cordeliaknits

San Fran Fun

Yesterday DonnaLynda, Celeste and I went into the city in the afternoon to get our nails done (a monthly ritual) and do some exploring!

We went to the North Beach neighborhood, to City Lights Bookstore, and to a lovely little Italian restaurant.

This picture is from our parking space.  I adore the crazy green corner building, and was dreaming about living in the very top.

It was a gorgeous day in the city yesterday, totally clear, as you can see.  But, today I will be busy busy busy.

After church (teaching confirmation today, so will be there into the afternoon), I need to do laundry, finish plans for the service I'm leading on Tuesday, and, oh yeah, FINISH MY SERMON!!!

Yikes.  Better get started on my day and get to church on time!

chilly

My first day back at work in the office at school.  Ah, how I missed my spreadsheets...

It's chilly again today--it's been a weird weather week.  Midweek it was hot and stuffy and we had fans going, and today I need a sweater and it was drizzling a bit this morning!  In a place with real weather, this variation wouldn't be strange, but here it is.  I suppose it's trying to decide which season it is, rainy or not.  Soon the real rain will come and stay for several months, which is great for knitting.  In the meantime, the chilly is making me happy and cozy in my various hand knitted and store bought sweaters and scarves!

I'm preaching next Tuesday at our school chapel service, and I'm feeling nervous about my sermon.  I've been working on it for a few weeks now, but only have a couple pages written.  I just really hope it comes together the way I want it to.

In knitting news, I was finally invited to join Ravelry , and I'm loving it so far, though I have a ways to go before I get all my projects entered, let alone my stash!  Also, I am really in love with the Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted that I'm knitting right now, and I'm considered using my lys gift certificate to get some more to make another scarf.

So, back to work!

finally, a finished object!

Yay! I finished my angora neck-warming thingy!

It's super soft and lovely, and flares out perfectly.  It took me just a few hours to do, with one skein of Malabrigo hand spun hand painted 100% Angora and size 6 needles.

I can't wait for it to get a bit chilly again so I can wear it for real!

The Awakening

OK, so I was going to hold off on the music buying for a while, cause you know I can get a little obsessive with my music, especially if I'm stressed or in a funk or whatever, and since I've been so tired lately, and impatient in my recovery, I've been collecting quite the September playlist.

But, today I checked iTunes, as I always do on Tuesdays, for the new releases, planning on just browsing...and I saw that Melissa Etheridge had a new album out.

Now, it's not that I'm such a huge fan, though I do believe I have all of her albums in one format or another, but I've never seen her in concert or anything, so, you know, I thought I could have waited for a while before acquiring this newest album.

But then I listened to the samples, and I was hooked.  She has several spiritually themed songs, several political songs, and even a funny country style song about not being interested in threesomes!  How could I resist!?

Seriously, folks, (especially you, Celeste) if you like Melissa, even a little bit, you need The Awakening, and you need it soon.  I can even imagine using some of these songs in church.

sandy new yarn

In Half Moon Bay (the town) there is a crazy yarn shop that has an incredible inventory.

This place is the kind of yarn shop one might imagine me having, if one saw my bedroom...chock full of yarn, with boxes full of yarn on the floor so it was like walking through a maze. 

Even though it was a little chaotic and crowded, they had such a great variety of really great yarn, and they were friendly, so I would definitely recommend it.

Since I've been quite cold lately (just in general--needing sweaters and scarves and such, really a perfect condition for a knitter to have), I thought I'd just get a little something special to make a little neck wrap type thing with.

So, I got this 100% angora, hand-spun and hand-dyed in Uruguay--yup, it's Malabrigo!  It's only about 100 yards, if that, so it won't go very far, but it's so soft and cuddly, and a lovely blend of brown and green, so it's very fall-like.

And don't worry, it was only in the sand for a few seconds, and didn't get too full of sand or dirt.  I just couldn't resist the photo op.

Pumpkins, ocean and knitting

Yesterday Annalee and I went to Half Moon Bay after church.  Due to a fortuitous wrong turn, we came upon this lovely pumpkin patch and fruit stand.  I love the dark orange, almost red pumpkins in the middle.

There are pumpkin patches all over Half Moon Bay, and it felt very autumnal there, which was appropriate, considering it was the equinox yesterday.

When we started the day, it was overcast and cool (we had our first rain of the season on Friday night and Saturday!), but while we were at the beach it gradually cleared up.

We had a lovely relaxing afternoon on the beach.  I did some journaling, some knitting, and lots of looking out at the sea.  I even saw a few dolphins!

I'm making good progress on my wavy scarf, a little over halfway done.  I really Love the Lorna's Laces worsted--and I just realized as I was winding the second skein, that it's superwash!  It would be great for a sweater, especially in a colorway like this one with the subtle variegation.

