Real Life Begins Again

Well, the holidays are over, which means my vacation from the blog and real life is over. Not that I wanted to vacation away from the blog, but you know how it is during the holidays...you'd rather be with family and friends eating pie that sitting in front of a cold laptop, typing away...at least I would rather be doing that. In any event, much knitting has been done in my absence from you. I knitted Stevie a bulky hat of my own design (to be posted shortly),

a bulky cowl and matching hat for my mom (photo quality's awful, I was in a rush taking the photos literally as we were walking out the door to the airport),


a February Baby Sweater in a pretty, rustic green color and began a pair of socks for Stevie for his b-day. (He knows, so the only surprise will be the color.)
I also got to get a picture (finally) of the hat that I knit for Stevie last year, apparently its his favorite hat, knit with his favorite blues. I am so glad he likes it and wears it!

One last pic, here's the Selbu mittens I made for my swap partner this year.


So that's my knitting, except for the FBS which is blocking as we speak, and waiting for it's little toggle buttons to be sewn on. The Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ) is fun knitting, but I like the FBS a lot better. Maybe I'll change my mind as I get closer to the end, we'll see.

In regular life news, I started my last semester of classes (FOREVER) this week. The classes are all pretty interesting and I'm looking forward to what this semester holds for me. Quite a few people think I'm a little crazy for not taking this semester off because of the impending bambino, but I figure since I'll be on maternity leave, it will actually be better to finish up than to take a semester off and have to work and care for a baby and go to classes in the fall. Just makes more sense to only deal with baby and class, and not have to worry about work too. Anyway, I talked to all of my professors and talked to some people about note taking for me in my absence and everybody’s been very happy and excited for me, my prof’s told me not to worry about missing classes, and I’ve found some willing note-takers for me, so I’m pretty much set for the semester!

In other news, did anyone watch the Globes on Sunday? We only watched a portion of it because my main interest is in what they wear. So I was perusing the best and worst dressed lists and found that these two were put on several worst dressed lists, even though they look gorgeous: (Drew was on them mostly for her hair and Banks was on them for the dress, which I think is elegant and quite lovely.)




And THIS one was put on ALL the best dressed lists!


Am I crazy? Or is that the most UNFLATTERING dress you've ever seen? It's like a sliver sack tied in the middle, it does nothing for her shape! And, I'm sorry, if you've nursed 3 babies, you need a bra. That's just all there is to it. Sigh. I saw those lists and fell like I was living an world where everyone was drinking the kool-aid except for me. I know why she was on it, it's because apparently Hollywood thinks she's some kind of saint, never mind the fact that she can't raise her kids without a nanny for each one of them, nor can she take a vacation short two nannies, oh no, they had to call in the other two, apparently a one-to-one ratio on those kids is just not enough. God forbid you parent them for five minutes. Ok, sorry, for the rant, I'm just so sick of them and the fact that each time they reproduce its like the second coming or something.

Moving on, Ry's Mom & sister volunteered to have a baby shower for me, which I thought was very sweet. We're still working out the scheduling, but I think it'll be the 2nd to last weekend in February, so that will give us about a month to see what we still need and assemble anything big we may receive. Although, i get these e-mails telling me what this week's activities should be, and this week (week 29) they say I should be assembling the baby furniture. What furniture? I gotta tell, ya, we haven't bought a darn thing yet except for a few onesies for the little guy, and a cute little pair of baby sneakers for $2.50 at TJ Maxx. We may get that room organized and painted this weekend though, considering it'll be so cold outside it just won't be worth going to any of the place we'd wanted to for the long weekend. I wonder how long it would take for us to get to 60 degree weather from here?? I guess I shouldn't complain though, I heard on NPR yesterday that in North Dakota with the windchill factor it was 70 below. It's so cold there that they can't do field sobriety tests outdoors. On the flip side, the crime rate goes down, apparently criminals hate being out stealing cars and wallets in that kind of weather. Either way, I am VERY grateful that I do NOT live there.

