Jung At Heart

Sometimes even a lace fanatic has to knit something other than gossamer confections of lace and beads. Really. So I started a hat yesterday, a slouchy beret which, yes has a bit of lace to it. You can find the pattern for the Meret on Ravelry. I am making mine out of 2 strands of sock yarn knit on size 7 needles.

The yarn is from Ball and Skein -- I love the greens!

I got a late birthday/early Christmas present last week -- a new camera. I am a huge fan of the Panasonic Lumix line. They have great Leica lenses and are a delight to use. I upgraded from an FZ 20 to an FZ 28, which has a 27mm 18X zoom lens. You'll notice in the photos from my window that you see a wider area now, the happy result of a wide angle lens. It is also great with closeup shots like the one above.

Here is how things look this morning in Belfast on the last day of November --

I started wearing glasses when I was 9. I distinctly remember the day I got my first pair and the wonder of discovering I could see individual leaves on trees. I am very nearsighted. I don't do anything without my glasses. And glasses are expensive, which has meant I would wear a pair until the lenses were pretty scratched -- because in recent years my prescription hasn't changed much from year to year. Then a year or so ago someone told me about buying glasses online. And directed me to an article in Slate about this. I bookmarked it and forgot it...

until this year when the scratches on my glasses just got to be too much. I dug out that bookmark and the article convinced me it was worth trying -- because I was quoted a price of over $500 for new glasses at my optometrist!

I ordered from two places and paid less for 2 pair than I would have for one -- in fact less than half of what I would have paid for the pricy ones. The first pair, from 39dollarglasses.com, arrived today. They fit great. The lens quality is terrific -- of course compared to my old pair, they couldn't help but be better. I have no financial interest in this company, just a satisfied customer. 

Who knew you could get great glasses online?

Good grief, it takes forever to do one row on Snowflake Peacock. Yeah, yeah, I know I have complained about this before. So progress pictures don't mean much. This is what it looks like now

Yup -- pink with beads.

I am seriously considering knitting #13, the lace rib cardigan in the Vogue Holiday Knitting issue. I will have to size it up a bit, which doesn't look like a problem. I believe I have enough silk in a beautiful cobalt blue to knit the whole sweater and it would be really pretty I think. It seems like I am getting itchy to knit a cardigan. I also look a lot at the pattern for Oblique from last winter's Knitty but I'd have to buy more yarn for it. 

There are more projects in this issue of Vogue that I like than in IK. Maybe it's getting to be time to give up IK. I think I have aged out of whatever is their demographic. 

Today it is not as cold or windy as it was over the weekend. But my photo from this morning says November to me --

The water is so smooth, it looks like ice. 

I haven't really been away at all. But I have been busy. Because I finished up a revision of a paper that I have been working on forever -- well, 4 years anyway. Being a clinician means there is no  pressure on me to publish but I came out of a program that pushed us to be "conceptual leaders". It took me a long time to find concepts I wanted to lead. So my list of publications is *extremely* short, in fact nothing since a couple of papers that flowed from my master's thesis and that, my friends, was a long time ago.

But I have been intrigued by Medea and Medea as an archetype for 10 years now. I did my dissertation on her. And this paper, looking at how she is changed in feminist versions of her story, has been on my mind and in the works for 4 years. And I finally finished it, sent t to several trusted readers, made a few changes. Ruminated about it. Read and re-read the submission guidelines. Asked and re-asked my readers if my paper fit them. And then finally I sent it in to Quadrant, which is a Jungian journal. I have no idea how long it will be before I hear anything. And even though my readers liked it and think it is good, I am keeping my expectations low. But it is a big personal milestone for me.

So there hasn't been a lot of knitting.

I always know it's almost Thanksgiving because my Thanksgiving cactus blooms

It's been cold here today -- when I took my morning photo it was just 19F, 12F with the wind chill!

*Now* I can get back to knitting!

