Some Knitting, a Birthday, and some Picks

So, there is a bit of knitting news, though I haven’t finished anything this month. It’s like I suddenly had 50+ hour work weeks…

Oh, I actually did finish half of something! The first Time Traveler sock is DONE, and the second one cast on.

I have 5 repeats done on my Hitofude—so pretty! I can’t wait for it to be done so I can wear it, but I’m also enjoying the knitting process.

I started a dishcloth to survive the birthday party show—loving the stripes and loving that it’s at a finer gauge.

As it was my birthday, there was knitting, there was a new favorite movie, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty , enjoyed with Ruthie, and a few special drinks!

I made a magnitude accurate constellation on my laptop lid—nerdular nerdulance!

For my May music pick I indulged in the Hamilton soundtrack. If you had told me how much I would like it a few months ago I would have laughed, but I guess I’m a millennial and can’t help myself!

With a gift card I was gifted, I bought the matching biography that I’ve been wanting to read for quite a while, and a book of essays about knitting. I’ve also got a couple books on the go borrowed via Overdrive—I love that I can borrow books digitally from my local library!

Well, that’s about it for now. Stash Dash has started, and I’m trying to figure out what I can most likely get done, and enjoying the process of picking out a new project or two to start as I (hopefully!) finish things. We shall see how this goes… It is half-term at the end of this week, so there is a possibility of getting a bit more crafting done!

The Year of Being 30

As I look back on the last year of my life, I thought it might be nice to process through a little the good and the bad, the triumphs and the challenges. Because, no life is without both of those things, and they are important to remember and grow from. So, some of the best things about being 30 were:

• My furlough. It was so good to be home for a few months, to rebuild relationships and form new ones. To get to visit my three best friends and reconnect with others. To get Godly council from a variety of people. I have many precious memories from those 5 months, and have been greatly blessed by them.

• I took my first solo road trip, and got to visit many places like Bath, Philadelphia, Colorado, and Northern Indiana for the first time. I love to travel, and this was certainly a good year for traveling!

• The same can be said for pretty much the last 15 years of my life, but I knit a lot of fun projects, read a lot of good books (Blackout, All Clear, Questioning Evangalism, 100 Cupboards, Six of Crows), saw some great movies (Hidden Figures, Rogue One, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), and heard a lot of good music (Hamilton, Audrey Assad) for the first time last year. Oh--and I bought a spinning wheel!

• I walked (with a pinch of jogging) To Write Love on Her Arm’s 5k in April. Through various circumstances I have become very aware of how many hurting people are out there who are unlikely to ever get help for various reasons; I want to be a voice of hope to those who are in a dark place, and to do what I can use my own hardships to make me more sensitive to others.

• While I was home, one of the things I did was to substitute teach at a Classical Christian School in my hometown. I so enjoyed seeing how another school runs, reconnecting with people I know, and to get to know some of the kids a little. The 8th graders were my favorites!

• Another of the best things about being home was the many, many churches I got to visit with my different friends and family members. It was refreshing to be in English services, and exciting to see living, growing bodies of Christ in many different flavors. I am so thankful for all those worship services and sermons.

Some of the hard things about being 30:

• This was my hardest birthday to face, and it was particularly difficult because I was still grieving a loss. Because of the circumstances of my life at present, I often feel downright old, and turning 30 felt a little bit like a death knell. I had always hoped that my life would look rather different by this point, and in some ways it felt like I had not achieved as much as I could have/aught to have.

• In all honesty, coming back to the school was pretty much the hardest thing I have ever done. There are a lot of factors in this situation, and I am so thankful that the Lord confirmed that it was His will for me to come back before I got on the plane, and He has shown me some other reasons why I needed to come back. So, while it was hard, God is faithful.

• Being away from my family is a constant ache, and last year was no exception. My family is not perfect (after all, I’m in it), but I wouldn’t trade them for the world.

To finish off, here are a few of my favorite pictures from the year of 30:

I did NOT sign up to be Katniss!

...the girl on fire.

Sometimes I think my job/the people I work with purposely try to punish me for taking time off… The last two weeks since I arrived in country have been CRAZY, and I still feel like most of the world around me is about to catch on fire, but I seem to have stopped my clothes from catching on fire, I haven’t forgotten any major duty (yet), and I have mostly got 6 hours of sleep a night. So, it could be worse!

I have been doing some knitting in the midst of all the fire-fighting. I’ve made some good progress on my Time Traveler sock; Vanilla is the New Black might be my favorite vanilla sock pattern ever! I want to try Smooth Operator; maybe for the next self stripping socks?

I have also picked up something I cast on at the end of Stash Dash last year; the Magrathea scarf/shawlette in the lime green yarn that I can’t remember why I bought it. It’s a nice simple pattern, and I’m enjoying it. I’m also hoping to be able to finish it for this year’s Stash Dash. It has already saved my sanity during a frustrating movie night, so I look forward to having it as my almost mindless knitting.

Also, as a special treat for not catching on fire last week, I cast on the Hitofude sweater that I have been itching to make since I first queued it back in 2014. I’m using Knitpicks Lindy Chain yarn; a little splitty and stiff right now, but I’m hoping that the linen will soften out with wear. I am enjoying the pattern, and I LOVE how clever the construction is. Am I already planning one in wool? Maybe…

Other than those few projects, I have pretty much been consumed by work and trying to not let my real life get totally thrown to the wayside. I hope to do some spinning either during the term or in the August holiday; I want to finish off my Indian Corn project so I can knit a squishy cowl with it! As always I have a Great Course on the go, and I am currently really enjoying The Crooked Kingdom as my bedtime reading. A friend lent me the complete set of Eureka!, and I’m enjoying watching through those as I mark. So, life is (almost) under control…for now!

