Last Minute Knits

So, I'm rushing to finish little things before the new year... Sad, isn't it? Well, you'll hear more about that later.

Someone please settle that kitten down! Wahhh... it's clawing at my slippers! Anyway, now that I've distracted it with a plastic bag, I thought I'd show off my pitiful attempt at assuming a cat-mother role.

Okay, okay, stop laughing! My camera is almost out of batteries, and I've lost the charger, so I've resorted to Photo Booth pictures. Hey, even amazing photographers like moi (snort) need a break, right?

Urgh! I can't get the pictures to not be annoyingly huge. Sorry, internet, I'm having technical difficulties. Anyway, the pattern is from last fall's Knitscene, which was actually pretty good, for knitting magazines. Usually I can't find anything interesting from Knit Magazines, only boring things that I could figure out how to do on my own, but the bumps on this hat intrigued me. And the ears. I was a bit of a cat-shaped-hat-fanatic in my day. Anyway, it was a nice pattern.

Most Wonderful Time of the Year

For Christmas, luck sent my family a kitten! His name is Jackson, and he's the cutest creature in the whole wide world.


And here he is drinking out of my water cup. He has his own water bowl! Why does he steal mine!? D:

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are all having a great Christmas! My arm hurts, and I'm sleepy from all that food, but I feel great! Are you all having a good day? Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, you should still be having a good day, okay?

Here are my two most recent sewn things. I'm just crankin' them out, it's exciting :)


I haven't named either of them, either! Options are open :)

I kind of like this one more, I know that's bad of me.


Once the boyfriend leaves tomorrow, I might make more!

Bragging Rights

So, Onigiri's been featured on Lime and Violet's Daily Chum :) I'm super excited, because that's one of the few blogs that I follow quasi-religiously.

Woo for me! That said, I've been sewing some gifties for... whoever. Really, it's sad how different they look from the sketches I made :(

Here's a really bad cell-phone-teaser-picture:

HUH!? What!?!!!!! z0mg!!

I got into the Honorable Mention Gallery for Knitty's Calendar! Really! Truly! I'm like, about to die...

I can't believe it :3 Why didn't anyone tell me!?

Well, here I am... <3

I'm a little bummed that I didn't get actually ON the Knitty site... and I thought honorable mentions got like, listed and linked to somewhere... but, oh well ... I'm still super proud!

... Painlessly Romantic Good Life

Okay, okay, I WANT TO KNIT. It's not even funny anymore. It may be funny to those of you who like to laugh at drug addicts, but to me, we've exited the realm of funny and we are now entering the realm of FREAKING OUT.

Here's a brief timeline of my life since I've stopped knitting.

Oct. 20th, Day 0
My arm hurts strangely. I decide maybe if I put down my knitting and go to bed, perhaps it will feel better in the morning.

Oct 21st, Day 1
Morning- I decide to go to the health center before class; the visit takes me from 8AM to 11AM. The nurse tells me to come back at 2:30. My arm feels like it may fall off if I clench anything tightly. At 3, I see a doctor. She laughs at me, says my arm is very badly sprained, gives me a worksheet, asks if I need help quitting smoking, and sends me on my way. I cry.
At 6PM I call Dr. Mom. She informs me that I need to put ice on my wrist, and not use it until it stops hurting. When asked for a timeline, she gives me "Friday."

Oct 22nd, Day 2- Oct 25th, Day 5
I buy a brace, ice packs, and use about $10 in ibuprofen. I stop taking notes in class and master one-handed typing. I use my new one-handed-typing skills to browse ravelry. Ravelry queue increases 75%, then drops, then increases again. The sweetie tells me that when I can knit again, he'll take me yarn shopping. I see this as a beautiful self-sacrifice, or at a pitiful sign that I will never knit again, I cannot decide which.

Oct 26th, Day 6
Dr. Mom makes a telephone diagnosis. I probably won't be allowed to knit until Winter break, Nov. 14th. This timeline depresses me, but I spend half the day online anyway, looking up patterns.

Oct 27th, Day 7- Nov 1st, Day 12
The week passes quickly. I begin to doodle again in small steps, mostly things to knit. By Day 10, there are enough items in my Ravelry queue to last the rest of my life. I try to convince my significant other if he will learn to knit so that I can at least live through him, if I am never going to knit again. He doesn't take this well.