Mostly, I'm just impressed

I regularly go to the Craftzine blog to check on what is new out there in knit land. It's a fun little thing to do and often you have the leg up on the Ravelry world, like with the February Lady Sweater. I heard of it and cast on for it before it set the Ravelry world afire. (I still count my elf as being ahead of the curve on that one even though it's languishing in my knitting bag half done.) When I checked Craftzine they were featuring sculptural knits by Sandra Backlund. Here's a sampling of her work:











I admire the amount of work that was put into each piece she's designed and knit, the final production is, of course, gorgeous and something to behold. Would I wear them? Maybe the pom-pom one...maybe, but only if I had those legs. (In fact, I'd probably walk around in a long t-shirt and high heels all day if I had those legs.) Mostly though, I am impressed with Backlund's creativity and the way her knitting has translated into these stunning architectural knits.

No More HumDrum Mittens Questionnaire

How long have you been knitting & how did you learn?

I am a self-taught knitter and have been knitting since 2006.

Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I would say I am an advanced intermediate.

What are your favorite colors? Any you dislike?

I love all colors especially purple, red and turquoise. I do not like mustard or olive colors.

Do you like Latvian type patterns? If so, what are your favorite patterns?

I do like latvian type patterns, although I have no favorites, they are all too lovely to decide on just one.

Do you desire mittens for yourself, your "special someone else" or your child?

For myself! (Selfish, I know!)

What is the measurement from your wrist to the tip of your longest finger?

About 7.25 inches

What is the circumference of your hand at it's widest point?

About 7.5 inches

What other things do you enjoy knitting?

Socks, sweaters, cardis, baby stuff (love those little booties!)

What sort of needles do you enjoy working with? (straights vs circs, bamboo vs aluminum)

I enjoy working with wooden needles the most, I ususally use DPNs for smaller things like mittens and socks and circulars for everthing else.

What’s one project you’ve not yet tried but are dying to make?

I really want to make the mittens from Fall Vogue that say "Let it Snow" on them. Other than that...I'm not really sure.

What’s one yarn you’ve not yet tried but are dying to work with?

I guess something cashmere based. I haven't worked with anything remotely like cashmere yet.

What other hobbies do you have? Do you spin? Sew? Garden? Cook?

I cook and sew and would like to get into spinning, but have decided i should wait until after I finish law school.

Besides yarn, do you collect anything?

I wouldn't say I "collect" anything, but I do love matroyshkas (nesting dolls) and nativities.

What kind of goodies do you enjoy? Sweets? Salty? Anything you hate or are allergic to?

I enjoy sweets and salties. I love choclate covered pretzels and peppermint bark!

Do you have any kids? Pets?

I have a finacee, two great dogs (Sam and Molly) and no kids (yet).

What is your favorite part of Winter?

The first snowfall, snuggling up under the covers with my sweetie, Christmas with family, you get the idea. Those warm precious momets that are so abundant in winter.

What is your least favorite part of Winter?

Getting dismissed from work in the middle of a blizzard and having to drive 30 miles to get home. When all the other places just cancelled work at the beginning of the day! (Can you tell that happened to me, more than once?) Driving on icy roads. That's it, other than those driving conditions that I love winter!

New Fabric & Sock Yarn!

So I ordered some fabric from Sew Mama Sew on Tuesday, and it has arrived! I'm so excited, I ordered some fabric for a lap quilt from Bend the Rules Sewing Isn't it beauteous? I just love it, I also ordered some assorted fabrics for no project in particular. I'm currently using the blue and green fabric for a tablecloth, and the rest perhaps napkins? Pillows? Another quilt? I don't have it earmarked, I bought it because it was so lovely I could not help myself!

The other EXCITING news is that I just received my first skein of yarn from the Rockin' Sock Club. Can I tell you? I did a happy dance all around the living room when I opened that delicious package! The yarn is so beautiful and soft and lovely, I cannot wait to start knitting up a pair of sockies! I even let the dogs sniff the emergency mini skein of yarn. They both liked the the skein so much they wanted to eat it! It's wonderful! I'd post a picture of it, but I'm not sure what the rules are as far as doing something like that since it's an exclusive colorway. I'll have to check. But in the mean time, I'll post a picture of the gloves I knit for my Faux Sister-in-law, S. Oh! I almost forgot, here's a pic of the package my fabric came in! Never mind that book in the background, I was looking at recipes when the Mail-woman came. I was so excited, I cracked that package open and plopped the fabric down for a pic!
Ok, off to knit! Have a happy weekend!

