Eeee, I haven't posted in over a week, shame on me. In my defense though, I've been really busy with lots of end-of-the-semester stuff to do. However, that's all over and done with, and I am FINISHED with my first semester of grad school! I am one-fourth of the way to my master's degree in library science, go me. AND I got my pathfinder done, which I am supremely proud of. A pathfinder, for those who aren't aware, is basically an online research guide, and we were required to do one as our final project in my reference class. I did mine on eighteenth-century women novelists, which is a topic I'm sure everyone is equally as fascinated with as I am. At any rate, here is my beautiful website, which I'm sure my readers (all four of them) will want to add to their favorites immediately for quick consultation in the future.
It's Christmastime, which means it's gift-knitting season again. This year I'm planning six projects. We'll see whether or not I get them all done!
I'm the most excited, I think, about the scarf that I'm making for my aunt Teresa. This is the scarf I'm making - it's my first large-scale attempt at cabling! So far I've gotten through four of the pattern repeats, and I'm wondering why I was so afraid of cable knitting. It turns out it's really, almost unbelievably easy. It looks a LOT more complicated than it is, which is nice, because you can enjoy people's amazed compliments on your knitting ability without having to put the effort in. Anyway, for most of my projects I'm using up yarn that I already had, but for this one I went out and bought a gorgeous yarn - Patons SWS. It's 70% wool, 30% soy silk, feels really nice and soft to knit with, and comes in really nice colorways. I'm doing mine in Natural Plum. I wish I could post a picture of the scarf in progress, but apparently my digital camera is broken, so no such luck. Just believe me when I say that the scarf is beautiful and I am a knitting goddess.
For my mom and my sister, I'm knitting two wavy rib scarves in really nice soft alpaca that I picked up on major discount at the yarn shop in Fort Wayne. I'm really starting to be spoiled by natural fiber yarn. I wish it weren't all so expensive! As it is, all my knits that I do in really nice, more costly yarn end up being gifts. Someday I'll knit myself something that's not acrylic. Anyway, I liked this pattern a lot, and I think Mom and Amy will appreciate it. For Amy, I'm also making a simple hat, because she'd mentioned a while ago that she didn't have a hat she liked.
For my brand-new cousin Grant, I'm hoping to get a pair of baby booties and a hat done. This is probably the project that I'll have to let slide if I run out of time. I doubt a one-month-old baby is going to care too much about hand-knit booties. I really want to get to this, though. Hopefully once all my projects for the semester are all wrapped up next week, I'll have lots more time to sit around and knit. In the time I've managed to set aside so far, it's been really nice, just relaxing, knitting, and listening to music. When I realized a couple of weeks ago that I didn't own any Christmas music, I decided to splurge and buy the new Sufjan Stevens Christmas box set. It's turned out to be perfect knitting music. Ah, Sufjan.
So that's what I've been up to lately. Oh yeah, and I've got to finish my take-home final for Collection Development, write the last section of my paper for Management, and get my pathfinder website up and running for my reference class. So, you know, I've been knitting instead. Good use of time, I think!
Ugh. Going back to school has wreaked complete havoc on my sleeping habits. Not that they were that good before, but now I find myself regularly staying up to three or four am and then sleeping in way too late. I've got to start changing that. Seriously, it's so depressing to wake up on a winter Saturday at noon and realize you've only got a few more hours of daylight left.
In other news, we got NO snow yesterday. The hell is up with that? I'm not going to like Bloomington if it means a wimpy winter. I like my seasons to be SEASONS - thus, a winter with real snow and lots of it, not just slightly colder temperatures. When I graduate, I'm moving to Edmonton.
Also: I think I'm going to try to go to church tomorrow. I don't know where yet. I've been so ambivalent about church lately. I just haven't worked out my feelings towards Christianity and where exactly I fit within it. On the one hand, I love the feelings of connection and fellowship that come from a really good experience with the body of Christ, on the other hand, there are just so many BAD experiences to be had out there that it scares and depresses me. So on the whole I've been lazy about the whole thing and found it easier to just sleep in on Sunday mornings. But I've got to stop that. I've been craving spiritual meat lately. The only question is whether it exists to be found in the churches around here. I'm sure it does, but sometimes it's hard to convince myself that it's worth putting in the effort to find it.