Rainbow Blanket

There are people who knit for the product, and there are people who knit for the process. Then there are people like me. Depending on the day, I fall into one group or the other. But whether it's a process or product day, there is one thing that I am always doing while I knit: relieving stress.

Knitting is how I calm down, how I make time to reflect, and how I keep my fingers busy while I am listening to an episode of This American Life or binge watching TV shows (one more season of Buffy to go!). 

When I am in a stress-relieving product-knitting mode, the sweet nothings are perfect. 

When I am in a stress-relieving process-knitting mode, I need a blanket to work on. 

I discovered this fact my junior year of college. It was a busy, busy year, my craziest yet. I had no time to drag along a pattern book or consult a chart. I also had a ton of medium-sized balls of yarn leftover from previous projects, and my favorite circular needle free. So, I started knitting a shawl with the nearest ball of yarn I had at hand. When it ran out, I grabbed another, and another.

Pretty soon, I had a project that needed to be carried around in its own bag. Even when I was only halfway through, it was a little lap blanket as I worked on it, and raised quite a few eyebrows. But it was exactly what I needed--a no pressure project that I could continue for as long or as short as I wanted--and I could always put it down with no fear of losing my place if I picked it up a day or a month later.

It was fantastic, and I spent the whole school year bouncing between little, more intricate projects and the blanket before I decided it was time to cast off. This is the end result.

I have gotten a lot of use out of it; when I did research last summer, the place I worked was very chilly. I began to bring a sweater everyday, despite the 85-95 degree temperature outside. When the sweater didn't help, I threw my blanket in the bag as well. It did the trick--and it was fun to have all the vestiges from different projects keep me company as I worked.

I don't have a project like that presently, but I can feel a big process-knitting mode coming on; we'll see where it takes me! 

College Life

What's this? A blog post?

Yes, well, I have a little extra time on this beautiful Saturday morning and I was going onto the blog to look up a pattern I designed ages ago for a scarf for my roommate, and I realized how nice it is to have a record of past projec

ts, because you never know when the information may prove to be useful.

So I'm going to start up again, as often as I can.

We'll just skip the "a lot has happened in the past year and a half, hasn't it?" talk, shall we? I'll get to know you and you'll get to know me just through what becomes relevant. Perhaps this will be my journalling/English practice, seeing as I'm going to be a math major and all--one of life's little ironies that the girl that grew up writing her own novels and practicing journalism would completely switch gears in a manner of m

onths to decide to be a math teacher. We'll see how it all goes.

In the interim, I have a project in the works, and once again, it will get me class credit. I love it when I can stick my yarny self into my academic stuff. It feel

s like I'm taking a study break, but I'm really doing my homework!

Anyway, I dyed some red (pictured below)

and blue (it's drying now) yarn, so that I can knit a miniature Cuban flag. More to come on that.

This post feels incredibly dry, but hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things.

Just a Test

I'm attempting a new way to look at life, as per this quote (compliments of the Internet)

"Life is a test. It is only a test. Had this been a real life, you would have been given instructions on where to go and what to do."

Although I didn't find this quote until after completing this, my mini end-of-the-school-year project kind of reflects these ideas. See this?

It's a mini clothesline!

Up in the tree like this, it looks like a little elf went out to dry her clothes. It made me smile.

I wrote down the pattern for each piece, so I'll see if I can get the pattern out later. All yarn was handspun, including the clothesline itself, which was flax.

I tried to make it chronicle a woman's life, from her birth, to her first prom dress, to her wedding, to the birth of her first child. It's a tad existential, but it seemed appropriate, what with all of the changes going on, college apps and such.

Just Breathe

It's back to summer in the FiberChic world--hello, everyone!

Soo...recap of this year:

gave up the dog,

received the "outstanding aux." for our color guard

almost moved to central IL (but didn't),

almost moved to KY (but didn't),

found four kittens under a friend's stoop, kept two of them,

Knitted Christmas presents, including a guitar strap, "America's Next Top Model" Christmas ornament, and bitty mouse,

enjoyed a family round-up during Christmas,

(student) directed my school's rendition of "D**n Yankees",

stressed over Chemistry,

stressed over AP tests,

went to my first school dance (prom!) (with a group of friends, not by myself),

said goodbye to the fantastic school band director, due to district cuts,

and throughout it all...

spun, designed and knitted another dress (pictures pending).

You, Blogosphere, were so good to me my freshman year--you kept me sane through a dramatic transition in my life. I figure the least I can do is just let you know how I'm turning out.