Wavy Gravy!

Here's the finished product for the Wavy Gravy hat that I mentioned in my previous post. Who knew Teddy was such a fashion plate?



Better shot to see how the colors are gorgeous and slowly change from one round to the next.

Knitting Update

Well, the chullo is coming along fine. I'm done with the boring liner part and about to start the pattern rounds. Here's a pic. You can see how the liner will look when it's folded up inside the hat.

In the interim, I actually had a quick project come and go. A friend saw me working on the chullo and said that she wanted a hat. I said "what color?" and she said "blueish". So I was thinking water and waves, then went hunting for a pattern. I came across the Wavy Gravy hat, which fit the bill pretty much exactly. I went down to the LYS to see what she had in Noro (which I had never knit with before -- it's an absolutely gorgeous yarn to work with!). I wound up choosing colorway #166, which is basically the colors of a peacock's tail -- lime green thru purple, cobalt blue and teal and back. It was a really quick knit; about 2.5 days, off and on.

The thing about having projects is that, for me at least, they breed more projects. Now I have an idea for another hat done in Noro (purple/red/orange) in the flame chevron pattern from Barbara Walker's 2nd Treasury. I also want to make up a couple of quick afghans done in Lion Brand Homespun on Speed Stix. I've never worked with those before and it might be fun.

Here's the flame chevron swatch that I worked up.

Adventures in Shopping Online

I have been long overdue to have an eye exam and get my glasses updated. I like the style of the ones I have now, and I am naturally lazy, so inertia kept me from doing anything about it until recently.

I went and had my exam done by our local ophthalmologist (much better than having it done by an optician) who gave me a copy of my prescription. Then, following the advice from the Glassy Eyes blog, I checked out several online eyeglass retailers. I didn't want anything too fancy, but I was interested in getting bendable titanium memory frames. I chose a pair from Zenni Optical that included a pair of single vision lenses for $29.95. Here's the catalog image for them.



I also decided to add anti-reflective/anti-glare coating for $4.95. With shipping, the total still came to under $50.

So, now I'm waiting for them to arrive. When they do, I will post a follow-up about the quality.

New Project

I've been away from my knitting for far too long. With the autumn here and winter approaching, I felt the need to make a new hat. I'd had my eye on this pattern for a Peruvian-inspired chullo for a little while. I love geometric colorwork and natural earth tones, so I decided to go for it. After a quick trip to Rae's Yarn Boutique, I was all set to go. I'll keep you updated on how it goes!

UPDATE: Grr! I just discovered that the cast-on row got twisted when I joined it and had to rip it out and start again. Knitting is great for developing patience...

Time Keeps On Passing

It is with some sadness that I wanted to note the passing of author Madeleine L'Engle. I saw the news a few days ago and wanted to write a little bit about the influence that her books had on me.

I don't remember exactly when it was that I read A Wrinkle in Time, but I was still in grade school at the time. I was captivated by the story of the Murry family and their travels through space and time. I eagerly read the next two books in the series before I lost track of the Murrys and O'Keefes. Now, my interest in reading more of her works has been sparked.

I especially enjoyed how she blended the elements of science, magic and religion in her books. Her quote that these three are are facets or reflections of a single deeper reality is pretty much my own belief. I can see that many aspects of my own spiritual and intellectual journey thus far are reflective of the same conviction.

Here is an article talking about L'Engle's relationship with Christianity.

Helping A Friend

Hey, check out my friend Doug's blog, either here or in the link list. He recently went into business for himself as an instrument maker. His blog documents the process of hand-crafting fine musical instruments from scratch.

El niño que vivió

Time for a new entry, now that the weekend is here. I'm happy to report that my order from Amazon arrived a couple of days ago. Since then, I've been reading thru the first chapter of "Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal". I have been pleasantly surprised at how much I can pick up without having to refer to the dictionary -- I would estimate about 40% comprehension. Of course, it helps that the story is familiar to me.

I have also been working with Madrigal some more. I did a quick tally of roughly how many words I have in my passive recognition vocabulary based on Madrigal's word groups and transformation rules. I came up with about 1265 words. Not all of them are high frequency, but a lot of them are, so it's good to be able to recognize them.

In other news, I think that I have my classes prioritized this semester. The one that is going to take the most work by far is the Real Analysis, but it will probably also be the most rewarding. The Combinatorics class comes in a distant second for difficulty and a close second for interest. As for the Stats class, so far it hasn't really been difficult at all. I am looking forward to learning more about the specific linear models and how to program them in R. I still want to get certified with SAS; I just need to figure out when I will have enough time to do it.