Happy Birthday To Me!

Well, today is my 21st birthday.  As of this moment, my plans are:

1. Get my free Grand Slam at Denny's for breakfast
2. Get my free burger from Ruby Tuesday's for lunch (I'm in the birthday club :) )
3. After work, buy some booze and sit at home with Lilac, watching Hulu.  
4. Maybe make birthday cupcakes if I have energy.

It's tough, having your first birthday far from home.  My dad and brother came out, bringing all the stuff I left home, so that was a gift in itself! Extra clothes, towels, and now I can boil water, gee whizz!  My mom also sent up my entire yarn stash, and a some succulents for my dark apartment.

She also sent a nice little pot for Lilac, which was happily devoured - she's now working on a basket. I'm thinking of buying some cat grass for her to munch on, but I don't know if she'll like it.  I guess if she doesn't I can just put it out on my porch.

Anyway, like I said, it's kind of a bummer spending such a major birthday alone with no friends or family.  So here's some pictures of Lilac.

"What's this, Slave?"

I call this one "SOON."

This one is just scary!

Tuckered out after a hyperactive bun run.

I got some nice presents, but mostly cards or money that I'm going to use to buy stuff I need.  I have a short list of stuff I want, and I'm putting up here so I can remember... though I probably will never buy these things XD

(From top to bottom, left to right)

• Garnet Mitts for the Summer Bead Along - I already have the yarn and beads! (Yes, I totally gave up on my bed design- that was SO doomed from the start!
• A new battery charger for my camera... =__=
• Marlene Socks.  I HAD the issue of Knit.1 that these were in, but I lost it somehow.  That was the most AMAZING issue of a magazine I'd every bought, with a ton of great patterns.
• Blackbird Shawl.  I just love it. I don't know what to say when I look at it.
• Chameleon by Hansi Singh, to make for Stephanie, who lost her chameleon to kidney problems...
• Crafty Detour's CSI Most wanted... honestly, I've been waiting to buy this!
• A 65 pack of felt squares from Lupin Handmade - a great blog, and they sell rainbows!
• This bag from Rue 21. It's the bag I've been looking for! 
• This shawl - though, the more I look at it, the more I think I could rig something up that was similar.

WWKIP Day and On (Finally!) Being Moved In.

Yesterday was the WWKIP event in Nashua, and so I went to the park and met lots of lovely knitters from the city - which was great, because I still don't know a terrible amount of people! I also finished two sunflowers for my DAL design - I'm leaning towards the smaller one, I think the larger one will be a good coaster for my tea pot.

Then, I went to Wal*mart to stock up on supplies (like a camera cable!) and buy a carpet that Lilac fell in love with.  I think it might be the texture, but she likes to roll around it, dig at it, and get her paws  up along the side and mark it with her chin!

I don't know if it's the addition of the rug or the fact that we've been here for two (2!) weeks, but I finally feel like I'm in MY apartment, not, say, sleeping in some stranger's guest room.  I'm so happy that I got a studio instead of a one bedroom or a two bedroom (like my last co-op.) I could spend a whole blog post talking about that, but instead I'm going to show you pictures of my aptartment!

Tiny Kitchen

Not many people can pull off the "stuffed animals as throw pillows" look.

Organized chaos.

Lilac doesn't get to go outside, but she likes to listen to kids play in the picnic area.

Anyway, it's exciting to be working full time, and putting together my own furniture. I miss my friends and family (and knitting time) but, the experience so far has been worth it.

Restriction Lifted! Kind of...

I'm finally allowed to knit again, albeit much, much less.  Not being able to knit has been tough, but having an injured wrist at work has been waaay harder! Plus, when I'm home and Lilac is allowed to run, I'm too busy watching her.

Watching her sit on my pillow and lick it

Watching her chew on the novel I've been reading. 

(I pick my battles.  I own the novel it was ten cents.  I do not own, say, the carpet or the tempting veneer on the cabinetry.)

I've managed to get kind of far on V.2 of the Pink Lemonade Socks.  And, I ordered the yarn for my DAL project - I need to start VERY soon if I want to finish, considering it's going to be pretty expansive and if I don't improve, it's going to be slow knitting!

