the thing itself and not the myth

This week I was okayed to add Ravelry progress bars to my sidebar. It has wee thumbnails of everything I’m actively working on — super cool! Ravelry’s not open to the public yet, but if you’re on it you can click through to project pages. It is pretty awesome.

I do need to go in and change the status on the Samus cardigan, though, because I have FINISHED THE KNITTING. Oh yes. There is still a lot of finishing work to do, but the knitting! It is done done done!

Now I’m carrying around socks (Cabletini & Jaywalker) until I get reorganized on my big crochet project. Also, I need to do some math so I can order yarn for NaKniSweMo. I am thinking of doing Alice, though not in those colors. For Ravelers, I am really in love with the colorway of the featured photo on the project page. And I like how another knitter reversed the wristbands, doing the detail in the secondary color.

It calls for Knitpicks Merino Style, but the Ravelers are complaining about it pilling, and so I am considering Swish, which sounds like it wears better, especially if washed inside-out. I’m thinking I will wind up copying that colorway — Moss as the main color and Nutmeg as the secondary. I considered Storm, but I’m trying to not buy everything blue. I’d like Cinnamon if it had more red in it. Maple Leaf is too orange, Terracotta too pink, and Hollyberry too the color I just did Samus in. I hate to be a copycat, but seriously. Moss & Nutmeg came out *gorgeous* together.

…now I have bored all non-knitters to death. Sorry! Here are three pictures-of-the-day, all from around Capitol Hill.

On the sidewalk on the corner of Roy & Belmont. Taken with my phone:

There are a few of these around the neighborhood. This one’s on the side of the trash can at the Bellevue & Republican bus stop:

Finally, it’s definitely autumn.

Autumn’s my favorite season, but every year the threat of winter gets worse. Wah.

Thursday afternoon I went to the Lake City Farmers Market to take pictures of the Zucchini Races. Our office generally has a table promoting the Center & literacy projects at the market, but Thursday there was no time for reading, only time for zucchini.

Making cars:

On your mark, get set, go!

The Family Center is the clear winner, creaming the Farmer’s Market!

Friday after work I went up to Third Place Books to see the Yarn Harlot. Because she is awesome. I got there a little (okay, a lot) early, on purpose. They have a nice little commons there with free wifi and a few restaurants. I hung out and knitted and watched some TV on the laptop, as all the knitters filtered in.

The Harlot is always funny, of course, but I tend to find her pretty empowering as well. I’m really a star at demeaning my own work, and she puts forth a pretty strong argument against that.

Speaking of my own work, I made it to the armholes on Samus last night. Here’s a shot from Saturday night:

And the other productive thing I did this weekend:

The package calls these “Danishes”, which is generous. If you take them as Danishes you’re in for disappointment, but if you call them scones they’re downright tasty. Oh, gluten free. It can be tough.

(Hey! Ben Lee has a new album coming out tomorrow! Score.)

First off, I finished the body cable for the Samus cardigan yesterday, which means that as soon as I pick up a mile-long circular I can do the body itself. Which should fly, as it’s miles of stockinette. I can watch subtitled movies while I do it!

Also, the loot I got at Bumbershoot: a journal from Ex Libris Anonymous & a fork ring from the Spoonman.

I only went to the festival on Saturday, but I reckon I got my $25 out of it. A handful of pictures after the jump.

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I have been so busy doing stuff I haven’t had time to tell you all about it. As usual, click through to Flickr for bigger photos.

Thursday we had an end-of-summer barbecue at work, which was awesome and crazy, and then that night I went back to Seattle University for an end-of-summer celebration for one of our intern programs. I went to one last year as well, but it was held in a building that didn’t exist on campus when I was a student. This time it was in the ballroom off the dorm residence hall I lived in for two years. It was very strange. They’ve remodeled the lobby — my tuition dollars at work.

The Admin building, where basically all of my classes were held…

The fountain in the quad (which we sidewalk-chalked overnight when we finished the Honors Program) And the Chapel of St Ignatius at night, which I love… Friday I went down to The Center for Wooden Boats, because they had the Lady Washington (which you all have seen on film as Norrington’s ship, the Interceptor, in Pirates of the Caribbean) and the Hawaiian Chieftain. (The Lady Washington is in front here.) On board the Lady Washington, looking out towards Gasworks Park. These ships are so small! Saturday & Sunday I spent working on our Back to School drive. Our set-up at the store: While I was there, I knitted. Unsurprisingly. I’m working on Wendy’s Cabletini socks in the yarn I got last week: Then, Saturday night was roller derby! Which is dangerous: This is technically a terrible photo, but I love it. The band was the Wages of Sin. LIME GREEN UPRIGHT BASS, BABY. And they are self-described as “Punk rock sea shanties and Appalachian death polka.” How awesome is that? The two teams I was rooting for — DLF & Grave Danger — both won. So that basically ruled.

Sunday I came home after work and passed out. I am still not quite recovered. I watched a good deal of television, including finishing off “Blackpool” (awesome!) and half of “My Life in Film” (which I snagged because I wanted more Kris Marshall after Death at a Funeral, and which is also awesome, but in a totally different way. More like “Spaced”.)

I also knitted on Samus’s cable band. I am in the 8th repeat of 11. I can do it!

I’ve been watching some “Blackpool” this week, and I have got to say that is a seriously odd show. I am enjoying the hell out of it, though. I heard that the DVDs have different songs than the BBC version, so I guess I will have to investigate.

I have also been slightly crafty. In increasing order of interest:

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Yesterday I got my sock yarn from Pixie Riot’s Yarn Oddities. So pretty! Plus, it came with magnets & a stitch marker. Sweet!

Then today, because apparently I need something to watch while I do all this knitting, I stopped by a local video store that’s going out of business. Dangerous. Though it was only $35 for the stack, which is pretty sweet.

On VHS:

• All I Wanna Do
• Beautiful Girls
• Party Girl
• Peter’s Friends
• Tapeheads

On DVD

• Before Sunset
• Hero
• Imagine Me & You
• Invasion
• Limbo

Oops. It could have been worse, though. I didn’t look through the boxes of $25 out-of-print DVDs at all. I have a few brains. Just not many.

(As always, click through to Flickr for larger versions.)

My primary tag on Flickr is 365in2007, my photo-a-day project. With that in mind, have some random pictures from the past two weeks. Five photos after the jump, and click through to Flickr for larger sizes. I can’t LJ-cut anymore, so I am trying to be gracious. Or something.

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I’ve started enough online journals in my time, that you’d think I’d have the first post thing down to a fine art. This is not true.

Right now, I can tell you these things. As I am writing this post, I am watching The Big Lebowski, and every single time I watch it, it gets better. It is entirely possible, by the way, that I own a “Little Lebowski Urban Achiever” tshirt. I am unwilling to confess at this time.

If I wasn’t messing around with code, I’d be knitting. I have two different pairs of socks in progress right now. This is a carefully-considered plan. I was in England for two weeks last month, and I wanted to have a) small projects, b) a project I didn’t have to think about, and c) a project that would challenge me a bit more when I was in the mood. Obviously the solution to this is two different pairs of socks. What? It was obvious to me!

Socks in question: Monkey Socks in Socks That Rock and Toe-up Jaywalkers in Knitpicks Sock Memories.

And why am I getting myself organized over here again? I’ve gotten fed up with Six Apart/Livejournal, where I used to spend most of time. However, recently they’ve started banning users with no warning, no recourse, and little relevance to their Terms of Service in general. I feel like this is no longer a venture I want to be involved in, so I’m back over here.

This aggression will not stand, man!