Seasons of Love

How do you measure a year?

Rent, the stage musical as well as the movie version, has shaped a lot of my beliefs around living and what it means to exist. (Given my liberal arts education, I can of course look back and see the problematic aspects of the storyline, but for the sake of argument, let's set those aside for now.)

One of the most famous songs from the musical, as well as in general as a Broadway tune, is "Seasons of Love" (or you may recognize it by the chorus, "525,600 minutes/525,000 moments so dear/525,600 minutes/How do you measure, measure a year"). Here's the movie version if you want to check that out.

I've been reflecting on that idea a lot lately, especially since I have begun documenting and essentially scrapbooking my life in my journals and planners. And as December 24, 9pm, Eastern Standard time approaches (Rent reference), I thought I'd reflect back on what made up my year of 2018.

A Knitter's Guide to the Holiday Season

If you have a good friend or family member who knits, I'm gonna bet you have at least one hand-stitched, beautifully crafted, thoughtful item that took hours of time, gifted to you like it was nothing. We knitters are often modest, normalizing these hours of handmade labor as no big deal.

As the holiday season grows near, you may be fretting about how to provide for the knitter in your life who is most likely going to make you something thoughtful and time-consuming. Let me rephrase-- you SHOULD be fretting. The average sock takes about 17,000 stitches. Not to mention there's two of them-- that's 34,000 hand crafted stitches, for the math nerds out there.

Never doubt the knitter. We are able to create magic with sticks and string.

Plane ride knitting

Working on a teal slouchy hat with a twisted cable design. If I finish it in time hopefully I'll gift it to my host family in Costa Rica 

Knitting Projects: Socks

This blog will definitely be a platform for me to display/brag about my latest knitting projects. My current accomplishment: I just finished my first pair of socks!! They have yet to be gifted away, though Aunt Debbie (Hudson) did request some booties so she may have first dibs. 

Socks were the next challenge I set out to figure out. I've heard that turning the heel was the hardest part; I actually found it not as terrible as I thought, though I simply did loathe picking up stitches for the gusset (the triangular part next to the heel). The pattern I used was called "Easy Peasy Socks" and I found it on ravelry. It was very clear, step by step, and was created for a beginner sock maker like myself. I can attach the PDF of the pattern when I am on my computer. 

I do think they came out very nicely! I used Red Heart Soft yarn in the light blue color. It was on sale at michaels. If you do end up trying out this pattern, I highly suggest buying two balls of yarn. I got halfway through my second sock when I ran out of yarn. I ended up starting over, because I had made some mistakes anyways, but then there was a delay in making the second sock so it was a bit annoying. 

(I don't think anyone would think I got paid or sponsored for this post, but for the record, I did not. This was the pattern I used; it's a free pattern anyways. And the yarn is the one I used because I like this brand and its soft).

Here are the socks!!