A New Chapter

Well, here I am again in familiar terrain.  Absent from the blog far too long, out of practice when it comes to writing, and full of unrelated thoughts, projects, and photos I would like to share.  It's hard to know where to begin, but perhaps it will all fall into place when I start to write.  (As if that ever happens.)

Today is my birthday.  I don't consider it to be a particularly significant day.  Sure, 26 years ago it was significant, but year to year I find it to be less a cause for celebration and more a time for reflection.  A time to consider your place - where are you at this moment?  What brought you to this place?  Where will you go from here?  Many people consider the New Year to be a starting point, a time to check in with one's goals, make new resolutions and let go of bad habits.  I don't see why a birthday should be any different.  After all, I personally measure myself in terms of years not related to a calendar, but my own life.  Perhaps this day is significant after all.  It's raining outside...  (he says as he pauses to look out the window.)

I spent the morning at my favorite bookstore and purchased a few new additions for my bookshelf.  It's always so peaceful to be in that shop.  The owner/author Louise Erdrich is a member of the Turtle Mountains Chippewa tribe whose reservation is not far from my cabin in North Dakota.  I like to read her books and see in my mind the towns and areas that she references.  It's like seeing the same thing with very different eyes.  This afternoon I sat at a cafe and wrote some letters to friends and now this evening I think I'll sit inside and knit.  All in all I think it's going to be a perfect rainy birthday.

So that covers today, but what about the past few months?  Let's do a quick recap:

After a few months of unemployment I got a job again, which is contributing factor #1 to the demise of this blog.  This is now my view every day.

Contributing factor #2 is that I was preparing for an audition, which means that when I wasn't staring at those computer screens, I was staring at a music stand... and not much else.  I didn't win the audition, but I did travel to Colorado Springs for it.

Silver linings and all that.

I honestly haven't been doing a whole lot worth reporting despite my lengthy absence.  I did get away from the cities for a brief trip to northern Minnesota - Lutsen, to be precise, for a bluegrass festival.  My best friend's husband plays mandolin and she begged me to come along and keep her company with promises of hiking and hot tubs.

That there is part of the Superior Hiking Trail which, now that I know it exists, I would love to hike sometime.  It's 275 miles long.  That's a bit of a commitment.

And that room there is actually where I slept.  Not in the tub, but on the floor next to it.  We stayed in a condo that we rented for the weekend (Lutsen is essentially a ski resort) and all the other rooms were occupied with other bluegrass players.  I didn't know the lake was right there until I woke up in the morning thinking, "What is that incessant noise?"  It was waves crashing on the rocks.  I have no idea how something so massive managed to stay so well hidden when I arrived.

As for knitting, I have a small collection of projects that aren't necessarily newly finished, just somewhat neglected.  I finished a pair of socks a while ago in Malabrigo Sock and they really might be my favorite pair so far.  I can't imagine they'll last for very long, though, the yarn being what it is.

I also recently used some handspun to knit a hat for my niece/nephew.  The intended recipient was rather generalized as it was contingent more on who it would fit than anything else.

Yes, darling, that's a beautiful belly button.  (iPhone photos and moving children.  Whatcha gonna do.)  I decided the hat fits both of them, so I'm just going to knit a second one and call it a day.  (It's actually almost finished.)  Oh, and before I forget, the pattern is Quynn by Woolly Wormhead.  Adorable.

And then just today I finally got around to taking photos of a hat I finished, oh... I don't know.  Two months ago?  That's the first thing I did this morning - enjoyed the silence of the woods by the Mississippi river.

Cables and Lace Beret by Michele Wang in the recommended yarn, Road to China Light.

Alright guys, I have a book and a warm cup of tea with my name on it, so I'll end here.  Take care.