The last two mornings I’ve been sewing in ends on the Hobo sweater. One piece was blocked yesterday and the second piece is blocking today. I have no idea when I’m going to be able to sew it together. I’m sure I’ll find time but at this point I’m ready to be finished with the sweater. Maybe a bit of time off before I sew it is best, but we’ll see how I feel about it tomorrow when I have the morning off.

Since it is Socktoberfest and I’ve been knitting this fabulous sock with the Fleece Artist sock yarn, I had to share a photo. Trying to find a place to take the sock’s photo without kitties jumping all over the sock needles was difficult, as soon as I picked it up off the coffee table, both cats were following me around. Chloe’s feet appear in the photo and as soon as I took it she attacked the sock. The cooler weather has made them really crazy today. Now back to the sock, this is amazing yarn. It’s definitely doing it’s job of putting me in a more fall mood, the weather is forcing me to accept that it’s fall. A high of 45°F tomorrow is quite forceful.

This weekend, I’m officially starting my library application again. We’re traveling up to the Chicago area to for me to interview a librarian. She’s known Bryan for quite a while and we’re going to take her out to lunch after the interview. This year’s application is going to be even better than last year’s and since I’ve been working in the library, I feel like I have a much different approach to it this year. It’s a long process, I won’t know about my acceptance until mid-March, but I want to get started just so that I don’t feel rushed.

Well, the new yarn store opens here on October 29. I’m going to be teaching a sock class in November. I’m so excited, it will definitely be a lot of fun. The fun part about a new store opening in town and knowing the owner is I get to give my two cents about nice sock yarn. I’ve recommended the Fleece Artist yarn that I’m using right now and I think she’ll also be carrying Lorna’s Laces. Oh, the temptation! I’m in such a sock mood lately, maybe it’s the month and the cooler weather.
Last week, we saw a film called The Science of Sleep by Michel Gondry. If you liked Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I highly recommend you check it out. There’s also some cool knitting related things in the movie, some neat sweaters and something I want a knitting typewriter/machine, sadly it only exists in the movie. While I was watching it I thought, wow think of the sweaters if you could just type your way through. Fair-Isle sweaters would be an absolute breeze.

In 1972 on June 26, there was a little boy born, his parents named him Bryan. He must have been a very sweet little boy because he grew up to be a very sweet guy. In Mundelein, Illinois he used to walk to the library. Back then, I’m sure he didn’t realize then that after graduate school, he would work at the same library he loved as a child.

On August 17, 2002, I received an email from this boy named Bryan. He had been searching for a band, Juned, on the web and came across my music page. I figured it was just someone sending me a nice email. When I replied to the email, I thought it would be nice to hear from Bryan again but surely didn’t expect it to turn into anything. We exchanged phone numbers after several days of exchanging email.

On a very warm August day, I met Bryan at Chowpatti for “a dinner date that wasn’t really a date” (I didn’t want to jinx anything). We had a really great time talking and enjoying our dinner. About 9:15pm, the owner of the restaurant let us know that they were closed, so we had to leave. I don’t think I’d ever had a date where I lost track of time so easily. Maybe because I wasn’t calling it a “date” that made it go well. After the “date,” I called up my friend, Susan, and told her about the great time I’d had.

Several days later, we went on our second date to the Art Institute in Chicago. That day, I realized how much I really liked Bryan. From that day on, I think we both decided that we liked each other and that we were officially “dating.”

On Valentine’s Day, 2003, he completely surprised me and proposed. We were married a year and a half later on September 18, 2004.

Each day with Bryan is wonderful. He can make me smile on the worst days. Everyone says that there is a special connection when you get married and it’s so true. He’s my “Dearest.” We love the same music (mostly), the same films (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is our favorite) and have grown to love the same foods (except olives, Bryan can’t stand them). I knew Bryan was the right one for me, when my grandfather commented that we were perfect for each other. It’s quite a compliment from anyone, but especially from my grandfather.

Yesterday, we celebrated Bryan’s birthday. My sister came out to the suburbs. We went to see Me And You And Everyone We Know, which was quite good. Then we went to Pronto Roma for dinner.

Let’s just do a quick run-down of the weekend and then we’ll get a bit more detailed later.

