small mercies

The craziest period is over, the more painful period of waiting is beginning. Will they get my application in time? Apparently the postal service shuts down over the weekend or something like that, but then, my thesis made it to Berlin in time, so I'm hoping the application will make it to where it's supposed to go, too. Then of course, the big question: will they invite me for an interview? And the biggest question of them all: will they hire me? I've done what I could ... I'd really like this job, but I'm not going to wait around for it, that would drive me crazy.

At least the weather has been cold enough for me to take up knitting again. That's a big relief. And I'll be able to focus on my other work again, that's also nice. However, the rain and clouds mean less foto ops and the stressful last weeks mean my room is in a state of advanced chaos (which I hate). So, when I can get to it: cleaning, not knitting. Ok, a little knitting. My most wonderful brother brought me some awesomely nice yarn from the US and I started a shawl for a dearest friend of mine.

I needed that yarn to cheer me up, because one of my favorite yarns from Lana Grossa has been discontinued - probably not sucessfull enough. I love it, it's light, fuzzy and soooooft. So I bought a large amount of red yarn and a large amount of dark grey yarn and I will be making even more cardigans. I'm starting to wonder when I'm supposed to have the time to knit all that I want to knit, but ... the time will come, I'm sure.

Now just to motivate myself to go outside ... 

summer break

Oh boy. Ooooooh boy. I'm having a super-hectic July again. And this time my main workplace isn't climatised.

First of all, I am currently doing research on a somewhat forgotten composer of operettas. I can read the old handwriting style that was popular in German-speaking countries up to WWII and so when somebody calls the Austrian National Library and says "I can't read these letters from Grandma, please read them for me", they say "Uh, no, but we have someone on call who does this" and they call me. This happened again at the end of May and I got to transcribe over 300 letters and when everything was done, the woman actually writing the book asked me to help her with the historical research on the guy. So about three months after graduation, I am doing what I have been studying for the last ten years, my name will be in the book and I'm even getting paid! It's too bad we don't really have enough time, since there is a deadline from the publisher, but I have found all kinds of interesting things, so we're doing well. That's one thing. I have to go to archives, libraries and next week I'll be visiting cemeteries. Well, it's definitely educational and good experience.

The second thing, which I thought I could handle alongside the research, is a course in how to properly apply for jobs. I've wanted to do a course like that for a while, so I thought it would be ok, but there's this guy who talks allllll the time and is making things really miserable - dunno if for the rest of us, but certainly for me. But oh well, I'll learn some useful things and by the end of the course I'm sure I'll have a bit more confidence when it comes to applying for jobs.

And then there's the third thing. On Thursday during that course we had to work on the computers, drafting up a little paragraph that should advertise our greatness. I was bored and started looking around this job search engine for positions in academia, when I came across one that fit me perfectly. I got very excited and started researching and thinking about what I would need and today I already called there to ask about some details (like how many references I need and whether to send a picture or not and things like that) and emailed my professors about letters of recommendation.

With that, my July has entered crazytown. Added to that is the fact that I have committed myself to go to Berchtesgaden and see the Eagle's Nest on Monday and Tuesday - July has left crazytown and is heading for parts unknown.

The only thing I can do is do what I need to do and go with the flow. That means only little knitting (it's too hot, anyway), very little anime and a blogging break until at least two of the three things are over. I do wonder why these insane periods always come when it's hot outside which makes everything about 100 times worse, but eh. It's an exercise in Zen ... or perseverance.

a true friend

The spring + summer knitty of 2011 had not one, not two, but actually three patterns for cardigans that I actually want to knit! When I see great patterns I usually put them in my ravelry queue and then they stay there and wait, sometimes for years. But when I saw Amiga, Corinne and Daedalus, I just knew I had to have all three. Especially since I have lots of yarn for Amiga, given to me by a friend of my mother's.

I started my Amiga in basic black. I cast on the numbers for the mediums size and it knit up rather quickly. Soon I came to the row where the arms are split from the body. And that is when I realized that as wonderful as that cardigan is, the original garment was knit in a "small" size. Then the numbers were scaled up mathematically and suddenly my medium cardigan had huge armholes. Now in retrospect, it might have been my gauge. I hardly ever check gauge because I dislike knitting gauge swatches (yeah, yeah, I know) and I probably knit a little loosely with this yarn.

