amazingly nominated; Bristow bits; blah blah blah
Shameless plug: I was nominated as a finalist in the 2nd Amazing Lace challenge! You remember the post - the one with all the sock torture and scary rubber ducks. If you have a few minutes, you should click here to see all the finalists, and put in your vote for your favorite. (If it's not me, I promise I'll forgive you. I only torture socks, not blog readers. ;-)
Now I feel a bit guilty, because I'm not sure if I'm going to enter the third Amazing Lace challenge. It's not because I'm resting on my laurels now that I've attained a coveted finalist spot in a challenge. (Which really is an honor - thanks Rachel and Theresa!) I'm just not sure about my poetry. For me, this is kind of sad, because I used to really be a writer. When I was in high school, we got to choose electives for our English classes all of junior and senior years. I took some sort of poetry or creative writing class for 3 of those 4 semesters, and loved every second of it. I wrote all the time. (Kind of like how I knit now.) And it wasn't all angsty teenage stuff. I'm still very proud of some of the things I wrote back then. They were interesting, had substance, and were truly creative and reflective of who I was as a person.
I stopped doing creative writing when I got to college. The literary magazine there wasn't my thing, though I did get one prose poem published in it before quitting in silent outrage at the way some of the editors laughed at submissions that didn't meet their fancy. (Seriously - criticism and rejection are one thing. But laughter? That's completely tactless, immature, and disrespectful. Thankfully this was an attitude toward the work of others that I never again encountered in college after I quit the magazine.) So here I am, not having written serious poetry in 10 years. I've tried to write a few silly things for the third A.L. contest, but my first two submissions were extremely silly, and I feel like writing something more earnest and serious. I think I'm going to set a personal goal for myself to write something that doesn't make me completely cringe, by the contest deadline. Whether or not I feel it's fit for publishing on the blog is another story. But I want Rachel and Theresa to know that I have been inspired to rediscover old creative outlets, and regardless of whether I actually enter the contest, I am participating in my own way. Thanks for the push, you guys!
Oh, and for the record, I have been working on the sock. I knit a whole pattern repeat (uh... 4 rows) yesterday. I really do like the sock, but it's actually pretty difficult to knit on it with this humidity. It makes the stitches feel tighter, which is even more of a pain since I have eleventy billion gusset stitches still on the needles. Socks and humidity just don't go together. Maybe I'll crank up the air conditioning upstairs for an hour or two so I can make some actual progress today.
If you care about actual knitting progress, here's Bristow:
Blocking! As it probably will be for days unless the humidity goes away. I'm a bit concerned about the sleeves, as they seem to have grown in length (unlike the swatch or body pieces...), and now threaten to be too long for me. But as I'm not averse to folding up the hem, or to having long cozy sleeves, I'm trying not to get too disappointed yet. But how is it that some of the yarn (which has been pre-washed, to boot) grows, and some doesn't? Grr.
Oh, and props (do people still use that word?) to Jessica for lending me some Addi Turbos. I'm going to attempt to use the 2-circ. technique for the Vertical Stripes sleeves. I actually just realized that it's a technique I should use for the next colorwork bag I make (either when Debbie Stoller wants it for publication in her new book, or when I need to make a new sample so I can sell my own pattern). Since I'm fairly unconcerned with tightness of stitches on either side, where the stripes run, it could be a perfect technique-pattern match.
Now I feel a bit guilty, because I'm not sure if I'm going to enter the third Amazing Lace challenge. It's not because I'm resting on my laurels now that I've attained a coveted finalist spot in a challenge. (Which really is an honor - thanks Rachel and Theresa!) I'm just not sure about my poetry. For me, this is kind of sad, because I used to really be a writer. When I was in high school, we got to choose electives for our English classes all of junior and senior years. I took some sort of poetry or creative writing class for 3 of those 4 semesters, and loved every second of it. I wrote all the time. (Kind of like how I knit now.) And it wasn't all angsty teenage stuff. I'm still very proud of some of the things I wrote back then. They were interesting, had substance, and were truly creative and reflective of who I was as a person.
I stopped doing creative writing when I got to college. The literary magazine there wasn't my thing, though I did get one prose poem published in it before quitting in silent outrage at the way some of the editors laughed at submissions that didn't meet their fancy. (Seriously - criticism and rejection are one thing. But laughter? That's completely tactless, immature, and disrespectful. Thankfully this was an attitude toward the work of others that I never again encountered in college after I quit the magazine.) So here I am, not having written serious poetry in 10 years. I've tried to write a few silly things for the third A.L. contest, but my first two submissions were extremely silly, and I feel like writing something more earnest and serious. I think I'm going to set a personal goal for myself to write something that doesn't make me completely cringe, by the contest deadline. Whether or not I feel it's fit for publishing on the blog is another story. But I want Rachel and Theresa to know that I have been inspired to rediscover old creative outlets, and regardless of whether I actually enter the contest, I am participating in my own way. Thanks for the push, you guys!
Oh, and for the record, I have been working on the sock. I knit a whole pattern repeat (uh... 4 rows) yesterday. I really do like the sock, but it's actually pretty difficult to knit on it with this humidity. It makes the stitches feel tighter, which is even more of a pain since I have eleventy billion gusset stitches still on the needles. Socks and humidity just don't go together. Maybe I'll crank up the air conditioning upstairs for an hour or two so I can make some actual progress today.
If you care about actual knitting progress, here's Bristow:
Blocking! As it probably will be for days unless the humidity goes away. I'm a bit concerned about the sleeves, as they seem to have grown in length (unlike the swatch or body pieces...), and now threaten to be too long for me. But as I'm not averse to folding up the hem, or to having long cozy sleeves, I'm trying not to get too disappointed yet. But how is it that some of the yarn (which has been pre-washed, to boot) grows, and some doesn't? Grr.
Oh, and props (do people still use that word?) to Jessica for lending me some Addi Turbos. I'm going to attempt to use the 2-circ. technique for the Vertical Stripes sleeves. I actually just realized that it's a technique I should use for the next colorwork bag I make (either when Debbie Stoller wants it for publication in her new book, or when I need to make a new sample so I can sell my own pattern). Since I'm fairly unconcerned with tightness of stitches on either side, where the stripes run, it could be a perfect technique-pattern match.
posted by Rebekkah at 8:55 AM
3 Comments:
Congrats! I think your xtreme knitting entry was hilarious :)
Glad to hear we've inspired you - and I hope you do share it on the blog.
BTW, I added the other K in your name. Sorry about that - it was late.
I have been out of the country for two weeks and am trying to catch up on my Bloglines, so I don't yet know whether you actually did post a poem, but I think that's great that you're going to try to rediscover that creative outlet -- even if it doesn't wind up being in the form of a TAL entry.
I have similar feelings about certain talents I cultivated in high school and college that have been lying dormant for years. Perhaps I should find a way to do something similar to you and try to rekindle them.
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