My latest FO! Kind of.

So, the best person every, Alysia of Anxiety and Coffee, is getting married in a few days! And I'm in her wedding fellowship, I get to wear a dress and everything.  It's kind of surreal!

But, for her big day I helped make some centerpieces.  These squares are gunna be sewn together to cover vases of paper flowers.

Fascinating, I know.  When the day comes I'll snap a picture of them, ok? Tomorrow we're going to be on the plane to Seattle for tourism and tears (because every good wedding is one you cry at).

Swap Package!

I got my package for the Tis the Season Swap hosted by Kim at Hand Eye Crafts a while ago, but I've been saving it for a dreary day.  Today can't get much drearier, so I opened it up and it really made things way better!



I got an adorable notepad, a pair of cuffs, TWO skeins of yarn, a pretty dishcloth (that has a snowflake, so I can leave it up until after Christmas! hehe!) a pen, a sticker, and a lovely note.

I can't wait to knit something up with this yarn.  It's so lucious and soft.





The colors are perfect for me! Thank you Kim! :)

Other crafts

A week using my laptop at work has really bothered my wrists, so I have been avoiding knitting (what else is new?) and focusing on other endeavors this weekend.

One is drawing a picture of Roo from this photo...

The other is sorting through these books from my dad's and selling them online...

Another is making these stockings for Dan's family...

And finally, I finished a very, very old WIP.  I didn't even put it on Ravelry, because I thought I would publish the pattern.  I'm still not very into it, but it has a little bit of sentimental value.  He's my first felting project! I used Paton's wool, and a big rubbermaid container and a plunger.  I remember sitting in the bathroom of my dorm pounding it in water and soap with the plunger.  He's a slug!

I was so "creative" then... I had so many ideas.  Now I guess they've all dried up.  Or I just feel like I don't have the time to do them, or I think they're not worth my time.  Whelp... sorry, that was me being a bit of a downer.

Don't you think he looks a little nervous? I think his mouth is so cute!

Yummy Yarn

This is the first year that I haven't gone to Rhinebeck.  I have mixed feelings about it - I WANT to go, to just sit around and watch the people, to eat the tasty fair food and oogle (and buy!) yarn.  But I have so much yarn! And I would like to use my money to pay off all that student loan debt... and I'm sick. 

Still, I tried desperately to find an excuse to go.  Several friends are busy this weekend; some didn't return my texts.  Some are sick like me! I couldn't find anyone to meet up with.  I couldn't think of any books I wanted to have signed or to buy.

So, I spent the weekend at home taking it easy.  But I still wanted to get some nice yarn.

Enter this.

I ordered it from Revelations of a Delusional Knitter's online shop, here.  I got it about a week ago, but I figured I would save it for when I needed a pick-me-up.  So yesterday I opened it up and oogled the pretty yarn inside.

The colorway is Reeses, but it reminds me more of fall colors.  I think the photos capture the color really well, one of those oranges is a little more pink, but overall it's pretty good.

I can't wait to make some fall socks for myself!

I Love This Shawl!

I didn't take photos last night because when I got home, Roo came to hang out and decided to sleep on the pile of knitwear that I had left on a chair.

But, first thing this morning I took some selfies! You can tell because of my hair.  And lack of very good makeup.  I did put on lipstick! That's something.

I just love the way the yarn feels around my face.  I'm going to be wearing the heck out of this this winter, even if it isn't blocked.

Speaking of not blocked... the edges are curly and the spine isn't straight.  Usually even if I block something, the spine isn't straight, but... still!

Yeah, my project area is pretty cluttered.  I have a lot of little things to do right now, and not a lot of time.  It's funny - the cleanliness of my work area is related to how stressed I am.  The more clutter, the worse I feel.

But I have a method! I'm not allowed to take anything off the table until I've taken care of it.  So, the only way to clean it up is to work on the projects.  Which keeps me from packing things away into oblivion.

My photo-taking came to an end when Dan poked me and told me I had to eat breakfast.  I think the photo turned out kind of cute.

Poor Res Photos of My Dream Shawl!

I finished the shawl yesterday, then washed it to be blocked, and then... I made a horrible discovery. My new apartment doesn't have carpet!

Okay, this discovery isn't really new... I LOVE my hardwood floors... but where am I going to block my shawl? At my last place, I found some out of the way place and blocked it using the carpet and mastic to hold my pins, but here, I don't have that! Even before, I used homosode board from Warren's stop motion set.  I don't have that either.

