Some responses

I wanted to respond to some comments on my Central Park Copy post.

I'm not sure what the best way to respond to comments is. Personal e-mail? Some people don't leave that information. In the comments section? Maybe people don't go back and read it.

Anyway:

Chemgrrl (I'm assuming that's your blog!):

Yay for running out of yarn!
Hmm, that statement will likely come back to bite me in the ass.

Yes! It will come back to bite you in the ass. Just ask me about my Print O' the Wave. If I ever start a knit-only blog, I will title it "...And then I ran out of yarn"

Cheryl:

And exactly how many articles of clothing have you finished while I'm still on the same ol' thing.

Ah, but you must remember I don't have a job. Or kids. And I've always been a really bad housekeeper. All that nervous energy waiting for people to interview me / make decisions / hire me (or not) would kill me if I didn't channel it somehow. And I'm not channelling it into housework, let me tell you.

Yvonne:

Great job, I like the collar modification... might have to steal it for my outstanding collar modification! :)

I do like the collar. If I could do it again, I'd make it wider, though. It's 8.5 cm tall, and it should probably be closer to 12 cm. I did a third with the needle I knit the rest of the cardi in, switched to a needle 0.5 mm bigger for another third, and then bigger still for the rest. I wanted it to flare out just a little bit.

Central Park Copy

Central Park Cardi
Yarn: 450 g of Aran Tweed that I got from Commodum, in Dingle
Needles: 3.5 mm for the body, with the collar knit on 4.0 mm and 4.5 mm
Pattern: a shameless copy of Knitscene's Central Park Hoodie

Notes: Well, you know, I couldn't get a copy of the Fall 2006 Knitscene, and the other possibilities I had for this yarn didn't work out. I looked at a bunch of CPHs, counted ribs and cables, crossed my fingers and went for it. I do cables without a cable needle, using Grumperina's tutorial.
Here's a look at the double, mirrored cable on the back. Uh, ignore the wonky collar there.


As you can see, I don't have a hood. I ran out of yarn, so just put in a tall collar instead. This way, when it's cold, I can just wear the collar up for a bit of extra warmth.


I will probably just end up wearing it open a lot.


I think this project made me totally fall in love with cables. I used to think they were a bit too much, too busy visually, but not so!

It's almost worth the carbon footprint

I was wandering about Luton airport last night, wasting time before boarding my flight home, when I turned the corner and saw


Ever since Diane mentioned the donuts she got at home, my normally suppressed longing for glazed donuts flared up. So of course, I made a bee-line for the Krispy Kreme stand. When I got there, a guy was standing beside the counter, giving away free samples. I said hi. He asked if I was Japanese. Er, no. Chinese? Actually I'm American.* Then he said, Oh, have you had these before? Would you like to try some? His colleague behind the counter said, Did you even listen to her? She's American! Asking her if she's had these is like asking the pope if he's ever had the body and blood of Christ!

Anyway, it was hilarious, and the guys were really nice and chatty while I bought my half dozen little glazed toroids of happiness.



*This happens to me an average of 500 times an hour if I'm anywhere even remotely touristy. In Marrakesh, The Limey and I had a contest to see whether I would get greeted by "konichiwa" more than he would get offers to buy drugs.

Cably goodness

The Dingle yarn (which is almost definitely Kilcarra) has finally decided to be a Central Park Hoodie, from Knitscene's Fall 2006 issue. Great, awesome. It's been autumn here since, oh, April, but recently, I've really been noticing it getting darker earlier and it's becoming proper weather for snuggling up in tweedy cabled knits.


My plans to knit this were foiled by the fact that I can't get my grubby little hands on a copy of the magazine here. I could order it off the Interweave website, but the gods only know how much it would cost to ship here. Various people offered to pick one up for me while they were on their foreign summer travels (thanks, guys!) but since the CPH is such a popular knit, I think most places were probably sold out of it.

