The tug on my heart

I've always been pulled to the outdoors I guess. I could go on and on and on about my childhood and camping and nature. Even though I lived smack dab in the middle of tourist suburbia, My childhood was still full of nature. Some of my happiest memories are from being in nature.

And I gotta say, dorm life is getting to me.

Big time.

In the last few days, I've really been feeling a tugging on my heartstrings, my friends and I have talked frequently about road trips, camping, and hiking. Today I felt it very strongly, and planned a weekend camping trip to Joshua Tree. But that hasn't helped it at all. I still feel more than ever the need to be in nature, to have silence, to hear the gravel under my feet.

I was really excited about my camping trip today, but now I'm kin of... not. It dims in comparison to what I really want, which is mountains. And forests. And streams and clearings and the lush life that makes me believe in faeries a little bit.

I crave the open road, and great, majestic rock that tells stories in its layer and holds memories from times ancient. I want to feel the energy of a mountain.

Tonight I found Rachael Caringella's blog again, after many years. Her blog was the firs blog I ever found. How, I don't know, but I, god I don't even know ho to write this. I followed her blog closely throughout my freshman year of high school, but, with many things, lost the plot during sophomore year. To clarify, I fond her blog again a few months ago, but I guess I wasn't in the right place, because I thought, 'God, she looks older" and left.

Tonight, I made the Productivity post, published the progress one that had been languishing in drafts, and then looked around on my blogger dashboard. I saw the most recent posts from her blog here, which led me to her new website. I know something is right about now, because when I saw her pictures, she looks older, yes. It's been five years and neither of us look the same. But she looks wiser, too. More mature.

So I started looking through her blog, I highly recommend it, and reading her posts. She's moved up to a cabin in the mountains an as I read back in time, I got to her posts from moving in. And she talked about a tug from the mountain, which I feel, and always have (even growing up far from any proper mountains).

At this point I was feeling the tight tugging in my chest, but then I read about her loving the quiet of the mountain versus the constant noise of the city, and I broke a little bit. I've grown so used tot he constant noise and hubbub of the dorms, but I hate it. I really do. The refrigerator is constantly whirring, the thermostat turns on at odd hours, there's constantly cars outside, I can hear groups of people talking on the street on their way to of from parties, I can hear every time someone flushes a toilet in the girls bathroom, I can hear every step my upstairs neighbors make, I can hear every time my neighbors beside me decide to practice guitar, I can hear when anyone plays music, it's just constantly loud here.

It's been so long since I've heard my favorite sound.

Silence.

But not only silence, but the crunching of gravel beneath my feet, the wind traveling over vast open spaces, the movement of small creatures underfoot. The far away sound of one lonely car.

Sound factors in so much to my fond memories of camping, so when i read about the silence of the mountain, I kin of lost it. I've cried a little bi, but it's been a good cry, and I know going forward, I need to be out in nature more. y campus offer very little in the way of natural spaces (none, really), and its hard to get out of the urban sprawl, but I'm determined. Tomorrow morning my friend and I are going for a short hike near here, and it's not very nature-y, but it's a start. That, coupled with my upcoming camping trip, will hopefully start to ease my heart.

Progress Report

As always, I'm juggling many things at once for this semester. I just started spring semester as a bio major and I've got five units of chemistry and four units of biology, so this semester's gonna be a bitch to get through with GE's as well. Crafting kind of took a backseat after winter break was over, but I've just organized my room and made a run to Joanne's so I'm hoping to get some sewing done this weekend.

But there's always knitting.

Right now I'm kind of taking a break from big projects, after rushing out J's socks before he left as well as rushing out my beanie commission. I don't have many pressing projects on my plate, which is a new feeling, but I've still got a lot of WIP's and plans.

1. I just got two balls of Felici self striping yarn from Knit Picks in the colorway tea party, so I' hoping to make ankle socks for my roommate and I, but I want to find a complimentary color for the toe and heel. With those socks I will be trying some toe-up two at a time socks, so I'm pushing myself to something new. 
2. I may have another beanie commission on the table, the first one was my roommates sorority sister for her girlfriend that said "lesbeanie" in rainbow, and my floor mate wants one that will say "[insert name here]'s! Gay!" around the hat. 
3. I've got some lovely maroon Plymouth merino yarn so I can try mittens, which I've also never tried before. Right now I'm trying to decide between Dainty Bubbles and Eugenia's Mittens, but I'm sure either would look good. 
4. I'm a big fan of The Decemberists and just got their new EP, Florasongs. I was inspired by the rose art on the cover, so I got some Knit Picks Pallete yarn in Jay and Cream I believe, and I'm planning on ordering Serrano soon. I made a pattern for a row of roses around the brim of a hat that would ultimately be pat of a larger collection. The Decemberists have been my favorite band for four years at this point, so I wanted to do a series of free patterns inspired by certain songs or albums. This one I feel is a good stepping stone into making some more patterns based only off the music and not the album art. 
5. I have several socks either planned or on the needles, namely Broken Seed Stitch Socks in some yarn I bought in Germany, and Kensington socks from the Knitters Book of Socks both in a wool cotton mix that I love the color of but hate the yarn, and in some cascade wool that I hate the color of but love the yarn. Can't have it all. 

