Blue Skies

It has been an embarrassingly long time since my last post. Life has been a blur of early mornings at work and late nights at rehearsal. However, all of my hard work is paying off and this weekend, I anticipate very successful performances. The snow is melting, the birds are singing, and the wild rabbits are reappearing. Spring is most certainly on its way, and I am so ready. I feel like the turn of the seasons will be bringing many good things with it, and that there will be a lot of blue sky in the months to come. I'll be back soon with details about Ysolda's online Squam class, and to talk about all the socks I've been knitting. I have a rare night off, the dark day preceding opening night, and I plan to use it well.

A Fighting Chance

It has been so hard to knit, lately. That pair of red socks that I showed you in my last post? They're still not done. I could ordinarily finish them in something like three days, but it's been much longer than that. I started a new wrap that is gorgeous and promising, but it's only about three inches long. School and work and rehearsal are conspiring to leave me with no free time, and what precious minutes I can steal away from my responsibilities usually turn into an unexpected nap, because I'm using all of the energy I have.

However, today I have arranged a tiny, tiny vacation. I had an unusually empty Monday, with only one thing on my schedule, and I cancelled it. That means that I have a total day off for the first time since Christmas break. I have a few things to take care of, but it will mostly be a day of knitting. A day of knitting and movies and finally getting to call my family. A day of cooking what I want for lunch, and getting to eat it at home. A day of relaxing and enjoying the quiet of an empty house. I'm so thankful for this day. I hope very much that, despite the chaos of my schedule, I will manage to come back soon and share pictures of whatever my needles produce on this marvelous day. I've got a big pot of one of my favorite coffees, and a big pile of yarn waiting for me.

Stalled

I've been such a bad blogger lately. One could even go so far as to say I've been a bad knitter, lately. I started a new pair of socks for someone during my trip to New Orleans, and they still aren't done. I haven't even managed to get the heel turned on the second one. This is terrible. School started, and it's been a constant whirlwind of rehearsals and class and practicing that leaves me with barely any time for anything. The only reason that the first sock got done was because I knitted in a class that I usually don't knit in, and plowed through the foot since I didn't have to look down at it in class. I have a precious night off tonight, and I'm GOING to finish this sock, dammit. I don't have any other projects going besides my cabled bag.

Speaking of Celtic cables, Knit Picks just released a new pattern e-book, and I am dying. I need to make all of these. Right now. RIGHT. NOW.
Please, go look at the Illuminated Lines Collection. You will not regret it. I will be buying this very, very soon. I want every item in this e-book.

So, I'm going to go finish this sock. Seriously. It's happening tonight.

Winter is Coming

The last twelve days have been a blur as I prepared for the beginning of our staging rehearsals for the opera. However, now that we've begun things are coming together and quieting down a little, thank goodness. In terms of the feather and fan scarf, there's been a change of plans. I'll explain it all tomorrow.

Up for Breath

Oh, it's been almost ten days since my last post. Life's been odd and trying and overwhelming lately, and last night was the first time I knitted in over a week. By the time I've been getting my work done at night, I haven't had the attention span for Esperanza, which has reached a tricky spot. So, I wasn't knitting at all. Last night, I cast on another 2 Weeknights with Warrick by Karin Bole. I really enjoyed the last one I knit, and it doesn't take as much attention as Esperanza which gives me some hope of getting to work on it daily. Here is an extremely mediocre picture, and for that, I apologize:

I'm using the Zauberball that I've had in the stash for ages, and I'm pretty pleased with it so far. I'm not totally sure about the gauge, but I'm going to keep going for a bit longer and then block what I've got and see if I like it. It's coming out much wider than the last one I knit, even though they were in similar weights and I used bigger needles on the last one. I'm not sure what that's about.

In other news--I made a knitter friend! One of my voice teacher's former students who is filling in for her at the moment mentioned knitting in class the other day--which immediately led to conversation, then coffee, then Ravelry friendship. Last night, I cast on this scarf while sipping wine and chatting about knitting at her apartment, and it was quite nice. I'm so happy to have someone to talk about knitting to in person, and we have gone though some very similar things, so we have a lot to relate about.

