Tag Archives: boh

exam (knitting) prep.

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So this morning I made an important decision: I settled on my exam knitting project. I know I said I was going to get going on the second sock, but I’m decreasing the first toe right now, and I just don’t think I’m going to feel like kitchenering and knitting the ribbing on sock #2 before Tuesday. Which means I need something pretty and soothing to knit on, just a little bit, this week.

Lately I have become obsessed with Veera’s Stripe Study Shawl, especially the versions that are made in neutrals. I want this one — but I want to knit it out of my stash. This morning I went stash-diving, coffee in hand. I came up with some gorgeous color combinations, but I’m just in love with the idea of natural/grey. Ideally, the grey would be less severe, but this Trekking Pro Natura in a charcoal-ish tone is what I’ve got in the right weight and yardage, so I’m going to give it a go. This natural yarn is local, organic wool, and I’ve got almost 800 yards, which means I’ll be able to use it again in another stripey shawl. Yay!

Unrelated, but I snapped some pictures of Boh making his crazy face.

It might look like he’s not having a good time, but trust me: this is the face he makes when he is very happy about being scratched. He almost looks like he has bug-eyes! Silly dog.

Last night some of my cohort got together for a delicious dinner at E.’s place: homemade pizza and two colors of Jello! I made salad with farm spinach I picked in the greenhouse last weekend, and it reminded me of how excited I am for spring and summer vegetables. Today I’m going to try to crank through the big ideas of a handful of books so that I can keep my plan of a book-free Monday. Knitting, dog-walking, yoga, good food: all of these are on the list.

no licking library books!

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I snapped this sequence of photographs before lunch yesterday. Strangely, I take comfort in this behavior: it is how I know that Boh is my dog. He’s no longer interested in chewing on shoes; instead, he licks library books. I know, Boh. Some old books have a particularly intoxicating scent. I realize it probably isn’t the best idea to deeply inhale when I enter the library stacks, but I still do — that smell, that feeling — well, it’s part of why I’m an aspiring historian. Can I really blame Boh for wanting to lick a library book or two? “No licking library books!” Not exactly the kind of statement one ever expects to need to say out loud. I laugh every time.

Thanks for your kind words about my last post. Thursday’s tears had to do with general exhaustion as well as a particular task related to this first exam: writing the question. I regrouped and re-thought (and slept a full-night’s sleep — with the windows open), and we had another meeting on Friday.

This week is going to be intense, but I have a better sense of what I am going to do. This weekend I’m going to work through a handful of books, and then I’m taking Monday OFF. I might go to bed at 8…

Happy weekend!

tears.

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Yep. Tears. In my chair’s office today. Sigh. I’m just so tired, and struggling to get a handle on the last of my exam prep. I’m just so ready to be done with this part of the process, and it is only beginning.

I came home, cleared my head (by filling it with a pretty standard rom-com type movie), and now I’m curled up here on the couch with Boh, working through possibilities for the big chunk of writing I’m going to produce (ready or not) for part one of my comprehensive exams.

I have not been doing a very good job of letting off steam this week — and I need to be better, especially if I am going to do my best work come Tuesday. (Maybe that means I’ll actually finish that sock?)

Thanks for all the encouragement here in blogland, folks. Back to it.

(Apologies for the crappy phone pictures — I couldn’t bear to move Boh in order to retrieve my camera…)

books and hummus.

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Today: tortillas, hummus from the co-op, and a pouting pooch. And books. Always, books. My first exam starts a week from today, which means it was time for the requisite laptop scare.  (It slid, very slowly, off of a chair in a library cafe yesterday. It was inside its neoprene sleeve, inside my bag, and only fell about 18 inches, and woke up from sleep without any problems, but I still spent part of my morning  a) being paranoid and b) reading internet support forums and running diagnostic tests just to be sure.)

Everything appears to be fine. Still.

It was warmer (read: 45) and sunny today, which meant that I put on my coat and opened up the windows for a bit. Sunshine helps with everything. More soon!

boh knows.

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That pretty much says it all.

I made a big batch of carrot soup from Super Natural Cooking tonight — I love this recipe, especially when made with homemade veggie stock and farm carrots. So good. And there’s plenty for lunch (and dinner?) tomorrow.

Another idlewood action shot. Just for fun. (Well, and for P., who has just cast on an idlewood of her very own!)

Are we there yet? (There being any number of places: bedtime, post-exams, lake house, summer.)

dogs and catalogs.

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This dog knows how to pose for close ups and wide angle shots. Where did he learn that?

You know your friends are having more fun than you are when you flip through the latest patagonia catalog and do a double take — because they are IN the catalog. (This made my day, you guys.)

When I was at my parents’ house for turkey dinner, I did my usual quick rifle through the closets, and found a few tops that were my mom’s when I was a little girl. For fun, I tried them on, and hooray — they fit me perfectly. She let me take them home (along with lots of leftovers, a stack of envelopes, some duffel bags from under the bed in my old room — which will be super helpful when I move in late May– and a ream of printer paper), and today I’m wearing one of them. This is a button-up-the-back blouse that was part of a cream/navy polka-dotted suit. (Which was cuter than it sounds.) Anyway, I cut out the shoulder pads (yes, it was the early 80s), and dressed it down. It is freezing out, so I’ll throw a cardigan on over this, but I love it. Wait ’til you see the red one…

Also, for the record, putting on a shirt that buttons up the back all by myself feels like a victory this early in the morning. Happy almost weekend, folks.

