Category Archives: grad school

FO: star crossed slouchy beret

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Ta-da! This was super quick and quite fun to knit. The cables increase the squish factor of the Malabrigo, and while the variegation is a bit busy, I am quite excited to send this westward to its rightful owner. Here’s another shot of the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret, in which the dog demonstrates his usefulness as a table/backdrop:

Using the eyeballing method, this hat took about half a skein of Malabrigo. I may make one for myself out of my sassymetrical leftovers. This is where a scale would come in handy…I’ll keep you posted. In other news, here are some pictures of yesterday’s victories:

Delicious collards from my local farmers’ market, cooked with garlic, ginger and chile.

My very own yarn! (Dog for scale.) I’m not sure if you can get a sense for the thickness of this yarn, but most of this feels like a light worsted or even a heavy dk. I need to get better at spinning the spindle levelly, and at joining new pieces of fiber without getting an ugly blip in my yarn, but I am feeling really good about this. Dividing my roving into more vertical pieces, and doing more pre-drafting to both lengthen the roving strips and separate the fibers from each other made all the difference. I had a lot of fun with this, and am looking forward to practicing a bit more.

I also have a recent yarn acquisition to share, purchased at my new LYS. This is absolutely gorgeous, local, undyed alpaca. I bought two 8 oz 660 yd skeins, and I’m wondering if I could turn this into a drapey Gathered Pullover. What do you think? Other ideas include a luxurious shawl or lacey shrug.

Thanks also for all of your kind words about graduate school and the transition. It feels truly indulgent to be able to set most of my own schedule and focus on reading and writing and thinking. I’m sure my anxiety will begin decreasing once my seminars get past their introductory meetings and I am able to work through the transitional cobwebs by participating.

Alright — off to do a bit more reading, and then some baking, spinning and frolicking with the dog. Happy weekend!

it has begun.

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I am officially a graduate student. I attended my program’s orientation session yesterday, and classes start tomorrow. I don’t exactly know how to describe my feelings at this moment. Several years of work in a range of positions have helped to affirm that I want to become a scholar and a professor, and I am thrilled at the particulars of the opportunity in front of me. That said, I am also incredibly anxious, perhaps beginning to feel the self-doubt that will likely rear its head many times during the next several years as I work to explore the kind of work I wish to do, and the kind of scholar and teacher I will become.

I think quite a bit of this is reasonable at this point: I’ve been out of school, and thus out of situations that require my brain to operate in a critical, academic way, for four years. Many of the people in my program are younger, and thus, while the “life” aspects of graduate school may be newer to them, their brains are likely a bit sharper when it comes to seminar discussions and critical thinking and writing. How do you reclaim that chunk of brain power and work on expanding and refining these abilities? The only answer I can come up with is to just jump in, with an eye towards maintaining a balance in my life that includes cooking, running and knitting (while READING, and this week, attempting to reacquire enough language skills from college-land to pass a placement test…)

So, pie = balance. The pie above, by the way, is fresh peach and strawberry, with a dusting of a crumb topping. Yum!

Also, while the BSJ patiently waits for buttons (and seaming), I’ve cast on for something new:

It’s the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret, and it is moving quickly. I’m using Malabrigo in Verdes, and while I worried that the variegation would be too busy for the cabled pattern, I’m liking it so far. This is heading back West, to a dear friend who requested a green hat. I am excited to get this in the mail, as I’m sure the mornings are already turning cold in the mountains.

I’ve also begun making some lists for holiday knitting — more on that soon.

getting there…

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My Sunday Market Shawl is coming along — it hangs beautifully, and the gauge is nowhere near as open as I’d expected to get with sock yarn and US 10s. Looking forward to dropping the YOs and stretching this out. Hoping to finish it by the weekend so that last week’s birthday girl can begin enjoying her present!

In other news, I’ve begun the madness of trying to organize and pack my life. (Though I probably won’t move to New Home until August, I move out to the mountains for the summer for work. Lease is up at the end of next month, and May is a crazy work month spent going back and forth between offices.) Packing is rather difficult in a teeny casita, and I’ve realized that I just need to get some of my furniture out of here in order to have space to lay things out and store them well. This morning I posted several things on craigslist — here’s hoping I can create a bit more room to work!

charts, apart(ment)s, hearts.

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I’m back (and cheesier than ever, I might add). Thank you for all of your kind comments and happy thoughts re: my grad school news and this week’s visit to New Home. The best way to describe my visit?

Affirming.

I had the chance to meet my advisor, have dinner in his home, take walks and engage in thought-provoking talks with the other graduate student in the program with academic interests like mine, drink local beer, wander around town — and sign a lease.

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It may not have the same funky character as my current southwestern casita, nor does it have the same incredibly low price tag, but for New Home, the price is fair, the dog is welcome and the kitchen is spacious! At best, this will be a space I can settle into for the next several years; at worst, it will be more than sufficient for my first year in New Home.

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New Home is half a day’s drive from my parents’ house, so I got a cozy weekend with mom and dad, filled with movies, snowfall-measuring and celebratory meals. Oh — and I also did some knitting!

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I present my progress on the Chevalier Mittens. I don’t know why I feared the chart — it makes perfect sense, once you get past the supposed scariness. I am a little concerned that the fabric is a bit too dense and stiff. Should make for good mittens, right? This yarn is worsted weight cashmere/merino/mohair from School Products. The pattern calls for DK weight yarn doubled, so I figured this would be fine, held single. All of the cables kept my attention through a long layover and multiple flights, but my hands were hurting by the end of the day. Once home, I picked up the Stella Hat I had brought for movie watching and all around mindless lounging.

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Boh played with his very best friend, a slightly younger Akita named Radley, the whole time I was gone. When I went to pick him up, he did not want to leave, and pulled against the leash when I gave a short tug. See how tired he was?

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It’s good to be back. More soon!