Challah, Callas, and Peaches

Copyright © Marieke Schwartz, All Rights Reserved

 

Summer Goals

In no particular order….

1. Relax

2. Hang out with friends and family

3. Organize our apartment

4. Decorate the apartment better

5. Spend more time outdoors

6. Go camping at least once

7. Sort through old paperwork and get a working filing system going

8. Do lots of fun craft projects and learn new techniques

9. Write letters

10. Watch TV less

11. Make more fresh meals

12. Save money

13. Find a local knit/craft group and go regularly

 

Yarnaholic

Since it hasn’t been till more recent times that I got serious about knitting and crocheting, my stash hasn’t had as much time to grow, but let me tell ya! It’s definitely apparent that I am a yarnaholic. I’m also a slightly ADD yarnaholic in that I like to start projects, flit from one to the other and back again, and leave partially completed projects lying around hiding under piles of yarn.

So, here are the stash stats:

• 21 balls of yarn de-cluttered
• 59 different yarns in my stash (types and colors – does not include multiples of the same yarn and color)
• 92 total balls of yarn (this includes leftover partial balls)
• 6 projects re-discovered (actually more, but I’m not counting the ones I’m ripping out).

Here are the project stats (not all were buried – I’m pulling this off Ravelry)

• 12 hibernating projects (ie: haven’t been touched in months, possibly years)
• 7 current projects (ie: have been knit on within the last month, or being picked up again)

The sad thing is that I’ve got a couple projects that I could easily finish in a day or two with where I’m at, including the very first knit project I started once I re-learned how to knit at my Santa Barbara knit group. It’s just a basic 2×2 rib scarf – I can’t believe I never finished it! I could certainly use it now, that’s for sure.

I rediscovered yarns I forgot I had, so I’m glad that I can put pictures up on Ravelry so I don’t forget in the future. Based on the numbers above, I’ve got about 55 pictures to upload to Ravelry between my stash and old projects. Yikes!

Now to finish getting the yarn all packed up again – whew!

 

Stash Management

My goal today is to go through my entire stash, get rid of what I just won’t use and don’t really have a desire to use, and catalogue what I do want to keep in my Ravelry profile.

Thankfully my stash isn’t totally unmanageable at this point…

 

Quite the year…

2007 was really an amazing year. My first move away from my hometown, my first wedding anniversary, and the beginnings of a lot of long-held dreams coming to pass. There were also a few low moments, like the robbery and regular life difficulties. All in all, though, I really love my life right now.

I’m looking forward to what this next year is going to bring. My band, Ladder, just released our first single online at www.myspace.com/jladdermusic and we’re in the process of getting CD copies pressed. A large local radio station (Energy 92.7 San Francisco) messaged us on Myspace to ask for a copy of our songs – which might be getting air-play soon! How awesome is that?!? The guy from the station is even going to send in our tracks to possibly be included on a compilation CD put out by the station.

What I’m most excited about at the moment is that Nathan and I have finally found a church that we really feel is the best fit for us. It’s alive spiritually and a very vibrant community. We had made some friends at the other church we had been going to, but it didn’t feel like the right fit. This morning we went to Living Hope Community Center in Emeryville, which is actually pastored by an old friend from Santa Barbara. Both Nathan and I have been feeling a bit depressed on a spiritual level and not being truly connected to a local church community has left us a bit worse for the wear. I know a lot of our Aqueous friends that we talked to when we visited over Christmas have kept us in our prayers about this and I’m very thankful.

Both Nathan and I felt touched spiritually at this morning’s service and God just spoke right to our hearts and we knew before we even talked about it that this was the place for us – it had that fundamental element we were looking for. And wouldn’t you know it that they are currently in need of help on the sound team and need vocalists on the worship team? God’s perfect timing I tell ya!

LHCC’s theme this year is growing as sons and daughters of God through discipleship in Jesus. I think what Nathan and I were missing was that clear focus on learning to be a true follower of Jesus, not just how to be a Christian. Even though that simply sounds like a difference in semantics, there is a real, deep difference. I’m so excited about joining with this faith community on this journey.

I still have a couple weeks left of break, although I’m sure they’re going to go by MUCH too quickly. I’m hoping to finish getting things caught up at home so I can start the semester off on the right foot. I’ve had enough of a break at this point that I’m ready to get some stuff done and get things a little more settled in at home (a feat which would be a little easier if someone else wasn’t home so often as well, haha!).

So far I haven’t been sitting on my butt, though. I’ve been doing a fair amount of cooking. I’ve made two batches of soup, most of which I froze in jars so I can have meals to quickly prepare. I’ve also done some baking (cornbread, banana bread), and that’s been pretty fun.