I love the full moon. Lately I have forgotten to check when it rises but yesterday after a long day I looked out the window in the bathroom -- I submit that our bathroom has the best view of any around -- and there it was, the moon. Something about the moon over the bay just makes my heart sing.

I have had a busy week and not much time to knit so there's not much progress to show. I love the look of the beads on the peacock, but I've got to tell you that it means it takes forever t do a row because there are *a lot* of beads and the rows are getting longer and longer. Still, it is a beautiful pattern so I go on.

I am guessing it will be around 20-24" deep when I finish, which is just right for a shoulder shawl as I intend it to be for my friend.

More tomorrow.

Here is something that really brought home ot me just how small the world we live in is --

The financial crash in Iceland has made it difficult for seafood processors in Canada to get credit they need which has caused the price Maine lobstermen get for their catch, a large part of which goes to those processors, to fall dramatically. How dramatically? Right now, those of us who live on the coast and can buy from local lobstermen can buy lobster cheaper than steak!

Which has meant that last weekend and this weekend we have eaten lobster -- whereas usually we do so only a couple of times a year. Friday my husband bought lobsters, around 1.25 lb. a piece, for $4.00 each.

Dinner last night ---

This is one Eat Local challenge that is a real treat!

I said the other day that I had started this pattern. And I must say it is really pretty --

You can see here I have completed the first chart. I am using *lots* of beads in it, so it sparkles. And I am remembering why I like stoles so much as the number of stitches in this shawl increases so that it now takes forever to complete a row -- and I am not at the halfway point yet!

I need to get back to work on Eve I and complete the tree motif chart. That will be a task for this weekend. I'll have lots of knitting time as I have to plow through the book my book group will be discussing Monday. Figures I would wait until the weekend before to start it -- not that I procrastinate or anything like that! The book? It is The Condition by Jennifer Heigh.

Thanks to everyone who commented about Ravelry. I may have left the wrong impression -- I do like it a lot as a way to see how others have realized a particular design and to look for patterns. Where it does not click for me really is the social part of the network, the connecting with other knitters in person as well as online, in forming relationships. And I do suspect that is a function both of type -- I am really very introverted -- and age.

Before I launch into some thoughts I have about social networking, take a look at what I saw this morning. To me this just says winter is coming -               

Okay -- about social networking. I participate on Ravelry. Or I should say I take a look there every day. I don't find too many discussions in the forums that really grab me and when I do post, I seem to kill the thread or be invisible, neither of which is conducive to more participation. This isn't something wrong with Ravelry. For me I think it is a function of discussions splintered into smaller and smaller bits so that threads become so particular that general discussion seems out of place. Again, not a problem really, just an observation. My thought processes are not compartmentalized enough to work well in that kind of discussion environment. I am more of an associative thinker, I believe. So the discussion part is mildly interesting for me to read but not so much for me to post. Which means I am not really doing much social networking. What I am doing is using Ravelry as something more akin to a library of patterns and projects.

The psychologist in me wonders what differentiates the high volume posters from people like me. And what it is that moves people to "friend" someone they don't know? And what that process means to them? Because I get friend requests and I accept but that doesn't often lead to anything. Is it an introvert/extravert thing? 

So this leads me to think about how I approach knitting. My grandmother taught me the basics but from there I am self-taught. And I seem to have convinced myself that I can pretty much figure out anything knit related on my own. I am far more apt to Google some term or technique that is new to me than I am to ask for help. And I confess I am not usually one of those folks who steps in to offer help either. I think this mitigates against my being a good social networker also.

Or maybe it's an age thing. I am 62 and though I have been participating in discussion forums, email groups and other online discussion options for 15 years now, I am still the product of an earlier time. 

So, readers, how about you? If you post frequently on Ravelry or in Yahoo groups, what is that about for you? If you don't, are you like me or does it mean something else for you? Consider this a shameless bid for comments -- because I really do want to know what you think.