It's been crazy fun times around the C-K household lately. For one, we had a parental visit over the Fourth of July. It was fantastic to see my parents, and to get to share the holiday with them and my fiance. We had a pretty great spot to see the fireworks, out in a field near the Iwo Jima Memorial. We had some good food, some good times, and my mother and I analyzed the wedding gown situation.
The gown is too small. Seriously. It isn't my fault, though- although it is correctly sized in the waist and hips and such, it is a good inch smaller in the bust than the manufacturer size states. No wonder it won't zip up! After some serious freaking (would Mom make me a gown? Should we go to Goodwill? Should I sell it and buy another dress??)... we decided that it will all be ok. I called the woman doing my alterations, and she was unconcerned. We can either turn the gown into a corset back, which is what I really wanted from the beginning... or we can otherwise fix the issue. So hurray! I have a dress that will fit me by November! Without starvation, because I refuse to starve myself to fit into a wedding gown when I ordered it the right size. Now if only I had realized the issue was with it, and not me, I could have exchanged it for a properly fitting dress a month ago. Too late now.
Ahem. Other than that drama, and the excitement of our tasting at the hotel to pick out food for the wedding... it was a great Independence Day.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled craft content. As you may be aware, I spent the duration of the Giro d'Italia boning up on my cycling knowledge by watching two hours of bike race coverage. Every night. That was just early prep for the MAIN event in our summer activities: the Tour de France. It started July 4 (Independence! Let's celebrate with European bike racing!). Luckily for me, I enjoy watching the Tour, and I love spending so much time hanging out with my G and exclaiming over the falls and the gorgeous scenery. So far the Tour has taken our intrepid riders through Monaco (been there, loved it), Provence (lived there, loved it), and the insane TTT (Team Time Trial) through Montpellier (visited my friend there, loved it). It's like an en-cycle-pedia of my memories of France! And I've had the perfect project to work on while I watch the cyclists speed through Southern France. I am on the bind-off of the Hemlock Ring Blanket, after these few evenings of Tour coverage. They are not kidding when they say that binding off this thing takes time- after two nights, I'm still only 1/3 done. I figure by the time I finish my blanket, Lance will be back in the Maillot Jaune. After last night, he was practically there!
Never fear, however... I have plenty more to knit once my blanket is complete. For one, I am on the third ball of yarn for my Svale cotton shell. There is a slim possibility I could finish it in time to wear it this summer. I also have these crackpot ideas of doing some wedding-related knitting. We'll see how that goes.
In addition to the usual knitting, I've been stuck in my summer reading due to our book club selection. We are reading Katharine Graham's Personal History over the summer for our August meeting, and the book is equally interesting and enormous. My shoulder hurts from carrying the darn thing in my bookbag between work and home every day! I am about 1/3 of the way through, and am hoping to finish it up quickly, so I can get back on track with some lighter summer reading. Both in the figurative and the literal sense- my shoulder could do with carrying some graphic novels or young adult fiction!
Showing posts with label Svale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Svale. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Pendulum Swings
I haven't been knitting as much in the last year as I did in the years before. Since dating my honey, my crafting time has decreased. It's not exactly his fault, mind you- mostly it's because I actually get to bed at a reasonable hour now, so I no longer knit every night ::cough between 11pm and 2am::. He knew he was marrying a crafter, and he is pretty darn supportive. I have a craft room, and he'll even watch dancing shows with me on the television while I knit. But I've cut down on the amount of crafting at home, and my commute is just so much shorter than it was a few years ago that overall I have just been... anxious. Missing it. Wishing I could knit more. Regretting that I didn't feel like I had the time to swatch and start new projects, so I just kept going with big long-term ones that wouldn't require the initial start-up concentration, and wouldn't require me being alone to begin them.
So I thought maybe I'd take back a little time for myself. And I have. I cast on for the Hemlock Ring blanket, which is just a breeze to knit, and a total delight on big big needles. I'm using the Eco Wool, and am astonished by how soft the fiber is, and how beautifully it's knitting up. I also spent a lot of time swatching for a little knit top in one of the RYC 4plys (cotton, I think)... and just couldn't get the pattern to work right. So I switched over to swatching for a cotton Dalegarn tunic, in their Svale yarn, which is luckily going much better. I've finished the ribbing and am a good ways into the first pattern repeat. And as splitty as I'm finding the Svale yarn (4 ply cotton again, though at larger gauge), I'm so delighted by the raspberry color that I'm able to forgive it. And my mood? So much better. I'm no longer constantly worried about the wedding. I have had pleasant wedding dreams, instead of nightmares. I am still freaked about costs and details, but generally feeling like we're doing good, and that the world is good, and darn if I'm not happy to be knitting more again. And I've nearly finished the ironing of all the fabric for my next project, which is a bonus- I am probably the slowest iron-er in the world, so I'm glad that my pile is finally decreasing enough that I can actually cut out the patterns!
