( I want all of these, even/especially the ones that are sold. )

And now... I am going to open Google Scholar. And read about bees. yep. I am going to.

Yes, I has an addiction. My lovely roommate modeled for me this time, which made things 100x easier, too. Click for 'em on Etsy

This semester has been weirdly busy, in part because I've been absurdly indecisive about classes, but I think I'm settled now. (Corollary: Sorry I haven't been keeping up with the f-list; I've been doing the whole reading-but-not-commenting thing.) So many good bio classes this semester! I haven't been back to lab yet, but I have been nibbling at my poetry thesis here and there (when I finally meet my adviser next Wednesday, I might ask her about sneaking in some fiction too), so overall things are looking... okayish. Although I am already massively in sleep debt. lol.

I've been reading from Steven Strogatz's Sync: How Order Emerges From Chaos In the Universe, Nature, and Daily Life, which is cool as all get out. I can see now why my roomie is so obsessed with science writing - I haven't really read anything beyond actual papers and the occasional NYT Science article. :X So reading whole chapters of stuff you're meant to actually understand without reams of background reading and side discussion is pretty refreshing. Makes me wish I were actually good at math, too. oh you rakish biological mathematicians, with your proofs and models!

Today I sat in on one of my roomie's classes (American Women Writers), for the purpose of listening to her professor lecture on Twilight. (She paused at one point and murmured, "This book makes my head hurt.") Fanfreakingtastic stuff. I promised fairnymph a while ago that I would try to pull together an essay on the eroticism of vampires, and the last 10 minutes of the lecture were basically that. *clings to her notes* It was all too glorious! I wonder if she's ever taught a vampire fiction course? xenophobia! class/race tension! queerness galore! Also glorious. Also also, it totally made my day that she referred to "fantasy literature" and "vampire literature."

Also also also, at the end of the class I was writing so quickly that I spelled Edward as "Edwad," which only seems appropriate.

Once upon a time, I hated New York, but that's only because I didn't know how to get anywhere. :P I went to the Met a few weeks earlier with aihre (!), but went again this weekend with some of my roommates, none of whom had been before. This time I got to hit up the Asian art galleries, the Greek & Roman sculpture gallery, the Africa & Oceania travelling exhibit (magnificently eerie - we saw a hollow-bottomed spirit canoe crewed by spirits, including an immortal turtle and a "malicious, Z-shaped water spirit" - !!!), and the modern art gallery. Then we got exhausted and scurried away to eat and look at pretty clothes.



( Inspiring things, and yummy things )

Unrelatedly, knitting YoSD scarves reeeeally makes me want to pick up some sets of sock-sized double-pointed needles...

At least in Retailville it is. Moar Modcloth ogling. *shrug*


( Two more )

And I have a new layout, yay! Courtesy refuted. It's so hard to find layouts that aren't utterly messed up by the presence of horizontal photos, and I always have to go into the CSS to change the font sizes, at the risk of going blind otherwise.

It was only so long before my glove-making addiction and my ruffles-and-buttons addiction made friends. Yarn by sqwish, vintage mother-of-pearl buttons. Totally indulged myself in the materials on this one, really.

( Read more... )

click for Etsy link & more photos!

Yup, knitting gloves is my incorrigible new obsession. Gloves are just so much more interesting than linear stuff, though, and it's so convenient that you can check fit as you go. :P I've already moved on and have about 4 inches done now of the lefty of a new pair, from sock yarn by sqwish (thank you stuffu!!). I was a little disappointed by the yarn at first because it was much less turquoise than in the photos and more forest/olive green, but it knits up beautifully - very, well, foresty. I've realized though that even merino sock yarn isn't really warm enough for gloves, despite how great the tight, tiny knit looks, so I'll probably go back to fingering and sportweight after this.

From the weekend (nearly 90 degrees!) it's dropped back down to the 60's and 70's; must say that though I liked the sunny weather, I'm glad we'll have cooler weather for a bit longer because that means I get to indulge my coat fetish. XD I am addicted to coats/jackets, since I not-so-secretly wish I were a dandy, but suck at dressing non-femininely - thus constructed coats are a good midway point. So the upshot is that I have a coat collection of a faintly absurd size. Ohohoho.

