Take it back!

Now that I have the attention of my fellow high school marching band members, let me reassure you that I’m only talking about my current knitting project. It is constructed using the second-easiest pattern I can think of (the easiest is cast on n stitches, knit across, turn), and I have still managed to somehow screw it up.

Something’s happening here. What it is, ain’t exactly clear.

I don’t know what I did here — knitters, count four from the rightmost stitch on the left needle — so I don’t know what to do to undo it. My plan is to un-knit (tink, get it?) this row and the previous row until I reach this point, at which the nature of the error will probably be made clear. And then I can fix it and go forward again.

It may be that I didn’t do anything wrong until I thought that I dropped a stitch, and tried to fix things by picking up a stitch. So maybe the problem is that I picked up a stitch when I didn’t need to. That’s still a problem that I can better assess when I reach the previous row, and I can still fix it by going backwards one stitch at a time.

I was so close. I calculated that I could knit 10 rows (five ridges) in this color before switching to the heather grey and finishing off the shawl with a stripe, a row of eyelets, and a bind-off row. But now we go back, go back, go back — go back to where we were. Then we go forward again.

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I’ve gotten no further on the Impossible Read in the last week, but I’ve made great progress on the final class paper — which will be the basis of the final PowerPoint and the final in-class presentation. I’m not overdoing it, I’m not overdoing it, I’m not overdoing it.

Okay, I might be overdoing it — but just a little bit. Dr. Lango, you did tell me to create a programmatic intervention detailed enough that someone else could run it. Well, here you go. (On December 2, that is.) Twelve-page paper, references, syllabus, and end-of-class survey. It’s all there — or at least it will be by the deadline. I would also create a Canvas course for my intervention, but that might be overdoing it.

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Knitwise, since I’m within sight of the end of the current knitting project, I’m already thinking about what I’d like to have next on the needles. My friend Mary has been knitting a series of hats, which is something I could also do if I find a stash yarn that calls out to me. She’s thinking about wristwarmer patterns, too, which brings to mind my failed attempt at the owl-themed wristwarmers. I’m willing to start those over when I have good light and uninterrupted time. I’ll also rewrite those cable instructions out in a way that I will understand this time around.

Getting there…

Out of Order

Everything is working fine, everything is fine. Today I have shuffled my task deck and I’m doing my usual daily things — but in a completely different order. We’ll see how all that works out. Situps after coffee? (Well, not immediately after coffee.) Blog-writing in the morning and school-writing in the evening?

I must say that it’s a nice change of pace to be able to write this while looking at the window, with the trees and the landscape bathed in a soft autumn morning glow. But if I blink, it may turn to afternoon and then evening and darkness, and then I’ll have the anxiety and sense of urgency that come with the last night before the work week arrives. It’s harder to be creative under that pressure, when I can imagine the clock ticking down, down, down to bedtime.

To relax my mind today, I’m thinking about the squabbit, a hybrid animal a friend of mine recently described to me. They say it’s the indeterminate animal you see at a distance when you can’t tell if it’s a squirrel or it’s a rabbit. I think it would be more fun if it were a shy and harmless cryptid of the Upper Midwest. Their main activity is trying to elude discovery.

The standard squabbit.

Fortunately for my imagination, people have been designing squabbits in Photoshop and animation for a while now.

The albino squabbit.

And what could be cuter than a baby squabbit?

Oh, my. It looks as if it’s going to be a very long fall and winter. Let’s hope that will be good for creativity, productivity, and other kinds of activity.

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I have made no progress at all on The Impossible Read this week, partially because I’m currently caught up in the planning, research, writing, and editing for my final paper for the graduate course.

After reviewing my favorite student development theories from the course, I selected my absolute favorite and started thinking about the types of programmatic interventions that it could support. This makes more sense to me than my original plan, which was to design an elaborate intervention and then figure out which development theory might best support it.

The instructor reminds me each week, “This is not your life’s work, Beth. Just write the paper.”

So I’m writing the paper. Not buying more typewriters or starting novels or learning languages or repairing the car or renovating the house. Just writing the paper.

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Knitwise, I have been making steady progress on the shawl. I now have exactly one ounce remaining of the three-ounce full skein of Dark Rose Heather, and I have a pretty good idea of when to stop using it so I can switch to adding a grey stripe on the right side of the work. Row-counting wasn’t a concern when I added the first stripe, but now that there is a front and a back to the shawl I need (well, want) to respect that.

Last week.

This week.

Just wait until I add that second grey stripe. Then it will look really different! After that we’ll be in the home stretch, as it were: I’ll knit up another full skein of Dark Rose Heather and then finish off the work —in some manner that has not yet been determined — with the dark grey yarn. Then I should probably decide on the next project. Warm basic scarves to donate to the Student Food Pantry wouldn’t be a bad way to go.

Good afternoon, Irene

Watch for deer. I braked for at least four of them last week and I cannot emphasize enough that the deer are out there. They are ready, willing, and able to bolt across the road at any hour of the day. Remember when we used to see them only at sunset? That is no longer the case, my friend. Watch for deer.

In Wisconsin, saying “watch for deer” is code for “I care about you and want you to survive until spring.” So watch for deer. Ride the brake. Whatever it takes. Trust me, the deer are not watching for you.

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This weekend Eldest and I discovered a typewriter at a local Goodwill and wordlessly agreed to add it to the collection.

