Archive for May, 2008
new sweater
Pattern is Picovoli, cable insert is from Winter ’07 Interweave Knit’s Gathered Pullover style. My previous Picovoli was a bit too short because I ran out of yarn; it was also wider in the neck and narrower in the armstrap than I prefer for work; I managed to address all three issues in this one. [...]
Utah’s gone from Nevada
The news this morning is that Utah Phillips has died, of heart problems. There’s more information here and his own final letter here. I can’t say “rest in peace, Utah” because from what I know of the man, he’d hate that. I’m pretty sure his comments would also include some variant of “Don’t mourn, organize!” [...]
feels like time for a holiday
Rudder never did notice the haircut – even when I finally told him about it, halfway through Sunday. Sad, for someone who prides himself on being observant. I realized this morning, quite suddenly, that what I need is a vacation. Going back and forth between countries provides some change of scene, but it would be [...]
chopped! (salon review)
Well, I finally got tired of having bits of my hair breaking off all the time. Normally I oscillate between pixy-short and long hair but the former isn’t an option right now. I’m traveling too much and my future’s too uncertain to commit to a cut that absolutely requires a recut every 4-6 weeks. But [...]
back home
I’m back home. the traffic wasn’t really bad at all – I don’t know if everyone’s exaggerating or if I just got lucky. The training was also good, though I confess I find “PSDM” an … unfortunate … choice of acronym. (I didn’t even try to make that comment to everyone in the class: not [...]
Anansi Boys – review
I finished Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys last night, and liked it much more than I’d feared. It’s been sitting on my shelves for six months or more, waiting for me to dig in. I know this will sound odd to a lot of his fans: who tend to be passionate, but he’s been an uneven [...]
the plus side wins
Yarg. Next week I get to go to Hsinchu (2 hours drive, maybe) for two days of training. I was planning to drive, but then I checked with someone who commutes from that city (work is in Linkou, between there and Taipei) and found that the hotel they’ve booked me into is 40 minutes drive [...]
fireflies
It’s a little embarassing to admit this … I’ve been back to working out more regularly and so have gained weight, as I usually do. And this would be fine, except that I haven’t lost the extra fat I gained in the Netherlands. (I’m not sure if it was from the change in diet, the [...]
auto-gardening
My brother (perhaps I should start referring to him here as Didi, which is the way you address your younger brother in Mandarin) is … quirky about giving presents. As in, often he doesn’t, but when he does, they tend to be unusual. Every once in a while, that’s unusual as in “spectacularly good idea [...]
artful sweaters
It occurs to me that I wouldn’t mmuch mind having a spring or summer sweater in every color of Artful Yarn’s Fable. The first sweater I ever made was one of these in the Red Riding Hood colorway of Fable; it would have fit better if I’d understood the concept of negative ease at the [...]