The State of the Knitter 2009

There has been... very little knitting going on. For whatever reason, I have been Not Feeling It, nor have I been feeling the spinning bug. What I have been feeling is the World of Warcraft bug, so I've been feeding that particular obsession regularly. But despite the lack of knitting, there has been some.

I started my Norfolk Rambler Socks for the Gives Good Knit KAL and made it to the heel of the first sock before I broke down forgot how to knit took a break. Whew, that was hard work! But I'm looking at the bag containing 25% of a pair of socks and thinking that maybe I can do this. It just takes not being quite such a knitting flake as I have been lately.

But Tika, you say, what do you mean, "knitting flake"? Well, dear reader, I mean that I have in the last few days started TWO other pairs of socks. One pair will be the Mingus socks by Cookie A with just a little modification on my part to make them a wee bit bigger (my first iteration was much too small) , and the other will be a plain top-down k3p1 rib much like my Vanilla Santa Fe socks (Rav link) - although I think the linked socks were toe-up. But still - k3p1 rib. Those will be my purse knitting, as apparently anything beyond the said rib pattern is beyond my powers of comprehension right now. I wonder why that is?

In terms of the 101 in 1001 project, I've tried a couple more recipes - two, to be exact. I know that puts me behind, but I've been researching recipes and watching Julia Child on YouTube, so I'm considering this to be the "research" phase of my project. Hee. But seriously, because of the lack of finances, I'm thinking that baked goods might be the order of the holidays. THB and I are having Thanksgiving at the house this year with (so far) just the two of us, so that'll knock out a good chunk of attempts as well. And there is a pile of pumpkins at the grocery store just begging to be turned into pies, breads and waffles...

In other news, I am still unemployed and that might be the reason for my lack of focus. I originally decided that if I couldn't find a job before March, I would start looking into graduate schools; however, I ended up attending an informational session at the beginning of October for Chapman University, and I was pleasantly surprised by their attentiveness and willingness to get me out of school as fast as humanly possible. Tonight I attended the new student orientation, and I start classes next Monday. By this time next year, I will have my California single-subject teaching credential, and by the middle of next spring I'll have my Master of Art degree in Teaching. That should set me up nicely to start teaching class in the fall of 2011; hopefully by then the economy will have recovered somewhat and I'll be able to find a good place in a Portland-area school. My plan is to move up there once I'm done with my degree to start the job-seeking process, but as I haven't even started my first class yet, that's always open for debate.

Let me tell you, I'm not 100% sanguine about starting classes again. I was hoping for a longer break between educational facilities, but it's nice to have a plan again. Especially a plan that eventually involves summers off!

So that's the update. One of these days I'll blog during the day and actually give you pictures of how little I've gotten done! But for now, Mr. Darcy is stretched on one side of my desk and begging for pets, so spare a tiny good thought for my knitting mojo and I'll come back with better, more energized news soon!