Sunday, January 13, 2008
Well, life has kind of had me at a loss for words lately. Going back to work after my nice long holiday was about as fun as I anticipated. And there's been a bunch of other things swirling around that have me out of my comfort zone. I'm a planner. I know that life happens and you can't plan everything, and if you do you're sure to be disappointed, but in general I like to have a good idea of what I'm aiming for and where I'm heading. And that has not been working out so well lately. There are some changes happening at my work right now and I have a choice about what I want to do moving forward. Unfortunately, neither choice is a clear winner. Each has its pros and cons and I'm just truly not sure what to do. So, that is frustrating. At the same time, Mark has been having some difficulties with his own job and in considering what to do about moving forward, he's decided to go back to school. I'm happy for him that he's thinking of trying something new and pursuing a dream of his, and that is definitely the priority, but it does throw a lot of our plans into question. He still needs to do research about his options, but the probability is that we'll have less income (he'll be working less hours to attend school) and more bills (tuition), so that puts our house plans on hold. As I said, I really am happy for him, but I'm still a little sad to put a dream on hold when we were so close to acheiving it. So, going into this year, I thought I had a pretty good bead on where I was going. Now... not so much. I'm sure all of this will work out for the best (or at least work out) but right now, in the beginning of all these changes, when everything is up in the air, I'm unsettled, waiting and wondering.
So, with those cats holding my tongue, I haven't been doing too well with my "more posting" resolution, but I have been keeping busy. With Margene's NaSpiMoMo for inspiration, I've been taking time to work on my English Gardens bombyx every day. Between holiday knitting and holiday everything-elsing I just hadn't been finding the time to work on that project and it was dragging on way too long. So, even if I only work on it for a few minutes, I'm taking time to sit down at the wheel with the silk every day. And, thankfully, I've been seeing progress. I'm at least seeing light at the end of the tunnel for the first ply (and then onto the second ply--oy!). But at least it looks pretty!
And even all the spinning I'm doing hasn't taken up all of my time. I've also found time to work on my version of Ice Queen, although I don't think mine looks particularly icy. She's more of a reminder that one day, all of this ice will be melted. 
(Wow, looking at those two pictures of my spinning and knitting together, the two colors look so similar even though the actual projects are totally different. In person, the spinning reveals many more colors than just pinky-purple. Strange.) Anyway, for Ice Queen, I'm using Crystal Palace Kid Merino in the "Painted Iris" colorway with irridescent violet beads. I'm really happy with how it's turning out, although I had forgotten what a pain it is to work with these mohair yarns. I don't know if it is just me, but as I knit, I accidentally scootch the mohair along the binder until I have a big mohair hairball. Then, I have to carefully distribute the bunched mohair along the binder so I don't just get one huge clump in my knitting. Attractive! In spite of my own little personal challenges, the project is going along swimmingly. It's a project that has enough going on to be interesting, but it still is simple enough for TV knitting. This is going so quickly that I'm already trying to figure out my next project. So far, no winners, but planning is always the best part! If you don't hear from me in a week, send someone into my stash to find me.
# posted by Jenni @ 1/13/2008 08:30:00 PM
|
|