Also, I have been cooking some lovely things lately. Yesterday, I made a pineapple upside down cake for the first time:

It was absolutely delicious--although next time, I'm going to leave it in the oven a bit longer. It didn't have the caramelized top I was looking for, because I took it out for fear of burning it.

Also, I made another pizza a few nights back, and that was quite delicious, too.

I've really come to love Nigella Lawson in the past month or so, and I use a lot of her recipes now. The pineapple upside-down cake is her recipe, as well as some other delicious desserts I've been exploring. I have made this pasta several times, and it is one of my favorite things to eat now--although not the most healthy. I skip the truffle oil, and usually use mozzarella and New Orleans-type spices, so it makes me feel at home.

Now that I've had the good sense to cast on an easier project for busy times (I don't know what took me so long) I hope to be knitting more frequently, and therefore posting more frequently. My new friend Meg mentioned that one of the yarn shops nearby has knit nights with sci-fi movies, and that is a happy prospect. I'll be back again soon--I promise.

Half

Well, I got a couple rows done on Esperanza yesterday morning, but nothing since then. Things have been strange--Ben is at home in New Orleans attending Mechacon, which is really exciting. Today, he met one of his favorite actors, Jason David Frank! I'm so happy for him, but it's been weird for us to be split between New Orleans and Chicago. I already feel like half of me was left in New Orleans when we moved, and now my other half is there, too! It's been a weird few days, especially with starting school. Everything is more than I expected--some in good ways, some in bad ways. I was hoping to have tomorrow to chill and knit and clean and work on some music, but my professors kindly decided that school was going to extend to the weekend this week, and when you combine that with other obligations, it gets crazy. However, there is a silver lining:

This arrived today. I called my Paw Paw to tell him. So, I'm going to go read this, and then go to sleep, because I've about had it with this week. Hopefully I'll get some knitting done this weekend.

Unpacking, and The Best Medicine

So much has changed, dear reader, since last I posted. I blog now from our apartment in Chicago, the apartment that I share with my fiancée.

Yep. Not only have I moved across the country, but I am now engaged. The move was a serious adventure, complicated vastly by the fact that it was grievously ill-planned. In the end, we carted an entire U-haul's worth of boxes (mostly filled with books) up three flights of stairs at 8pm after having two hours of sleep (total) in two days of driving. Yeah, not so smooth. But, we are here, and we are slowly unpacking and arranging our new life.

It's funny, I thought the hardest thing about this would be the physical unpacking, but it's more the mental side of it: adjusting to the new town, not knowing anyone, finally having my own kitchen, and being a Big Girl. The past couple of days, I've really been struggling, and I realized today that I haven't knit in at least a week. Maybe more. I was going to earlier, and found that I didn't even have the will. That's when I realized that I was really not okay. So, I had a little snack and a lie-down, and now I'm going to give myself a big dose of the best medicine I know. I betcha I'll feel better in the morning.

The Long Road Home

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of the Blog, It's been quite a long time since I've been here. In that time, I've gone through a lot of really difficult developments and changes. Ultimately, I've come out more or less on top, and I know what I need to do to keep things that way. The first of these things is to learn not to bite off more than I can chew, and the next is to take more time to do what I want. So, hopefully there will be a bit more blogging, since there will be a bit more knitting. Also, I got an iPod Touch as a graduation gift from two of my best friends, and I have a blogging app that I hope to implement in the very near future. I have been tackling much of my WIP basket, with one item finished and three very near completion. I haven't taken pictures of any of them yet, mostly because I've been too busy to go outside. Did you know that a human being can paint an entire set in one night, then spend the next night learning an entire role as an emergency replacement, then spend the next night onstage performing that role on opening night? I didn't either until I did it. As proud as I am of myself, I hope to never take on that kind of workload again. Anyway, although I don't have any pictures of my knitting, I do have some pictures of someone else's:

(please excuse the badly lighted iPod picture)

That's my ten-year-old brother, a few minutes after I taught him to knit. We were sitting on the couch watching Food Network together while I knitted, when I leaned over to him and said "hey, did you ever consider learning to knit?" He immediately turned to me and said "YES." So, we commenced. He learned so quickly, and before long he was trucking along on his own. He had a couple of setbacks when I left him to his own devices while I did some chores, but overall he's really doing well. I'm so proud of him, and I'm so glad that we have knitting to bond over, now. I hope that he sticks with it. He seems really excited about it, and he doesn't get excited about much. I will return soon with some of my recently finished and almost-finished WIPS. Happy Tuesday, everyone.

