I am so glad to be home after this long, long day at school... and it's only 3 o'clock! It felt very long, as did this whole week. But by Thursday afternoons I get a bit of a break-- no class on Friday, just research meetings. There are so many different personalities in my cohort, which I often find ironic given that we are in the area of personality psychology (yikes!). And of course there are bound to be some clashes between people, but everything has felt very intense this week, because there has been so much group work and so much time spent together. In general I find the atmosphere of graduate school to be so competitive and individually driven and perfectionistic, and generally I don't think I relate to those things, so it is good to get home, get back to my blog and my knitting, and give myself a breather. I think if everyone relaxed a bit things could be much easier.
So moving along, in my big news I bought a real domain name this week, and am in the process of setting up a blog that is just the way I like it! Blogger is good for starting and all, but I have felt constrained by the lack of options and the layout. I want something cleaner, more inviting, and easier to get to. I was thinking about my favorite blogs to read, and the ones I enjoy coming back to the most are those with their own site, developed in their own style. I thought, heck, if I'm going to do this I want to be ALL in. So I did it! It felt wildly thrilling and mildly overwhelming once I did, but I have learned so much already about navigating the web. And once I really find my home in my new blog and get a comfortable pace there, I think it will draw people in and help me make some of the connections I have been wanting. Despite my desire for space and time to myself, I often crave connection, and I get so excited when I discuss my knitting that I want to give this a shot.
So, after a longer break than I would have liked from my sweater pieces, I managed to get the ends of both sleeves joined and on the same page last night. And by page I mean knitting needle. I am planning on knitting both sleeves at once, so if I need to modify the pattern (the stitch pattern doesn't seem to match up quite right, so I'll be making slight modifications as necessary) I can and I don't have to keep track of it meticulously. And then when those are done, I'll just have blocking, seaming, zippers, and hood to go! Moving right along...