Friday - Knit, knit, knit on the Crazy Green sweater
Saturday - finished library scholarship application!, balanced checkbook and knit
Sunday - taught knitting and knit at home

I don’t remember the last time I had such a productive knitting weekend and still got a lot of other things accomplished. My above list doesn’t look like I did more than knitting this weekend. Au contraire, it felt like I got a lot done and teaching knitting to 12- and 13-year-olds is a lot.

Friday evening, I didn’t get home until nearly 6pm, I had so much to do at work. Bryan decided that we needed to relax that night, so we did. For Valentine’s Day, I bought Bryan the Eternal Sunshine Collector’s Edition DVD and it arrived on Friday. We watched the extra disc on Friday evening, there is a lot of cool stuff on the second disc. If you’re a fan of the film, it’s definitely worth the extra money. While we were watching the extra stuff, I was knitting. I worked on the Crazy Green sweater and by the time I went to bed that night, I had about five inches of the back finished. I took a photo, but haven’t uploaded it yet. The sweater looks a bit different than the swatch. The sweater has a very “watery” look to it. With eight different balls of yarn being knitted on alternating rows with no rhyme or reason to the order, the finished knitted object looks like water in the photo. You’ll see what I mean when I post it. Hopefully, I’m remember to do that tonight.

Saturday, we slept in, partly because I was up until 1 am looking through knitting magazines. We both worked out Saturday morning and after breakfast I started working on my scholarship application. By 2:30pm, I was finished. Then we balanced the checkbook, oh so exciting! Saturday evening, as a reward for getting my scholarship application finished, we relaxed. :) Sunday I was teaching a group of Girl Scouts to knit, so I needed all of the rest I could get before hand.

Sunday afternoon, I taught a group of six Girl Scouts how to knit. It was a very trying afternoon. Some of them got it right away and some didn’t. One girl who had never knit in her life just picked up the needles, learned how to cast on very quickly and then quickly picked up the knit stitch. She was off and running, I couldn’t believe it. She had never knit before but it came so naturally to her. A couple of the girls, I really felt bad for because I couldn’t devote the time to them that they needed. That’s one of the hardest things for me as an instructor is to let some people struggle, I want to sit with them and give them the attention that they need, but I have to pay the other students attention they need, too. I was very tired when I got home after class. Bryan wasn’t feeling well, so that was the perfect excuse for us to relax on the couch for the evening and watch two episodes of the Simpsons. I worked on the Crazy Green sweater and now have one row over 6 1/2 inches (16.5 cm) completed. I’m half way to the arm hole shaping!

Finally, one of my photos of my first handspun yarn.

It’s not exactly amazing, but hey, it’s my first yarn. I have another hank to copy over from my camera that was replied and looks much better than the first try in plying. I’m really struggling with getting a consistent width (I’m not sure that’s the right word) of yarn with the drop spindle. I drool over the yarn that people are spinning with wheels, but my current and future living situation doesn’t allow for a spinning wheel. It will have to wait until after Bryan and I are out of school. If all goes as planned, as such my getting into school, we’ll both be out two years from now. :) Any advice on getting a more consistent yarn with the drop spindle, other than practice, is greatly appreciated.

A quiz I saw on L’Allumeur’s blog. Very interesting:

First of all, my heart and prayers go out to all of those who have loved ones affected by the tsunami this weekend. It’s absolutely heartbreaking everytime I hear about more people who have lost their lives or are missing. Donate now to help those who are affected by this tragedy.

It was a very quiet Christmas for Bryan and I. It was my first Christmas away from my family and I am still here and happy. I missed being with my family but Bryan and I had a very lovely quiet Christmas together.

Friday evening, Christmas Eve, we went to Unitarian services. It was my first Christmas Eve service, the church I went to as a child didn’t celebrate Christmas the way that Catholics and others do. The Unitarian services were lovely and the music absolutely gorgeous. I had tears in my eyes at times, especially at the beginning. The first song the choir sang a song out in the hallway, which was so amazing, I was a bit overwhelmed by the experience that I teared up and I wasn’t sure if I would make it through without losing it. I managed to keep my composure and enjoyed the rest of the service. It was pretty traditional, there were songs that were traditional carols from other countries that I had never heard before and they just added to the amazingness (if that’s word) of the evening. Bryan’s dad went with us, I don’t think he was quite sure what to expect at the Unitarian church. With the service being pretty traditional, I think he was a bit relieved, even though he told us he was open-minded about it. We came back to our apartment afterwards and watched part of a Christmas Story, a Lee family tradition. We never sit down and watch it all the way through, we usually just catch parts of it during the 24 hours that it’s on tv.

