Back from vacation

I have not fallen off the ends of the earth. Or if I did, I'm back now. This evening David and I returned from our little, much needed vacation.

We spent two nights in St. Augustine, FL which was wonderful. David and I do plenty of traveling, but it's always for family engagements or some event where we need to follow others' schedules. This was the first time since our honeymoon when we just did what we wanted to do, for ourselves. When we first got into our hotel room we just sat on the couch and sighed for about an hour. There was no need to do anything but just sit. It was almost painful to feel my body slowly open, but painful in a very good way. There has been so much stress around here lately that my body had just been moving in on itself. It was nice to let some of that go.

We spent alittle extra moolah to stay in the downtown area and not have to drive to most places. That was wonderful. We walked down St. George Street a couple times, walked to the Castillo de San Marcos, had lunch downtown one day, etc. We also went to the beach both Friday and Saturday for some very cold and windy 5 minute swims. Perhaps my favorite memory (outside of just relaxing in our room) was Friday night when we decided, after having spent the evening in our room, that we felt like going out. (This is VERY unusual for us.) So, at 8:30 we sauntered outside, not having any idea what we would do. Then we heard live music and walked towards it. There was a fabulous fair happening 2 blocks from our hotel that we easily walked to and spent a few hours at. Totally spontaneous, and totally cool. We mostly just had fun walking around and watching people being playful and happy. We went on the ferris wheel and haunted house too.

Here's a pic of a moment when David had me laughing quite a bit. We were at the Castillo de San Marcos and I was casually, playfully asking him, "so, what's this place supposed to be for anyway?" He lowered his voice and playfully flexed his muscles. "WAR! Can't you feel the war?" So, I pointed across the fort and asked, "what are those?"

"War strollers! Those are war strollers!" I had a good laugh over that.

I'm glad I saw the fort, simply because I'm fascinated by those old structures. But, once I saw the basic construction of it I got a bit bored. That's ok though. We had plenty else to do.

After St. Augustine we went up to Macon, GA where we met up with some friends of David's from when we first met 5 years ago. There's a lot to that story which I won't get into now but I had a nice time and had some good connections.

And....we're back.

I have lots of knitting news to share, and actually already took the pictures, but I think I'll save that for another day. Have a good week everyone :)

New knitterly steps

I got a happy package this week. The yarn!

(Cherry Tree Hill "SuperSock"in Nantucket Red and Loden)

The colors are just what I was hoping for- a red that's not too red, and a nice green. I plan on doing some lace or cables or something with them. After I bought them I heard from David, as you may remember, that he'd like some socks. So I planned to use the green for his cabled socks. When they arrived, although he made clear that he would feel happy and very loved in ANY socks I made him, I could tell something wasn't quite right with the color. He wasn't going to tell me, but I pressed because if I'm knitting him socks, I wanted them to be as perfect as they can be. The truth came out. Apparently Loden reminds him of Boy Scout socks.

Well, that won't do, will it? I now imagine the Loden in a leafy lace pattern- reminiscent of nature, NOT Boy Scouts, and not for my honey.

So, I decided to find other yarn for David. (Poor me, right? ;) I've been wanting to purchase some Lisa Souza yarn for a long time now. This was the moment. So, I have 2 skeins on order from her, which I'll report on when they arrive.

In other news, I picked up 231 stitches for the border on the Flowing River Shawl and knit a few rows. Unfortunately, I got stuck again on the border because the chart didn't make any sense with the increases. I (yet again) emailed the designer and found that it was a mistake. I've been very proud of myself each time I find that my confusion isn't my fault, and instead it's someone else's error. At the same time I'm getting annoyed with having to stop each time. But, the shawl is just so lovely -- it's worth it.

For anyone who might be knitting this shawl and is interested in the mistakes, the two I've found so far are for the border:

1) When you pick up stitches, you actually pick up 115 on each side and 1 in the middle, for a total of 231 stitches, rather than what it says- to pick up 116, then 1 center, then 115 for a total of 232.

2) The chart on the border, outside of the boxed area: After you knit your increases at the edges of the odd numbered rows, that increase should be allowed for on the even numbered rows. I don't know how to explain it really. But, for example, at the end of row 1, when you have increased outside of the boxed area, you will have increased to 3 stitches. Row 2 should show those 3 stitches, rather than the current 2 stitches.

Here's what the shawl is looking like nowadays- basically a pile of thread, because I can't open it up to show the detail.