Apparently the sound of silence is accompanied by knitting needles...

I am a firm believer of enjoying the life happening to you without being slavishly stuck behind a lense or a screen, so I have been living quite a bit since last I wrote here. I have traveled to Tennessee, Georgia, Delaware, Indiana, Montana, and Colorado. I have spent time with two of my three dearest friends, and I went to a cousin's wedding. I have seen two botanical gardens, acquired a new 'toy,' and had my first massage. So, here are a few pictures of what I've been up to!

I finished my Firefly socks--so lovely!

I also finished two pairs of socks for Mercy, neither or which I have a FO picture for becuase I as rushing to get them to her. First, a pair of Squircles,

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and another pair of Vanilla is the New Black

I finished a hat for a friend,

and I have now finished the body and half a sleeve on my lovely Stripes Gone Crazy.

I bought a spinning wheel,

and spun my first big batch of yarn!

In the midst of all this I visited the Mud Hut for the first time and painted a tile--a lovely way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

So now, I have just about half a day more at home before heading up to Canada to visit one more best friend, and then it's the mad rush to get ready for returning to school. Boy is the time flying by...

Colorado and some beautiful yarn

This weekend I got to spend some time driving to Colorado with my sister, and then helping a brother move. I was captivated by the scenery of west Texas, New Mexico, and southern Colorado, and I really appreciated the time spent with my siblings.

I got to see Cadillac Ranch from the road, and I used cruise control for the first time ever. It was great to meet some of their friends and to visit the Garden of the Gods.

I got to carry an axolotl in a bucket on my lap, and I unloaded a moving van in the snow. I visited a delightful yarn shop, Woolly Works Knit Shop, and bought a beautiful gradient kit from Frabjous Fibers. And, yes, they pretty much had my money as soon as I saw the name!

I had my first designer cupcake, the salted caramel one,

and I got to wake up to snow outside my window...though admittedly it had been there last night!

I knit a whole color sequence on my Firefly socks while watching Silence, and am ready to start the fingers on the second glove.

I meet the adorable kitten, Scout,

and was introduced to The IT Crowd. Busy? Yes. A lot of work? Yes. Worth it? Heck yes!

January Knitting

I am so glad that no matter what else is going on in my life, I AM the boss of my knitting… So, before I head to Colorado for a few days, here is a knitting update!

I have made good progress on my Firefly socks. They weren’t a good movie knitting candidate for the last few days as I worked the heel turn, but now I’m ready to start the foot, so they will be good ‘mindless’ knitting again. In fact, they are going to be my travel sock for this trip.

What was good movie knitting this week was the sockhead hat I’m working on. I managed to not only finish the K2P2 ribbing in the theater, but I also managed to fix an issue with it in the dark. Yes I know, the knitting gods are now going to smit me, but I was pretty pleased with my efforts! Here it is, as modled by my mom’s lovely foam head-

I also started a sweater this weekend! When I was looking for a sweater to use the lovely Bolivian alpaca on, I came across Stripes Gone Crazy and knew I had to make it. While the Bolivian yarn was too find for me to be happy with the results, I may have *cough* ordered some sportweight from Knitpicks. So, here is the first balls worth of knitting! Will this finally be the elusive sweater that fits me?

Over the weekend I also managed to get the first glove finished. Now I just have some ends to weave in on the finger joins, but I figured I had better cast the next one on before I lost all my motivation. I love this pattern, and am seriously thinking about being crazy and making myself some fingered gloves!

Parting shot: The family’s cats as they are frequently known: Fluffy butt-

Favorite aka Orange Kitty, and Mal-mal

While I’m glad there are some felines to love around her, I miss Java!

December knitting

This blog has been rather knitting lite lately due to a) the gifty nature of some knits, b) getting used to a new camera, and c) way better things to do than blogging. So here is what I’ve been up to for the last month on the knitting front.

First, I made two hats for my youngest brother. First, a brioche hat in bulky yarn with terrible decreases that I'll have to track down to photograph, and then a double knit Creeper hat. I think my need to knit in that color of green has been met for a few years…

I made a mini Ravenclaw stocking to join the others on my geek tree.

I started my first Vanilla is the New Black sock with the lovely Firefly yarn from Desert Vista; shiney! I got some good progress done on the second one while watching Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

I started a pair of Hidden Gusset gloves for my sister,

and a Tronda hat with the lovely Bolivian alpaca my youngest sister gave me for Christmas. No picture of that one yet, as I'm barely into it and too lazy to go into the living room and take a picture!

My pink lemonade traveling socks have pretty much ground to a half in the face of all the far more exciting new yarn I have, but I plan to pull it back out again. Nothing too exciting, so again no picture.

But I am working on something pretty for a friend!

Finally, I went to the now only local yarn store, and in addition to a few skeins of lovely sock yarn, I couldn't resist this mug:

A lady never discusses the size of her stash. Words to live by!

Lots of Christmas!

Christmas this year was lovely...somewhat complicated by tragedy in the circle of my family and friends...but so good. I tried out the new local coffee shop and found they made a stellar latte,

I had a wonderful breakfast with my sister which included these phenomenal pancakes from Denny's,

and the cat matriarch is warming up to me--at least!

Speaking of cats, I made this Punk Mohawk hat for my sister's cat. Too funny!

Our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of fondue was good, but we found out later that due to catastrophic miscommunicaiton, the corn starch (which is VITAL) was left out. So now we know...

Presents were opened--my siblings rock!

Mary made an epic trifle,

two brothers crashed,

and a few days after Christmas I made a perfect mincemeat pie.

I am so thankful for my family--full of lumps and bumps as they are--and for the ability to be home for a few months. I hope and pray for a better 2017--one in which I get some clarity, some healing, and in which much good knitting and laughter happens. Bring on the new adventure!