And of course, I’ve been knitting and crocheting! Here are a few FO’s:

Crocheted Bath Poof out of Sugar ‘n Cream Cotton

Matt’s Hat out of Cotton-ease – Christmas Gift

Mom’s Felted Bowl out of Crystal Palace Taos (two strands together) – Christmas

Veronica’s Fetching out of Cascade Cash Vero – Christmas

I’ve got another FO, but I don’t have a picture yet.

Here are a few in progress using techniques I haven’t really done before, or haven’t done much of…

Luna Moth Shawl out of Misti Alpaca Handpainted “Purple Pleasure”

Annetrelac Socks (Entrelac technique) out of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino

(from Loop & Leaf – a new Awesome Local Yarn Store in Santa Barbara).

I also have some new stash yarn that I’m excited about…most of it has been cast on the needles to become something, but here a little yarn porn for you yarnies who read this

Crystal Palace Panda Wool (Bamboo, Wool, Nylon) to become “Citrine Socklets” – Purchased at K2Tog

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock “Black Purl” – Purchased at Knit & Pearl Boutique in Santa Barbara

I think that’s enough for now!

 

An unfortunate incident

Some of you know about this already, but last Friday (November 16th), I came home to discover that someone had broken into our home and stolen our laptops, digital cameras, Nathan’s iPod, and his XBox 360.

It was very disconcerting to see that someone had gone through all of our belongings and just strewn them about. Plus, they broke in through our bathroom window and it was really strange for me to know that someone had been in such a private part of our home, uninvited. It was even worse to see that they’d gone through my underwear!

Anyway, we’ve replaced a couple of the items already since I’ve got some homework to finish for Monday, but we thankfully have renters insurance, so we should be getting a check within a couple weeks so we can replace everything.

Thankfully there wasn’t much taken that isn’t replaceable. We had most of our pictures (all of our wedding and honeymoon pics) backed up. The biggest bummer is that they took a small lockbox that had our wedding video in it We haven’t even seen it cause it hadn’t been transferred to DVD or VHS yet.)

So, you won’t be seeing picture posts from me for a while! But I’m just glad that neither of us were hurt and that there wasn’t much that was irreplaceable taken.

Now I just have to deal with our landlords since the window they came in through was broken and we’d been trying to get it fixed for some time. *sigh*

 

Lots of Knitting

At the moment the priorities in my life are God, Nathan, family, friends, music, knitting, other stuff. Knitting has been keeping me sane in the crazy busy-ness of life right now. One advantage to my long commute to school is that the 40 min leg of the trip on BART is prime time for working on knitting projects. I bring a project with me pretty much everywhere I go and I’ve been able to get a lot done. I’ve really surprised myself because I’ve managed to make huge progress on my Holiday gifts. I’ve only got one and a half things left to go!

On top of that, knitting is starting to bring in extra income. I’m working on a custom pair of gloves for a woman who came into K2TOG looking for someone she could hire. My boss referred her to me and she wants two pairs at a price that’s worth it for me. And I’ve had two people request that I make them knit items that they would pay me for.

I’m considering putting some effort into selling my knitting, maybe opening an Etsy store or something. I’m gonna see how things go with the glove thing and maybe put some extra effort into things once Christmas break starts.

Most of my knitting is up on Ravelry, but here are a few highlights of what I’ve been doing:

Easy Flame Lace Scarf – Malabrigo Laceweight (Pattern from Knit & Tonic)

Dashing – Cascade Venezia (Pattern from Knitty.com) For Nathan

(The first one is actually completed, but I don’t have an updated picture yet)

Two-Ball Touch Me Hat – Meunch Touch Me Due

Felted Bowl – Crystal Palace Taos – Christmas Gift

(Before Felting – It’s been felted and is currently drying)

Lastly, I have to gush about Ravelry. I absolutely LOOOOOVE this site! I’ve got all my current in-progress and all my new projects listed. I did an inventory of my needles, and I’ve been keeping track of my knitting books and stash. It’s so helpful for finding patterns and people’s notes and experiences with particular patterns. It’s one of my favorite websites now. Here’s evidence of myRavelry love (and my birthday presents from my family as a little extra).

 

So, things are a little busy…

….if you can’t tell by the lack of posting. I am VERY happy to have a regular schedule now, though. I was about to go off the deep end if things didn’t settle down into some form of a schedule. One thing I learned, or at least was reinforced, is that I am most definitely a planner. If I don’t have at least some sort of routine, I go bonkers trying to figure out how and when to get things done…so much that it pretty much renders me useless and totally ineffective at getting anything done.

Anyway, I have no idea how long this post will be. Hopefully I will finish all my thoughts, but I wanted to at least post *something* of what’s going on in life at the moment.

While my schedule is pretty demanding and I have to really stay on my toes, I am LOVING being in school fulltime again! The faculty here are amazing. I don’t have a single teacher I don’t like. Even the classes that I’m technically re-taking (theory, musicianship and piano), I am learning so much more than I did the first time around, and I can tell that I’m internalizing it a lot better.

