Change of Address

My ymail account has been hacked.  AGAIN! So, I'm just going to stop using it.  If you need to contact me, send me an email at alyoopsknitting AT gmail DOT com.

Boo yahoo! :(

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.

Red Right Ankle

Okay, so it's my left ankle, but whatever. 

Saturday I fell on ice and twisted my ankle really bad.  One of the ligaments is torn.  The picture above was from last night - today the area is still swollen, though not as bad.  It is all yellow and there is a black spot blossoming in the center.

On top of that, I'm travelling for work.  So pain + homesickness + overwork = grumpy.

Thankfully it's not broken. My life would be so miserable right now if it was.

I have some happier, knitting-related posts coming up!

White Sunday

I woke up this morning and all the windows were frosted over... and there was a foot of snow on the ground! :)

It was actually fun shoveling our 3 flights of stairs.  I'm sure in early March it'll be obnoxious when we're gearing up and trudging through the snow for the ninetieth time, but today it was like a celebration!  We even walked down to the corner store and bought the paper and some beer.

It was nice just sitting around knitting and watching movies and stuff.  We also made Christmas cookies... but just baked them.  Hopefully we'll ice them sometime this week... maybe not.  We decorated for Christmas, got a tree, and put up some greens in the flower boxes, but didn't so much.  Our big Christmas purchase was a cute little snow globe with a fox in it.

And, even better news... my orchid that Dan got me for Valentine's Day last year is blooming again! It even has some new little shoots coming up. Did you hear about the color of the year? It's Orchid! The color of my orchid, the color of my sweater and the color of my socks.  I'm actually a little sick of seeing this color with two projects with it!

Blocking

I finally got to block my shawl! I used the wig pins that my friend Kate gave me, and blocked it on the floor of the hobby room.

Of course, I had to clean the room first so that there would be room to block the shawl, that took way longer than I thought it would!

Aside aside, it looks amazing.  I love blocking things - the ritual behind it, pinning each part out symmetrically... If there was a paying job blocking people's handknit work, I would apply today! I love the feeling of a project stretching out, being pulled into its final shape, teasing it and pinning it just so that it looks the way I want it to look. 

Sometimes I feel like I'm being blocked by other people.  You know the type - people that try direct you, stretch you to your limits so that you can discover who you are and what you're made of.  I had a teacher in elementary school that definitely "blocked" me! We had to have our homework done, every night, the exact way that she told us to.  I hated her - but, you know what, because of her I learned that I had to do my homework, because it helped me understand the material that we talked about in class.  And, when I got to college I still did my homework (yes - even the readings!) and I got excellent grades - because I had built those habits when I was a kid.  Mrs. D had blocked me into the shape of a student.

And just like a lace shawl or a hat, we can relax and forget our shape.  Then someone else comes around and helps block us again.

Let it Snow!

This big snowstorm has been my first one in New England.  Although there has been snow, it hasn't been this big yet.

Because I have a long commute, I played it safe and worked from home yesterday in case things got really bad. Dan even came home early! When we went to bed (shamefully early in the night) the snow has stopped, and we wondered if all the hype was for nothing.)

Then we woke up to this.

Oh hai, snow, how's it going?

Hope everyone is safe and warm! I know the areas south of here are even worse off.

 

My Halls Are Decked!

Although I still haven't unpacked all my things, we decorated for Christmas last weekend and I'm so excited.  We got our own live tree, ornaments, etc etc etc.  We even have the glade plugins in a Christmas theme! I haven't done any crafty stuff, really, but I still thought I'd share. 

First up was the tree, of course.  Boyfriend wanted a teeny tiny one in a pot, but I managed to convince him to get a bigger one in a tree stand.  It's still small - exactly my height, but small.  Here's a size comparison:

We went to Walmart, Target, the Dollar Store, and Home Depot to get all the lights, tinsel, and glitz.  I really wanted mistletoe and a nativity, and found a nativity at Home Depot.  I got bells to hang up in the doorway...

... Little bulbs for my lavendar plant...

