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

Summer.

I felt this point should be recorded. Currently, I'm on the phone with Warren, and he's talking about "How stupid it is that single serving cheese is individually wrapped. It's a waste of plastic."

He used the word secondary packaging.

I was proud.

Anyway, I haven't knit anything worthwhile. I've been trying to make something everyday, but I don't feel that it's very interesting.

Also, I'm going to New York City in a week to be with my dearest Ash. On my birthday. Everyone in my hometown is out of town on my birthday. Warren, my brother, my godmother, my hometown best friend, Christine... it's a popular vacation time I guess.

How's your summer?

A week in PA

So, the past few days I've been Wabu's house near Mt. Pisgah. I love their house for several reasons:

A. It's in the country between two parks, a state and county.
B. They recently remodeled their kitchen, and have a pantry stocked with things that have a high chance of being spoiled before they are used (which, aside from making me a little sad inside, means I have free reign as the items most likely won't be missed.)
C. Their couches are irresistably leather and comfy.
D. They have a small blue car that they don't mind us driving.
E. They sometimes give Wabu money.


So, we went to Corning to the glass museum. This October, Wabu will be 20 and unable to get in for free. Not that we couldn't lie... but, that wouldn't be honest! Anywho.


We also went ATVing on roads near the surrounding farms. We tried to get to the park, but the road was blocked by a tree! Boo.


I also made the most marvellous cupcakes in the history of history. I filled them with chocolate chips and made homemade vanilla icing. Yum!

Anyway, I'm back at home where the wireless is plentiful, and the yarn roams free.

More ends to weave...

... and I don't have a yarn needle. I really don't know where mine went, but they all disappeared when I migrated from Rochester back to Elmira.

Anyway, I really like how these socks came out! I used some Knitpicks Kettle Dyed that my dearest Ashley bought me for Christmas. I saw some bad reveiws of the yarn and got worried, but they were all wrong! This yarn worked out swimmingly, and there was no dye lot problems at all.



Also, I'm making SABLES today... Mango sables. I just tasted the dough before letting it sit in the fridge, and it's SOOOO GOOD. I love mango things. With real mangos inside? Yes.

I'm squeefully proud. I'm also working on some hats with ear flaps for the sweetie and I to wear and be TWINS IN :B (... if he'll wear his...)

Of Cats and Rabbits

Sunday, my sweetie's mother and stepfather rescued a poor little bunny from their barn cats. She lived in a cage and refused to eat anything.

Monday I opened her cage up and she ventured out. She hopped around a little in their sunroom, and I picked some greens from the garden and fed it to her, and she ate three platefuls of dandelions, clover, and timothy (luckily, Warren's family grows Timothy in their fields and gives it to the neighbors.)
She was so cute! After it was obvious she was eating, we decided it would be ok to send her back... only to find that she couldn't use her front leg! Poor Little Rabbit!

Sadly, Little Rabbit died yesterday... Warren's stepfather found her dead. She probably went into shock, or died from her injuries. It's sad, because she seemed to be recovering...

First Day of Summer!

Although summer doesn't start officially for a while, I'm back in my hometown with my family. My dad's house is kind of a wreck, but I think I'm going to clean it up in a while. It seems like everywhere I go gets clean... which is nice.

First, I went to Tanglewood to see Roxy. I took a little walk and found some nice lichens. I wanted to walk some more, but I realized how lonely it is walking alone- after taking walks with all my friends at RIT, being in the woods and being quiet is a little depressing.

I got some awesome pictures though! Check out this sweet foliose thallus, found on an oak (I think) by the teaching pond:
I also found some really nice cyphellae on a lichen just by the parking lot... I didn't put the picture in, though, because it didn't look very impressive small-size.

And, of course, some glamour shots of Roxxors! Isn't she a doll? I got her at a good time, she played around, I cut her nails, and gave her plenty of FerretVite. She was so happy :)

I also made some super sweet iced tea... it's a little weak, but it's very sweet and addictive! I used 5 bags of blueberry tea, 1/2 cup of sugar, and 2 quarts of boiling water. The tea seeped for 10 minutes, and the whole thing took about 2 hours to chill.

I'm having a picnic with my mom tomorrow, so I'll perfect the recipe :)

Where I Produce Some Movie Stars!

So, for my sweetheart's final film project for this quarter, he asked for some puppets! I made these birds in about two weeks, and he added the pipe cleaner faces and rigged them with armature wire.

I'm really proud of my work- perhaps I'll show his project up here when it's finished :)

Knit a scarf: hug a tree

Knit a scarf: hug a tree

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Keeping you Updated

I always feel a little guilty when I do something cool and don't blog about it. So here you go. A nice picture for you.

