Through the Cracks

I did actually mention that I was making this top, but I failed to report when I finished it. It's been done for many weeks now, and I've worn it often.

Pattern: Plain and Simple Pullover by Vera Valimaki
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss sock yarn in Woodland Sage, frogged from my Thermal.
Needles: US 2 and US 1
Modifications: I didn't pick up as many stitches around the neck as the pattern said. Mostly that was from laziness, but also this yarn drapes like nobody's business, so the smaller neck circumfrence was a really good move.

I do actually like this top, but I'm not thrilled with it. Mostly this has to do with the yarn, not the pattern which I find very wearable. I'd definitely make another in a different yarn. Gloss has some problems, which I consider to be pretty important. It does not hold its shape at all, it is pretty splitty, it does not frog especially well (the yarn fuzzes up and is prone to breaking), and any garment knitted in it gains substantial length when washed. This last reason is why my Thermal had to be frogged - a top that was maybe a bit short after knitting was suddenly halfway to my knees after washing. I took this into account when knitting this top. For the body to the underarms, I knit 14". After washing it measured in excess of 18". I also knit the armholes and inch shorter than I normally would. They lengthed to the correct size later.

These tendencies also do not lend themselves very well to a big fold-over neckline. The neck is floppy at best and a bit gaping. I also got right sick of knitting 3x3 rib and stopped before I probably should have.

The one comment I have to say about the pattern is that the instructions for which button band goes where and where to sew on the buttons are not super clear. From the designer's pictures, it seems that the button holes should go on the front and the button band on the back, but the buttons continue along the front edge of the fold-over neck. Instead of switching a button hole band to a button band halfway through, I just decided to have the buttons on the front edge and the holes on the back, meaning that the back laps over the front.

I'm likely to knit this again sometime, in a better yarn of course, and when I do I'll make just one more modification besides a longer neck, which is to make the sleeves a bit shorter. This is not a huge deal, just personal preference.

There have been a lot of little knits happening around here lately, but my knitting mojo has been in a bit of a funk. A design I started is not going to work out, and I see very little point in knitting things that aren't going to be used. I have plenty of hats and mittens for myself already (as do my immediate family) but hats and mittens seem to be what I can handle right now. Lots of experimentation happening, and planning for the coming year....

Lost

I got some bad news on Sunday night. It appears that the practice rooms at my undergrad, Ithaca College, were vandalized. At the time 60 pianos and some percussion equipment were thought to be destroyed. This on the eve of the beginning of juries, the “final exam” for the playing portion of a musician’s studies in higher education. In the end, though ¾ of the pianos available in the practice rooms were overturned or had parts ripped out, most were in “playable” condition after some intensive work by the piano technicians. The police are investigating, and no one has been caught, nor is there any indication of why this was done.

I’m still in shock, mostly because I cannot for the life of me understand why someone would do this. I keep thinking of the sheer amount of time and strength it would have taken. When could this have happened? You cannot be in the music building during any of its open hours find yourself alone in the building. It’s generally open from 7AM to 1AM, and I have heard that often you can stay later than that. This 6 hour period of lockdown is really only to force music students to get some sleep. Could it have been a music student? More than one? This at least, does not seem true to me. A normal music student would never consider this kind of damage to a musical instrument. And they would not do it on the eve of juries. While this seems like the “best” time to do damage, and it’s true that the practice rooms get a lot of use at this time, the reality is that the practicing that needs to be done has already been done, and most people avoid the practice rooms entirely after juries are over which means that about Wednesday things get really quiet. The school has a lot of time to repair the pianos, get replacements, clean up, and generally put things to right again before school starts up. A more disruptive time would have been the first day of the new semester.

And still I do not understand. This shock goes around and around in my head and my heart, never reaching any kind of destination, open-ended and searching. Why?

This may seem trivial to a non-musician. The damage was, after all, pretty minimal in the end. But it’s the violation that is the shock. Consider a few points.

1. The music building is more a home than many musicians’ dorms or apartments. We often spend more hours a day in the music building than we do anywhere else between classes and practicing and attending concerts.

2. The music building at IC has always been open to anyone. Many music buildings I have visited over the years require key cards to get in, have extremely limited hours, or extremely limited space. The practice rooms are invariably in the basement, but IC’s rooms have windows to the outside (a real treat) and more grand pianos available to students than any other school I have ever visited. It’s this openness and the sense of home that seems most violated.

3. And then there’s the instruments themselves. Pianists and percussionist do not have the luxury of portable instruments. Even in the best of circumstances, the sheer cost of a grand piano or a marimba means that most of these students can only hope of owning one someday, after years and years of saving pennies. They cannot afford their own instruments, and that is why there are so many available in music schools, and why the pianists and percussionists spend so much time in the music building.

4. Lastly, I have to mention the personal relationship that a musician feels with his or her instrument. Each instrument has a personality, little things that it likes or doesn’t like, things it does effortlessly and things you need to coax it to do. Each instrument has its own voice. A music student often spends more hours a day with their instrument than any person in their lives. Consider that. A student was quoted as saying that he considers this act like a murder. He’s not far wrong in sentiment if not in actual fact.

I can’t help but think of the steps that IC will have to take to protect its students and its instruments, and another little part of me is sad. Hindsight is 20/20 and I have only been able to accurately value what Ithaca has given me in relation to the kinds of experiences I have had since. Ithaca is a truly unique place and offers an incredibly thorough and diverse musical education. I cannot picture how it will change with locks on its doors.

