Another short to-do list

A busy week. a lot to do

Cook a fantastic breakfast
sew on buttons
mail things to the UK and Aunty Judy
Get guinea pig bedding and cat food. drop it all on the floor when entering the house.
call rick: ask about security deposit, getting house checked out when lauren moves out, vines + paint + new screens + concrete/cement the damned front steps and rip out the incoming trees would be nice, and did he get our letter/is he okay with it?
shower
put things for trade on ravelry
read on pahfit output more and see how to extract data from that for 1 hour
work on NSF report for 1 hour
access Temperature data and try to work with it for 1 hour
recompile to do lists for 1 hour; focus on keeping one on computer updated
read papers for 1 hour
Cook dinner with Lauren
cast on spatterdash mitt #2 and work on it for 1 hour
go for a half an hour walk for fun no matter the weather
talk to grad students about an end of semester, speak with grad advisor + dept chair meetin
have 7pm meeting with Amanda

Not very productive today, honestly, but it was so wet and miserable out that I took a two hour nap instead of doing a bunch of my work. I did, however, set up three important goals for tomorrow:

1) make 2 more pt src/extended emission ratio numbers for the paper
2) figure out the pahfit output annnd how to change the continuum temperature of the input (and if that is necessary)
3) find MIPs 24 micron images on hazel and compare with my images and make pretty pictures for the paper

I'd still like to work on the NSF report and read a few papers  and update my todo lists (agh there are so many of them) and fix up my program to contain all my info as well, but we'll stick with feasible things for tomorrow.

When, oh when am I going to get to the "other" category of my research? I have a small backlog that really needs to be addressed! I'm really going to have to start sacrificing sleep at some point, it is rather important for me to finish all this.

But first, to cast on that second spatterdash. the Spatterdashalong is ending in two weeks! I've a lot to get done before then :)

Finishing

I am spending the weekend on finishing. A lot of the WIPs I've been taking a stab at are just waiting to have their ends woven in or the buttons sewed on. Ironically this will probably take all the free time I have this weekend, as one of the WIPs (the secretive one) is quite large and has many many ends. But hey! I can finish it, get it off my plate, and send it out to its giftee.

I have a plan this weekend. Let's see if it happens.

feed cats
check the strawberries in the back yard to see if they are ripe yet NO THEY ARE NOT :(
order pizza
check mailbox for mail
clean up living room table
prepare to do laundry by sorting everything
pay online phone bill
order tabs for my car
pizza arrives: consume pizza while watching some TV
clean out fridge a bit to get pizza box to fit in there
weave in ends and watch TV until I pass out or finish something. Try not to go crazy from all the ends. OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE IT IS DONE.
create button loops; sew on buttons. I only finished this for one mitt and it took me nearly an hour and I still sucked at it. The yarn is too blasted slippery to do this well. I will try to do the second one tomorrow. Also the palm of the mitt is too floppy and loose--might have to crochet it tighter somehow...
Sleep.
take pictures in the light of day.
shower and eat breakfast
finish sewing on buttons
clean guinea pig cage! then take out trash
put various doctor appointments in google calendar
sweep bedroom
Sweep hall and kitchen and bathroom
call rick, ask about: dead tree in backyard; front steps; ivy coming in the window; new screens; what to do with Lauren's security deposit/new person's security deposit?
play with yarn until almost noon; organize and realize how damned much I have
meet Ravelry Buddy crunchygranola for yarn shopping + knitting + coffee; plan to be rained upon.
go grocery shopping
do laundry and cook food for the week--chili perhaps? bean+ham soup? also make jam thumbprint cookies
realize that it is 8pm and the odds of me getting any work done are slim; cast on the second mitt for my second KAL and post pictures on Ravelry
decorate my room a bit and try to organize the greatly unorganized mess; make it worse by getting bored or distracted in the midst of it
remember my Fellow Report is due for the GRFP; panic, and work on it.

Alternatively I might feel like getting work done. Odds are not good, but it might happen :) Oh and I have a report to work on as well that I might as well deal with this weekend rather than the next.

What about you? what are your  weekend plans?

sock yarn galore

I like socks. I find them quick and easy knits; the cost/product ratio is low, and sock yarn doesn't take up much space. I am also much more likely to wear bold socks in new exciting color combinations than I am to wear a strangely-colored sweater. This holds for style as well--I'm always willing to try new patterns and new methods for socks, because they're so easy to adapt to fit my feet--merely try them on! Shawls and lacework are more tough to combine appropriately, and sweaters are so hard to fit that I am reluctant to ever improvise them.

For example, I'm not very likely to ever wear a sweater in this combination of colors:



But as a pair of socks I find it to be ridiculously charming. I'm greatly bothered by the camouflage-like pooling potential of this:


But I wouldn't mind it in some textured socks. There's something a bit cloying about a sweater in rainbow colored yarn:


But I'm in the process of the Knitting in Circles Sock KAL for April 2012 (Harvest Dew) and I am not only in love with the first sock, I'm moving through them at a fantastic pace.

I was so enchanted with this stuff

that even though the second skein had an inexplicable illness where it would randomly separate for no visible reason, I already finished knitting it up AND WOVE IN ALL THE ENDS, and I would order more of it at any time.

I don't like drama, and I don't like bullshit. I prefer clear communication, and my advice to people who ask for it is usually, "have you talked to ___ about it, yet? open and honest communication is the key to a good relationship", the blank being a significant other, a boss, a co-worker, or a friend. But despite this attitude... it turns out that I'm willing to put up with a lot of crap...

if it comes from some sock yarn anyway.

hold on

Hold on there. Remember all those WIPs? Remember all my plots and plans to finish?



Let me just throw everything aside and cast on something new.



Harvest Dew socks (ravelry has the pattern and it's free) for the Knitting in Circles Podcast KAL, using my rainbowy Trekking XXL. I don't often do cuff-down socks--I like the fitting opportunities afforded by knitting toe-up. True to form, though I measured my foot and chose the appropriate size, this sucker was too big for my ankle. Okay, I figured, I can deal with that, and did decreases as in pattern as I could until I felt better. Which actually put me an entire size smaller. So much for accurate measurements! still, they fit so far, and the pattern is very easy. It's a tempting, "just one more row" sort of pattern, and the joy of it is helped along by Trekking's fantastic colors and pleasant yarn. I've already knitted something with this, but I ripped it all out because I was not satisfied. The yarn then sat in a squashy hand wrapped ball for about 6 months before I started working again. No problems. It's knititng up very nicely, with consistent stitch definition. Trekking XXL is definitely a workhorse yarn for me and I think I might pick some more up in the future. The balls are quite large enough for a pair of socks or a small shawl or half a big one. Downsides? Hmm, it's not alpaca or cashmere or merino, and the base is different so it's not quite as squooshy as something as Aslan Trends or Claudia Handpainted Fingering. Still, I can't say it isn't soft and I would be comfortable wearing it everywhere except maybe the back of my neck which is a bit delicate.