Thankful

Sorry for letting a few days go by with no posts! I've spent the last couple of days cleaning the daylights out of our home, and I'm extremely pleased with the results! However, the main reason I haven't posted wasn't the cleaning.
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The next bit of this post is going to be a bit of a downer, but I promise, the post ends with happy things and knitting. Stick with me.
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It's a very long story, but here's the quick version: the other night, I was organizing my stash, and there was an extremely loud noise. After investigation, we discovered that the apartment next door, whose residents were not home, was engulfed in flames. This was the room directly next to our room. The only reason that we still have a home is because the walls in this old building are made of concrete. The loud noise I had heard was the sound of the entire ceiling, complete with ceiling fan, collapsing to the floor. Several hours after our discovery, the firemen finally left, and we returned to our unharmed apartment, incredulous, shaky, and inexpressibly thankful. Incredibly, we had absolutely no damage. The following morning, we saw the interior of the neighbor's room in the daylight, and it had been reduced by the flames to a black and ashy hole in our hallway. It's taken us a few days to recover from the shock of this event, and I've done a lot of knitting, and a lot of cleaning, to cope with my frayed nerves. We are grateful beyond words, and have been celebrating our blessings by making our home as nice as possible.

I've been working on converting one corner of our tiny apartment into a sort of knitting area, with a floor pillow and all of my knitting books and supplies nearby. It's almost done, but it needs an area rug, so I'll take pictures when it's complete. I spent a lot of time sitting there today, listening to records and going through all of my project bags and storage containers, winding remnants of yarn into little balls and getting rid of trash. As a result, my stash, projects, and supplies are 100% organized. I have located absolutely every item I own, and everything has a place and is in that place. My yarn is sorted by weight into a plastic storage container with drawers, and I have made one of my decorative storage boxes for project bags, WIPs, and small finished objects, and the other for supplies. I'm really excited that everything is so well organized now, because I think I'll spend much more time knitting, and much less time looking for things.

I also finally got some pictures of the blue mittens, which I will share with you tomorrow! I'm now going to get started on my one bit of holiday knitting, which is a project that shouldn't take too long. When I get that finished up, I'll be sharing it with you! I'm so happy to be spending this quiet evening safe in my home, with all of the people and things I love unharmed. I hope that all of you are having similarly peaceful evenings.

Unexpected

I had an idea this morning that has led to quite the knitting adventure. With enough perseverance and good knitting mojo, I should have something very interesting to share tomorrow. Send me good vibes, my friends.

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.

Second Try

Today was a luxurious day of knitting. I worked on the orange scarf I cast on last night for the majority of the day today, while enjoying a Mini Marilyn Marathon. I started knitting at about nine o'clock this morning, while the sun was still streaming through the windows and I had a hot cup of tea nearby:

A couple of hours later, I began the Marilyn-a-Thon:

Ultimately, this was today's progress.

I have decided to name this scarf Clementine, after the character in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The name originally was prompted by the color of the yarn, but the more I work on it, the more the feather and fan lace reminds me of the waves of Montauk. I'm really enjoying working on this, and it's giving me much greater satisfaction than the version I was knitting out of the Zauberball--which I'll address in my next post.

Starting this scarf over, and the subsequent success, is fairly indicative of the way things have been in my life, lately. It's been a crazy mess for a while, and things are finally starting to come together. As my friend Aero pointed out tonight, starting over on this scarf is a symbol of our new-found success. Ben has gotten not one, but two jobs in the past week, and Operation Barista has had a major development: I have an interview at Caribou Coffee on Monday! It took some major assertion on my part to get the interview, but I've got it and I'm going to hope and pray that they hire me! It's the perfect job for me for a thousand reasons, so please keep your fingers crossed!! Be back soon with a tale of woe: the Zauberball that Wouldn't.

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.

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.

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.

Twists and Turns

It's been a bit since my last post: things have been a bit odd as Ben and I prepare to move to Chicago. There are so many little twists and turns that precede such a big step, and it can be very disorienting. However, things have been gradually improving, and we are looking forward to a wonderful adventure. In the meantime, I've been working on my Celtic bag, and I'm almost finished with the front. I tried binding it off once, but the edge of the bag expanded and was ruffled, so I went back and decreased strategically, which produced a variety of pleasing results. Firstly, it made the edge smaller than the rest of the bag, which will create a nice shape on the finished bag, and the way that I placed the increases made the cables end in a way that I really like. Overall, I'm pretty excited, and I can't wait to crochet on the edge and buttonhole, and whip up the other side of the bag. Then, I can make the strap and line this baby. I'm feeling very successful, so far.

