In progress

I have a few bits and pieces ongoing at the moment.

I stopped by This Is Knit's sale with a friend (I think it's fair that I don't have to be Not Buying Yarn if there's a sale on) and he bought this Debbie Bliss Winter Garden for me to make him a hat. I'm using the Hat Fit For A Fella pattern (Ravelry pattern page here), which I've made before, removing the brim and using my modification from the last time I made it. The cables have eaten the yarn and I still have a few inches to go, so while I've been failing to go back in and get some more, I've started working on...

a jumper! I bought this yarn (Debbie Bliss cotton, I do like cotton) as an end-of finals-present to myself last year, started this tunic (Ravelry pattern page here), realised half-way through that it was the wrong sized and ripped it out, re-started it, realised half-way through that it was the wrong size and ripped it out, and then left all the yarn in a bag until now, unable to bring myself to touch it. I think it was a good move, as a third failed attempt would have bred supervillainy-inducing levels of frustration and resentment, and that would be a very underwhelming origin story.

In the year's interim I went off the pattern - or at least how it would look in this shade - and decide to make this v-neck instead. I think I'll get more wear out of it than I would the tunic.

It's top-down and has raglan sleeves, both of which are new to me in a jumper, and I've already had to restart once because "At the same time" is my enemy. I like how it's turning out, and now I don't feel guilty for having the bag of yarn sitting in the corner of my room, silently judging me.

I spent Saturday and Sunday hiking some forty kilometres of the Wicklow Way with some members of my volunteer group. It's easy to forget, especially living in Dublin, that Ireland is quite breathtakingly stunning, despite the national pastime of complaining about Ireland.

The second photo is of Powerscourt Waterfall from a height and distance, and the last one is of Glendalough valley. When we were walking across the planks in the fourth picture, the wind was so strong and the hill so exposed that I had to lean into the wind to end up somewhat vertical, and still nearly got blown off into the bog a few times. (You might think bogs are for low-lying flat land, not the top of hills, but you would be wrong.) We got very lucky with the weather, and I got sunburned wearing the one racerback top I own, because of course I did. It's not Summer until I have uneven tan-lines.

I'm currently a a tech volunteer for the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival. So far this has meant moving props between shows, but they were important props. I've sat in on two plays so far, because I am the kind of very cultured and important person who sees two plays a week - premieres, no less. Bash: Latterday Plays is very intense, dark, harrowing and excellent. My Second Self is awfully sweet, quietly hopeful, and funnier than I was expecting. The program changes next week, so I'd recommend either or both if you're in Dublin this week!

FO Friday: Gloves and triangle scarf

I found a mystery-purpose ball of Lamb's Pride Nature Spun fingering weight in my stash - I think I bought it for a commission, settled on a different yarn, and lost the receipt - so I made gloves. There is probably a more efficient way of clearing space than "turn ball of yarn into a garment, have garment take up space in a different bag until purchased", but it is apparently how I roll.

I got the stitch pattern from a book, and I like it an awful lot. On green yarn it looks like vines. The yarn is pure wool, so despite the weight it's the warmest thing ever. It's also more radioactive looking in real life. What's not to like?

I made the Blogathon Lace Triangle Scarf (Ravelry Page here) as a birthday present for my sister. (Her birthday is in June, so I'm doing well with being disgustingly organised for crafts this year.) It's a very nice pattern, which would work for just about any weight yarn. I bought this Louisa Harding Ondine before Christmas with a view to making her gloves, and made a failed start, but then she asked for different gloves which the yarn wouldn't suit. Oh Ondine gloves, you were so beautiful.

Speaking of the fact that there is a dinosaur on my shirt in that photo, I visit an asylum seekers' centre every week, and we bring arts and crafts supplies for the kids who live there. Yesterday I drew a dinosaur for one of them to colour in, which meant that the others wanted dinosaurs too. Another volunteer taught them to trace the existing dinosaurs onto new pages, which rapidly accelerated the rate of dinosaur production. Then they decided to Sellotape them together to make a dinosaur train, which, by the time we left, was twelve dinosaurs long. It's so satisfying to be shaping young minds.