Right now, I'm working on knitting puppets for my boyfriend, who is a first-year film and animation student at RIT. He's going to use them in a stop-motion short!

Here's the blue bird, where my work is finished. I knit the body, and he will stuff it with armature wire so that it stays put, add the face and legs, and essential make it look nice.

I'm pretty proud of the composition, though it was mostly ad-libbed. The head is a separate piece so that it's movable, held in place by the gray cuff.

Perhaps I can show off my work by posting the animation when he finishes!

Oh, by the way, have no noticed the poor quality cell phone pictures? My camera charger disappeared. I plan on buying a new one this weekend.

Wanna see What I'm Doing?

Every so often I try to get away from knitting, because of things like family or schoolwork or just work in general. Then, it sneaks up on me in the night. It starts with the occaisional doodle, usually in class. I think, "Hey, that would be a cute doll!" Then it becomes schematics. Then I think of another doll, and another, and then a pair of socks, or a sweater, or maybe a stylish hat.

Then BAM. Superbam. I'm doing things like picking up projects that I "put down."

Then I'm deciding they aren't good enough.

Then I'm frogging them.

Then I'm staring at the yarn, and I'm thinking "Why did I have to play god?"

My love me knot socks before I decided they needed to be improved:

My love me knot socks after I frogged them.

Then, to add insult to injury, the yarn tangled up and attacked me.

So, now I'm a zombie. What a weird day.

The "Price" of Being Environmentally Friendly

So, as you can assume from looking at my profile, I'm a student in Environmental Management. I'm looking to go into consulting, and a potential minor of mine is accounting. Why? Numbers fascinate me, especially when they tell you things you ought to pay attention to.

Well, I recently lost my Sigg waterbottle, and have spent the first week of classes without it. Instead, I've been using all debit and buying plastic waterbottles, under the assumption "It's too expensive to buy a new Sigg, I'll wait until the end of the month until my mother comes up with it."

Well, before class today, I did some number work. I've purchased an average of 4 20oz bottles everyday (I drink mainly water.) I reuse them once, then recycle them. Each bottle of water costs $1.75 from a vending machine- that's the cheapest way to get them, since I'm on a college campus and can't go off to buy bulk or on sale at Wal*mart. If you buy bottle water from the cafeterias, you'll be charged about $2, with tax.

Let me explain the math. Four water bottles each day at $1.75 each is $4.50 each day off my student debit account, about the price of a strawberry parfait, my favorite dessert. So, every day, I'm giving up a strawberry parfait. I'm fine with that. But spending 4.50 every day adds up to $31.50 each week, just on water.

Here's some more perspective: I go school in New York, where the minimum wage is $7.15. I have to work 4.41 hours every week to pay for the water I'm drinking. Since I'm a full-time student living on-campus, I can only work 10 hours each week at my job. That means that 44% of my income from my job this week will go to buying water.

Water, people. Something that I could have just gotten for free out of a fountain. Something that the United Nations deems a right. A 16oz water bottle costs about $16.00, meaning it will pay for itself before the first week is over. If you actually use it, you'll end up saving yourself a pile of money in the long run, not to mention make your life a little greener.

Kitten Mittens

Kitten Mitten
I will not hesitate to admit it: this started out as a joke. I wanted to make a cute little kitten, but someone scoffed and said I should make it “at least useful.” Well, here you go! They’re mittens, shaped like kittens, ready to smile at you while you play in the February snow.

Although they have a distinctive look, these mittens aren’t a pain to knit up. If the snow gives you a long weekend, you’ll be ready to rock these at the bus stop on Monday. If your intuition says there’s a good chance of a snow day tomorrow, you could probably whip these up for a little one in an evening of work.

Update

I feel pretty sick and depressed today. It's strange going from a noisy dorm to the sleepy-quiet house.

Anyway, the humidifier and tea are helping a bit, along with freezy-pops. I missed freezy-pops!

I'm also watching reruns of America's Most Wanted. I didn't even know that had that. It's actually pretty surreal, but I like it more than the normal AMW. Normally, America's Most Wanted makes me a little scared, I've been creeped out by it since I was a child. But this show always has a "happy ending." Well, a happy ending karmically.

Example:
TV: Update! Since the original airing of this show, the rapist was sent to prison where he was gang raped and is now serving life... in prison, as well as in the bed of a man named Bubba.
Me: :) I love happy endings!

Meow Meow Meow Mix <3

So, I finushed this cute little guy, but I don't really want to make his mate right now, because the chilly Rochester weather has turned to a warm and happy spring weather. Who says groundhogs are right?

Why aren't I typing up a chemistry lab?