I've been sick this week. It's been so long since I've been really sick - stay home from work sick - that I've completely forgotten how miserable it can be. Not just the sneezing and the headaches, sore throats and excessive Kleenex usage, but the boredom of it all! I think I watched about 6 of those Lifetime Christmas movies the past week, started sewing a dress (which will not be finished because of fitting issues), made a monster, started a new sweater, and made these mittens. They are based on a vintage pattern I picked up a few years back. I have no idea what decade the pattern is from - it's a Patons' pattern and judging from the color scheme of the original (yellow and burnt orange) I'd guess it's from the 70s. The original is for children, but I loved the criss-cross and tassel detail so much that I decided to translate them for adults.

Pattern: My own
Yarn: Cascade 220 in Italian Plum (I think?) and Classic Elite Wings (discontinued, and leftover from my Cardigan for Arwen) in a lavender.
Needles: US 4 and a crochet hook in size F

The mittens themselves were super quick to knit, even while basically making up a new pattern. It took a bit longer to get the proportions right on the length of the crocheted chain versus the number and spacing of the criss-crosses. I adore them, but they are a tad small for me. I seem to make this mistake a lot in my crafts for myself. Anyway, if they fit a certain friend of mine, she will be getting them as a Christmas gift. These are really great for last minute gifts. If there's intrest, I can write up the pattern quickly and offer it for free through Ravelry for last minute gifting.

Presenting!

I am absolutely thrilled to announce that the pattern for my Double Time Vest is now up in my Ravelry store. I can't believe that I've actually done it! It's been a while in coming (most of the fall, actually) but it's here and it's ready for you to enjoy. I'd like to thank all the people over at the Vestvember group who really encouraged me with all their kind comments on my vest. I'm sure that this vest has a place in nearly every wardrobe - I've worn it more than a few times myself recently. Should you have any questions or comments, need clarification, or find errata, please contact me as soon as possible.

Meet Jann

Have I told you about Jann? I worked with Jann in the Aspen Music Festival Box Office the past two years. She fun and loud and a great person to work with. Since she's a local, she knows just about everything that's going on around town, and since she's worked in the hospitality industry, she also knows a lot of the concierges. I think I mentioned before, but aside from the first rush of the morning and right before a concert, there's not a lot to do in the box office when the phone is not ringing. I spent a lot of time browsing around Ravelry and Flickr and the like, and I showed Jann a picture of Tuppy Von Monster. She fell in love and insisted that I make a picture of him the background of the computer I regularly used, so even when I wasn't there, she could see him. She was so excited about him that she kept calling him Tuffy not Tuppy, and I could never correct her. I promised that I would make him for her, and I got her address. She probably thinks that I have forgotten about my promise, but I haven't.

Pattern: Tuppy Von Monster by Elli Stubenrauch
Yarn: The main color is Paton's Classic Wool in Winter White, the contrast colors are bits from the stash.
Needles: US 4
Mods: Just a few things to make my life easier - I didn't have any extra heavy stabilizer, so the teeth are made from white felt and the wings are very lightly stuffed with polyfill. I accidentally bought 12mm eyes instead of 15mm eyes, so those went on instead. I also mixed it up with the colors - instead of using B and C for the horns, I used what I liked instead.

"Tuffy" was pretty fun to make, and he's ever so cute. The body on mine seems to be more oblong than pear shaped like in the pattern, and his legs are decidedly splayed. He doesn't stand on his own, as it appears the pattern model does, but his sweet little smile makes up for it. I'll be sending him out tomorrow with a jar of raspberry jam and wishing Jann the very merriest of holidays, up there in America's winter wonderland.

Before :: After

Do my fingers look a little white-knuckled around that cookie? I knew when I snatched up this teaching job for today that it was going to be a challenge - 2nd grade, and I've never done a whole day with kids so young. I called home last night to have a mini freak out over it. My dad set my head back on my shoulders and I scooped House at Pooh Corner and a book of Native American myths into my bag and tripped happily along my way.

If I had known that it was this 2nd grade, I would have just stayed home. I survived, but ended up sending two boys to the office for the 2nd half of the day and received concerned looks from just about every teacher I passed in the hall all day. I must have looked a bit shell-shocked. Needless to say, these kids were not going to be sitting still for House at Pooh Corner. I spend the whole day in a cold sweat, trying to keep kids on task.

Upon arriving home, I headed straight for the yoga pants on my Owls sweater. I was popping a couple of ibprofen and stirring honey into my Lady Grey tea when there was a knock on the door.

A package for me! I chose to spend my birthday money severely dessimating my Amazon wishlist, and I'm so glad I did, especially since it came today of all days! (That's right, as of last Friday another year older, another year... wiser....?) Now I have too many awesome stress relievers and I can't decide! Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Kungfu Panda? Smutty romance novel? New music? I'm going to opt against doing them all at once, since I've been subjected to a dull roar all day, and I think my head might explode....

And, oh, tonight is Creative Night, a semi-regular thing I have going with some girls I know. We just get together and, well, I'm sure it's no surprise that we mostly eat and chat more than actually create. I'm hoping to get a good start on the neck for my Plain and Simple Vest. Just 7 inches of ribbing on size 1 needles to go. Good food, good friends, and snuggles from a dog named Odo (you know, from Deep Space Nine. He's a shapeshifter.) The best antidote to a crappy day that I know of. Dudes, I earned my pittance today.