During my last microbio lecture today, the subject was bioremediation, and I was immediately cast into a storm of regret that I suck at orgo, as bioremediation is pretty much the only field that combines 1. environmental work, 2. bacteria, and 3. money. XD Damn! Three things I love, and yet can't get all in one package, due to my quantitative stupid. *sad reaching hands*

It's 80 degrees out today, why am I still knitting? BECAUSE I CAN. Oh geez, it's so sticky and unseasonal, yet delightful. I'd rather be working on papers endlessly when the weather is good, even if I can't precisely enjoy the weather directly. It's less depressing to wake up to a sunny sky.

I finished this week a longlonglongtime knitting goal: a pair of convertible gloves/mittens! "Glitten" is such an awkward/kind of ugly word, but it's faster than saying "convertible gloves/mittens," unfortunately. Thought it might be fun to post a start-to-finish run of progress photos for the left one, though most have been lurking on my Flickr already, and I've posted one before.


YAY.

( Read more... )

I feel like I take too many photos. But then, that's why I have a Flickr paid account, right?

So excited for Who Killed Amanda Palmer. Dead Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman shorts, oh boy!!

Back to writing and reading papers...

( and one more )

Wintermute is finally hanging out on my desk again! I haven't played with her or Aure in forever. I moved them off a while ago because I was getting concerned about the really strong morning sunlight... and since I always have a hundred (other) distractions/pursuits/responsibilities at hand, "out of sight, out of mind" came into effect pretty instantly. Guilt, guilt.

*goes back to making anamorphic designs and researching summer funding* :X

...and it's the fault of this beast:



( rawr! )

Goodness, looks like it's going to snow again Monday! I hate to concede defeat when I do love winter, but I'm starting to be ready for spring. :P

I was reorganizing my knitting bag and stash for the seventeenth time yesterday, when I realized... I really do have a lot of yarn. XD



( Spin me a yarn... and also, shoe-shopping )

Just some odds and ends.


Squirrel I saw, err, recumbent on the porch railing. XD It had draped itself comfortably (?) over the edge and was lying down for quite a while until I eventually startled it while taking photos. I'd never before seen a squirrel not move for that long.

( Arts and other bits )

This has been turning into a photoblog lately. I guess that shows 1. I take too many photos when I have the chance and 2. I love my Flickr far too much!

Comment and I'll give you a letter. Then you have to list ten things you LOVE that begin with that letter. Afterward, post this in your journal and give out some letters of your own.

sushi_candy gave me the letter G. :D

1. Gardening (like you couldn't tell from my photospam)
2. Guylian chocolates (the praline-filled seashells - haven't had them in years though)
3. Gaiman
4. Giggling (...I laugh a lot)
5. Gerbils
6. Greek mythology
7. Gothic novels
8. Grass, preferably cold, + bare feet
9. Granola
10. Glass bottles

Snapshot of the day:

The scarf I made with the yarn that I posted yesterday. 'S for sale at Etsy; you can click on the photo to get to my shop.

( and one more scarfy )

... since it's kind of a fun thing to do, though I doubt I'd really keep up with it consistently.


Pretty yarn for a scarf I'm working on for Etsy. :3 Saw this in the local fancy yarn shop in the spring, immediately wanted it, but since it was pretty expensive, I tried to put it out of my mind and bought a skein that was 40% off instead. The next day, I STILL wanted it... badly. So I walked back to the shop and bought it. XD The end! (Story of my life, really.) Actually, not quite the end, since I ran out of yarn halfway through and had to buy another skein. *eyeroll* Sacrifice twice over.

The scarf is fun and super-long and full of rows of drop stitches and garter stitch, all texturedy and bohemian-looking. I'm really tempted to dig up my box of beads and see if I have any colorless seed beads that I could weave into the fringe and knit to finish it...

More knittin's from the past two months or so!

( Read more... )

Usually when I get home, I spend all of my free time sewing doll clothes, but in the winter, I mostly knit instead, since it seems more relevant, and I can do other things at the same time, like watch Project Runway. X3 I thought it would be fun to post pics of some of my favorite items from the past few weeks.

Warning for lots of pictures. (well, 8)

( Burritos + benzene rings AND MORE )

Happy New Year to everyone!