Nov 8th, Day 20
The strangest thing happens. I'm waiting outside the restrooms for the boyfriend to come out, and I find myself moving my hands as if I'm knitting. Sweetie stares at me as if I've gone insane.

Nov 11th, Day 23
Ravelry queue is, for the most part, deleted.

Nov 14th, Day 26
Dr. Mom dictates that the Winter break will be spent "relaxing," and by relaxing I suspect she means "NOT KNITTING." This causes me considerable stress. I begin to make a yarn will.

Nov 15th, Day 27
I go to the yarn shop and drop a few dollars, pretending that I might knit something with what I buy, even though it's blantantly obvious that one skien of sock yarn would make a very bad sweater, and that super bulky cotton-eyelash blend will make someone very uncomfortable socks.

Home... SWEET! HOME!

My break officially began today, when I got home from school.

And... my hand still feels like it's been slammed in a car door.

It's like you're telling me I can't BREATHE.

So, this past week has been incredibly frustrating for me. My right wrist has been pretty much immobile, I've been forced to eat tons of food while taking about 1800 mg of ibuprofen a day, and on top of that, I can't knit, write, draw, or even really carry things. These experiences have helped me learn a lot about myself, including:

• I am a tactile learner; I learn best when I take notes and outline readings.
• I can only eat so much food in a day before I feel miserable.
• I knit when I'm stressed out.

So, what do these things tell you? I'm sick to my stomach, my grades are dropping, and I'm really irritable... at anything,

I feel like a huge chunk of my life has been taken away. I can't knit; I can't draw out ideas for knit things; I can't write a depressing poem about how I feel; heck, it hurts to write up homework assignments. Knitting is just the tip of the iceberg: basic functions like brushing my hair or eating something that requires a knife and fork are painful to do, and I don't really want to stoop to the level of forcing people around me to help me take care of myself. It's not like I'm dying of cancer...

Moral of story: pity me. And, if you don't see a really happy post sometime next month with the subject matter along the lines of "Yay, look, I'm knitting!" Assume that I've committed suicide from being utterly and totally useless.

TaDaaa.... and, crappy turns of events.

So, I finished the hat! late last night, I wove in the ends and forced the boyfriend to wear it around to that it would block to his head. I've yet to snap a good picture of him, but here's evidence of how much bigger his head is than mine!

A little pity party note... Sadly, I would've published this post sooner... but I was at the Student Health Center all day. It turns out my right wrist is badly sprained (okay, it's not like surgery bad, but it's grade II.) How it happened, I have no idea. I'm hoping knitting more won't harm this, but you never know :D I've got a nice Ace bandage around it, and I'm trying to find a ride to somewhere I can buy a proper brace... that's proving to be a little tough. I have such bad luck!

Spur O' the Moment Knitting

All right! So, I usually spend quite some time thinking out projects. There's usually I doodle I have in my head for a few months. Then, I spend about a week or so shopping around for yarn that will work. After that, swatching, and casting on, and tearing off the cast on because I don't like how it looks, and on and on.

If I had to label myself, I'd say I was a perfectionist knitter. Slow, steady, and meticulous. The past twenty-four hours, however, have seen a drastic change in this routine.

I'm making a hat. From a pattern. Online. Guess when I bought the yarn? Yesterday at around 1. Guess when I cast on for the project? Yesterday at around 6. (I probably would've cast on earlier, but I was at the Strong Museum of Play... don't snicker. I'm a big person! ) Oh which leads me to... PHOTO PLUG!!!1:







Anyway, back on topic. Guess how far I am on the hat? About 2/3! What's come over me? Maybe it's the fact that I'm not really challenging myself with this pattern. The needles are big and the yarn is bulky.

It just feel so strange... I'm so used to size 1's and 2's, this size 8 hat seems like it's knitting itself!

Hopefully it'll be done by Tuesday :)

Crazy College Crazy

So, between classes going at 200 mph, drama out the llama, and a sea of sunken expectations, I have not been blogging ever so much lately. Hopefully that will change, when the industry picks up a little (I haven't found very many good patterns lately...)

