I'm obsessed with making right now. Doing it and daydreaming about it. I am on my last multigrain stripe. I pulled out my Belmont sleeve, and I finished up the ribbing last night.

I'm considering making a sashiko sampler.

I have several sewing projects queued up.

Yesterday I thought about kumihimo for the first time in a while.

I'm thinking about what I want to weave next, and I'm thinking about dusting off my knitting machine. Haven't played with punch cards in a while.

All these things are things I'd rather do than work on sites.

I'll admit it. After some serious instagramming this weekend, I am fantasizing about going to school for textiles again.

It's back. And it's bad.

Last night I thought of 7-8 reasons why I should have a career in web development.

1) It pays well. More than I have ever made in my life. More than I'd make as a fiber arts professor. Money is important to me for paying down loans, and saving for kids and retirement. Being comfortable.

2) I should have an easier time finding a job. I have rarely seen a fiber arts job posted.

3) I can work almost anywhere, including remotely. Can't say that about fiber arts.

4) I've done the work before, and have liked it (sort of).

5) The internet is cool. Working in development has lots of potential for interesting projects. Maybe some that help people.

6) It is possible to get a job in the field without investing a ton of time or thousands of dollars.

7) It can be fun and cool. Can be.

Downsides include
Moving very quickly
Potential for sexism, racism, ageism
Burnout

So I don't know. Being a fiber arts teacher sounds amazing. Who just happens to know some coding. But it's not very realistic or practical. I'm probably better off not doing it.

I'm still kicking myself for ignoring practicality when I chose photography as a major.

If it is meant to happen, maybe I will someday do something professionally with textiles.

Goals
BT sweaters. I'm starting now, but I want to do a year of BT sweaters.
I want to go a year without buying new clothes in 2017. Making, mending, and buying used is okay.
I want to see clothes and use up my sewing stash. I want to sew at least one thing a month.

Maybe: Working on drawing again. Or calligraphy.

Maybe maybe

Also:
Working again. It's not terrible. But I want more. It's only been three days. We'll see.

Code school is not happening, at least not outside my home. Speaking of which, I haven't worked tonight.

Why are enamel pins popular?

I need to save dollars.

+6 years Currently: Am trying not to get sick Today: Listened to lots of Sergio Mendes Did some JavaScript. Need to do more. Got married on paper! Tomorrow: Cake for bk Sandwiches Jamaican leftovers Cleaning Haircut Kinda digging not working...I haven't been thinking about it too much. Read about dying today and it almost made me sick. I just want to go instantly. Like flipping a switch. Although I am more open to the idea of putting my consciousness inside a robot body, if it will help me complete some goals. Still coming to terms with the idea of school being virtual. Still working hard. My personal site is stalled, but maybe post-wedding it will be done. Wish I had a career. It's been really nice to just not GAF this week. Everything seems so trivial when you're not forced to think about it. I do want to leave. Hm. I've been looking, but I haven't seen anything terribly compelling. Wish I had enough energy to work on something. But I know relaxing is good for me. : / Maybe I'll whittle down my "watch later" queue.

Bored, procrastinating

I haven't used this blog in almost a year! I am procrastinating and unnecessarily updating this. Heh. Let's see...

I'm in Portland now, and have been here for about 5 weeks. I am enjoying it so far. It doesn't feel like home to me yet. I think when I lived in San Francisco, I didn't have that "home" moment until about two years later. It never did come to me in Seattle, since I lived in Bellevue for a while *not* Seattle, and then only lived in Seattle proper for three weeks. I must say, I did enjoy living in Capitol Hill and working (close to) Downtown though. Those areas were very familiar to me. I liked being able to walk home from work. Anyway, I digress...

Since I'm not working, I have a lot of time in which to do things. A lot of it is spent on Ravelry "researching", but I've managed to get a good amount of spinning done, some knitting too. I'm ready for a job, though. A month off is good, but when I'm not getting any income, any more than that is bad...

That's all, really. I've spent the past 6 days thinking about a certain thing. And yes, I am being vague on purpose. I don't plan to blog here regularly, just so you know. I might delete it all together, as I did with bachin-bachin, relaxbear, and other Blogger blogs. :)

TWIIIIIIIIIX!

The first two days of this week I was doing really well- getting up early and staying up. Yesterday and today I've been sleeping excessively. : /

I don't know what's up. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get it together. I need to be extra productive.

