Category Archives: Life

Another Thursday

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Did anyone who went to Sock Summit 2009 go to the Sock Museum?  Did you see my Rivendell socks?  Did they look like they were having a good time?  I thought it was pretty cool to find my Rivendells amongst the photos The Oregonian took of the event (the slideshow is halfway through the article).

I’m liking the Monkey socks I’m knitting for my sister.  The pattern was super easy to memorize, and the colors are working really well with the simple lace.  It’s also knitting up very quickly.  The Laminaria shawl is slightly on-hold, meaning I just haven’t felt up to knitting it while watching TV the last few nights.

My 30 days of exercise project is almost over — tomorrow is day 30!  The Monterey Wool Auction is on Sunday and I’m looking forward to see what fleeces are there this year.  I think I will probably be continuing the exercise going forward.  I have finally gotten to a point that while I still feel hot and sweaty afterwards, I also feel refreshed.  And let me tell you, the biggest bonus is my clothes are fitting looser.

End of the week

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After I finished the Rivendell socks, I was a bit listless over what to knit next.  I had bought some Mountain Lace in a nice navy blue that I want to make Aeolian out of, but the idea just wasn’t getting me excited.  I kept thinking I wanted to knit something out of some of my handspun.  I hadn’t done that in some time.  There’s something really nice about knitting with yarn that you’ve spun yourself.

I had managed to get my hands of some Spunky Ecelectic Corripaca before Amy ran out of it several months ago.  The colorway I chose was Estuary, which was a pretty mix of green, brown, and natural.  I spun it up as a 2-ply lacewight getting approximately 509 yds out of the 4 oz.

I thought with the brown and greens the perfect pattern would be Laminaria.  So, I cast it on last Thursday.  I’ve gotten through the star chart and have completed the first repeat of the blossom chart.  So far, I love the way the colors are stripping up.  I think with the edging it will really look seaweedy.

I should also say thanks to BigAlice and Sandy for their comments on my last post.  Since they’ve given me permission to whinge, here it is, in all its silly glory….

First off, I’m an introvert; being around people can be tiring, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t like to be social.  Things in my life got a lot better when I accepted the fact that I am an introvert, that I’ll never be an extrovert, and I learned what I needed to do for myself.  However, knowing and accepting don’t always help when I go through periods of profound loneliness.  I lament that I don’t have many close friends; I pity myself for not being invited out to do things.  It leaves me feeling like there’s a hole in my gut for a few days, then it passes.  I have to remember that I probably don’t present myself as someone who is interested in going out and doing things, and frankly, I’m not sure how to even give that impression.  I don’t know how to make instant friends with people, and I have only a slim number of lasting friendships.

I’m not looking for a pity party, but just explaining where my head was earlier this week.  I’m hoping maybe by putting some of it into words I’ll get a better grasp on what it is that bothers me.

Now, on a lighter note… YARN!

Just a day late

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This week is at the very least on probation; it has come extremely close to being fired more than once as it’s gone along.  There has been much broken glass — I lost 2 flower vases and then a bowl in the kitchen.  Dinner Monday night ended up on the floor, along with some of that broken glass.  These are probably some of the things that lead me to stay home from work on Tuesday.

I’ve spent the last few days doing my exercise in the morning, then heading to work.  By the time I get seated in front of my computer I’ve felt ready to start crying like a baby for no obvious reason.  I have since been reassured that this is apparently normal and that I am not alone in this phenomenon; I understand that it will soon pass.  But between that and my next-door neighbor thinking they have to take a shower at the same time I do, my mornings have not gotten off to the best start most days.

I’m in a race to get the Rivendell socks done by tonight so that I can wash and block them and get them in the mail tomorrow.  It wouldn’t be as much of a race except I was not paying attention yesterday as I went to start the heel flap, finished the heel flap, and turned the heel.  It was then that I discovered that I had knit the heel on the front of the sock.  So, I had to rip out 2 hours of work and redo it, thus putting me back 4 hours.  We’ll see how this all goes.

ETA: Closing comments on this post due to spam.

Mental health day

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I stayed home from work today.  I woke up this morning and realized I just couldn’t do it today.  This morning and yesterday, when I woke up I felt just as tired as I had when I went to bed the night before.  I’m hoping taking a day to rest will help.

I still ended working out, hoping that getting some movement would help me feel better.  It didn’t pep me up like I wanted, but at least it didn’t make me feel any more exhausted.  Today was my 7th day in a row working out, so I’m still on target for my trip to the Monterey Wool Auction.  I’ve managed to slowly increase the amount of time I’m able to do on the exercycle each time; today’s time was 25 minutes.  My short term goal is 30 minutes a go.

Just a quick post

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I’ve been a little scatter brained this week as I have tried implementing a couple of new changes into my routine.

The first is trying to cut back on caffeine.  I’m currently on my third day without a caffeinated beverage to start the day, which of course means that I’m on my third day of a sort of headache that’s happening on the perifery of my thoughts.  I’m sure the heat hasn’t been helping in that department at all.

