It's OVER! Oh, and I got to meet Anne Hanson!

First thing's first... my academic quarter is officially over as of today! I am so, so, so relieved, and so exhausted.  I can't wait for a good week and a half of vacation, then moving into my new apartment.  It's going to be nice to have a room to myself with a desk instead of, say, this:



Oh, see that bright thing on the table?  Monday, my friend Rebecca called me and said "The Rochester Knitting Guild is meeting tonight and I want to check it out... want to come with?"  Another knitting club to go to? Hot swift!

Anyway, I went on their website and saw that Anne Hanson, from Knitspot, was going to be there! I've been following her blog for a while, and I though - huh, funny, I never really looked at her patterns.  So I spent a few hours doing that on Ravelry - yes, maybe a good hour and a half.  There are a LOT of patterns!  I finally decided on making some Longjohn Socks.  It just seemed like a great mindless sock project for me to work on... and I'm loving it so far. 



It's been hard for me to knit with all the stress I've been under.  I enjoyed listening to Anne speak, but I liked being able to sit and knit just as much! It was also really cool to hear about her inspiration and see photos of her finished works juxtaposed against the photos that inspired them.  At the end, she even signed a paper copy of a fingerless gloves pattern that I bought!



It was also really exciting to see her trunk so - and to see all the versions of projects that people had brought with them. I wish I had brought W's DSLR so I could have shot photos of the night!

And, at the end of it all, I went home and made a creamsicle float.

30 Day Character Challenge!

This week has proven to be less hectic than I thought, but much, much more miserable! I have actually knit negative stitches in the past 7 days, since my DAL submission is a mess.  I don't know how I'm going to finish it on time - it is, (GAH) a real failure. 

But, I've started another thing - mostly inspired by my friends from school.  It's called the 30-day character challenge, and there's even a little Tumblr for it! It's really fun to see my friends' ideas... so, I thought I would try it out! Mine is a little different, though, since I thought that each character I make could be a toy design.

I feel like posting a single post every day would be a little too much work for me (it IS finals) so I'm going to post my character on the challenge Tumblr every day, then do a kind of consolidation post each week :)

So... for days 1 - 5...

These are two deer - they're named Dearie and Spot.  Not really much else here.

Day number two is Lola.  Lola is the only kangaroo out of her friends that doesn't have a kit, and such is incredibly depressed and a tad jealous.  She spends her time growing plants in the wasteland for others to enjoy.

Day 3 is Nina.  Yes, her name is Nina, and she is a pretty ballerina.  I have the complete ABBA discography! Don't judge me!

Day 4 is Windy.  Everyone calls her "wine-dee" but her actual name is pronounced closer to "Wendy." She suffers from a genetic condition where instead of getting fatter when she eats, she just gets longer.  It's known informally as "Snake-ism."

Day 5 is Senior Lemön, one of two lemon brothers! They cause lots of trouble for small western towns... not really enough to inconvenience people.  No one calls them by their names, mostly because they don't know how to say the o with two dots over it...

Anyway, there's week one! Week two will have better pictures (I hope) - I don't have a tablet like other people that are in the challenge (tears) so I'm just scanning doodles that I make throughout the day.

My Random Monday - Halloween Edition!

1. I'm not that big on Halloween.  Candy? It's a nice indulgence but why eat a bunch of it in one go? You just make yourself sick.  Costumes? You go out and buy it, then wear it once and never again.  It's weird, because Halloween used to be my favorite holiday.  Now, not so much.

2. Maybe I'm just being a wet blanket because this week is the busiest ever for me.  I'm travelling for work, then I have a 3-day summit for school.  It should give me some good knitting time, at least.

3. Oh.... this:

I joined a crafty directory! I had a lot of fun looking at all the different blogs in it... so, you should check it out and join, too!

4. Here's something spooky... GMOs.  I'm a big non-GMO proponent, and I guess I'm not in the majority.  This poll asked people "Would you eat genetically modified salmon?" and when I took it, the majority said "NO WAY!"  Sadly, most of us ARE eating GMOs every day.  It's not enough to just buy the stuff that says GMO-free on the label - if you're in the U.S. you should go to the Center for Food Safety.  They have a form that you can fill out in thirty seconds to write to the FDA.  Even if you don't think it'll work, at least give it a try if you feel strongly about the issue!

Best Gift EVER!

I have the greatest, most greatest BKFF (Best knitting friends forever).  At club last night, Ash gave me THESE...

PLAYMOBIL HAZMAT TEAM.

I am seriously going to treasure these forever.  I can't take my HazWOpER refresher this year because I have a class that meets - this totally makes up for it.  I had them clean up some cocoa today.

