Lanesplitter is moving along at a fantastic clip. After a bunch of knitting time last night with good friends (yay!!), I was nearly finished with the decrease section. I was a little bit worried that I hadn't knit the proper size, but once it was sewn together it was perfect!

I need to add the waistband because there is no way that this is staying up on its own. I've decided not to do the waistband as written (seems bulky). Instead I'm going to do a ribbed waistband with a drawstring.

Now I just have to get motivated to pick up all those stitches...

The Tom Petty concert last night was fantastic!! I took a ton of pictures and this is the only one that was decent. Most of them look like this:

I did get a pretty good video of "Free Fallin'" while the drunk idiots in front of us disappeared for a few minutes.

So remember the drunk dude from the Iron Maiden story? These morons in front of us were likely his relatives.

I don't know how well you can see them, but they are 4 40-somethings (2 girls [1 blonde, 1 brunette], 2 guys [white shirt dude and other dude]), who were totally drunk, totally obnoxious, and a few thin layers of clothing from just having sex in front of everyone in our section. From our best judgment being a mere few feet away from their antics, our best assessment of the situation is that the two dudes had been macking on these girls for a while and invited them to see Tom Petty as a way to finally get them in bed. The girls seemed totally cool with this plan and were high fiving each other has their dancing got raunchier. White shirted dude (who was like 8 feet tall and had a huge head) and blonde girl were doing a lot of goofy dancing and bumping. Other dude and brunette girl was doing a lot of dirty dancing and making out. I said to Kevin at one point that it would have been cheaper for them to have gone to a club if they wanted to dance so much because they seemed to pay no attention to the show. Just before the encore, the girls started smoking pot, and then white shirt dude vanished and never returned. Then things got real interesting. The brunette girl stopped dancing and was curled in the fetal position in her seat and her dude seemed much less into her. The blonde girl kept drunk dancing by herself, eventually realized that her friend was looking like death and asked her if she was ok. Brunette girl waved her off, and then put her head between her legs and started puking on her feet. The dude who had been totally all over her responded to her puking by standing up, starting to dance for a moment like he was really into the music, stepping aside, and then leaving. Now possibly he was a nice guy looking to get his potential hook up some medical attention or a bottle of water. But our group's agreement was that the dude decided to cut his losses and flee. Fortunately the show ended a few minutes later and we quickly exited as the blonde girl tried to use her iPhone as a flashlight while trying to read an LIRR schedule.

But aside from all that drama and hilarity, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers rocked the house. They played a ton of their greatest hits like American Girl, Runnin' Down a Dream, Free Fallin', Last Dance with Mary Jane, Learning to Fly, and so many more. They also played 5 songs off their new CD, which is really good with a nice bluesy vibe.

And thus ends the concert season for us. Here's hoping that Iron Maiden and Tom Petty both come around to MSG in July 2012 (since we've now seen both in July 2008 and 2010).

I did some blog cleaning on Sunday afternoon. Too hot to go outside, and too lazy to clean the apartment, blog cleaning seemed like a low key (but productive!) activity.

You might notice some pictures now in the left hand column of my patterns. Woo!

Other little changes are no big deal. But the big thing that I noticed was that I hadn't updated my Sock Gallery since last October. I thought to myself, that's sad. I should add all of the new socks I've knit since October. But my mind was drawing a blank. So I referenced Ravelry.

Oh....

Oh dear....

Uhm...

I haven't knit a completed pair of socks since August 2009. My sock gallery was up to date. From my peak in 2007 of 10 pairs to a slight decrease in 2008 of 7 pairs to a huge drop in 2009 of 3 pairs (including one pair for a baby which really shouldn't count), I've lost the sock knitting bug. There's still time in 2010 to knock off several pairs. I've got one sock of a pair completed and 1/2 of one of second pair started. That could easily be two pairs for the year... that is if I could locate where I hid those socks in progress...

Have I lost the will to knit socks?! This is really a two part problem.

1. To be honest... this past winter, I didn't really wear many of my hand knit socks. (hanging head in shame) I did wear some of them, but they were not my everyday socks. They weren't even special occasion socks. Every now and then I'd think about them and think "oh, I should wear a pair." After a few occasions of my feet being too hot (what?! I need more lace pairs) and my legs getting itchy from wearing them, I just wasn't as interested in wearing them. When you are not wearing your beautiful hand knit socks all of the time, you aren't really inspired to knit more.

