Natalie Knits

I'm having a bit of trouble lately sorting out how I feel about friends-- namely letting go of friendships that just aren't working. I am having trouble finding connections with a person, and I'm afraid I've been putting too much energy into trying to keep this relationships alive. I'm left at the point where I feel more alone when I'm with this person than when I am by myself... that is a bad sign! But for some reason, I'm finding it hard to not care, or to let go of my feelings about these people. When do you know a friendship is over? On the other hand, I am finding that knitting, and crafting more generally, has been a good source of connection. A couple of my best friends and I have crafting in common, and it has been a bond that has sustained and nourished our friendships. And when I take time to sit and knit and sort through my feelings, things don't feel quite so bad or alone. I always have my knitting, and myself. Sometimes that's all I need!

Today J and I went to the Haehnle Audubon preserve to take a walk and slow down a bit.

Though every time I hear the word Audubon (as in birds) I think of the Autobahn (as in fast cars). Oh well-- there were few cars in the woods, and I was appreciate of that.

There were these pods that looked almost honey-combed inside, and as if they had been knitted.

The light was incredible, and there were a few times I was feeling like I was walking through a dream.

Being so far out away from the city and the noise and people just feels so different-- the slience is calming, and it makes me remember that fall can have a warm side.

Today I had lunch with my friend Melissa. It was so good to catch up, even if just for a few minutes-- I am really hoping we find time to knit next semester when we both have a break from teaching (and have things like prelims to worry about instead...). As I've been feeling, good friends are hard to come by, and good knitter friends are even more rare!!

So, a few weeks ago when school and teaching were feeling slightly overwhelming and I was feeling blue, I found that my LYS had malabrigo on sale, and I couldn't resist. It had been quite a while since I had bought yarn-- I find that having time to knit usually means I have more need for yarn, so no knitting = no new yarn. But I am missing my knit-time, and I needed something luscious to get me back on track. And there it was-- red and purple malabrigo chunky, enough skeins to make the drops caridgan I've had my eye on for a while, ever since I saw it over at Flint Knits... and then found myself revisiting her blog just to look rather frequently.

I also began to search on ravelry for other drops cardigans, to see how much success everyone was having. I determined I might need to do a bit of knitty math before I was sure I'd get it right, but I measured. And calculated. And swatched. Twice. And finally I cast on! Malabrigo chunky is so amazing to work with-- so so soft (as I mentioned to my friend Molly, you can even put it right on your face!) and it goes fast. So my 2 pathetic afternoons of knitting in the last month have amounted to the back of my sweater almost being complete. Woo-hoo! At this rate I might have something new to wear by thanksgiving...

Today was a lovely day for a football game in Ann Arbor. Gray, with a lovely rain/snow mix, and cold... not so bad at first, but after 4 hours, brrr!

Luckily, it was totally worth it :)

I sometimes feel a little out of place living in Ann Arbor. It's such a great place to live, and I love the university, but everytime I see that maize and blue or hear a few bars of "Hail to the Victors" my skin crawls a bit. Having gone to Ohio State as an undergrad, I have love for the buckeyes that transcends place and time; Yes, it is nice that the U of M is basically paying for me to get a Ph.D., and I am happy in just about every other way here. But I never heistate about which football team I claim as my own.

The Bucks won, 14-3, and there were so many Ohio State fans in the big house! Enough people to have the O-H-I-O cheer go around the stadium audibly-- something I never thought I'd see!! This win was big for us, it means we are outright big ten champs for the second year in a row, and we are guaranteed a trip to the rose bowl.

The only way we wouldn't be headed to Pasadena on January 1st is if the stars were to align (as my dad put it, in this solar system and the next one over!) the Bucks could jump back up to the number 2 spot and head to the national championship game. I don't want to look too forward ahead, but this is pretty exciting, and I can't wait to see how things unfold.

Today was also nice because my dad was able to come up for the game. We love watching good football together, and this has to be one of the best games we've been to.