Anyway, if the people speak I will probably post the pattern up, as I am in love with him and would like to see an army of kittens... mwahahaha.

I feel like I'm stating the obvious, but the thumb is supposed to be his tail <3

BLARGMONSTER.

I finally got off my butt and got myself some polyfill to finish the panda! Isn't he adorable? I've also spent way too much money and yarn as well, but I've yet to think up anything awesome to make with it :( Oh well, I have yarn, so whatever!

I've also made another hat, but I want to photograph it on the person I made it for! It's out of Twinkle <3

In other news, I put off chemistry to make this tiling pattern. Sex much? I love it, I think I might put it on a sock or something some time in the future...

Here's the problem with me. I make all these designs, I think up cute things, but I get lazy and never actually knit them! I could probably write up the pattern without actually making them, but I just never get around to it. Mayhaps I could get some sort of person to knit things for me, and have their credit in the pattern. *COUGHSAUCE* Oh, my email is lynough@gmail.com by the way. Just thought I'd make that clear.

Anyway, it's my first Winter Quarter Week 9, officially. I'm not happy. I have too much to worry about.

Beret-ness

I finished a super adorable beret for my super awesome room mate. We're plotting fingerless gloves with INCREDIBLY GORGEOUS doodle colorwork. Ooohh, I need to put a pin in that. "Doodle Colorwork." You're going to see that later.

ADD aside, this beret came out totally awesome! It was easy to knit up, and looks so pretty. It's like, lacework for dummies. If you can YO and work a magic loop, you're pretty much kosher to do this. GO FOR IT.

Anyway, the pattern is from knit therapy. Just thought you'd like to know

Productive Start

So, I finished a little piece of a big afghan that may eventually warm someone. Potentially. It took a week to make, and is roughly 6 x 6, so, it would take about 50 weeks to make an afghan that... would be suitable for a child or wheelchair. According to certain sources. DAYAM.

So, I decided to not think about this depressing thought while making a bear for the Mother Bear project. I have to say, it's incredibly awesome; quite possibly the best bear in the history of bears. And he has no clothes. I don't know if that will keep him from the hands of young Africans or if his naturalist charms will be a selling point.
I want to finish him by the end of the week! Wah! There's so much finishing to him, too, because I want to make him just perfect.

In other news, it snowed today! In Rochester! I know... don't laugh at my naivete. Or my inability to use accents on my mac.

Loving the two hears at the bottom of the image: do you see them? :) That was after my 8 AM class, I saw that and thought that maybe today will be good. Below is a close-up of the snow molesting a certain knitter as she walked to class.

Even the Tiger was overcome! Really, I don't think these photos do justice to the fluffy snow. As I came back to my dorm, I looked down, and it looked like that fake snow made out of spun felt that my grandma used to use to put expensive replicas of a small town on during Christmas.

Mittens... um, Fail?

So I fell in love with this beautiful pattern from Interweave. It came into my inbox and I was like "zomg! Mommy gloves!" I will not mention the name of the pattern, to protect the innocent... But it's in my ravelry list as frogged, soo... you wouldn't have to look far *wink wink*

Well, on Thursday I cast on for them, and started worked the cuff. It seemed a little big. As in, 8 inches in circumference. I was like "Okay, maybe it'll tighten up..." To put it in perpective, my wrist is 5 inches in circumference at the thinnest part, and 6 at the thickest. Mommy's got about an inch on me. Even with the shrinking ability of ribbing, these baby's were going to sag.

Then I thought "Maybe my guage is off- that's not new." I knit up a swatch. My guage was spot-on...I guess the pattern was just made for a chunky hand. This depresses me immensely, as it's already knit on size one's, and I'm too lazy to fuck with the swatch with size 0s and below, and I didn't feel like remaking the lovely colorwork that I fell in love with...

The lesson? If you're making a pattern, include the measurements. It would save tiny peoples like me time... say, four days? Thanks, Interweave. Way to not win.

On the plus side, I finished the Dude socks :) And, I'm using the yarn from the glove fail to make a double knit patch that may or may not be part of a quilt someday. (Look at my pretty color work! Be awed.)

Happy New Year!

Eh, my new year has been full of drama so far, not that I'm complaining! I finished one project, but I can't talk about it yet, top secret.

I also had a cool new year's post with all my knitting projects from the past year, but I lack photoshop... Curses! Maybe next year...

Oh, and I re-arranged my room!


And the sweetie and I planted some narcissus bulbs. Hopefully they'll bloom for me. If they don't bloom in ten weeks (by the end of the quarter,) I can send a letter to someone in Holland and supposedly, they'll give me money. Either way, I win!