A letter to my lace shawl....

My Dearest Candle Flame Shawl,

I don't know if you realize just how much I love you. You taught me how to love lace, how to become one with the pattern. I love how you play with negative and positive space to reveal a picture. You've been nothing but good to me, even when I've been somewhat less than good to you, like the time I threw you in my bookbag so I could take you to school with me and you got snagged on one of my spiral bound notebooks. But did you get mad? No. With a little manipulation you returned the snagged piece back to it's original spot. No fussing, no crying.

All these things I love about you are what make it so hard for me to tell you this.... I'm ready to move on. I'm ready to try new things. I want to get to know a new pattern the way I've gotten to know you. I also want to try new yarns... these in particular.Now don't go telling me I've cheated, I haven't even wound them into little yarn muffins yet. (not that the idea hasn't crossed my mind.) Besides, how could I resist when Knit Picks makes them so affordable?

I wonder sometimes if you're picking up on my vibe because recently, the more I work on you, the less you seem to grow.

Please don't be upset. I'm just being true to my feelings. It wouldn't be fair to either of us if I wasn't. Just know that you will always be in my heart.

Love,
Erin


On a side note, my leg has been particularly fascinating to watch. It's changing colors have been like that of a sunset... or something...
You have to admit, it's very impressive.

The opposite of eye candy...

I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I had the busiest 4 days at work that I've ever had. I suppose that happens when the restaurant is understaffed and they decide to schedule six servers for the dinner rush. To say the least, I busted my butt. There's no question it payed off, but I'm definitely hurting for it. I suppose I didn't realize how much I was hurting for it until this morning when I was toweling off after my shower and found this on the back of my leg...

(Please excuse the white, pasty skin. It is winter here still, just consider yourselves lucky that my legs are shaved!)

Back to the bruise... This picture washes it out a bit, but it's every bit as purple and ugly as you might imagine. Anyway, it became increasingly apparent to me just how busy we were when I realized that I didn't remember what I did to acquire such a lovely souvenir from work. I cannot for the life of me remember how I did it. I suppose it just happened and I was so busy it didn't even register. I suppose getting drink orders for the fifth table I was sat at once was a little more important to me than thinking about why the hell the back of my leg hurt so badly.

Tonight was another lovely one at work. In fact, I actually got to use the emergency eye wash station. I was grabbing some salad dressing from the cooler when the whole shelf came down which in turn made the huge bottle of Thousand Islands dressing fall to the floor. Normally, this wouldn't be such a big deal. The bottles are plastic, sure they're about a gallon or so, but when the lid is screwed on they could practically be punted and not break open... I guess the key words here are "when the lid is screwed on."

Apparently whoever used it last decided it would be quicker not to screw the lid on. So the dressing hit the floor and splashed up into my eyes and my hair. Let me tell you, there's nothing greater than greeting your guest with a lovely Thousand Islands aroma, crunchy hair and blood shot eyes. You're sure to get a big tip then! And if you had any doubt that Thousand Islands dressing stings when it gets in your eyes, let me put your doubts to rest... it definitely does.

A question of motivation...

The incredible lack of things to do in this town that don't involve stuffing my face with greasy food or getting hit on by military guys has given me an awful lot of free time to work on some knitting. True, I have school work, but even that hasn't been taking up much of my time. The first half of the semester has been somewhat of a joke. I feel like I have senioritis, not because I want to, but because more than half of my classes get let out early or cancelled all together and now it's what I'm used to.

I have to push myself to get motivated to do something, but there's always seemed to be one thing on the back of my mind that I never have to push myself to do...

Lace knitting...50 inches down, 20 more to go. I am officially addicted. I've even gotten to the point where I've practically memorized this 36 row repeat pattern. It sounds amazing, but it's not as impressive as it sounds. There's a flow to the pattern that's easy to pick up.

I'm thinking about spending a bit more money at KnitPicks and getting myself some more lace weight to make some other patterns, and then possibly (if my addiction continues) try to design my own pattern.

And he strikes again....