I guess I'm going to have to invest in blocking mats.  I tried to use the futon cushion but the pins wouldn't go in well, and when they did they were easily pulled out.  I guess I could use the mattress to our bed, but then where would we sleep? Would Dan make that sacrifice? (Probably not.)

Still, I love this shawl.  I took it down from it's farce of a blocking spot and played with it when I got home from work, and tried to take pictures on my phone.  Of course, it's after dark, so that probably doesn't help! But here are some photos.

Tomorrow I will pull out the camera and take some REAL photos that you can actually "Oooh" and "Ahh" at. For now I have these, and some photos of my landlord's cat.  His name is Roo and I steal him sometimes when they aren't home. >_>  (Not really steal, I always send him home when I hear them come in, and I don't feed him anything or keep him overnight.  And if I thought it bothered them I wouldn't do it! I swear! I would just lie on the porch or in the stairwell and cuddle him.)

Until then... V for Victory over a shawl! Mwah.

The surgery was a success!

My Haruni shawl is back on the needles! Armed with a "repeat of chart A's worth" of yarn (can we make that a unit of measurement?) and Kitsune's tip that I can do a bind off with zero yarn left over, I'm confident that I can finish this.

I really benefitted from the fact that I'm working with Qivit, I think.  When I pulled out the needles, the yarn stuck together on it's own but still unravelled when I tugged gently on the end. 

The End is Here!!

I couldn't work on my Haruni shawl for a long, long time.  It sat in my bedroom, in it's awesome case, forlorn and alone.

But then I decided to just go for it. 

And here we are.

I knew I wouldn't be able to make it, and I was right, I didn't...

Only hope now is to frog back and make the overall shawl shorter.  I'm going to go back one repeat of the chart, and if I mess up I'm just going to wind the whole thing up into a cake and cry.

It's a dark, dismal day and I've been feeling really down. I still have a lot of stuff I need to do though, for work, sadly... It will be really fun to do but I'm setting everything up. Lately at work I have just felt like Henny Penny. People want me to do things, (things that shouldn't even be my problem, really, since they're not even remotely connected to EHS) but no one wants to lend a hand and help me do them, and when I feel overwhelmed, of course the only thing to do is work alone at home on a Saturday night.  But the feeling of getting it done will be really good, just like the feeling of finishing this scarf. 

So I'm going to do it ;) (Both the work and the knitting.)

PURPLE Caps

Despite not being able to knit too much, I've made some caps for the NH Children's Fund CLICK for Babies Campaign.  It's a campaign to prevent child abuse by educating people about the period of PURPLE crying, which is a normal stage in a baby's life where they cry a lot, a frustratingly lot.

I only made 4 caps, and one is terribly small - almost too small to donate.  But hey, maybe some super tiny baby will get it.  Who knows.  

I improvised two of the hats, but for the other two I used the Berry Baby Hat pattern.  They remind me of little eggplants! 

I failed the goal of this, which was to make a ton of hats... but 4 hats is better than nothing, and hopefully 4 little NH babies will look adorable in them.  Next year I'll get started earlier, and make the whole month of September baby hat month!

In Orbit

For the past week I've been at a conference for work, and it's been fun! Yesterday, at the closing, the person talking said "We're all in orbit now, but soon it'll be time to come back down to earth and get all this good work done back home!"

I've kind of felt in orbit.  My hands don't hurt so much (probably because I'm not using my laptop all day!)  So I've been knitting a little more.  My carousel socks are looking good!

 

I plan on doing the toe, heel, and cuff in white.  My only regret right now is not using white yarn to join the spiral.  Wouldn't it just pop like that? From what I have of yarn, though, I might be able to make another pair with the yarn that I have left over after this.  So then I'll have two rainbow socks, and maybe by then I'll be done with rainbows!

Striped Scarf

Ages, ages, and AGES ago I bought this Crystal Palace Mini Mochi yarn because I saw a beautiful project on Ravelry and wanted one too. Well, while I was sick I cast on for it.  The yarn has been in my stash for a long, long time and it finally gets it's moment! 

It knit up really quick, and the colors really look good together. I used 113 (Tropical Ginger) and 109, which I think has been discontinued. All I did was cast on 50 stitches on size 4 needles and work in a K1P1 pattern until I was out of yarn. One skein of each color like this made a scarf that was about 4.5 feet, which is a little short but I didn't really want to work in K1P1 rib anymore.