2. The bigger issue is in general my knitting productivity has tanked. Looking back at my first years of knitting, I was churning out turns of projects. Not all of them successful or even still around, but I was making a lot of stuff. But looking at my most recent projects on Ravelry, I've only completed three projects so far this year: Thea, a scarf, and a hat. While Thea was a big knit, all three of these were finished by the end of February. Since then... diddly. Clearly having a real job and not being a graduate student is a factor. Another factor is just not being inspired by much. Compared to when I first started knitting and would make anything regardless of whether it would turn out well or if I'd really wear it, I'm much more selective. I don't want to waste what little knitting time (or yarn money) I have on dud projects that go into the sweater box and never return.

What's a knitter to do? I'm not sure. I definitely want to redouble my efforts on Lanesplitter and Kirra to finish them before the semester starts. Maybe I'll take a page from the Yarn Harlot and create a sock of the month club for myself with existing stash and patterns. I need goals.

I've been chugging along on Lanesplitter. I got to length around 17-18 inches depending on whether the knit is feeling more or less stretchy when I measure it. Anything more than 18 inches is probably too long for me as a skirt. So I moved onto the next set of instructions which is the straight section. But it contains the phrase "until left side edge of work measures..." I think I know which side is the left side edge, but I'm not sure.

The reason why I doubt that the bottom edge (with the tape measure) is the left side edge is because I'm so close to the measurement to stop and move onto the next section. But if the vertical edge is the right side edge (or at least what I measured to be that edge for the length of the skirt), then the left side edge should be the bottom horizontal edge, not the little top horizontal edge. As soon as you start the straight section, the work morphs from a triangle to a trapezoid. Right side edge and left side edge are not the most descriptive (at least to me) guide posts.

My problem is that I've also had a terrible time visualizing how this triangular (trapezoidal) piece becomes a rectangular. I mean, I get it and I can understand it logically, just my mind's eye is not seeing it.

But so I'll got with the bottom edge as the left side edge and rejoice that I'm a mere 7 inches from my next goal. Which is the best goal of all (besides finishing), because it signals the beginning of the decrease section and decrease sections are always the most fun!!

Oh, and because I like to change things up, I've been toying with altering the waistband because the flip side of the skirt is also really pretty and how cool would it be to have two skirts in one! Of course that does throw a monkey wrench in the lining department, and this skirt cannot function (for me at least) without something underneath... more to ponder...

My world of blog reading started with primarily knitting blogs. For many years, my bloglines account was populated with only knitting blogs. As I became more and more enmeshed in academia, I began adding academic bloggers to my list. Those can be somewhat disheartening and the knitting bloggers have been quieter and quieter, so I started adding funny blogs (such as FailBlog, Cute Overload, etc.). Most recent additions to the bloglines have been food blogs. Mostly, I come across a random post and find that the individual makes or reports on yummy foods or talks about different gadgets, and then I add them to my list.

On food blog that's been on the list for a while is Baking Bites. I'd actually used her site a long time before I realized the bloggie part because she has recipes for home made girl scout cookies. I've made both the thin mints and the samoas. When I tried the thin mints, they were good, but I didn't use the exact right mint flavor. The samoas were to die for, but a bit of a pain to assemble.

Now I love me some girl scout cookies. And if I run across some girl scouts, I happily buy as many thin mints and samoas as I can afford. The problem is... I can't ever find any girl scouts. I stalked the girl scouts website for when cookie season started. They appear to have a helpful site for locating cookie sales... the problem is that helpful site is a useless waste of hope and time. You enter your zip code and it tells you who the local chapter is and you send them message with the promise that they'll respond with where their girls will be selling. Tried, tried it 50 times, tried it was every zip code within a 1 hour driving radius. No response, no girl scouts, no cookies. Needless to say, I was sad. Last time I had samoas from the girl scouts was 3 years ago in Boston and probably 2 years ago when I made them myself. I'm lazy, I don't want to have to always make my own.

Then bloglines alerted me to the most wonderful post Baking Bites has ever run. Those crafty little Keebler elves (who apparently also make the girl scouts cookies) have released their own version of samoas which Baking Bites claims to be identical to the scouts'. "Hurrah!!!" I exclaimed and I grabbed my car keys and drove up the street to the grocery store.