After seeing my knitting books ripped to shreds, you'd think that I'd learn not to leave books out in the living room for the very rambuncious kitty to gnaw to pieces. Sadly, I didn't learn my lesson that day.

Instead of a knitting book, this time it was my other passion... an animal book. A very nice animal book I might add. One of those Smithsonian, cost-you-more-than-it-costs-to-make-a-nice-scarf type books.

Here's a bit of the evidence...The inner pages have definitely seen better days...I've done my best in taping it, just so I don't lose that page altogether.

I particularly like the corner where it looks like he just took a bite right out of it.You'd think that I wasn't feeding this cat and that he's just looking for sustinence elsewhere, but his sizable waistline tells a different story...

And the wait is over.

I managed to get down to see Jill and pick up that extra ball of yarn I needed to finish Va Va Voom. It took me a little while to actually find the time to do it though. Classes are beginning to get crazy. I have some really exciting things lined up which I'll get to in a minute... Without further ado...

Let me present Va Va Voom:The yarn I used is a lot sturdier than the yarn it called for (Kidsilk Haze) so it isn't as flowy as the pattern's picture, but I still really like this sweater. It fits well and it's classic looking. I always go for the classic looking sweaters. All I need to do with it now is sew in the ends. If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you already know how much I dislike sewing it ends. I think it's my least favorite thing of the whole process of knitting something. But it must be done so I'd better just suck it up!

Now for what's been going on this semester. In so many words, the program I knew last semester no longer exists. There have been major upheavals at the zoo that we learned at, so much so that students are no longer allowed there until they work all their own issues out. My poor professor has been scrambling to try to pull something together for us this semester instead. What that has ultimately turned out to be is for us to go to different facilities and job shadow there.

What I've been able to set up is very exciting. I'll be spending three days shadowing at the Buffalo Zoo, then two half-days at the Niagara Aquarium and (here's the part I'm most excited about) two half-days at Marineland in Canada to watch research on the killer whales there! I've also, just recently, found out I get to spend a day at the Syracuse Zoo as well. So I have some pretty cool things lined up.

All of these things aren't happening until March but we've had some projects we've been working on such as getting prepared to go on TV....TWICE! I'm going to be on the local news here for a quick 5 minute spot. Then I'm going to be on the PBS station for close to an hour talking about animal enrichment. (It won't just be me on either of these, but I'm still gonna be on TV!)

This is all well and good, but what happens when school is over? That question has been churning around in my head for several months now. I just didn't know and I couldn't figure it out. Well, just the other day, an opportunity fell right into my lap that I would be a crazy person to pass up...

I'm going to be interning at the Toronto Zoo this summer! I'll be living up there, working at the zoo and spending my free time knitting with the Yarn Harlot, how lucky am I???

Averting disaster and playing the waiting game...

You may be wondering right about now why I have yet to show you any finished pictures of Va Va Voom... There is a reason for this. As I was knitting along on the collar I began to get the sneaking suspision that I wouldn't have enough yarn left. You know the feeling, you keep measuring the piece, and eyeing the ball of yarn, sometimes giving the ball a squeeze to see how much is really there. I thought I would have enough yarn seeing how I had an entire ball to work with. Sure enough though, the tail end of yarn snuck up on me and my collar still has another few inches left to go. This is where I averted disaster...

I got the yarn from my wonderful friend Jill. She happens to have several balls left so I will have no problems finishing the sweater. This is the part where I start playing the waiting game....

You may have heard in the news about all the snow that NY has been getting. Well, I'm on one side of that snow, and Jill is on the other. I had planned on going down to see her and pick up the yarn but the snow had other plans for me.

It gave me a day off from school on Wednesday. Granted, this was very nice and relaxing, except for the shoveling that had to be done. I was able to get ahead of a lot of school work and knit a little bit on something else.It may not look like much all bunched up like that, but believe me, it's so much more than just a heap of knitting...This is my first attempt at lace knitting. So far so good. That is, if I have a nice quiet space with no distractions. This is not something to knit on at a stitch n' bitch or with the TV on. Nope, too much the pay attention to. I think that's why I'm really into it right now though. It's not a mindless knitting project and I feel like I've been doing nothing but those lately. This particular piece is the Candle Flame Shawl from Knitpicks. I plan on giving it to my mom since the colors are very much her colors and I know she'll love it.

