Things have been a little... quiet... on the blog lately. As predicted, school has been kicking my butt time-wise, but I did do some things this past year. I'm going to make a concerted effort in the new year to follow my original goal of blogging on average once a week. Many posts are currently sitting in the drafts folder, but they will see the light of day. Maybe even this year.*
On with the yearly wrap-up. It was a year. The consensus is that it sucked globally, but personally, it was pretty good. I had 8 months of vacation, followed by 4 months of making up for it in spades. The DC and I celebrated our first anniversary as married adorables and my cat Lucy celebrated her 17th birthday by finally realizing that she has massive arthritis in her hips and so therefore shouldn't be leaping from the sewing table to the ironing board and that she could, in fact, pee on this.
Because the previous fall was so busy with the wedding and selling Aged P's house, January of my leave year saw me pretty much just sitting on the couch and reading or crocheting. I did manage to brave the cold and snow to see the Pompeii exhibit at the ROM in a new Lekala spiral gore skirt, The Force Awakens, Agamemnon and Heart of Steel at NSTF, Into the Woods courtesy of the DC's parents, and Gaslight. I met up with Another Sewing Scientist and other sewcialists in the middle of a small blizzard, and the DC and I started running regularly.
February was busy-ish. I knocked out a Blueberry Trellis hat and finished the DC's cabled sweater-vest (running out of yarn and getting a not-great match only to learn that the DC would like it shorter, please) before I left for Florida (celebrating my birthday by driving through four states and just as many different types of weather, but also with pancakes and pie), dabbled my feet in the Atlantic, started a Mathilde at the MakeDay at Victory Patterns studio, had belated birthday sushi with a side order of regency zombies, spent an evening with Neil deGrasse Tyson, and saw a scaled-down but still amazing Anything Goes at LOT.
As for the running, the DC and I both got sick at the beginning of February, then I left for Florida with Aged P, so the running thing kind of... stopped. We talk often about starting up again.
March saw my fourth semi-successful Errandonnée (I genuinely finished the biking part on time, but the writing-up took a wee bit longer) wherein I brunched twice and lunched once, did not get a pen fixed, put my heater in storage entirely too early, and was a blotchy mess at the end of Room. I finished my Dana sweater and blue Mathilde blouse, finally made that 20s dress I pinned eons ago in time for Electroswing, and at a Stitch'n'Bitch session bit the bullet and shortened the DC's sweater vest from the beginning edge.
April was rather cold, and we regretted putting our heater in storage (but not enough to get it back out again) although it stopped snowing long enough for me to start biking to and from Aged P's. I am getting rather fond of the Humber trail. I read a lot of books. I also made a few things that I haven't blogged. Yet another Swoon cardigan, this time in black mohair. I wore it a whole bunch, but unfortunately I left it in the school library after a workshop at the beginning of December and it got, presumably, re-homed January update: it miraculously turned up in the lost and found! There is hope in the world after all. I also used up the rest of that soft red poly fleece stuff: a red Bronte which is like secret pyjamas (so much so that I feel weird wearing it to work), and a Zoe Edwards tank and Mary knickers that are technically fails because the FOE I used reached it's best-before date some time ago -- it's slightly stretched out after only a few wears. Also, I'm still "working" on the fit of the Marys. If by "working" you mean thinking occasionally about how to fix the fit. The fail part doesn't really stop me from wearing them, though.
May started quite chilly and ended in New York. Along the way, I went to the One-Man Star Wars Trilogy, The Mousetrap, Against the Grain Theatre's A Little Too Cozy, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, the Friday night of Frankie Manning weekend, and Chinatown... in New York. My third Me-Made May saw me not quite meeting my goals of making one new thing every week, not repeating items more than once per week, and finishing my UFOs. I did make a pink paisley Belcarra and finished the as-yet unblogged sheer green Mathilde (which is too sheer for work, but has already seen quite a few outings).
We spent the first week of June in New York: splurging on lunch at Jean Georges, visiting the Met, the Frick, the Cloisters, the transit museum, riding a trike with square wheels at MoMath and bikes with regular wheels around the city. We walked the Highline, a prohibition tour, through Central Park, and through many neighbourhoods. We visited Mood. We came back and went to the National Ballet's Petit Prince, to see some art and Tafelmusik at the Hearn Generating Station as part of Luminato, and I Furiosi (where I bid on ukulele lessons that I haven't taken advantage of yet). I wore the 20s dress to the Gatsby Garden Party at Spadina House, and sewed up a Lily Daché hat and end of summer wristlet in black and white polkadots.
At no point during this month did I do any marking, but I did realize that my leave year was coming to an end. I did not realize that I wouldn't really touch my sewing machine for the next six months.
July is Fringe time, and I... may have gone overboard. I saw 18 shows: Promise & Promiscuity; two versions of The Comedy of Errors; Elektra**; two clown shows (Alpha 86, which was great, and Denmarked, which... wasn't); Peter vs Chris; Bright Lights; Everything Else Is Sold Out (which was sold out, of course); Women; Persephone; Best Picture; No Bull$#!% History of Invention; Shakespeare Crackpot; Collapse; Curious Contagious; Pirate Queen of the Stars; and Songbuster, the Improvised Musical. I wore my new hat and wristlet to the Queen's Plate. After that, it was all crochet, all the time. I finally, finally, conquered the heel on the Shirley sock I started the summer before, although I deliberately waited to finish them during the opening hours of the Ravellenic games, because I am not above such shenanigans. I spent the rest of the month crocheting an unblogged because unblocked white Roslind shrug that I wound up not wearing to Dîner en Blanc after all.
