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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, Thanksgiving is suddenly here. I'm not sure when that happened. But, I'm certainly glad it's here. I'm getting some free time, which is so nice. I will be using a good bit of the break to finish up my grad school applications and get started on a couple of papers, but for today I am taking a well-deserved break. I got to work on my Holden a little yesterday, but I'm expecting to hit it really hard today.

In other news, Ben and I received a lovely holiday surprise yesterday. I was at my house, knitting on Holden and waiting for Ben to pick me up, when I got a phone call from him. He told me that on the way over, he narrowly avoided hitting a bunny who darted across the road in front of his truck. He was in the empty lot that the bunny had run into, and asked me to come over and see if I could get him to come to me. So, I drove over with a baggie of baby carrots in my pocket. When I got there, one of the neighbors told us that the bunny had been wandering around in the neighborhood for at least a month, and that they had been leaving food outside of their house for him. They said they had tried to catch him, but he was too fast, and they wished us luck.

So, I sat down in the lot near the bunny, and eventually he came close and ate some of the carrots, but he would run away if I touched him. After a while, I ran out of carrots, and he still hadn't warmed up to me much. So, Ben and I sort of gently stalked him around the lot, talking to him, keeping him calm. After rescuing him out of the street several times, and pursuing him for almost an hour, we were getting pretty discouraged. But then, I managed to move very quickly, and I scooped him up! Then, we brought him home and set him up with some cedar shavings and food.



Meet Spook!

He's still a little nervous (hence the name) but I think he'll warm up to us soon when he realizes he's home and safe. I've always wanted a bunny, but I haven't bought one for various reasons. But, I guess the cosmos decided the if I couldn't be brought to the bunny, that the bunny would be brought to me! This is going to be an adventure.

I hope everyone is having a lovely, relaxing holiday. I'm off to work on Holden, drink some wine, and eat some turkey!

Travels

My Traveling Woman is finished.





The Details:
Pattern:Traveling Woman by Liz Abinanthe
Yarn: Knitpicks Palette in "Fairy Tale"
Needles: US 5 KA Bamboo Circulars for the body, US 8 KA Bamboo Circulars for the bind off. (I'm really glad I did this, my bind off had tons of stretch.)


When I cast on for this shawl, I planned for it to be a clever project while on my trip to Memphis to perform the Brahms requiem with the choir. A fourteen hour round trip, my knitter friend Amanda (bicyclefairy on Ravelry) at my side, I figured I'd be nearly done by the time I got home, and I'd be able to say that I made "Traveling Woman" on my trip.



Well, first of all, this shawl took me two months to finish, partially because it was the hardest thing I've made so far, and partially because I've been busier than I've ever been in my life. There was a great deal of physical journeying before it was done.

However, I had no idea when I started this project how much of a mental and emotional journey I would go though before I bound off. In the course of this shawl, I performed two requiems, an opera, and Carmina Burana. The Brahms requiem changed my life. I came home from Memphis a new and better musician, and my eyes were permanently open to why I do what I do. The independence of the trip was needed, especially since I had some family problems a few days beforehand. I think, in some ways, the problems that I was having before I left were really what sparked the change in mindset.



Anyway, I feel like all of the things that have gone on in the past few months have changed the way I think. I am a much better performer now, because I've finally figured out how I feel about my career. I have also figured out how I feel about people in my life that have brought me nothing but sorrow.



I've spent much of the last two years missing my friends, because I "don't have time" to see them. Well, I've been making time.






and it's been amazing.





I also sat back and really assessed what in my life makes me happy, and what doesn't. As a result, this will be the first summer of my adult life that I will not be working myself to death at a place where I am both unappreciated and unsatisfied.

This summer will be a summer of knitting, books, movies, and most importantly, friends. I'm not going to be wasting any more of my time.

As happy as I am, both with the shawl and my revelations, I bound off in sadness, because I found out last night that a dear friend of mine will be having heart surgery on Monday. He is elderly, and this will be hard, no matter what the outcome. I have been praying for him day and night, and I hope that anyone inclined to pray who reads this will also offer their prayers for Mr. Bill Thomas.



So, as I sit now with my Traveling Woman wrapped around my shoulders, I know that it was not physical travels that lay before me, but a journey to a better realization of who I am, and what's truly important to me.

Happy Easter

It's been a time for cleaning and taking care of business for me lately. I've been working pretty hard on getting my room into a presentable state--it's been a wreck since the opera, and I never really finished moving into it in the first place. That took up most of the beginning of my spring break, and I'll be doing some more of that tomorrow before I go back to school and face the Les Enfants/Mozart Requiem/Carmina Burana/Finals/Durufle Requiem rush. Phew.

But, this has been a very nice break. Ben and I took my brother to the park, and afterward, I managed to coerce him into drinking a smoothie. With fruit in it. This is a big deal. It was great to get to take him outside and just play for a little while.



Also, just before the break, and through a small miracle, I actually managed to get tickets to Wicked! It was a dream come true, and better than I could ever have expected, and I expected it to be really great. I don't have any pictures from us at the show on my memory card--I'll have to check my computer's hard drive.


Also, we recently went to see Video Games Live, which was AMAZING.



We waited in line for two hours afterward to get autographs at the meet-and-greet. I got there an hour late, because I had to dash there after a mass, so I was pretty pooped when we finally got our autographs at 1am. But, it was totally worth it.




I've also been trucking away diligently on my Traveling Woman, which is going decidedly slowly.



I'm almost done with my third repeat of chart A, but it's still pretty small. Because I knitted so loosely when I first started, I always sized down my needles, but I apparently don't need to do that anymore, because this is quite a bit smaller than it should be, I think. I'm just going to keep on knitting. I have three more balls of this yarn, so I can make it as big as I want. Although, I probably won't make it too big, because it's such a bright color.

Anyway, I hope that everyone is having a lovely weekend in whatever way means most to you. I went on a loot-buying spree last week, and I have to take pictures and get them all posted, so I'll be getting those up soon.