Really love your peaches
I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I finished the body of “Time Out of Mind”:
Doncha think I make rawther a handsome vest? And truth be known, I fit my maker quite perfectly…except for one small detail…
The bad news is that the neck looks terrible, rumply and amateurish:
Bwah, ha, ha, ha, ha! You think you can design sweaters, fool? You will be punished for your hubris, and I will lay my vengeance upon you! And you will know my name is The Knitting Goddess!
I have to rip it out and rethink it completely, but I may knit the sleeves first, just to avoid feeling downcast about running in place. I am at a bit of a low-ebb with knitting, I’m afraid. I don’t have decent portable project going and Time is getting to be a very big boy for his age, even putting aside for the moment that his neck is kicking me to the curb.
Meanwhile, in defiance of traditional graduate student lore and angst, the only thing that went right for me today was dissertation writing. The rest of the day was characterized by mercilessly low temperatures,
If I stay in a tight tuck, I may be able to preserve some of my body heat and survive until someone comes to rescue me. Someone with a warmer house.
surly cashiers, and burned dinner rolls. The latter mishap was especially bitter because I was so looking forward to having a roll with my broiled fish, steamed broccoli, and multivitamins, and to have that hope literally carbonized at the last minute, even though it was my own inattention that sealed those rolls’ fate… The agony!
You have no idea how fixated you can become on the idea of a dinner roll when you can only eat thirty-nine things and one of them is “oleomargarine.” (If you are new to the blog, you can get the back-story here.)
If my Berkeley professor was here, he’d ask, “So what’s the lesson?” Based on today’s events, I think the lesson would have to be: spend more time on your dissertation. Although come to think of it, the lesson might also be: hire a cook.
In the plus column, we ordered our wedding rings! They look approximately like this:
We are now deciding what to have engraved on the inside.
We’ve also been in the process of gathering addresses for the invitation list, which is a larger task than you might think, in this age of electronic communication. We have many friends with whom we never exchange real letters, so we don’t keep street addresses for them. But it has been an excuse to get in touch with some friends I contact infrequently.
Today, for instance, I e-mailed a friend of mine who always signs her e-mails with her initial and a line from a song, the cheesier the better, e.g.:
Love, M. “Really love your peaches…”
Upon which the recipient might reply with the signature:
XOXO, E. “…Wanna shake your tree.”
Other strong candidates for lyrics of this sort might include:
More than a woman, more than a woman to me…
I wanna put on my, my, my, my, my boogie shoes…
Goodbye Michelle, it’s hard to die, when all the birds are singing in the sky…
You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!
It’s more than a feeling…more than a feeling…when I hear that old song they used to play…
Even though we ain’t got money, I’m so in love with ya honey…
And you! You light up my life! You give me hope! To carry on!
Baby, what a big surprise…right before my very eyes…whoa ho, oh, oh, oh…
But now circling back to the subject of those wedding band engravings, what do you think about, “Really love your peaches”?
Me? I think it’s class, pure class.
February 7th, 2007 at 4:27 am
I’d say the lesson is one I finally learned: “Buy a cheap kitchen timer and remember to use it if you’re going to do *anything* else while baking.” Usually followed by, “…you idiot” – but then, you may be more intelligent than I am. 😉 Lovely classic rings! And I see nothing wrong with the peaches line. [g]
As to Time – stunning, simply stunning, and I’d be stunned at the recalcitrant neck, too. Considering the math you’ll probably have to refigure, I’d resort to drink. But at least you can take it into the shop and get help, right? No one said designers never get hints from others, after all. Good luck with wrassling it into shape.
February 7th, 2007 at 7:29 am
Even blocked out do you think the neck won’t work? Perhaps the same idea only 10 or 20 sts narrower? Or am I stubbornly standing by a bad idea? Too bad Monica didn’t know that those at the shop may have already contributed to this idea.
February 7th, 2007 at 8:04 am
Ellen, I have missed you. Here I thought I was being RESPONSIBLE, staying away from blogland, forsaking my blogfriends, growing gloomier and more etiolated by the minute (think of Neville, he who died of ennui). But indeed, in the knitblog I find relief! I have been saved from such a cruel fate by a big dose of Balesian humour!
As always, you do not disappoint. Mwaah!
I’m going to have to give some serious thought to the inside of your rings. Although nothing says eternal devotion like “really love your peaches.”
Best, Laura
“I’m a Legionnaire, camel in disrepair”
February 7th, 2007 at 11:59 am
When hubby and I got married 35 (!) years ago, the only thing I engraved inside his band was the date of our wedding…I was foolishly thinking that having the date there would prevent his forgetting our anniversary! The truly funny thing is that once, about 7 years ago I got the wrong date in MY head about the actual day of our anniversary and hubby had to take off his right to show me I was wrong. Oh sigh. 🙂
February 7th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
I really like the sweater. As for the neck, too many stitches, especially in the cast off. When you stop cabling, you’ll need to reduce, perhaps by half the amount of each cable repeat. Check out Elsebeth Lavold’s Viking Knits book. She talks about how she figured out how to put freestanding cabled motifs in the midst of plain knitting by playing with increases and decreases. Good luck. It’s so frustrating when a really good idea doesn’t work the way you expect.
Pretty rings. We also just put the date. No regrets 30 years later–the rings or the marriage.
February 7th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
We didn’t get our rings engraved, but I always thought “Put it back on” was a good one. Don’t want to lose those, and if you’re playing with it, you could drop it, it could roll across the deck or down the sidewalk and fall through some kind of grating…and then you’d have to explain to your honey that you were playing with your ring, not trying to lose it, and that it’s not a metaphore, etc., etc., etc.
February 7th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Oh, I’m sorry that your sweater is giving you issues. Definitely work on the sleeves for a bit and then you can have time to chew on the neck edging. Start a pair of socks for the easy portable project is my thought. The rings are very pretty.
February 8th, 2007 at 12:09 am
“Too bad Monica didn’t know that those at the shop may have already contributed to this idea.”
ROFLMAO, Sean! Do I sense quite a story behind this?
February 12th, 2007 at 3:49 am
The ring is very pretty. Sorry, can’t think of anything for the engraving.
But, a word with you about your diet. It concerns me because it sounds like some set of recommendations straight out of a 1950s health book. Have you gotten a second opinion? Things which were previously thought to be bland and easy on the stomach have more recently been found to cause all sorts of acidic excitement. And, hasn’t everyone decided that ‘oleomargarine’ is little better for you than leaf lard? What with the trans fats and all? I’ll mind my own business if you tell me to, but dear God, how can anyone expect you to live on that??
February 12th, 2007 at 3:50 am
Oh, and the sweater. I love the sweater.
February 13th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Jennifer, leaf lard is actually one of the things on the “No Fly” list of foods. Just to reassure you…
But seriously, the key to surviving the IBS diet is to stop worrying and learn to love the skinless chicken breast. It’s really just that simple.
I do thank you for your concern, however, and I take it in the generous spirit in which it was offered.