It's quite possible that I am the worst blogger there has ever been. Perhaps that's a big dramatic, but since my last post I have had quite a few life changing events.
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| 1. Finished my PhD |
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| 2 Got engaged! |
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| To this guy of course. He was full of surprises on his last visit. First he showed up almost a week early and then gave me a ring! It was such a great summer! |
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| 3. Finished my time in the ANG. (I didn't take a picture of the last day, so here is a throwback photo to the early days! Halloween 2003 in Qatar… I think 2003 at least.) |
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| 4. Then I packed up the car |
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| Drove for many many miles with my Dad. (Two days, 1,979 miles) |
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| and at one point saw the great salt flats. I was VERY skeptical this was salt and the chemist in me thought that it was so impressive and needed to be studied closer. So we stopped to take a look. |
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| And in my excitement I slammed my fingers in the car door… on my own… and so I never got to touch the salt. |
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| But in the end we arrived in BERKELEY! Where I have since started my postdoc! |
Oh I also forgot. Since the last post, I ran my first half marathon. Sorry. No photos this time. I can't seem to find them! So now that I have given that long over due update. Now for part 2 of this post!
Initially one of my main motivations for starting this blog was to record my various knitting and crocheting projects. I have been knitting since I was in middle school but this last year I began to learn to crochet, mostly via youtube and patience. I have fallen in love with it and so far it has been pretty successful!
My first project was a Festivus present for Pere last year. I made the Greenway Afghan (
Greenway Pattern) and it was really fun although all the color changes required a lot of time finishing and weaving in the loose ends (my least favorite part of any project). I learned my lesson that I should stop every so often and do this instead of waiting until the very end!
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| Greenway Afghan |
Then after arriving at Berkeley with only one carload of possessions I realized that I didn't have a small throw blanket so I set out to make one! I had recently bought the book that includes the Greenway pattern so I found one that I liked (
Simplicity Afghan). I thought the title was very appropriate and it was exactly what I was looking for. So off on the bus I went (I'm car free for the first time since I learned to drive. It's an interesting experience to say the least) to the local Michaels and bought some mustard colored yarn that matched these awesome paintings I have that my friend Christy made (You can see the paintings here along with more of her work:
Christy Schwartz). Then I started working and realized that the pattern is for a baby blanket! Back to the store I went and bought more yarn and doubled the pattern. In the end it turned out to be the right size but the lesson of this one was to read the dimensions of an afghan before you start making it!
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| Simplicity Afghan (doubling the pattern) |
More projects are in the works here. I am about half way through another afghan and am also working on a baby blanket for a friend. Hopefully I will post something again before four months have passed!
On a more personal note, I am really enjoying the environment here at Berkeley, both for research and the general lifestyle. The weather is unreal. I am actually not quite used to it and not entirely sure how to fill the time that I usually spend thinking about and discussing Minnesota weather. Anyway I will just throw some photos out at the end of my adventures out here so far. It's easier than trying to write about them so much after the fact.
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| In SF at the Bay Bridge |
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| At a Cal Football game. |
