Fresh Start

I recently shut down the blog I'd been writing for nearly four years. The title of that blog was The Indulgence of Self and prior to that, I called it Voglio Essere, which is Italian for I want to be. At the time, it was a necessary space. But as I move into my *gasp* thirties, I realize that I know what I want to be and self absorbed ain't it. So I decided it was time for a blog that focused on the things that were really important.


So a bit about me. I'm a recent graduate from an MFA program in fiction writing and while I'm enjoying a year long reprieve from the "real world"; that is, a 9 to 5 job and life in a big city (aka my former life) I'm working on my novel, a few short stories, a stack of unread book, and a lot of knitting projects. I might even throw in a word or two about my attempts at personal fitness and some pictures of my work as an amateur cook.


When I left the city, I was really excited to learn how to knit. When I was eight or nine, my grandmother taught me how to crochet and I never really learned anything beyond basic scarf making. But since my move, I've taken up knitting in a serious way. This picture is of one of my favorite projects so far, The Daphne purse from Knitting Little Luxuries. It's a herringbone stitch pattern and the yarn is Hempwol from hemp for knitting My gauge was off but I liked the way the bag came out in the end. The pattern was easy to follow but a little repetitive.  Totally worth it in the end. I machine and hand sewed the lining, with a beautiful turquoise and fuchsia fabric I bought at one of the LYSs in town. The original bag was embroidered, but I don't have the patients for that, so I went on a button search and sewed on these beautiful and unique buttons I found in a couple of different states.

This is a scarf I made when I was just starting to get back into the habit of handling yarn. I made this light green scarf for one of the writers teaching during my first semester of grad school. He's doing splendidly now, and I like to think of him wearing the scarf I made into fancy parties with other writing luminaries. It's crochet even though the book under it is a knitting essential.