New Free Pattern!

The Zig to My Zag is up. It’s a bag, in case anybody didn’t know. Find it here or by clicking ‘Free Patterns’ above. There are some stunning pictures courtesy of Alethia, too!

Whoosh!

The recital was awesome! There were, as expected, a few blips, but overall, I’m extremely happy. And I’m usually very self-critical of my playing, so that’s a big deal.

Also, check this out:

Flowers!

On a sadder note, my pattern was rejected from Knitty. So I’ll be posting it with my other free patterns here soonishly, but for now be contented with this tantalizing preview:

The title’s ‘The Zig to My Zag.’ And I’m working on that other design prototype!

It’s better than crashing…

(Sorry again in advance for the lack of pictures…)

So, story of my day so far:
My senior violin recital is this afternoon, so I was printing programs. I told it to print 50 (perhaps a tiny bit optimistic) and left it. But when I came back…3 printed programs, and 47 pages with those lovely little lines that are the printer’s way of saying “INNNK! Please!!” Aaand…I’d wasted 47 sheets of the fancy paper. So I decided to drive to Staples to get the ink, since I was the doofus. Little did I know, the doofusry had barely begun…
So I drive to Staples, pick up the ink and some photo paper for my dad (expensive stuff!), and decided to go to the sub shop nearby for lunch.
First, I drove the wrong way. Oops. Then I get there, go in, buy my lunch, and realize – Ohhhh sh*t. I locked the keys in the car. Not only that, but the car was RUNNING. Yeesh.
So my dad picked me up and lectured me for longer than was really necessary considering how embarassed I already was.
Here’s hoping the rest of the day is better. Wish me luck in my recital!

P.S. I’ve started a sample of another design. Again though, no pictures because I’m hoping to submit it somewhere.

Long Time No Blog

Hi again! I was so good for awhile there, posting a couple times a week, every day sometimes. Well, I guess no good thing can last forever. Anyway, I’m back for today, at least.

We just got back from a pretty fun ski/snowboard trip during which I got to hang with some music friends and have my ego smashed by a slow-talking snowboard teacher. Fun times.

But! Knitting is happening! Secret Knitty Design Prototype #2 (aka my mom’s test knit) is in the works, and although we’ll be cutting it close, I’m reeeally hoping to have the pattern/pics done for the March 1 Knitty deadline. A couple other designs are floating around in my head, as well and may or may not begin to clamor for release once this one is finished. We shall see.

But what you all really wanted to see was…

A scarf in flight!

Yes, it is really done. I was reallyreallyreally sick of it at the end, too.

Specs:

Pattern: Trellis Scarf (rav link)

Yarn: Some inexpensive (we’re talking under $10 here if I remember correctly) alpaca I found at Stitches East a couple years ago…can’t remember brand or anything.

Needles: a pair of mismatched US5’s (one broke in the middle)

Finished Measurements: 8″ wide x 65″ long (point to point)

Ravelry: project page here

I was very distressed to notice when I finally finished this that the bound-off end wasn’t pointy like the cast-on end. Fortunately, as is so often the case, everything was fixed when blocking, and, from afar at least, the scarf appears symmetrical. My new blocking wires also proved invaluable in making the edges nice and straight as you see them there.

Nonetheless, Pixie (cat) was resolutely nonplussed:

And finally, a sneak preview of a very almost-FO (if you’re really curious, it’s already on Ravelry…):

I love that button…

A belated gift

So last year at Chanukkah, one gift my mom gave to me and my siblings was that we could each commission one knitted item from her. When I was eight or so, she had knit me a pair of amazing mittens (intricate colorwork, huge flared cuffs, lined with angora) but I’ve outgrown them. So I asked for another similar pair since she enjoys that type of knitting a lot more than I do. And now, over a year later, I finally received:

Anemoi! The book, a fantastic one by Rosemary, is one I’ve been wanting to get my hands on for awhile but was not part of the gift from my mom. Just wanted to show off my latest B&N purchase.

But back to the mittens. The best part about them, which was difficult to get a picture of:

They are indeed lined with ohsosoft angora! Heavenly.

Secret Knitty Design is chugging along. I’m working on the first full-size prototype.

Senioritis, regrettably, is also chugging along. *sigh*

Oooh, shiny!

So, on a sidenote before I start: About 30 seconds (give or take a couple days) after my homework-whining post, my teachers all decided to simultaneously heap homework upon my helpless senioritis-laden head, leading me to spend an ungodly number of hours this weekend working on sundry pointless things, and barely knitting at all. Sadness.

However, on to happiness.

I WANT one of these! My mom and I were fantasizing about just such a thing a few months ago and even contemplated attempting to design one. But this is way cooler than anything we’d have come up with. It’s not available yet, but I’m snatching it up the second it is! And $20, too! Hopefully that doesn’t mean it’s really cheaply made. I’d gladly pay at least $30 for it though, assuming it won’t fall apart.

In other news, I bought yarn for the first actual full-size version of the Secret Knitty Design. Hopefully it’ll come out well the first time and I’ll be done in time to submit it to the Spring issue. My mom volunteered to test knit it for me once I’ve actually written the pattern.

While we’re on the topic…

Or sort of, anyway. Since I’ve been obsessed with working on the Secret Design and therefore don’t have any pictures for you, I thought I’d continue the college/deadliney theme. I find out tomorrow if I’m a semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search. Statistically, I have about a 50% chance. My advisor from my project said I had a 60% chance, which I took as a compliment since he rarely miscalculates anything.

*crosses fingers*

Many things

I’ll start with the icky news, then if you read it, you get a reward with happy stuff.

To explain the icky news, I need to impart some good news, though. We finally went skiing today! Sort of. For the morning, I snowboarded, which I think I did a total of once last season, so I was pretty rusty. By lunchtime, I was finally getting the hang of turning again. Sorry, no pictures – you think I trust myself not to fall on a camera?! But on the lift up for our last run before lunch, I was fixing my helmet and had taken off my glasses. As I put them back on, one of the lenses popped out and fell down to the ground. We (my mom and I) spent about 15 minutes searching for it – I do have Transitions lenses, so it was dark-colored. But we didn’t find it. I wasn’t really comfortable snowboarding without good vision, but I’m a pretty competent skier, so I figured I would just ski for the afternoon – I had brought my skis as well.
However, when I went to put my skis on, it turned out that the people at the shop had adjusted the bindings entirely incorrectly. They were literally about 3 inches too far apart! And the irritating thing was, I didn’t even get new boots, so they shouldn’t have done anything at all to the bindings! I just left my skis for a tuneup.
Annoyed but not to be defeated after working so hard to convince Mother Dearest to take us, I put on my skiboards and had fun for the rest of the day. On the way home (1.2 hours or so), I could fortunately work on My So Called Scarf, which I don’t need to see too well for.
When I got home, I put on my old pair of glasses. Good news: I can see! Bad news: Old prescription now makes me dizzzzzy. Not so fun.

Anyway, done with my rant. On to cool stuff! With pictures! Which you’re not allowed to comment upon if you don’t prove that you read the above woes and misery. :P

My So Called Scarf goes.

As does the bunny hat! I really like how this is coming out, so I think I’ll write up the pattern. By the way, mine’s out of Blizzard and pink malabrigo (held double to match the gauge of the Blizzard). Here’s an incipient ear (one out of three…). It’s double-sided, so the back of this is the brownyblackgrey color, as you can kinda see in the next picture.

It’s a very soft hat, and I’ve told my sister that she must wear it every day. She looked a little worried…