Sort/hvitt

I've been struggling with how to sum up 2011 in a blog post. It was kind of a messy year, with lots of thinking and fretting and frustration, and very little to show for it. I think it's symptomatic for the year that I:

• have more yarn stashed and more unfinished knitting projects that usual, and was only able to finish small projects (and not even always then) 
• made lots of plans for remodeling our house, but did  none of them 
• was judged to have professor status in my field, but don't have a permanent position to go with it  
• did a lot of thinking about the cabin book, but had to put it on hold so I only have about 90 pages to show for it all 
• had a lot of publications, but none of them count for very much because of the venues in which they appeared (note to self: be pickier about where you publish from now on) 
• experienced two deaths in my extended family but wasn't able to go through any rituals of closure because I live abroad
• did everything I could to prepare to apply for the one job I really want, but still can't apply because it hasn't officially been advertised yet
• still don't have my permanent residence permit worked out yet
• struggled with sleep issues and got almost no exercise

2011 is a year I am happy to leave behind. I'm not a person who does well with loose ends, ambiguity, risk, or uncertainty. I haven't felt like I have much of a support network, and I've been edgy and unsure of myself for most of the year.

I don't really have any new years's resolutions, but I think what I need more than anything right now is more order in my everyday life. We took a big step in that direction over the Christmas break by finally installing wardrobes in our house-with-no-closets. We also slightly redistributed how we're using the rooms in our house to better suit our patterns of activity. Things still aren't 100%, but it's much better. We still need to get a few more shelves and wire baskets from IKEA to finish out the wardrobes (though we did pretty well in guessing our needs, actually). The more things falls into place, the easier it is to eliminate the remaining pockets of chaos. This also means knitting from stash, as the amount of yarn I have is really starting to make me anxious, grateful as I am for all the free yarn I was given.

I'm also really looking forward to work this semester. This will be my first semester without teaching since 2007, and I'm so excited to maximize the opportunity. I'm also really stoked about all the conferences I'll be participating in this year. I really want to make the most of the opportunity to network and present good work in a stimulating manner.

I'm trying to think positively. It's not all black. In fact, in my knitting at least, things have been very black and white recently. First up, I finished the Fana pullover for E:

This was out of that Peer Gynt yarn that my colleague gave me. The black was originally red. As you can see, the finished product (a size 12!) is very big on this 7-year-old, but not nearly as big as I was expecting. Yikes, he's growing fast. And yes, that is a Playstation controller in his hands, I'm afraid. Resistance was futile when both son and father insisted.

Next up is my first ever pair of Selbu mittens:

The pattern is from the "Selbustrikk" booklet (LVS-5) published by Rauma Ullvarefabrikk. It's a women's mitten (pattern number 7) made with Rauma "old series" 2-ply yarn and one 2mm circular needle. They're not blocked yet in the photograph, and in fact I'm cheating, since the second thumb isn't yet knitted. If I had waited until I finished the thumb it would have been too dark to take a picture today!

All in all, I was super happy with the yarn, and did a much better job of the shaping than I have in the past on mittens. I was also thrilled to find this two-sentence piece of advice in the pattern booklet:

For at mønsteret i småmønstrede flater, skråstriper og lus skal bli jevnt, må trådene ikke bytte plass. [...] Strikkes det med begge trådene på venstre pekefinger, må trådene ligge i samme rekkefølge hele tiden.

To keep the pattern in areas with small patterns, angled stripes and spots even, do not switch the order of the strands. If both strands are carried on the left finger, they have to stay in the same order the whole time.

I have been doing two-color knitting since I was sixteen, and I never knew this. It makes a huge difference in the finished product, though it means the two strands get much more tangled. Previously, I have always twisted in order to avoid tangles, without paying attention to where the colors were placed as I was carrying them. So yay for an old dog teaching herself a new trick!

Traumatisk julekalender

I made a quilted advent calendar over the weekend. It almost killed me. As soon as it is light enough to take pictures, I'll post some.

What I learned in the process:

1. I hate, abhore, despise, loath, and cannot abide sewing on a sewing machine. Clearly I need to take lessons.
2. Applique quilting is not for me. I am a perfectionist and completely incompetent with a sewing machine (see point 1), and the end result is not even close to satisfactory. Quilting is all about the surface, and if the surface sucks so does the quilt.
   
3. I learned how to do a quilt binding, which has mystified me for years. That part was actually fun. I have an old baby quilt that's all done except for the binding, and I could actually imagine finishing that. Even on a machine.
   
4. I really like hand sewing. That feels almost like knitting.
   
5. I should only sew when I'm alone in the house. Anything else is disastrous.

The problem here is that I would actually really like to be able to sew on a machine--both clothing and quilts--but the learning curve seems insurmountable. I see things on the internet like Posie gets cozy's studio, and all I want to do is whip out lovely, whimsical sewn items left and right, while surrounded by bolts and scraps of delicious fabric. Logic tells me I should be able to sew as well as I can knit, and I can't figure out why that isn't the case. Sewing has always stressed me out. I did it a fair amount as a kid and took a sewing unit in home economics class in middle school. But whereas yarn often succumbs to my will, fabric almost never does.

So, here is the overall view of my julekalender:

And now, in the interest of full disclosure, I am providing a close up of the horribly wonky stitching around stocking number 10. This is really embarrassing, and it's not like it's an outlyer. They're nearly all that bad. I guess it proves the depths of my narcissism (a problem with blogging in general...) that I would even upload this picture:

Here's what I should have been making. I found it at Den gode feen's blog. I sincerely hope it's okay to copy in the image here--this project photo is buried in a posting with a huge number of other fabulous holiday decorations, so it's kind of hard to find. She does beautiful work:

This I think I could have handled, and I love the combination of monocromatic patterns. I love monochromatic things in general... Cool idea to make a bunch of bags--can't wait to see how the whole project turns out. I also would have been thrilled with the advent calendar posted at the Purl Bee just a couple of days after I bought and cut out the material for mine. Sigh.

After all that sewing trauma and accompanying high blood pressure, I quickly retreated to the safe haven of my knitting (the hourglass sweater that I'm affectionately calling my frijoles refritos sweater--don't you think it looks like refried beans?). We even had some glorious sunshine. The balance in my life was thankfully regained:

Ahhh. Relief.