We searched and searched for mistletoe, but couldn't find any at any of the places we went.  Luckily, my mom sent a care package of Christmas ornaments, candy canes, and... MISTLETOE! It looked like someone has spray painted it green, and half of it crumbled apart when we tired to take it out of the box, but gosh darn it we put it up! It makes me think of Charlie Brown.

I also made a little display on one of the shelveswith old jars of pasta sauce, candy canes, and extra tiny bulbs that we couldn't fit on the tree.  Oh, and pretzel M&M's. 

Here's our tree in all it's glory! The presents underneath are for Boyfriend, his birthday is today.

And one from last night:

How are your Christmas/Holiday preparations going? 

Treat Yourself

Yesterday, amid a ridiculously stressful situation my Dad told me that I needed to "take a few deep breaths and treat yourself."

Well, today I stopped at the organic market down the street from my school and bought this stuff:

It seriously WAS a treat.  If you've never had fromage blanc, I highly recommend it.  I tried it at a farmer's market about a month ago and all I knew it as was "sweet goat cheese that you eat with dessert." It's so delicious!

Then, I started thinking about all the other treats that I give myself.  It seems like everyday I do a little thing to "treat" myself - not something big or expensive, but just something that I'd like to do.

1.) When I bought groceries last week, I bought a bouquet of flowers for $6.  Yep, those flowers are a week old! I have a ton of special tricks to stretch cut flowers :P

2.) A bit of expensive chocolate that has witty writing on the label... Isn't it true though!?

3.) I also like to describe the sunrise to myself as I walk to work.  When I travel to work I leave the house before sunrise, and watch the sunrise as I drive east to work.  My favorite was Tuesday, where the dark clouds slowly moved north, revealing the orange and red sky.  It was like watching the curtains get pulled aside at the start of a ballet.

4.) Reading blogs on my phone in the in-between times during my day.  Walking to class, in the elevator, whatever.  By the way... blogs that only display previews in their RSS feeds are obnoxious.  Why do people do that? It means that I essentially can't read your blog.  I was good enough friends with someone or liked the blog enough I would click through, right? Apparently not. I just skip right over it and never read it.

5.) Of course, there's also knitting time. I don't know what I would do if I couldn't knit and watch my favorite TV shows.

What do you do to treat yourself, Internet? I want ideas!

Last Leg of School!

It seems crazy, but I haven't posted in almost two months! That's mostly because I got an awesome new internship in addition to my other job, and because I'm almost done with grad school! I moved into my room on Sunday. So, by Thanksgiving, I will have entered the real world.  I'm kind of excited, because this time I won't be travelling around, sleeping on people's couches - I will have my own apartment, and a car, maybe a cat... etc. etc.

Another reason (besides being ridiculously busy) that I haven't blogged is that I haven't really knit over break. I chugged away on my dragonfly socks, maybe getting a row in here or there, but I didn't make any real progress.  I finished my giant red sweater and it looks hideous, which is disenheartening.  I have a bunch of designs that are ready to be published, they just need one or two little things. (Or, erm, testing.)

BUT, I am starting to knit again.  I knit all through my business class on Monday night (while I was missing a Hooks and Needles meeting...) and I am - EEK - finally on the toe of my second Dragonfly sock! I've also been making hedgehogs. Lots of hedgehogs.  I'm not sure why, maybe it's a sign of my growing mental instability.

URG... ACK.

 
This week has been crazy.  No W. No Lotus. Not a lot of time to knit or blog between OT and packing! I'm a little worried that my apartment isn't going to be moved out by the end of next week. I'm a little worried that I'm going to lose everything in the move, and not have time to find it all! I'm a little amazed by all of the crap that I have.  I went through all my clothes (which was crazy! I have so much!) and those were easy to get together to take to goodwill.  All my books... I dunno.  Those are going to go into storage I think.

And my knitting... well, packing away the stash was easy.  It's already in a bin! The funny thing was all the little balls and stray skeins that I squirreled away. A tiny ball of stray yarn beneath the sofa, two or three skeins packed into an end table drawer... it was madness!

