Saturday, February 03, 2007

the guilty pleasures of the academic

balaclava is back

I tend to get my news from the internet, but there is something wonderful about a physical copy of the Weekend Guardian. In my defense, it lasts two of us (sometimes more) at least a week. The excessive piles of paper get used.

Today was a good Guardian day. I knew it would be before I even got my hands on a copy. There had been some animated post's on a few online communities this morning. Crafters were excited about the 90 page booklet linked to this book: make a doormat out of clothes pegs, turn an old roll-neck jumper into a hotwaterbottle cover! Academics have been delighting in reading the guilty pleasures of notable clever-cloggs: Steve Jones has a thing about estate agents, Elaine Showalter loves Trinny and Susannah!

I've got a horrid cold and had just a rubbish day yesterday. The short version is that I discovered it is going to be yet another week before my grant comes through - that's over a month waiting for my pay. So, feeling in need of some self-indulgence but also feeling pretty poor and full of the cold, I pulled on my new mittens* and went down to the shops in search of vitamin C and the newspaper.

mittens!

Aside from the sections on craft and academic gossip, the true delight of today's paper was discovering that the balaclava has been big on the catwalks (see picture at top of post). A prediction I made here months ago. Though I should note that the article comes out in favour of the bobble hat.

So this (highly frustrated) academic is sitting hiding in her college hoodie, slowly burying herself in tissues, about to spend the afternoon with her own guilty pleasures. I have the pile of weekend newsprint to get through, a cheesy musical on the telly and my knitting. I'm making a voodoo doll to focus my grant-rage upon. Expect a pin-filled FO post sometime next week.

* Yes, new mittens. A secret FO hidden in my cold-addled rambling post. It's based on this pattern (which I found through Mettetations), though I made them more chequered than honeycomb. I used brown Opal Uni (two strands held together) with Noro silk garden for the MC, knit tightly on a 3mm circular. It was cold and I couldn't wait for the Anemoi's to be done so whipped them up on the bus to and from work this week.

9 comments:

Anne said...

Tee hee - you don't have to be an academic to enjoy such guilty pleasures. TS&TR has just finished, and I'm about to attack The Guardian...

Anushka said...

I like your mittens! They're very cute and the yarn combo is great.

Alice said...

Oooh, what lovely mittens. I love the colour variations. They remind me of something from my childhood but I can't quite drag whatever it is up to the surface. I have to keep staring at them.

Looking forward to the doll!

gina said...

Love the mittens!

I recently had one of the worst colds ever... I literally went through an entire box of tissues in about 30 minutes. Hope you're feeling better!

Anonymous said...

It does sound like an excellent Guardian day! I will have to live vicariously thorugh online reading (there's nothing like having a physical pile of papers to riffle through through the week). My sympathies for the cold and the delayed grant funding. We've been waiting to hear whether our grant would be funded for weeks now too. Oh academia and soft money!
The mittens are beautiful, by the way. Thank you for sharing the link to the pattern.

Anonymous said...

I love the mittens

And I agree with the guy about the balaclava's - bobble hats definitely the way forward.

spajonas said...

oooh, love the mittens! the variegated and solid yarns look very chic next to each other. sorry to hear about all of your grant problems! a voodoo doll would definitely help in this instance ;)

Anonymous said...

I can't believe I missed the guardian craft supplement - I got very excited about the whales stickers last weekend. I don't know what it is but the Saturday guardian is always appealing and interesting whereas I usually just read it online. Have you read the latest Steve Jones book? Is it any good? I saw it in Fopp of all places and was sorely tempted to get it.
Hope you feel better soon - lovely mittens. I think voodoo is quite good of lifting the spirits as well! ;)

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