First, we spotted the case — marked “as is,” $19.99. I opened the case only until I saw that several keys had been pressed at the same time, jamming their typebars together at the platen. Then I saw the name “ADLER” facing me on the top cover. I shut the case, Eldest grabbed it, and we almost ran to the cashiers before anyone else saw what we had. (Admittedly, even I didn’t know what we had yet.) He named it “Irene” even before we checked out. IYKYK.

What we had was a bargain bordering on a steal. It turned out that everything in that store with an orange sticker was half off that day. $19.99 turned into $10.46, which became $11 after we rounded up. At Goodwill, I always round up.

After we got home, Eldest and I each searched the Typewriter Serial Number Database. I couldn’t find the serial number in any of the Adler lists, but he was quickly in the photo galleries to find a match with a 1966 Adler J-4. Manufactured in Western Germany.

I don’t know why I am telling you this, but maybe you’re a budding typewriter collector who could use a reason to be persistent. So here are the “three strikes” that this typewriter seemed to have against it, to whomever donated it to Goodwill:

1. It didn’t seem to type well. When I looked at the typewriter I saw that the ribbon setting was set to “stencil.” After I moved it to the “black” setting it was fine.
2. The ribbon was broken. The ribbon had come loose from the right-hand spool, so the ribbon couldn’t advance when keys were pressed. I removed the spool, reattached the end of the ribbon, and replaced the spool. Perfect typing.
3. The case latch seemed broken and the key was missing. If that’s a deal-breaker, I don’t know what to tell you. Other than, thanks for including the original case!

Bonus strike: the typebars were jammed together. This seems to be true of every manual typewriter in a resale shop. I gently released the tangle, as I always do, and everything is fine. It’s fine.

I watched a few YouTube videos to find out more about this particular model, and I kept hearing over and over again how wonderful this typewriter is. Honestly, it may be the best-working typewriter in my entire collection. I did a second typing test after re-spooling the ribbon, and it’s clear that I need not even replace the ribbon.

All this typewriter will need is a good cleaning, and it will be the star of my collection.

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Knitwise, I cast on for a shawl and I’m plugging away on it. I have used up the partial skein of Dark Rose Heather Wool-Ease, knitted a two-ridge stripe from Dark Grey Heather, and continued in Dark Rose Heather for one-third of a full skein.

After I use up the full skein I’ll add another Dark Grey stripe, knit on the last full skein of Dark Rose, then finish in Dark Grey. Maybe with eyelets all across the last row. We’ll get there when we get there.

With the temperatures slowly dropping and the skies gently darkening, it was a good weekend to knit on a shawl. Those rows are pretty long now, so I’m not sure when I will finish it. But I will probably cast on for the next project right away.

Should it be something new? Or should I find a UFO (Unfinished Object) and resume working on it? Let me know in the comments.

Sticker shock

This week I was reminded once again that, although I love stickers, I have a deep aversion of actually sticking them to anything. I am striving to work through this issue with one of my unofficial therapists, D., who recently challenged me on this point. She also hauled out her personal stash of dozens of music-related stickers that I could choose from, and I selected three that depicted The Beatles.

I did not, in fact, stick these Beatles stickers on anything. Yet. But the act of selecting stickers and talking about them brought my attention to a sticker that’s been sitting on my work-desk for several months. I peeled off the backing and affixed it to my iPhone case. Which is why I can’t take a picture of it to show you (I really should have thought this through before I peeled off the backing, but here we are).

There is something about stickers that strikes me as far too permanent. They represent some sort of commitment that I don’t want to make. Magnets are easier for me to deal with: you can move them around. You don’t have to worry about finding the perfect place for them. You can remove them from things, save them for later, and affix them to different things. You can take them off your car before you drive through the car wash. I have a few nice stickers that I have converted into magnets.

This issue probably says a lot about how I feel about commitment, permanency, representation, and my willingness to be seen. Maybe I should take notes for the therapist I’ll eventually need to consult about this. But for right now, let’s just say that I prefer magnets.

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This week in the Impossible Read, I finished the third section of The Mists of Avalon, which brings me to page 655. Just 200-some pages to go before I take a break from books and head for the movies.

I know that sounds like a lot of pages to read, but as a proportion of the book it doesn’t look like all that much. And now that I’ve done the math…it’s almost exactly 25 percent of the book.

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Knitwise…well, I hope you’re sitting down. Because I finally opened a drawer, took out some yarn, found some appropriate needles, and cast on for a stash-yarn project. Yes, it’s an eyelet-edged triangular shawl — why do you ask?

The yarn is Lion Brand Wool-Ease in three different dyelots of Dark Rose Heather — two full skeins and one partial skein. Somewhere around here I have some Dark Grey Heather of the same yarn, and I’m thinking about knitting some of it into the shawl to make a separation between the different dyelots. It will, perhaps, look like a random design element. Only you and I will know why it’s really there.

It’s not so much about making another shawl, though I suspect that it will come in handy this winter. It’s more about finally using up yarn that is just sitting around. To do that, it’s easier if I work a mindless pattern like this one-row wonder: Kf&b, yo, knit to end; repeat until out of yarn. It gave my hands something useful to do this weekend while I watched sessions of the Grand Prix of Brazil. I’m still not sure what I just saw there, but at least I got a shawl started. I’ll share progress shots next week. Pinky swear.