But all this lace knitting has gotten me thinking about making some lace for myself. In fact, I was thinking about the Print O' the Wave stole. It would really be gorgeous in a dark color. At least, that's what I'm thinking at the moment. I have yet to buy any yarn for it. Maybe when my tax refund comes in!

Cats: Love them, hate them

I truly can't imagine ever living without cats. There's just something about them. They're independent, but will seek out your attention. They're aloof, but can only hide the fact that they want to be near you for so long. And there's nothing quite like knitting while a cat sleeps on your lap. It's undeniable how much I love them.... however, they have a dark side.

They steal your yarn. Not only that, but one cat I live with in particular will pull finished sweaters off my shelf and drag them into the living room. As if the yarn itself was not enough to appease his curiosity and playfulness, he needs the finished product. And now, he's turned evil... pure evil. He's taken to destroying my knitting books. Case in point:I'm sure many of you know how expensive Rowan books are. I won't even ponder that particular fact at the moment. Right now I'm concentrating on not killing him.He looks so innocent looking up at me doesn't he? Don't let him fool you. He's got a devil inside and it's hell-bent on destroying my knitting things. I've taken to putting everything even remotely knitterly up on high shelves. Luckily that's deterred him for a little while. But books??? Seriously, what's so fascinating about a book that would make him want to rip the crap out of it? That question will probably go unanswered. After all, I don't speak cat.

I haven't let it get me down though. In fact, I've finished all the pieces of my sweater.Hopefully I'll be showing you a finished Va Va Voom very soon. We'll see if I get my schoolwork finished with lots of time left over to sew this thing together.

Snow day!

It is a rare occasion when work calls and tells me not to come in. Today, it was because of the snow. Lots and lots of snow. Feet of snow in fact. It seems winter is finally here. The driveway has been cleared a total of three times today. During one of those times I thought I'd take a picture of my car...It's under there somewhere.

The kindness of neighbors never fails to astonish me. Our neighbor has used his snowblower on our driveway twice today. We never asked him to, he just did it out of the goodness of his heart (or an insane desire to be out in this:I believe a batch of cookies is in order.

As for what I've been doing with all this extra time... I started the sleeves. In fact, I'm nearly finished with sleeve number two. You may have guessed by how quickly I'm finishing them that I decided to go with the 3/4 sleeves. I'll spare you a picture since we all know what sleeves look like.

There's only so much knitting I can do in one day though. At least, this mindless sort of knitting I've been doing. Surprisingly I haven't quite gotten cabin fever yet. A bit of homework got my brain working for awhile and shoveling the driveway got my blood pumping, plus some much needed house-cleaning have all been keeping me busy. I guess having a snow day isn't all bad.

Va va voom dilemma...

I'm nearly finished the front of my va va voom sweater.Of course, as I was working the second side of the neck I realized that I made a bit of a booboo on the first side. Since I'm the perfectionist that I am I can't just leave it like that... It will be ripped some time this afternoon I'm sure.

So the dilemma I have once I finish the front is moving on to the sleeves. I have the option to make them either full length sleeves or three-quarter length. It's a toss up for me. Three-quarter would be cute, but full length would be warmer.

So, friends, what do you think? Full length or three-quarter?

A story in pictures...

Wow, where do I begin? How about with some good 'ole knitting? I finished these socks before I even left for Seattle. They're a bit of a pain to get on, but it's so worth it! Talk about comfortable.

Here's the progress I've made so far on the va-va-voom sweater (I just now decided to call it that... thought it would be fitting)I'm about to start the increases for the side shaping and not to long after that comes the split in the front: oo-la-la!

I'm much more comfortable with smaller projects when traveling so I started another pair of socks on my way to Seattle. This is yarn from one of the venders at Rhinebeck. I am thoroughly in love with it.The colors don't pool at all. It's everything a variegated sock should be!