August was pretty much all about two things: the Ravellenics and dealing with my elderly kitty's new normal. She's a trouper, that one. Also an adorable pain in the ass. I did manage to squeeze in a trip to the beach, a tiki party, a puppet version of the Golden Girls, what may be our last Dîner en Blanc for a while, and say goodbye to the Hip. I used the Ravellenics to finish all the crocheting UFOs that have been plaguing me, specifically my first. ever. pair of socks! and P1's stegosaurus! and my Lady Sybil cloche and the fringe on the Sunny Skies scarf. I learned to crochet with wire (and made some earrings), with beads (and made another snood), and not entirely successfully with millinery wire (and made a hat for Dîner en Blanc). I started two pairs of socks: Sidney's sideways sock (which wound up being too big for me, but instead of frogging it, decided to be an awesome wife and give it to the DC instead) and my first attempt at Tunisian crochet with the Sandstone socks. I only finished one sock of each pair, so put them together for the games and called them my Steven Wright socks. I also made a highly unnecessary and fairly uncomfortable pair of acrylic granny square hotpants. As one does.
At some point I will blog all of these. Especially the hotpants.
What with the craziness that is school, I didn't find much time to work on much. I did finish the Sandstone socks during the first week of the month; tunisian crochet makes for super cuddly socks, but they were a nightmare to fit properly. I also finally bought some super-thick leather and put the leather needle I bought in March to use by... patching isn't the right word for sewing a leather bottom and side onto your pannier.
We celebrated our first anniversary with a trip to the terrific Aga Khan museum and a special dinner of mac'n'cheese and macarons, because the DC gets me. Because I totally get him, I finished the second Norway Spruce Sideways sock over Thanksgiving weekend. He loves them so much I haven't had a chance to weigh and photograph them. I started a Dragon Wing scarf for a CAL on Ravelry, but did not get very far before school completely took over my life. I attempted my nth unsuccessful Coffeeneuring challenge, once again starting strong and then petering out. 4 out of 7 ain't bad, right?
I utterly failed to perform in the TLH Cabaret due to bolloxing up the day of the week. I did do tonnes of PD, mostly because I became a Digital Lead Learner with the TDSB. I did lots of family stuff (finally getting to Her Father's Cider) and found some time to think about fractals during Dr. Strange. We also helped the cause of science by participating in The Big Bell Test.
You'd think December would mean I'd have a little more time for me, but not so much. In short, work is busy. However I did manage to do the December edition of Coffee Haus, electrocute a pickle, meet with the Toronto Sewcialists, visit a bunch of friends, attend a Stitch'n'Bitch, and see Rogue One. I also finally got a smartphone and joined Instagram; finally cut something out -- another two Swoon cardigans, but who knows when I'll around to sewing them up? I started a pair of Sideways socks for Aged P, but got distracted after the first one and started magic bean-stalkings for me. Oh, and the DC gave me an adorable robot.
The new year will no doubt bring even less blogging, I'm sad to say, but I'm going to try for a better work-life balance.
*One of those posts waiting in drafts is last year's roundup. Oops.
**Kind of disappointed that nobody put on Orestes in the fall to round out the trilogy.
On with the yearly wrap-up. It was a year. The consensus is that it sucked globally, but personally, it was pretty good. I had 8 months of vacation, followed by 4 months of making up for it in spades. The DC and I celebrated our first anniversary as married adorables and my cat Lucy celebrated her 17th birthday by finally realizing that she has massive arthritis in her hips and so therefore shouldn't be leaping from the sewing table to the ironing board and that she could, in fact, pee on this.
January
February
As for the running, the DC and I both got sick at the beginning of February, then I left for Florida with Aged P, so the running thing kind of... stopped. We talk often about starting up again.
March
April
May
June
At no point during this month did I do any marking, but I did realize that my leave year was coming to an end. I did not realize that I wouldn't really touch my sewing machine for the next six months.
July
August
At some point I will blog all of these. Especially the hotpants.
September
October
I utterly failed to perform in the TLH Cabaret due to bolloxing up the day of the week. I did do tonnes of PD, mostly because I became a Digital Lead Learner with the TDSB. I did lots of family stuff (finally getting to Her Father's Cider) and found some time to think about fractals during Dr. Strange. We also helped the cause of science by participating in The Big Bell Test.
You'd think December would mean I'd have a little more time for me, but not so much. In short, work is busy. However I did manage to do the December edition of Coffee Haus, electrocute a pickle, meet with the Toronto Sewcialists, visit a bunch of friends, attend a Stitch'n'Bitch, and see Rogue One. I also finally got a smartphone and joined Instagram; finally cut something out -- another two Swoon cardigans, but who knows when I'll around to sewing them up? I started a pair of Sideways socks for Aged P, but got distracted after the first one and started magic bean-stalkings for me. Oh, and the DC gave me an adorable robot.
The new year will no doubt bring even less blogging, I'm sad to say, but I'm going to try for a better work-life balance.
*One of those posts waiting in drafts is last year's roundup. Oops.
**Kind of disappointed that nobody put on Orestes in the fall to round out the trilogy.
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