Watercolor crayons

I'm really enjoying my Caran D'Ache Neocolor II Watersoluble Crayons lately.  Carolyn gave me these watercolor postcards as a surgery gift, and so I've been doodling with crayons, getting the paper wet, and enjoying the results!

Last week in Christian Ed class I wrote several little poems/sayings and now I'm incorporating them into postcards.  This is the latest.

If you haven't tried watercolor crayons, you really should.  They are very fun, and everyone who's seen me working with them has been envious of the fun.  It's kind of like those 'coloring books' for kids that you just use a brush with water for, and the color shows up when you paint on the water.  Except, of course, with these, you do the initial coloring yourself.

My scarf is coming along well, and I'm having fun knitting it. Yesterday after church I stopped at a coffee shop on the way home and sat and knit, listening to Cast On on my ipod.  It was lovely--made me feel like my life is starting to get back into the normal school/work/church/knitting rhythm.

OK, gotta get back to my paper on the Taoist tradition and how it relates to Chinese literature.  Hmm...the things you learn in seminary...

finally knitting again

I'm back in the land of the living knitters!

Yesterday I took advantage of my free Friday to visit my long-neglected lys and get some new fall yarn.

I have been slowly working on my last sweater sleeve, but it's not leaving me feeling very inspired, and frankly, I have been knitting on this thing off and on for months, with size 2 needles, the same color, the same stitch pattern...not inspiring.

SO, I got this selection of O~Wool a brand I haven't seen before.  It's 50% wool, 50% cotton, and all organic.  It feels lovely, soft and earthy, and I love the muted colors.  I'm going to make a simple striped shrug.

Then, I got two skeins of Lorna's Laces worsted weight in the Baltic Sea color way for a gift scarf (not telling who it's for yet, just in case).  First I tried seed stitch, thinking it would be good with the variegated color.

It did look nice, but a little boring for a long scarf.

I played around with needle sizes too, and decided to use a 9, even though it makes a pretty loose fabric, because after knitting on 2's for so long, I was craving a more substantial needle.  so kill me.

Anyway, the pattern I decided on was Wavy from the Knitty archives.  I thought the wave pattern would be interesting enough to hold my attention, but easy enough to be fun.

Last night Gayle and I continued our L-Word marathon and I knit several inches.

Today I am cleaning out my closets.  have already brought one garbage bag to Goodwill, and have another full one to send to Mommy.

I should get back to it, and put some laundry in.  The pit that is my room really needs to be cleaned up, and it seems I am the only one here to do it.

oh well.  perhaps when I get all the clothing organized I will reward myself with some fun knitting time.

Fall?

It smells like fall tonight.  It was a cool day, which was strange, since the weather people had forcasted one of our hottest days this week, and then we were all freezing when we got out of class this afternoon.

Cool and cloudy, and now the breeze coming in through my window smells like fall, complete with woodsmoke and gusty cold air.  I'm even wearing a sweatshirt!  It's crazy.

These kind of fall-like days are not so common in Berkeley, at least in my 2 years of experience.  In the winter it rains, but it still doesn't feel blustery and chilly in the way that a fall rain would feel in the midwest or the northeast.  But once in a while...once in a while we get real clouds (as opposed to fog) and cold air (well, cold to us) and that woodsmoke smell that makes me feel so wonderfully melancholy in the way that only a fall day can.

So, I put on my college sweatshirt and my slippers, and my favorite fall CD (Peter Ostroushko's "Sacred Heart"), and I am happy, in a melancholy sort of way.

Had my first classes today, both a bit tedious, to varying degrees, but the first day of class usually is.  I have tons of reading for next week, and no books, as my loan check hasn't come yet, and I have two papers to write tonight and one before next Thursday.

And so it begins.

hibernating

OK, so I've been hibernating.

Had some surgery last week, a bit of internal plumbing was rerouted and I've been recovering at home, watching lots of dvd's (The L Word marathon, anyone?), reading vampire novels (sadly just finished the latest Sookie Stackhouse and now have nothing), and sleeping, thanks to my best friend, vicodin.

You might wonder if, having all this time on my hands and being required to sit around all day, I have been knitting?  I could have finished my sweater and a scarf in this time.  But no, sadly, I have not yet picked up the needles. 

At first my excuse was the drugs.  Couldn't concentrate, couldn't focus, too groggy...but that excuse just isn't valid anymore.  I've been tapering off the vicodin, and I think the worst of the general anesthesia has left me.  And still, I don't knit.

I think I may just be bored.  with the last sleeve of a sweater, it's like second sock syndrome multiplied by ten.  I'm so over this sweater, but if I don't finish it soon, there will be no point!  Perhaps I need to work on something new, just for a bit, to get my knitting mojo warmed up.  Something simple, yet pleasing, like a scarf--definitely something that I only have to make one of!  (no mittens or arm warmers, no matter how tempting the projects!)