The second change is exercise.  I am attempting to exercise every day for the next 30 days.  For every day I workout in some fashion I gain money towards a fund for purchasing fleeces at the Monterey Wool Auction, which is set to take place August 16.  Days I don’t workout subtract money from the fund at a greater rate than I am earning.  And if I miss 4 days in a row, I’m not allowed to go.

This is all in the pursuit of forming a habit of exercise.  I’m the type of person who hates getting hot and sweaty, yet feels better once I’ve done it.  I’m hoping it will help me tame my asthma, my weight, and my stress levels.  Most importantly the days are counting down for our trip to Japan, and my sister recommended being able to walk 5 miles a day by the time we get there.  I hate flying, so who knows when the next time I might be able to get to Japan will be, so I want to see and do as much as I can without having a lack of breath and energy get in the way.

On the knitting front, I should be able to start the toe on the first Rivendell during tonight’s TV watching time — mmmm, Leverage.  🙂  So, I’m still on track for finishing, washing, and mailing the socks off by next week’s deadline for the Sock Museum.

Making it through another week

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One would think that with such a beautiful wheel and no thesis taking up my time, I’d be getting tons of spinning done (which I should be doing since I have tons of fiber lying around after joining the Spunky Ecelectic Fiber Club).  But after twisting my ankle last month the spinning slacked off.  It got better just in time for me to ingest some mystery item that has left me with a beautiful case of hives for the last couple of weeks.  Benadryl induced stupor is not the ideal spinning frame of mind, sadly.

I have been trying to get some knitting done.  I have a friend who’s baby tried to make an early appearance… 9 weeks early.  She’s now on bed rest and I have been given warning to get the baby gift finished cause the kid may be here sooner rather than later.  I picked up a skein of Dream in Color Classy in Happy Forest, a nice, cheery green because I don’t know if it’s a boy or girl.  I knit up a quick roll-brim hat and a couple of booties to match.

The booties were a lot of fun to knit.  I had picked up Cat Bordhi’s New Pathways book a couple months ago, but had done nothing but flip through it.  Someone at my Saturday knitting group had done a couple of the practice booties from the books and I liked the way they looked.  So, I whipped up a couple of the Sky Arch booties over the last couple of days.  My drugged attention span caused me to miss the instruction to knit 8 rounds after the ribbing, but I think they still look completely cute and should still fit alright even without the added length.  The baby won’t know the difference, and I won’t tell.

Getting back on the wagon

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So, I decided that if I was going to get back on the posting wagon, I should try to get back to the posting schedule I had set for myself before the insanity of graduate school dragged me away — Tuesdays and Thursdays, at the very least.

The hard question is where to start.  Things have happened in the last several months, but does anyone care now that they are done and gone.  Doesn’t matter, you’re going to see some of it anyways.  😛

Snow in Ontario

We went to Canada (Eastern Ontario to be precise) in December to visit family and get a chance to actually see Toronto.  The last time we went to Toronto was August 2003.  The few days we had set aside to do things like go to the ROM were a bust when the entire eastern seaboard was blacked out.  Things aren’t open when there’s no power.  We did take a tour of the islands in Lake Ontario cause it was one of the few things running, and it was cooler on the lake. I have a whole set from the visit at http://www.flickr.com/photos/zardra/sets/72157612587406314/.  I took lots of photos at the ROM of dinosaurs and statues.  It was a lot of fun.

It was kind of fun to see snow for the first time in over 10 years.  I thought I was done with cold and snow when we moved out to CA, but being in it I realized it wasn’t as cold as I remembered it being, and I really miss seasons.

In February, there was, of course, Stitches West in Santa Clara. I didn’t sign up for any classes this year, so it was just the market place for me.  I tried to concentrate on things that I can’t usually find in the immediate area and also fibers that I haven’t worked with before.  I got some madder dyed BFL, some plain targhee, and some merino silk laceweight in Chartreuse’s Sister from A Verb for Keeping Warm.  I got some gorgeous baby camel and silk roving from Red Fish Dye Works.  I got a huge thing of dyed BFL from Blue Moon Fiber Arts.  Picked up some blue dyed Wensleydale, some blue carded batts, and a skein of sock yarn from Lisa Souza.  Got a small ball of merino, silk and qiviut from Windy Valley Muskox that I think I’ll make into a cowl.  A skein of MadelineTosh sock yarn in Kale from Webs.  And last, but not least, a skein of sock yarn in Opal from Abstract Fiber.  Rather amazed at the amount of fiber I was able to get for my budget this year, all of it wonderfully squooshy.

La’s Boozer was a smash hit.  Got to sit around drinking, knitting, and spinning with La, Didi, Michelle, and Rosemary (and I’m sorry to say several other people who’s name I either didn’t catch or have completley forgotten by now cause I’m horrible with names).

Returning from hiatus

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I have a very good excuse for not posting on the blog since February.  I spent the spring semester writing my thesis… actual writing, not just prep and research.  I got all three needed signatures from my committee and turned it in at the beginning of April.  Then, there was the breathing period of 5 weeks while the university checked it over.  I got it back a couple of weeks ago with a short list of changes that needed to be made but it was otherwise good to go.  So, corrections will be made, three copies will be printed out on fancy, 100% cotton rag paper and submitted for binding.  This makes me officially graduated with my MLIS.  A little hard to believe.