never been in the military, have experienced the hardship of being separated (I was based in Singapore, wife was in the US). Our longest stretch apart was 10 months. Not fun. God Bless you and your husband for your sacrifice and may every day when he returns be another excuse to celebrate being together.

Posted by: Andrew at June 15, 2004 05:15 PM (6KBPZ)

11 Happy Anniversary, Sarah, aka Bundy kid #3 (?) I love you and would never call one of my favorite cousins a bad word

Posted by: Peg Bundy at June 15, 2004 05:33 PM (L2+yu)

12 Happy Anniversary! My husband and I still laugh at our honeymoon too - we celebrated our anniversary last month although he celebrated a day early due to Iraq's time difference . At the time we married, he was a Drill Sergeant and could only get one day off for us to get married (and not the day we planned ha!). Our honeymoon was going to O'Charlie's for dinner lol. The best part was getting to marry my best friend and spend the rest of my life with him. Our marriage has turned out to be the real honeymoon . Wishing you and your husband many years of happiness - and may this be the only anniversary you must celebrate apart.

Posted by: Shannon at June 15, 2004 06:29 PM (wIkna)

13 What is it that you see funny about weddings being attacked by US gunships? Like your husband said "that happens, you know". Since it was not your wedding where the guests were slaughtered by US warplanes I guess in your eyes it is funny when it happens to someone else. You people are really sick.

Posted by: dc at June 15, 2004 11:11 PM (s6c4t)

14 Oh yeah

Posted by: you bloggers suck at July 14, 2005 01:07 PM (XR3qn)

15 soma

Posted by: soma at July 18, 2005 01:49 AM (XR3qn)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Heh. Sweet.

Posted by: Sarah at 05:02 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 4 words, total size 1 kb.

1 अतीव सुन्दरे तव पादत्रे atiiva sundare tava paadatre 'very beautiful (neuter dual) your socks (neuter dual) [are]' (OK, paadatra is a 'foot-covering' or a 'shoe', but it's the closest word I can find.) The socks are similar yet they have different color patterns. Did you decide the patterns in advance, or do you just make up the patterns as you go along?

Posted by: Amritas at May 03, 2004 07:21 AM (evS1f)

2 Oops, forgot to insert a | period. It's my first time typing देवनागरी Devanagari in a comments section, and it might be the first Sanskrit comment in Devanagari script ever in the Anglophone blogosphere. (There could be more such comments in Indian blogs.) Also, पादत्र paadatra is the singular of पादत्रे paadatre. The पाद paada part means 'foot' and is cognate to English foot - the Proto-Germanic ancestor of English shifted p to f and d to t, whereas Sanskrit kept the original p and d sounds just like Greek (-pod) and Latin (ped-). तव पदावप्यतीव सुन्दरौ | tava paadaav apy atiiva sundarau. 'your feet (masc. dual) also very beautiful (masc. dual) [are]' You're female, but your feet are masculine.

Posted by: Amritas at May 03, 2004 07:33 AM (evS1f)

3 Aaargh - पदावप्यतीव padaav apy atiiva should be पादावप्यतीव paadaav apy atiiva as in the romanization. The lack of spacing between words reflects the Sanskrit rule of not inserting spaces unless a word ends with a vowel (or H or M) and the next word begins with a consonant. So ifwe wroteEnglishlikeSanskrititwouldlooksomethinglikethis. (Every word after "we" in that sentence ends in a consonant, so no spaces can be inserted.)

Posted by: Amritas at May 03, 2004 07:38 AM (evS1f)

4 Okay, I am completely intimidated. What can one leave after those comments?

Posted by: Oda Mae at May 03, 2004 01:20 PM (sdWmc)

5 You're intimidated, Oda Mae? I actually felt dumb writing that stuff because I should have gotten it right the first time and restricted myself to one comment. But no. Sarah, can you share your knitting secrets with us, or are they another classified military secret?

Posted by: Amritas at May 03, 2004 01:33 PM (evS1f)

6 That image initially reminded me of watching Pippi Longstocking way back when I was young. That image quickly changed when Amritas pointed out that your feet are masculine. ;o)

Posted by: Larry at May 03, 2004 06:04 PM (6TcYT)

7 My feet are asexual, but seriously wide.

Posted by: Parkway Rest Stop at May 04, 2004 12:00 AM (Apafo)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

In addition to finishing my book on the train, I also finished my current knitting project.
Well, 50% of the project...

Posted by: Sarah at 02:39 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 23 words, total size 1 kb.

1. Today the temperature outside was 63 degrees.
2. The heater in our house is still on full blast.
3. I finally finished my sweater.
4. Taking a photo of yourself is really hard.
5. This photo is too blurry, but it was the best I could do.
6. I'm absolutely roasting now...
7. I want to wear the sweater tomorrow, but it's so freakin' warm.

Posted by: Sarah at 04:48 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 68 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Well, it certainly looks toasty warm.

Posted by: homebru at March 17, 2004 06:49 PM (jy9n4)

2 Aye, but I got my Irish sweater and cap on! (But I usually do anyway...heh.) And it even snowed today! (Chicago) Unfortunately, I was so worn down by my seminar paper that I didn't go see them turn the Chicago River green this weekend, even though I was only two blocks away at one point. Nice pic.

Posted by: Jeremiah (Diarmuid!) at March 17, 2004 07:53 PM (l+d7I)

3 The sweater looks great and the picture turned out well. I forgot...you're a perfectionist.

Posted by: Mike at March 17, 2004 09:57 PM (3t8Bu)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

I've never posted any knitting on my blog before, but some people said they'd be interested in seeing it, so I thought I'd post a photo of a work in progress. I still have to make the arms, but this is what it looks like as of now.

MORE:

Someone asked how long this took. Well, I think it took about 25 minutes for an inch (basically one inch per South Park) and it's 23 inches each front and back, so mmm mmm carry the one mmm that means it took about 24 hours to knit. Of course I didn't watch that many South Parks in a row; I've been working on it in the evenings for about three weeks. And this one is for me. The next one will be for the husband, and I'll probably just mail him a photo of it and not the sweater. We joked about that before he left, that he could hold it up in the desert El Guapo style: "It's a sweater!"

Posted by: Sarah at 01:11 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 172 words, total size 1 kb.