But alas, the grocery store (while having a nice sale on Keebler products) did not have my coconut dreams. But I wasn't too crushed because it is a really crappy grocery store. I told Kevin about the cookies and he hurrahed with me. And then I spent the better part of an hour searching on the internet for a store that might sell them. Keebler has a helpful find this product feature. Not sold anywhere within 30 miles of my zip code. I tried our old NJ zip code. I tried my parents' zip code; I tried Kevin's parents' zip code. I couldn't find them on the websites for the big grocery stores in the area. I did find them on Wegman's website, but not for sale. Keebler offered several online sellers of their products and yet none had the coconut dreams.

My hopes crushed I tried one more google search. That google search found one online grocer that was selling them. I was a little worried about the randomness of ordering from a site that I'd never heard of and that warned against purchasing chocolate things in the summer. But once my desire for these cookies was aroused, I could not stop! So I ordered several boxes. My order is pending. I have a fear that I'll receive an email that my order is cancelled because the cookies are out of stock, or don't exist really, or were eaten up by the person processing my order.

So I'll keep you all posted. If all else fails, I may suck it up and make them myself, but only after I've thoroughly exhausted all of the other lazy methods!

ARGHHH!!! I'm soooooo hungry.

So I decided this morning that I needed to finally go deposit a check that I had sitting in my wallet. Unfortunately the only branch of my bank is about a 30 minute drive, so I'd been putting it off. When I realized this morning that I could stop at Kohl's then the bank and then Panera, I decided it was check cashing day.

Kohl's was good. I'll maybe fill in more on that later. The bank was no problem. I got to Panera around 1:30 and it was crazy busy, but not too many people in line in front of me. So I order my usual, and most favorite sandwich to go.

I wait, my name is called, I grab my sandwich. I notice that the bag has bread instead of chips and seems very heavy for what I ordered. I mention the no chips to the lady and she gives me a bag and tells me to keep the bread. I get in my car, still puzzled by how heavy the bag is and look inside. It isn't my order at all. I get out of my car, go back in, and when I walk up one of the workers (turns out the asst manager), says "oh, are you Kim with the chipotle sandwich?" Turns out there were two Kims. He apologized for the mix up and quickly wrapped up a sandwich and handed it to me.

I drive home (about 30+ minutes with traffic and there's always traffic). I'm excited to eat because I'm starving. I take my sandwich out of the bag, unwrap it, and notice lettuce. The chipotle sandwich doesn't have lettuce. I take the bread and lettuce off and there is some gross mush (chicken salad, I think, but I don't like chicken salad, so it is mush to me). After screaming a flurry of unkind words, I whip out my receipt and call Panera and ask to speak to the manager.

As soon as I explain the situation, he says "oh, with the chipotle sandwich, I remember that." So he was very apologetic and understood that I wouldn't want to spend another hour in the car just to get a stupid sandwich. So he took my information and next time I'm at that Panera I can get a free sandwich and some pastries. Ok, that's helpful for next time, but I'm hungry right now and will not eat that chicken salad (I did taste it... bleck!). I guess it is a pickle and chips for lunch.

Let's do an old fashioned knitting magazine review! If you got your copy, you can follow along. If not, you can see some of the patterns on Ravelry or directly from Interweave (I've added links to the pictures on Interweave for each of their patterns). I'm going to give you a page-by-page impression because I know you are that interested in what I have to say.

