Since my academic trajectory has been temporarily derailed due to international drama, I've been doing a whole lot of watching t.v., crocheting, and reading.
Mainly in the watching t.v. category I've been catching up on past seasons of
Supernatural. I used to watch it regularly then quit for several seasons. One day a friend mentioned on Facebook she was very sad about the demise of certain characters on the show including Castiel. Who? I asked. "The angel on
Supernatural. You will love him." So then I had to go back and watch all the episodes I'd missed. I've made it almost to the end of season 6. And I do love Cas. Clearly the universe decided to keep me in the U.S. so that I could enjoy the show more fully. If I'd gone to Ukraine in December I'd have never watched season 5, which is by far my favorite.
Crocheting: My brother bought me a book for Christmas**. It has been a wonderful guide - not so much for patterns, but for the basics I never bothered to learn. I've always said that I can't read patterns, but now I think it is more that I don't like patterns. For instance, the hat I made (pictures below) I started from the pattern I used on the last hat* but only for the first 5 rows. Then I just played around with the stitches and accidentally learned how to make ruffles. So there you go. The daisy on the hat I did learn to make from the book. The scarf also posted below is probably my favorite of everything I've ever made. I've been wearing a lot of black as an excuse to wear the scarf every day.
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| Possibly too cute, not sure if I'll ever wear it anywhere, but since I made it up all by myself I'm pretty proud. |
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| Braided some yarn to make a "ribbon." This is functional as well as aesthetic. The hat was a bit too floppy so the yarn works as a drawstring to tighten it up around my head. |
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| A daisy. This was surprisingly easy. Only messed it up once ;) |
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| Not sure how well you can see this here, but it sparkles! |
As far as the reading part goes, its mostly been non-academic (see previous post). I did, however, make a trip to the library for some books on theory. I'm not sure if I'll ever read all of them, they are mostly by French authors and therefore dense. Its mainly stuff I should have read more of a long time ago.
On a positive note, as my co-worker said the other day "everything happens for a reason." I think the reason I've been foiled in my fieldwork attempts is because it was way too cold at my fieldwork site and I would have died. Or starved. Or been a hermit for three weeks at least. The universe is just waiting for it to warm up over there and then I can go.
*That failed to fit me. I posted about it. It has, I'm happy to say, found a new home with a friend of mine who wears it all the time!
** In case anyone cares, this is the book Teach Yourself Visually - Crochet
