Thursday, November 10, 2011

Commitments and Over-Commitments

This seems to happen to me every Fall. It's my favorite season, since the weather becomes tolerable and the colors are breathtaking. And it's time for football-- our beloved Hokies, our friends in Blacksburg, and time away from the DC craziness spent at our little apartment.

But it's also a time when a lot of deadlines hit me. Compounded with the time away, I end up with an almost overwhelming amount of "work stuff" that all seems to come due at the same time. I'm just past the worst of it, just in time for the beginning of the holiday season.

I attended a conference today focusing on Ethics and caring. It's what I do-- caring for people, and sometimes I don't realize the toll it takes. It's wearying.

So, a few more days, and then a bit of time off with family for recharging my batteries.

And getting back to some serious knitting-- for my saKnity.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Dear Madelinetosh--

I love your yarn. I love the springiness and stitch definition of Vintage. I love your colors.

I love the way that cables and twisted stitches pop and come to life.

But I swear to God that if I ever get a skein that is as messed up as the one I tried to wind last weekend, I will never buy another. There is just no excuse.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Hey-- I'm Still Here!

Alive and kicking.

And why haven't I been blogging? I have no idea, except that I haven't been feeling inspired. Also, since my cute little new camera left my life, it's more trouble to include pictures, and generally, I like to include pictures. We have pictures today, but it's a bit more complicated-- card reader to a desktop, download pics, email to myself and process through the laptop. Yes-- there are cords and card-readers I could use-- but I don't have them, so...

I have actually been rather occupied with a number of things.

Knitting: I had this really neat idea-- make hats for my sisters and sisters-in-law for Christmas. It started out all right, but I needed to make 7 and only got 4 done in time. Part of the reason was that I got involved in a neat hat for The Daughter. She has 2 degrees from Virginia Tech-- one in Psychology, and the other in Biochemistry. We found this pattern in Interweave (The Proverbial Cap by Meg Swanson), and she fell in love with it. It is done with twisted stitches-- a new technique for me. The Daughter noticed that if we changed the bars in the helices to horizontal vice vertical, they would appear to be base pairs, and the helices would look like DNA.

So I knit it, using Madelintosh Vintage. The actual colorway is a bit darker than in the picture-- maroon with dark red highlights. I am going to do a single crochet around the bottom and then block it-- which it so clearly needs. I'm going to do a scarf to match, featuring the "DNA" double helix.


I also embarked on a new-to-me health program. Making progress. Hopefully more to follow.