A Love Story

There once was a chilled bottle of soda who lived alone in the kitchen.

"Brrrrr, I'm cold!"

Then, at that very moment, she received a toasty sweater from a secret admirer!

"A secret admirer?....me?"

The sweater kept her warm, but she soon grew lonely...

"*waaaaaaahhh*..."

Chicklet was rushed in to cheer her up

"Awww, Thanks for the hug Chicklet--I needed that."

Feeling a little better, she decided to get gussied up to go out that night...

...and she ended up meeting the bottle of her dreams!

"Did you like the sweater I sent you...?", he asked. "It's perfect!" She replied.

And they lived cozily ever after-- The End.

Surprise!

Somebody turned 21 today!

(*pssst* it's me!)

So raise your beer cozies & yarntinis--this college knitter is especially happy today!

Basking

Spring break is coming to a close and I must say, I've enjoyed myself thoroughly. Now, I generally like to keep this next tidbit on the down low (for my own safety), but this semester I [somehow] managed to schedule all of my classes to be held on Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday of each week. That's right, you read correctly: 4 day weekends. My point being that the rest of my colleagues (including the Artist) are back up at school anticipating class bright and early. Whereas I am four glorious hours away from school and not heading back until Tuesday morning. I can bask in what little time I have left, spending some quality time with family & hometown friends. Oh, and knitting of course...

I have been working on the Forest Canopy Shawl, but opted to not bore you with new pictures of it since a triangular shawl with fourteen repeats looks a lot like a triangular shawl with nine repeats. If you're feeling slighted, just scroll down to my last post, squint your eyes, and pretend it has grown a couple inches. I promise I'll give you a real update at some point. Eventually...

In other news, I found a knitted item from Christmas past! Does this happen to anyone else? I guess I feel a little goofy for completely forgetting this poor thing. Though (in my defense), after reflection I remembered it being created during one of my [frequent] knitting blackouts. Problem solved. I give you the DROPS shrug:(The look on my face epitomizes my feelings about my 4-day weekends. heh.)

I was equally excited about finding my [WARM] wool shrug just in time for the heat to stop circulating in my bedroom. Uff da.

Here are some stats:

Pattern: DROPS Shrug (Ravelry)
Designer: DROPS design...? (It's very vague)
Yarn: 5 skeins of DROPS Eskimo in light iceblue
Needles: US 15 Addi Turbos
Estimated time of knitting: 4 hours in a trance

And here is a better picture of the frontIn a nutshell, It was quick. It was easy. And it's warm. 'nuff said. My only complaint is that the back gapes a little bit at the bottom, but nothing a good blocking or cleverly placed front button wouldn't fix.

Stay tuned to see the fate of this yarn, as well as a surprise sneaking up at the end of the week--hooo boy!

Spring Break!

Soooo...I was expecting to fill this post with super crazy pictures of me wearing my PowerPuff girl costume (congratulations to those who rocked the 90's trivia). However, the thing about themed dances is this: sometimes everyone and their mom dresses up, and sometimes they...well....don't. This occasion was definitely a "don't". And luckily my best friend and I checked out the scene before arriving as Buttercup & Brittney. Thank god. I will post a photo of me in that costume at some point, but for now I am empty handed

I've been pretty occupied with the list of itinerary that I'd mentioned prior, but since my last post was a little lacking of knitting, I've decided to spare you the details of Boston's awesomeness. Instead, I'll show off what I've been up to!Enter the Forest Canopy Shawl. This pattern = perfect for airplane/subway knitting because the pattern is so simple it can be easily memorized. In the end, this little number will be gifted to my fantastic mom (along with knitting [and every other crafty thing known to man], my mom has her own chain maille jewelry business! If you do click, disregard the ginormous picture of my face as well as the blinding glare off of my fake engagement ring. heh.)
The story of this shawl goes back all the way to January. My mom had bought 5 skeins of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino baby and, after a few failed attempts at finding a good scarf pattern for herself, she generously donated the yarn to me. Little did she know that I was going to be making her yarn into a shawl for her! Initially it was going to be a secret, but (as I learned with Jamie's vest) it's too much hassle to hide a project from someone you live with. Production on said shawl came to a halt after knitting 7 repeats on needles that were to small. Ugh. It is officially the largest gauge swatch I've ever made. I switched to size 8's (much better) and knitting commenced!

Now, lets check out the shawl's view out of the Harvard "dorm" windows!What is that stately looking brick building you see? Is it a library? A science center? Admissions? a bank? A museum? NO! It's still the dorms. Seriously.

Turning our heads, we have yet ANOTHER view!If you can bring your eye past the extensive courtyard (seriously), you'll be able to see the scenic Charles River! Yeah. That's what I saw out of my dorm room too. No wait, the view out of my freshman dorm room looked like this:I kid you not. That's not a lake or a historic river either. I took that photo out of my freshman dorm window when our campus FLOODED due to the heavy snowfall we'd gotten that year. In fact, that's almost exactly what campus looks like now. I guess I will eat my jealousy and instead continue to enjoy my time surrounded by redbrick buildings, crown molding, hardwood floors, and a YARN SHOP that's two feet away here at Harvard. sigh....

One Savvy Shopper

So as mentioned in a previous post, I will be leaving this Thursday to travel off to the Boston area. More specifically, the Cambridge area. More specifically than that, the Harvard area. No, I'm not transferring to Ivy League glory, but instead, becoming an honorary student for the 6 days that follow my arrival. I have been given explicit instructions to:

A. say I'm an Anthropology major (?)
B. tell everyone I'm Jewish (which I am)
C. let everyone know I'm originally from Wisconsin.