At any rate, I couldn't wait, and so, after looking at a bunch of pictures of the CPH, started the process of reverse engineering the thing. So far:


I've got the sleeves done, as well. It looks alright. There are definitely points where it's obvious that I was guessing at numbers and stitches and stuff, but on the whole it seems to be working out. I only hope the damned thing loosens up a bit after washing. It's going to be quite snug, otherwise.

Also (stop me if you've heard this before...) I probably don't have enough yarn. So I'm going to have to forgo the hood. It was either that or a sleeve. But that's alright; I mean, it's not like I don't have enough knit hats.

I'm quite liking the cables. I used to think they were a bit over the top and busy. But this has just enough cables to make it interesting. And cables show up so well in this yarn. Maybe there will be more cabled knits for me in the future.

Draped lace shell pattern

I wasn't going to write up the pattern for this, but a couple of people have asked for it. (Hey, I look for an ego boost wherever I can get it. Plus, I have all kinds of time while waiting for those damned prospective employers to get back to me!)

It's available here and it's on the sidebar over there to the left.

I've pieced it together from memory and my sparse notes taken while knitting, so please let me know if there's a mistake in it.

Re-incarnated

Well, this yarn most emphatically did not want to be a halter top. It wanted to be this:


Draped lace shell
Yarn: Be Sweet 100% Bamboo, from Loop; just a smidge more than 3 balls
Needles: 4.0 mm Addi Turbos, used as straights
Pattern: my own

Notes: I love this lace pattern. I got it from my Reader's Digest book of needlework, which calls it horseshoes lace, but I've seen it in lots of other stitch dictionaries. It's easily memorised and executed and goes really quickly once you get into it. The yarn is beautifully soft and feels great against the skin- although in these pictures I'm wearing a nude-coloured camisole underneath (a must for every wardrobe).
I increased stitches to the top front after binding off for the armscye so that I could get a little bit of that draped neck effect. I'd prefer a bit more of it, actually, but that would have required really drastic numbers of increases.
I swatched and calculated how many repeats I'd need for all the different widths and lengths, etc, and then I rounded everything down to some random number of stitches that "seemed right" given that I knew this yarn grew and grew and then grew some more after blocking. This top fits perfectly. Too perfectly. I think I would have preferred a bit more ease and drape. It could probably be blocked to be slightly bigger, if I cared enough.

Because I knew of its growth tendencies, I made this in two pieces, so I'd have the stability of seams to keep it in check.


I love looking at the side seams. I'm fascinated by the way the increases and decreases work themselves so seamlessly (ha!) into the lace pattern.

What I'd do differently: fewer armhole decreases (my upper arm looks absolutely massive in that first picture!); a bit more ease in the finished dimensions; more drapiness on the neckline; wider shoulder spacing.

Heck, this was such a quick and easy knit, and so flattering a shape on me, I may just make another one.


I just thought of something! This would be an absolutely gorgeous lace pattern for a dress! You'd just continue knitting down, shaping as you go. Of course, with this yarn's tendency to grow, you'd end up with quite a saggy ass after a bit of wearing. So maybe more thinking is required for that one.

Random

I've noticed that some foods make the back of my throat/mouth itch. These include:

Mangoes
Avocados
Lychees

and probably some others I can't think of at the moment. Is there some compound common to all these fruits that would cause such a reaction? The itchiness sticks around for a few minutes after I eat the fruits, and is only mildly annoying. I love the foods listed and so the itchiness doesn't stop me eating them, but I do wonder what the deal is. Doctors? Dieticians? Nutritionists? Nurses? Anyone?

Mmm...lace

There's been progress on the bamboo lace shell. I've got the back done and most of the front, but have run out of yarn (the story of my life). I've ordered more (haha, The Limey has had it up to here about my having to order "just one more ball" of yarn for many of my recent projects) and am waiting for it. Meanwhile, I blocked the back.


Isn't it pretty? I love the way the lace pattern makes a scalloped edge, giving it the perfect little detail without my having to do anything at all.


