Done!

Or pretty much done, classes are drawing to a close and my Blake project is complete ( as you can see). All is well and I am preparing for a huge knitting/reading binge which will last an untold number of days and nights. Sort of sad that I am going to be spending Christmas in Florida, which is anything but Christmasy. However, it can not be helped and besides I will be going up North for New Years (and much yarn buying). Its strange that Florida (at least my area of it) has no decent yarn stores. But this means that I can justify buying a whole bunch of yarn at once when visiting E. because who knows when I will be able to restock?!?! Or at least thats what I tell myself when I total up the damage.

2

Today was mine and E.'s two year anniversary. It feels like we have known each other forever and seeing that only two years have passed seems unthinkable. We celebrated with one of our best friends who was in town visiting. All three of us went out to eat at this Irish pub, and I had a "special" coffee with some really great chocolate cake.
Also I finally finished my Tychus! No pictures yet I'm afraid the person I was making it for was very eager to receive it, so now I have to chase him down and make him pose. I think it turned out quite well. Plus I can finally work on my poor Icarus shawl which has been very much neglected.
My blake project is nearly done, which is great because its the last thing I have to do before my winter break! hooray! Freedom, I can almost smell it. I can sit in front of the fire and knit until my fingers bleed ( attractive image I know). I'm also going to be reading Middlemarch during the break for seminar. I've been wanting to read this book for a long time, so I'm excited!

Beauty

The snow has begun to melt and all the green leaves, which had not yet turned, have fallen and lay green on white snow.

Snow

Its snowing, and I am very happy! Now there isn't a lot of it, but for Maryland its decent especially this early in the winter. I was looking through some other (clearly arctic) blogs today which had mountains of snow in every picture, this I must admit puts my snow to shame but never-mind. This is the first snow of the year, and its amazing how one day its still pretty much fall, leaves are blowing around etc and then you wake up one morning and poof everything is blanketed.
The urge to make/eat many cookies is strong, but must be overcome. Also the urge to just sit here and do nothing...you know like those clever bears...must be controlled for I have much more papering and illustrating ahead of me.
Hope its snowing where you are!

Peaceful

Painting by Vanessa Bell of Virginia Woolf knitting.

The Wind is Windy

Its a very windy day today, and of course I have decided to wear a skirt, because you know its great to be on the verge of flashing the whole campus at any moment.
There are leaves flying about everywhere and the wind is literally howling ( I love when this happens ). I usually enjoy very bad weather, as long as I don't have to do anything or go anywhere but am safe and sound inside my house. E, also shares this love of observing the fierce elements.



Sitting in my room and watching the wind or staying up all night to look at the lightning storm gives me a feeling of warmth and security because my appreciation for a home, a warm bed, and cosy quilts is heightened and I am no longer jaded to what I have. This always reminds me of something Lucretius said,
"Sweet it is, when the wind whips the water on the great sea, to gaze from the land upon the great struggles of another, not because it is a delightful pleasure for anyone to be distressed, but because it is sweet to observe those evils which you lack yourself." (Book II, On the Nature of Things)
This passage always communicates that soft comforted feeling that one gets when seeing great turmoil and realizing that one is safe from it, free from the struggle. Many people take this as heartless, a casting away of sympathy for others, but I do not think that is Lucretius' intention. It seems he desires to communicate the joy which we feel at being safe from trouble, almost a thankfulness realized.


Hope you are safe on a shore (with lots of hot chocolate and plenty of yarn).

I Flit, I Float

Cold and rainy Sunday, not much to report, although I did get a bunch of work done on Tychus. I really do love the alternating colors, they look so neat and put- together.
My bedroom is a complete mess, but my light paper is finished and I am properly inspired to begin working on my Blake poems and illustrations. I also brought out all the christmas decor, or that is to say E. did. He was very excited to begin, I helped by oohing and ahhing from the comfort of the bed as I did my homework/ surfed knitting blogs.



So there it is, the mini-christmas tree is up, the wreaths are hung and the candy canes abound. I have not bought any presents, and the pressure to do so is mounting, especially because I have no clue as to what to get anyone. Knitted goods are out of the question because I would just stress out about them, while finishing them on time and convincing my self that they were not good enough to gift to anyone and thus keep them. Oh well, I'm sure it will come together at the last minute (ha).



Here are some pictures from the summer when I visited Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, I keep daydreaming about sitting in a big green house and drinking some sort of delicate tea while the rain pours down the glass roof and walls, so I thought these images fit my mood pretty well.