• Inside front cover - Tahki yarns Georgia Pullover. The cables are really cool, but I don't think anyone benefits from wearing a box.
• Page 3 - Purl Soho Ad. I love rainbows. I think this ad is pretty.
• Page 5 - Berroco Emerson. Looks comfy, but too chunky.
• Page 8 - Morehouse Merino KnitKits. Interesting. The dragon top hat is kinda cool. I don't really understand the shark cell case. Is the pointy part the shark fin? But why are the teeth so near the fin?
• Page 13 - Bergere de France. Too fuzzy and too much going on. Without the bell sleeves it might be cuter... or without the neck edging... and maybe in a different yarn.
• Page 15 - Mission Falls Florence. I get that the new pattern book is called Silhouette, but the pictures of the sweaters on blank people is a little creepy. The purple sweater on the cover of the book is better than the red one that is featured.
• Page 16 - Nashua Handknits Biker Jacket. Bad picture. How many zippers are on this jacket? It also looks really huge on the model.
• Page 19 - Webs. Same model, three bland sweaters.
• Page 21 - Stitch Nation. Hmm... Debbie Stoller has her own line of yarns now. 100% affordable, you say. Hold on, I need to check this out... First, stitchnation.com doesn't exist. Try the real link stitchnationyarn.com. I ought to have read the whole ad before typing in the address. All $5 a skein for about 150ish yards of worsted/heavy worsted wool, alpaca, or bamboo. The colors are kind of funky. I'll have to investigate this more.
• Page 23 - Skacel Collection. Yes, my number one complaint with sweaters is that my shoulders and upper arms are always too hot. Thanks for the vest and elbow length gloves!
• Page 24 - Brattleboro Hat. Very cute! I really like the hat, the color, and the buttons. Funnily, I actually came across the book, "New England Knits," randomly about a week ago and added it to my Amazon wish list. There's a lot of cute sweaters in it.
• Pages 26-7 - Alpen Socken, The Proverbial Cap, Bavarian Tulip Mittens. The socks are nice, but I'd like some clearer pictures of all the cables. The hat is cute, but in the picture looks like it is tucked up because it is too big. The edge of the hat looks too perfect, maybe it is hemmed? Mittens, eh. Not a fan of pointy mittens.
• Page 33 - Kollage Kits. Eh.
• Page 35 - Louet Ribs on Diagonal. Warm and cozy looking. I'd definitely wear it, don't know that I'd make it.
• Page 37 - Design by Louise. I'm confused by the slogan: "Friendly patterns for the average knitter... what's new!!" No need to be extraordinary or special, just average. And "what's new!!" is this meant to be "look at our new designs" or a snarkier "same old same old." The sweaters pictured are as described, average.
• Page 38 - Leitmotif Cardigan. At first glance, I didn't like it, but looking at it again, I think that I do like it. The construction from side to side is interesting. I worry though that it might be hard to get sized correctly. I think in a smoother yarn, it might look better.
• Page 39 - Hawthorn Pullover. Love it! Simple, classic. I'd definitely wear it.
• Page 40 - Plein Air Tote. The tote is poorly lit so it is difficult to see the cables. It looks like the only way to see the pretty cables is for the tote to be stuffed with a big box to hold its shape. And while it looks huge, it also looks like you can't fit a lot in it.
• Page 40 - Point Gammon Pullover. I really hate men's sweaters with big wide crew necks. I think it looks to feminine. It's also possible that this model is too skinny. Are there cables in the side seams? Why aren't those shown more clearly? (Online pictures are much better!)
• Page 41 - Inversion Gansey. I like the color. The sweater is nice, but not my style.
• Page 42 - Cloisonne Jacket. I wish the edge of the jacket (not the lace) hit at her hips. Also a more exaggerated hourglass shape would make it prettier.
• Page 43 - Leyfi Pullover. "Leyfi" seriously? Stupid name, but nice sweater. Couldn't the model have been reaching for something that would show off the pattern down the arms instead of her looking like she's griping onto that bench for dear life.
• Page 49 - Kollage Charisma Pullover. Lose the bell sleeves and I love it.
• Page 51 - Cascade Yarns. I'd buy this sweater in a store. I don't have the patience to make it myself.
• Can I interrupt to say that I hate hate hate the layout of this magazine? I don't understand why each pattern isn't printed on its own page(s). Why is part of one pattern's instructions running into another's? In many places it is confusing as to which pattern various notes and charts are referring to.
• Page 70 - Running Stitch Skirt. I'm in love. Would I really knit this? Maybe. Would I knit it and then never wear it? Most likely. Will that deter me? Probably not.
• Page 70 - Pizzicato Scarf. A ribbed scarf. Woo.
• Page 71 - Sea and Sky Shrug. Cute. I like the little edge ruffle.
• Page 75 - Rowan and Fiber Trends. I'd like the Rowan jacket if the button band extended all the way to the end of the sweater. This seems like the designer ran out of yarn or get tired of making the button band. The Fiber Trends jacket is... colorful. But I think the model's half-hearted smile sums up the pattern pretty well.
• Page 78 - Breacon Swing Coat. Pretty, but not for me.
• Page 79 - George Street Pullover. Another one that I didn't really like at first, but examining again is quite nice. But man, one misplaced or forgotten eyelet and you've totally f'ed the sweater.
• Page 80 - Pillows. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz..........
• Page 81 - Slating Plaid Stole. Pretty.
• Page 82 - Elementary Vest. I like this. I like the detail at the side seam. I wish I was better at stranded knitting.
• Page 83 - Peavey Jacket. Model looks pretty peeved to be wearing this jacket. Looks like he's thinking "dude, why am I wearing a grampa sweater?"
• Pages 89-107 - Various ads. Nothing spectacularly good or bad. Flipping pages... Ack! Baby on page 97 is creepy!! Flipping pages... What is the lady wearing in the MangoMoon ad on page 103?
• Page 108 - Chiral Cardigan. The flower buttons make the sweater a twee too cutesy. Without them, I quite like the sweater.
• Page 109 - Williamsburg Cardigan. Don't love it or hate it. Maybe if it was shorter or wrapped around I'd like it better.
• Page 110 - Tamarix Quilt and Hoarfrost Mobius. I like both, but lack the willpower to actually knit them.
• Page 111 - Arching Cables Jacket. I love this jacket. Loved it immediately. I can imagine wearing this constantly. And as to my comment earlier about the layout, on page 123 (the page you are directed to for the instructions on the sweater) there's a Designer's tip box for working with wire yarn. Right next to the box is a picture and title of the Arching Cables Jacket. So I was like, "wow, that sweater is made out of wire yarn! I don't think I'll be making that. Then I'm reading through the info and there's no mention of wire in the yarn listed for the jacket. Then I flip several pages back to page 120. At the very bottom of the page (the rest of which is instructions for the blanket) is the start of the info for the mobius scarf and that yarn has wire. Very confusing and frustrating layout Interweave. I'd like all the information for the patterns to be separated so that it is easy to tell which goes with which. I'm lazy, I don't like to figure it out on my own.
• Page 117-to end - Various Ads.
• Page 129 - Includes another picture of the Leitmotif Cardigan, but it is right under the big and bright "Oops!" box. I appreciate the extra picture of the sweater, but the positioning makes it feel like there's a problem with the sweater before anyone's even made it! Maybe it is foreshadowing!
• Page 143 - I love the photo index.
• Back cover - Classic Elite Yarns. If only it had sleeves, I would love it!!

