Off Week!

Annnnd it's off: this week is booked with school, hella doctor's appointments (harumph) and last but best, working/shopping/nerding out at Madrona! (Squishy also has an exciting and full week planned. He will be extra busy sitting on Pooper's head, munching rat blocks, and continuing to plot my demise.)

See you on the flip side, probably with some shiny new yarn in hand!

FO Post: Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies

Hi there!  Since the last time I wrote, I've become the proud new owner of a BA from Oberlin College.  The ceremony was long and hot, but surprisingly good and surprisingly emotional.  I wore combat boots because it had been storming the day before and the grass where the ceremony was being held was inch-deep in mud.  I think it was an appropriately strange outfit to wear to graduation from a school that embraces eccentricity as one of its foundational qualities.

The plan for the next few months is to find a job and an apartment and start my new life as a college graduate.  I think this picture most accurately depicts how I feel about that.

Stash Appreciation: I Just Finished College Edition

Yesterday night around 7 pm, I finished the last final of my college career.  It's been a long four years, and I've learned more than I ever thought possible.  I'm proud to have been an Oberlin student.  It's afforded me incredible opportunities: chemistry research, a textiles conservation internship, study abroad in Japan, and the confidence to consider myself well-versed in Japanese history, art history, language and culture.

All that said, I am so looking forward to knitting and sleeping all day for the next three weeks.  A fiber festival, graduation, some quality time with my family, and a trip to New Haven to visit my good friend Emily are all coming up in the next week and a half, and I'm really excited to hang out and enjoy myself for the first time in months.

And what better way to celebrate than with yarn?  I bought these two colorways of gorgeous Mirasol alpaca blend last week, when it was 25% off at my LYS.  The two skeins of grey are 800 yards of Jade Sapphire for a commission, although I also have to admit that I already have 2 skeins of it in my stash, and the reason they ordered the color at my LYS was by my recommendation.  This yarn is truly silver: the shine of the silk and the soft grey of the yarn combine to give an ineffable delicacy.  I can't wait to knit with it.

The blue and the purple are slated to become big, chunky, cowl-like creations.  I haven't decided yet what patterns to use, but I do know that I want this stuff as close to my face as possible.

Ahh.  It's nice to finally get back to the important things in life: yarn.

Hell Week: 1 of 2

Yesterday I got to my knitalong at Smith's, plopped down, complained about the 2 page (single-spaced) paper and exam I had to study for by 10 am this morning, and my knitting buddies promptly sent me home.  I finished my exam, but I still have a 6-8 page paper to finish and a presentation to do before tomorrow night at 8 pm.

It's been that kind of week.

As an antidote, I've been working on a little Akimbo (rav link, normal link) for another knitalong at Smith's.  It's Mountain Colors Crazyfoot, and I've been enjoying the hell out of knitting it.  It's a really gorgeous deep brown with shots of turquoise and magenta throughout - some of my favorite colors, but nicely mitigated by the brown.

Next week is similarly terrible, but I hope to start posting again regularly soon!  I had some new jeans come in the mail because my normal ones are shredded to pieces, and have been for going on six months.  Fingers crossed that they fit and I can share them in one of my next postings.

Also: I almost wrote a post solely about the subject last Saturday, but decided not to.  Last Friday morning I woke up to the news of the earthquake in northeastern Japan, and since then the whole East Asian Studies department has been sitting on the edge of its seat making sure all of the faculty and students in Japan right now are okay.  All of my friends are in the Kansai region, so there's no direct damage, but I've also heard from some of my Japanese friends who are fine but deeply worried.  I've heard conflicting reports on how worried we should be, since the US media is jumping on it as a doomsday-style catastrophe.  I've basically been experiencing gratitude that it wasn't worse, but also awe at the sheer force of nature, sadness for those who were lost, and good thoughts for the people who are displaced without food, water or electricity.  I hope everyone will continue to send whatever types of support they can to the people of Japan, be it good thoughts, prayers, or material goods.

Stay safe out there.

Stash Appreciation Wednesday: Second Day of Finals Hell Edition

We interrupt this Wednesday afternoon of studying the fall of the Tokugawa bakufu to bring you... well, a crazy person, apparently. Japanese history is actually super fascinating, but 3 hours of any type of studying just kinda does me in.

In between cram sessions, I've been drooling over some amazing things, working out (which is really fun when you get up to stretch from being a study-lump and all of a sudden you're like oh right, I really have calves today. thanks for reminding me, calves!) and knitting a pitiful, pathetic, somewhat disgustingly small amount. Like you get to knit four rows in between your cup of coffee and reading about the Namamugi Incident of Blahblahblahblah (actual event except for the blahblahs) and it's the most you've knitted in a week. Seriously.

Anyhow. Reading about amazing handspun sock yarn named after classic rock songs reminded me that I actually have two skeins of it in my stash, albeit a discontinued color. The skein on my head is Secret Agent Man, obtained at Yarn Con while visiting the talented and amazing Bethany in Chicago this last October. And behind me is the wonderful old Oberlin slogan.

Heck yeah, Oberlin, I'm gonna change the world. As soon as my brain stops leaking out my ears from finals. Which is your fault, by the way, Oberlin. Just to clarify.

rock me mama like a wagon wheel

Things that would be nice right now:

California (northern, please!)
enough time in the day to do homework, knit, and exercise... because now only one of those is happening, and guess which one it is
time to sketch and daydream about yarn
Christmas at the beach with family
clean socks
batteries for my camera
the first real snow
hot chocolate
sleep without an alarm
seeing old friends
listening to Wagon Wheel on repeat

in 13 days, most of these will be happening.

I'm pretty excited.

(Yarn story: I bought this Jitterbug on discount from a place in Santa Barbara called Cardigans. It was warm all the time, I got to hang out on the beach with one of my friends, and I got yarn with my mom at three different places. I am so nostalgic about my California trip this summer, it's not even funny.)

Sigh.

It's labor day weekend, and raining outside. Our apartment is still sort of gloomy and college-student-esque, and the peals of thunder from outside really aren't helping. There's plenty of Nutella in the cabinets and the bathroom is clean, though, so I can't complain.

I've been studying and watching movies all afternoon, although I was reading Japanese history around 11:30, closed my eyes for a quick nap, and woke again at 1:30 to the sound of my housemate and her family unpacking groceries. Schoolwork never seems to be finished - don't be fooled by the hula hoop; my butt has been planted on the couch reading physics and accounts of the Nara period for the last two hours.

Knitting-wise: Unst needs to be re-knit on slightly larger needles. It's seriously gorgeous, but just barely tugs on over my heel, and I know that my US 1.5s would fix that in a jiffy. Only problem? Somewhere between Seattle and Ohio, my 1.5s have gone missing. So, I cast on for Meida's Socks in a cheery sherbet color of Lorna's Laces. Hopefully the weather will take a cue from my yarn and brighten up soon.