Run rabbit run.

An organisation I volunteer with in college put on a panto before Christmas with all the kids' clubs we run. I was on the costume committee, and offered to make the mask for Roger Rabbit (who, it turned out, only appeared right at the end to say one line.  Which got cut out on the second night because someone forgot to say the line he responds to.  Worth making a mask?  Arguably not.  But I got to make something new!)

Did you know there's no non-creepy way to put cling-film on someone's face?  Fortunately, Roger Rabbit was in school with my little brother, who was also in the panto.  When he mentioned that he was going to my apartment during a break in rehearsals, my brother invited himself and two other people up for tea.  So that minimised the creepiness of "So, now I'm going to put cling-film over your face."  (Just the top half.  But still.)

Plaster of Paris'd to resemble a rabbit...

And then painted!

Unfortunately I didn't get any photos on the night, because you try herding thirty children who want to be doing anything but what they're meant to.  I think it's a decent first attempt though! 

Nearly broke my two week rule.

I am alive!  Fourth year is hard.  I spilled blood from a chick embryo on my skirt today.  I missed the Knitting and Stitching fair last week to go to SVP intervarsities, came away buzzier than I would have otherwise.  People were impressed by the fact that I was knitting away for the weekend.  I am making gloves!

At this stage they could conceivably be called gloves already, but I'm making an extra pouch to be sewn to the side so that they can serve as mittens if needs be.  They're for a friend of a friend, and a different friend of that friend wants to meet me to commission a hat.  And I have to make another brainmonster for another friend's brother-in-law for Christmas.  And socks for my mammy and maybe a scarf for my brother's girlfriend, and finish a secret thing I started yonks ago.  And the lab got a new cryostat so I can start sectioning my samples from the Summer tomorrow!  And I made chickpea curry as a late dinner, with a view to not eating much and using the rest for lunch tomorrow, but I'm not sure what's left will do for lunch.  And I put in twice as much curry paste as usual in my sleepy state and my mouth kind of burns.  And I may have volunteered to make a rabbit mask for the panto.  And I have to find a pair of size 15 riding boots for Prince Charming.  So!

Does anyone read this, even?  Who knows.

This weekend's makings

My friend Conor made a cast of my face for a mask on Friday.  Unfortunately I left it setting in my apartment in college, and haven't had a chance to go back in.  But I can finish it off and use it next year!

Fun fact: I find scenes in films where someone gets a bag tied around their head, or has it wrapped in cling-film, incredibly distressing to watch.  Moreso than most torture.  So this was a kind of terrifying experience.

My little brother came over and baked cookies for a VDP bake sale.  (You can also see the mask has a more defined mouth, I forgot the 'after' photo.)

 Speedy hat for a friend from stash yarn.

My mum asked for Amy gloves.  I have tiny child hands.

My wips and projects-to-be are all in college, so I'm contenting myself with knitting squares for the Henry Bear Blanketeers.  This yarn has been in my house for years - my grandmother used it to make a cardigan for my sister as a baby.  (That sister is now twenty-seven.)  I didn't know my grandmother - she died when I was three months old.  By all accounts she sounds like a wonderful person, and I would have liked to have known her, but I really can't agree with her taste in yarn.

The buttons on the cardigan were little yellow rabbits.

 Going to a good use though, finally!

Now to work through a stats podcast and then find a horror film to watch!

Snip snip.

I like A Softer World a great deal.  It is my kind of pretentious, and puts some sentiments very well.

