House sitting

A family that we know and love went out of town for Memorial Day weekend, and I am house sitting in their perfect, cozy, woodsy home. This weekend has been like a vacation so far, primarily because I'm not surrounded by my own stuff. But also because:

1.The Knitting Sisters had their big Memorial Day Sale, in which everything in the store is at least 20% off, and I had fun buying yarn for several secret projects and some not-so-secret but still exciting ones that I hope to get to at some point this summer. For example, for the Lace Ribbon Scarf from this season's Knitty, I bought this Soft Sea Wool:



2. Today Shodo and I went for a long walk through Colonial Williamsburg. I am not a dog owner, so I really enjoyed getting to show off this super sweet doggy to all the passersby. Also, I got her a cup of water from Subway and it was very cute when she drank it.




3. Yesterday morning Julie and I ran the Girls On The Run/ Chik-fil-A* 5k, which in theory I have been training for for about 15 weeks now. Julie and I run a 5k every Monday evening and usually get around 33 minutes for 3.1 miles. I know this is sllllooow for the running world, but the fact that I can run 3 miles is sort of enough for me right now. I was hoping to beat that time in the official 5k (the one we paid for), but the course was hilly and I started off fast and I ended up finishing at 36 minutes. But with all the weaving around people, I ended up running 3.48 miles, so that helps my ego. Plus that fast first mile was 9:45, which is the fastest mile I've run yet. Sometimes running seems to be all about numbers. [Kind of like knitting. How funny that I am so attracted to these hobbies yet grew up "hating" math?] Anyway, I'm sort of still disappointed in myself about the 36 minutes, but mainly because I got a stitch in my side and cramps in my right calf and I was very whiny about them as we finished our last half a mile. Julie, sorry. Good thing you're a 2nd grade teacher.

*Speaking of disappointment, and being whiny: you'd think a race sponsored by Chik-fil-A would have some chicken afterwards, right?? Wrong. We got almost nothing: a bottle of water and our choice of a dry bagel or a tiny fruit cup. Oh, and we got to spin a wheel to see what kind of coupon we would receive. Come on, MegachickenCorp., what gives? I paid $27 for the race and I know my t-shirt didn't cost that much.

4. Tonight I get to go have a knit night with friends M & E. Hooray for no school tomorrow!

Outta town and back again

In the past two weeks, I've spent 5 days in other states. Last weekend I was in Arizona for my graduate school colloquium, and I just returned from this weekend's sojourn to Boston about an hour ago. I'm tired, I've got an enormous deadline looming tomorrow (but to be honest, I think it will take till Tuesday), and all I want to do is be done with this semester! All the other college kids around me are celebrating the ending of their years... but me and the school-aged kids, we have weeks to go before we're done. Then again, we don't start back up until late August. Then again, the college kids don't start until September... hey, Prescott, what gives?

In Arizona, I gave my Qualifying Presentation which, um, qualifies me to enter my Thesis semester. After meeting with my advisor and my Core faculty, I realized 1) I hadn't really decided what that meant and 2) I was pretty scared about trying to do my thesis in one term. So I made two decisions: I decided what I am going to write my thesis on and that I am going to take two part-time semesters to write it instead of the pointless mad dash that would have been trying to finish in January. I mean, I'm going to be teaching until June, so why rush and be stressed just to get done a few months earlier? It helped that my lovely peers Caroline and Gina also decided to go the part-time route. So, I guess I can't blow the martyr horn and announce woefully to all who pass by that "I'm in grad school full time and I'm teaching full time!" anymore. Ah well, small sacrifice (I just misspelled that as scarface. Heh.)

We flew up to Boston this weekend to see K's little sister graduate from Emerson College. It was a whirlwind of a perfect weekend in Boston, staying in Cambridge, and eating as much Vietnamese food as I physically could. The joy of my May so far was finding a bahn mi hut-- almost authentic tasting (the bread wasn't exactly right, and there were less pickled vegetables) and for $2.50, close enough to the real deal that I gladly shelled out for one, packed it into my bag, and ate it smugly in the Logan airport. Mmm, bahn mi. Crumbly, squishy goodness.

In other news, and since I decided it's lame to have such a great new Macbook and still post photoless entries, here be proof that my hair does indeed grow. I haven't cut it in months, and the ends look all vagabondy, but by god that is a ponytail. Huzzah!


Try to ignore the airport zits and tired eyes. I told you, I've been flying a lot. At least you all can't smell the picture...

Oh, man... (or: a badly needed update)

You guys, this blog is suffering! I hate that it's gotten so lame around here. Let me try to make it better. First I need to do a stash update, since I went to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. We'll call this the knitting update, so if you don't care about the yarny stuff, feel free to skip ahead to the next entry.