Mystery Swap Package Goodness!

I received my Mystery Swap package the other day and Barbara really did a wonderful job. The theme she chose was "Coffee To Get Through School And Knitting". Included were coffee bean stitch markers, a coffee cozy, coffee yarn hand dyed by Barbara, chocolate, Caribou Coffee which donates money to the Susan G. Koman Breast Cancer foundation, highlighters and tags for my textbooks. It is really a wonderful package and I can't wait to get started on the sock pattern she gave me for the yarn. Anyway, without further ado here are some pictures of the package!

Secret mitten

Well, as promised, I cast-on last night for the revamped mitten. MUCH better. Not only are the colors working together in a more cohesive way, but I was able to get the tubular cast on correct in only two tries this time! woo-hoo! Now I just need to hustle my butt and try to get it finished by next Wednesday. Why Wednesday? Because then I can cast on for the other one and hopefully get the pair done in two-ish weeks, so I can work on all the other projects in my little queue!

Tubular What?

I think I have reason to believe that I may be an idiot. Hear me out, I wanted to do a tubular cast on for the mittens I am making for my partner, so I looked it up on Google and found this cast-on. Now the first time that I cast on, I read the directions all wrong and ended up with only two stitches spinning around and around, and then a tangled mess. But I persevered and re-read the directions and cast on again, this time I got it, but when I did the set up rows, I totally screwed up. I ripped back and cast on again (3rd time here people) this time it was perfect, I even removed the yarn and the whole thing...then I realized...WRONG SIZE NEEDLES! Idiot! I ripped it out and cast on gain...apparently 4th time's a charm. This whole process took about 2 hours! Yes, two hours of wasted time because I, like an idiot, cannot read directions. Lovely.

Ravelry

Ahem.

"Your invitation was sent on Yesterday."

Hot Damn! I knew I should have logged on-line yesterday, instead of knitting Ry's sock and doing the copious amounts of laundry! WooHooo!!!! I am extraordinarily excited about this. This means all day Saturday will be spent shooting the stash! This also means that all hopes for paying attention in Crim Pro tonight have just flown out the window. Yaaahhhoooo!

Package Delivery!

So my package from The Loopy Ewe arrived yesterday! Hooray! I have been wanting some Cider Moon Glacier yarn forever and when I had finally decided what to buy, they closed up shop! (The blog says that's temporary and due to a legal matter, so hopefully this won't be too long.) So then I began a quest for Cider Moon, and wouldn't you know? The Loopy Ewe had it! So I ordered two skeins of Taos and a skein Superman. I also ordered a skein of Perchance to Knit in breezy. YUM!


Taos is on the left, Superman is in the middle, and Breezy is on the right

Score!

Here's where I am on Ravelry....

You signed up on July 6, 2007
You are #14529 on the list.
589 people are ahead of you in line.
18893 people are behind you in line.
41% of the list has been invited so far

I am sooooooooooo excited! Can you tell how excited I am? Can you? Can you!?!?!

Ok, I'm out, but I did get my awesome package from The Loopy Ewe yesterday, so tonight there will be sockporn!

