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…

I am indeed alive.

P.P.S.: Another box appeared in my sidebar…box of ambisiosity. Probably not a word.

P.S.: I entered a contest. All you have to do to enter is measure your hands so Knitasaur can design some sweet gloves, and you get a chance to win yarn! And please say I sent you!

Wow, I haven’t done a real post in awhile. With AP’s, biking, and the violin recital, I have had little to no time.

First off – some FO’s:

Pattern: Braided Neckpiece by Teva Durham, from her book, Loop-d-Loop (ravelry link)
Yarn: My mom’s handspun BFL
Needles: 9, I think…
Mods: My gauge was 3.5 instead of 3 so I had to add a few stitches to everything
Comments: I love how it turned out, but the woven part was a bit tedious – lots of ends to weave in…
Also, I’m really proud of that first photo. I’ve been drooling over brooklyntweed’s photography, and actually asked him advice awhile ago – I think this is the closest to his caliber I’ve ever gotten. :D (the second photo’s just to have some idea what it looks like on a real human)

Incidentally, it’s also a good cat sleeping bag.

Pattern: Lucy Bag from Two Old Bags (ravelry link)
Yarn: Harrisville somethingorother
Needle: 10
Mods: None
Comments: As evidenced by the fact that this is the second one I’ve made – I really like this pattern.

(this one’s mainly because you can see my new haircut, which I really like)

Pattern: My own, general vicinity of stitch numbers obtained from Sweater Wizard
Yarn: Nashua Creative Focus Brushed Alpaca
Needle: 4, maybe?
Comments: It’s a bit scratchy – hopefully that will be remedied by blocking. But it’s also a bit small. My sister might end up wearing this more than I do.

(we had fun photographing this one…)

Pattern: Chain Link Scarf by Teva Durham from Loop-d-Loop (ravelry link)
Mods: I did each loop in a different stitch instead of all stockinette, also I have no idea if I used the same number of stitches as she called for in any case
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Angora
Needle: 7? I should keep better track of these things – it’d be good to know what needle I used for various yarns…
Comments: Angora…soooffffft…

All of these except for the sweater will be possible prizes at a raffle tonight at my brother’s recital to support our bike ride. We did the same at my recital on Friday and raised over $200!

‘K, now that I’ve finally posted all those…Oh, but there will be more! I’ve vowed to myself that from now until I have many fewer UFO’s/WIP’s than currently, I will finish at least two of them for every one new project I start. I call this endeavor The Finishing…sounds dramatic. I hope to have significantly reduced the pile by the end of the summer. And for awhile, there will be lots of FO’s because I’ve realized I have a TON of almost-FO’s. At least two scarves and some hats, among other things. Because those are the kind of things I start on a whim when I need a project to do doing a movie or something.

Anyways, my life…AP’s are done! Finals approach, but not too quickly. My violin recital went really well. I’m biking a lot. Oh yeah, and my sister, two of my friends, and I were a trivia bowl team yesterday and we came in second to win movie tickets! And that’s the Cliffsnotes version.

I love yarn people

Today I taught the second class of the second session of my kids’ class at my LYS. There’s only one girl enrolled this time, but it’s pretty fun – she caught on really fast and has already made two feet of scarf and learned to purl! Also, said LYS was having a sale, and there was the typical atmosphere: more crowded than usual, and people scattered on the floor amidst large piles of yarn, agonizing over colors. I myself got some Silky Wool at a lovely $3 per skein!

I think it will become herringbone mitts (Ravelry link) and the leftover reddish some kind of scarf like this, this, this, this (yes, I KNOW that’s not a scarf), this, or this. Those are all Ravelry links, as well. Any preferences/new suggestions? The yarn in the picture is all I have, so there’ll probably be 1.5ish skeins of the red left for the scarf/whatever. And yes, I know I’ll have to fudge the cast-on number and/or length. ;)

DANG, finding all those links makes me reallyreallyreally want to start these…I think my goal will be to finish the sweater by the end of break so I can (sorta) justify starting something. I mean, not that I don’t have a bajillion WIP’s or anything…

But truly, one could never find a place where a sixteen-year-old girl would be treated so nicely by middle-aged women than at a yarn store when they can tell she’s really ‘into it.’ As I wandered the sale before my student arrived, I had so many genuinely pleasant conversations with people I would certainly never talk to in a supermarket.

Basically, today was a nice day. :)

P.S. I’m (hopefully – I’ve heard the sales are CRAZY) going to buy this when Dee at Posh Yarn updates her store tomorrow:

(it’s sock yarn)

Isn’t it GORGEOUS? And it’s 70% merino, 30% CASHMERE…*drools, careful not to hit the yarn*

P.P.S: We’re leaving early on Monday for our ski/snowboard trip and won’t be back ’til Thursday evening, so don’t expect to hear from me!

