2016

In January 2016, after finishing my holiday crafting, I wrote the names of all the patterns I wanted to knit on slips of papers and dumped them into the top of an cup-shaped dance trophy.  I drew one at random, and cast on the Cancan mitts.

Then I stopped knitting.  I was jobless and struggling to learn a new language, and I stopped crafting.  My creative energy disappeared, rerouted to deal with the stresses in my life.

Then I got a new job, and was assigned to a new project, and started flying around Europe every single week.  I did not knit on the plane.  The first mitt languished unfinished through the end of the year and into 2017.  It was spring before I found myself sitting in a train instead of a plane, and confident enough in my work, to have some energy to make things again.  Then I finished the mitts.

They are too small for me.  I refused to do anything about that.  They are done and off my needles and gone, and I have moved onto other projects.

And . . . back!

I have been absent. I apologize.  My last post coincided with my current research project careening towards publication, a couple of job applications resulting in interviews, preparations to travel back to the US, preparations to move to a new country, and preparations to speak at a research conference.  Now my research project has been approved for publication and is being prepared for journal submission, the job interviews have all resulted in polite and distant “thank you for your interest but we will not be pursuing your application further” emails, the trip to the US happened and was awesome, the move to Germany is mostly complete, and the conference talk has been successfully given.  I am looking forward to a slightly more relaxed daily task-list, even if my day-job is now job-hunting.

Several blog posts will shortly be forthcoming as I recount the best craft-related aspects of my adventuring, and ballroom tip posts will be reinstated soon.  On that point, please leave a comment with any requests you may have.  I have more ideas, but I’d love to hear what you want tips on.  How to do ballroom hair styles?  What to bring to competitions?  Let me know what you want to hear about!

It's good to be more settled.  I have so much to talk about!

I Went to London

I took the eurostar to London for a short vacation.  I visited St. Paul's Cathedral.

I looked at all the artwork and learned about the history of this cathedral of the people.  I didn't take pictures, because that wasn't allowed inside.

I spent one more making slides, since my field has kind of an odd relationship with the concept of time off.