NOW you tell me.

Knit Picks just came out with a mohair-silk lace weight yarn, Aloft.

What does this mean?

It means I just spent significantly more money on Rowan Kidsilk Haze.

Granted, there isn't a shade of green remotely close to what I wanted in Aloft. But I might have been willing to go with, say, silver, or maybe even another color entirely, considering that Knit Picks yarns cost half as much as Rowan.

Sigh.

The good news is, I'm glad this yarn exists, and I will probably someday put that existence to good use.

On Being Sandpaper

This is the third day in a row that I haven't seen Keith ... he's been shut up in Tilbury with the sickness that's been taking people out one by one: my roommate, various members of my program, a few others at the Newman Center. So far, somehow, I haven't gotten it. Hopefully it stays that way ... but I miss my fiance. A lot.

For whatever reason, I've been in A Mood the past week. (Or if I'm honest, it's probably been a little longer than that.) Not that I'm walking around with a cloud over my head, but I kindle at the slightest spark and can become a less-than-pleasant person to interact with over certain things.

It's actually pretty humbling.

I was talking to an old dear friend in MI who is getting married two weeks before me this summer--a beautiful conversation. Engagement is such an interesting place to live in: a waiting place, but also a present moment; your relationship isn't yet what it will be, and yet it has changed, is changing.

There are certain places where I know I need to grow if I'm going to be a good wife, and so my instinct is to hurry up and grow already, before July 16th. Get holy now. And while the desire to works towards the qualities and virtues that will make me a good wife is not a bad one, obviously, I feel that sometimes the impetus behind my sense of urgency is more pride than anything.

I have a lot to learn about marriage, and I know I won't learn most of it til after I'm in it. But I do know that marriage is about the sanctification of both spouses; and ultimately, that holiness and the ability to be a good wife is a matter of grace of state (which comes with the sacrament, not before) and practice (which I can get some of now, to be sure, but I will have LOTS more of it after getting married).

And here's the pride bit. I am perfectly willing to accept that my fiance will have flaws and weaknesses, some of which I won't discover til after we're married. But the thought of him putting up with my imperfections? Ooooh, that's tough. And if they're starting to come out now, how much more will he see after we're married?

But that is part of the gift given in marriage: a self that is, among other things, sinful and broken. The key is to give and receive with open eyes and clear sight. To know that sometimes we will be sandpaper to each other rather than silk, and those are the days when the rough edges can be smoothed away, so we're made smooth and perfect.

Arguing with dead people.

One of my students just wrote in his essay evaluation that he didn't include quotes from the text he was writing about because he didn't want it to seem like he was "arguing with a deceased person."

I could go on about how we've discussed writing as an opportunity for "conversations" with a text/author ... but the fact he said this is pretty funny on its own.

Rosemary-Kindle Fail

So, the Kindle that my future father-in-law gave me for Christmas?

I was folding laundry and I stepped on it.

And now it looks like this.



This is something only I could end up doing. >_<

Going to see about getting it replaced this week.

Blogging Break! (of dresses and cracked kindles)

I need to get away from this mountain of essays for a while, so here I am.

I'm halfway done the second stole. It's knitting up much more quickly than the first, mostly because the pattern uses size 7 needles. But each row takes forever. This particular pattern is knit lengthwise, which means I have 278 stitches on my needle. Hence the bunching. (It was supposed to be 289 stitches, but apparently I can't count and ended up with 274. I was sneaky and added a few more on in the third row so the number would be right for the pattern.)

I also finished the cover for Keith's Kindle, though the only picture I have of it is on the needles. (You can see the flat spot on the left side where I forgot a cable ... whoops.)

Of course, I managed to break my own Kindle after owning it less than a month. By falling on top of it. While folding laundry. I'm assuming I'll find this amusing later in life, but right now I'm pretty upset, since it was a Christmas gift from Keith's dad.


In a happier vein, my cousin has ordered her bridesmaid dress for my wedding, and I am now in possession of my bridesmaid dress for her wedding. (She is beating my by a month and a half, the stinker!) I brought along a hank of yarn from that I ordered from Knit Picks as a potential for my own bridal shawl, to see if it matched the dresses. Nope--too green. I'm thinking it will be easiest to go with white.

Although I am in love with Sweet Georgia's Cashsilk Lace in Riptide, and it looks closer to the right color.

I don't mind at all splurging on yarn for my wedding, but I can't spend money on skein after skein just to to see if it's the right color. Even though I wouldn't mind owning all of said yarn ...

Opinions please?

Not to post three times in a row about knitting, buuuut ...

As I debate which pattern to cast on for the next bridesmaid stole, I'm also starting to think of a wedding shawl for myself, most likely NOT to be worn during the ceremony, but afterward, at the reception and perhaps for pictures.

On the one hand, I love the idea of it being white: the symbolism behind it, and the loveliness of the look of it.

But. I also think having a color could be fun. A teal to echo the bridesmaids, or a shade of purple to (theoretically) echo my bouquet. Of course, my shoes are already teal--a fact that makes me immensely happy--so perhaps that is enough "fun." And yet teal and purple are both colors that are dear to my heart ... (The notion of the shawl being "something blue" has also crossed my mind, but I don't think I'm leaning in that direction.)

Opinions?

almost done ... bridesmaid stole #1: "seascape"

The next batch of Rowan Kidsilke Haze arrived a few days ago, so I can start the next bridesmaid stole soon. Depending on whether I decide to try out a different pattern (as opposed to having all the stoles be the same), I need to buy a new pair of needles first. In the meantime I've been knitting a cover for Keith's Kindle to take a break from all the lace. (He carries it around everywhere in his coat pocket.)

I've been waiting for a sunny day to take pictures, and it appears that the angle of light through the window was too sunny and a bit blinding; but there are pictures nonetheless.


This pattern is called "Seascape," and it's fairly easy once you get into the flow of it, although repeating the same chart seven times for the middle got a little boring. (This is why I'm contemplating switching things up a bit for the next stole and trying a different pattern, such as Dancing Cranes.) The picture above gives some sense of the size. (And of the general state of our living room: my books and papers all over the place.)

You can see that it's sort of lumpy and rumpled looking, as opposed to smooth and fluid. That's because I haven't blocked it yet. This will involve soaking the stole until it's good and thoroughly wet, carefully rolling and squeezing in a towel to remove the excess water, then pinning it out and letting it dry. It opens up the lacy openings in the fabric that make up the pattern--which means that it will get a little longer and wider in the process--and will make it look less ... well, "homemade," and more like this. (Except I'm also afraid it will make my mistakes more obvious. But practice really does make perfect: most of my mistakes are in the first half of the stole.)

I'm debating whether or not I should wait to block it so that I can use the unblocked size as reference to make sure any other pattern I choose to knit matches up. But I also want to make sure I'm happy with the blocked size ... and just see what it looks like.