It was fairly easy to increase and decrease within the pattern. I kept a 2-stitch selvedge for seaming.

I also replaced all the stair step decreases with short rows, so the underarm bind-offs are a nice smooth line:

And the back neck as well- no weird stretched stair steps from every-other-row-bind-offs:

This means that all the edges which will show are already finished. Once the front and back are knitted, all I'll have to do is a couple of straight seams. I won't have to do any crochet finishing to tidy up the edges.

Awesome. Can't wait to get that last ball of yarn. (They had one ball left in my dyelot. Whew.)

Either way

Well, I thought the interview went well. But I've also thought other interviews went well, so I think we've learned that I'm fairly useless at judging them. They were well impressed with my PhD supervisor, and so was impressed that I'd done my work with him. (He is very well known and respected in his field. It's a small field, mind. I'm lucky that the Chief Scientific Officer at this company also happens to do some work in this small field.)

Honestly, though, I have all the technical and scientific skills they're asking for. I don't have any programming and technical software design skills, which, although not a requirement for the job, is something they'd like. They would be lucky indeed to find all that in one person, though. I know of only one such person: The Limey. During general conversation at lunch, they asked what my husband did, so I told them. And they said, Huh, you know, we're looking for more than one person...They told me to encourage him to apply if he felt like it, but then the conversation went around to having a husband and wife working at the same small place, and how that may or may not be a good idea.

At any rate, there has been another development. During my PhD, I did a one-term exchange and went to work with a professor in Manchester. He has since moved to London. I guess he was impressed enough with me during the short time I was there, because he'd heard that I've been looking for a job, and has offered me a post-doc in his lab. Now, although a post-doc isn't my first choice during this job hunt, I have begun to look at them. This one would be good because it's at a well-known and well-respected university (always useful to keep in mind for future job hunts), and I already know, like, and know I can work with the people in the group.

The Southampton job is a better career step for me, and if I'm offered it, I'll definitely take it. If not, however, The Limey and I decided it would be best that I take the London post-doc.

So. Either way, we'll be moving to England in the next month to month and a half.

Huh! What'd you know?!

I have an interview in Southampton on Wednesday, so, as I always do before I travel, I googled "yarn shop Southampton".

And this is what I get!

It's a knitting resource page on the official University of Southampton website! Take a look at that list under 'Collections' on the left: data resources, European Documentation Centre, health circulars, knitting, official publications...

Totally, yet delightfully, bizarre.

Apparently they have a large knitting collection there. I was totally excited about visiting the exhibitions (there's a Montse Stanley collection!) and- get this- a knitting pattern collection! Unfortunately, the collection's only open on Thursdays. Damn.

We have a winner

So it looks like the vote goes to #1: the horseshoes lace. I'm happy with this decision because: 1) it's a smaller repeat and so easier to incorporate increases and decreases for shaping and 2) the holes are smaller, so it at least has the appearance of being a bit more modest.

I did all the math, and then totally ignored it when I cast on, because if I learned anything from working with this yarn before, it is that it grows and stretches like crazy. Swatches lie!

I have one vertical repeat done, and then did something monumentally stupid last night: poured boiling water from the kettle onto my left hand. So I don't think I'll be knitting for a couple days.
The hand's all right, though. I was at the kitchen sink, so I had it under running cold water almost immediately. Then I sat with it in a bowl of water while The Limey ran out to the late night pharmacy to get one of those spray gel things for burns. I think I reacted quickly enough, because there's barely even blisters today, just a lot of skin that looks like it's splitting and going to peel.

swatch and a poll

Which do you prefer? I'd love to hear your opinions.

Exhibit A: horseshoes lace (from my Reader's Digest book of needlework (thanks, H!))


or Exhibit B: gothic leaf pattern (from B. Walker's Second Treasury)

They're both knit in the Be Sweet Bamboo I got in London. My idea is to make a lacy summer shell from it (for when I move to a country that has a summer, obviously), so it will be an all over lace pattern. I can't decide whether I like the curves of the horseshoes lace or the strong diagonal elements of the gothic leaf.

swatch and a question

Pink mohair: can I be having with it?


