And some knitting

I turned the corner (literally: started the decrease rows) on the Oscilloscope shawl. Finally, I can see how the pattern works. Sometimes, with some patterns, I immediately "get" where it is going, but this one took a lot longer to figure out....I had a hard time telling which edge was the top and which was the bottom, but it's clear now.

I don't think I'm going to take either sweater with me on my trip. Too much wool to carry, and I feel more in the mood for small projects right now. So it will be the oscilloscope shawl, and the two, maybe three, pairs of socks, and then some new small stuff to start.

I say "maybe three" pairs of socks because I turned the heel on the first Twilightilicious (Twilicious? I don't know what they're calling it) sock last night. These are the ones knit of a striping KnitPicks yarn that look like the colors in Twilight Sparkle. This has been my invigiliating project because the big purple rectangular thing is too hot to carry around, and also, I'm kind of bored with it. For the socks, I'm using one of the "simple ribbed sock" patterns from Vintage Knitting Socks. (I wish Nancy Bush would do a volume 2 of that....I'm sure there are more cool Weldon's patterns that could be translated to modern-day). This one is the "Madder Ribbed Sock." I chose the pattern in part because the heel turn is the Dutch or Horseshoe heel. Horseshoe heel - see what I did there? Little things like that amuse me. And these days, I have to grab onto every little amusing thing I can.

***

Yes, I am learning Raindrop Prelude. I am not very good at it yet and I have to keep telling myself that it is a challenging piece and it just needs a lot of work. Another challenge with it is that I think it was written for someone with larger hands than I have - in a couple places, as it is written (at least, the version I have), you're asked to reach an octave + 2 or +3 in your left hand and I can't DO that with one hand. Fortunately, both places I've seen that I can hit the top key of that chord with the thumb of my right hand and it works out.

An unfortunate side effect of the stress over the whole student-not-finish-project mess is that I lose patience in other areas of my life, namely, with myself while I am practicing. I "yelled at" myself Saturday morning for not being able to do better. I don't like that, I don't think it helps (I wound up shaking and not being able to play very well), but I just reach points where I have to snap....and often the person I wind up snapping at is myself, not because I deserve it, but because in some twisted way, it's easier to get angry with myself (no confrontation) then to get angry at another person, even if they might deserve it, because it could lead to confrontation.

Oh well. My last lesson until summer is today. I guess I've gotten a bit better at the Raindrop Prelude over the week.