Knit Addict

You can always tell when life is insane, because the blog gets neglected.  Still loving the new job, and it is feeling a bit less hectic than it did at first.  That’s not a bad thing, because working at that intensity for that long is draining to say the least.  I’ve also started back to the gym because I seem to have lost my waist.  I’m hoping with a little (OK, a lot of) hard work I can convince it to come back.  By the time I roll out of bed at 5(ish) to be at work at 6:30, work until about 4:30, go to the gym, get home and shower, then fix dinner…well, the blog isn’t my highest priority.

Last Saturday afternoon (after working Saturday morning) I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to take a class from Jared Flood at Gourmet Yarn Co.  It was truly a pleasure to meet him.  He obviously loves what he does, and is generous with sharing his knowledge.  I took the Taste of Lace class and we did a sampler, so I don’t really have anything to show.  I’m so very glad his first exposure to Oklahoma City was at a quality shop with a decent owner.  Come to think of it, I’m pretty thankful I have that option too instead of having to drive to Norman, Tulsa or Dallas.

I’ve finished one of five helmet liners for CritterGirl’s second annual helmet liner drive.  They’re good portable knitting, and don’t take too long to finish either.

Been doing a three month series for Guild on a seamless bottom up raglan.  We’re through the body, sleeves and yoke.  Next month is finishing.  Being charity knitting (Precious Pals, which we donate to the Oklahoma County Sherrif’s Office) I’m using *cough* RedHeart from the Guild charity stash *cough* in that really loud rainbow colorway they have.  Short rowed the back of the neck to bring it up in height.

Haven’t knit on it since we went to Bella Vista over Labor Day weekend, but this is the cotton raglan pullover I started once and had to rip because of differences in the hanks of yarn.  Believe it or not, that’s two hanks alternating rows.  It’s simple 2×2 rib, and I’ll have no finishing on it whatsoever when it’s done.

And it’s a crappy photo.

I’ve been done with self striping sock yarn for quite some time.  Never mind that there’s still a ton of it in my stash…I’ve just not been interested in using it.  GYC got some in a few weeks ago called Indulgence, and I couldn’t resist.  It’s lovely, soft stuff.  One sock done, hope to do the next before too terribly long.

When I was catching up with Mom this morning on IM (ain’t teh interwebs just GRAND??) she asked me if I’d knit a baby blanket for her friend Sharon’s daughter.  Well…it’s Mom.  Who am I to say no?  Picked up some Encore today and have started working on it.  It’s based on a pattern/idea from Nancy Wiseman’s Knitted Sweaters For Every Season.  It will be one of those diagonally knit things that increases until you use half the yarn, then decreases the rest of the way.

Teaching a class in Double Knitting next month.  I knew I was going to do a tubular cast on, but hadn’t decided exactly how I was going to tackle it.  Been kicking it around mentally for a few days, and woke up this morning with the answer right in the front of my brain.  I’m sure there was some subconscious work going on overnight.  Anyway, it’s a tubular cast on started with the itsy bitsy spider method.  Simple, and looks nice.  At least when it’s not eye-bleeding orange.

And finally, have done some work on the Sonja Henie. It’s some seriously slow knitting, but the result is so cool.  I’m hoping to get some major work done on it over retreat, which starts next Thursday.

On a non-knitting note, when will the haves of the world learn that constantly pointing out “different” is NOT inclusive and not cool?  Specifically the open source software world.  There’s an appalling shortage of women in the developer ranks.  I can’t say too much since I’m a user not a developer, but I participate in an organization that includes many bright, capable women.  The treatment they receive at the hands of some of the FOSS community members ranges from good to ignored to horrific.  It’s not always blatant sexism (although that happens far more often than you’d like to think).  Carla Schroeder at Linux Today has written two editorials in the last few days addressing the issue.  As usual, the comments are full of misdirection, misunderstanding, and a huge helping of privileged men insisting there is no problem.  They’re full of shit.  Just this week, Mark Shuttleworth of the Ubuntu Linux project (I’m typing this post on a laptop running Ubuntu) made a comment during a keynote address that the whole open source movement is hard to explain to girls.  Kirrily Robert wrote a polite, reasonable letter addressing the issue, and the hostility she’s received is astonishing.

What is so freaking hard about saying “I made a poor choice of words, I’m sorry” and then trying to do better?  When will people figure out that constantly using a group as an example of ignorance, or of helplessness, or whatever other negative thing you’re trying to portray is just not a good idea?  Nobody wants to squash your freedom (or bust your balls, as any woman who’s ever shown a backbone knows), we’d just like to not be pointed out over and over as different.  I worked with a guy who constantly referred to me as “the girl who knows Linux”.  I really don’t think he meant it as an insult, but holy crap it got old in a hurry.  He stopped after I pointed out (in front of other people, with a smile on my face) that I’d been a girl for 40+ years and I wasn’t likely to forget it any time soon.  I suspect any male knitters who might read know exactly the feeling I’m talking about.

Of course I know they’re male.  It’s one of the characteristics I use to recognize them.  Just like I use the fact that Nina wears glasses, Jenna is blond, and Pat is taller than me to recognize them.  But it’s not *all* they are, and there’s no reason to point it out at every interaction.  Simple really.  But apparently beyond the capacity of some  communities.