I. Hate. [Nor Cal] Rain

It's storming again - which means we've lost power at home twice and the Humanities half of campus lost all power and cell service around 4 yesterday afternoon. You see, when it rains here it doesn't just rain. It dumps. Like monsoon season with slightly less powerful winds. I don't mind rain when it doesn't get too much in the way of your daily life, but once it starts raining here you can pretty much accept to be soggy and miserable even if you just step outside to get the mail. My pants are always wet, I'm always cold and my hair looks like hell. Straight, straight hair with bangs is no good in the rain.

I'm trying to plug away at diss writing but it's slow - I always interrupt myself or let others interrupt me. In non=diss news the green yarn that was the sweater from hell almost killed me (again!) yesterday. It's being knit into a cardigan that grew to oddly shaped proportions while blocking, sending me into a OMG I'M GOING TO SET YOU ON FIRE frenzy. Fortunately I put away the matches and Luke took away the gasoline and I carried on with the button band/collar shaping. I think, thanks to what I hope are inventive and not hideous decreases I made in starting the button band I've managed to fix the problem and the thing is wearable. If not and if you come by and smell burning alpaca or wool in the air - you know what it is.

Other random knitting stuff: I love the feel of ultra alpaca but hate the drape. I need springy yarns to fit me and this is not working. Also I think I'm over top down raglans: the shoulders/armpits/boobs never fit right. So far my best fit is my bottom-up raglan. Something in the sweater changes in a top-down after I've added the lower half of the garment. Even if the top ifts like it should in the knitting process, the added weight at the bottom changes the shape at the top. It's very, very annoying. I'm also trying to salvage Wendy Bernard's Favorite Cardigan. I loved the picture but off the shoulders don't work for me, nor do crew necks for that matter. For those familiar with the pattern, I have to reknit the sleeves, rip the button band, extend the length about 3", and re-do the collar. I'm going to try a short row collar to give it an illusion of a v-neck, b/c the boat neck, high neck, buttoned shape are all bad for me.

One of these days I'll be able to c/o all my nice holiday gifts.... (actually I think this will start on my trip to Tahoe in a few weeks).