Progressing

First off, I finished the Five-Dollar Hat. It was Ella Rae Silkience that I got in a $5 grab-bag from Smith's this last fall. As with so many other people on Ravelry, I found that the cuff is way too loose. I might end up stringing some elastic through it so it will actually stay on my head. It's probably partially my yarn choice, since cotton is not very bouncy, but I mean... it cost five dollars. I'm not gonna complain.


And what is that cardigan you see? Why yes, it's my Fair Isle Cardigan from Winter Term of two years ago - in fact, the reason that I started this blog in the first place. Hooray!

On a side note, I have yet to knit a beret that doesn't make me look like a dork wearing a shower cap. Maybe my head is not properly shaped for a beret? Perhaps it's because my hair is too straight? Who knows. They keep my head relatively warm, and today that's all I'm gonna ask for.


But on to the weaving! Today I made some serious progress on the fabric for my coat, which may have a name eventually but doesn't yet. The pattern is turning out differently than I had expected; I guess I'm used to color dominance in knitting, when the main color really pops from the background color. I think it's also because my warp is Pearl, and the only Navy introduced into the pattern are the lozenge shapes.


Towards the end of the day, I did a pattern repeat (which is 24 rows, I think?) in about four minutes. In between my groove periods were flying bobbins, broken warp threads, and me cursing very emphatically under my breath. During the groove periods, though.... oh wow. I sat down at 2 pm and didn't get up until 5:30 except to wind more bobbins and advance my fabric.
It helps, of course, that long stretches of grooviness were punctuated by conversations about homeschooling, fabric, and circus. (Oberlin's circus community, conveniently called OCircus, is quite impressive and at least one of the 10 weavers in this month's class participate.)


Today I also had a chance to get lunch with a PhD candidate who is interviewing for a non-tenure faculty position as a Japanese history professor in the East Asian studies department. It was interesting because the other students were two junior history majors and a sophomore East Asian studies major who seemed to have very different ideas about the stages of their life after Oberlin. The candidate asked what we thought we would be doing in ten years, and other students shrugged. I thought about mentioning my current plan: to work at a conservation institute working on Asian textiles after spending two to three years in Japan and then getting a masters in historical fashion and textiles at FIT. Then I felt like a jerk, and didn't. But it's nice to know that even though I'm not sure where I'm going to go abroad and for how long, I finally have an idea of what my "I become a five-year-old whenever I get to go to work because it makes me so excited about life" job is.

Yay.


Anyhoo! Just another 3 yards to weave! Can I do it by next week? Stay tuned...