Syndactyl Salutations

Thoughts on writing, knitting, and the world around me.

Friday, November 25, 2005

I Got In

One of the fringe benefits of participating in the PATH Program at Kripalu is getting to take programs at no or low cost. My two month stay entitled me to one, and I found out today that I got into my choice.

So, next weekend, the final weekend of my stay, I will be taking The Yoga of Knitting. Karen Allen has a lovely little knitwear shop in Great Barrington Massachusetts. She makes really funky sweaters on a knitting machine. I happened to meet her a couple of weeks ago when I went to check out the shop and the rest of the town. She was gracious and approachable, and I really look forward to taking the workshop.

In anticipation, I placed an order, so that I would have adequate, correct materials to work with. I can't wait! I'll tell you all about it on the other side.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Two More Weeks

We are getting a lot of heavy, wet snow right now and it's supposed to last for a couple of days, I believe. I am in the mood for an alone day. I have the day off, which makes it a bit easier, but I'm living in a building with lots of other people, which makes it more difficult.

I did get some alone time this morning, at the top of the building in a room made mostly of windows, until I was kicked out fairly nicely because it was about to be used for a meeting.

Two weeks from today I will be driving off the property and heading for the Mass Turnpike headed west. I'm ready. I'm sure I'll get a few more good and useful experiences under my belt in the next couple of weeks, but I'm ready to rejoin life at large and get back to my space and my family and Ebbie, and all of the ups and downs that go along with all of them.

Sleeping in a room with one other person, rather than nearly twenty will be heaven. Eating food prepared for two instead of two hundred, also wonderful. Not living with my coworkers, priceless.

I've had a good experience here overall, but I'm glad I decided to come for two months rather than more. I am too independent and solitary to be able to live and eat and work in such close quarters for too long.

Besides, I'm having a hard time knitting here. I'm still on the sock I started the day I arrived, I haven't finished the hat I started weeks ago, it's quite unnerving. I'm not writing either, as evidenced by the sparse output of the blog, even though I have the ease of the laptop.

Hope all are well, Happy Thanksgiving to any Americans, at home or abroad. I'll be having turkey soup in the basement on Thursday, drink a glass of wine for me, if you do that sort of thing.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Posting Just to Post

I wandered on over to Blogger to put up a new post, then realized I don't really have much to say.

The weather is much better than it has been since the first couple days I spent in early October. I walked into town and back yesterday, which was nice and relaxing and just what I needed.

I have brought someone into the knitting fold. She bought a scarf kit a couple of weeks ago at Colorful Stitches. She finished it yesterday, only because she was holding off working on it until she could get back and buy more yarn for another scarf. She bought yarn for three more and I showed her how to bind off. Sometime today we'll weave the ends in and give the scarf a bath. She was so thrilled, and I was at least that happy for her.

There are quite a few knitters who pass in and out of here. It's rare for me to go a day without seeing at least one person knitting in one of the lounge areas.

I'm still struggling with why exactly I am here and whether or not I actually fit in. I don't think I do, entirely, but I'm okay with that. I have five more weeks to figure things out, and I am looking forward to that opportunity, but I'm also looking forward to getting home and back to my real life. I know I'm putting things off by being here, and it's becoming more important to me to be able to get home and deal with them than it was when I left, so I guess I must be getting something out of being here.

I'm not doing much knitting or spinning here. Time is strange, and even though my work hours are shorter than they would be at home, it feels like more of my time is occupied, in more intense ways. Participating in the PATH program is definitely NOT a route to relaxation.

I was going to do NaNoWriMo again this year, but I don't think I'm going to. The pace is just too strange to accommodate it. I'll do it again eventually, but the concentration needed is far from available.

Best to all.