You may have gathered that my "large-project energy" moved onto the shawl while I was getting the needles for the Simple Knitted Bodice. I now have the needles, so I hope to get to it again soon. At the moment though, the shawl is more enthralling. Here's a pic of how the body looks now with the picot hem edging.

I'm almost done with the second Barn Swallow sock. I'll post again when they're complete.

Today I'm spending some time resting after a terrible migraine last night. I feel pretty weak but hope to gather my strength today so that I can do some work tomorrow. I have a parent meeting to prepare for and I'll be registering for courses at Temple. I've decided to pass out of the intro to research course and move onto the Qualitative Research course, since I did take an intro course in my undergrad. I may be a bit rusty, but I think it'll be worth it.

Happy Easter everyone.

A wish for socks

Today I was telling David about my excitement at my new yarn order. Since I bought so much yarn over Christmas I've been sticking to a yarn diet and haven't bought any since then. But, there are a few sock projects I've been wanting to start (namely a cabled sock and a lace sock) that I feel would look best with a solid yarn, rather than the variegated that I have. So, OF COURSE, I had to buy a couple skeins.

I think Cherry Tree Hill is my favorite sock yarn so far. As of now, I've tried Regia Silk, Opal Seide, Austermann Step, Sirdar Snuggly, Plymouth Encore, and Autumn House Farms besides the CTH. While I love a number of these and will continue to go for them when I have various yarn needs, I loved the feel of knitting with the CTH, and I love the way the finished sock feels. Squishy, thick enough, cool and yet warm, good stitch definition, and nice colors.

So, I bought some CTH in Nantucket Red and Loden. I found it on sale at Chez Casuelle, online.

As I was telling David about my excitement to get the yarn, he mentioned (ever so casually) that maybe, if there wasn't someone else I needed to knit for, and only if I wanted to, and only if I didn't have some other reason to knit, that he would really enjoy another pair of socks. :) Hee hee...this makes me happy. I'm glad he likes his socks. And I love knitting for him, because I know he feels the love I put into his socks. That feels very sweet.

Opening to the mystery

I haven't posted in a few weeks. I have wanted to a number of times, and then find that I'm not sure what to say. A lot has been happening, but somehow the moments happening are not "events" that I can bullet off. These experiences are more internal, which make it more difficult to describe in words. I have a hard time forming words during talks with David, let alone in a blog.

In my life I have prided myself on being on top of things. I'm organized, I remember details, I've got things covered. Lately I haven't been feeling that way. I feel "floating" and loose- less constrained.

The positives of this are that I feel more open. I'm less scared of the world. As a child I didn't have the strength to fend of the pain of the world, so I learned to tighten up and block it off. This was necessary and helpful for what it was, but it has served it's purpose. I'm strong enough now to deal with the world and open to it. And, I notice that people seem to feel that. Random people start talking to me-- the cashier at the grocers who never talked to me before started telling me about his high school and where he grew up; my acupuncturist told me about his family and what's happening for him at work; the auto mechanic started telling me about his worries over getting older when he wants to maintain his passion in car racing. These people never talked to me before, and honestly, I never wanted them to. I was afraid of those influences. Now I enjoy it. That's very cool.

The difficult parts of this are how new it feels. I have nothing to root myself to, since this experience has no model in my memory. I get worried that I'm not strong enough to handle it.

But, I am. I can feel it. A lot of shit has been happening lately and I'm taking it in stride. So much so that it kind of doesn't feel like shit. It just feels like stuff. It doesn't take me a whole week to recover because I'm not perceiving these issues as paramount the way I used to.

It's alittle scary to open to the world in this way. But, it's also rather exciting. Where will this world take me?

Off we go!!.....or not.

The Simple Knitted Bodice likes to play with me. She tempts me with the excitement of her eventual and beautiful ending, only to halt me in my tracks. Luckily she fits really well- otherwise I might not have patience for these shenanigans.

I zoomed through the hip increases, excited to finish the body! And...bam. I forgot that I don't want to do the standard edge on the hem. I then spend another week figuring out what hem to put on.

Well, Friday I decided what hem to put on and knit it up on Saturday. It was the picot hem, for those of you who were wondering. Today, I just finished sewing the hem under. I was done with the body! Hurray! I put the first sleeve on the needles and....bam. I realized that I need double-pointed needles because the sleeves are too small for circulars. I have no size 4 DPNs. So, I now must wait to pick some up at the LYS.

Ah well, I suppose I should be celebrating this moment. I started the SKB last August- it's about time for atleast one PART of it to be done ;)