Basic (or Boring) Black (Project Talk)

After a day of Doctor Who, homework, and knitting; (more knitting than homework...perhaps I would be less stressed if I prioritized better) I've finished the Show-off Stranded Socks. They turned out absolutely beautiful, perhaps they will be my favorite socks. The yarn and pattern worked wonderfully together. I'm also including finished photos of the finished baby blankets for my niece and nephew. I'm pretty happy with how they both turned out.














So, finishing one pair of socks of course means that I will be starting on another pair. Instead of using one of my many, many beautiful handdyed sock yarns, I'm making ones out of some basic black sock yarn. (well, actually kettle dyed sock yarn, so there is some variation in the color of the yarn, but not much) I'm going to do a cloverleaf lace rib design to add some interest, but these socks have the potential to be very, very boring. I'm also continuing to work on the Lily cardigan, I'm a few rows short of dividing the body from the sleeves. I'd also like to get a start on the blanket I'm going to make out of all my scraps of sock yarn. It is basically a patchwork of little diamonds. It will be a long term project, but it is a good use for my scraps of sock yarn. I am anxiously awaiting summer so I have more time to devote to my knitting. I've got a pile of projects on my to do list.

And the probability that I will be bald by the end of the semester increases

s the end of the semester draws nearer, my workload and stress seem to be increasing. So, I am doing the logical thing, of course, by using my free time to complain about it instead of working. Well, in all fairness, I'm flipping back and forth between this screen and another so I can search for articles while I complain, I'm not happy unless I'm multitasking. At any rate, I feel the intense desire to pull out my hair many times a day.

Tuesday, everything piled on me at once and brought about a huge panic attack. I've been expecting this attack to come for some time now, but I actually thought it would manifest last week, when I had two presentations in one day. But like all good attacks, this one waited until I wasn't expecting it, then struck. I suppose it is not an attack if I can predict its coming. Anyways, so I found myself in my car, on the side of the road, crying, and feeling like there was no one in the world for me to talk to. I've been feeling isolated a lot lately, and that may have added to the panic attack.

It is just beginning to feel like there are less and less hours each day. I'm also really beginning to resent the hell out of my drive to Eau Claire and back four days a week. I used to find it relaxing, but now I spend it dwelling on the things I could be doing if I was don't spending almost three hours a day in my car. It probably also does not help that I'm currently listening to the world's most annoying audio book, and I can't stop listening to it because I can't not finish a book. And, to top things off, the will be no new episodes of The Bugle for the next two weeks. There goes my reason for getting up on Monday mornings. (okay, I should remember that I have several previous episodes stored on my ipod for just such an occasion, so if I get desperate I can always revisit monkey news or a 60 foot roof penis. God help me, I'm a married twenty-seven year old woman, and I still find a story about a kid painting a giant penis on his parents roof funny...that's why I love spending time with middle school students).

So, even though it is spring, I'm convinced that the days are getting shorter, not longer. Meals at home are a rare occasion. Most likely if you went into the kitchen, you would discover the only appliance not covered in dust would be my coffee makers. Yes, coffee makerS. I am the proud owner of three coffee makers, an espresso machine, a french press for everyday use, and a regular drip machine for days when the french press isn't going to make enough coffee.

At any rate (found 1 article!), I'm recovering from the panic attack, and feel better that when comparing notes with classmates, discovering that many of them feel as overwhelmed as I. This makes me feel (found article 2, now I just need two more and I'll be set for next week). If I'm going to be mired down with stress and work, its good to have company. So with the pile of abstracts, papers, summaries, chapter problems, assessments, essays, exams, website building, lesson plans, transition planning, and other tasks to accomplish by the end of the semester comes due, I can rest assured that I will not be the only one burning the midnight oil in the computer lab, or panicing while working and watching Doctor Who (okay, still might be the only one doing that, but what can I do, I'm a nerd.)

And it's time for class. Hopefully, I'll get a tighter grip on things and be able to post more, cheerier news.

Spring Cleaning

In an effort to better prepare for 2009, (I know, nothing like getting an early jump on things by planning for 2009 in March of 2009) Jeff and I spent a good part of Saturday doing some cleaning/ unpacking/ decrapping of the house. While this is not an ideal way for me to spend a rare Saturday off (which was only finagled by begging people to switch around their shifts), it proved to be a worthwhile way to spend a Saturday, not every Saturday, but every now and then, it doesn't hurt.

After sending about 8 boxes of clothing to Goodwill, and realizing exactly how little of my wardrobe I actually wear, I set about attempting to organize my knitting. In the spirit of cleaning out my closet, I took a hard look at a couple of my projects, and determined that I would be more likely to restart the whole thing than ever finish the current one. Sadly, one of the projects that fell into this category was the banded peasant blouse, which, despite my enthusiastic start and overall love of the project, was over shadowed by my poor yarn selection. The yarn did not work with the pattern, and I ended up throwing the whole thing away with only about five inches left to go. I may restart this someday, with a better yarn choice, but we're going to put it on the maybe pile for right now, and not even add it back to my ravelry queue. Another such project was my Cheshire Cat Stole, which was going reasonably well, considering that it was my first real lace project (and my first project with beads). However, the process was set aside first for the move, then for Christmas knitting, then because I stepped on and broke one of the needles, then for the baby blankets, and during all the setting aside time, someone, (I suspect Minerva) take the project and remove half the stitches from the cable. I couldn't bring myself to sort out the mess of dropped stitches, and thus gave up. It actually felt like a bit of a weight was lifted off of me, by allowing myself to give up on these projects, I eased the guilt I was feeling about not wanting to work on the projects.

