oh, my doctoral lists are progressing just fine.

my first hat ever:
a toboggan hat with pompom


and my first scarves ever.

a basic scarf:
and a fuzzy hedwig-esque scarf:

it's a good thing i now have plenty warm things to wear for fucking july in new york.
right.

welcome back, crotchety ol' cotter.

poor la flammouille desperately needs new cotters.

luckily, my roomate is letting me strip her old bike (which is old enough to have the cotters i need for mine) because she traded up... the up being a size joke since she bought a child's bike. being short evidently has its perks: she got a brand new bike for 99$. i got la janky straight from the 70s for 75$.

so since i'm putting the metal to the pedal (literally) on my bike, i'm going to relate to you some new knitting news.

i have been informed by no less than 3 people (one non-knitting woman, one man, and one queer) this week that knitting is for girls. so i had to give up knitting. but then i remembered that since most humans of any gender have opposable thumbs, and that the only biological parts required by knitting are fingers and not gonads, i breathed a sigh of relief. then i did this:

1. i bought a yarn winder. it makes center pull yarn balls in about 5 minutes. this is terribly, terribly exciting. trust me on that.
and what is that yarn all wound up for? it will be accompanying these guys below in being a quilt for my dear friends max and katie for their commitment ceremony next year:
2.

don't worry, those bitches don't never read my blog, so it's still a surprise.

and if you are interested in that kind of thing, i'm using roman stitch on the quilt squares (which means stockinette stitch for for rows, then two rows of moss stitch). with a nice friendly border of course. this is what it looks like up close and personal:

3. in other knitting projects, i've got some side business that involves me needing hand towels. i did not intend to make a camouflage dishtowel, okay?, so keep those snide comments to yourselves about anything camo-related.


two addenda:
1. camouflage originates from the french noun camouflet, a main feature of which is moufle, meaning muzzle. the verb camoufler originally meant to blow smoke up someone's nose, notably in a humiliating way.

2. you may feel moved to extrapolate from all this that i am getting absolutely no work done. and you would be pretty much correct, although today i did finish proofreading the forthcoming literary revue open-faced sandwich. which should be appearing soon, and which is quite excellent.

dropping stitches, dropping the ball.

or, friends don't teach friends who have addictive personalities how to knit.

the majority of my research in the last few days should serve to help me write papers on learning to knit. the only intellectual work i've actually accomplished in the last few days is listening to vendredis de la philosophie and audiobooks on nietzsche while knitting. unfortunately, this is not exactly what one could call a hot topic in french lit, and will most likely be unacceptable to the venerable professors overseeing my doctoral life.

so this is what the researchliness looks like:

i acquired some fugly cheapo acrylic yarn. since i learned to knit on some really nice cotton yarn, it's amazing how much harder it is to knit with shit yarn. however, it's handy since i want to acquire more skill before moving on with nice yarn projects. so, having taught myself how to purl, i learned how to integrate knit stitch and purl stitch into a pattern. this yields more squares:
i'll be real happy when i can do something that involves a non-square shape. but what makes me feel better about squares is that there's a childrens' shelter that needs knit squares donated to make into friendly quilts. and since i'm training on squares, everyone wins. that's nice, huh?

i am also learning, very awkwardly, to create cable patterns. the quality of this picture is equal to the "quality" of the product:

all of this learning, though, has convinced me to undo the eventual hand towel (a rectangle! woohoo.) that is destined to my friend katie for her birthday:

i started purling (which is better than hurling) on that project: but now that i know how to create some border patrol, my perfectionist ass is undoing it all and starting over.

ignoring my budgetary concerns, i dropped 50 bucks at purl in soho on some seriously fierce yarn made by a womens' collective in uraguay and some nice circular needles. the point of this purchase was not to immediately make something with it, but mostly to inspire me to be worthy of using this yarn. it does have a vague future purpose that has something to do with matching the color scheme of a close friend. suggestions concerning the destiny of this yarn, and practical ways to make myself worthy of knitting it are welcome.

financial constraints, 0.
pages written, 0.
fulfilling the basic requirements of my academic career, 1.
the fiber arts, 4.

new fingerings.

my fingers have been particularly busy in the last couple of days.

#1.

today, i bought byself some rolling tobacky and i am relearning how to roll cigarettes (which i haven't done in about 11 years). so far, so good (in terms of the product, not the fact that i'm still smoking after 14 years...)

#2:
yesterday, i learned how to knit from the mistress of domesticity, margaux (who you can find online OR in the pages of a recent curve magazine getting interviewed about her personal femme style).

i'm a little clumsy with it, and folks on the subway look at me like i'm the weirdest thing they've seen all day (which is saying something given the amount of weird folk in the new york city transit system), and despite all my prissy exclamations of motherfucking mmmph no no arrgh, i dig it. i even knitted in class today. it's like a small granny revolt.

this is, so far, the square i am making. it's destiny is to be an exfoliating washcloth for my partner, whose birthday is very soon. i know, it's not the sexiest gift ever (unless he wears only that... which would kind of be more of a present for me) but it's lovingly handmade. and that counts, right?