Quick Traveling

Hello everyone! Once again, it's been the better part of a month with no post. I swear, this app is going to help. At some point. The problem is, actually, that I really have nothing to show off at the moment. I finished the Mara, but have not blocked her (or the Ishbel from a while back-I was trying to hold out for more blocking mats...it's not looking good.) However, Ben and I took a quick trip to Chicago to apply for this apartment that we really love, and in the 38 hours we spent on the train getting there and back, I started work on a large Traveling Woman as a farewell gift to a dear friend who has helped me through some very difficult travels this year. That is still very much in progress, but it needs to be done by Thursday, so I should have some pictures very soon. In the meantime, just imagine a giant pile of unblocked FOs. That's my bedroom.

Oh, and I've also been very badly bitten by a new project. Fellow blogger Kate has just finished up a stunning Veil of Isis, and I seriously need one of my own. I've looked at this pattern countless times before, but hers pushed me over the edge. I was contemplating this morning knitting some lace in a dark, dramatic color. I'm not sure yet whether this is the project for it or not. I really love Kate's version in the grey. But, what I love most about this pattern us that it incorporates many of my favorite shapes and motifs, and it just has so many of the elements that make me love lace. Now, I just have to find the right yarn--and considering the condition of the yarn funds, that may be a challenge.

From the land of fiction

I decided that I would experiment with the Blogger app on my new iPod. So, here I am, posting from backstage during act two of the play I'm currently in. Here is a (bad quality) picture of my massive, seemingly never-ending Mara, who is doing double duty as a prop. Since I have a good bit of downtime in act two, I get to do at least a little bit of knitting every night. I am really looking forward to finding but how big this baby is off the needles. Also, my costumer for the production, who is also a friend and fellow needle worker, told me that I could wear it in the show if I finished it before the end of the run. So, I have renewed motivation to finish it soon! Be back soon with pictures of my finish-it-upitis.

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.

On the way...

Wow, two days in a row! Surely this is a sign of the apocalypse. The challenge that I accepted last night of completing Aria's shawl was an abysmal failure. I didn't finish it today, either, but I am on the last section, so there's hope for finishing it this week, if I can get my homework out of the way early enough. There's even a glimmer of hope for tomorrow.

As of this morning, a care package is on its way to Shreveport, containing my copy of Knitting Rules, two Hubig pies and a bag of Zapps Voodoo Blend chips. It should arrive in Shreveport tomorrow, where Frances will bring them to Stephanie on Saturday night. With any luck, she'll sign my book, and Frances will get to give her my foodstuffs, along with a six-pack of Abita beer. I also included a heartfelt note, just to further solidify my dorkiness and simulated presence.

I hope to have pictures of a finished something soon. The Ishbel is #1 on the list, so it will probably be that. I think I'm going hit the WIP basket hard for a while, and finish up some of these things that have been lurking. Next up will probably be Mara, since that's almost done. It's also mostly garter stitch, which will help since my knitting time these days almost always coincides with study time/practice time/class time/driving time. (I'm kidding about that last one. Mostly.)

Sock it to 'em.

This weekend has been made of magic. I've barely slept, and it doesn't even matter. Instead of making a "to-do" list for the weekend, I decided to make a "did-do" list, writing down things after I accomplished them. I highly suggest this method if you're an ambitious person, because it is far more encouraging than staring down a big list of tasks. In the end, I find myself extremely satisfied on this quiet Sunday night--I certainly made the most of the weekend.

I did some MAJOR cleaning (RIP my phone charger cable, which has been sacrificed to the Vacuum Gods), laundry, drank a LOT of tea and enjoyed some of my favorite movies, played some video games and found all kinds of stuff that I thought had been irretrievably sucked into the black hole of my closet.

But, aside from that, I also finished one of my long-lingering WIPs:
The Unicorn-Cupcake Socks



This yarn could not be less my style. It was an Etsy buy in the early days of my knitting career, and the picture was...misleading, at best. The yarn sat in my stash for a long time, and finally I decided that I'd use it to practice my socks. On that particular night, I had decided to watch The Last Unicorn, and the colors reminded me of unicorns and cupcakes. So, I cast them on and worked on them until they were almost done...and then left them to languish until yesterday. I'm still not sure why that happened, but I finished them up quickly. They have achieved their purpose perfectly, allowing me to further develop my understanding of sock knitting.



The pattern is the good, plain sock from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Knitting Rules.

Speaking of Stephanie, something amazing is happening. She's coming to Shreveport. Unfortunately, she's coming this weekend, while I am completely booked up and busy. It makes me quite sad that she's not coming to New Orleans, and that I'm not free to see her, but there is a silver lining. A friend and colleague of mine is staying in Shreveport for an opera, and she's going to the meetup. I asked her if I could mail her one of my books for her to get autographed, and the fair lady has decided to humor me! So, I'm going to be shipping off one of my books tomorrow, probably with a really enthusiastic note/dorky picture tucked inside to further simulate my presence. I'm really excited, because it's the closest I'm going to get to meeting her for a while.

In other news, the Ishbel that I'm knitting for my friend Aria is near completion. Then I'll have an Ishbel block-a-thon for Aria's and Ginger's shawls and deliver them to my sick friends. If I finish the Ishbel tonight, that will be two completed projects in one day. Challenge accepted.

Bumpy Roads

I find myself back at the blog, and once again it's at the lull right after a big push. I've just finished my grad school auditions, finally, and was prepared to celebrate. However, my most beloved family member had a sudden, severe accident with a ladder, and is now in the hospital. It's a miracle that he's even still here, and all I can do tonight is sit back, completely overwhelmed by the huge twists and turns of the past couple of weeks. I've spent the past two days with this hat pattern, as a present for a beautiful baby girl. As I worked on it, I thought frequently of Elizabeth Zimmermann's famous motto, "Knit on with confidence and hope, through all crises." I really don't know what I'd do if I didn't knit. It would probably involve a lot of hand-wringing and awkward staring. Furthermore, I think it helps more than the knitter, and that knitting produces an aura of calmness that helps everyone around. In the end, the action soothes anxiety while producing something beautiful, and what could be better than that?

On that note, I think I'll go start another hat.

Happy New Year!

Hello all! Oh dear, it's been a while...

I hope you have all had a lovely holiday season. I suddenly find myself in 2012. When did that happen? The past year has gone by very quickly for me, although each month seemed to pass by so slowly. It was a particularly difficult year for me, and I'm pretty glad that it's over. I hope that the coming year will contain significantly more knitting, and less drama. It will hopefully also include more blogging! I think about blogging all the time, but I seldom actually get around to it. It doesn't help matters that I haven't finished a project in ages. I have one shawl to show off, my finished Holden Shawlette, and multiple other things in the works, most of which are gifts. I have a film-strip scarf for one of my dearest friends, which is somewhat slow-going due to the four MILLION ends I have to weave in before doing the edging. I'm also finishing up a hat for another friend, and after a quick headscarf for my closest girlfriend, I'll be able to start a new project for me, or maybe polish off one of the many sleeping wips. I hope to have pictures to post of SOMETHING soon!

While I do hope that this year will contain more knitting, I can guarantee that the next few months won't, so I'm trying to get as much knitting as possible done before the new semester starts. I hope to be back soon with pictures! As it is, I'm going to stop rambling and get some sleep--something I haven't had much of over the last couple of days.

May 2012 bring wonderful things to all of us!