Saturday morning, Bryan and I slept late and then opened gifts. As you can see in my previous post, there isn’t a lot of room under our little tree, so before Christmas the floor near the bookcase was “under the tree” then the coffee table on Christmas morning. It was really fun to open gifts with just the two of us. I gave Bryan two button-down shirts, two sweater vests and a cd-player clock radio. He was completely surprised by the new alarm clock because he’d been talking about it earlier in the week. His previous alarm clock was no longer working and the cats weren’t very reliable alarm clocks last week. He looks very handsome in his new shirts and sweater vests. I hope to make him a sweater vest in the future. He gave me a new nightgown and a very great cat book called I Am the Cat, Don’t Forget That. From my parents we received an All-Clad saucepan, an apple-corer/peeler (which came in very handy when making the apple tart for Christmas dinner), Odd-sized measuring cups and spoons, a shirt and sweater vest for Bryan and two books - a cooking tips book and a words book. Bryan’s dad gave us a very nice amount of money. We were very blessed this year our first Christmas together as a married couple. Christmas afternoon, Bryan’s brother and his dad came over to our house for Christmas dinner. We had tofu pot pie, mashed potatoes, vegetarian gravy and an apple tart, which was very easy to make and very good. The apple peeler that my parents gave us for Christmas made peeling the apples quite easy!
Christmas night, we went to see The Life Aquatic.

Sunday, we were going to go to Unitarian services, but we missed the 10am service. We arrived at 11:15am, when services are normally held, but they were on a special schedule for the day after Christmas. Oops. So we just went home and I worked on our late Christmas gifts for our family. They will be done soon. I will post here what they are after they have arrived at our family. Sunday evening we went to see Sideways.

My hands have been bothering me and I haven’t really been in the mood to knit the last several days. I did finish the hat that matches the Daydream sweater. I have photos of the hat and will post them soon. Now I need to start a scarf for my nephew.

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend. Looking forward to another three-day weekend. :)

It’s cold outside!! It was a lovely 13 (Fahrenheit) degrees outside yesterday! Not exactly weather where you want to be outside. Bryan and I decided to stay inside all day. It was a great day to stay inside and just be. Bryan worked on some collages for cards and I worked on my holiday cards. We also watched Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind for the fifth time. We were going to watch 21 Grams, there was a preview for Eternal Sunshine and Bryan said, “Let’s watch that instead.” I think we both were in more of an Eternal Sunshine mood than a 21 Grams mood. We needed a good laugh. :D

Saturday, we had another leisurely day. We went Bryan’s dad’s house to see his sister Alison, her husband Curt and their new daughter Paige. I gave Alison the Daydream sweater. I added buttons and a ribbon through the waist on Saturday morning. I have photos to post soon.

Today, at lunch, I managed to get about 6 rows of the hat to match the Daydream sweater worked. I still have about 3 1/2″ (9 cm) to do before the knitting is finished. I was hoping that I would have it finished in time to give it to Alison with the sweater, but I obviously didn’t leave myself enough time. It’s my priority at the moment.

On the Giraffe blanket, all of the giraffes now have spots! One of them has two legs and now the other three need legs. It took me about 1/2 an hour to sew on one leg, so it’s a project that will take a few nights to finish. I’m giving myself a deadline of January 5, since I want to get the baby hat finished soon.

In planning, I have a scarf for my nephew to do. I’m going to use some left over yarn that I have from a class and hopefully, get a scarf to him before it gets any colder. It’s going to be in Plymouth’s Encore Chunky, so it should go quickly. If I have enough yarn, I’ll make him a matching hat.

Stay warm everyone!