The answer is no. No. Absolutely not. This is some Jaeger Mohair I got from The Limey's mother when we visited in March. It's just barely more than half mohair, the balance made up of nylon and polyester. It feels like polyester. And the mohair isn't your finest, softest kid mohair, either. It feels like they must have spun up whatever was left after someone else got the nice stuff. Look how long the fibres are!


Those fibres like to wrap themselves around everything, most notably, each other. I had problems knitting with it from the get-go. Seriously. It was difficult to make a slip knot to start my cast on! The knitting was just as fun. I shudder to think what it would be like to tink or rip back with this yarn. Urrgghh. To be fair, this was yarn from The Limey's mum's stash, and she hasn't knit in decades, so it probably dates from the late '70s-early '80s. (Hey, can I call it vintage if I sell it on eBay?)

I don't know what I'm going to do with it, now. This yarn has no redeeming qualities. That I have lots of it, and could have more with just a short phone call to Stoke are not virtues at this point.

(Just as I was singing the praises of Jaeger, too!)

Biggest. Swatch. Ever

I'd bought some Jaeger Extrafine Merino DK a few months ago, during the last month that The Wool Shop in Bray was open. It sat around for a while, and then I got an idea for a cabled cardigan. So, my biggest swatch ever:


As a scientist, I apologize for not putting a scale bar on the image, but, as a hint of the size, this took close to a whole ball of yarn. I'm glad I swatched, too, because the cable pattern looks nothing like what the one in my head looks like. The aspect ratio is all wrong. I imagined the cables being taller and less wide. Oh, well.

Aside from the design, I also learned that I freakin' love working with this yarn. It's just so lovely. Light, even, springy, easy to knit...a great basic DK yarn. I've heard rumours that Rowan, who owns Jaeger, are discontinuing the whole Jaeger brand. I sincerely hope this is not true. I've worked with a few Jaeger yarns in my knitting life, and they have always been exceptional and joyous to knit with.

Now I'm not sure whether to continue trying to get the cable pattern in my head onto a swatch, or try for something else altogether.

Candlelight Halter

Belated, but I thought it deserved its own little FO post.


Candlelight Halter
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cathay, every inch of 3 balls- I had to cannibalize my gauge swatch to make the i-cord for the strap long enough
Needles: 4 mm Addi Turbo circulars
Pattern: my own, and now available for free download at This Is Knit

Notes: Story of the halter is here and here. My first pattern! I've designed stuff for myself before, but this is the first time I wrote it up in different sizes for a proper pattern. I'm quite proud of myself and I'm dying to know what other people think, if someone knits it. I wrote up most of the pattern after the first bamboo version, so when I made the second one, I followed my own directions to see how it worked out. It was definitely a steep learning curve between the first and second versions.


The first thing I ever made with Cathay was the cap sleeve tee, and I knit that at a much tighter gauge- I was hurting my wrists. It's much, much nicer to work with at this looser gauge. Plus, the resulting fabric is so much nicer- softer, smoother- at looser gauge.

It's been- dare I say it?- warm and not rainy the last couple of days. Maybe summer and halter weather are finally coming?!

Some job hunting statistics

Introduction
For my own amusement/disappointment, I've crunched some interesting numbers from my job search so far. May also be of use to other job-hunters, especially if you're in a similar situation as me.

Experimental
I write a separate CV, geared specifically towards the job description, for each job application. So the numbers here come solely from the files I can count from my computer. For jobs through recruiters, I have to rely more on my memory. But those were so few that I don't think I missed any.
For all interviews, I either had a formal phone interview OR a formal in-person interview, so no company/group/outfit/what-have-you was counted twice for interviews.