 

inching forward.

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I’ll start with the knitting progress, as it is the most tangible. I spent a few hours knitting last night, and gained an inch or two on the foot of the first sock of this pair. The pooling is horrendous, the sock seems a little big to me, but you know what? I love this yarn, and I am going to love these socks. These were once too-big toe up socks from a KAL oriented around Socks From the Toe Up, and then they were a pair of the Gentleman’s Fancy Socks (from Knitting Vintage Socks, maybe? I’m too lazy to look), and then they became basic stockinette “vanilla” (as the Knitmore Girls say) socks because I needed something to knit on during a lecture about nineteenth-century spirit photographs.

This is from a morning last week, but it could be today, as Boh has decided that today is the kind of day for getting back into bed. It is slushy and rainy outside, and I don’t blame him.

I was really on a pizza-making kick last week. This one was so delicious that there weren’t any leftovers…

This weekend, Boh and I headed home for my family’s annual February turkey dinner, where everybody gets together for a low-stress Thanksgiving-like meal. The food was delicious, and it was great to lounge around my parents’ house with family. And Boh got a bath. (He’s thrilled.) I think I did more driving than reading this weekend, but the change of scenery helped me finish up a draft of a research proposal, so I’m calling it a productive weekend. Plus, my parents sent me home with enough leftovers to feed me through Tuesday!

Alright, time to start the week.

 

EZ’s sewn bind off.

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Alright, you’ve got me. I might have finished knitting my terra shawl instead of a book on the Gilded Age last night. I’m going to finish that book this morning. Really.

I’m not going to lie; all the way through the knitting, I had been thinking that there was no way I was going to do a sewn bind off for the hundreds of stitches in the last row of this shawl. And then, last night, I shamed myself into it. Don’t you always say that you love the process of knitting? Don’t you like learning new techniques? You’ll think about not doing the special bind off when you wear it, won’t you? Yes, yes, maybe…

I’m so glad I listened to myself. And, well, Jared Flood, master of lace and all things EZ. The sewn bind off isn’t hard. In fact, it’s pretty rhythmic and relaxing. And it looks gorgeous — even and polished. The catch? It takes forever.

You’re looking at almost two hours worth of binding off, and I’m just past the halfway point. (Granted, it will go faster as the tail of my working yarn gets shorter and shorter.)

Boh, as always, is humoring me. (Hey, this is what happens when you decide you don’t want to get off the couch so I can take a few pictures against a lighter backdrop.)

He has big plans for our Sunday: sleep, chase (his) tail, take a walk, practice his catching skills (he can now catch a tennis ball most of the time if I give him a nice underhand toss), sleep some more. Me? Back to the Gilded Age.

terra, tretorns, and everything in between.

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Literally. See, I finally uploaded about thirty pictures from my camera, and they start with my progress on terra’s lace, and end with my new rain boots, acquired in a ridiculous end-of-winter clearance. Let the show and tell begin.

Terra. I’ve got less than ten rows remaining, but these are some loooong rows. I am so excited about this shawl, but it’s probably going to be mid-March before I finish it. And I’m okay with that.

Homemade pizza with local swiss chard that I picked, blanched, and froze at the end of fall. Making pizza for one means leftovers!

Idlewood in action. Again. This might be the most wearable sweater I’ve ever knit, and is part of the uniform I think I’m accidentally adopting. Part project fake-it-til-you-make-it, part I-really-hate-it-when-winter-slush-and-salt-soak-the-bottoms-of-my-jeans, I’m realizing that some combination of leggings, boots, shorter skirts or dresses and slouchy, layered sweaters seems to be what I’m wearing most days. Somehow it seems to fit with 29. I can’t explain it.

Boh has the right idea. Usually he gets up with me, but lately, as soon as I groan and turn off the alarm, he settles into some part of the warmth I’ve generated, and I get up to make the coffee. Cuteness.

Yes, that’s right. I received a valentine in the mail from dear friend E., and this is what I found when I opened the rather battered and clearly re-taped envelope. At least the candy thief opted to reseal and re-mail the envelope. The valentine is of course the part that matters to me, and the whole thing gave me a good laugh yesterday, which might have been just what I needed after a long day on campus. Plus, it gave me a great story to leave on E.’s voicemail.

Rubber rain boots. Necessary for spring. Also, for lake houses. (Yay!)

The madness of desk #2, above, is a good indication of how frazzled things are right now. I’m not sure about my posting frequency these next few months — I’ll be here, but there might be lots more of these disjointed “show and tell” style posts for awhile, and a little less knitting. And I’ve clearly been more than a little delinquent in the land of comments. I’m going to do my best, but I have no idea what I’ll have time and energy for. I’m planning to read until I can’t read anymore for the next six weeks, and then my exams begin. Let’s just agree that if all goes well, there will be lots more knitting, spinning, cooking, and blogging come May! Thanks for being here in the meantime.