A Long-Delayed Introduction

It is a beautiful day here in Chicago, and Ben and I went to a little park and had a little photo shoot of several different knits. Now, I can finally share them with you all! It's about time that I properly introduce Esperanza.

She started like this:

And, slowly but surely, she grew:

Then, one night, she was done:

I blocked her the next morning:

I wore her to VKL:

And now, finally, I made the time today to take proper photos of her outside:

It's about time. I couldn't be happier.

Pattern: Queen Anne's Lace by MMario
Needles: 3.5mm dpns and 4.00mm circulars
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in Verde Esperanza

I love, love, love this pattern. Please knit it, you won't regret it.

P.S. I'll be back tomorrow with more from the photoshoot!

Victory

Esperanza is complete. I have three rows of plain knitting, and then I cast off. I can't believe she's done. It's been hours of work, and I'm so happy with the result, so far. I can't wait to see her blocked! Completing Esperanza is extremely meaningful for me. I cast her on as a symbol of hope, and as she grew, so did I. Things are so much better in my life than they were the day I cast her on, and it's so wonderful to have a physical manifestation of all of the work that went into that change. I can't wait to share pictures of her, completely finished. My Green Hope has grown into something truly lovely.

One Month

Exactly one month ago at this time of night, Ben and I were lying on the wood floor of our apartment, surrounded by boxes and completely exhausted. We had just finished moving the entire U-Haul's worth of boxes up two flights of fire-escape stairs, after which we had to find a place to park a pickup truck with a U-Haul attached. This is hard to do at any time in Chicago, but particularly at night, when everyone is home from work and parked. There was no air-conditioning in the apartment and we had been working our butts off for hours, but we were so tired that we both passed out on the floor and slept all night.

That was our very first night in this apartment, and it seems like much more than a month has passed. The apartment feels homey now, and we have furniture and I have lots and lots of kitchen supplies, and everything is where it should be. The only thing we have left to do is hang the pictures on the walls. I start school on Wednesday, which is comforting and terrifying all at once. I think it will really help to finally get a feel for what my daily schedule will be like--and it's so much lighter than my last semesters of undergrad that it seems like nothing in comparison. Operation Barista is still underway, I plan to fill out several more applications over the weekend, and hopefully someone will get back to me soon.

In other news: I kept my promise to myself yesterday, and knitted all day long--I made dinner in the slow-cooker, so I was free to knit all the way until it was time to eat. I knitted a little after dinner as well, and then I transferred Esperanza onto a larger circular cable so things wouldn't be so crowded. I'm well into Chart Three now, and she's getting to be pretty substantial:

I don't know if you can tell, but she's taking up my entire lap.

I'm feeling pretty confident that I'll be able to complete her in time for VKL. Now I just have to figure out how I'm going to block her! The reason my last few shawls are still unblocked is because I don't have enough blocking mats. There is a place near the apartment that sells the bigger interlocking mats, for use in classrooms, etc. I might pick some up once I have a job, but if not I'll have to improvise. I plan to knit the extension of the pattern that MMario has written, so this shawl is going to be pretty big. I'm not even sure where I'm going to put it while blocking. I was planning on blocking it in the middle of the floor overnight, but "The Rift" is gradually making that impossible.

"The Rift," as I have un-affectionately named it, is a large disturbance in the wood floor of our apartment. It is hard to describe--imagine the way volcanoes are formed on the edges of tectonic plates when they push together. It basically looks like we have a tiny mountain range running through our apartment. When we first arrived it didn't look like much, but in the month we've been here it's grown dramatically. We had repairmen in to look at it the other day, and they had surprised faces. When experienced repairmen have surprised faces, I get nervous. Based on what they said to Ben, they have no idea what's causing The Rift--but it's bad and they're going to have to Work On It. I'm assuming that means ripping up part of the floor in our bedroom/living room/dining room. I'm trying not to think about that too hard right now. I'm going to distract myself by talking about what I originally planned to post about--pizza!

At long last, I made pizza from scratch today!

Mmmmmmmmm. It was so good! Pizza is one of my favorite foods, and I hadn't had any since a while before we moved, which means it had been well over a month! I told Ben that being able to make it from scratch makes me feel like I have superpowers. I decide that I would like pizza for dinner, and I make it come into being using only my skills and basic household ingredients! It is glorious. I can't wait to make more! Conveniently, the recipe I used from Joy the Baker makes enough dough for two pizzas, so there is a cute little ball of dough waiting in my freezer for the next time I want to make pizza! This time, I used chicken that I grilled on the George Foreman, bell peppers, tomatoes, Mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Next time, I'm going for pepperoni and pineapple, because that's my favorite. But, the possibilities are endless, and now we can have pizza on a regular basis, despite our limited budget! Another great thing about it is that I know exactly what's on each pizza, and how much of it, so we can eat pizza without being careless about portions. Each pizza uses a fraction of a bag of flour, less than a half can of sauce and as little as 3/4 cup of shredded cheese, to start with. Flour and all of our desired toppings can be acquired at the Dollar Tree where we buy our basics--which means we can both eat pizza until we pop at a price of about $3 a pizza or less! This is excellent news, people. EXCELLENT news.