Hopefully I can finish this week off with a bang.  I have no worries about work, it's just getting packed up and keeping on schedule! That will be the challenge.  Food needs to be cooked (and eaten), herbs need to be harvested, dishes packed, narwhals sewed, and a thousand other things that need to be done!

But, I do have good news! I got some gorgeous yarn at a festival yesterday! It's suri alpaca from a local farm (Well, local to W, not to me!) and it's a super deliciously soft.  I wanted to make a shawlette, but there's only 100 yards... so perhaps a ciof.  What do you think? Does anyone have any patterns for neckwarmers that are less than 100 yards?

The Last Week of W.

So, this weekend W is packing up and leaving! He's doing some excellent things for an excellent theatre production, but I'm going to miss him. That said, we're making the most of the week and having every night be something special! Last night we drove to Wal*mart and ate at Applebees.  Tonight, we're going to have a roast chicken dinner with green bean casserole.

I'm going to miss my boyfriend for so many reasons. He's my best friend, and having him stay with me has been the best part of a pretty already awesome summer. Also, who else washes my dishes and gives my hedgehog a bath!?

Erm... that sounded like a euphemism, but wasn't.

Anyway, I want to finish my tiny factory by Friday at the latest! It's already looking more factory-esque.

It needs a panel and a gauge on the front still, which is going to be crazy.  Plus, all the little things that come out of it! We have decided that it's going to make penguins... Yikes! Wish me luck! :X

Good Day, Bad Day

Today... no, this week... has been tough.  Pretty much my whole savings for the summer has turned into my first payment for school, so that I can take out a loan with an interest payment of less than $100 a month.  It's not so bad, but I have to give up my pipe dreams of not having to find a job during school.  I lived with working last year with a 20 hours schedule, so I can do it again.

But good things have also happened!

Good thing #1: I can work overtime at work, to earn a little extra money :)

Good thing #2: I spent a lot of time on hold today, and managed to draw some sweet doodles.  I'm going to plug them into Excel later.

Good thing #3: I got a package! It's my yarn, at long last, from Eskimimi's Etsy Shop! It actually came last week, but my landlady picked it up while I was out of town having adventures.  Isn't it gorgeous!? The colorway is Broccoli Sockoli, and I know EXACTLY what I'm going to make with it.  To the T!  I couldn't get a picture that showed it's true colors in the light, but these pictures catch both sides:

So make sure you pick some yarn up for yourself... or check out Mimi's blog.  It's definitely worth a following :)

Clearing the Plate

My knitting- and non-knitting stress has been continuing this week.  W volunteered to cook (which he has, kind of, all week!) but today he was feeling sick.  So I make chicken and rolled it in tiny tortillas with salsa and cheese, and it was something like an enchilada, or a burrito... I don't really know. They were delicious.

Point is, while I was cooking, I was thinking.  Why have I been so stressed out? I've got a million ideas in my head, a thousand half-written proposals to a dozen calls I saw on Ravelry.

I came home at lunch and cast on for a washcloth.  A WASHCLOTH! In Lion Brand Cotton. On my Disney Princess needles.  Don't believe me? I have photographic evidence!

Then when I came home and frogged the Free-Form Socks. As if sensing the end was near, they knotted themselves up.

So I firmly decided.  No more projects are going on the plate until I clear something off it! I'm not even going to look at calls online.  I'm going to work on what's in front of me, and not try and start a million things at once! I'm still working full time, which means, with sleep, I only have 6 hours a day for knitting.  So I'm going to enjoy it, and not feel flustered by the mountain of stuff I keep taking on!

So, I'm working hard on this machine that W wants to animate.  The deadline: 2 weeks from now, before he leaves to work on a theatre performance.

Tall order, since I only have about 10% done.

My Weekend In Pictures - July Adventure

It's been a while since I did one of these - well, it's been a while since I had such a great weekend. I had an amazing, awesome, glorious weekend! I told you int he last post about the stress sock I started, but I also went to visit my great aunt and great uncle at their lake house, which was amazing! And, even better, I got to run around.

I also took some pictures of the lichens I found. I truly was Beatrice Potter in a past life.

