This sweater hates me

Deep Breath NaKniSweMoDo09 #? WIP, originally uploaded by Soasa Designs.

I don't know what it is about this sweater! If you click through you'll notice that this photo was taken in February. FEBRUARY, and it's still an accurate representation of this sweater! (Not to mention that I started it on January 1st.) I stole the tips from it a couple months ago, and left a note in the bag stating what size they were. Turns out, I was wrong about the size (which explains why my other project wasn't getting gauge)so when I put the tips back on last week, they were a size too big. I managed to knit 4 inches, at about 300 stitches per round before I realized it was coming out too big. I set it aside for another week. When I picked it up I finally recognized the problem. Riiiiiiiiiip. It is not fun picking up 300 laceweight stitches. NOT FUN.

In any case, I'm knitting on it again, trying to catch myself back up, but because the yarn is coned I can't take it on my trip with me...so it's going to get shelved again in two weeks! Poor sweater...

...Unless (lightbulb!) I can figure out how to wind a center-pull ball off the cone without cutting the working yarn. This really would be the perfect travel project...

Do you have a project that plagues you? Tell me about it!

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On an unrelated note, insert whining about being sick, forgetting my script the first time I went to the lab for blood work, repeating the hour long trip, crying in public, and having an incredibly bad headache. I miss my mom.

I decided that if there was ever a time for another installment of BSPT this was it. So, without further ado...

Big, small, profound and trivial things I am grateful to have discovered since coming to Argentina:

I can travel. 15 hours in a sleeper bus really isn't all that bad, and it's not very expensive!

I love my 10-15 minute walk from the Subte to UCA and back. It's time to myself.

I am learning to cook, and enjoying it!

Living with a sorority girl scared me into flossing every single day. My teeth are happy for it.

I am living in a foreign country.

I love the small acting troup that sometimes ends up in the same Subte car as me. Sometimes I see them out in the real world...it's like spotting a celebrity!

What are you grateful for? What have you recently discovered? Tell me!!

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Rituals

Morning Ritual, originally uploaded by Soasa Designs.

I love my maté. Really love it. A couple weeks ago I bought that great thermos on the left. It's incredible! I put hot water in it at 7am and opened it at 2:30pm and it burned me!

Tons of people in Argentina drink maté, but not nearly as many as do in Uruguay. In Uruguay every second or third person has a thermos under their arm, everywhere they go. Here in Argentina it's a really communal activity, similar to smoking a bowl, with it's own etiquette and language. (Except that it's legal, and instead of giving you munchies it makes you less hungry, and instead of making you tired it gives you energy.) One unspoken rule is that when you're sick you don't drink from a shared maté, which means that for more than a month I've been drinking my maté all alone. This might seem sad, but I actually enjoy my little quiet morning ritual.

I've started a new ritual with myself, and I thought it particularly appropriate to share it here. I've turned into a real whiner in the last couple of months. It's hard to read and hear about all my friends starting their gardens, going on hikes, and heading off to festivals when I'm here in Argentina, at a point in my trip that's pretty anticlimactic. At this point I just live here, and there's no dirt to put my feet in. I've worked on a farm for two summers now, and I miss it! I'm really just homesick, I know, but it makes me feel resentful towards Argentina, which is wrong!

My new ritual involves writing in my journal, my real journal. I've started to keep a list of everything I'm grateful for, or that I've learned or discovered since I've been here. It' helps! I had an incredibly productive day yesterday, based on the fact that I realized the upside of having too much free time! This is the free time I always wanted! I had two fabulous ideas yesterday, and the wheels are in motion to actually pursue them!

I've decided to share some of my list each week, so here's today's bunch! It's not all significant and huge, but it all makes a difference in my life.

Big, small, profound and trivial things I am grateful to have discovered since coming to Argentina:
I can converse, more or less, in Spanish!
I love drinking maté with friends, but I also love my morning ritual
I can enjoy a beer, in a bar, with the right friends
Ceci, Steve, Ali and Ashley
I have time to knit
I got to explore the city with Mom and Paula, it was wonderful!

The list is really long, so I'm breaking it up over time.

Now, I want to know, what are your rituals? What keeps you on track? What never fails to bring you joy?

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