Ok, this was my 1st time going to the sheep & wool fest and I was prepared to be very, very overwhelmed. It was certainly crowded, and there certainly were more yarn choices than I had ever seen before, but I did my research on the Ravelry forums and I went with veterans of many festivals (see above; not the alpaca). I packed light. I brought water. I remembered to rest. I splurged on yarn but not as much as I could have. Here be my haul.

Laceweight from Tess' Designer Yarns:

(two of these)

(and three of these)

My 1st yarn from Brooks Farms: two skeins of Acero (yes, those are my pale, pale knees).



Then, the find of the year:


I found this gigantic hank of what looks like handspun wool, in beautiful springy greens, and there was more than a pound of yarn on the hank, which smelled really nice and wooly, but it wasn't scratchy at all... It was priced at $18.95! I love it, and I want to make a simple garter-yoke cardigan inspired by this one by Knitting School Drop Out, which I can't stop looking at. I used my friend's ball winder and check out how many cakes that pound of yarn made:


I also found a steal in one of the barns: there were some mini skeins of alpaca in a box for $1 an ounce. After stopping to squish the more expensive put-ups of alpaca every few minutes on Saturday, I was really pleased to find a very affordable chance to sample the fiber. I bought three ounces in various autumnal shades. I'm thinking a cowl, maybe... I haven't photographed those skeins yet, but I needed to blog them to make them real.

Oh yeah, and I think that the festival inspired me to organize my stash, because a few days after I got back I decided to do a May Airing and to organize and catalogue everything I have. It was actually kinda fun! For my own sake, I think I'll skip posting a picture of the full monty here, but I will share with you the Sock Yarn Stash:

Click here to see it bigger, and with notes! Um, that variegated blue/purple at the top was also from the Festival. But that's it, really. Plus some food (lamb gyros and soft serve) and some soap (handmade). Plus some all natural lip balm; always a must. But that's all I bought. I think. And now, back to your regularly scheduled recession.

Mmmkay?

As soon as I get this paper finished, I need to tell you all about:
1. my new laptop (!)
2. the Sheep & Wool Festival (!!)
3. going to Arizona this weekend
4. the light at the end of the school year tunnel (looks mysteriously like summer camp) (!!!)

Back to ye olde grindstone. More very soon.

Running breakthrough

This morning I woke up a little groggy from yet another night of strange, intense dreams. To clear my head, I went for my usual training jog, but this morning I decided to set my Nike+iPod thingy to 5k as my goal. And I ran it! Without stopping!

So I have officially reached my goal, but I'm not going to stop yet, because the race I'm signing up for is still several weeks away, and I'd like to try to improve my time (well, I'd really just like for the last kilometer or so to feel a little easier) so I'm going to keep pushing it.

I gotta admit... it feels great to have done something I couldn't do before. But I need to come clean about something: I have a paper to write that was due a week ago. I need to get that in ASAP... I guess sometimes you can't win 'em all.

Off to the playground!

Update: the one about running

I'm on Week 8 of the Couch to 5k program. This week I run for 28 minutes, three different times. I'm doing Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (so I've already done it twice).

Twenty-eight minutes! Nonstop! That equaled 2.74 miles this morning.

I can't effing believe it. Running, I am doing you. SO THERE!

Update: the one about the knitting

Vacation knitting.

Vacation. Knitting.

Vacation = knitting.

So many ways to think about this, here. It took me about an hour and a half to pack my bag for the Folk School, and about 85% of that time was devoted to which projects I would bring, making copies of the patterns, debating over whether or not to follow Kelley Petkun's advice and bring a spare ball of yarn and some straight needles, in case I met someone who really wanted to learn (I did end up bringing supplies, but didn't teach anyone), and the science behind "how much yarn will I need for a given number of days on vacation." Which has probably been blogged about with more aptitude and witticism than I can do here, so I'll skip it, and just share my personal philosophy for packing more than a few days' worth of knitting at a time:

-Bring something skinny, something medium, and something fat. In other words, something with tiny needles and fingering weight yarn, something worsted that uses a US size 7 or 8, and then something bulky, if you want. The theory here is that your hands hurt less when you vary up the size of the things they're gripping. Just can't hold on to that sock yarn any more today? Whip out your scarf and work a couple dozen rows.

-Bring a no-brainer project that you absolutely will not have to look down at, for knitting after meals when everyone is sitting around or when you're going to be listening to a talk/concert/whathaveyou. Then, bring something just mentally engaging enough to keep you interested (socks are perfect) but not something you'll really need to pay lots of attention to. Then there's the "I'm learning something new on vacation" knitting, which requires lots of personal space and a pretty quiet room, so that you can re-read the directions for that new stitch pattern, or mumble over a lace chart, without being disturbed.

