alisonknits

American Idiot

Embarrassing as it seems, I've been rather obsessed with American Idol this season. What is wrong with me? How can I get emotionally invested in a show so ridiculous, so banal, so manipulative, so craptastic, as this one? And yet, for the past two seasons, I have actually cared who wins. At least, I did, until yesterday's spectacularly boring and painful final showdown. I've been rooting for Bo Bice, the adorable rock star, all season, although I also always liked Carrie, the adorable country gal. But the songs they made them sing were SO AWFUL, it reminded me why the show is evil. Now I hope that Bo doesn't win, so that he never has to sing that horrible song again, and the hacks who made them sing that crap will have somewhat less control over his career.

So now I feel like a jerk for getting so into it. But I'll still buy Bo's album. (What's wrong with me??)

In other news...
I finished the ruffle-y bolero shrug I designed, and am very pleased with it. I'm going to try to get the design published, so I'm not posting any pictures. Unfortunately I don't have anything to wear under it, so I'm thinking about exchanging the yarn I had left over (5 balls! I got nervous about running out and overbought) for a complementary color and making a shell to go with it. Then I can market the pattern as a twinset.

Now I'm back to knitting on the bamboo poncho, which is taking freakin' forever. How did I knit this thing in just over a week for Vogue?

The househunt continues. Some possibilities in Haverhill - anyone know anything about Haverhill?

Don't Count Your Chickens Redux

Well, it's happened again. Yesterday was the inspection on the house we were planning to buy. It was a total disaster. Apparently just past the surface were a host of problems - structural problems, problems with the roof, lots of bad workmanship. I really didn't think this would happen this time, because the owners did a lot of renovating, including about $20K of work into the pool - why would you work on the pool when the house is falling apart?

So it's back to the drawing board. Remind me next time not to tell everyone I know about the house until after the inspection.

The Third Thing...

...mentioned in my last post is that my little sister is engaged! I didn't want to post about it until it was official - my dad had called me to tell me that Augie told him he was going to propose on Friday night.

Wackily enough my friends Dan and Noah both happened to be in Boston (where Meredith and Augie live) and happened to go to a game at Fenway Park (where Augie works), and they ran into Augie there at his souvenier stand. They recognized him and said hello, and that's how they heard about the engagement.

I'm very excited about the pending nuptials. Do you suppose Meredith will let me knit her wedding dress?

A Joyful Noise

This evening I went to hear my friend Amy sing in the gospel choir of Union Theological Seminary.  It was amazing!  I don't consider myself a Christian, but if I had grown up with music like that in my church, even I might be a true believer.  Halleluia!

It's hard to believe that a faith tradition that can produce such a joyous message of love can be twisted to produce such intolerance and hate.

And on the knitting front...

I bet you could tell at the end of my last post that I was going to break down and start a new project, couldn't you?  Well, indeed I did.  That very evening I went down to Purl and picked up some Rowan Wool Cotton for a little bolero I've been dreaming up.  I spent a day or two swatching, and here was the result:

Today's my day off, so I had plenty of time to design and knit while I caught up on my TV shows (I no longer watch live TV - I just DVR everything).  I already have half the back finished!  I'm going to work the sleeves next and then the fronts.  By the way, if you've never worked with this yarn, I highly recommend it.  As far as I'm concerned, it's the perfect yarn - lovely stitch definition, exceptionally soft, lightweight enough to make a practical garment, yet not super thin so that it takes forever.  I love love love it.

And here's something else - I never did post a pic of my finished I Do shrug, which I completed a couple weeks ago.  Here it is:

I've been wearing it an awful lot in the chilly weather lately.  Shouldn't summer be here yet?

And one other thing...

To my friend who suggested that I wasn't yet excited about the house and job because good things come in threes and the third thing hasn't happened yet... you may be right, and I expect to have exciting family news by tomorrow.  (No, I'm not pregnant...)  (The suspense is killing me, so I thought I might as well tease all my readers as well.)

Limbo

I received two very exciting pieces of news yesterday: 1) the owners of the house we want in Billerica, MA accepted our offer, and 2) I will also be getting the job that I want, which I've been pursuing for several months now. Not a bad score before noon!

Am I excited? Well, of course I am. But I must admit that I'm not quite over-the-moon. This seems slightly disconcerting, but I can think of several reasons why this might be:

1) Having made two trips to Massachusetts in as many weeks, followed immediately by an overnight stay in Connecticut for the Annual Meeting of the UU District of Metro New York, I'm tired. I haven't actually had a day off in a long time.

2) It's an odd sort of ghost town in my office, with several people out recovering from surgery or suffering various ailments. Also one person moved to Belgium. I'm not used to working in such a quiet, low-key environment and it's affecting my mood in odd ways.

3) Last year we were this close to buying a house (as some of you may remember), and the inspection caused the whole deal to fall apart. I doubt that will happen this time, as this house has been renovated quite a bit in recent years, but you never know. Once bitten, twice shy, as they say.

4) Similarly, the job isn't quite a done deal yet; they still have to decide how much money they're going to offer me and I have some unanswered questions about benefits. Again, I'm pretty sure it's going to work out, but you never know.

5) Maybe it just hasn't sunken in yet.

But man, this house is really awesome. It even has a pool! I never thought I'd have a pool - that always seemed the province of the rich, which, given my chosen field(s), I don't expect to ever be.

I've been doing some spinning and knitting, but I've been too busy to do much. I'm knitting for myself one of the ponchos I did for VKOTG last fall (the poncho book is coming out in late August, according to Amazon). I'm making the poncho I made out of bamboo yarn. The stitch pattern is really cool, and I'm proud because I half created it myself when I couldn't find exactly what I wanted. But I'm getting really bored with this piece, given that I've already made this poncho once before and am not in love with working with bamboo. I'm determined to keep knitting on this before starting anything else, though. Well... sort of... Okay, maybe I'm not that determined. (I admit it, I'm a flip-flopper. If it's good enough for Kerry, it's good enough for me...)