Speaking of Seattle, we went to a couple of yarn shops there and to continue my love of sock knitting, I bought a skein of Trekking. Isn't it purty? The colors are so subtle, I'm really interested to see how they turn out. So let me tell you about Seattle...

In the plane we saw the most gorgeous views!Jill and I proved on our first day that the sun does shine in Seattle.We went to the Science Center where I made friends with a grub...And did some fake rock climbing...Only to be followed by some real rock climbing at REI...I got a little excited about the Space Needle...Then we both got excited about the Space Needle...We went to Pike Place Market and the Aquarium....where I became an octopus...And we went to the zoo... where they thought we were animals and put us in cages...Basically, I had the best time with Jill in Seattle... I couldn't ask for a better friend.

Where I've been in '06

I must say, my winter break has not turned out in any way, shape or form the way I imagined it would. I had visions of long days with nothing to do but knit and catch up on movies I didn't have time to see while school was in. I imagined I'd be able to blog so much more because I'd have so much knitting done that I just had to show it off! It's funny how what actually happens is no where near our imaginary visions.

Ever since New Year's Eve, which, by the way, was the first New Year's Eve that I actually celebrated as a person my age would (I celebrated more than I've celebrated in the whole of 2005 I think!) I have been on the go, visiting friends, visiting my parents, working, going on dates (it's definitely time to move on) running errands and now, this Sunday I'll be going to Seattle. I really can't complain because it's great to have such a full life, surrounded by wonderful people, but I dread what's to come. Yet another semester without a single day off from either work or school, where I have no social life to speak of. It's as if I tried to cram my entire semester worth of social activities into just a few weeks.

I have to admit, I'm woefully behind in my bloglines. I just haven't been spending as much time in front of the computer. I'll do my best to remedy that once I'm back from Seattle and hopefully I'll have some excellent pictures to show!

By the way, I started a sweater... Someday, it just might look like this only less blurry...

Ok, so maybe not the last...

The last day of 2006 is finally here. When I reflect back on 2006, it was a year with many ups and downs. I had so many great experiences this year, and, lets face it, some not so great experiences, but I'm not discouraged. I know life goes through these cycles and as long as I can roll with the punches, I'll be fine. I prefer not to dwell on the past (though it sure can come out of nowhere and bite you in the ass sometimes) therefore I'm looking forward to my future. One more semester of school and then on to the unknown. Scary and exciting. Who knows what 2007 will bring?

Virginia was wonderful. I may not have mentioned this, but we all were staying in the house my uncles are in the process of building. It's destined to be the "family vacation" house. Every year since I was no more than two years old, my family on my mother's side have rented a house on a lake and we all spend a week or more hanging out and having a great time. Through the years there's always been talk of buying a house or building but it never ended up happening until just about a year or two ago when my uncles bought a plot of land on a secluded lake in Virginia.

This year the house it up, though nowhere near finished, and we were all able to go. The whole family together again... just like old times. It was great. When we arrived, it was as I expected... no furniture unless you count folding chairs and tables and air mattresses as furniture. One working bathroom for fourteen people (I won't get into the joys of that situation...) and a kitchen without a working sink. One thing I wasn't expecting was the eight-foot-tall Christmas tree in the living room.My aunt apparently couldn't let our family Christmas go by without hauling the Christmas tree to the house.

You may wonder how we managed to keep ourselves entertained in a place with no TV, no couches to lounge on and the weather too cold to make use of the lake. Well, one of my cousins had that covered. He brought along a projector, speakers and his Nintendo Wii and we spent quite a bit of time pretending we were bowling...I also can't fail to mention the hours we spent playing dominos. My parents bought my brother and I our own domino sets for Christmas so we would sometimes have three games going at once!We also spent some of the time walking around the neighborhood where we discovered another house (a ridiculous house by the way) that was in the early stages of being built. There's no easy way to convey to you the ridiculousness of this house other than to show you a picture of the main living room...You may think to yourself, how could this be a main living room? For one, you could fit a small plane in there and two, there are three garage doors with automatic openers right there on one wall of it... are you sure we're not looking at the massive garage? Oh no... it is by far the strangest house I've ever seen. It's enormous and it's layout makes no sense at all. Or best guess is that it's a party house, plenty of space for people to walk around with their swanky champange and make snarky comments about everyone else in the room.