Anyway, I've been knittin' up a storm, and I've got some awesome projects underway. I'm still waiting for 11/11, when I can order more sock for my Dude pattern but I've also got several other patts in the works, most of them socks. The one I'm working on now is AMAZING; I love it so much. I've also got a Hat from a magazine for a certain someone, that I wanted finished like 3 WEEKS ago, but alas that never happened... for depressing reasons, it was separated from me. Hopefully we'll be reunited this weekend, though.

My sweater is coming along at a decent pace... but I hate it. Really. I'm past the honeymoon period, and into that awkward year before an inevitable divorce where we sleep in separate rooms. I FORCE myself to work on this sweater, only because I don't want to work on it anymore, I just want to be done. It's bulky, and I want it off the needles. I'm not even sure if I'll actually end up wearing it at this rate... I might jsut give it away. BLEH!

Plus, I've started to think that the bobbles look like genitalia... *twitch* Maybe I just have a dirty mind...

DUDE! No way!

So, I absolutely love how this sock turned out, and so does the sweetie. It's comfy, with a tight fit.

The next sock will be the "test sock," I just need to stock up on the yarns. It was surprisingly more than I thought, sadly, because how foot is so darn big! Curse you, male feet. Though, I guess I really shouldn't be complaining... haha.

Anyway, I wuv it. Look for it soon, okay? ;)

Take it apart to put it together right.

I've not had a good week. Knitting wise, my Dude socks are in need of yarn, and my needles got bent. Life wise, I'm back at home due to another death in the family.

My uncle and godfather died on Wednesday, to the surprise of almost every being in the universe. It's so depressing, because he was the nicest person I knew- no lie. He and my aunt were high school sweethearts, almost at their 30th anniversary. He was going to turn 49 on October 5th. My aunt and cousin are so heartbroken, it's horrible to be in the same city, and even my other uncle, who is always very quiet and guarded has been crying since I talked to him on the phone Wednesday night.

My grandfather is also sick in the hospital with a staph infection in his leg.

I feel like my whole life is in crumbles. On top of it all, my family wants me to go to the funeral, which I won't be able to attend because of an exam. If I miss the exam, my teacher won't allow me to make it up, and I'll lose 30% of my grade (meaning it will be almost impossible to pass the course, unless I have a perfect score on the rest of my tests.) I tried to tell my family I couldn't make it, but I feel like I'm abandoning them. My uncle was so kind to me my whole life, and now I'm skipping his funeral because of someone I met two weeks ago.

Hopefully, I'll be able to drive back up to Rochester and take the test early. I don't think so though... I feel like I'll fail the test because I'm so upset, no matter if I take it tomorrow (after driving and crying for two hours) or Monday at 10 AM, just as my brother's helping to carry the casket out of the rain and down the aisle.

Orienting Myself

So... I'm officially in college.  And I officially don't like it as much as I would like sitting at home and having internet.  No pictures, either, since I left my camera cord at home. 

More good news, and a little bad.

One of my designs is going to be published! Metapostmodern knitting sent me a message. I didn't win their sock contest challenge, I ran up!

I thought I'd publish some more sock designs. I don't have my favorite design, it's not on the computer anymore D:

Here's the design that's going to be published next spring, "Dude"

Crappy picture, sorry about that.

Here are my other babies. Please don't copy my designs, but if you'd like me to knit them for you, I will! The only thing keeping the socks on the paper is lack of yarn, really :<


The bad news is, I'm leaving Thursday for college! Waaaah, I'm kind of scared. Unknittably scared. That's pretty scared, for those of you who knit when you're nervous.

Another Fetchingly Knit Fetching

So, last night I finished my latest WIP, the one that's been sitting in the bottom of my purse for several weeks.  Anyway, it's another Fetching for mommy dearest.

I love the pictures I took of this, and I'm thinking about entering them in Knitty's calendar contest.

What do you think? Should I give it a go?

 

 

Renewed Inspiration

Summertime is a pretty lazy time for me, as far as crafting goes. I've been starting and stopping designs as well as individual projects, and the whole thing's been a drag. Work has consumed the vast majority of my waking hours, along with preparing for college. But a wrong turn onto a parkway renewed my knitting spirit.

I ended up stopping at the Wegmans in my town for coffee milk and sushi, and wandered into the magazine section. There, I browsed the knitting mags in an attempt to consume a fraction of the three hours of spare time I have between dropping my mom off at work and driving myself to work.