Swimmingly

Well, my Adventures in Charted Knitting are going quite well! This much cabling means slower going than usual, but I'm really getting the hang of reading the chart, and it's starting to feel natural. Best of all, I absolutely adore this cable. I know I'm going to love the finished bag. I just hope my mods work out the way I want them to. I'm very pleased so far!

Charted Territory

I'm not always good with change, and sometimes that makes my life difficult. This is particularly true in the case of charted vs. written patterns. I grew up crocheting, and later knitting, from written patterns, and I've never made the leap to charted patterns. It started as simply a preference, but I think it is beginning to pass into the realm of fear, and so I've decided that it is time. There are literally dozens of patterns I haven't knitted yet because I don't read charts. But, I'm planning a totally epic Celtic cabled bag, inspired by the lovely evening I had seeing the movie Brave, as well as my love of all things Scottish. The pattern I want to use as my jumping off point has a charted cable pattern, and I've decided the time has come. Let's do this.

A Year and a Day

Last June, I decided that I wanted to start a pair of mittens. I titled them "Mittens in June?" in my Ravelry notebook, deciding to start them early so that I could have them done before it got cold enough to wear them. Unfortunately, that did not happen. Not only were they not done in time for the beginning of winter--they didn't get done for any of winter, and are still sitting here, unfinished. Until today. It is July 1st, a year and a day since the month I started these. I am moving to Chicago in less than a month (had I mentioned that?) and this madness has to end.

Today, these mittens are going down. Sadly, I'm not even sure if they will be warm enough for a Chicago winter, but it's the principle of the thing.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

A Startling Discovery

Well, I've been a busy bee lately, but I'm home from Memphis, and Spring Break is approaching. I, however, am ill, and am praying that I get my voice back for Carmina Burana auditions on Wedenesday. In the meantime, I decided to give Traveling Woman a break while I'm sick (I've been making enough mistakes on it while my mind is clear--I don't want to chance a total meltdown.) and make a simple project.

Over the past few years, my love of reading has taken a backseat to school, work, and wooly endeavors, most of the time. As much as I love love love love to read, I've only read about four books since I started college. I decided yesterday that this needs to stop, and as a tribute to that, I am going to make a Book Sweater. However, as I mentally reviewed my stash and looked over the requirements for the project, I came upon a startling discovery.


My stash is comprised almost exclusively of fingering-weight yarn.

The book sweater calls for worsted weight wool. I have exactly one type of worsted weight wool--some Knitpicks Wool of the Andes.

It's black. I'm not knitting in black, while I'm sick.

It did not occur to me that my love of sock yarn had caused me to own nothing BUT sock yarn. I will be attempting the book sweater in the DK Scarlet Fleece Painted Merino that I bought to make a Cortana-inspired shawl. It won't even put a dent in my stash of it, because I found it necessary to purchase three or four skeins of it, just in case. Now that I will probably be knitting the shawl, I definitely don't need 800 yards to do a small shawl. So, this little book sweater will be a nice way to try out this yarn before I go for a big project with it.




I'll start out with the suggested needle size. I think that, the more I knit, the more firm my tension has become. I don't think it's necessary for me to go down a needle size anymore.

We shall see, we shall see...

Oh, and I'm going shopping for worsted weight. Very soon.

Minutes

Things have been hectic for me lately. It's midterms time, and even when I'm not studying, my mind is so used to stressing that I sometimes find myself wondering what I'm actually stressed about.

Gaenor is half done now. I did not meet my goal of having her done in time to order the yarn yesterday. I plan on knitting my butt off tonight, in the hopes that I will get close to being done. That way, I won't feel quite so bad for ordering the yarn early, which is going to have to happen if I don't finish it tonight. This is the last picture I took of it:



I had one of it actually spread out, but I accidentally deleted it, and it's nighttime now, so I can't get another one today. You can see one of the lovely stitch markers that I got recently from babydragonjewlery on Etsy. I was looking for something cute, but these were so downright badass that I just had to have them.



I'm going to get in a good two or three hours of knitting tonight on Gaenor, so hopefully I will make real progress.





Someone decided to leave this on the garbage can by the practice rooms today. It gave me a smile that I desperately needed. I hope it brightens your day, too.

My copies of Whimsical Little Knits 1 and 2 arrived from Ysolda yesterday. It took a little while for them to get here because of the international shipping, and I'm so glad that they're here! I can't wait to make some of the lovely things inside.

We're leaving for Brahms in a week tomorrow. Wow. I'd better decide what projects I want to bring with me. I don't anticipate being able to finish more than one during the trip. It just depends on how much progress I've made on my next one before we leave.