I ended up with 1 extra skein of each, and I gave them to my friend Tricia - maybe she'll make a scarf like mine! I would love to have matching scarves. It's kind of like a knit along. But not. Because they might sit in her stash forever and ever, like this yarn did.

Anyway, I love this scarf! So much that I took a selfie in it.Cherish this moment. Also, I'm not wearing any makeup because I camped all weekend.

P.S. - My new apartment has so many places to take photos of projects, haha.  Once all the pictures are up and everything is set up I will have to post photos.  I'm trying to get everything all set up but... it's been kind of slow because I tend to half-do a project and then go and watch TV with Dan.

Bird of the Summer

WOW.  It's been a long time since I've posted or blogged, sorry.  It's been a long time since I've knit, or made any progress on knitting.  My wrist has been achey and despite promising to share a table at a convention in November, I haven't really done much... at all.  That's made me a little bummed out.

But I have been going to knitting group (Tuesday nights at the Books A Million in Concord!) and so have had some itty bitty progress.  

I finished Dan's socks today.  They fit well everywhere but the front of his ankle (opposite the heel)  His foot is just so big there! I don't really know what to do - just some more experiments, I guess. But he is happy so that's a win, I guess.

I've also finished the second quarter of my afghan.  This afghan has been such a good project.  I'm kind of sad that when it's done it's just going to go into my hope chest, but I made a promise to myself so I'm going to keep it! Blerg!

That's all.  I've been working hard and watching "Friends" in my new apartment, and not really accomplishing much of anything.  A few weeks ago we hiked, but not a big mountain.  My ankle is still recovering - can you believe that? Six months and still at 99%... depressing stuff.

Hope all is well! It's hard for me to read other people's blogs, because I just feel bad about not knitting, and I get more gloomy, so I hope everyone forgives me!

Playing Chicken

So... this was originally supposed to be posted 2 WEEKS AGO... but for some reason I messed up and it didn't.  I haven't worked on the shawl since, and still need help :(

I haven't played chicken since the seventh grade, and even then I didn't really play, just watched two kids kick each other on the monkey bars. I just didn't see the point in fighting with someone for some arbitrary title of more stubborn.

But, here I am, right at the end of my shawl.  This is a point where I should be knitting furiously, excited to see what it will look like when I'm done.



Instead... I feel like I'm racing against myself.  This is all the yarn I have left!



This sucks.  I just know, deep down, that I'm going to run out.  It just depends on when.  I started out with supposedly more than enough...

So, I have three options:
1.) Knit until I run out, then finish the shawl with a contrasting color.  This is not really an optin because I don't want to do it :/
2.) Knit until I run out, figure out that limit, and then frog back a few repeats of the main lace pattern and make the shawl a little shorter.
3.) Frog back a few repeats of the center lace pattern now, and just hope that I picked enough yarn.

there is another option, I guess,  which would be to frog the entire thing back and knit something else... but I don't really want to do that.

So... what should I do? 

Hopefully I make a decision one way or another... Or it'll be like that sweater that has been neatly folded on my desk for like six months...

Biking on Plum Island

Saturday Dan and I biked up and down the Plum Island Turnpike! We though the weather was going to be bad, but it wasn't too horrible.  I managed to take some gorgeous pictures on my new phone... man.  I think it might be better than my camera!

More pictures of my boyfriend's foot

Dan picked out new yarn for new socks, after I stole his yarn for my dream socks.  I've been slowly plugging along with these during my commute, and at quiet times after work.  I can't believe I'm on the foot! That's when I realized that it's been too long since I blogged, so here I am... Giving you an update on the few stitches per day that I've been doing.

Being sick blows! (A Whiny Post)

So, I've been putting extra hours in at work.  And I work an hour from home.  So, assume I work a 10-hour day, plus two hours of commuting each way.  Then, of course, I need around 8 hours of sleep.  And an hour to get up in the morning and get ready for work (Shower, put on makeup, dress myself, pack a lunch).  What does that give me?

Three hours.  Three hours of free time.  I was griping to a coworker about this, and she said "It does seem like that sometimes, doesn't it?" 

... WHAT? Lady, it is that.  Those are the numbers.  I have 3 hours a day of "leisure time," and if I want more, I either have to work less or sleep less.