I’m also discovering new and exciting things about my voice. My voice teacher told me I have a big ol’ Cadillac of a voice that I’m driving like a Civic. I’ve usually thought of my voice as being lighter, airy, and more ethereal in it’s sound. But as she was having me go through some exercises to get a feel for my voice, she told me it sounds “rich and chocolatey”. For anyone familiar with the different types of Opera voices, she described me as a lyric soprano. This was all news to me!! But I am SO excited to see where things go. Even in the two lessons I’ve had, I can tell that my voice has more depth to it than I ever realized.

In my fiber world, I finally got an invite to Ravelry, so I’ve been uploading some of my info slowly but surely. I need to get picture sof my projects up, but I have to transfer them to Flickr first for that to work.

I’ll update more as soon as I get a chance

 

One whole year

Tomorrow is our first anniversary! I can’t believe it has been a year already. It has gone by SO fast. Many people say the first year is the hardest to get through, but I think ours was a really good first year. It hasn’t been full of sunshine and roses, but we both have grown a lot and come to know each other so much better than I could have thought. And we still have many more years to go even deeper!

Marriage is really an amazing and sacred thing. Before getting married, I used to read anything I could get my hands on that had to do with marriage, including advice columns specifically for married couples. I wanted to make sure that I would be prepared to be the best wife I could possibly be. But I never really understood it until actually getting married to Nathan. It’s a lot of sacrifice and it requires you to put someone else before yourself, but the rewards are pretty cool!

I think the oddest thing has been that I have come to understand myself better too. My relationship with Nathan has opened my eyes to both good and bad things I didn’t see in myself before. I have more confidence in some ways, and more humility in other ways.

It really is amazing to me how God can bring two people together and they become a greater force as a team than they could be by themselves. Marriage has made me see more of who God is as well, and what His relationship with His people is really like.

The more I come to know Nathan and the deeper our love grows, the more I understand who God is and how He loves us. I think that’s the most amazing thing about marriage. That and the fact that our relationship is designed to reflect that to the people around us as well.

I love you Nathan! It’s been a great year

 

I CANNOT WAIT!

I want in on the Ravelry, but I’m #1912, so I got another two weeks or so to go before I can finally get in to the site I keep hearing so much about!

*impatiently waits*

Ok, so it’s been a while since I’ve updated. Things have been BIZZAY and I really need to update our joint blog. But I’m here so I’m updating this one first. You lucky readers you

Things have been kinda nuts and up in the air, but overall really good. We got moved in with the help of Ryan and his neighbor (they got it done FAST!) and we’re getting settled in now. It’s been pretty laid back since I’m working part-time and don’t really have a set schedule yet, and Nathan is in the process of job searching.

Speaking of jobs….I’m working at a yarn shop! It’s the perfect job for me at this point in life. I don’t feel overwhelmed with details, my boss, Ellen, is great, and I LOVE the atmosphere of the store better than the other local stores. She’s also keeping her store as environmentally friendly as possible, with local and/or “green” yarns. AND, she’s really made an effort to have affordable, quality yarns, so I have a lot of choices to pick from even if I’ve only got a little bit of fun money!

This month, I’m essentially getting her online store up and running, and once that’s up (by September 1), I’ll be doing order fulfillment. So if you want to order any Crystal Palace yarns or needles, order them from k2tog and I’ll get to pick them up from the warehouse, package them up, and send them to you! I am so excited about seeing the warehouse! I’ll be in heaven!

As far as projects are concerned, I’m still working on Wicked. I only have two more rows till I take off the sleeves and continue with the body. I am sorta surprised that I’m actually sticking with this project. Normally I get bored and end up putting it aside. I think the colder weather up here is motivating me!

I did start another project, though. I’m working on an Irish Hiking Scarf in Cascade Venezia (super soft merino & silk blend) in a deep purple color. It’s going to be a store display for September and then I’ll be wearing it all winter, haha.

On the home front, since I’ve had more free time than I’ve had in, well…. forever, I did some baking yesterday! I made whole-wheat/semolina rolls and corn bread muffins. YUM! We were out of bread, but I had the stuff to make it, so I did. Although, I have to admit, I screwed up my first attempt at bread-baking here. In our old apartment, I could turn the oven on and let the dough rise on to of it. Well, that doesn’t work for this oven!! The dough started BAKING in the bowl since the oven was releasing so much hot air. I don’t know if the stove is slightly defective or what, because I’ve never had the top of an oven get so hot like that. I mean, the bottom of the dough was actually turning golden brown! Unfortunately it wasn’t edible so it got tossed *sigh* The next day, the muffins got made first, since those don’t have to rise. Then I just turned the oven on warm and it was perfect.

Well, I gotta go. Time to get ready for work!