Ok, I'm annoyed with my hair. Y'all know I just had it cut back in May, but I'm feeling that it's grown a bit and now doesn't look as cute. I end up putting the longish part behind my ear and I don't really like the overall look. But I'm not interested in a trim to get it back to where it was because while I liked the cut, I didn't love it. So now I'm not sure what to do. Do I let it keep growing or do I cut it short short?

I've been collecting pictures of cute short haircuts (how did people get haircuts before the internet?!). I don't know if they'd look good on me, but I think I kinda maybe like them.

I like this Winona Ryder cut (I actually saved the first picture twice on two separate days):

I also like these Alyssa Milano cuts:

My biggest worry isn't super short hair (been there and done that before though much more stylized), which will grow back. My worry is that my hair can't do what their hair does. My hair tends to be very straight and well behaved. I don't know if it can have the piecy, textury look without lots of product or hassle. I want something simple. So blog friends, any thoughts???

I decided to go ahead and start Lanesplitter. I have this big ball of Noro and 4 other skeins, so I think that I have more than enough yarn. I'll have to see when I'm finished, but I definitely think that this will need to be lined. If not for the modesty, for the comfort because I worry that it will be somewhat itchy.

Ok, I just had the awesomest idea and had to share although it probably means very little for most of you.

Academic book publishers are always sending out free books to professors, some at the professor's request and some just randomly. There's a lot of gripe on the publishers' part about professors reselling those books that they don't keep/use. And of course, there's the eternal problem of books being updated every other year.

What if the books publishers had their books available on a Kindle type of machine. Heck, each publisher could develop their own proprietary machine. Then they could send professors the machine and load the books onto to. No resell, no shipping costs, no printing costs. When new books come out, they could add them to the prof's account. Now of course they'd want to safeguard their little machines so it isn't like giving out free Kindles to profs who will use them as Kindles and not academic textbook reviewing machines, but I'm sure there's a way to lock the machine to purchases or downloads or accounts that aren't created by the publisher for the individual.

I would be so much more interested in browsing through textbooks on a cool little machine than lugging them all home or sitting in my hot (hot hot hot hot) office trying to determine which one I prefer.