Results
Months spent on job hunt: 4

Number of jobs applied for:

Ireland
through recruiters: 3
directly: 1
Ireland total: 4

Interviews: 0

UK
through recruiters: 0
directly: 9
UK total: 9

Interviews:
phone: 2
in-person: 3
UK interview total: 5
interviews from applications: 56%

Total
applications: 13
interviews: 5
interviews from applications: 38%
# (among all applications) who had the manners to personally reject me: 7
# of applications pending: 4
# from whom I just never heard back (bastards): 2


Discussion and Conclusions
Well, now, this turned out to be a very interesting exercise for me. The biggest surprise is that I applied to so few jobs! Honestly, it seemed like I was writing CVs and applications every other day. I'm shocked it was just 13 applications. I don't think I could have mis-counted, because all the CVs I remember writing are there. Maybe there were jobs where I sent in a general CV, but I can't recall any.

The other interesting thing is the low number of interviews I got from the Irish applications. Given the interview success rate of my UK applications, I should have gotten two interviews from my 4 Irish applications. I think the low number reflects two things: 1) the small number of jobs going in this country for my particular set of skills and experience and 2) I applied to most through agencies and, basically, they can't do as good a job of representing me as I can. This effect is compounded by the fact that almost all jobs I find on Irish job sites are presented by agencies, rather than by the hiring company itself.

In future, it seems what I really need to do is step up the number of applications. However, my high interview success rate would indicate that I'm choosing well- the positions I'm applying for suit my background/skills/education very well. Increasing the number of applications would mean expanding my search criteria for jobs, which would probably mean I'd apply to more jobs that aren't so well-suited for me.

Given the bind The Limey and I find ourselves in at the moment, I've started to look for post-doc jobs, as well. So the search criteria is expanded on one front, anyway. And there are still applications out that I'm expecting to hear from in the next couple of weeks. However, time is getting tight. Also, I will seek out some advice on interviewing. Maybe I'm sending out "don't hire me" vibrations or something. I've never had to do such formal interviews for a job before, so I probably have a lot to learn about them. (In academia, they just want you to present your work and they judge you -supposedly- solely on that, not on whether you can "tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a co-worker".)

Back to trawling the web, then.

In good news

I have an interview set up in mid-August for a company at which I would actually be doing research, so things aren't all doom and gloom. Yet.

Also: the Candlelight Halter pattern is up now at This Is Knit! Yay! Please have a look, and if you knit it, please please let me know how it goes. My feelings about feedback apply to knitting as well as job interviews.

And in more good news:


Silk Garden scoop neck pullover
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, colour 84, 5 skeins; ribbing in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, 1 skein
Needles: 4.5 mm bamboo Pony straights; 3.5 mm Addi Turbos for the ribbing
Pattern: my own

Notes: This was a sweater of many firsts for me, the most notable being steeking. I'm happy to report that it worked out fine. The stitches seem to be in no danger of unraveling past the first sewn line of defense. I'm pretty happy with how it all came out. The fit is good, and it turns out I can wear all those colours together. While it was blocking, I thought maybe I'd want the scoop neck deeper, but now that I'm wearing it, it seems at just the right height.


Also: the sleeve length turned out well. I used my Standard Operating Procedure for when I don't have enough yarn: I cast on provisionally and knit the sleeve caps first, then I pick up from the cast on and knit down. I do both sleeves at the same time, one from either end of the skein, and just go until I run out of yarn. This way, I use up all my yarn and both sleeves end up the same length.

Some words on the yarns I used. This was my first time working with Noro yarn, and I fully admit that the accolades it gets for the colours are justified. The colours are gorgeous. However. I'm not sure I would work with the self-striping Noro yarns again. I don't like not being able to control the colours! In fact, at some points, when the muddy browns started coming out of the skein, I cut them out. I know I was short on yarn anyway, but I just hated that colour.
The Cashmerino looks okay in the photos, but in real life, it doesn't stand up well to the Silk Garden. It's not the colour- that's alright. But the silk content of the Silk Garden makes the colours bright, vibrant, lively. Compared to that, the Cashmerino looks flat and dull. I think, if I were to do it again, I'd definitely choose a yarn with some silk or bamboo content- something that would stand up better against the Silk Garden.

