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Now, that's an update! I just added a whole whack of BFL top and a couple skeins of sock yarn to the shop. Here's some of the fiber:
It's Carmen Miranda series: Tutti frutti hat.
And here's the sock yarn:
It's superwash merino sport weight in Crocus. (It's spring! It's spring! It's spring! It's spring!)
Ok, I've got to go to bed.
(Oh, I'll be adding some handspun to the store in a few days -- it's just hanging to dry.)
Woolly dreams!
Last night I got to see two of my favorite people, Stephanie and Lynn.
It was a hoot from the time I got there. The original plan was that Lynn and her friend Rae would get there earlier than me and save me a seat. But then I got an email from Lynn that afternoon saying they wouldn't be able to get there until later, but that Rachael would be there earlier and save us all seats. Just one catch. Neither Rachael nor I had ever met each other, nor did we have any idea what the other looked like.
So when I got there at 5:40 and the room was full except for saved seats, I did the only thing I could do. I yelled at the top of my lungs, "Is there a Rachael here who's supposed to be saving seats for me, LynnH, and Rae?" A hand shot up at the front of the room and a voice rang out, "I'm her mother!" Hey! Alright! Second row! Hi, Rachael's mom!
Rachael came in a little later, so I got to meet her, and then Lynn and Rae showed up about 15 minutes before Stephanie.
Steph gave a great talk as always. She compared knitters to Buddhist monks, which is great company to be in. I want to read more about the physical changes in the brain she was talking about because that stuff fascinates me. I think if I were forced to go into a medical field I would choose neurology or public health. (What can I say? I see medical journal articles every day. Those are the ones that grab my interest the most.) Her talk also made me think I should knit more.
After her talk I had her hold my sock.
Then I had Lynn hold my sock.
Then Lynn, Rae and I went to Seva for dinner. Wonderful food, wonderful conversation. It was a great evening.
As I sat knitting my sock on the bus ride home, I thought how fortunate I am to live in Ann Arbor, a destination city. I had overheard a lot of people say where they had come from, and a lot of them had come quite far. I had just left work and walked for 15 minutes to get to AADL. And after I left Seva, I just had to walk for a minute or two to get to the bus station, then take a half hour bus trip home, during which I could knit. I'm so lucky to live in a city where events are held. Next weekend, the Dalai Lama. It all keeps coming back to Buddhist monks, doesn't it?
My life is good. I'm glad I made the choices I made, which gradually rebuilt my life into what it is today. I like my life the way it is. Happiness is sweet.
I have discovered that while one is trying to sleep away the pain of a migraine, and one is awakened by the sound of garbage trucks driving around the neighborhood, picking up dumpsters, emptying them, and slamming them back down on the ground, it sounds an awful lot like there's a dinosaur thudding around outside. Except dinosaurs don't make a high pitched "beep beep beep" sound to indicate they're backing up. No dinosaurs then. Well, that's good.
I'm home with a migraine, so this might be a bit whiny and incoherent (or maybe just more whiny and incoherent than usual) so, um, sorry. But remember the sweater I've been working on, like, forever? The one whose sleeve I've frogged and reknit about 400 times now? Yeah, that one. I frogged the sleeve again last night. I swear this is turning into some knitterly version of Groundhog Day. Knit half a sleeve. Frog it. Knit half a sleeve. Frog it. Knit half a sleeve. Frog it. Knit half a sleeve. Frog it. I swear, if my clock radio starts playing Sonny & Cher singing "I got you Babe" one morning, I'm going to frog the whole damn thing. It's cursed.
The sleeve I just frogged was a lot smaller than the last one, but still way too big. I feel like I really don't know how to design sweaters for the body I have now. I don't have any sweaters that fit. I have one sweater that almost fits, but it clashes horribly with several of my shirts. I've making this sweater in progress specifically to go with those shirts. I have a gray sweater that lives at work; it goes with everything, but it's now huge on me.
The thing is, I've lost another 4 pounds in the last month. So it strikes me that I'll probably continue to lose weight until my body decides, "Oh, ok. This is the weight I'm supposed to be. Right." I have absolutely no idea what that weight will be or what size that will be. (You people who got here by googling weight loss, I'm not trying to lose weight. I just switched from lacto-ovo vegetarian to vegan about 6 months ago. I eat a lot of food, but no animal products, except for honey in my tea.) So I'm wondering, not only will this sweater be a lot looser than I planned by the time I ever finish it, but will all of the shirts I planned to wear it with be way too big next fall? Some of them are already pretty loose. Hmm.
I think maybe I should wait a few months to start the Cobblestone sweater. I still need to make a scarf for next winter, and I can never have too many socks...
In the meantime, I started the sleeve again last night, this time picking up fewer stitches. If this doesn't work, well, you know, I don't know what I'll do with it. I'm getting kind of tired of looking at it. I've been knitting it for so long, it should be done by now, and I'm getting pissed off at it for being cursed. I know, it's not its fault that my brain still thinks I'm the size I was years ago, and the yarn is really soft, so I can't really be mad at it...because it's soft...and fuzzy... How can you be mad at something soft and fuzzy? Damn.
