Wool Limulus

Whooo, well I'm obviously not great at this blogging thing, but no worries, there is no way I'm going to stop. I guess I just have to see it as more of an all-encompassing blog than a knitting blog, since apparently I can't remember to take pictures of what I knit. Don't worry though, most of my leisure time is spent knitting, so I may end up being a knitblogger after all, albeit a lazy one.
The Limulusparents are here with Limulusbrother for the week. I'm glad to have them, work has been getting to me lately (having your advisor hint that the whole lab isn't working hard enough when you work seven-day weeks can be demoralizing). I am taking the 4th off (a federal holiday? Madness, you say!) to have a well-deserved shopping spree with Limulusmother. Just when I think that my life is finally somewhat interesting, Tall Limulusbrother goes to Beijing and blows us all away with his chuzpah - he is staying there until December to become fluent in Mandarin. He'll be famous one day, I just know it, even if none of us know how.
In other news, I submitted my first abstract for a major conference a week or so ago. My project is progressing well for a student who has only been in the lab for six months, apparently, and although there was some drama getting the thing submitted to my advisor's standards (no one's fault, just a confluence of crazy events), it has been submitted and I am most likely going to present my first poster in October.

Well, enough with the work stuff. I have been realizing lately that while I never thought of it this way before, I have a knitter "type". I used to only be a yarn snob (i.e., only with natural fibers unless it is reenforcing thread or something), but more and more I am figuring out that I am a wool-pig, to couch it in Yarn Harlot terms. I love wool. All kinds of wool. And in a startling discovery, projects (that I will blog about when I find my camera cable) done in cotton take approximately twice as long as those I make out of wool. This is also true of all other fibers I have worked with. Unless there is some wool in the blend, I simply can't deal on some level. Cotton? Slow. Wool/Cotton? Fast. I would like to say that it is some sort of innate character of the fiber, but I think my brain just likes wool better (cotton doesn't hurt or anything).
In any case, this may become a bit of a problem, since it is now summer and well, I hate the heat. HATE it. I'm the biggest baby ever when it comes to temperatures above 82F, and as much as I try not to complain about the weather (force of nature and all), it brings all the whining out of me. Wool, however, is warm. Say what you will about the Wisconsin winters (I sure have), but they love wool. When it is -20 and you're snow blind, wool is your friend, I don't know how I'm going to deal with this in the summer, but it may involve ice packs.

In a desperate effort to insert some sort of knitting content into this post (I like blogs with pictures - I try to be one), here is a project that I finished a while ago, but somehow never blogged.



Pattern: The ever-popular Swallowtail Shawl, by Evelyn A. Clark for IK Fall 2005
Yarn: Cascade 220 in Tibetan Rose (I don't get it either)
Needles: Size 9s, I think
Mods: Thicker yarn, I didn't to the nupps.
For: Sharill
Verdict: She said that she loved it in her thank-you note, so I guess a success! I love making shawls and lace, but I like feeling of little bit more weight on my shoulders, so I almost always make them out of sport/dk/worsted yarn. Not to say that laceweight doesn't have its time and place (I have much of it), but that is just how I roll.

Finally, I realized (with much help from The Boy) that I maybe have a *wee* bit too much yarn. Therefore I am on a yarn hiatus (I don't like the word diet) until the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool festival in September. Hopefully this will actually increase my productivity, and I won't have as much yarn guilt. Peace out!