Last week I cut off most (fourteen inches) of my hair for The Rapunzel Foundation, which makes wigs for children who've lost their hair due to chemotherapy or for other health reasons.  I have had long hair since I was a tiny little thing, so it was a bit daunting.  I decided on it about a year ago when my hair was nearly long enough, and have been semi-binding myself into it by responding to "Wow, you're hair's getting so long!" with "Yeah, I'm growing it to donate to an organisation that makes wigs for cancer patients."  The more people to know about it, the worse it would look if I copped out.

I had misgivings about the fact of having misgivings.  My general attitude to charity and volunteering is "I can, so why wouldn't I?" but I did have to steel myself for this.  Part of it stems from having had long hair forever, and I'm not interesting enough for dramatic changes.  Part of it, though, is self-consciousness - long hair is feminine and pretty and the done thing, and not being the done thing can be a bit of a statement, and I am a sucker for the invisibility conferred by conformity.  I felt guilty wanting to place that over a child feeling ugly and not themselves.  So what pushed me in the end was not just a desire to help, but a desire to be - or at least act like -  the kind of person who values the happiness of others more than her own temporary self-consciousness.

I also got it cut the day my dog died, so wasn't really going to care how my hair looked.

Before:

After!:

That was taken before I had washed my hair, significantly less perfectly sculpted now.  I think my face is a little too chubby for it to look as well as it might, but I still like it.  It is still a novelty to reach back and ruffle, or go to wash my hair and find no hair there.  Bizarro!  Incidentally, that big coldsore turned out to be two coldsores which had melded together.  Awesome.

Also, I am not good at being stereotypically girlie in many regards.  Hair is one of them, just never got the hang of it.  Part of me wants to learn how one does hair while it's short and manageable, but that probably won't happen.

Fourteen inches of my hair.

I mentioned to the hair school what it was for, and they wouydn't let me pay at the end.  People are just lovely sometimes.

Henry Bear Blanketeers

Today I looked at my stats, and so far this blog has 264 views. I know this isn't very much in the Grand Scheme of the Internet, but it's still many people seeing what I do and what if they think they things I make are ugly and the things I think are childish and pretentious and oh god what must the internet think of me. So in the interest of making internet strangers think well of me, I'm going to post about something worthwhile.

A few months ago at work, we all had to learn to crochet for an exhibition. (You know it's a good job when learning a new craft is a requirement.) I got talking to a woman who came in who told me that she's part of a group called the Henry Bear Blanketeers. They make quilts for children going for heart surgery in Crumlin Children's Hospital, which the kids then get to keep. You can make squares and send them in to be sewn together, or you can make whole blankets and send them in. Squares should be six by six inches, though other sizes will be used. Squared can be knitted or crocheted, and it's a very good way to use up left-over bits of yarn. (My yarn box is much tidier AND I've done something good with my Christmas holidays! I've also improved my crochet - I've always been a knitting gal, but it is a lot speedier.)

If you're interested or would like more information, you can contact knitasquareandshowyoucare@gmail.com or Heart Children Ireland. It's an Irish project, but it was inspired by Project Linus in America, and I'm sure there's something local in other countries too. If you decide to take part, leave a comment, I'd love to know if I've helped people get involved.

Bunch-o-thoughts

I have two spot tests after Christmas (which count for 50% of their respective modules, so I think it's a misnomer). Before Reading Week we had Invertebrate Form and Function, and after we had Vertebrates. Every week in the museum room there'd be a demo set up of specimens relevant to that week's lectures, porifera right up to mammalia. (Everyone in the class has griped a bit about the fact that we spent so long on jellyfish and sped through mammals in less than a week. I know invertebrates are terribly important, but I have a pretty strong bias towards things which have a proper vertebral column.) For the test, we'll be shown a sample of pictures of the specimens and have to identify them. Depending on how complicated and order a given phylum is, this can require giving Phylum - Subphylum - Class - Sub-class - Order - Sub-order - Genus - Species. And there were over a hundred specimens out in the final week of term. Sometimes I am confident, sometimes I am not. I've been flip-flopping on the value of it as well.I like the notion of being able to be all "oh yeah, that's X and it's related to Y and possesses these properties which enabled this other thing to evolve or stem from this ancestor!" but in a broader way than "You can see that the gill slits are much reduced and the eyes are lidless but have a thin membrane covering them and only the forelimbs are developed which is atypical of the Order." For such a simple and obvious concept, I do find evolution to be wonderfully beautiful and elegant, but it can be hard to transfer that into a motivation to learn that THIS dead thing in a jar has three toes in it's forelimb but THIS one has four. Or maybe I'm making excuses.