So I grew very, very annoyed. It's always easier to blame someone else - like oh say, the designer (well, I'm still annoyed with the giant sleeves, I gotta tell you that). I ripped back a few rows to get back to the numbers for a small size, put the arms on hold and increased a few stitches under the arms to make space for my boobs. At that moment I still hated the whole garment. Of course, since I didn't rip back to the beginning, the back was much broader than intended (yes, I could have probably omitted those increases under the arms) and anyway, it was somehow loose and frumpy and annoying!

But my mother thought it was great. And since my mother likes her jackets on the looser side and has a birthday in July, well ... hello birthday present (plus a mug - my mother doesn't read this blog so I can say this). So I knit on. And on and on and after a very short while - it really knits up quickly - the thing was long enough. I picked up the stitches for the collar and once that was done, I started liking the jacket more. And more ... and more! I mean, apart from the loose fit, it is a great jacket. I did not, however, use Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind-off, because a) too much of a bother and b) a loose normal bind-off is better for this jacket, *I* think. (I always know better, check out the first panel in the third row.)

So I will be knitting this again - with the right numbers (small size) and a few adjustments. After all, I have the yarn for three more jackets. But since I don't need three Amiga jackets, I'm giving one of those yarn collections to a dear friend of mine who is just getting into knitting (she's an absolute crocheter), because Amiga is quick, simple and satisfying.

Right now I'm still on the arms. At first I knit them both at the same time might because that saves row-counting, but it's not as quick and convenient as knitting them one at a time. And my mother likes long sleeves, so I'm switching.

In other news: guess who got a haircut!

In the ongoing process of turning myself into the adult I always wanted to be which started last spring, this is a huge step forward. For the second time in my life I went to a professional hairdresser and now I have hair that is about 10 times more daring than I am. 

Lifelong learning. It's a bit scary, but fun!

Those two pictures were taken almost right after the cut, when I had about 20 5 different styling products in there. Today I washed my hair and only used a bit of curling spritz (tee-hee) and while it is still adorable, I can totally see why styling products are necessary now, since my soft curls will grow fuzzier and frizzier the longer the day is. So tomorrow - new wash, new experiment (styling foam).

unbearably warm

Ah, Vienna. Vienna in the summer is hot and humid (except currently it's warm and humid and stormy and partially rainy) and the less said about it the better.

Kuro has flown the nest (or yard) and has done so apparently so successfully that s/he lost her/his parents. They came to our yard to look for her/him, but no Kuro. And after all the love and care we gave that bird ... tssss. Anyway, I'm sure Kuro is quite alright and while I hope that the parents don't drop another baby bird in our yard next spring, I'm also kind of curious to see if they'll do it again.

In the meantime, knitting. Yes, despite the heat. I just do it where or when it's cooler (the country, Starbucks, during rainstorms). I finally knitted something that for some reason I haven't knitted for myself until now. Legwarmers, that is. When I restarted my knitting, after the first bad experiments (did I talk about those yet?) I made legwarmers for my mother and for a neighbour ... but not for me. And I have suffered cold feet and cold ankles for many years and always thought "Gee, I knit, right? Why am I not knitting legwarmers for myself?"

Actually, considering I don't wear my woolen socks that often, why didn't I just knit legwarmers with the sock patterns? I guess sometimes I'm so set on FOLLOWING THE PLAN that I don't even see how a very small deviation from that plan can make everything so much better. I'm pretty good at deviating in general, but sometimes ... sometimes it doesn't happen until quite some time later.

So, the Spiralling legwarmers. And how they paid off already. At first I thought a rather involved pattern like the very pretty Unraveling Ribs Socks would be cool, but that required a whoooole lot of purling and chart reading and the yarn just didn't really like the pattern. Then I looked at the beautiful Sinusoida socks and fell in love. I actually love the slip-stitch fabric so much that I'm wondering where else I could use it.