Do you ever see a film that really touches you? One that you identify with so much that you feel like you’ve known the characters a lot longer than the two hours you’re in the theatre. Bryan and I saw Garden State this past Friday. It couldn’t have been a more perfect film to see that day. I really felt like I was having a transitional day and Garden State just really touched me that day. Bryan and I were talking in the car afterwards and we felt like we could see ourselves in the characters. Not so much as in that it’s the story of our lives, but more like we really connected with the characters and the experience of feeling very in transition and not having a “home” like you did when you were a child. We’re officially starting our own little two-person family next month by getting married. We’ve been a two-person family for the last year since we moved in together but it will be different being married. I’m not sure how to explain it, it just feels like it will be a bit different, I guess because we’ll have experienced the wedding and we’ll officially be a family. And we’ll start working our own home, which I have to say is a bit difficult in an apartment. There is a line in the movie about how after you leave home (your parents’ home) it doesn’t feel like home again and that maybe we won’t feel like we have a real “home” until we’ve established ourselves and have a family of our own. I totally believe that.

I was so touched by Garden State that I kept crying afterwards. You absolutely must see this film! It’s not sad, it’s just something that many people in their 20’s and early 30’s will identify with. Oh, and the website is really great! :) There are so many little things to be found on it that you don’t see at first glance. I also think the soundtrack may need to be added to our music collection. :)

The many transitions that I’m experiencing in my life right now are all starting to come at the same time. The wedding will be the easy part, at least that’s how I feel. It will be such a relief when the wedding day is finally here. Mom & I have planned for so long and have put so much work into it. After the wedding, I’ll be teaching knitting and papermaking at two high schools’ continuing ed program and knitting at a park district. I know I’ll be busy with the classes and I have Stampin’ Up! that I’m sure I’ll be busier with this fall than I was this summer. I can already feel it picking up after the Lake County Fair. And there are other things that are happening that are part of a big transition. We decided we should put together a six-month plan, kind of where we think we can go and what we can do in six months. Not in the sense of where we can travel to, but more like where we would like our lives to go. Of course, we didn’t do that this weekend like we had planned, but we’ll do it soon. We decided to clean out the office yesterday and really clean up parts of the house. It just feels better even though there are areas that still need some work. My mom is coming this weekend, so we really need to kick it in gear later this week so it’s more than presentable for mom. :)

Bryan & I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 on Friday night. I bought our tickets on Wednesday and I’m glad I did. The theatre was packed for the 8:10pm showing at Renaissance Place in Highland Park. We got there an hour early and about 5 minutes after we got there people started lining up. By the time they let us into the theatre the line was down the stairs (the theatre is on the second floor). It was so crazy. When the show before us let out it seemed like there were endless people coming out of the theatre. I wanted to ask them what they thought, but I didn’t want it to bias my personal feelings about the movie. The women behind us mentioned to each other that they wanted to ask too. No one came out of the theatre looking happy and most looked quite somber. After having seen the film myself, I understand their somber looks. It was an amazing film! We all laughed together, gasped together and I along with a few other people in the audience cried (I could hear other people sniffling). I didn’t like George W. Bush before this film and now I literally can’t stand him. I hope this film changes the election because we have to get W. out of the White House. If we don’t, it could be a very, very dark and dangerous four years!

Saturday was Bryan’s birthday. We had kind of celebrated on Friday by going out to dinner and going to see Fahrenheit 9/11. So Saturday was a very leisurely day. We bought new lawn chairs and I sat outside for a few hours reading. We had thought about going to the Field Museum downtown, but then we found out that the Taste of Chicago was this weekend and that postponed those plans. There were also the Sox/Cubs games this weekend and the Gay Pride Parade on Sunday, so we figured it was a good weekend to stay home.

Sunday was another leisurely day. Heck, most of the weekend was, which was SO nice. We did go to services at the Unitarian Church. We got to talking to a couple about Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bush after services. It was quite an entertaining conversation. One thing that I really like about the Unitarian Church is that there are so many like-minded people there. I’ve noticed that it’s a generally liberal church, not just in religious beliefs, attitudes towards gays and lesbians, but politically too. I guess they really truly go hand-in-hand. Yesterday, a guy spoke about his experience as a gay Baptist preacher’s son and about his organization, HeartStrong. It’s an organization that helps gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered kids who “trapped” in religious schools. It was a fascinating lecture and discussion yesterday. I can’t imagine growing up and feeling so out of place and trapped within my family and school.

Well, it’s back to work today. At least, it’s a semi-short week. Bryan and I leave on Friday for Kansas. It’s going to be an action-packed weekend of assembling wedding invitations! I can’t wait!

Wedding countdown: 82 days!