Besides all these wonderful ways to keep ourselves entertained, I also brought my knitting. I'm on the leg of the second sock which is still going to take me a bit of time to finish. I decided to knit the leg of these socks until the yarn runs out. This is the result of the first sock.It nearly made it to my knee! I had to stop the pattern sooner than I thought I would because my calf was getting too wide to fit into the sock so I just switched to a K1, P1 rib. That seemed to work out fine, plus the cast off method made it stretchy enough to fit. I don't remember if I mentioned that the yarn I'm using is KnitPicks Gloss. It's awesome!

All-in-all we had an excellent time despite somewhat "roughing it" in an unfinished house.

If any of you have lasted this long, I commend you! I can't remember the last time I wrote a post this long! Happy New Year!

The last before 2007

I mentioned in my last post that I found the perfect sweater pattern. With a few tweaks, I can easily see this sweater becoming one of my favorites.I was thinking since the ribbing goes so far up on the sleeve that I might extend it in the body as well. I have issues when the ribbing doesn't match to this degree. But seriously, this is the exact sweater that I had in my head. The only problem I have now is finding the perfect yarn... sigh...

I spent a good bit of time today getting all of my Christmas wrapping finished. Actually, I should say getting my Christmas presents prepared for wrapping. I'm notorious for finishing a project that's to become a present and then leaving the ends to be sewn in for right before I wrap them up. I don't know why I don't just finish them when I finish the knitting. I suppose it's the slacker in me. It was fun wrapping everything up with the Christmas music playing in the background. I get so excited about seeing how people react to my gifts!

I finished up another project today that has been lingering for a very long time.... The Frog! I went out and bought a couple of frames for both the frog and the butterflies I stitched a long time ago. Both are going to be presents this year.They look so wonderful when they're all framed!

I probably won't get another chance to blog again before the New Year because my family and I are headed down to Virginia for a big family Christmas. I'm very excited because it'll be the first time we've all been able to get together! With the cousins getting older and schedules getting more and more variable, it's hard to find a time when we can all make it out to see each other. Since we can all go, it looks like it's going to be a very good Christmas!

I hope everyone has a very happy holiday and the most wonderful New Year!

What's on the needles?

So until I find the perfect sweater with the perfect yarn, I've decided to resign myself to some sock knitting.I've come to the realization that knitted socks are the perfect project. They're quick, very portable and most of the time you don't have to think about the pattern and can just knit away. I think from now on I'm always going to have a pair of socks on the needles.

This newest pair of socks is for me. I'm finished with my Christmas knitting (it really is a miracle, the first time finishing everything before Christmas!) I loved the pattern of my Grandma's socks so much that I had to have a pair for myself.

My quest for the perfect sweater is coming along. I found the pattern... now it's just a question of yarn (and the fact that I don't have any money to spend on yarn... sigh...Ah well, one more semester and I'll be finished being a broke college student!) I'll post a picture of the "perfect" sweater soon. For now, I'm off!

Back from a hiatus...

It certainly has been a while friends. To say the least, these last couple weeks have been busy. Add lots of final projects together with a crazy work schedule and you get an Erin who's unable to blog... It's a very sad thing. I haven't even had all that much time to knit either and I miss it. Actually, what I miss most is being inspired.

I finished my dad's socks and now... I am projectless... School is finally finished for the semester so I've been searching for a great new project. I've been looking to make a sweater, something hip, form-fitting, something that apparently doesn't exist in any magazine or pattern I own! It's hard to be inspired when you can't find the pattern to a sweater you have in your head. I'd welcome any ideas, send me links to your perfect sweater, who knows, maybe it'll be the inspiration I need.

And if that doesn't work, I'm sure I'll come up with something (after all, I do have a lot of free time on my hands now...thank all that is good in this world!!!)

