Defeat is an Ugly Word

Well the wedding is tomorrow night and there is only 1 and ½ sides done on the shawl. It is not looking well for the wedding next week either. It is upsetting that I am so close yet so far from being done. There are no pictures of the shawl yet; it is all too disappointing for me to photograph just yet.

I’m sorry for the lack of posting lately; I’m finishing my last semester of grad school and have been taking a beating with all the studying. The program that I am in requires all students to take a comprehensive exam. Students need to pass this exam in order to receive their degree…this aspect is very frightening and stressful. In a month I will be sitting in the lab on campus writing three essays in four hours. Besides the fact that you only have two chances to take the exam, if you fail a second time then you don’t receive your degree, there is just so much to remember from the classes. I will not know if I passed or not until sometime in December. I have been extremely stressed out by this exam that I’m starting to get these horrible headaches every time I study. After the comps in October I have the civil service exam in November, I also need to make up a 1 credit class and finish all the work for my other two classes. So needless to say that there will be very little knitting, stitching and blogging around here in the next month or so. Once everything is done I think I will be stitching on my stocking to help get me in the holiday mood.

You can guess who we are rooting for in the World Series.


These are some pictures I took at the Bronx Zoo when we went in August.

Tragedy in Waiting

I was knitting this morning, getting closer to the end of FF&Ls, I am 80% done with the body, when all of a sudden the stitches weren’t moving as smoothly past the join. I looked down and noticed that the cord was barely connected to the needle! I carefully pushed the stitches back over the join and as close to the other needle as possible, placed it in a Ziploc bag and called KnitPicks to tell them what happened. I haven’t been knitting with these needles for too long and have had others last a lot longer than these. They are mailing out a replacement for me but they won’t be here for a few weeks. So now I’m starting to get stressed, the wedding is coming up soon and I desperately want to wear it then. So I ran to the nearest craft store, but they didn’t have the right length, I finally found on at a LYS not too far away. Frost Flowers is now safely on my first pair of Addi Turbos. I love how light they are and how smooth the join is, however the blunt tip is driving me crazy! I have heard that they are thinking of making these needles with a sharper tip, if and when they do they will become my favorite needles of all time.

I’ll add pictures of my busted KnitPick needles later, I don’t have my camera at the moment.
Christine

The Death of Summer

Fall has always been one of my favorite seasons; I love the way the colors turn to beautiful deep reds, brilliant yellows and rich oranges. I look forward to the crisp air and the crunch of the earth under my feet. This love affair was cemented the moment I witnessed the sun coming out from behind the clouds and bouncing off the gorgeous colors of the mountains around campus. One of my favorite spots to sit and read for class was the third floor west of the Bartle Library with its floor to ceiling windows and comfortable chairs. The 3W was not remodeled like 4W, the lights where dim, there were not as many desks or cubicles, and there were still couches against the windows. 3W faced the nature preserve, where the clouds would slowly dissipate as the sun rose in the sky and set the colors afire. It was the perfect place to curl up with some tea and the Bronte sisters or Raymond Chandler.

The fall was different up there than it is on the Island; it was almost as if Mother Nature as making up for the lack of spring in April. Fall would linger a bit longer, the colors were resilient even to the frost that would creep in during October. There were fifty different types of apples available in every supermarket and cider mill; the cider was made as you stood in line and would turn to applejacks if it lasted that long in the refrigerator.

This is the start of my last semester as a student; and it is very bitter sweet. I have always loved school; especially my time as an undergraduate at Binghamton, however now I cannot wait until the last day of graduate school. There is just something about this program, these courses, the type of inane work the professors assign that makes me want to run away from it all. It is a shame that my love for school has been soured by a program that has nothing to do it the actual work I do day to day. I never want to step foot in another class for as long as I live. The desire to continue learning will never die, it has just shifted away from University learning.

I will savior the death of summer and fondly remember the beauty of those falls.