I've heard these things will make me friends, though I can't help but question why. Regardless, my best friend has drafted up an itinerary of events for me to complete while I'm there. One of the more substantial events will be a "90's" themed dance on Saturday night. My first thought? No PROBLEM! After all, I did spend my blossoming years growing up through 90's; in fact, it's the only decade I can claim as my own!

Trouble is, I was in ELEMENTARY SCHOOL through most of the 90's, and (believe it or not) none of my clothes still fit me. Heh. *Enter intense brainstorming period*

My [patient] friends helped me come up with a ton of costume ideas spanning from Clueless, to Full House-- Boy Meets World, to the Spice Girls. If I had had unlimited time to gather materials or create something, that would have been different. Heck, if it were up to me, I'd find a full sized animal costume, cut out a giant tag board heart and go as a Beanie Baby. Alas, the character I decided on had to be dreamt up in less than a week on a college budget. So, what's a girl to do? I went to our friendly neighborhood Goodwill of course! And I came home with...
A green [J.Crew!!] dress for $6.99...

A black belt half priced at $0.99...

A pair of white tights [unopened from Walmart] $3.50...

A pair of black patent mary janes [Clearance for $6.00!!]...

and lastly (the knitting part) the ever-popular Hallowig, in black. [priceless].

So. Can you guess what I'm going as? I won't declare this an official contest, but know that if you can successfully guess what I'll be, I'll be sincerely impressed with your 90's wisdom. Seriously impressed.

Also, check out what else this savvy shopper snagged while thrifting[!]:That's right. 7 glorious balls of super bulky mystery fiber (we think a wool/synthetic blend?). Pretty darn pleased with myself for finding that one. Chicklet's excited too. Once I establish yardage, I'll start brainstorming patterns...hoo boy!

Not quite Miss Kinkos

I got home from work around 1am and, as per usual, I couldn't get to sleep. After dealing with my sporadic sleeping habits over the past year or so, I've learned that the worst thing I can possible do is to lay [awake] in bed wanting to go to sleep. Instead, I need to do something productive! Who cares if it's 3:45 am!It's all the more reason to tackle my unfinished projects since there won't be any of those pesky distractions (like other lifeforms) that are usually lurking during the day. What did I do you ask? I decided to be resourceful! I printed my own gift tags:
I had been meaning to make these ever since before I got my fantastic sew-in labels for the holidays. These tags are just a little something to personalize a gift one step further. They're also the ideal option for the baby garments I'll be shipping out tomorrow to ensure there won't be any rough edges that might irritate sensitive baby skin.So huzzah, call me Miss Kinkos because I feel pretty darn resourceful. But wait--it wasn't really that easy, was it...?

hah, NO WAY!

For your comic relief, I've captured my mistakes and have decided to share them openly. (Feel free to gawk at my awkward learning curve.)

FIRST Try: I put the paper in upside down, but more importantly, the rounded rectangle I had added to the back side of the card was horribly out of alignment. Goodbye rounded rectangle!
SECOND Try: I decided to try a darker (more sophisticated) yellow than the first time and instead got a decidedly un-classy highlighter/popcorn yellow. Oh, and my margins got reset to default after all of my careful measuring...round 3 shall we? (Note the detail shot of my horrible margins*).
THIRD Try: I opted for an aqua blue since my eyes were still burning from the first two tries. A little too dark, but what's this? success! This run is looking good... now just to print the back! Oh geezus......maybe ON the back next time?
FOURTH (and final) Try:
color?adjusted.
Margins? set.
Paper? right side up.
Planets? Aligned.
Product? 30 cards wasted, but 10 cards: SUCCESS!
Lessons learned? I do not yet hold the title Miss Kinkos...but I can dream.Also note: Those of you wanting to print business cards at home, make sure your printer isn't a model that likes to eat cards for breakfast. My model is apparently the new HP Card-Cruncher. And what an awful sound that was.

Busy Busy Busy!

I know it's bizarre (especially lately) for me to just disappear for a week, but I have my reasons! I spent the first half of the week down in Lake Geneva for an industry related conference (Those of you feeling nosy can Google WIGCOT 2008 to see more). On the plus side, the conference was informative, entertaining, and enjoyable. On the minus side, the professional conference environment isn't exactly conducive for knitting. At all. The end result was me getting about 3 hours of knitting time in the car there and back. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not complaining since, as before mentioned, I had a great time. That being said however, the rest of the week was spent catching up on everything I had missed the first 4 days of the week. Isn't that how it always goes? Playing catch-up? Regardless of how much I think I've gotten done, I'm nowhere near finished with everything I need to have finished up by next week. What better time then [heh] to decide to write a blog entry! Anyway, here's what I have to show for myself:Yes, he is that cute in person. I had been eying up Ysolda's "Elijah" for months now and finally decided to make the commitment to actually knitting him up. Now, did I have sport weight & DK weight yarn on hand? YES! Did I choose to use either of them? hah-NO WAY! Why make the easy decision in a situation like this? I had 3 skeins of Blue Sky dyed cotton in a pretty ice blue. I actually got the idea from seeing Ysolda's newest toy, Otto, whom she made out of the same yarn in white. "Elijah would look cute if he were bigger too", I thought. "I'm going to give it a try!". The saga continues from there...

I might also add that the pattern construction on this project is just mind blowing. There was A LOT of careful thought put into this pattern. I'm talking meticulous diagrams and fantastic descriptions. Given my previous experience with her patterns, I'm not surprised in the slightest. He does look awfully goofy with no arms, ears, and only one leg though--that alone is enough to give me motivation to finish him!

And lastly, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that SPRING BREAK starts in six short little days. Get ready Boston, I'm almost there! (Those of you in the Boston area: any LYS's to check out??)