When my life gets stressful with lots of due dates and major life decisions I try and find escape in fantasy, where the characters face much greater, life-threatening challenges than I ever will. It helps to put my own challenges in perspective. Usually this fantasy takes the form of some large novel, possibly a series. It almost always leads to obsessive reading.

Currently, while I embark on the task of trying to secure a job post grad school, I find myself seeking sanctuary in the SciFi (and no I will not start type ScyFy, no matter how cute the SciFi channel thinks it is being) series StarGate SG-1.  This show is great as it appeals to my nerdy science-mathy side as well as my nerdy anthropology side. If you have never seen or heard of the show, the premise is that what many of our ancient cultures thought were gods were actually aliens whose advanced technology made them appear god-like to our ancestors. There are lots of neat ties to Egyptian and Norse mythology. The show also explores the dark and light sides of human nature in a way that very much reminds me of Doctor Who. Actually, I have begun to think of the show as a cross between Star Trek and Dr. Who, both of which are shows I love.

Anyhow, what does this have to do with knitting. Well, usually, if my escape from reality takes the form of a novel, I can’t very well knit while I read. However, watching SG-1, I am able to get a bunch of knitting done while I escape. It doubles the enjoyment. By the way, if you are interested in watching SG-1, seasons 1 thru 8 are available on Hulu now through May of next year.

I am currently working on a short sleeve blouse with a diamond stitch pattern in it. You can see pictures of it in my last post. However, yesterday I found a project which I had lost during the move. I was beginning to think it was lost forever, but low an behold it was tucked away in a drawer I overlooked.

Bamboo Beach Cover-up recently found

The project is one I started last May. I had intended to finish it before our Florida trip this last summer, but due to the franticness of moving to a new house, it didn’t happen. Then, during the move it got stashed away (for safe keeping I am sure), and was lost to me until yesterday, when I searched the house in another desperate attempt to find it. I could have always started the project again, but I was really missing all the little knitting supplies that were in the bag with that projects: row counters, tape measures, stitch markers, stitch holders, etc. Now I have them all back again, yey! Anyhow, now the goal is to finish this project before the next summer trip. I think I can handle that.

I think I have reached a new level of zen in knitting.  The latest project I have been working on, a diamond pattern blouse from Vintage Knits, had to be frogged (read completely ripped [ribbit] out and started anew).  I had initially thought I could modify the pattern to be in the round. However, the area that would have been the side seams ended up looking quite ugly. Of course, I could not see that this was so until I had about 9″ of the blouse done. In the past, if I had had this much of a project done (at least 50%), I would have seriously debated ripping the whole thing out and starting over.  I think the difference this time was two fold. First, the yarn I am using is GGH Tajmahal. It is a merino/cashmere/silk blend, and yes it cost a pretty penny. So there was a part of me that wanted to do the yarn justice. It is such a beautiful soft yarn, it deserves to be knit into something beautiful.  Secondly, it struck me that the fun is in the knitting, so if I spend more time on the garment, I get more pleasure out of the yarn. Of course it is nice when you are wearing something you made and some compliments it, but it doesn’t compare to the pleasure of actually knitting it up.  This, I think is a new level of zen knitting for me. In the past it has always been about the end product and not about the journey leading to that end result. Perhaps I have evolved slightly as a knitter.

The first bit after I had frogged the project.

Here you can start to see some of the diamond pattern.

P.S. Thank you Hulu for having all eight season of StarGate SG-1 available right now. It has made for great fun while knitting this project. I think I will always associated this project with that show.  I am currently on season 3. Hopefully, there are enough episodes left to get me through the rest of my project.

The resolutions are going pretty well.

1. I have managed to keep my sink clean every day since I started, and the cleanliness of the sink is slowly spreading out to other parts of the house. There was one little glitch last night though. When I went to bed, the sink was sparkling clean, as usual. However, I woke up to the shoke and horror of a dessert bowl and ice cream scoop befouling my pristine shiny sink. Dear Husband has been mostly on board with the cleaning thing, but I guess he slipped up last night.
2. As far as the knitting goes I got a lot done last week after an ovarian cyst ruptured in my left ovary. Quite a painful experience. So, I was forced to take it a bit easier last week which meant I got in about an hour of knitting each morning. I don’t think I will keep up at that pace, but I feel like I am back on track with my knitting.
3. Now, the sleep thing has been on and off. Last week I stayed up way too late most nights because watching the Olymics is just too much fun. However, last night I was in bed by 10:30 which is pretty close to my goal. And, I was able to wake up at 6 this morning without it being a positively horrid experience.

Those are the resolutions … now for the other stuff.

The fall semester starts tomorrow. On Thursday I start teaching. I volunteered to cover classes for two different people on Thursday (in addition to the two sections of my own that I have to teach). Sometimes I wonder about my sanity. It shouldn’t be that bad though. One class I am coving is a class I have taught before. For the other, the instructor gave me very clear, very explicit instructions abotu what to go over and such, so it should be so bad. I am very excited about my own class. I am teaching two sections of Math 113 — Mathematical Reasoning. This is the class that I taught over the summer. Despite how crazy it was teaching so much in such a short time, I really enjoyed the class and had a lot of fun with it.

Day 2

1. Sink still clean … I’m so proud
2. Actually went to bed by 10:15 … getting up at 6 am wasn’t so sucky today
3. Still no knitting … though there is a local Stitch n’ Bitch tonight and I think I might hit that up

Day 1 and the only resolution I fulfilled is the cleaning of my sink.

Did I get to bed by 10? … not by a long shot. I was up until midnight writing an exam for my students.

Did I knit for 15 minutes? … sadly no. By the time I was done with everything I was too tired to do anything but sleep.

I will try again today. I won’t have to write an exam, so hopefully I can get the knitting in and still get a reasonable amount of sleep tonight.

As the summer semester comes to a close and I am feeling utterly exhausted and depleted, I feel it is time to make some resolutions.

1. My house looks like crap right now. All cleaning and organizing has died off as I struggle to keep up with all the grading and lecture note writing that the course I have been teaching over the summer demands. But going home to a messy house just makes me feel worse (more exhausted and depleted). Carrie told me that she joined some internet support group for people with messy houses. It sounded a little weird, but also just what I needed. So, I have joined FlyLady.net. It is actually a support group that helps you make small daily changes so that you builds a routine that helps you keep you house clean and thus helps you be relaxed and happy when you wake up and when you come home.
2. I need to knit something fierce. I have not knit for several months now and it is killing me. So, my resolution is to just knit for 15 minutes a day. I am sure I can find 15 minutes some time between when I come home and when I go to bed.
3. Get more sleep! I have been running on too little sleep lately. The problem is, I want to go to bed around 9 or 10 pm so that I can wake up (without it totally sucking) at 6 am. The problem is that even though I always intend to go to bed around 9 or 10 I never really go to bed until around 11 pm or 12 am. And it almost always takes me about 1 hour to fall asleep. So, resolution is to be in bed by 10 pm every (weekday) night. Also, I need to start this resolution now if I am going to make this whole 8 am class thing work next semester.

Okay …. 3 resolutions. None of them terribly hard. I can do this!