Sunday, June 24, 2007

Wonder wonder wonderful

I had an amazing dream last night.

I was floating in my usual way last night. Anytime I fly in dreams, I'm just leaning forward with my knees bent slightly, like I'm riding an invisible Segway with a kneeling chair on it. Compared to most people and their soaring across the city, I just putter a few inches from the ground. I realize this makes most of my flying dreams kind of lame.

Still! "Boy," I thought, "This is totally some sort of extra-sensory power. I should call the James Randi Foundation and win a million dollars!"

It was kind of a downer to wake up and realize that I could neither fly, nor win a million dollars.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Good things come in pairs?

I'm trying to stay productive, since lately I've been sinking into a serious, full-on funk. Some things are going well; the boyfriend and I found an apartment in Saline, which is close enough to Ann Arbor to make me feel comfortable and connected, but far enough from the hustle to make his ultra anti-social self happy. It's a top-floor, corner apartment, with a view of the woods behind the building. It's quiet and peaceful, and should be a nice change from living across the street from the oh so noisy police station.

Other things could be going better. I had an absurd, 13 hour job interview on the 8th— the interview itself was only half an hour long, but there were 12 and a half hours of associated nonsense. It was fun, and informative, and I went bowling for the first time since I was... hmm... 16? They sent me a sample contract on Wednesday, and asked how interested I would be in it, emphasizing that it was not an offer of employment. I wrote back full of pep and enthusiasm.

And I haven't heard from them one way or another since then.

My current job is driving me crazy. I mean, I'm still a temp, doing data-entry at a research firm in Ann Arbor. I still hate it, and hate that it's going nowhere, and hate that getting to it every morning is a royal pain in the ass, and hate that I'm getting tendonitis pains in alternating wrists. What's more, they're running out of work for me to do, so they've had me error-checking other people's work, which is even more mind-numbing and tedious. And what's worse is that it'll end at the end of the month, and in spite of my distaste for it, that means I'll be unemployed, which is worse.

So I've been trying to distract myself over the past week, and I do that by knitting.

I've already made more gauntlets than I've cared to, but they're really quick to knit and they make great presents. Up until last halloween, I only made them in mismatched pairs. Anytime I made them for someone else, my only request was that they buy the yarn, since I have terrible taste in things other people like, and I've found people are happier when they hand a wad of yarn to me and say, "I like this. Make something out of it." Then, I try to make them about the same length, but in different textures. It makes them happy, it keeps me amused. The only non-gauntlet presents I have made were a scarf that took me over a year to make, and two fair-isled hats which were both too small for my head. One of them was the Jamiroquai influenced hat in an earlier post, but without the earflaps or the pom-pom on top; it was a little too short to cover my ears. The other was my very first fair-isle hat, a skull-and-crossbones mess which I never took pictures of. I tried very, very hard to make it fit, but the all-acrylic yarn would not stretch for shit. [EDIT: I am so full of shit. After dinking around on my brother's weblog, I remembered that I'd made a devil hat for my niece Sophia (there are a couple pictures of her looking miserable wearing it), and when I was learning to knit, I made a pair of baby blankets for Heather. Well, for her baby.]


Halloween was the first matched pair that I made, though I have since lost one of them (See above photo, currently discussing the right glove. If you have a copy of the vogue stictionary in front of you, that particular pattern is called 'leaf lace'). I was playing in a concert, and the section was going as insects. I chose to be a praying mantis. Along with the gloves, I made my very first, all-original pattern for the antenna. I adore how they came out, though I'm still trying to figure out how to secure them better, since they're fairly floppy. I also sewed a thorax, which was just silly looking. Altogether though, it was an outfit I was pretty proud of.

The second set (shown above on the other hand; it's a very basic cabling. I'm sure it has a name, but damned if I know what it is) is half-done, and by request. I'm really doing it for two reasons; first because I was asked too, and second because they're not quite a matched set. The cabling on one is done to the back, and the cabling on the other is done to the front. This means that the one glove will have swirlies going to the right, and the other will have swirlies going to the right. It's a small distinction, but important. In fact, one one of the cables I pulled the the front instead of the back, and it stands out from the other swirls, looking misplaced and a little uncomfortable. I told the recipient about it, and he waved it off as a little bit of charming diversity.

I still think it looks silly, but not so silly that I'm willing to remake it.

I'm also trying to knit a tie. At this point it's about an inch and a half long, and I'm learning that fingering-weight yarn is a pain in the ass to work with. When there's more substance I'll probably take pictures.

Anyway, I'm mostly rambling and playing with my camera. I really ought to be in bed.

Blah, blah blah.

Chances are, I miss you.