I find strange things at school o_o

In Occupational Health, we're covering toxicology and dermatoses. I needed to look up if keratin was involved in botanical disease response, and ended up finding this site.

The Skin Rash Hall of Fame

Ew, right? But oddly fascinating...

In other news, I'm not really knitting anything. I'm spending most of my time working or searching for a Co-op! If you want to hire me, let me know, haha.

(P.S. - I also found this site on pathology which actually helped a little bit, even though I still got the quiz question wrong.)

Octopus!

For my birthday, my bff Ashley gave me a copy of "Amigurumi Knits" by Hansi Singh. Let me say, that's an awesome book. My first project from it is... the common octopus! I made it for the secretary of Hooks and Needles, whose birthday was yesterday :)


While making this cute little guy, I realized how much I missed knitting (having knit barely anything over the summer...) and how much I missed making dolls. They're so quick to make... so easy... so admired by other people. I guess the reason I originally fell away from knitting amigurumi was because I ran out of ideas... which is a pretty pitiful excuse, if you ask me.

Also, in making this dear, sweet cephalopod, I've realized a technique that I've been totally underutilizing in making my own amigurumi- short rows. I've got to get on these, internet!

Houston, Prepare for College!

So this week has probably been the most hectic week of my summer. Classes start Monday (that's RIT saying "Screw you, bank holidays!") but I feel like it's already week 10. I guess that's because this is my last free week, when things aren't scheduled out and days aren't divided up like I'm in Zamyatin's We.


So, without further ado, here's my obligatory post of pictures of my dorm room for the family members that check my blog (I'm so cool... My mom's bookmarked my blog.)

Also, I wanted to point out the irony of my current plant situation. Before I left home, I pluckeda mint cutting from my garden and stuck it in a tin can with some rocks and potting soil. The cost was absolutely nothing, and the plant is thriving! I'm so proud. Contrast it with my gerbera daisies, which I over-watered... whoops. There's $8 down that drain. I just think that it's funny that the free plant was much easier to take care of then the grocery-store one.

Remember This?

Back this spring, I made the dolls to this video! It's finally found a place on the internet, so, give it a look-see and tell me what you think!

Tweet Tweet from Warren Sheetz on Vimeo.

Eco-Craftiness

I've been getting ready to go back to college... I can't believe that RIT is only 4 days away!

Anyway, I had a list of things I wanted a mile long, which doesn't really jive for me at the end of summer. At school, I have two jobs along with being a full-time student, so I don't have to worry about money (unless my Dad forgets to pay the tuition bill!)

Item number one: A magazine file. I desperately wanted something to put my knitting mags in. Last year I had a ton of problems with piles of magazines. The problem with buying a magazine file? A decent, interesting-looking one sells for over ten bucks!

So what's a teacher's daughter to do? I made my own out of a cardboard box I was going to recycle, water, flour, and a magazine that I saved from the RIT library's junk pile.


I think for my next file, I'm going to invest in a roll of duct tape to hold it all together at first. It's a little fragile, but I'm sure that'll clear up after it dries.


I also made some pretty sweet baskets out of old food boxes, fabric, and ribbon. Oh, and I covered jars that were going to be thrown away with scrap fabric so they can be used for storage. And I used some old cans to grow lavender and mint for my dorm room.

I'm excited to have a crafty dorm room! I'm also excited to be traveling with less.

I took the day off from my job today to go through my worldly possessions and decide what to take and what to leave behind. Now that it's my second year, I'm a little wiser to what I'll need in the Brick City. Four different jackets? No. Hydrocortozone cream and Tums? Yes, please!

Oh Hey, I Do This Thing Called Knitting Sometimes.

I am proud to present to you my first finished summer project. Potentially, it's my only finished summer project.

Today is the day of my boyfriend's driver's test, so everyone say a prayer, ok!? Not because only prayer can help him now, but because he gets so nervous. Thankfully these socks will be waiting for him, regardless of whether he passes or not.


Oh and they look big because they're not made for my feet. Duh.

Insomnia = Things get done.

Long Times, No See.

Sorry I haven't posted at much. Things have just been HAPPENING. My mom is going to be closing on the house soon, and we're overhauling her yard. Eventually it will be lovely, but right now it's a disaster area. I'm knitting, but I'm sort of between things.

And Monday, I start interning at Friends of Chemung River, a nonprofit that recently started in teh Elmira area. I'm really excited to help them out!

Oh, and Warren's been staying with me for a week, which is awesome. Yesterday, we went up to Tanglewood and what did we see? MONOTORPA UNIFLORA.


I love this plant. It's possibly my favorite plant of all time, and I've only seen it once, when I was small. I immediately searched books for what it was, and found an article on it in a very old book on northeastern plant life- the internet didn't really exist for me then.


Back then, it was believed that the plant was saprophytic, but now I guess it's common knowledge that they live off of fungus under trees. Fungus, fungus, fungus... the internet of trees.

Anyway, because of the moist, cool summer these babies were ALL OVER. Everywhere. I'm glad I didn't scare Warren off, because I was really freaking out.

"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Look at this one! Ah! I'm stepping on one! Oh no, that's a mushroom- HEY, THESE ARE PINKISH!"

Moral of the story: Take a walk, and you'll never know what you see.

Here are some other close encounters of the Natural kind:

Two young bucks :)

A Luna Moth Caterpillar- Look at the bugger!

A lovely ladybug

A Japanese beetle on some Yarrow