(P.S. - Sorry for the phone photos.  W is coming up for the 4th and he's going to give me a spare cord.)

Summer Bead Along... Design!?

My internet friend over at Revelations of a Delusional Knitter is hosting a Summer Bead-Along! I'm excited to participate, because I've never tried beading, so I signed up!

Then I started to look on ravelry for beaded knit patterns - easy stuff, that I could start out on.  I found some, but they just didn't appeal to me.  So, I started thinking, and doodling. I came up with this:

Haha, I know, nothing.  When I doodle out designs in my notebook, I think at the same time.  So, sometimes the result doesn't make any sense unless you're me. Of course, if I ended up not making any solid decisions, but if I did, I would have recorded them more dutifully.  At first I thought I'd design some sort of lace shawl, but I couldn't think of what to do.  Then I thought that I needed beads that were larger, both because of my eyes and because my hands will benefit from larger needles.

So, I decided to make a "beaded argyle bag"  There will only be two colors, and the lines of the argyle will be beads :)  I went out to the store to get supplies after work, and I found the perfect beads to match the yarn that my friend Kate gave me!

I'm slightly tempted to go off restriction a few hours early, since I really want to start this! Anyway, if you're interested, the along goes all summer, but you need to find a pattern by tomorrow! Click the picture below for more information! :)

Oh, also, my friend Kate gave me this doodad.

I think it's used to string beads onto work, but that's just because I have beads on the brain... am I channeling the Little Mermaid, or does this have some other use that I'm totally missing?

Reporting in From Planet Earth!

The view from my patio

 I haven't blogged much because of my move, but I have to say I feel pretty well settled in.  Since I hurt my wrist last week spray painting patio furniture, I've been on knitting restriction until this Friday, which has been a real bummer until today, when the router arrived!

Lilac is also adjusting.  She's on restriction, too, because she loves to bite plastic and my blinds are plastic.  I'm also nervous she'll start marking - although she's still a baby.  So, I watch her while she's outside her pen.

Exploring the mess.

There are a few key things that my Mom is supposed to bring up this or next weekend (I'm not sure.)  The first is all my cooking supplies - pots, pans, etc.  The second is my stash (I miss the yarn already!).  I'm also hoping that in some of the boxes is my camera cord, because I've lost mine.  Thus the shoddy photos you're getting.

This is pretty much my apartment. Well, the furniture in it anyway.

Just know that wherever you go, and whatever you do, somewhere out there a bunny disapproves of it!

There are days... and then there are DAYS.

Sometimes, you feel like nothing is going right.  You wake up on the wrong side of the bed, you stub your toe on the way to the shower, maybe nothing goes horrendously wrong but the sum of the parts doesn't exactly make a beautiful, sunshiney day.

Then, there are the days where everything goes right.  You make new friends, you nap in the sun, you play in the pool.  You spend most of your day knitting a sock.

And then, just as you're about to start the ribbing for the top of the leg, you go to try it on to show your grandmother how good it looks on your foot.

And it just doesn't fit.

And that is the moment, at a memorial day picnic, as you struggle to get the skinny sock leg over your bony little heel, when you realize that that whole good day was fate/God/someone upstairs softening the blow that this sock is not working for you. 

And later, when the party is over, you frog back the sock all the way (even though you could have stopped at the toe, you just weren't paying attention.)

And the next morning, you cast on for it again, because it's only the right thing to do.

Free Pattern - The Pinwheel Square

I'm in a group on Ravelry called KAL weekly square, and I'm the designer for the second square!  Whoo hoo! After some trial and error, I made this baby! I'm pretty proud of it :)  The goal of the group is to have a finished blanket by the end of the summer by making a different square each week.  Designers can make an original square, or squares can be nominated that are already around.  Anyway, this square can also be used as a dishcloth, potholder, plant coaster, etc.  It's very fun and calming to make, and it's reversible - a must for my blanket!

It measures 10''x10'', and full instructions are after the jump.