The One With Actual Knitting Content

So remember when I found my Rosebud Shawl, complete with instructions? I've been working on it pretty steadily and am nearly halfway through the pick-up edging, then it's only the outer edging to go. Here's a picture of a finished shawl done by Maureen in Fargo. See those diamond patterns between the center square and the edge? I'm working my way out from the center and am almost halfway done with the second diamond. It takes about 45 minutes to do 2 rounds, so please send the people in white coats soon.

I finally took pictures of the (very few) knitted things I've completed this year! In a fit of pre-Christmas spirit, I wrapped up yarn for my brothers and stepfather and promised them all socks by June for their Christmas presents. They're mostly done:

Stepfather Socks: Regia Sock Something, ~413 yds

Stepbrother Kai Socks: Regia Sock Something, ~395 yds.

THB's socks are half done and have been dedicated out-of-the-house knitting. I've got a coffee date with Nadia tonight, so maybe I'll get a few rows in on them over gossip.

I also spent an evening and several episodes of Grey's Anatomy binding off the over 400 stitches on my Slant Shawl that I started in November:

ella rae Lace Merino, 883 yds.

This thing is easily 12 feet long; I'm almost tempted to chop it in half and make it wider. Maybe if some perfect ribbon for the cut end shows itself, I'll go ahead and do that. In the mean time, it's going to be one of those shawls that snags on everything!

So. Many. Holes! (TWSS)

In the category of failed experiments, I finally ripped out my hap shawl:

Somewhere around 1500 yards of knitting - gone.

It wasn't working as intended, so I'm going to find an actual pattern and follow it. The horror! I may also over-dye that light blue; there's something about it that is too twee, and I kind of hate it.

And in other news, I've returned to the possibility of tomatoes. Last year I got my plants over Mother's Day, but this year I planted earlier and the contrast is pretty clear: 

May 16, 2011

May 8, 2012

At this rate, I might even get tomatoes before August!

.22 Down, 11.78 to Go!

The first knit of 2012 is complete! 

Austermann Step Yarn, 382 yds.

Late Christmas socks for my papa. Standard K3P1 rib with what I think is an Eye of the Partridge heel. My dad isn't really into crazy colors - and these qualify as "crazy colors" to that Federal employee - so I'll  over-dye them a little so the white places are also a shade of tan. I'm quite pleased with how well they matched up! 

Next up is a pair for my stepmother, Lisa. 

Seacoast Handpaints Panda Yarn, "Bee Balm"

This will end up being Thelonius socks. I spent a happy evening last night winding yarn at my coffee table and watching Leverage, then I cleaned out a random basket that was sitting around - how do I end up with random baskets? I never think of myself as a "basket person" (basket CASE, maybe...) and yet they're lying about - and put all my Late Christmas Pre-Knitting (aka yarn) into it. Efficiency! Focus! Late night caffeine! 

In keeping with my streak of not spending weekends at home since August, I'm heading down to San Jose on Friday to see a Tennessee Williams play with some friends and then attend Jasmin's baby shower. Little Genevieve made her debut yesterday at 4pm, adding the definite eventuality of baby-huffing to the enjoyment of seeing good friends and the wool fumes of a well-stocked yarn store!

Tika 2012

2011 was pretty swell. I joined a roller derby league, traveled all over the place visiting old friends and making  new ones, and settled in to my (no longer) new apartment. I knitted not as much as I anticipated (a meager 6-ish miles) but nailed my goal of reading 75 books (29,060 pages!!) and revisited spinning.

Like years before, I didn't finish my crafting goals. This seems to happen to me more often than not; Largely Unrepeatable is full of "I tried this and failed, then I tried THAT and failed, and now I'm doing this with no real hope of success given the time frame! Go me!" In regular conversation, that's often called overstretching oneself or delusions of grandeur, but I feel strongly that goals and challenges aren't always meant to be met, especially if they're truly challenging. They're also a way for me to figure out what is important to me. If you've been around here for awhile, you're probably aware that I'm not very fussed if I can't knit through 11 or 12 miles of yarn in a year, but it was important enough to me to complete the goodreads challenge that I picked up books when I might have occupied myself doing other things. Goals (and the revisiting thereof) give me a chance to focus (and refocus) on what I like and who I want to be. And who knows? Maybe this year is the year I complete the 12-Mile Quest; after all, it's right there in the date.

Becoming part of Sacred City's family of hard, confident, passionate women has helped me to find the steel, confidence and passion I misplaced somewhere along the road. I've thought a lot over the last few days about when I was happiest in 2011, and the answers were fairly simple: I was happiest when I was cheering for my team, listening my niece tell me that "T is for Tika," and laughing so hard I cried - most recently over my own inability to add two coins into 35 cents.* At none of those times was I taking myself too seriously or worried about How Things Appear to Others, and there's a lesson there if I can only grasp it.

So with that in mind, Tika 2012 is about focus.**
I will focus on:

- Reading 100 books 

- Maintaining the relatively healthy agenda I've been following since October (hello waist! Nice to see you again!)

- Working diligently through the sometimes-oppressive amount of yarn and fiber at my fingertips, with the addendum of keeping incoming purchases to a reasonable incoming/outgoing ratio
- Finding employment
- Finishing my Master's degree
- Applying for PhD programs

But above all, I want to focus on:
- Making good and thoughtful choices


That's a lot of gerunds.





*Feel free to remind me of this next time I'm crowing over being Sooooooo Smart.
**Or, if you'd rather join me in my already-oft-repeated 2012 mantra, "pay the fuck attention, T!"