k-brow: hither and thither

A full month went by with nary a peep from me; I trust that Lucy was every bit as busy. I've been embroiled in the usual pursuits, only everything has been cranked up a notch in intensity. Work is working me in its usual "final 6 weeks of the school year" manner. I'm taking training classes with BOTH dogs, which is utter madness, and ensures that my Saturdays are completely dogcentric in a smelly, sweaty, up-too-early way. Knitting has been at a mighty standstill, with sore wrists, a lash of migraine that took 3 days to unwind, and just general pokiness. But I've broken through some of the wall, and managed to finish my Project Spectrum Fire project. Behold the flaming bamboo Clapotis! Off the needles, and not a minute too soon, as I was mightily sick of the endlessness of it all. Pretty, drapey, but I have yet to weave those ends in. There's a surprise, too, but I'll save the surprise ending for another entry. Meanwhile, warm your hands by my fire:

For those wondering what the suburban jungle of Nuuanu looks like, here's a picture of our street, just outside our front gate. Note the serious cloud cover? It's VOG - I took this shot about 2 weeks ago, right before the vog got really bad. Last Friday, it was so intense in Kailua, where I teach, that my eyes stung and my throat was sore all day. Rain has come and settled some of it, plus the tradewinds have returned to clear us up somewhat. I dont' think all the electrical wires crossing everywhichway in this area are such good feng shui, do you?

To ease my stress, I've been doing some thrifting, lately, and I scored this beautiful handmade bowl, at the Beretania Goodwill for fifty cents. I wonder what its story is? Who made it, who loved it, how it ended up sitting there on that dusty shelf? On that same trip, I also found a nice black t-shirt and some tacky plastic baskets for my classroom, to hold school supplies, so it was a huge haul. But only a month later, the shirt has a hole. meh.


In other news, Chelsea and I are KAL-ing on the Icarus shawl from Interweave Knits. Today was our cast-on day. Pix of the wee nascent sprout to come.