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I didn't make many Christmas presents this year. For the most part I couldn't think of ideas, and a present the person has no use for isn't any more considerate just because I made it myself. I am finding it hard to think of projects lately, which is a minor problem to the point of not counting, but it makes me uncomfortable. Usually my issue is lack of time rather than lack of ideas, so I worry I'm getting boring, and it's a shame to lose a hobby. But I want to make myself socks and a jumper and turn some old t-shirts into different things, so maybe I'm not doing too badly. Going to go wool-shopping sometime this week.

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Whenever people gripe about Christmas I feel childish for liking it to the extent that I do. Yes, it is materialistic, it is manipulative, it is hard on people. Yes, people shouldn't have to have twinkly lights up to remember to call loved ones. But if it does remind them, what harm? For my own part, I like having everyone together. I like that all my family come home, and I like that there's a set time where friends will make the extra effort to meet up. I don't think it's a reminder to show you care, just of the very fact that you do. I like cheesy cracker jokes. And I like thinking of a present I think someone will like, a token of appreciation of friendship or affection or something. I like giving presents, and it's odd to do so for most of the year. Also, the twinkly lights are awfully pretty.

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I can get myself very angry, and the world is very beautiful, and I need to find a balance on how much store I set by these things. I don't have much patience for people sitting around discussing grand political ideas and what kind of world would suit best, and then when they get into the finer points of such a world, oh do I wear out. Because I'm sure it would be lovely, but people are hungry and lonely and falling by the wayside in the real broken world in which you're having this conversation. I like discussing Concepts, but more ones like racism or sexism or blah which are real things towards which I can change my attitude -> my interactions -> the world a teeny-tiny bit. Sometimes I get so frustrated with abstract ideals I could cry because you could be doing something, organising something, changing something, but it's not my place to tell people what to discuss. But maybe it's rude to have a conversation one person can't join in on. And then when it comes to the doing, organising, changing, there's so little I can do. So much is wrong. And if I forget it I can become complacent, and if I only focus on the bad it's easy to become overwhelmed and stop trying for the same reason and just be an unproductive little ball of ANGRY. But the world is also achingly beautiful, and the point of getting angry and then doing stuff is to try and make it beautiful for everyone. But I also don't want to focus on the good alone and see the ugly through rose-tinted glasses. And good things don't negate the bad, or vice-versa - some people were mean to me in secondary school but people are nice in college! Unrelated! - but when there's more of the bad it's easier to feel a little helpless. "Today I helped an eight-year-old kid with their homework and we told each other stories and played chasing in the yard, five years later they ran away from home because it wasn't safe for them." "I bought a sandwich for a homeless man a month ago and we had a chat and he froze to death one night during the snow." I'm not sure where I'm going from this, because there's nothing I can conclude. Nothing to be done but keep going. Making on person day brighter for an hour or two a week is so much more than nothing, even if it feels so tiny. The world is so huge and wonderful and tragic.

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I don't know what I would like to do when I'm all grown up. I think I would be happy to work in a lab, there is a wonderful joy in finding things out and how amazing would it be to be the first person finding them out? At the same time, so much time that I could be helping people directly, just so I can feel a thrill of discovery? I don't mean to imply the latter option would be a sacrifice, I like working with people and I like feeling useful. But if my job is trying to fix things, it might burn me out to doing outside volunteering, in which case it makes more sense to go into research and keep up the auld volunteer work. Who knows.