Pictures of the Hourglass Sweater

So I'm finally coming up with some pictures of the hourglass sweater I am making. The second sleeve is very close to complete, and then I will attach it to the body and knit the yoke. :-)

Hourglass Sweater Progress Post

The second sleeve of the hourglass sweater in Last Minute Knitted Gifts has been started. I'm almost to the part where I do some decreasing. I probably have about 5 inches of knitting. I hope this sleeve goes quickly -- I am looking forward to attaching it to the body and starting the yoke. This is the closest I've come to completing a sweater in my life. It looks like this one will actually fit. Thus, I am super excited to finish it and wear it.

I am remiss for not obtaining photos and posting them. I will do that before the sweater is complete -- promise.

10 things I feel good about despite the fact that the economy is, er, well... bad.

Frugal Zeitgeist has challenged everyone to come up with 10 things they feel good about right now despite the brutal economy. http://frugalzeitgeist.blogspot.com/2008/10/bad-old-days.html

I think this is a useful practice. This blogger learned within the last few years that it does no good to focus on what's going bad in your life. It's much better to focus on what to be grateful for, and so this blogger will take the challenge because she has much, much to be grateful for:

1. School. I recently started taking education classes to become certified to teach High School English. In so doing, I left a corporate job that was slowly killing me (and in the meantime, sucking my soul out of my body) to focus on something I felt really passionate about. So far, it's going really well and I'm enjoying the work and the people a lot. I really feel like teaching is something I could do for the rest of my life. The fact that I have this opportunity is absolutely amazing and something I am so eternally and completely grateful for.

2. My fiance. I am also lucky enough to have a man in my life that supports my every move. He's been so great in helping me in my transition from work to school and he's been so very supportive of my life change. It is also worth mentioning that he's smokin' hot. (Hi honey!)

3. Food in the cupboards. No one in our house is starving and thanks to my frugal stashing of non-perishables, no one will be starving for the foreseeable future.

4. Yarn Stash. I've got plenty to knit with to see my through this school year without having to buy yarn, which can get expensive. And thanks to the fact I am no longer selling my soul to a corporate master, I have the inclination and occasionally the time to knit.

5. Good friends. I don't have a lot of good friends, but I do have some. Their companionship is worth a lot to me. In addition, I am blessed in that I now have the privilege of maybe making some new friends through school. There is one person that I am cautiously liking and getting a bit closer to in my classes.

6. Nature. Lots of things qualify here: the boat ride my fiance and I took this weekend, the hiking I used to do (and will continue to do very soon) and just appreciation of the fine fall weather and colors that have come our way recently.

7. Pets. We recently lost one of our beloved guinea pigs, Nala. I miss her every day. Our other pigs are in good health and seem to be getting on fine without her, and for that I am grateful. Pepper had a skin problem that seems to be clearing up now and that is a relief. In addition, our hamsters are in good shape and the cat is.... well, the cat. (Otherwise known as the Tues).

8. Holidays are coming. I am so exicited for Christmas and Thanksgiving this year. This is likely to be one of the more frugal Christmases we have celebrated in recent years, given our collective situation, but I already have a lot of presents that I'm quite excited to give to people. I have been able to give good presents because I have watched and shopped sales. I am looking forward to spending time with people we haven't seen in a while and baking bread and cookies and watching movies with my family and snorgling with the cat and watching the snow fall (here's hoping for copious amounts) and maybe getting the chance to work seasonal retail during winter break?

9. Health. Other than my teeth, my back, and my neck, I am in pretty good shape. Here's hoping the teeth hold out til I'm working a paying job again.

10. Life. Hey, I'm alive to be taking all these risks, right? And that's a wonderful thing in and of itself.

IN-highly changable and variable

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator has always been of great interest to me. I have taken it twice formally on paper, and a countless number of times on the internet. The first time I took it (on paper), I was 18 years old. I scored an ESFJ. The second time I took it (also on paper), I scored INTP. Since then, I have taken it many times and have always scored IN something. Most of the time I score INTP, INTJ, or INFP. It tends to depend on my mood that day. Today, however, I scored and INFJ. It just goes to show you that one can grow as an individual well into their late 20s. Or maybe it just shows that I haven't figured out everything about myself yet. Either way, it's a positive sign. I like having some aspects of my personality be in flux. I wonder if I will ever settle on a definitive personality type. I think my dominant personality type is INTP, I really do. But there are some aspects of my personality that come out that skew the T or the P part of myself, and I think that's a good thing, especially because those are the aspects that concern feelings and empathy for people. I keep growing in this aspect of my life and while I'll probably always be kind of a spaz, I'd like to think that someday I'll feel more comfortable in my interactions with others.

