Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Settling in and Knitting ADD

Summer has been insane.  We had a death in the family, a baby shower for the newest family member, travel, preparation for the next international move, and settling in here in Dublin.  I've been here a month and settled in.  I've met the neighbors.
Yep, that's a fox.  The house next door is not occupied.
I've found several knitting groups, too, one close to my house and one farther away.  The knitting groups here are a lot smaller than Madrid Knits!, but very friendly and welcoming.  I've gotten into attending Knit Nights on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and now I've found one on my campus.  I'll meet them tomorrow, so we shall see how it goes.  The Dublin Knit Collective is very useful for finding out special fiber events in the city every month and the Irish Knitters group is a good source for yarn shops and groups.

I've also settled into school.  We started in the middle of September and the first week was a bit of a shock.  I've been out of school for five years, so I am in the process of relearning how to study and balance my life.  The re-entry has been a little rough, but I think I've found my sea legs and am getting on just fine.

Related to this, I bought me a bike.
Her name is Mi Cielo, which is Spanish for "My Sky" or "My Heaven."  She's a secondhand bike I bought from a man who runs a bike business out of a shed in an alley.  Nope, not dodgy at all!  She helps me get to school a lot faster as none of the buses to campus run by my house.  She also makes it easier to get into town for groceries and Knit Night.  She's also influenced my choice of knitwear.  Biking everyday makes you very aware of the wind (and rude drivers, but that's another story).  I don't have a fall scarf, but I did bring my Eleanor cowl that I made this summer.
Mmmm, 100% alpaca.  My favourite.

Since the Department also doesn't heat the rooms well, it's also been useful for not freezing in class.  This has caused me to go crazy and favorite lots of cowl patterns on Ravelry as I have a few errant skeins hanging around the stash.  This is not good as I seem to have developed Knitting ADD.  It started with some cashmere laceweight.
That's Fernfrost by Anne Hanson and I'm making it in Hedgehog Fibres Cashmere Laceweight in colorway Sour Cherry.  It's a lovely, scrumptious yarn and it makes me wish I still had a job.  The pattern is lovely and well-written, but it seems I've lost my lace mojo.  Normally I am a lace queen and laugh in the face of knitting danger, but I can't seem to summon the bandwidth necessary to do this scarf properly.  Off to The Shelf it went!

Then came my Mucha Mittens.
It's Hedda Knits La Joie du Printemps mittens.  They became imperative when I realized that riding a bike everyday in winter will lead to frozen hands if I don't upgrade from fingerless mitts soon.  I cast on and knit the first mitten without the thumb when I thought that if I don't begin my brothers' presents soon, they may not be finished in time for Christmas so. . . .
I cast on the first glove.  This one will be for my older brother, who just welcomed his first child on September 21st.  This is knit in Knitpicks Stroll Sport in Cobblestone Heather because I would never gift a new parent something that is not superwash.  At first I thought the pattern choice was brilliant. It's stockinette!  It's fast!  It will be social knitting!  The honeymoon glow faded after I did a few fingers.  Fingers go fast in sportweight yarn and then you have to put held stitches back on the needles and pick up a few more to knit another finger.  This was tedious, so . . . . .
I wanted to cast on a hat.  The Irish Hiking Hat, to be exact, in Artesano Aran for my younger brother, who has only one knit hat and little hair.  The yarn has been balled and I knit a gauge swatch and I may cast on soon, if I can find some space among the WIPs.  Oh, and then there's that new cowl I want to cast on. . . oh dear.