So, needless to say, I've been running myself ragged between stress and not sleeping (because, there's fun stuff to do guys!) and not really eating too well, either, and it finally all came to a head Saturday when I spent the entire day vomiting whatever went into my stomach because I had messed up my sleep schedule and made risky food choices.

I spent Sunday sleeping and trying to eat small amounts of food because the vomiting had been replaced with terrible hunger pains. I couldn't straighten my body to walk to the bathroom or even lie flat on my back, or else the cramps were so bad I would cry.

Today, I am sitting home on the couch.  I don't really have any more pain, but my brain is so dead that I'm not comfortable going to my job... because I'm working on a lot of really important (to me) things and I'm afraid of making a mistake.

Anyway, there's no point to this post other than me whining.  Sorry about that.  I think that when I started writing it, I meant to give an excuse of why I haven't been around... but all the words just started pouring out.

Things will get better soon.  Dan and I are looking for apartments that are closer to work.  I'm going to finish these projects and they will be replaced with other, less stressful projects. 

And I'm never, ever, ever going to eat a sandwich that I found in the back seat of my car again.

I Found the Rainbow!

It's on the heels! I finished the heels Tuesday, and I really like them.  They're my favorite part of the socks, actually... so much my favorite that I'm taking out the whole socks.

Yep, I'm ripping them all out and making these socks.  They're the perfect way to knit this yarn.  And it'll be a fun challenge.

But... I have to finish Dan's socks.  I pulled out all my sock yarns and gave him the pick.  He picked a really boring black and white.

Boys are weird.

Also, I have to share this.  This is where I took that picture above...

At 4 AM.  This is great advertising for my lamp that Dan bought me, haha!

Muddy Rainbow Socks

I'm making progress! Carpooling two hours each day is great, especially when you make the other person drive.  I'm making nice progress on my Haruni shawl, too!

Anyway, I put them on Dan and I'm about an inch from starting the heel flap.  Which is good, because I'm really into a new book... and I can't read an knit too intense stuff.  I can do stockinette or garter stitch fine, but anything that involves thinking just doesn't work for me.

I'm disliking the yarn more and more the more it knits up.  It pools, which is ok, but from a distance it just looks brown to me.

It makes me philosophical: every stitch is special and unique, but when all this specialness and uniqueness is put in one place the combined specialness and uniqueness just makes some ugly socks.  Okay, maybe not ugly... maybe just... a little... different...

Also, I've stitched hair into it.  #$&!%...

A Little Mid Week Pick Me Up

The orchid that Dan got me for Valentine's Day Last year has rebloomed! I trimmed the roots in mid December, and that seemed to give it new life.  I'm proud because when he showed up with the orchid, I was worried that the buds it had would die, and then that would be it - I would kill it.  But it's survived!

This, for some reason, makes me really really happy!

Dream Yarn... Dream Shawl

So, for Christmas my friend Ash gave me some AWESOME yarn.  I mean ridiculously awesome.  Qivuit sock yarn for both me and Dan, which I immediately placed on our dining room table and let sit for a few months while I decided what to do with it.

That's the best way for me to figure out what to do with yarn.  I just put it somewhere where I'll see it often, and every time I see it I think "Hmm... what should I do with this?" for a split second.  After doing this roughly thirty thousand times, I have an epiphany and suddenly discover the perfect project.

For this yarn, though, I didn't know what to make.  I didn't want to make socks - the yarn is just too soft, too nice... no, no way.  I thought about combining the two colors (red and sepia) to make a scarf.  But, no, the intent was something for me and something for Dan, so... I couldn't justify that in my head.

Finally, when I went to Kentucky, I took just the red yarn, wound in a cake.  I figured that this would finally give me the impetus to cast on some socks for myself.  BUT - when I looked for patterns, I had my epiphany.  No, I couldn't knit socks with this - I had to make a shawl.

What shawl? Well, there only seemed to be one option.  I have been eyeing the Haruni Shawl for a long time, and what better excuse to make it now!

So, I cast on for this shawl two weeks ago, and I'm already halfway done.

Maybe it's just a rebound project, while Dan's Rainbow socks sit forlorn in their little project bag, being surly.  Maybe I should work on them today...

(Also, sorry for the lack of photos! I thought I had taken some but it turns out that I never took one of the yarn when I first got it... Which is bad of me, I should have put it into my rav stash right away!)