You know what would be great?

If I had a little button on my desk at work that I could push, and out from the sides of my desk would spring two long spindley Dr.Seuss-like robot arms with little white gloves on the ends that would massage my temples when I have spent too many hours looking at tables full of numbers. Also, if there was another button, and a couple more robot arms that would make me an espresso, that would be killer. You could press these buttons whenever you have that "I'm all alone in the world" feeling that comes with realizing that you are the hardest working and simultaneously the lowest paid person on your little office totem pole. It's a totem pole that's kind of shaped like an upsidedown triangle, I think. It teeter-totters from side to side, but the bottom is always on the bottom. Meanwhile, if I were in a movie I'd be digging a hole in my office wall and covering it with a poster of Racquel Welch so no one would know. One of these days I'm busting out of this joint.

Vendetta Gloves in the works

I have two new patterns I've been working on lately. One is knit in Cascade Fixation sock yarn in eggplant -- I like this yarn so far. It's got a really nice shine to it. I'm not sure if I'm going to submit this pattern anywhere once it's done, so I'm going to have to keep you in the dark for now on the details. Anyway this pattern has gone through about 18 different versions already, so even if I put up a picture, it would be irrelevant in about 24 hours anyway, once I've changed my mind for the thousandth time. I took pictures a while back but I think the pattern is totally different now than when I started. Is it even the same pattern at that point? At what point have you basically scrapped your original idea, and when does it become a completely a new thing?

The second pair is a men's fingerless glove (or I guess you could call them gauntlets, but if I called them that, probably a lot of guys would be like, "you're making me a what, now?"... or who knows, maybe they would be like, "gauntlets! I don't know what that is but it sounds awesome! Is that something ninjas wear?!") Anyhow, like many people, I was struck by some of the knitwear in Sweeney Todd when I watched it, and I got a good closeup screenshot of Sweeney's fingerless gloves. After testing a lot of stitch patterns I decided that I didn't really care about duplicating the stitch exactly. I was really interested in the diagonal bias in the sitch, rather than the exact stitch itself. So I'm playing up the diagonal lines by making the gloves in a rib, and having it merge to form a V at the sides. I'm calling these "Vendetta gloves", and I think I'm going to write up a pattern for his and hers versions of it. Hopefully these will be available on Ravelry in the next few weeks! P.S. on the gauntlets: Nevermind that I'm working with DPN's that are entirely too long! It's a little ridiculous, but I can't help it. My grandmother gave me most of her old knitting needles, including a ton of aluminum DPNs in really great colors, and I use them even when they are totally unwieldy, just because I love them so much. Thanks, Babci!

A note to SPSS 17.0

Dear SPSS, One thing you might not be aware of is that I prefer instantaneous cutting and pasting, rather than a process which takes approximately the same length of time as an inning in baseball. Also, the very last thing I like to see is a bunch of question marks where my data used to be. Call me crazy. Finally, although I appreciate that you are "processing" my request for an ANOVA, I would also appreciate it if you would finish "processing" it so that I can actually view the results. I don't ask for much. I really don't. [If this entry makes sense to anyone else I'll be thrilled that someone else understands my frustration, but at the moment it's just here for venting purposes.]

I'm on my 3rd pan aux raisins of the morning. No regrets!

Pan Aux Raisins, originally uploaded by Go Suzy Go.

I made these last night/this morning and they came out SO good. Usually I don't have my act together to start a breakfast pastry the night before (which usually means that I make a lot of scones and muffins that take about a half hour total). But I've been itching to try to make some brioche pastry.

All in all it was actually really easy, despite the time commitment -- the recipe came from The Fresh Loaf website. The ingredients get mixed just until combined, then it rises for an hour and a half on the counter, gets punched down and put in the fridge overnight. The next morning you roll up the swirls with raisins and cinnamon sugar, put them on the baking sheet and let them rise again for an hour. So it's a lot of rising time, but they only bake for 15-17 minutes at the end of it all so it's over quickly.

And thank god because I really, really, really wanted to eat them by the time the apartment started smelling like cinnamon sugar.

And now I'm on my third and I don't even care. I'm making another pot of coffee.

Cardigan in progress

Cardigan in progress, originally uploaded by Go Suzy Go.

Here's the Lucy in the Sky, so far. Actually, I've gotten about half of the other sleeve done too. The body is the slowest going.... it's a lot of stitches and for some reason my hands keep aching while I'm knitting it. I think the yarn, and the nylon circular needle, are really slippery, and so I'm trying to grip the yarn really tightly to keep my tension. I'm playing around with holding the yarn in a few different ways to see if that fixes the problem.

But regardless, I love this pattern! The little diamond stitch pattern is really cute and simple. I think this sweater will see a lot of use once it's done. I'm always complaining that I don't have enough plain, versatile cardigans.

Sadly, it won't be done until it's too warm to wear it, but it'll be ready for the fall, anyway.