Spring projects & graduation memories

Got some big shawls done this spring, including Find Your Fade and Fox Paws - both very "in" at the moment, if I may say so!

Find Your Fade

I loved knitting the Find Your Fade shawl, although it did take quite a while. I picked my colors from Black Cat Fibers, whom I met at Chicago's Yarn Con last year. I highly recommend this yarn producer; their fluorescent and variegated yarns in particular are spectacular.

Fox Paws

Next up was Fox Paws shawl - I loved how it turned out, but it was hard on my hands to knit and I think all the K5tog stitches gave me some pain in my thumb. At any rate, the yarn is Neighborhood Fiber Co., whom I met at Stitches Midwest last year. I want to make another one, but I think my hand needs a year to recover.

I also started another Babette blanket, this one to celebrate a friend's wedding. They requested a blue gradient, and I've enjoyed putting it together so far. 

This picture is sections 1 through 3. I've been posting them all on my Instagram.

I have also been brewing beer! This is my friend Andréa and I with our chopped up kiwis and strawberries for a fruity wit for summer! She's been keeping me honest with brewing more frequently than I was.

She's also been my beer flavor muse. I've made this beer before as the Kiwi Wit beer from Extreme Brewing. She suggested adding the strawberries. We also did a tea series last year and earlier this year. They all turned out well!

As we enter into summer (sort of - this May has been cold and rainy), I will be working the commencement and reunion weekends at my new employer, Saint Mary's College. My new boss asked staff to send in pictures from our own college commencement, and I found my high school and college robes:

Here's my high school graduation in 2000 - red robes for red and black class colors. 

The one below shows the robes from ISU in 2004 - I didn't actually walk, I borrowed the robes from a friend. That's the future husband and federal employee next to me, looking very much like hippie Jesus. (I didn't walk because I knew I'd be going onto graduate school of some kind; also ISU graduation was lengthy because of how many kids I graduated with.)

I enjoyed looking back at these photos, which showed me how far I've come and how many milestones this first generation college student passed on her way. 

You don't really understand them as milestones at the time, although maybe you use the word. I think back on each of them as something propelling me forward into the next stage; of opening up opportunities for me, most of which I never imagined.

At Saint Mary's commencement, I wore some black robes because I don't have any from DePaul Law, but I did get to wear the three-stripe velvet doctoral robes because I have a JD. Next year I will rent some crazy DePaul robes; you can see what that looked like back in 2009 here. 

It was pretty cool to see all the faculty and staff wearing their various colored robes from their Ph.D. programs, and I will be proud to fly DePaul's flag next year. Working in college development has made me more proud of my own degree work.

Next month I need to catch up on knitting and crochet projects. I have a trip planned to Canada and hope to get some work done on a new kerchief from Yarn Con 2019. I need to knock out some smaller ones to clear out my queue.