Here are a couple of random things... If you are looking for music and you just don't know where to start, go to Pandora. It's amazing. It's an online radio station generator. You put in the bands or the songs you like and it finds new bands and new songs it "thinks" you're going to like. Soooo cool. I highly recommend it.

Another random thing... Jill and I are planning a trip to Seattle in January! She's going to look at apartments cause she really wants to move there and I'm going to check it out. It could possibly be the place I'd like to move. At this point, I'm up for anything. I have been feeling like I'm waiting for something to happen when I know I should be going and making things happen! This is all a part of my plan to find someplace new. Even if I don't like Seattle, it'll still be a really fun trip!

The last pair...

I've finally gotten a good picture of the socks I'm making for my dad. We had about one and a half days with a bit of sun, so I was in luck (considering we're about to get that mess of a front coming in from the midwest. Though I have to admit, I'm sort of looking forward to the snow)I lightened the image a bit so you could actually see the ribbing I knit. They're just a plain old pair of black socks. I think they'll appeal to my dad quite a bit. Also, instead of a regular bind off, I sewed the end so that it would be more stretchy. My dad has big calves and I wouldn't want him to not wear them because they wouldn't fit.Again, the black makes it hard to see, but take my word for it, the sewn end looks great and it's definitely stretchy enough!

I'm also happy to report that this is the last pair of socks I plan on making for Christmas, in fact, it's the last Christmas project I had in mind period! You can't see it, but I'm dancing over here! I think this is the first year where I didn't overburden myself with knitted Christmas presents. Now that is a Christmas miracle.

What's in a name?

It's time to clear something up. Something I've noticed for a long time, but just never cared to do anything about until now. Ever since I began to use the internet back in... oh.... '93, I've used the name ErLeCa as my internet identity. It's the first two letters of my first, middle and last name. Not very clever or interesting, but it worked for me. Ever since I started blogging, I've noticed this must be somewhat confusing. Countless times I've been refered to as 'Erica' instead of Erin because just glancing at my internet name gives the impression that Erica's my name. So I've decided to change my blogger name to Erin. Less confusion... and besides... I like my name...

Updated to add: I'm not upset or offended by anyone who may have mistaken my name, it's only a post to clarify.

McGyver and some kitty love...

Thanksgiving was nice, very quite which was great. Yes, I realize Thanksgiving was five days ago, but for a girl with no internet access, oh wait, let me rephrase that, with dial-up internet access, I was not about to blog while I was at my parent's house.

It was very relaxing. My family and I played dominos and I go to spend a lot of time knitting. Dominos and knitting... It's official... I am now an 80 year old woman trapped in a 25 year old's body. Just throw in a walker and old McGyver episodes and I'll be all set *sigh* oh well.

So I finished these:I also started a pair of socks for my dad. Just a simple pair of black socks made out of KnitPicks Gloss. In fact, I finished one of them. The beauty of the whole thing is my dad was there the whole time. I think when it comes to knitting he's not very curious so I can get away with knitting his Christmas present right in front of him. Picture coming as soon as I have some good light. Taking a picture of black socks is tricky!

So someone asked me why I haven't had pictures of Ludo, my cat, up recently. I don't really have a good answer to that. It's not for lack of pictures. I have some great ones. Like this:If you look close enough you can see my roommate knitting on the couch behind him. Did I mention I taught my roommate how to knit? I'm so proud!

Then there's this oneThat's Ludo and my roommate's cat Hemi. She got Hemi right before I left for the summer so I didn't get to know him until after I got back, but Ludo had all summer to get friendly... obviously. There's a lot of kitty love going on right there.

Loxodonta africana among other things...

It's been over a week since I last posted and I have no new knitting to show you. Life has been consumed with work, homework and studying. My mammology professor is making us memorize species names, families and orders of a whole hell of a lot of mammals. Did you know that that the duck-billed platypus comes from the family Ornithorhynchidae or that the scientific name of the chimpanzee is Pan troglodytes? Yeah, neither did I, but now I do.