All in all, a success, I think. I washed the whole thing in baby shampoo, and it softened enough that it feels fine against my skin. It helps that the points that rub- sleeve hems and neckline- are in soft Cashmerino, but the Silk Garden should soften more and more.

Getting used to it

I heard I was rejected for the Swindon job today. They sent the rejection by post, which is new. The letter included a name of one of the interviewers and a phone number in case I wanted feedback on my performance during the round of interviews. Of course I called- as I've said before, yeses and nos are useless without reasons- only to be told that the woman was out of the office until after the first week of August. Ha! Cowards.

Anyway, I am disappointed, of course, but not as devastatingly so as for the journal job. There are several reasons for this, the foremost one probably being that I'm simply getting used to rejection. The other reasons: it's in Swindon, and it paid shit. Don't get me wrong, neither of those would have stopped me taking the job had I been offered it. It would have been a great career move, and the job itself would have been interesting.

At any rate, the situation is now getting somewhat desperate. The Limey's contract ends in September, and he's already told his boss that he won't be able to renew it, because what with the immigration issues, we probably won't be staying in Dublin. And, I mean, at least one of us has to be bringing in some income. I'd promised him at the beginning of the year that it was his turn next to sit at home and wander about the internet all day. Hmm...may be time to think "outside the box".

The moment of reckoning

Today I went down to This Is Knit and bought some yarn to use for the ribbing of the Silk Garden pullover. Lisa and I tried to find the best match to the Silk Garden (colour 84) but with so many colours, it was difficult. Eventually I chose a ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in a brickish red colour. I was hoping there would be a goldeny yellow orange, but no such luck.

It took only a bit of time to do the ribbing on the hem and sleeves, so then I had to face the inevitable:


I'd hand-sewn the reinforcement for the steek. Two lines of stitching on either side of the row of stitches I would cut through. I didn't trust just the one line of stitching, so I put in another one one stitch away. Then I went over the first line again, just to be sure.

I made myself a cup of tea (okay, I lie, The Limey made me a cup of tea) and I got down to work.

It was surprisingly...easy. I did some more.
I don't think I inhaled at all during the cutting, mind you. But it got done. The steek reinforcement held together. I was shocked.


I folded the steek stitches back and sewed the selvedge to the wrong side of the fabric. It still held. I picked up stitches along the edge and knit the ribbing for the scoop neck. It still held.

I think I only really took a proper, deep breath after I'd picked up the stitches for the ribbing. I could see that I wasn't going to have an unraveling mess on my hands.

It's washed and blocking now. Whew.

Progress

Swindon was...uh...well, to quote the HR person at the interview, "The great thing about Swindon is that it's so easy to get to other places from it." The interview went all right, I think. It took all day. There was the actual interview, I gave a presentation, there was a "group exercise" and a written assessment. I felt like I was back in school taking exams again, and not in a good way.

Luckily, I waltzed through airport security with my bamboo straights, so I got lots done on the Silk Garden sweater in my hotel room.


In fact, I only stopped because I got to the point where I had to put the front neck stitches on a holder and start the steeked section, and I had no stitch holders or anything.

I'm a little frightened by the steeking bit, actually. I was reading through steek tutorials and stuff, and it seems like non-colourwork steeks would be a little more difficult to hold together. Steek reinforcement will be essential and I don't have a sewing machine (well, I do, but it's at my father's in San Francisco, like so much of my other stuff), so I am planning to hand sew the steeks. Don't know whether that will be as good. Yeech. Plus, it turns out I will need a wider steek band than I thought. This is fine, but as you all know, I'm watching and scrimping on every metre of yarn on this project.

I thought briefly about knitting the sides of the neck opening separately. I mean, if the stripes on the sleeves don't match, would it be that big of a deal if the shoulders didn't match, either?

On the plus side, I'm feeling a little better about all the colours...