-Finally, bring more yarn than you think you'll need, and bring yarn you can tote around with you. Nothing too finicky that can't be stuffed into your bag and swung over your shoulder. Those things are not vacation projects. Unless your vacation promises to be really clean (mine never do).

So what did I bring? Well, I had to finish my pair of squeezed-out ankle socks, wrought from a leftover ball of not-enough-yardage sock yarn:

(you can see that I did indeed make it past the heel-turn and ribbed a significant enough amount to qualify them as functional socks)

I also brought my beloved and revered Silky Wool, and knit like crazy on it for four days in a row, and now have this to show for it:

Hooray, it's (going to be) a cardigan! I have deep azure buttons for it, which I never would have thought to put on a carrot-orange-red cardigan except that when I was at home I was cleaning out my junk drawer and found those buttons that I bought at a market in Saigon last year. Aha, I thought. That will just do. (Pictures of the buttons to be posted some time soon).

I had also brought some cheapo purple Wool-Ease to give the My So-Called Scarf a try, but realized after casting on that I needed bigger needles. So I put it away and focused like a crazy person on the cardigan. It's almost time to start the sleeves...

Update: the one about the Folk School

So, my spring break destination this year was the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. I took my 3rd ever class there, in basketry (the 1st one was a ceramics class on saggar firings and some raku; the 2nd class was the hot glass gateway class which totally, totally left an impression on me. And my wallet.)



We made baskets from kudzu vine, which was awesome. The vines we harvested were thick, long, heavy and unwielding. My arms and shoulders ached after an hour of wrestling 10 foot vines into under-over patterns. But it felt great to finally be doing something productive with that great invasive species (I'll admit to trying to smoke it back in the day, with neighborhood friends, in a desperate attempt to do something unholy after school; baskets are a much better idea).



My teacher, Regina Hines, is a kind person who really knows her stuff, yet has a very laid back way of instructing. She gave us a lot of freedom and I was able to complete a basket every class day, so five in all. There were only five of us in the class (four of whom were not insecure snobby ladies from Manhattan, but that's all that needs to be said here, really) and I loved being back at the school, eating in the dining hall, running on the trails, and hanging out on the Keith House porch. Tentative plans (are they ever anything but in this business?) have been laid yet again for my host dates. At some point in the next few years, I will spend 6 months living and working there. At some point. Time will tell.



I had a bit of a new experience this time since I wrote a research paper for my Masters last semester on the history of the folk art revival in the Southern Appalachians, with a particular focus on the Folk School, since it has such a well documented trail of, um, documents available for perusal. I got to really cozy up with a lot of the artifacts I studied (transcripts of conversations, photographs, drawn and written plans, etc) and it felt like I knew a lot more about the school as well as that specific part of Appalachian history. Anyone going to the Folk School should definitely go hand out in the History building, where all of the documents are superbly displayed.

So yeah: friends were made, connections were rekindled, music was played, baskets were woven, and a whole poo-load of stitches were stitched. More on spring break knitting in the next entry...

Update: the one about signs

As I was driving through western NC, o favoritist of favorite places, I saw some signs I thought you all might like. All punctuation or lack thereof come exactly from the signage.

1. "Don't wake up STUPID tomorrow (quit drinking and drugs today)"

2. "God send us someone to cure cancer AIDS etc."
"I did but you aborted them!" (doh!)

3. "Hill billy Church: wrangling souls for Jesus"

4. Then there was my favorite intersection: the corner of Granny Squirrel Gap and Sulfur Rd.

Oh, western NC, I love you.

Oh god, it's so late and I'm so tired but I must, must, must tell you this:

I have entered my 5th week of the Couch to 5k program. Two weeks ago I was struggling to run for 3 minutes, walk for 90 seconds, run for 3 minutes, etc. Last week I had advanced to run for 3 minutes, walk for 90 seconds, run for 5 minutes, walk for 90 seconds and repeat. This week I have increased my running times to 5 minutes and 8 minutes, with the short walks in between as above. Did you hear that? Eight minutes! Plus five, plus five, plus five! And this morning I actually sprinted a little bit, and my legs felt great and my lungs felt almost great.

Of course, now I'm tired as poop, and I still somehow have 2 more pages to tack on to the end of my paper which is due in 48 hours, and I still haven't packed for my break, and tomorrow we're putting almost $1,000 into the car because we love it and that's what responsible owners do.

Oh, and I finished my sweater. Pictures soon.