Thursday, April 05, 2007

Knitter's first hole

This past week we celebrated Passover in Colorado with Coffeeboy, returning yesterday with plenty to do before we take off to see some of my mom's family in Florida this weekend. Hence the lack of bloggy communications. I managed to do some knitting, but largely ignored the internet and blog-land while there, in the interests of hanging out (and doing some reading). While there, I discovered something on the bottom of my fuzzy foot:

Holey fuzzy foot
A GIANT THUMB-SIZED HOLE!

... well, I also discovered that under what had been a lot of mohair, the slippers had hardly felted, probably explaining the hole. Harumph. I knew felting wasn't really my friend! Perhaps I will try to add some fiber back in there and send these soles through their watery cycle once more, or maybe I'll just wait until I notice the cold floor leaking through on the ball of my foot... and do something.

Speaking of Coffeeboy, he accepted the job in North Carolina! (I kind of added a "breaking news" section to my previous post as he got the offer soon after I'd posted it). We'll be moving sometime this summer, and until then, we'll be trying to figure out what to do with our current place (rent? sell?) and hopefully buying one somewhere around Asheville, NC.

I hear Asheville is a really fun place to live - music, arts, hiking, a yarn store or two. It probably doesn't quite have the research libraries I'm used to in the heavily-libraried northeastern seaboard, but there are still ILL and related borrowing systems, car trips to visit friends (and their schools's libraries) at cities nearby, and the inevitable longer trips to archives in various places. Other than what I hear are the inevitable awkwardnesses of writing a dissertation from afar, it should be OK - and fun to start off on this adventure! I know I'm going to miss many things about grad student life "in residence," but I'm trying to focus on the positives of the move (living in the mountains! an artsy subculture! great opportunity for the Coffeeboy!) to balance out all my half-panicked thoughts of "how can I possibly read all those volumes of that old, rare journal, before we move?!"

Anyone know of yarn stores near my soon-to-be new digs? Or how to patch a hole?

8 comments:

Sheepish Annie said...

Moving is a pain, but exciting, too! And this is a really great thing for Coffeeboy. Enjoy the adventure!

Anonymous said...

Congrats to Coffeeboy on the job. :)

Zarzuela said...

Congrats on the big move! I'll definitely miss you, but we'll just have to hook up when bassoon camp comes around each year. Earth Guild is definitely the best place close to Asheville that I've found. I'll have to check my blog archives from last summer and let you know of some of the others.

As for the fuzzy feet: I think you could just sew it up with a similar yarn and leave it unfelted. Or you might try needle felting it a bit. Not that I have any experience in this area!

Enjoy your trip to Florida (and bring back the warm weather)!

Jessica

KosherAcademic said...

Congrats on Coffeeboy's job! Greta_Jane is VERY excited that you are moving closer to her :-) - she told me about the job offer before I read it here!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!! I spent a couple of days in Asheville. Great place. Some call it the Northampton of NC. (I'd say with fewer students... I don't think there are five universities in the area.) Also right south of great bluegrass/traditional music mountain country.

As for the FF, my Cascade 220 felted fine and I still have a hole in the bottom. I think those things just aren't designed to last.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to Coffeeboy! What a great accomplishment. There are a couple of really great folk schools in NC - Penland and John C. Campbell - that offer spinning and dyeing and weaving classes. I was just looking at their online catalogs last night. One of them was offering a class on 18th century weaving patterns! Wanna change your diss topic? I know I do! At least you will be through your exams - writing the diss is an isolating activity, no matter where you are.

Anonymous said...

Congrats to coffeeboy. I think moving to a new area is exciting!! Just think you get to explore new yarn shops.

Chatty Ali said...

Hello there! I stumbled across your blog from Big Lug's blog, which I found from Carrieoke Carrie's blog (I am in her knitting group here in Athens, GA). I just felt the need to comment about Asheville... it is a FABULOUS city. I am originally from the northeast (went to college in CT, family from NY originally), so I thought I'd dislike the South, but so far I love it. I've been to Asheville several times and know people who have lived there--it has a lot of big-city amenities combined with small-town Southern charm. It gets a little touristy in the summer(sometimes reminds me of Saratoga Springs in NY) but overall it's a great place to live. The artsy subculture is a lot of fun. Good luck house-hunting!