The Starting Gun and the Home Stretch

Hello, everyone. It's been a wild ride lately, and I currently have nothing to show for it. I started school this week, and have never had such an overwhelmingly busy first week. I have hardly had time to sleep and eat, it seems more like finals week than the very first days of class. Before starting school, and during the occasional free moment, I have been working on a Morlynn shawl, which I would link to if I had time, but alas. I am partially done with the edging, but it is somewhat complicated and my brain is somewhat dead. I have no pictures of it in progress, but it is, indeed, almost done. I have very high hopes of finishing it this weekend, at which point I will finally share it with you all. I will return soon!

Moth Alert

Well, I can pretty much promise that I won't be turning out any new knitting for the next couple of weeks, because day before yesterday, I found a dead moth in one of my bags of yarn. This yarn was delivered in the bag it was in, from Knit Picks. However, I'm not sure if the moth came with the yarn in the bag or not, so now pretty much all of my yarn is in the freezer. Unfortunately, that includes the last ball of the yarn I'm using for my Mara, so I can't complete the project until this ordeal is over. I have a few surviving skeins, but I don't really want to cast on anything new, because I do have a lot of stuff in progress right now. However, I'll be freezing all of my WIPs and FOs, too, because they were near the bag with the moth in it. I feel like I'm going overboard, but I won't have peace of mind unless I freeze everything. So, I will try to post for the next couple of weeks with more Parade of Projects items, and keep things moving!

Over four months ago

I made a post in this blog, and I did not return until now. The last post was a hurried one, about being busy, and a promise to return soon. I come to you now from a fantastically quiet space. It was necessary today for me to take a little getaway, and I'm choosing to do it in a place where I can sit and catch up with the little things that I enjoy most in my free time. For the past several hours, I've been reading Yarn Harlot blog posts from March until now. I'm finally caught up, which makes me feel very relieved, because I really missed hearing what was going on with Steph on a regular basis. I'm going to knit for the next couple of hours before I head on home. I planned on showing you a picture of the Ishbel I've been working on, but my new laptop's webcam will not let me, and my camera stayed at home today. But, I will come back with pictures, and also some pictures of the feather and fan scarf that I'm wearing right now.

In case you've been wondering what I've been up to for the past four months, I finished up the school year, operas included, with general success. I'd say that I've been resting since then, but it would be a lie. I took a summer job working at a doggie day care, and that pretty much takes up all of my time. I've been doing a scandalously small amount of knitting, which I plan to rectify this week. Over the past few weeks I have traveled, to Dallas for a wedding and Gulfport for a party, and now that everything is settled down again I think I'll have more free time. However, a substantial part of that should be used for practicing, since I have been neglecting that, lately. But, I really need to get more knitting in--the lack of yarn in my life lately has been seriously impacting my mood. The Ishbel is made with Knit Picks Palette for stashbusting purposes, so it's going to be pretty big, and hopefully really beautiful.

I really will return soon with pictures. Promise.

Coming Up for Breath

Wow, it's been a wild month. I have several finished projects to post about, but not any pictures, right now. I have a hat that I made to cover my post-wig hair during our Pearl Fishers shows, and I still have to post pictures of both sets of gloves--there will most likely be an accompanying narrative. I also have the orange cabled scarf that still has not been shown off. I took the day off of school today to catch up on work and rest, and it's really cold out, so the pictures are going to wait. But, I hope to be back soon, and back to blogging regularly.

So, I'm back.

Wow, it's been a while. I have been so busy with performances, papers, and exams, that I've hardly had time to make anything, much less write about it. I frogged a few things, and made both Ben and I gloves. I plan on having a post dedicated to that alone, so more on the gloves, soon. I have a silver-dollar sized portion of a hat done, and most of a sweater shaped iPod cozy. If I get the show on the road, I can get the cozy done.