Part of me just wants to carry these around with me and photograph them cleaning up spills.

The most amazing thing is that I've had a pretty crummy week, and these have just made it. I've found that my happiness can be won over with presents.  What cool things cheer you up, Internet friends?

Lotus's Bad Week

It's been a while since I posted up photos of Lotus!  She had a pretty crummy week last week.  After her bath on Wednesday, she got a nail tangled in the towel that I was drying her with - it was caught like a hook, and there was no way to get it out without clipping it.  It was like torture to her.  Then on Friday night in the wee hours she bumped her face on her wheel and got a nasty bruise, and refused to do anything all weekend.  Finally she came out Sunday night and I played with her on the bed, and she fell into a corner and was so embarrassed she wouldn't let me hold her for a good hour.  She's finally eating a lot and running on her wheel again, so I'm not worried.  I just hope that she doesn't end up like the wheel horror stories I've heard...

Anyway,  we like to sit and read together (well, I read, she naps) and then usually W comes up and we go to sleep. And by we I mean W and I.  Lotus doesn't sleep at night - she's too busy guzzling down water, knocking down her food bowl, and running around on her wheel.  It's actually hard for me to sleep when she's not running - then I know she's upset or something is wrong.  (That's how I knew that she had hit herself.)

When I was putting her back W got out his iPhone and took some photos.  She's afraid of bright lights and sudden noises, so the DSL camera doesn't turn out so well.  As I held her she started licking my hands and foaming.

In the bottom picture it looks like she's biting me, but that's just the face that she makes when she foams.  She's learned that when she bites me I yelp, and that's not a fun experience.  She still bites W occasionally while foaming, but not mean, leave-me-alone bites.  More like tastes :)

And yes, I have huge boobs.  Sorry they just happen to be in every one! XD Blame W for that!

My Random Monday - 10/24

1. It is now week 8.  If there's anything you know about RIT, you need to know that there is a lot of work.  Some people might say "Hey, I'm in department A and you're in college B, I have more work than you," but I completely disagree with this. I think we're ALL overworked and cranky, but it prepares us to be overworked and cranky in the real world, so it's not so bad.  When it's over.  Right now it's pretty dumb.

2. I haven't been knitting so much, but I have been working on W's puppets all weekend.  I'm kind of disappointed to say they despite swatching, it took me three tries to get most of the body parts right for his little puppet. 

The cast-off parts have turned into a little bunny, which I still need to sew together and stuff... but I kind of like her.

Hand felting is a total chore - I'm not thrilled by it.

3. I'm on a mission to try all the noodle restaurants in Rochester, in preparation for this coming winter.  I will figure out the best!  A few weeks ago I went to Aja Noodle (twice) and I was impressed with some stuff but pretty disappointed in others.  Tonight I'm going to try Mamasan's Noodle Cafe.

5. And finally... You should try this!

I got loyal, restless, courageous, and sweet.  I'm interested to see what other people see.  No cheating!

Pretty Shawl Photos

I love my Blackbird Shawlette. Love. Love. Love. Love. Love.  I blocked it really quick on Friday, and realized Monday that the decreases in the center were wonky.  So, I re-blocked it, taking my time. 

 

The difference between the blocked and un-blocked version is phenomenal.  It's like my shawlette is me, tiny and with a lot of potential.  Unassuming, but when teased and stretched it's something to be reckoned with.  It's elegant and beautiful, like a butterfly in a glass case. I almost don't want to take it down... it won't be this gorgeous.

Repurposing W's homosode was such a good idea. The pins slide into it, and I don't have to worry about someone stepping on it - I can take the board and prop it up against a wall.  Or maybe mount it on a wall! It does seem like it could be a work of art more than an article of clothing.  It isn't very warm.  

But blocking also brings out the bad.  I found mistakes I didn't know about (in addition to the ones that I knew about but chose to ignore.  Below you can see where I messed up an eyelet row.

Also, I dropped a stitch at the veeeerrrrrryyyy beginning.

 While I'm knitting something, I look at mistakes as nonconformities (sorry, engineering school) that need to be fixed, but on the blocking board they're not mistakes, they're things that make my shawl unique and different, like a birth mark. 

W and I tried to do an impromptu photo shoot but it just didn't work out.  We got a few pictures taken but they were HIDEOUS.  I'm transitioning to paleoshowers, and I'm still kind of greasy.  I told myself I would give it until the end of the academic quarter and decide if I would continue then - it's only been 8 days.

But I did get one shot where I don't look terribly hideous.  I usually hate photos of myself, but every once in a while W takes one and I think "Oooh... I like that picture."  Then W says something like "It's overexposed."