You don't know what you've got...til you drag of out of the closet and make a huge pile of it

This is my stash. Well, minus about 6 WIP's, but basically, this is my stash. I am in the process of readying the guest room for my summer subletter, and that means emptying out the closet. After dragging all the yarn out of the closet and piling it on the bed, I had only two thoughts: "it's more than I realized" and "but thank goodness I'm still hundreds of skeins away from SABLE.*" I decided it deserved a picture.

Ben very graciously offered to be in the picture to give a sense of scale. You'll notice he's perched atop a set of plastic drawers (full of yarn, of course). That's a little something I bought back when I thought my yarn obsession could be controlled by limiting "convenient" storage space. Don't laugh--I really thought that! Seeing all this makes me feel way better about being on a yarn diet until next April. I (might) not run out. Now I just have to get my act together to catalogue and photograph it all for Ravelry...

*Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy (coined by Stephanie, of course)

Long live the Queen

I don't know how I missed this, but thanks to Rabbitch, I just learned that yesterday was Freddy Mercury Day. The music of Queen and Freddy Mercury saw me through the best and the worst of my high school years, and it is some of the only music that I listened to then that I still blast and sing along to at the top of my lungs every time I hear it. And some interesting trivia: did you know he was a Parsi?

Look over there! Alpacas!

Lacking anything new to show you, and also still not having finished seaming the alpaca sweater for Taz, I offer you these two cuties I saw at MDSW two weeks ago (which I now realize I don't have as many pictures from as I thought I did).

There hasn't been much knitting, an there has been much stress, mainly about how many of us at work are still going to have jobs to go to a month from now. It recently occurred to me that if I were giving myself more knitting time, I would not be giving myself an ulcer (no, I don't really think I have one). Lesson learned: I'm taking tomorrow off!

Not ready to say goodbye

I love this yarn and this sweater sooo much, I almost don't want the joy to end (which might be why it's nearly 6 months late). I'm almost done seaming Taz's sweater. I might even finish it before his birthday on Cinco de Mayo, but he won't get it until my next visit to Spain--I'm not entrusting this to any postal or delivery service!

More soon on MDSW, including pics of my treasures and maybe some cute animals.

My commute

I was proud of myself for biking both to and from work yesterday (12.25 miles each way). It had been a couple months since I was last on the bike, and I hadn't realized how much I missed it until I got on it this morning. I get such a different sense of my own neighborhood when I bike through it. I also love to watch the seasons progress in the different areas I pass through on my way to work. Sometimes I try to count how many different kinds of birds I see on my ride, but today I got distracted after the redwinged blackbird and the mockingbird (who made the sounds of about 6 different birds as I rode past). I was a bit out of shape, so the trip took me longer than usual, but I got as much exercise as if I spent 2 hours in the gym, and I didn't have to take out any extra time to do it!

Where on earth has she been?

Well, most recently, I was in Barcelona:


Barcelona at sunset from Parc Guell. Pic thanks to this site.

But only for 3 weeks, not for the year-plus that I've been absent from the blog. There's no way you want to hear about everything that happened in the past year (and no way my fingers would hold out to type that long either). Suffice to say, it's been busy, especially on the job end of things, and there hasn't been nearly enough knitting, but it's been good.

Now for the reason I was in Barcelona: Taz is doing a 12-month MBA program there, and I was helping him get settled in. We spent a lot of time apartment hunting, and during the first two weeks, he was in an intensive Spanish class for 6 hours a day. We finally found an awesome apartment right before I had to leave to come back, but the long search allowed us to get to know some neighborhoods of Barcelona that one never normally sees as just a tourist, and we also met some really cool people that I think he will remain friends with.

In between the end of the Spanish class and finishing the apartment search, we managed to get away for a 4-day trip for our 3rd anniversary (of wedding #1). We spent the first two nights in Girona, which is an absolutely gorgeous medieval town, with most of the walls still intact, so we walked around them one evening. The second two nights we spent in Figueres, which is home to the Dali Theater and Museum. However our first day there, instead of going to the museum, we drove the short distance to Cadaques, out on the coast, to see Dali's summer house in nearby Port Lligat, and also go for a hike on the easternmost point in Spain. The second day was rainy, so we went to the very crowded museum. My favorite part was a series of paintings of stones that formed other figures. This photo doesn't do them justice, but it's the only one I could find.

The last couple days in Barcelona, after we moved into the new place, were spent grocery shopping and getting to know the new neighborhood. It is really cool to be able to picture where he lives and goes about his daily life. Saying goodbye at the airport was one of the hardest things I've done, and the intensity with which I miss him doesn't seem to be lessening as the days pass, but we are talking on the phone as often as possible, and focusing on my next visit, which is only about 2 months away. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get my head back into my work, and also into my knitting. I'm currently seaming a sweater for Taz, and am close to having several other FOs to show you. Stay tuned--I promise not to go away for so long again!!

Hanami

The National Cherry Blossom Festival is this week, and they are just gorgeous. I went walking with an old friend among the blossoms on Friday evening before it got too cold, and watched the sunset over the cherry-tree-ringed Tidal Basin. A peacful end to a hectic week (or several, if my blogging is any indication). It made me want to go buy some pale pink laceweight yarn and cast on for Hanami.