Sometimes you just get a little lazy

So ya... it has been a while since we posted here regularly.  We are now living in Medford Massachusetts, Rowan has started a post doctoral research position, and within a week of being here I was offered a tech/engineer/manager position and am now very happily employed at Harvard in the same department as Rowan.  Our new apartment is amazing, life has been good, and we love Medford.

 Hopefully we'll be posting more and keeping everyone in the loop.

Seems like it's been a while....

So as a lot of you probably know, things have been pretty busy for me (Rowan) lately... I have been working on finishing my doctoral dissertation (a 350+ page document of all my research from the last 5 years of my life), finding a postdoctoral research position (success!), and just in general trying to stay sane.

So far, my sanity has been preserved by distractions from work. Jason has been fabulous and we recently had a visit from the Vissers, which was a nice mental break. But still, one needs a daily relaxing ritual to soothe the soul... for me this took the form of simple knitting.... nothing too fancy, straight, plain, oatmeal-in-a-plain-bowl-type knitting, and for some reason my brain decided we needed some exciting colour in there to counted the pages and pages of text and PhD results.

And so.... over the last month or so I have produced two very large shawls that I think are lovely... and huge.... and colourful... but really, apart from the whole rainbow thing... quite plain. No lace, no sewing, no buttons, just straight knit and purl. And they are delicious!

The first I call my Swaley Cross Stratification Shawl (NERD!). The genius of this is a lovely pattern by Veera Välimäki called Color Affection, and in my braindeadness,  I followed the pattern (almost) word for word.

The second I call Stained Glass and is based off of the lovely Daybreak shawl by Stephen West. I made this using some awesome rainbow mini-skeins from Thee Irish Girls, a great group of Indie Dyers and designers!

And now for something completely different....

Well ok, it's still crazy colourful but at least it's socks instead of another shawl!

P.S. Photos are from my great new Nikon AW100 which I love! So far this little guy is amazing!

I'm also sewing!

Some Hawai'ian fabric is now little drawstring pouches and mini duffel bags :)

Look Mom, I'm spinning!

Kathleen got me an awesome drop spindle at Christmas!


So I turned this...

Into this.....

The whole pretty skein!

Resolutions

So one of my resolutions for 2012 (which is not really anything to do with the New Year... more to do with knowing that I will be moving soon and needing to get my affairs in order) is to finish up some project.... So finishing up I have! Both of these have been WIPs (Works in Progress) for more than 6 months and this weekend I finished them!

Cleopatra Tsocks
Complete with headress, asp, and papyrus! These will go to Branwen for luck on midterms

 

Amiga, a very lightweight sweater for me

Oh and I am learning how to spin on a drop spindle :)

Check out my hooters!

Check out my hooters!

The Owls sweater by Kate Davis.... great fun and a very fast knit!

More stuff on Etsy

Many new scarves and shawls on my etsy shop: www.etsy.com/shop/mountainash