Other than that I've got a cowl, a dish bag, a few scarves and some other little stuff in the making. I'm hoping for something exciting soon to kick start me into knitting more and hopefully getting fewer things on the needles.

In knitting-related things, I have picked up natural dyeing and spinning recently.

With the dying, I've been doing it since I've come to school really. I started with a big cheap pot from target and four hanks of bare yarn from Knit picks. I've used two hanks so far, splitting them each into thirds to experiment with dyes. I've done Rosemary, Hibiscus, Strawberry, Blueberry, Red cabbage, Red cabbage with baking soda, and Purple Carrots. I currently have a bunch of eucalyptus drying by my jewelry to use soon, I've heard dried eucalyptus makes a beautiful orange. Here's to hoping.!

I also started spinning recently. Over winter break, I bought myself a drop spindle and a  thing of Knit Picks roving (Wool of the Andes Roving in Tidepool Heather, a beautiful shade) and spend two days spinning some bulky yarn. I love it, and wish I had more money to get my hands on some more, but I'll have to wait.

Thats about it for fiber arts right now. Until next time, happy crafting.

Productivity

This week, after a particularly grueling round of tests and major assignments in all of my classes, I am happy to take some creative time.
I was incredibly productive this week, as well as incredibly tired, averaging five and a half hours of sleep each night. My laptop has been acting up as well, so I am typing this from my little pop up lap desk on my bed so it wont go into death cries of fan exhaustion from overheating. Thanks, IKEA.
Anyway, I only had to skip one class this week in order to make it through it all, and it was well worth it.

Now that I've made it through the week, I am giving myself the weekend off. Last night I organized my yarn stash and planned out some future projects, after finishing my Garland Cowl after forever. It was originally going to be a present for my math professor for letting me into her class even though she shouldn't, but after she went off on me in the middle of class for knitting while she lectured, I decided to let that project take a backburner and I gave it to myself.

A side note, I completely understand her being upset that I seemed to be not paying attention in class, but she had to take into account that everyone learns differently and I was doing what was best for me to stay awake in her class. And she didn't have to bring my grades into it, I was doing fine.

Coming back from my meandering, I finally picked it back up again for my February 'Frog or Finish' project, but it had languished so long in the middle of the lace section that I had completely forgotten what was going on, and couldn't work it out from the row before. After about five minutes, I said eh whatever and I just knit regularly until the end of the row and continued on with the pattern after the lace.

It came together pretty quickly after that, even with my hectic schedule, and I was able to cast off last night. My only gripe is that I couldn't fine a cast off stretchy enough for it. I tried a little bit of "jenny's super stretchy" whatever, but hated it, then a little of that Icelandic bind off that's been floating around on tumblr, but didn't like anything so I just said fuck it and did a regular bind of for the rest of it.

This morning, I also 'blocked' my other February FoF project,  a beanie using the Barley pattern from Tin Can Knits using some acrylic Heartland from Lion Brand. And by block, I mean run it under some very hot water real quick and put it on my wig head. And by using the Barley pattern, I mean look at the pattern then kind of do whatever the hell I want until it looks like a beanie.

Oh well, oh well. Its probably gonna be a shitty present anyway, a guy in the other wing was talking about how cool handmade gits were, and was actually really genuine, so I said what the heck. My friend, who is the wing mom for her wing as I am the wing mom for mine, had made everyone little needle felted presents over winter break, and he was genuinely so happy, he kept going on about how nice and heartfelt it was when people put effort into gifts like that. I decided then that it would probably be more loved by him than by the other person I was considering giving it to, so soon it will find a home with him.

I'm pretty tired for the night, and my computer is wheezing, so I think I'll end it there and talk about my works in progress on a separate post soon. I'm off to knit and watch X-Files!