Vogue knitting usually isn't my thing, which is why I was a little surprised when I dropped it into my blue basket. Maybe my tastes have matured, or maybe they've become more hip... whatever the case, I brought it home. Now, I plan to use the rest of those three hours knitting.

Contestable!

So, I know I've been fairly negligent with this blog, but I figured I'd celebrate my return from Europe with a contest. The winner will get a nice package of goodies that are set for debut in my etsy shop in late August. I won't tell anyone if you won't.

The rules are simple. Below are several photos from my vacation, featuring my feet. Simply post a comment with your guess as to where my feet are on the journey.

To make it easy, here's my itinerary (Keep in mind that I got this idea during the trip, so a concentration of photos are in one country.)

Day 1: Fly into Athens.
Day 2: The Acropolis and Ancient Athenian Forum
Day 3: The Forum at Corinth and Mycenea
Day 4: The Temple of Posiedon and the Agean Beach
Day 5: The Temple of Demeter, Fly into Rome
Day 6: The Roman Forum, Coliseum, Pantheon
Day 7: The Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, Saint Peter's, The Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Steps

To make it even easier, you can have more than one set of guesses. The first person to guess correctly where every photo was taken wins!

Good luck!

The Photos:

1


2


3


4


5


6

So Now I'm Back... From Outer Space...

Hopefully you aren't too sad, haha.

Anyway, I'm back from my trip to Greece. I've got ideas, souvenirs, and gumption to work harder on the job I took two weeks of from, and to prepare for college, which is so close int he future (closer than I want to.)

I've been retrospective lately, but I'm scrambling to do some paperwork and course planning for this week. I want to have a nice contest tomorrow, so see you then!

Such a Horrible Blogger

So, I've been a little busy. My camera's lost,

I had my brithday,

and my birthday party,

and not much crafting.

Lazy Summer Victories!

I've been sitting around for the whole day, in my pyjamas. It's relaxing, but a little depressing. I realize that this might be the last time I can slack off and just be lazy. This may be the last backache I have from slouching in front of the couch. This might be the last time I look up at the TV and say "Gr. . . I just saw this documentary on Card Counters three hours ago. . ." Soon, I won't have enough room in my dorm room to fit a couch, and thus, will not be able to veg out in such a way.


But, I did manage to finish this little guy! Isn't he cute? Does he look familiar? He's my spin-off of the Ziggy Pattern that I posted earlier. For those of you who can't seem to keep up, it's from Clare Taylor's blog, Quilty's Corner.


Chuu! I'm so proud of the embroidery. See the back? It looks like a face, doesn't it?! I didn't mean that, swear. . . I realized it as I was taking that picture.


By the way, I plan on sending this guy off in a swap to you know who you are! If you are that person, pretend you didn't see this, okay!? Okay. Thank goodness that's out of the way.

I've also had another small victory in the realm of lady-ness. On top of the knitting project. . . the Sunflower Seeds I planted by the front stoop have sprouted! They look so nice. . . I danced like the girls from Totoro when I came home and saw these little guys. I've never had anything near a green thumb, I guess my mom took up all that genetic talent. I hope these flowers frow as much as I want them to! Maybe if this works out, next summer I can have some sort of a garden.


Speaking of Totoro. . . hmm, I think I have a nice idea for another Ziggy pattern attempt :3

Stay cool, Internet Land!

Worldliness Buffets the Stronghold of Truth

I graduated on Friday from my high school!
First stop was a local park that has a famous carousel.
Then we went to Cornell University, where they gave us the whole Rec Center. . . or whatever that big building with bowling alley, pool, gym. . . everything is. It was amazing!


And last night I went to the boyfriend's sister's house, ate the above brownie cakes, watched fireworks, and played with sparklers.

(There's two hearts! The one below is easy to see, but can you see the heart in the above picture?)


But yes, I am knitting and stuff. . . I'll keep you all posted.

Senior Tripiness

Sooo, Guess where I've been?


NO, not slacking off and being lazy. Even though um, there was some of that.


I went with my senior class to Hershey Park! It was a ton of fun. Anyway, I promise I'll post more of my crafting when I get more done!