Saturday, October 10, 2009

Uhhhhh...



Sadly, that's about all my mind can manage to produce right now.

I apologize that my presence has more or less disappeared ever since I got back to school, but I suppose that is the nature of a degree in which there is always more work to do.

...and there is.  I've just planned what pieces I'm going to have to prepare for most of my grad school auditions and I need to get them prepared ASAP because one of the schools needs a preliminary tape by December 1.  That doesn't give me much time.  I am currently buried beneath a pile of grad school stress, not the least of which is due to the fact that I have only scraped the top of my applications at this point.

Note to self:  Must. Start. Applications.

Knitting-wise, I finished the back and fronts of my Expedition and ...and haven't touched it since then.




(Oddly enough, I very vividly remember smiling when I took this picture)

I need to get back to that if I ever want it to get finished.  These things don't knit themselves, you know.  (That was more for me than for you.)

After accidentally taking a nap outside of our mail room while reading the biography of Milarepa today, I decided it was time to get off campus for a bit and I traveled to my long-lost LYS.  (Well, it was there all along, I just hadn't managed to get there since I got back to school.)

As I had a comfortable sum of store credit for knitting that lace shawl for them, I thought I would treat myself to a bit of unnecessary yarn purchasing.  You see, I don't really "stash" yarn as I normally don't buy it unless I already have a purpose for it.  I already have more than enough yarn to knit with for quite a while (and a large queue of projects either already in the works, or waiting to be started with yarn I already have), but I was starting to feel guilty about not visiting the wonderful women at my LYS, so I went.

I got four of the 8 colors needed to knit Kirsten Kapur's Staccato sweater because I fell in love with it long ago and then re-fell in love with it when I discovered it in my queue a couple of days ago.  Here's a question though - is it completely awful to knit mine in the same colors that she used for her son's?  As you all know, color choices and I just don't go well together, and I love the ones she chose and would rather not F it up, ya know?  Anyway, my LYS only had four of the colors, so I'm going to have to search around for the other four before I start it anyway.

I also picked up a pair of Addi lace needles so I don't have to knit poor Fernfrost on my knitpicks harmony needles anymore (I felt that poor Fernfrost, in all its cashmere glory, deserved something a little better)(that is, whenever I get back to knitting poor Fernfrost.)

And then because they didn't have Knitted Lace of Estonia , or the color of Blue Sky Alpacas Suri Merino that I was looking for (which doesn't even exist, so I'm not surprised), I picked up a copy of Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting (you know, in case I ever actually knit something fair isle.  It may happen sometime, you never know).

And that's that.  (and it's even more exciting because I still have more than half of my store credit left.)

Oh, here's a tree for you, because I think it's really pretty when the sun starts going down and shines on it.  It's right outside my dorm.  I would have taken more tree pictures, but my batteries died and I don't have any more.



It's prettier in real life, I promise.

Also, on the off chance that anyone reads this in the next two and half hours and has any desire to listen to an orchestra performance, I have my first concert of the year tonight at 8pm (central time).  You can listen to it through iTunes I think from this website.  I can't guarantee mind-blowing amazingness as it's the first concert and there are a lot of new players who need to be kicked out or strangled until they learn how to play in tune learn how to play as an ensemble, but we're working on that.  We're playing Sibelius' Finlandia and Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony.  There is also the Nielsen Flute Concerto being performed by last year's concerto competition winner.  Oddly enough, I'm auditioning in just a few weeks with the Nielsen Clarinet Concerto for this year's competition.  Wish me luck!

10 comments:

  1. Now I'm in love with Staccato too - hadn't seen it before. Of course you should knit it with the same colours if you like them! Why change something you're happy with?

    What do you think of Nielsen? I don't know his works that well, but one of my all-time favourite pieces is his Taagen letter ("The fog is lifting").

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  2. Yeah, if you like them, knit them. Did you ask your LYS if she'd order the other colors for you? Mine will order colors she doesn't normally carry and only make you buy the balls you want, if she carries the line itself. Besides, she owes you. :-)
    You're awfully cute when you look tough.

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  3. Your Expedition is looking good! It'll get finished when it's ready, or you are.

    Sure you can use the same colours. Just don't go around passing out the pattern URL when you're wearing the sweater. No one will know. :-)

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  4. That's how I look in most of my smiling pics, too. People don't believe me when I insist I was smiling.

    I have a Mylar-jacketed first edition of "The Scottish Woman's" Fair Isle book that I found at a relative bargain. They're serious collector's items. It's also a really handy book for its discussion on color, I think, not least because she takes a more organic approach than standard color theory discussions of the color wheel and complementarity. And I think it's very acceptable for you to use the same colors in Staccato. They look like they'd work well on you, so why change something that works?

    Looks like I'm waking up just in time to catch your concert, too. Don't squawk! ;-)

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  5. Go with the same colors, fer sher. Does she list the colors for her son's sweater, or her daughter's on her website? (Cuz that might make a difference, obviously.)

    Good luck with your concert!

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  6. Wow, you're doing well on your Expedition! I agree about the hoodie - if you like the colors, go with it. No one else in your state will probably even have the damn thing. No one will know!
    Don't you love store credit? You should let me know the colors of the DIC Classy you need... I might be able to hook you up with a fat discount.

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  7. There you are! At least, I know you've been sleeping. ;^)

    I think it's totally fine to use the same colors. It's not like you're stalking her or something. You just like what she did.

    xo

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  8. I'm sorry I missed the concert. Will you be playing again next week in the emsemble?
    Yes to the colors - stripes are hard to plan if that's not your thing. I always ask a minimum of 4 people at my LYS before I commit to a color scheme - kind of hard when the place is empty.
    And of course you'll be knitting fair isle before too long.
    And grad school, any possibility of the Eastman School? It's about an hour from here.

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  9. ooh, thanks for the link to the Staccato sweater...it's quite nice. It looks like she has different colors in the two sweaters shown; I'd guess she listed her daughter's sweater colors. I say to ask her for the colors she used for her son. "They" say that imitation's the best form of flattery. I'll bet she's tickled flamingo pink.

    Good luck on the auditions!

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  10. Thanks for the pretty yellow tree. Not much foliage action in California, so it's much appreciated.

    Yes, copy the colors. Don't mess with Texas.

    I'm jealous of your (hard-earned) store credit!

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