The yarn is an older edition of Lana Grossa Meilenweit "Party" and is therefore a little scratchy. But when I saw the colors, I just had to have it, although looking at them now, the pictures are again much too blue. Damn that camera! I really like this combination and the pattern just mixed up the stripes beautifully. And I just need to weave in two more ends and cut off that one end ... finishing ... never one of my favorite activities.

Now I need to get back to work - the letters are almost almost almost transcribed, but due to very complicated circumstances I can't print out the last ones. And tomorrow I start doing historical research for the book project about the recipient and author of those letters.

Celebratory kitty!

surprise guest

Hardly any knitting happening here, since I am busy transcribing extremely inane letters written in an old German writing style into word files. Anyone who said that email, texting and twitter will lead to the loss of great writing ... read these letters. They were written by hand in 1878 and great writing they ain't. Ah well, it pays the rent. 

But I do have things to tell. My mother and I are shuttling back and forth between Styria (where we have a house that needs constant work) and Vienna on the weekends, because Austria has lots of holidays in May and June and particularly this June almost every weekend is a long one. Two weeks ago we returned from the country to find a dead young crow in the courtyard and were consequently sad.
 
Last Sunday we returned from a lovely brunch (oh doesn't this sound fan-tas-tic ... and so fashionable ... brunching with my mother) and found a live young crow in the courtyard! This one was older than the last one and was hopping around on the ground.

That's Kuro, meaning black in Japanese and it's also the way the English word "crow" is pronounced by the Japanese. S/he is a lively, pleasant fellow and loves it when you talk to her/him. If you don't talk and just walk by, s/he becomes agitated and will hide in funny places.

Like here. It's not a very good perch - Kuro hasn't quite learned yet what makes or doesn't make a good perch, but today s/he showed me a very funny maneuver - I wish I had caught it on video.









I did call the clinic of the veterenary university to see whether there was something we could do. Kuro wasn't hurt, but you know, just in case. But they said to leave her/him be as long as her/his parents were supervising, s/he would be ok and that this was a normal thing for crows. And the parents are definitely watching over her/him! At first they were pretty noisy and even tried to attack my mother but now they're calm. 

As you can see, Kuro is a bit of a show-off. First s/he was hiding by the bikes, but when I talked nicely, s/he came out and assumed this pose. Heh.









 



I don't think Kuro will stay with us much longer, though. S/he has already shown off her flying skills to us and today I saw her/him on the bar that is at the level of our first floor (i.e., the one above the ground floor). One parent was up on the roof of the third floor, watching her/him do stunts on the bar (silly bird).










I am a little sad to see Kuro go, but see, there is this kittycat ...

.... thiiiis kittycat ....

.... this kittycat who is the best and prettiest and cuddliest and snuggliest and the most beautiful kittycat in the world, who keeps me from knitting because he wants to be petted ...

... and he hasn't been allowed to go out in the courtyard because of Kuro, so he'll be glad to see her/him take off.

Japanophile

Sakura in Bonn - you already saw those

That's me. Not an entirely uncritical one (#not a weeabo), but there are many things I like about Japan and Japanese culture. And what do you get when you mix pink cotton yarn, summer weather and a Japanophile knitter? Something called Sakura - after the cherry blossoms that are revered and celebrated every spring in Japan.

See, Austria is currently experiencing a draught and the weather is too warm to knit with wool. 250 and Quittez are languishing. The Rose-Colored Edge shawl is waiting for a different yarn for its edging. I also have about a bazillion summer scarves, but no summer shawl. And when it gets drafty, a scarf protects the neck, but not the upper back.

What to do? A stash crawl revealed some pink cotton lace yarn (Lang yarns Marisa, to be exact). Five balls of it, a little more than 1000 meters. Great! Its color is quite reminiscent of cherry blossoms, so why not design a lace shawl that looks like cherry blossoms?

Most common depiction of sakura petals

But that's easier said than done. The first obstacle is the fact that cherry blossoms and their stylized appearance are difficult to translate into knitting.

Cherries belong to the genus of Prunus and their blossoms have five petals like almond, apricot, peach and plum blossoms. While the blossom as a whole is still symmetrical and an image of the outline can definitely be expressed in knits and purls as in this washcloth, in lace it's much harder.

