Back, Kinda

I thought I'd post from my laptop at Stitch n Bitch tonight, since I forgot my knitting. Yeah.



I moved last weekend. I keep wondering when this "sorry I can't hang out, knit, blog, read things, or wear different pants" phase will end - it started when school got busy and hasn't let up. This week and next I have to clean the new house and unpack everything, and I'm actually employed, which is awesome but tough because I could use some free time. Last night ALL I wanted to do was knit for a while, but I faded before I had the chance, and forgot my knitting on the way to work today. Damn! Maybe this weekend?

I need to get my $1.50 back out and finish that blue lace thing I teasily blogged about a while ago. I think I'm going to use some of my graduation gift money for a swift and ball winder so I can wind my miles of recycled cotton for the blanket (which I still love) some other way than by hand. When I get them I'll also pull apart my Kyoto and hey! maybe finally blog about it.

Anyway, don't worry about me dropping off the face of the earth - it's just a busy time!

Pomp & Circumstance

I graduated!

Or, as Ricky Bobby would say, "I have an application in to the Real World."

Dye Weather

It's going to be 77 degrees out tomorrow, so I'd better take advantage and dye a batch of yarn! I need this greenish grey to be a greenish brownish black to go with my Gee's Bend blanket. I took it to Starbucks today to work on and met a nice newbie knitter and told her about the log cabin technique. She liked the idea...hope she tries it! And let me tell you, it was SO nice to get some time to drink coffee and knit today.



I love when people ask me about my knitting when I'm out in public (though one woman wanted me to knit her a sweater "if she ever got a little extra money to spend" and i didn't really want to tell her that she'd have to have a LOT of extra money to spend if she wanted a handknit...from a stranger!)

Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there - my mom's coming to town tomorrow for a whole week and I am really, really excited!

Hoooooo.

Oh. Man. First of all, thanks to everyone who commented on my last post - it was so nice to get a little stream of encouragement in my inbox over the last few days. Seriously, it helped.



It was really hard to do all that work when I kept thinking, argh, I graduate next Thursday! Screw this! Plus, what I meant to be a 10-page paper for my Peace and Conflict Studies senior seminar turned into a 15-page paper, which was not so good because I decided to be a badass and write it all within 24 hours (ok, confession, I put it off, I suck). Anyway, I'm done with that and even though the assignment was really tough, I think I'm proud of my product. I'm not sure if I told you what the assignment was - "Write a paper using all six books from this semester." That was it. The books? Neuroethics, factory farming, civil war in Somalia, same-sex marriage in the US, jihad, and religion in conflict.

Hugghuughughh.



Then I had my Epic of Gilgamesh final yesterday, and that went well. I am really done except for a Spanish final next week. YAY! On my way home I took a bunch of photos on campus. If you're interested, check out my virtual tour of Berkeley flickr set. Now I'm off to clean my room and knit, for the first time in days. I may post again this evening about that!

School

AHHHHH! SCHOOOOOOOL!

seriously.

Miters at Large

From the Design Within Reach catalog my mom signed me up for:



Talk about Miter Madness (god, isn't that thing gorgeous?) Psychedelic stripey miters are taking over ze world!

I've been thinking about them, too. Though I've got plenty to work on before starting anything new, I've been looking at some of my leftovers of Elann.com Sonata.



This photo isn't really representative of the main colors of the blanket I'm planning in the back of my mind. Those will come from my Kyoto sweater, when I get up the gumption to rip it out (yes, I know I still haven't shown you. I'm so annoyed with it.) I have not decided between alternating main colors, as in the photo above, or matching main colors, as in Cara's blanket (she cast on with the same color for each miter in a square). I'll do some testing when school's out.

Speaking of which, most of my crafty time this week has gone to my graduation announcements! I couldn't decide on one color scheme at the paper store, so I bought three. The ginkgo is a rubber stamp. I'll show you the inserts next week.

I Knit...

Really, I do.



I'm working on the second square of my Gee's Bend Blanket, but the first one isn't actually done yet. I'm waiting to order longer needles from knitpicks until they come out with their NEW SIZES in the classic circulars, which I was told would be July-ish. Since I still have plenty of smaller pieces of this blanket to knit, I'm sure I'll be fine waiting till then.

I would join Ann's slogalong with this, but you know? It's still exciting. I know it's just stockinette, and miles of it, but I love this project and I KNOW for a fact and a half that I'm going to love the blanket when I'm done. This is such a satisfying knit.

Most of my other knitting has had to wait around for the last few weeks as I've been bogged down in work, schoolwork, and tiny unimportant things like having a place to live next month, so my poor little $1.50 is still only at 75 cents or something, and my blue lace shawl that I hinted at a few posts ago is not going to be finished in time for its intended use. Such is life. But hey! We found a place!

A house!

In Rockridge!

I'm about 95% sure we're going to live there, so I won't go on and on about it until we have a move-in date set, but it's pretty and believe me there will be a lot of crafting going on there.

And, since I need a job and need to look sophistimacated, I finally got a haircut. Apparently it's self-portrait week on my blog.

Before



After!



I sort of miss my long hair but I know this looks a lot better. Also, it makes me look a lot more like my mom, I think. Which is fine with me.

I'm going to try to post again on Friday because this weekend we're going to the Beer Festival up in Boonville. I do actually want to sample beers without getting wasted, and J will be working the Bison tent there, so I may actually bring my knitting. And lots of sunscreen.