I just had a thought. I wonder if CafePress carries T-shirts proclaiming one's Myers Briggs type. Only a total geek would have that kind of thought. I'm off to check. Yes, yes they do. It proves that I am not the only one that's sort of insanely proud of my "label" -- even if it is highly variable and sort of fluctuating. This is my favorite design: http://shop.cafepress.com/design/5488584 -- particularly the "Inherent Need To Perfect."

Oh shoot, there are so many funny ones though: I Need Time Perhaps; Ineluctably Nearer To Procrastination; Interesting Novel Thoughts Proliferate; It's Never Too Precise; and Inventions Never Too Practical.

Groundhog Day

One of my classmates said in class tonight, "I feel like the guy from groundhog day."

I said "I wish for those days where I felt like that."

I started thinking about this on the way to my next stop (no, not home, but the library, where I currently am. I'm supposed to be doing homework.... riiiiight). Do I really feel that way? No, I guess not. I do long to have a routine again, to have the "new normal" feel like simply normal. But does it ever do to become as comfortable as I was in my corporate job? I don't think it does. If you're that comfortable, you aren't learning anything. I have learned more in the past six weeks than I learned for years previous to this experience.

The truth is that it is only benefiting me to feel this uncomfortable. That seems strange to say, but it's really true. The truth is that I wasn't living until very recently. I was existing. My fiance told me recently that my worst days now are better than my best days were then. I hadn't realized he felt that way. It makes me sad that only now is he really learning about who I really am. The happy me. The me that wants to get out of bed in the morning and get to work!

I need to remind myself that all that I'm feeling and experiencing is good, even when it feels weird or uncomfortable.

One year closer to grandma

So as of tomorrow, I am no longer 26 goin' on your Grandma. I'm 27. Still going on Grandma though. The title of the blog is being changed accordingly.

What was I thinking when I did that?

Do you ever look at some of your craftwork and just ask yourself what you were thinking? Yeah, me too. Case in point: in July, I finished the body of the Hourglass Sweater, a very delightful and simple sweater pattern in Last Minute Knitted Gifts. So I cast on for a sleeve. I am happily working on Mr. Sleeve and was describing my progress to a friend on Thursday evening as we were slurping down Fro-Yo at Juniper in Providence.

"You finished the body already?" she said.

"Yeah, and once the sleeves are done, I'll attach them to the body and knit the yoke." I said. "It's a boat neckline."

"Cool, so there isn't that much more to go?" she asked.

That's when I started thinking about it. If I attach the arms to the body I have now, everyone is going to be able to do just as much navel gazing as I do, because quite frankly, the thing is practically going to show various unnamed body parts to everyone. Suspecting that I had misread the directions, I looked at the pattern when I was at home again. My piece measured about 13 inches. How much was I supposed to knit? 15 and then some!!!!!!!!! So either the piece shrunk (unlikely) or I was a dummy (ring a ding ding, ding dong.) So needless to say, the body will be ripped back a bit to undo the areas where stitches were skipped and then knitted up to a respectable length of 15 inches before the body will be attached to the arms. Maybe that way we can all hope for some respectable tummy coverage.

Pumpkin Raisin Couscous

Most people think of couscous as a savory dish. I like it this way too, but I like it more incorporated into a sweet dish. This is one of my favorite fall recipes. I usually eat this particular dish for breakfast. You can use pumpkin that you've processed yourself (if you do this, it is better to use sugar pumpkins than the regular old pumpkins that are outside at every retail outlet going) but pumpkin in the can is just as good, if not better, as it is processed and canned at its freshest.

I should also mention that raisins are completely optional. I think they add a certain something, but you may disagree.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of whole wheat couscous
1/2 cup of fat-free evaporated milk
1/4 cup of pumpkin
1/8 cup of raisins
cinnamon and splenda (or sugar) to taste

Preparation:
Mix couscous, evaporated milk, pumpkin, cinnamon and sugar in a large, microwavable container.

Cover the container loosely and microwave for 2 minutes.

Stir in raisins.

Microwave for 30 seconds.

Stir again and serve.