Progress on the new projects is going well. I am about halfway done with the raglan increases for the lily cardigan, and have just finished the gusset decreases on the second diagonal rib sock. I've chosen the next pattern (show-off stranded socks) and yarn (Sunshine yarn's twist in Weezley Wizard Wheezes) for my next pair of socks, which provides the motivation to keep working on the current pair of socks. (I may not have much self-discipline, but I only allow myself to work on one pair of socks at a time.

I'll update with pictures of the latest projects soon!

Whew!

The baby blankets are done! And they have been finished before either baby arrived. Granted I was cutting it pretty close, considering that Petra's due date is next week. However, Petra's blanket is all packed up and ready to mail tomorrow and Silas's blanket has just been removed from my needles.

I'm happy to be done, and think I'm going to spend a little time knitting for myself. Someday, I would like to finish the banded peasant blouse, but of course that will not be my focus. Instead I'm going to cast on for the Lily Cardigan, and continue to work on my sock collection. After the Lily cardigan is finished, I've got a long list of pieces that I would like to work on, including trying lace knitting once again. No matter what I work on though, I'd like to knit up some of my stash yarn before purchasing any more yarn. Moving all my yarn in November really proved to me how much yarn I have. I also now have my sock yarn sitting out in baskets in the computer room, which serves as a daily reminder not to buy more sock yarn.

Oh, and one more thing...

Just wanted to post happy thoughts to my friends Pete and Krissy, who welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world last week. And to my cousins Joe and Brittany, who welcomed a baby boy into the world last week. (and people thought I was kidding when I said everyone I know is having a baby right now).

Shala's Birthday Festivities

February 6th marked the birthday of dear friend (and, bless her heart, fellow Doctor Who fan) Shala (upper right corner of the picture), which was reason to celebrate enough. However, when you consider that Shala is usually the caretaker/designated driver of the group when we hit the bars, we decided that we needed to tear up the town in honor of Shala's emergence into the world.
The evening started with Reish and I driving up to Shala's LaCrosse apartment, bringing a lovely fish cake from Linda's bakery. We headed to dinner (after eating a piece of cake, of course) where we met up with Emily (and Katie, but she left after the comedy show, so she is not in the picture). After dinner, we headed to a place called Howie's for a comedy show. I was less than excited about stand up comedy, given that I don't really like comedians (ok, I don't like comedians who don't host The Bugle podcast, and I was pretty sure niether of those two were going to be preforming at Howie's with a $5 cover charge), however, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I do like comedy and had a good time (not that I wouldn't have had a good time anyway, given that I wasn't at work or at school and there was beer). We then headed out to various bars in LaCrosse (after stopping back at Shala's for another piece of cake). The bars were filled with mostly college student, which suceeded in making me feel very old. But again, there was beer...and booze...and shots...and fishbowls, which made for a morning spent on Shala's bathroom floor.

All in all, it was a much needed girls night out.

The Education of Nicole Cram

Sitting in the Davies Center at UWEC is an unacceptable way to spend my time. I've decided this. I get unbelievable irratated at the people sitting around me, today the main source of irratation comes from a guy a couple of tables over who is talking so loudly I must assume that his table companions are deaf. Everyone in the place is shooting him irratated looks, to which he is completely oblivious. Thanks to this conversation, I am learning more than I ever wanted to about movies that I will never watch. I can't help but resent the tution money that has been paid so I can sit here.

Thankfully, on most Tuesdays, I have a field placement at Chippewa Falls High School (Chi-Hi, a great school nickname, I must say). However, this week the kiddos are on their mid-winter break, giving me six hours to kill between classes. (bless my procrastinating heart that put off the stupid computer class until the last possible minute, creating the six hour gap between classes) But back to the newest placement,this is my first placement outside of an elementary school and I am loving it. I'm working with mainly CD students, and they are great. I'm in their tech. ed. class, where they have a little business making wooden frames, signs, and stuff with laser engraving. The guys have a great time designing the stuff on the computer and its great to watch. Then I go to a job skills class in one of the computer labs (those who are wondering Chi Hi, much nicer than the Tomah High of my memories). The job skills class nicely fits in with my experience, as I'm currently in a transition skills class at the university. I then spend my last hour tutoring students with LD in one of the resource rooms. This combination works great as I am getting placement experience for three classes, Transition and Career Services, Methods for Students with Moderate and Severe Disabilities and Methods for Secondary Students with Mild Disabilities. The teacher that I am working with is great, which restores my faith in cooperating teachers after last semester.

However, four (or is it five) weeks into the semester, and the stress is beginning to get to me. I have night classes three days a week, and usually close at the store at least one additional night per week. This gives me limited evenings at home. Of course, I have the added benefit of not leaving home until 2 on Mondays and Wednesday, but it still feels like I am getting nothing done at home.

The lack of home achievements is especially distrubing when I consider the vast amount of baby blankets that I have left to knit. I am about halfway done with both Silas and Petra's blankets, with only eight and four weeks left until their respective due dates. I am beginning to get concerned that I will never finish either blanket. On the other had, I would love to be done with those two blankets so I can knit something that I want. I only had a breif break after my Christmas knitting, which I used to make my llama hat. (quite possibly the greatest thing that I have ever created)See, it is pretty cool, isn't it? I'm so impressed with my ability to master colorwork so well. Anyway, of course, this has me dying to work on more projects for myself, which I cannot do until the baby blankets are finished. (except for the obligatory pair of socks that I have on the needles, the diagonal rib socks from Interweave knits)