Saturday night I was feeling gloomy, so I gave Lotus a bath. Did she need it! Sometimes when she travels she gets stressed out about the new places, and copes by digging in her case an inevitably getting her business all over her... if you know what I mean.

 Scared to come out of her playhouse

 Thinking about it

 Eventually I got her in the tub, where she ran around like crazy, then splashed about.  Of course, she was happy to come out and be toweled off and cuddled.

Oh! Also, Saturday, we drove by the Starucca Viaduct. It was an incredible sight! Built 1847-1848, it's 100 feet high and over 1000 feet long! It's one of the oldest stone-arch railroad bridges in the United States. Well worth a look if you're ever near Susquehanna, PA. If you never are, here are some pictures!

Tonight, we dine on strawberry bread.

Dear Me... Learn to Embroider

Other than that, the prototype for my next pattern is done!!

It's called Borneo, and it's a knit owl stuffie. 

There are a few adjustments between this critter and the final pattern.  The ears will be shorter, and the tail won't taper as fast, and of course, no wonky embroidery! I think button eyes are in order. Also, it will be a lot better knit :P This little guy feels rushed, but I WAS rushing to mail him to a friend from college, sooo...

I'm currently finished with a portion of the pattern-writing.  I'm planning on the pattern including instructions to make the doll in the round and flat with seams.  There will also be a "frankenowl" section on how to modify the pattern to make your own unique version.  It's a lot of work, test knitting, and designing, but in the end you will REALLY get your money's worth for this thing! It ain't no Dino.

I'm really excited to release this pattern, but it's probably not going to come out until September.  I'm going to aim to have the pattern written and tech edited by the end of the month, then give the world a month to test knit it, then release it September 1st. That's the TENTATIVE schedule, since I'm doing a million other knitting things at the moment. (Okay, maybe more like 4, but it sure feels like a million. I will most likely blog about all of them.)

OMG! That's me!

Can you spot Little Alyssa in these pictures?

SQUEE! I'm too excited to see she made it, in one piece, and got to be part of the exhibit.  I'll make sure to post up when she gets her five minutes of fame on the Stitch London Blog.

For now, you can see the posts about the exhibit here, and here :) 

Testing 1... 2... 3...

So, I learned a valuable lesson this week.  That lesson: the power of the test knitting. 

It all started when I got a message from a user on ravelry asked me a question about Dino.  Of course! I'm always happy to clear up questions about my patterns! Let's take a look.

(Ten minutes later)

"What?"

(Thirty minutes with an open notebook in front of me later...)

"No. Seriously.  What!?"

I have no idea why I wrote down what I did in that pattern.  The set up round before the neck is supposed to be there, it provides a taper that I like... but the entire rest of the body is written completely ignoring the number of stitches after the set up round, not before.

I feel horrible for not catching this mistake, but I feel even worse because people have KNIT Dino. They have encountered this problem, and, god bless them, they haven't said anything.  Thanks for suffering in silence!  

I have learned my lesson, though.  From now on, all of my patterns that qualify are going to be tested. I'm really sorry to everyone that knit Dino and got frustrated! It really bums me out, and I hope that it doesn't happen again...

Once again, really sorry!

Public Service Announcement

It is my birthday.

That is all!

And you think YOU had a bad night?

Someone threw a lit firecracker into the open window of my dad's van.

What you can't see in these pictures is that all of his equipment was in the back... can you say, totaled?

There's a police investigation going on, and there are (actually) a few suspects, so I hope the criminal is caught. 

 

Also, I finished a hat for W, but ended up giving it to my uncle because it's his birthday. Happy birthday! There's a car on fire in front of the house!

(P.S. - My mom, aunt, and two of my uncles live in two houses that are next store to one another.  But that's a blog post in itself.)

(P.P.S- Yesterday a person who will not be named locked us out of the car while it was running, and we spent an hour and a half trying to get into it, then we paid $50 to get someone to come open it. And I missed seeing my Dad's band play.)

Have a better weekend than me!

And the winner is...

JerzyDevil!

I left a comment on your blog! E-mail me or send me a message on ravelry you claim your prize.