However, this is what I am concerned with at present:



This is (a crappy picture of) an Autobots chart that I am making into a pillow for Ben. I started it over the summer, with no particular plans as to when I was going to finish it or give it to him. As of right now, I'm considering it as a Christmas present for him. I'm pretty confident that I can get this done in time. As a matter of fact, I think it may be time for another round of creative burnthrough--maybe even tonight...

Doing Things Right

It has been so long since I've posted on my blog that I almost couldn't remember how to log in. When classes resumed, my life got so busy and stressful that I haven't finished more than a couple of projects. However, last night I realized something that really reset my perspective. I usually knit to relax, help relieve stress, and to enjoy myself. However, I have been turning away from my knitting over and over again because the lace is too complicated for my tired mind and eyes. Last night, we were passing by a Michael's, and I suddenly decided that I needed something. I went in and bought a ball of wool and some aluminum straights, and cast on a garter stitch scarf on the spot. After knitting about ten rows, I had everything all figured out.

I am officially resigning from the Ten Shawls in 2010 Challenge. When I started working on that scarf, I had red flags waving in my brain, telling me that I'd never get the four remaining shawls done if I wasted my time making something else. I beat myself up about it for a while, and then realized that the whole reason that I knit has gone out the window for the past few months, all because I've been pressuring myself over this challenge.




This school year has been the most stressful one yet, and I certainly don't need to be spending my free time freaking out about having to knit four more shawls before midnight on New Year's Eve. Also, I'd rather work at my own pace on complex shawls that I love than churn out four more simple ones just for the sake of completing the challenge--that's not what it's about. So, instead of trying all the way to the end and failing, I am acknowledging that this is what is best for me and my mental health, and I am making my garter stitch scarf. After that, I'm dreaming of mittens and socks and maybe a sweater. The moment I gave myself permission to stop stressing over the shawls, I remembered why I love to knit.

So, I'm going to return to the stress-relieving creative outlet that knitting is supposed to be. I don't know why I took so long to figure this out. I feel better already.

Look for some posts soon with older projects that haven't made it up yet. I hope that everyone is well, and that at least a few people still check my blog!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

The past couple of weeks have been a whirling race to the finish line, to the end, to the beginning of the eternal weekend that is summer.

The opera is on Monday. After that, a presentation, exams, and I'm done.

Not only am I done, but this summer will be the first real summer of freedom for six years. The last time I had a summer of freedom, I was pretty much a child. I decided that how I usually spend my summers has really not been good for me for quite a few summers now, and I'm ready to be free of that and have a summer of relaxation and actually doing things that I want to do.

There have been many revelations as of late, and life is getting pretty great from where I stand. I just have to get through these last few crazy things.

When the opera's over, there will be much posting of pictures and telling of stories. I promise, I will be back soon, with tales of victory.

Oh--and I finally saw Blade Runner today. It was awesome.

Crunch

I have never been this busy in my entire life. I realized this afternoon, when I began to feel inexplicably ill, that I had not eaten since 3pm yesterday. I forgot to eat for 26 hours. I don't think I've ever been that busy before.

The opera is approaching, and I think it's going to be a damned good show. I'll be sad when it's over, but I will also finally get some rest.

In yarny news, I finished my brother's scarf. I will be uploading pictures of it, but I never seem to be at my own computer anymore. There are pictures on Ravelry, for now.

I decided that I wanted my first shawl to be Mary-Heather's Simple Things. Originally, I was going to do Gaenor first, but because Mary-Heather was the one who pretty much gave me that last nudge towards learning to knit, and my Malabrigo Sock in "Archangel" is going to be perfect for that pattern, I decided to start with that. Unfortunately, my prediction that I would be a tight knitter, as I am a crocheter, was incorrect, and I don't have needles small enough to do Simple Things right now. So, I'm going to have to wait until I do. I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to get to the yarn store and get them. I'm thinking of ordering them online, but I'm not sure yet. Regardless, my Simple Things is going to have to wait until I can get 3.5 and 3.25 needles, and figure out which ones will make the fabric come out like it should.

Hopefully I will be able to post again soon with lovely pictures and good news all around. This week is dress rehearsals and such, and the show opens on Friday with the other cast, and our performance is Saturday. I can't believe it's time.