I mentioned a while ago that there was a trip to the Toronto Zoo planned didn't I? Well we went. Aside from the rain (the cold, chill-you-to-your-bones rain) it was a good trip. We didn't get to tour around the zoo because we had limited time. What we did end up doing was watching a training session with the African elephants (Loxodonta africana). It was interesting to see these huge animals do things like open their mouths and hold them open so the keepers could inspect their teeth. They'd hold them open until the keeper gave the command indicating it could stop.You can see in this picture that the keepers work under protected contact which means no keeper physically goes in with an elephant. Did you know most cases where keepers have been seriously injured or killed have involved elephants?

After the training, we watched a presentation and spoke with a keeper and a supervisor on lots of different issues related to being zookeepers. It was definitely educational.

As for the rest of the time there (we only had about an hour to see things which certainly isn't enough time when you're at the Toronto Zoo) we made the most of it. And when I said "made the most of it" I meant fooled around in some of their more 'child friendly' exhibits. We had fun. I tell ya, if there's one thing I love about this program it's the people and how much fun we have.

In a totally unrelated topic, I'm in a club at school called the ZEW Club (Zoo and Exotic Wildlife Club) and we were doing this fundraiser that all the clubs in school participate in. It's were you raffle off tickets for whatever prizes the school is offering that year and the club gets to keep the proceeds. I tried selling tickets, I didn't try hard, but I tried. When I didn't end up selling any, I just bought a few for myself. I bought a total of 5 tickets. That's it. And guess what? I won! There were four prizes, an iPod Video, an iPod Nano and two iPod Shuffles. I won one of the shuffles! This thing has 1GB of memory in such a tiny little device. Don't believe me? Just look at how small this thing is:
I'm totally afraid I'm going to lose it!

So Thanksgiving is coming up. I have just a few days off since I still have to work, but let me tell you, I'm definitely going to be taking advantage of the time. I plan to knit... a lot. We'll see if I actually do or not because I have school projects that need finishing before the end of the semester which is only... oh... three (school) weeks away! Yikes!

A bit of introspection never hurt anybody

I've been feeling somewhat disconnected with the blogging world recently. I think it has a lot to do with me trying to find my place here (and by here, I mean where I'm living at the moment) After the breakup I was feeling a bit lost. Lost in terms of where I am and where I'm going.

And then it hit me. For the last few years there has been this subtle (and at times, not so subtle) message as to what I need to do with my life. I've been ignoring it because it scares me, but after this last upheaval, it's staring me right in the face and I can't look away.

I need to go somewhere completely new and I need to do it on my own. Once I'm there I need to make a life for myself. The happiest I ever remember being was when I was on my own with no one to rely on but myself and with no one to worry about but me. I've been running away from that sort of life ever since because apparently I have it in my head that I'd be happier being with someone. That has not turned out to be the case.

So I've decided to apply to zoos all over the country. Wherever I'm accepted, I'm going to go.

As for the semester I still have left in school, I'm going to make the most of it, and the most of being here. In the spirit of that, I've started a knitting group. A stitch and bitch of my very own. It started with some word of mouth to see who'd be interested and the response was somewhat overwhelming. Our first meeting was on Tuesday and I ended up teaching two people to knit (my plans to spread knitting love are going along swimmingly) There was a total of four of us there. More plan on being there next week!

I don't know why I never started one before now. I suppose all my thoughts were wrapped up in a relationship I thought was going somewhere and I didn't want to get too attatched to this place knowing I'd be leaving. I don't know what made me think that because I still plan on leaving but why not make my time here at the very least bearable and maybe even fun? And perhaps leave something behind that other people can enjoy?

Anyway, enough with the deep thoughts. If you've stayed with me through all this reading, I commend you. And you get a little reward. I finished one of the socks I'm making for my grandmother.I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this sock and how perfectly it fits.... me. I'm hoping my grandmom's feet are similar enough to mine that they'll fit. There's still some room to give so I think it'll be fine. And I have to admit I totally covet this sock and want to keep it, but I can't. It was made for Grandma, it's going to Grandma!