P.P.P.S (I SWEAR it’s the last one): How awesome is this bag? I reallyreally want it (it’d be the COOLEST knitting bag EVER), but it’s kinda expensive ($72, which isn’t bad for a really nice bag, but is a lot for me, and I already have plenty of bags…).

Quick reminder…

For Ravelers – don’t forget to vote in The Bobbys! I’m up for ‘Most Unusual Project,’ and I’d obviously appreciate your vote, but please do vote for the multiple awesome things in every category!

Ah well…

Well, I vowed to myself that I would try to write 4,000 words today, but as of now (8:24PM) I’m still behind for the day. I’m hoping to write at least 2,000 though and stay ahead of the game. But syzygy’s over and we’re having fun! I’ll have time later…hopefully. We took a lot of pictures of knitted things, so there are many fun pictures up now, such as pictures of the Silky Shrug, the Ruanigan, and my current project, the Jaywalker socks. I think I may get addicted to socks. They’ll be good for the sale, anyway.
I particularly like this picture of the shrug:

An ‘action photo,’ you might say.

Well, back to NaNo. Hopefully.

*sigh of relief*

At long last, I am CAUGHT UP in NaNoWriMo! I’ve been 6,000+ words behind for a week or so now, and with two monumental days yesterday and today, I am at last on target! For the rest of this break (3 more days), I hope to write at least 3,000 a day and get ahead by a goodly amount since swim meets are coming up, so practices are getting tough and I’ll be exhausted. Plus, homework and crap as usual.

Anyways, happy Thanksgiving! We had (you guessed it) turkey, stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, crescent rolls, and salad for dinner and I made an apple pie which we will be having soon with vanilla ice cream. I salivate just thinking about it.

Tomorrow, syzygy (I don’t know if she (or more likely, her mom) is comfortable with her name being given out online so I will stick to her Ravelry screen name for now) is coming over and she, my mom (duphly) and I are going to have a picture party! We all have multiple unRaveled (as in not posted) projects that need photographing. It should be funfunfun!

Over and out.

I love my neighbors…and cookies!

So after dinner, I was pondering how I really wanted some cookies. Then, I remembered that earlier in the week, my neighbor had called asking for WiFi help. I had told her that with swim team and all, I was really busy during the week, but that I could probably help her over the weekend. So I called her and she said to come on over. I reinstalled the wireless card on her husband’s laptop, and they were happy.
Jokingly, he said, “Pay the girl!”
Jokingly, I said, “Pay me in cookies. I’ve been craving them and was going to make some but we don’t have any butter.”
Five minutes later, I held in my hand a quart-size zip baggie full of cookies!
See title of post.

On the slightly more normal front, NaNo is going decently; I’m at about 15,000, which is about 1,500 words behind at the moment, but I’ll have lots of time over the 3-day weekend, and over Thanksgiving Break next week, so I’m not too worried.

For Ravelers, I finally felted my Lucy Bag, which had been hovering at 95% complete for a few days because I hadn’t yet. Then I decided it hadn’t felted enough so I felted it more. Now it’s done and I’m quite happy with it. So I’m working on some mittens that I got a free kit for at Stitches. Not this year – either last year or the year before, I don’t remember. They’re very very soft and they make me happy. Also, the kit claims I have enough for 3 pairs, but I have a hunch that I might be able to squeeze four out of it, which would be great for our sale.

Oh yeah, need to explain that – we (my mom and I) have, for the past few years, sold things we have knitted at the Chanukkah Bazaar at our temple and given the profits to a charity (such as the Humane Society or Heifer International), but because most of the things sold there are cheap plastic dreidels or acrylic fun fur scarves shoddily made by Sunday School teachers and we like to think that we are slightly classier, we decided to skip it this year and apply to a local crafts festival and sale for next year, where we can set appropriate prices. So anything on my Ravelry that says it’s for sale is for that, not for people to buy from me. ;)

The great things about selling stuff in general are:

1. If we’re going to sell it, my mom will buy the yarn since we keep back materials costs at the sale.
2. We can make things that have no specific recipient in mind.
3. We donate the profits to a good cause!

The not-quite-so-great-but-still-tolerable thing is that for our table to not look all hodgepodgey, we’re thinking we should have a good number of some things so it’s not just 3 hats, 2 pairs of mittens, 2 purses, etc. which would be kind of unprofessional. So we have to make multiple similar things, which can get a bit boring. But that’s okay. Also, that’s why making a bunch of mittens is good – and I’ve been a mitten machine these past few days, churning out 1+ per day, relatively painlessly. i.e. without getting bored of it, as yet.

Well, that’s my life for now, and now we’re watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, so I bid thee farewell.
Farewell.

Hello, World!

So, I mainly made this for Ravelry purposes – I may or may not use it for other things. We shall see…

By the by (weird phrase), I LOVE RAVELRY! It’s an inspiring, pretty site with a great community and it just makes me want to knit all the time!

And that’s my first enlightening message to you all…