i'm free!

The dissertation is done, defended, and turned in. I'm pretty much officially free from academia for a little while. There are still papers to be submitted for publication and other little projects to work on at my leisure, but for the most part, I am free!

I thought I would want to jump right back into knitting, sewing, and cooking...but I guess my body wanted me to do nothing but sleep and lay around like a big vegetable for the past week. I think I'm finally starting to feel a little more motivation now, so hopefully I can run with it.

The lovely little butterfly above is a wee wonderfuls pattern, and was heavily influenced by Meg's interpretation of the pattern on her blog. I haven't made Meg's chrysalis yet, but I did attach the wings by velcro so I could do that at some point in the future. I ordered some brown flannel fabric that might be perfect.

My butterfly is not perfect...It was my first hand sewing project of this type and I learned a lot. My felt was slightly low quality. I ordered it thinking it was 100% wool, but it turned out to be a blend...at least it is formaldehyde free and safe for babies to gnaw on. Also, I didn't have a fine sharp needle that had a big enough eye to fit the strands of embroidery floss through. These two limitations led to much cursing as I basically mutilated the felt while trying to sew. I eventually figured out a solution - two strands of embroidery floss instead of three, with one of my small-eyed sharp needles...and the rest went much more smoothly.

Anyway, I'm really happy with this cute little project and think I'll probably make another one of these days to see if I have improved enough to make one that is a little less lopsided!