To get an accurate sakura blossom in the easiest way, you'd either need to start at the center or from the outside in, that way, the five petals can be expressed accurately. But even then, the shape of the petals is tricky, since the most common depiction of the petals shows them as having a dent at the top.

Unblocked Hanami

Crochet actually manages to replicate flowers of all kinds much better than knitting (see crocheted sakura here and here), but I didn't want to crochet a shawl.

There are quite a few sakura-themed knitting patterns out there. There's the beautiful Hanami Stole by Melanie Gibbons, the first knitting pattern I ever bought. I had to wait for years before I could lay my hands on proper lace yarn for this (got it from KarlaA).

Some more patterns: Grace Mcewen designed a Sakura scarf by focusing on the twigs, rather than the blossoms. And then there's always the possibility of knitting something, making little blossoms and attaching them like in this pattern by Sara Parelhoff. But I wanted lace sakura blossoms!

 

So far, I've tried two different approaches. The first one was inspired by the Vinca shawl by Miriam Felton. Starting the shawl at the center with a sakura blossom - why not? I used the wrong needles (4mm is too large) but it turned out pretty well, I thought.

The finished shawl was supposed to look something like the incredibly crappy drawing on the left. But the blossom at the center of my shawl isn't that large.

To make the blossom larger, I'd need to figure out the increases, but all the math in my brain has been replaced by anime history. How to fill in the rest? More petals? The petals and their increase and decrease ratio are also tricky and I haven't found a pleasing solution for further petals yet. You can see that I tried, but it just didn't work out that well.

So I started a second try. Conventional shawl architecture, triangle shawl, top down, garter stitch. And I discovered that the violet pattern (at right) that I put to good use in my Tegami Bachi cowl looks quite nice when it's done in garter stitch. By virtue of the shawl construction, it becomes tilted and so more like sakura blossoms than violets (see below).

Well, *I* think they kinda look like sakura ...

Ultimately, I think a combination of these two patterns might do the trick. Starting out at the center with my sakura blossom, I could then do garter stitch or actually stockinette and use the violet pattern and random lace-overs to add random blossoms and petals.

Once the shawl is done (I'm already afraid of the decrease count for those two triangle bits), I'd add a garter stitch border on the top and a lacy border on the bottom (leaves, I think). That way I'll get the Sakura Shawl I wanted, unless the part of me that is thinking "pink ... lace ... flowers = frill overload" wins and I chuck the whole thing.

and so there were socks

I jumped headfirst into my yarn stash, looked at my box of sock yarn and my pile of patterns and finally came up with these. The pattern is Nutkin and I call them Suncream socks because ... don't the colors remind you of sunscreen bottles? I remember, in our old bathroom on the top of the wooden shelf that held all my dad's toiletries, there was a collection of sunscreen bottles. Like these (only older):

 The socks look like these bottles. Very 70s. Very nostalgic. What - no fashionable mood board with ... I don't know, oranges and pictures of the ocean and ... coconut palm tree trunks? Or ... who knows, an old coffee ad? Nope, the dust-covered sunscreen bottles that I saw almost every morning and every evening for about 20 years or so, those made me want to knit with this yarn.


I modified the pattern a little, because the cuff had all sorts of instructions (stockinette, purl line, fold over, knit together with provisional cast-on ... too much work) and I decided to do Japanese shortrows for the heel (a waste of time for sock heels, sadly), but on the whole, the pattern is simple and easy, just what I wanted. The second sock is done already, too (well, it *has* been two weeks since my last post).

It's getting far too hot to knit with wool in Vienna, though. I'm thinking about starting a cotton shawl (because I don't have enough stuff on the needles, nooooo), but I don't know which pattern I should use. The yarn is pink and I'd love to do something cherry blossom-themed (since I'm such a Japanophile), but it is dang hard to replicate sakura in knitting.

I'd also like to finish my Rose-colored Edges Shawl (the grey blob on the right), but recently I decided that the pink yarn for the edges was too good to be just an edge. Now what? Well ... Lana Grossa supposedly is bringing out a lace yarn, so I'll have to visit my favorite yarnstore very soon.

Meanwhile, it's back to the country with me for the weekend ... more cleaning.