Hibernation
It's that time of year: the temps reach up into the 46-48 degree range and it's called a heat wave! (Perspective is everything, as temps this "low" six months ago would have sent me running for a sweater and scarf.) While I'm glad to have things melting, it certainly made for a mess of the sidewalks today, and I cut my walk short due to sopping wet shoes and socks, and thusly, cold feet.
The past few weeks I've felt like pulling in, and doing whatever I can to stay warm. I've also been exhausted, and though I can blame that on late nights filled with studying, it doesn't feel that way. This form of exhaustion is the "wake up tired" and "need a nap after a nap" tired, and I liken it to how a bear must feel if it's woken during those months of hibernation. I was glad it warmed up today, and hope another walk (with boots on!) outside tomorrow will help me kick me out of hibernation mode.
I'm in a knitting stalemate, if there is such a thing. I have been knitting things just to have something going on with my hands (I started a pair of socks without a pattern knowing full well that I'd probably undo them and need to start over (and I wanted to do a pair in the Knitty BroadRipple pattern) but I started them so that I'd be knitting something. I was in between classes and in between projects and a sock was born. The mere notion that I'd start something with the knowledge that it'd be taken out within 24 hours tells me that my knitting is for the process....) I've just frogged the toddler sweater back I had done up because it wasn't turning out like I wanted it to, and my quest for a new pattern is about to commence.
(short version of the sweater: we had four babies born to my classmates last year (all girls!), three of the babies were to new dads in our class, and one was to a new mom. The woman who is our classmate is a wonderful person, and is going part time (though not really - she's just doing every other system so she's able to be home every few weeks) and I started a project for her newborn when I found out she was pregnant. It wasn't finished and I didn't see her over the summer so I cast on for a "fall" sweater; there was no way it was going to fit when I got half-way through it and frogged it. The little one is due to be 1 this May, and so my new plan is to make something that I know will fit her for the end of the summer/next fall. Now to just find a pattern that I reallly like....)
I started swatching for the fair-isle sweater I have in my head (using the mad ammount of Debbie Bliss (now discontinued) cotton/wool) but it doesn't look the way I want it to, and I think the yarn will become a simple, clean lines, striped sweater instead. I want to fair-isle my heart out, but that'd require me buying more yarn, and it's going to need to wait.
I could start my cascade 220 sweater, but I haven't heard if the pattern is in (and even if it is in, it'd be awhile before I could get north to pick it up), and I'm still not sure that sweater is right for that yarn. I really have to love what I'm doing, otherwise chances are pretty good it'll be frogged and new plans will be made.
The good news is that I do have plans for a sock, and the yarn is here, so I can (re)start it tonight while I watch some "Keeping Up Appearances" dvd's. I have some studying to do, but can afford a few hours of good comedy before I hit the books.
(and I need to take a bit of time and put everything away; the books and notes I used for cardio are spread across my entire living room, and now I have the time it takes to re-organize them and put them away. When I study my notes have to be out in front of me, and the piles of papers grows in proportion to how much time is left before the test. It's a system that has evolved over the past few years, and though it's "messy" it works for me!)
The past few weeks I've felt like pulling in, and doing whatever I can to stay warm. I've also been exhausted, and though I can blame that on late nights filled with studying, it doesn't feel that way. This form of exhaustion is the "wake up tired" and "need a nap after a nap" tired, and I liken it to how a bear must feel if it's woken during those months of hibernation. I was glad it warmed up today, and hope another walk (with boots on!) outside tomorrow will help me kick me out of hibernation mode.
I'm in a knitting stalemate, if there is such a thing. I have been knitting things just to have something going on with my hands (I started a pair of socks without a pattern knowing full well that I'd probably undo them and need to start over (and I wanted to do a pair in the Knitty BroadRipple pattern) but I started them so that I'd be knitting something. I was in between classes and in between projects and a sock was born. The mere notion that I'd start something with the knowledge that it'd be taken out within 24 hours tells me that my knitting is for the process....) I've just frogged the toddler sweater back I had done up because it wasn't turning out like I wanted it to, and my quest for a new pattern is about to commence.
(short version of the sweater: we had four babies born to my classmates last year (all girls!), three of the babies were to new dads in our class, and one was to a new mom. The woman who is our classmate is a wonderful person, and is going part time (though not really - she's just doing every other system so she's able to be home every few weeks) and I started a project for her newborn when I found out she was pregnant. It wasn't finished and I didn't see her over the summer so I cast on for a "fall" sweater; there was no way it was going to fit when I got half-way through it and frogged it. The little one is due to be 1 this May, and so my new plan is to make something that I know will fit her for the end of the summer/next fall. Now to just find a pattern that I reallly like....)
I started swatching for the fair-isle sweater I have in my head (using the mad ammount of Debbie Bliss (now discontinued) cotton/wool) but it doesn't look the way I want it to, and I think the yarn will become a simple, clean lines, striped sweater instead. I want to fair-isle my heart out, but that'd require me buying more yarn, and it's going to need to wait.
I could start my cascade 220 sweater, but I haven't heard if the pattern is in (and even if it is in, it'd be awhile before I could get north to pick it up), and I'm still not sure that sweater is right for that yarn. I really have to love what I'm doing, otherwise chances are pretty good it'll be frogged and new plans will be made.
The good news is that I do have plans for a sock, and the yarn is here, so I can (re)start it tonight while I watch some "Keeping Up Appearances" dvd's. I have some studying to do, but can afford a few hours of good comedy before I hit the books.
(and I need to take a bit of time and put everything away; the books and notes I used for cardio are spread across my entire living room, and now I have the time it takes to re-organize them and put them away. When I study my notes have to be out in front of me, and the piles of papers grows in proportion to how much time is left before the test. It's a system that has evolved over the past few years, and though it's "messy" it works for me!)
posted by Kristen at 6:19 PM
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