It's not a perfect world- by focusing more on sewing, and knitting, and spending time on the sofa or upstairs in my craft room, I have let things go around the house. Haven't pulled my weight enough during the week, especially on the nights I have picked going to the gym over cooking a real meal, or when I chose to watch So You Think You Can Dance while casting on over bothering to vacuum or do the laundry. I didn't need to be sitting around watching TV and scrutinizing the Hemlock Ring directions. But in a way? I did need to do that. I need to feel the wool pass through my fingers. I need to try new things, and get out of this project monogamy, in order to feel creatively sated and calmed.
But what I also need to do is learn a little moderation. I need to remember that we share a household, and share the responsibilities. Sometimes I need to knit that one row before I go upstairs and make the bed. But my life is better when I do that one row. I just need to remember to put the knitting down after a bit. It will still be there when the immediate task is complete, and the room is tidied. And then the reward is greater- I can sink back into the sofa without guilt, and my favorite person might even sit down next to me and enjoy the peace and gentle rythym of my clicking needles with me. I never have been good at moderating my pendulum swings. I spend an entire day cleaning the windows, or an entire day watching Battlestar Gallactica on DVD while working on a baby blanket. I go to the gym with great frequency, and run often, or I forget about my need for fitness entirely and go a week without even lifting weights. Finding a middle ground has never been my strong suit- it is appropriate that as a Libra I always seek balance, but have a hard time determining where that balance is. So that's my goal for the near future. I won't let the pendulum swing back to a world where I don't knit enough for my mental well-being. But neither can I ignore the very real domestic world I live in. Knitting more lately gives me the optimism to think doing both is a real possibility, so I'm going to take my enthusiasm and run with it! Conveniently I have an external motivating factor- another parental visit in a few weeks. I'd like to be able to show Mom some movement on the DIY projects for the wedding, as well as showing her that we can maintain a perfectly lovely and (tidy enough) home.
I'm curious to hear from my fellow crafters. How do you maintain balance between your chores and your desires? How do you remind yourself to stop with the one, to pursue the other?
So I thought maybe I'd take back a little time for myself. And I have. I cast on for the Hemlock Ring blanket, which is just a breeze to knit, and a total delight on big big needles. I'm using the Eco Wool, and am astonished by how soft the fiber is, and how beautifully it's knitting up. I also spent a lot of time swatching for a little knit top in one of the RYC 4plys (cotton, I think)... and just couldn't get the pattern to work right. So I switched over to swatching for a cotton Dalegarn tunic, in their Svale yarn, which is luckily going much better. I've finished the ribbing and am a good ways into the first pattern repeat. And as splitty as I'm finding the Svale yarn (4 ply cotton again, though at larger gauge), I'm so delighted by the raspberry color that I'm able to forgive it. And my mood? So much better. I'm no longer constantly worried about the wedding. I have had pleasant wedding dreams, instead of nightmares. I am still freaked about costs and details, but generally feeling like we're doing good, and that the world is good, and darn if I'm not happy to be knitting more again. And I've nearly finished the ironing of all the fabric for my next project, which is a bonus- I am probably the slowest iron-er in the world, so I'm glad that my pile is finally decreasing enough that I can actually cut out the patterns!
It's not a perfect world- by focusing more on sewing, and knitting, and spending time on the sofa or upstairs in my craft room, I have let things go around the house. Haven't pulled my weight enough during the week, especially on the nights I have picked going to the gym over cooking a real meal, or when I chose to watch So You Think You Can Dance while casting on over bothering to vacuum or do the laundry. I didn't need to be sitting around watching TV and scrutinizing the Hemlock Ring directions. But in a way? I did need to do that. I need to feel the wool pass through my fingers. I need to try new things, and get out of this project monogamy, in order to feel creatively sated and calmed.
But what I also need to do is learn a little moderation. I need to remember that we share a household, and share the responsibilities. Sometimes I need to knit that one row before I go upstairs and make the bed. But my life is better when I do that one row. I just need to remember to put the knitting down after a bit. It will still be there when the immediate task is complete, and the room is tidied. And then the reward is greater- I can sink back into the sofa without guilt, and my favorite person might even sit down next to me and enjoy the peace and gentle rythym of my clicking needles with me. I never have been good at moderating my pendulum swings. I spend an entire day cleaning the windows, or an entire day watching Battlestar Gallactica on DVD while working on a baby blanket. I go to the gym with great frequency, and run often, or I forget about my need for fitness entirely and go a week without even lifting weights. Finding a middle ground has never been my strong suit- it is appropriate that as a Libra I always seek balance, but have a hard time determining where that balance is. So that's my goal for the near future. I won't let the pendulum swing back to a world where I don't knit enough for my mental well-being. But neither can I ignore the very real domestic world I live in. Knitting more lately gives me the optimism to think doing both is a real possibility, so I'm going to take my enthusiasm and run with it! Conveniently I have an external motivating factor- another parental visit in a few weeks. I'd like to be able to show Mom some movement on the DIY projects for the wedding, as well as showing her that we can maintain a perfectly lovely and (tidy enough) home.
I'm curious to hear from my fellow crafters. How do you maintain balance between your chores and your desires? How do you remind yourself to stop with the one, to pursue the other?
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