Month: March 2011

Current Events · News

Wherein I Reminisce About Great Earthquakes I Have Known

Jen4 Comments

Before I was CTJen, I was SoCalJen. While I was there, I was in dozens of earthquakes, but 2 quakes stand out in my mind. The first was the Sierra Madre quake for which I had a front row seat, having just moved to Sierra Madre to live my friend (and her parents) so I could attend Pasadena City College. This quake, while just a 5.6, was extremely violent. I remember it felt as though the floor dropped out beneath me. Thankfully, the shaking only lasted for a few seconds. It made a terrible mess though.

The second was the Northridge quake, a 6.7. Luckily we were far enough away from the epicenter of that quake to only feel it as a gentle rolling which lasted for what about 90 seconds or so. Where we lived (in Lancaster) we did not experience first hand any of the awful devastation which the valleys below us suffered greatly. Still, it was pretty scary for us since much of the infrastructure which connected the High Desert with the rest of Southern California was severely damaged.

Both of these earthquakes (well, all of the earthquakes I experienced while living in SoCal) were utterly terrifying and are among the many reasons I no longer live in Southern California, but they pale in comparison to the 8.9 quake which rocked Japan today. The devastation there is just breathtaking. I urge you, if you haven’t already, to go to Peacewinds America (or the aid organization of your choice) and give what you can.

Knitting

Sweater Deathmatch, Round 4

Jen1 Comment

We actually have been working on the sweater, intermittently and are very nearly finished with the waist shaping, but since we haven’t had as much time to work on it as we had hoped for (what with all the laundry and the orchestra and the making pancakes and such) there hasn’t been much progress on the sweater in recent days. We actually had to go back to the laundry mat today, if you can believe that, and tomorrow we have promised the children a trip to the aquarium. Further, on Saturday, dear Reader, your very own Interrupted Knitter is going to be teaching a class at the local yarn store! (We are both excited and nervous for that.). We had very much hoped for this sweater to have been defeated by now, but it truly appears that we shall have to wait until Sunday (at the very soonest!) to vanquish our foe.

As an aside, we wonder, dear reader, if it is very bad form for the instructor of a class to be utterly focused on finishing a project which is quite different from that which she is teaching. Are there any knitting instructors among our readership who have an answer?

grumble · life

Tacet

Jen3 Comments

As I type this I am sitting tacet at orchestra rehearsal, knitting and listening to the conductor rehearse everyone else in the Peer Gynt Suites (and trying to stay out of trouble; bored trombonists are often unintentionally disruptive to orchestra rehearsals). If I had a TARDIS I would go back in time and find out what exactly Grieg’s problem with trombones is. ALL THE OTHER BRASS sections actually play in this! I mean, what the hell Greig?!?!? Did some lady trombone player break your heart or something? Did a banker trombonist lose all your money in the stock market? Did a cattle rustling trombonist steal your cow? What is your problem with trombone players? Why single them out as the ONLY SECTION that doesn’t play? BLAAAAAARG!!! I’m coming for you Grieg. I’m going to to travel back in time and lose all your money in the stock market and then I’m going to steal your cow. RIGHT AFTER I BREAK YOUT HEART you trombone hating jerk wad. That’s right. I said it. Grieg is a jerk wad.

holiday cheer

Happy Shrovetide!

Jen1 Comment

om nom nom nom!

life · Zombies

A Day of Laundry

Jen2 Comments

I admit that my regular routine gets a relatively late start around here. But, ordinarily, getting a load of laundry going by 11 am is no big deal in the grand scheme of things, because I can do the laundry at my leisure. Except today when, on the second load, the washing machine started making a strange noise and stopped agitating and stopped spinning and basically stopped doing anything except being an extremely large bucket. After calling for a repair appointment (which is a whole week away dammit), I packed up all the laundry in the house and the kids and myself and we headed out the door for the local suds n’ duds. It was about 130 by the time we got there and even though I was able to use as many washing machines and dryers as I needed, it was still 330 before we got out of there. And by the time I got home and put everything away (and folded the previous laundry loads I had done), it was 6 o’clock and I had no plan whatsoever for dinner. Laundry jacked my entire day. But, on the bright side, I did ALL THE LAUNDRY IN THE UNIVERSE today and shouldn’t have to even think about it again for a couple of days (at least). This frees up time for knitting, which is always a good thing.

Knitting

Sweater Deathmatch, Round 3

Jen2 Comments

Woke to find the cat (probably Lolly, grr) had attacked the sweater over night. Several stitches were snagged. One ply of one stitch was licked clean in half. I went ahead and completed the yoke anyway.

Knitting

Sweater Deathmatch, Round 2

Jen1 Comment

1. I knitted for much of the morning and early afternoon and didn’t even finish the yoke. With 10 more rows to go, I might be able to make it past the yoke before midnight, but this sweater is proving to be a formidable foe.

2. My wrist and arm are making noises at me, which is why I took a portion of the day off from knitting. A formidable foe indeed.

3. I like this yarn, but, unlike more heavily processed yarns, it definitely has a strong sheepy odor. This is not necessarily a bad thing, just not something I’m used to. Yet.

4. I haven’t even made a dent in the first yarn cake. It’s like a bottomless yarn cake.

5. I’m really surprised this yarn gets away with being called a bulky weight. It’s a heavy worsted at best. Still, I like how it’s knitting up. I love marled yarns.

6. It’s impossible to get a decent picture in my living room at night, but I tried.

Knitting · Zombies

Sweater Deathmatch, Round One

Jen1 Comment

The yarn I ordered for Iced arrived today! I wound it into three fat cakes as soon as I was able.

I did a quick swatch and then I cast on! This sweater’s going down.

 

random

Leet Customer Service Skilz, I Has Dem

Jen2 Comments

Dear Rima:

Enclosed please find one photo of a knitted work in progress, as per your request. I hope it is to your liking.

Kindest and best regards,

CTJen
Knitting Interrupted

Knitting · wip wednesday

WIP Wednesday (pictureless edtion)

Jen3 Comments

Oh, hey there. I just remembered that I have to do this blog thing again. Wednesdays are exceedingly bad for me as there is usually a lot going on. Normally we’d have our homeschool group, but today I had to go to the accountant instead (yay tax season!), after which was my weekly grocery run a couple of days late. Our cupboards were pretty bare, if you know what I mean. And, in 40 minutes my trombone and I will zip out the door for orchestra rehearsal. So yeah, busy day. And yet, SOMEHOW, shockingly, I managed to sneak in a few rounds of my sister’s shawl. I picked it up last night to work on while I was watching TV (which, actually didn’t happen because, frankly, I DON’T GIVE A FLYING RAT’S ASS ABOUT CHARLIE EFFING SHEEN) and at this stage (early) it’s still pretty small (under 200 stitches around). I forgot how fast it goes! And also how fun! I caught myself planning to do a whole pattern repeat every single day (only 4 days until the next increase round at which point the thing becomes a huge terrifying monster again). And THEN I was thinking I might actually even be able to finish it if I tried to do at least a half a pattern repeat a day (24 days of that). ZOMG you guys! I could totally finish that damn thing! FINISHED! HOW AWESOME WOULD THAT BE? THEN I COULD CAST ONE ON FOR MYSELF!!!

hah.

Yeah. Anyway. We’ll see how I feel about it when my Cascade Eco arrives. Although, the sweater I’ve planned for it will knit up pretty quickly.

Anyhoo, I’m off to orchestra! Toodles!