October 2006

This morning I woke up to see that my Flickr account has had over 4,000 views - 4,076 to be exact.  Thanks to blog readers who have also appreciated my photos!

Yesterday on our trip to see the fall colors in the Cascade Mountains, I also hit 10,000 photos on my lil’ Canon PowerShot S400 camera.  This little guy is a work horse!  Someday soon I’m hoping to upgrade to a more professional digital camera, thanks to my dad for the offer.  I can’t wait!

Yes, I know the first day of fall was technically last month… but for several years now, I’ve noticed that on October 15, Seattle changes. This year was no different: After a month of the most brilliant, warm, sunny Indian summer, I awoke yesterday to wind and rain. The kind of day when you really don’t want to get out of your cozy bed! The day never brightened all that much, but the fall colors were lovely reflected in Greenlake in the late afternoon.

I thought I’d copy PJ’s interesting “current thoughts” entry!

1. On my bedside table:
   Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift - for Knit the Classics
   The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck
   Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling (rereading it… or rather, listening to Jim Dale’s wonderful narration.)
2. On board from Netflix:
   Intermission (2004)
   The Butterfly (2003)
3. Latest interests:
   Finishing unfinished knitting projects.
   Getting rid of junk — donating, selling, throwing away possessions to feel a bit lighter.
   Taking better photos. Low-light photography
4. On my mind:
   Flickr
   Anti-depressants, natural or not
   My sister and nieces moving to Arizona
   How to live differently, better
5. Learning:
   To ask for help
   To give myself permission to be human… baby steps…
   To meditate & relax… it takes practice for me… baby steps…….
   To take care of my leg so my 10+ years’ achilles tendonitis doesn’t return!
6. Making:
   A baby blanket (almost done!!)
   A hat for my dad
   Space for a wonderful new career to come into my life
7. Looking forward to:
   France summer 2007!
   Feeling lighter…
   A time when things will come more easily for me
8. Enjoying:
   An apple-blueberry crisp I baked last night.
   Photos, this is the main thing these days. A year of color. The World Through My Eyes.  Photo Dominos.
   Simplifying things.

This is a cute painting on the glass window of Irwin’s Cafe, with fall colors outside!

I haven’t been knitting much. I’m easily distracted, and knitting doesn’t come easily to the distracted. Also I decided to try to finish Elina’s birth present before she reaches six months, so I’ve confined myself to only working on the Big Pale Purple Baby Blanket (BPPBB). But BPPBB fights back, she resists me, errors crop in and she must be tamed, BPPBB must be unraveled a bit…

She doesn’t like it, and she puts up a struggle when I try to reclaim those tiny stitches as mine. It’s a struggle to the death. I’m not yet sure who will win out.

I’m also not sure why knitting is paling somewhat in my universe lately. I still like knitting, I still have this yarn stash and project ideas gnawing at my consciousness, I still have numerous unfinished projects lurking in the basket, my blog header still cites knitting, but…

Other universes call to me.

I’ve been doing a lot of photography, which flows swimmingly for me, for the moment.

And I started a writing class, which is like pulling teeth. All clichés. Trying to write “on cue” leads to much resistance. It only seems to be increasing my depression and anxiety issues, and I don’t yet know if that is a good challenge or a sign to turn back now*. For months now in my counseling, I’ve been working on “getting out of my brain” and down into my heart. I am an obsessive thinker, my brain floods with unceasing thoughts, most of them anxious, and it apparently takes years of training to learn to calm the torrent enough to relax. Needing, lately, to analytically draw a story out of this anxious brain doesn’t seem to be working for me. Is there a way to write from the heart, but still meet class deadlines?

Reading Heather’s recent post reminded me that I could knit as meditation. Maybe I’ve been doing too much “busy knitting”– I mean, knitting while doing other things, watching a movie or talking to folks at knitting group. Instead, maybe I want to spend some time just knitting with no other agenda or distraction.

To lighten things up a bit here, another heartfelt thanks to Heather for posting this awesome animated knitting video, The Last Knit. The animated character in this film knits almost as fast as Christa, who amazingly knit a pair of socks in 24 hours for Sock Wars…. Omigod Christa you rock!!!!!

(See my past post if you missed the first knitting video I highlighted.)

_______

*Fans of ’80s films might recognize these as the closing words of Diane Cort’s valedictorian speech in Say Anything. “I’ve seen the future, and all I can say is, turn back now.”

That move has so many classic lines, including Lloyd Dobbler’s honest responses about his career track… This is where I’m at right now:

“I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that. ”

[on choosing a career] “How many of them really know what they want, though? I mean, a lot of them think they have to know, right? But inside they don’t really know, so… I don’t know, but I know that I don’t know.”

Details:

• Pattern: Perdita bracelet by Elizabeth Klett, in Summer 2006 Knitty. Bluebell option. Obviously I’m loving this pattern!
• Yarn: DMC Cotton #5 (embroidery floss), in turquoise blue.
• Beads: Mill Hill glass seed beads, in white. Plus two white buttons.
• Needles: Size US 1 circular (but knit flat).
• Time to knit: one week.
• For: Cheryln’s birthday! Happy birthday, dear friend!