Anyways, I'm going to go knock out a few more rows on Esperanza before I hit the hay. Maybe I'll come up with a list of topping combinations while I'm at it...

Clear Skies

The past couple of days have been some of the strangest since we've moved here. My hometown of New Orleans has been enduring the wrath of Hurricane Issac, and I've been sitting here in Chicago, unable to help in any way. I've never been away from my family during a hurricane, and it's been so strange to be detached from my city while all of this is going on. Most of my friends on Facebook are from New Orleans, so I've been watching dozens of storm-related updates scroll by, and it's so surreal. Thankfully, my family made it through the storm safely and with only minor damage to their homes. South of us, things were much worse, and my heart is breaking for them.

Oddly, through this I've discovered how much I turn to baking in times of stress, because I baked not once, but twice yesterday:

Basic Peanut Butter cookies--except I add a dash of cinnamon and a little extra sugar.

Pizza Puffs--the recipe can be found at One Ordinary Day.

I also got two new Pyrex baking pans today--a loaf pan and a pie pan, so now I can start exploring recipes for those things! Despite the stress of the storm at home, I've been feeling great lately and getting a lot of work done musically. I got so much work done today that I have no problem with taking the day off tomorrow. I got five glorious rows of Esperanza done today, and that was just what I squeezed in while taking a break. I have big plans for tomorrow.

I'm about 2/3 through chart 2, and I can't wait to sit down for some serious knitting time tomorrow.

Edited, because the Blogger app refuses to create coherent blog posts when pictures are involved.

Tip of the Iceberg

Well, tomorrow afternoon is my graduate school orientation at DePaul. Unlike in undergrad, where everything was carefully spelled out, and mailed out, and charted out, I know almost nothing about what's going to happen tomorrow. I know that I'll schedule my classes, and I may have to take some placement exams. May. I have no idea. Aaaaah. But, once I get my classes scheduled, I can really get started on Operation Barista--I am absolutely determined to get a job as a barista in my neighborhood. There are at least a dozen coffee shops within walking distance, and I know that it's the right job for me. I love the smell of coffee, I love the atmosphere of coffee shops, and I love the benefits that places like Starbucks offer. I also love that I'd be able to walk there before/after school and from home. So, hopefully that will work out for me, soon, and I can have a yarn budget again! Have I mentioned that there is a yarn shop right by our apartment? I need yarn money!!

*ahem* Anyway, I've been working away at Esperanza. I reached row 80 today--which is technically halfway, since there are 160 rows, but it's actually nowhere near halfway labor-wise because each row is so much larger than the one before. But, I'm enjoying this project so much that I really don't care how long it takes, as long as I get to wear it to Vogue Knitting Live. Here is another sub-par picture of her progress:

I never think to take knitting pictures during the day, lately. I promise I'll get a good one soon. There's so much pretty scenery around here, I really should go out and take some pictures.

Oh, also, I ran a lifeline through my knitting today using the hole in my interchangeable needles for the first time. I can't even express how much time that saved me--or how much time it could have saved me in the past. The best part is, if you're using a spool of thread or dental floss, you can actually leave it attached and just knit the lifeline through, breaking it when you're done--eliminating any guesswork about the proper length of the lifeline. Magic!!

P.S. Also, I just realized today how close I am to Lorna's Laces. Immediately afterward, I began contemplating plans similar to those about Skywalker Ranch in the movie Fanboys. :D Just kidding. Mostly.

Baby Steps

I finished the first chart of Esperanza today. I'm surprised how quickly I
managed to get it done, given that I've been spending about five hours a day learning my new role for the opera. I have to say, I am really enjoying this pattern. I wish I had tried working with lace weight sooner, because I'm really enjoying it. I know that the going will get slower as the shawl gets bigger, but I'm loving every minute of it, and it is helping me unwind in just the way I hoped it would. I think that sometimes, when people are placed in a situation where many things in their life are changed, they start assuming that everything has changed. It's been like this for me, at least. I think that, after moving to Chicago, there was a part of me that thought knitting had changed, somehow. But, if anything, it is more helpful now, and I am in a town that is even more knitter friendly. Speaking of this, amazing news! In October, I am going to Vogue Knitting Live!!!!! Somehow I had managed to forget that this event happens in Chicago, but I was reading the Yarn Harlot's blog, and it was mentioned in her tour itinerary, which reminded me! I got a three day marketplace pass, and a ticket to the Yarn Harlot's lecture! This will be my first knitting event, and I am so excited! Ysolda Teague will also be there, and I'm hoping that there are Ravelry gatherings like there usually are at the knitting events. Maybe I might even get to catch a glimpse of Bob? One can only hope. Anyway, my goal is to complete Esperanza in time to wear it to VKL. One of my best friends, who I've been teaching to knit (she is a natural!!!) will be in town for the event, which is going to make it even better!!

So, I need to keep trucking along on Esperanza if I want her to be done by then. I leave you with a picture of her in the yarn bowl that my friend Amanda made for me! I've had it for quite some time, but I'm just getting around to using it because I thought it would be most useful when I had my own place and could put it on the floor. Silly me, now that I have my own place, I still use it most on the bed. At any rate, I love it, and it works beautifully.