TALK about a roller-coaster

Okay. So today was Ivy Day (ALL the Ivies release their admissions today, although I’d already heard a yes from Dartmouth). Guaranteed drama right there, right?

I was hanging out at school with the visiting glass artists, trying to make stuff and not freak out, but gave that up around 4:50 (decisions supposed to come out 5PM or later, Harvard via email, Yale and Brown online), since my stomach had a growing population of butterflies and I was jittery, which is not a good state of being in front of a ~2000 degree flame. Circa 5:01 I borrow my friend E’s laptop to check. BAM. Rejected from Brown. BAM again 30 seconds later. Rejected from Harvard.

REELING. OUCH. Now PLEASE don’t take this the wrong way because I’m pretty sure I’m not an arrogant person, but I was an Intel Semifinalist (one of 300) and got a perfect ACT score (one of 176 on that particular test, don’t know how many for that year). My GPA is 3.96. By the end of this year, I’ll have taken 8 AP exams, and have gotten 5’s on the three I’ve already taken. I biked 100 miles to support cancer research. I sent them a CD of advanced violin repertoire and improvised music. WHAT DO THESE PEOPLE WANT?!

Needless to say, I was pretty crushed. I called my mom to let her know, and (to my credit) did not cry at all. She was pretty shocked. About three minutes later she called me back. “Are you SURE Brown rejected you? You can’t write to them and get onto some kind of waitlist or something?” She was clearly more desperate than I, or more hopeful. I explained that it seemed pretty definite but admitted I hadn’t read much more of the letter past ‘we regret to inform you…’ I gave her my Brown and Yale admissions ID’s and passwords so she could see and check, respectively, since E was leaving and I wouldn’t have laptop access.

Perhaps ten minutes after that, my phone rings again. I put down the molten glass to answer, and she says, “You’re in!” I was completely confused – did she have some secret Brown connection?

“No, YALE!”

Swoop. “Thank freaking goodness.”

A Quick FO

(in contrast to my other WIP’s – although Alethia wants one now, too, so I’ll have another quickie project to work on…)

Well, the photography’s mediocre, but I’m giving it to him (my fantastic glass teacher) tomorrow, so it’s the best that’s happening.

Pattern: Thorpe by Kirsten Kapur

Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool held double-stranded; held single-stranded with one strand of some anonymous alpaca (possibly from Blue Sky) for the brim

Needles: US #6

Great, well-written pattern that knits up quickly – great gift!

P.S. Said glass teacher, who also does pottery, is trading me something for this beauty. I’m excited!

P.P.S. 5 days until I can go online to find out from Yale, Brown, and probably some other places, too! *nervous*

Love at First Sight

I have a vehicle to bring to college!

Meet Consuela (I like giving things Spanish names – my phone is Federico, for instance):

Isn’t she gorgeous? It’s nigh on impossible to capture the gloriousness that is this red color. And fenders! Does life get any better?

I.

Love.

Every.

Single.

Inch.

Is it obvious? Oh, and she has a friend, too:

A TIP (Thorpe In Progress) for my glass teacher. Recognize the yarn?

Also, the beaded shawl/wrap/thing is looking really good, but I don’t have any good pictures of it.

As far as school, senioritis is a pretty constant thing now – it used to come and go. I’m pretty much doing the bare minimum to maintain my GPA (which is, granted, high…) at this point, which isn’t much because I started off the year really strong so I can slack off without my yearlong grades really suffering. I’m 8-0 for colleges so far, though! Besides for the Yale deferment, which totally doesn’t count, since it’s not an actual decision. Maybe 8-0-1, if you insist…

Various WIP’s

A major bout of senioritis hit me today, so when I got home, I played Tetris for 20 minutes, printed my English essay, did a super-half-assed job on my Spanish homework, and then set out to take some artful pictures.

First, we have a giant doily:

Okay, yeah, not that artful, but it was the most color-accurate. And yes, this is Hemlock Ring, which despite it’s apparent intricacy, is deliciously mindless once you get past the center section.

And next (love this pic)…

Lots and lots of beads to thread. The idea here is to make myself a shawl to wear to the prom.

P.S. The knitting around here should be quite productive in the near future due to the aforementioned senioritis as well as an extremely knitting-friendly schedule this trimester (literally four periods that I can knit through almost all the time).

P.P.S. I got accepted to Middlebury today!

A Spectacularly Snazzy Scarf

WARNING: VERY PICTURE-HEAVY POST.

Remember that lovely Manos from Stitches? Well, it has found its home:

And my sister, who was so reluctant to help me photograph those mittens, got quite picture-happy on this one (probably had something to do with our deal that I’d drive her to GameStop to get a new Wii game if she’d take pictures…).

Don't I look sophisticated? Yes, I made the mittens, too. No, there's nothing in that mug...

I just noticed that the word 'scarf' is typed entirely with the left hand. Convenient...

The sophistication could only last so long.

Octopus (pentapus?) fingers!

The corniness! It buuuurns! ...I like this picture anyway.

Contemplating tassels. Intently.

Specs:

Pattern: My own, strongly inspired by an Interweave Knits scarf.

Yarn: Manos del Uruguay silk blend…mmmm…it’s positively fabulous to knit with, seriously. Ate up a lot though – almost all of each of the five skeins.

Needles: US4

Ravelry: project page here

Estimated Time: ~20 minutes/row * 16 rows/stripe * 5 stripes = ~1,600 minutes or almost 27 hours. And since the timing of a row was in the garter stripe and there were two seed stitch stripes, it’s probably actually more than that. Scary to think about…

Commence frolicking!

This one (above, I mean) is my new facebook profile pic.

"Take pictures of me in it now. It looks soft."

She clearly was not disappointed.

Good times…

Thrums! (Part 2)

Well, the incipient mitten in the original post was actually ripped back to the ribbing because my thrums were way too huge and the mitten was going to be more like a small pillow. But these, since the friend that they’re for has such teeny hands, were really a very small amount of knitting and were finished very quickly anyway. Here are some pictures, which I find quite impressive since my unwilling model only allowed me to take two.

Specs:

Pattern: Basic Mittens from Ann Budd’s the Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns

Yarn: Mmmmmalabrigo!

Needles: US6 (I think) for ribbing, US8 for mittens

Ravelry: project page here

I’m not sure what the fiber for the thrums was, some wool I found in my stash.

Would temperature * time be a good indicator of burn severity?

Or would it be time squared?
What temperature scale would one use?
You’d probably have to take into account the difference in temp between the skin and whatever was burning it, too…

…why yes, I did just finish my physics homework and then burn myself making lunch right before orchestra rehearsal. However did you guess?

But I’m happy anyway because yesterday I found out that I got into Williams!!! It’s not my tippytop choice but it means I won’t have to go to any of my safety schools! Hurray!! After being deferred from Yale, I started doubting myself left and right even after the Intel semifinalistness, national merit finalistness, and getting to the second level of AMC (American Mathematics Competition). So it’s comforting to have heard definitively from somewhere.

I’m not a reject! :D