Grunge ruined Wrap

I have been sitting here wondering about the knitted shawl/wrap. Here’s my problem. I kinda love them, but only when they are simple (i.e. Glampyre’s City Shawl). When they are this confection of laciness, I think of sweet little grannies all wrapped up in their shawls ready for church. I can’t shake the granny image of these lacy things. To be sure, they are masterful pieces of knitting…but they do seem a bit…old. Perhaps it’s me…I’ve had an aversion to all things lace since I was able to make fashion choices. It always seemed contrived and most of the girls I knew who wore lacy things were always trying a bit too hard. I can’t do it, even to this day when I see lacy blouses I can’t help but pair it with shoulder pads, big hair and the 80’s when all prom dresses had fountains of lace. (A co-worker frequently wears a black acrylic lacy ruffled blouse that smacks of white trash; not in a good “tongue in cheek/kitsch is fashion” kind of way, but in a “this is seriously what I wear” kind of way.) The second part to this is the fact that I’m just not sure I could pull it off even if I wanted to. I have a pashmina, I love it, I bought it in Italy, but when I wear it, I fiddle. I fiddle with the arrangement of it, so that it has the “I just fashionably threw this on” look to it like then women in Europe had. But then after I throw it on it inevitably slips down one shoulder or I feel as though I am being pretentious. (I’m a snob, but not a pretentious one.) This uncomfortability keeps me from a few projects that I love, such as the City Shawl or the Clementine Shawlette, both of which I admire (and own the patterns for), but neither of which I am sure that (a) I can pull off or (b) would even wear. I’ve always been a cardi girl. It’s chilly out? No problem, throw on a cardigan, no biggie. Maybe it comes from being part of the grunge generation (Nirvana hit mainstream when I was either in 8th grade or a Freshman in highschool)? Having kept my flannel tied to my hips and throwing it on when there was a chill in the air reminds me of throwing a stylish cardi over the handbag and putting it on when the chill sets in. Anyway, just to sum up, I won’t be knitting a shawl or wrap anytime soon, unless it’s requested as a gift for someone…it’s just not me. (yet)

More Stuff than you can shake a DPN at! (a big one)

Hip hip HOOORAAAAYYY!!! Yes that was cheering. I finished the Mother's Day Gift that I was working on. Yes that's right I finished it! But no pics...why? Mom reads the blog! In other news I finally receive Sensational Knitted Socks (SKS) in the mail and I am diligently working on my first pair of sockies. I am very excited about this, even though I had to frog the whole darn thing and start from scratch b/c I did a knitted cast on which SKS says is insubstantial...so I frogged it. I cast on again and even though I only have about an inch of ribbing, I'm still really excited about working on the socks. I am working from the pattern in the Spring '07 IK 'Roza's Socks' The pattern should keep me from getting bored and my recipient likes to have plenty of ribbing so the socks don't slouch down...the best of both worlds! In other super-fabulous news I finished the fingerless mitt, although I ran out of yarn and had to use some pink sock yarn to finished the thumb...but it looks like a cute little thumb ring...and it was just for fun anyway. (Pics to follow, of course) I went to LYS on Friday and bought MORE SOCK YARN!!! While I was there the knitting ladies complimented me on my Sexy Little Sweater(even thought the sleeves suck butt!)So big ego boost for me. (yay!)And THEN I called Mom and asked her if she could use her mad sewing skills to make me a DPN case, and she said ok! Not only that, but she went and bought funky fabric and even found some patterns for them online AND insisted on making some pockets in it for my circs! How much do I love Mama? TONS!!! So that's the stuff. (I told you it was a lot.) I promise to post pics soon!

Peculiar Obsession

Is it normal to be so uncontrollably addicted to knitting? Sometimes, when I'm sitting in class all I can think about is whether or not Ry would let me eat cereal for a month so that I can buy some yarn and start new projects. (He definitely would not, since we split the grocery bill!) Or at work all I want to do is read the blogs and see whats going on out there in Knittingland. Of course they really do not keep me busy enough at work...so maybe that's their fault? Once my mind wanders off, it's very difficult to reign it back in.

So here I am on Monday thinking that I should have finished 5-7 more inches on the Sexy Little Sweater, and I only finished about 2-3 inches. I don't know what happened! Molly wanted to go for a trail hike on Saturday (because it was finally warm enough.) Then Ry & I had a friend over. (I played drinking games for the first time ever.) Then on Sunday we slept late, and I had a TON of studying to do, so my T.V./knitting time was cut way down. Today all I can think about is that little sweater, and that fact that I could probably do my legal research at work and knit at the same time...but I'd probably get fired. I can't afford to get fired. (Unfortunately, otherwise I'd quit! ha ha ha)

Of course it' more difficult now, because I got my Denise Needles. I LOVE my Denise Needles, they are pink and cute and I'm able to go a bit faster on them when knitting in the round because I can make the left needle smaller than the right, the gauge stays the same and the stitches just slip right off! So I sit in work and I daydream about those needles and my knitting and all the FABULOUS projects I have lined up! Oh to be a kept woman...I could stay in a paid for apartment and knit all day...Ha ha, who am I kidding? I'd die if I couldn't work at least half time, but it's nice to fantasize...