I'm watching the Seinfeld episode where Jerry buys a new Saab. It's terrible. I wonder exactly where this show jumped the shark.

So every decision I want to make (relating to school) seems wrong. I don't know. I took some pictures yesterday of my knitting and I actually enjoyed it. This makes me wonder. I'm not going to force anything, though. If I somehow have 20 images at the end of the year, maybe I'll scramble and get my stuff together. Oh yeah, and I wanted to experiment more with film, too.

Okay, tomorrow I will

A) Finish both sock cuffs (almost almost done with one right now), and photograph them
B) Deposit check, and go to the post office if I need to
C) Look for a few more jobs
D) Pick a movie and weave in ends
E) Clean kitchen counters

I have enough time to do all of that right? Especially if I get up and stay up?

It's super rainy today. I'm sitting inside listening to it while I work on my mystery sock and eat pound cake.

For my outdoor excursion, I walked to Tully's and got a tall chai (my usual) and a sprinkle of cinnamon (unusual). I gave a woman my old plastic straight, circular, and double-pointed needles and other odds and ends for free.

I am trying to think of a present to give myself when I FINALLY finish weaving in the ends of G's scarf. (I've been working on that scarf since sometime in 2008, I think.) The plan is to pop in a movie (at least two hours and something I've seen before) and weave in those suckers. For some reason more yarn doesn't seem appealing.

I am also thinking of getting The Knitter's Book of Wool and/or Scribblenauts. We'll see.

I finished my cat hat, and finished object pictures are here. As I mentioned on my knitting blog, it's a bit snug, but I anticipate it growing a little as I wear it. Next time (and all future hats I make for myself in worsted weight), I am going to use larger needles.

Um...that's about it for now. I'm still thinking about school. Some more research will have to be done.

Photo

I'm trying to figure out why I haven't been shooting lately.
I'm not sure if you know, but a few weeks ago I was doing this project called 365 days, where I shoot a self-portrait every day for an entire year. It was a self-directed project; no one was making me do it. I thought it would be a good way to keep my photo mojo flowing and learn more things about my new camera. I was doing well for a while, good days and bad, and then after day 51 I just stopped. I had two days in a row where I just wasn't feeling it. I was busy doing things, and then felt I had to interrupt my life to take a mediocre picture. I thought about it, and realised that I was losing interest in the project because I had to force myself to shoot, whether I wanted to or not. I couldn't see how that would make for interesting pictures, and I would rather have quality, not quantity. So I stopped. I haven't taken any self-portraits for a few weeks now. That's all fine and dandy, but I haven't taken any pictures, either.

Well, that is not entirely true. I've been taking pictures of my stash (back when the light was good) and I'm sure I'll take pictures of my finished objects when they're uh, finished. Maybe I just got burned out from taking pictures every day and need a break. Maybe I'm depressed, and losing interest in one of my favorite hobbies. (Very probable.) This happened before after I finished art school. I didn't shoot very much because I was tired of over-thinking everything. The self-critiques would start right after I pushed the shutter.

I feel a bit guilty for not playing with my (semi) new toy and the cameras I brought back from Pomona, but I'm sure I'll get around to it soon enough. Maybe I'm too dependent on digital. Maybe I should walk around with my film camera and develop a roll. Maybe I need to look at other people's pictures for inspiration. I'll spend some time on Flickr later today.


*Other potential reasons for abandoning the project.
A) I don't leave the house too much, and I got tired of taking pictures inside the apartment every day.
B) I got tired of looking at myself, and sps only made it worse.

{Anyway, the whole reason I am worried about this is because I had picked photo as my grad school major if I got in. I don't want this kind of burn out to happen again, not while I'm in school. I want to be motivated, and excited. In undergrad, I absolutely hated my photo classes. I liked my electives a lot more, for the most part. I don't think I made any work I was particularly proud of there. I have a degree, but I don't feel like I deserved it. I guess at this point I am only choosing it for my graduate work because I already have a BFA in photo, and I think it would be easier. But I shouldn't pick something just because it's easier. I don't know, after all this time, I wonder what drew me to pursue the medium in the first place. Maybe it should have been left as a hobby. Maybe I should get a second BFA...but in what? I wish I knew what direction to take so I could follow it already.

In other news, I figured out those hat decreases when I woke up and the hat is all done now.