{Yes, I know it's summer}

The 100 degree temperatures are going on their 8th day today I think, and I've been sitting inside all cool... knitting toques and scarves. From wool.  Am I crazy?

Yes.  the answer is yes.

I skeined up my graduation gift yarn  - Madelinetosh Tosh Sport in Robin's Egg and cast on this cute set. First the Pooling Rivulets Stole by Yarn Floozies (obviously without the pooling) and then Hermoine Hearts Ron hat by Christie Aylesworth.  I love how the repeating yarn overs mimic one another so it looks like a set without them matching perfectly.  They both flew by really quickly too, which made for some great  non-investment knitting - exactly what I've been searching for lately.

This whole working-full-time thing has really taken the wind out of my knitterly sails.  I think I always saved my really complex knitting for the summer months so I could concentrate on it for long periods of time. All my big sweaters and shawls have been done during school vacation times!   I'm not sure what I'll do now... have I relegated myself to small projects like these?  We'll have to see, I guess.

Oh speaking of small... does this hat look tiny on my head or is it just me?

{Buttons Buttons Buttons}

Buttons x 3! Three completed tiny sweaters!  I feel so accomplished.

pattern: Concentric Stripes Cardigan 

buttons:  Happy Piglet Buttons from stephaniexu

yarn: all leftovers of green acrylic, blue and grey wool

pattern: Autumn Leaves by Nikki Van De Car

buttons: Cute Fat Birds from stephaniexu  

yarn: Unplanned Peacock Superwash Merino DK

pattern: Concentric Stripes Cardigan (again)

Buttons: Natural Coconut Buttons from stephaniexu (sensing a theme?)

yarn: left over wools

  Ta Da!  There will be some very happy babies in the near future. :)

{Alora's Quilt is DONE!}

Oh my gosh I'm so excited to show you guys these pictures.  I love this quilt!  It's so fun and soft and warm and smooshy!

fabric: Sunny Day by Connecting Threads 

 pattern: Strawberry Fields by Moda Bake Shop

I did the binding in the perfect shade of pink satin.  OH my gosh it's so soft!  But let me tell you... cutting that stuff was a such a pain in the butt! My ruler kept sliding around and I could not get a straight bias cut to save my life. lol  I don't think you can tell too much in the end though. hehe

Then, you may notice that the quilting is ... minimal.  I decided to do this because where the blocks come together are the only straight lines in the quilt and I don't have a quilting foot.  I keep putting off buying extra feet for my machine because I'm pretty sure I'm going to want an upgraded model soon, and some of the new machines come with those things, so I don't want to be buying stuff twice, ya know?

(as an aside: if someone is selling a used Brother machine, I'd be thrilled if you put me in contact with them!)

I can't wait to get it in the mail!

{Baby Sweaters Galore}

I've had a few friends come out and let me know that they are expecting!! I'm so excited for them (TWINS in one case!) so I've been furiously casting on since the day I found out.  Two down:

and a third on the needles!   Of course, I'm just waiting on buttons.  These two up above were from the Concentric Stripes Cardigan pattern, which is free.  I had fun mixing and matching some left over yarns in my stash and finished off a bunch of odds and ends!  The top one in browns is some wool/silk blend, along with wool for the accent colours and the bottom green one is mostly acrylic with some wool accents.

The next one is done in some Unplanned Peacock yarn and i'm loving knitting it. Updates soon!

{Stephen West is a Genius}

Stephen West is a brilliant knitware designer.  I think the brilliance in his designs are how elegance meets simplicity.  When I went searching for a shawl pattern to show off the beautiful stitch definition in the yarn I got from Mr. Pie for Christmas, I found Boneyard.  Definitely simple knitting, but with a touch of interest in the garder ridges every 12 rows.   Then, at the end, I added a whimsical touch by way of another gift: the book Knitting Beyond The Edge.

I'll let you be the judge of their marriage:

I love how this yarn is such a beautiful semi-solid - tones of orange and even red show through subtly in a few places.    What I don't love about this edge technique is how badly it curls, even after a very aggressive wet blocking.  I've considered steam blocking or picking out the cast off edge to continue with a few more rows of garder, or even just picking up stitches on the edge and knitting some more rows with what's left of the yarn.

I'd love your opinion.   Here's to some very successful knitting in 2012!

The deets:
pattern:  Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West  and
            "Lattice Beauty" from Knitting Beyond the Edge by Nicky Epstein
Yarn:     Have you Any Wool Luxe Sport in Truffle

{On break, finally.}

Christmas break is finalllllyyyyyy here! yay! I'm not going to lie - this end of semester push was the hardest I have ever had and it nearly drove me insane. By the end I was a mere shell of my former self and it's taken me about 3 days to really comes to grip with the idea that it's over.

Lots of lots of knitting therapy.  Really, even more than the knitting, I think I needed a few days of just doing nothing to get it through my head. lol

I managed to get these bad boys out in just about a week!  They are called the Daina Mittens,by Tuulia Salmela. 

I knit the first thumb in the same pattern as the rest of the body, but there just wasn’t enough room in there for the 3 yarns and my thumb, so I had to rip it back and do it in a single colour. Kinda disappointing.  So instead I did something crazy and made the thumbs two different colours: one's green and one's orange. :)

I'll be back tomorrow to talk about some house decorating!

{Winter Knitting Update}

Man I really wish Winter would hurry up and get here.  The weather outside still feels distinctly of fall and I'm getting antsy for the gray skies and icy mornings.  It can hold the ice until after finals though (10 days from now!).

So yeah... blogging. hehe Recently I was visiting Virginia's Blog called Virginia is for...  and she was asking for volunteers to take her back issues of Interweave Knits.  Since it's my favorite of all magazines I spoke up with a "Yes! Yes! Yes Please!" and she was kind enough to send me all she had along with a very sweet note:

So incredibly cool! I love Interweave and there are  always a couple projects in each magazine that I want to knit.  I had a subscription last year though so now I have doubles of each of the seasons from 2010, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.  If anyone would like them I'd be happy to pass them along. :)

Meanwhile, I'm knitting a sweater to prepare, and hopefully to bring good MoJo, for cool weather.  I bought the pattern for Cromarty by Heather Dixon the instant I saw it because I even had yarn for it!

photos from Army of Knitters

Isn't it perfect!  Going to be gorgeous when it's done, but I have some tinking to do first.  I was tired and I blew through about 3 rows of lace when I wasn't paying attention. I'm not sure how I did it since there's lace on EVERY row, but there ya go.  The yarn is pretty big so it shouldn't take too long once I feel like doing it. lol  The pattern is super well written (so totally my fault, not the designer's) and there's even a knit-a-long on Ravelry if you're interested.  The pattern is kinda steep at $9, but since I already had the yarn for it... oh and I also was in LOVE with it, I splurged.  Consequently, when you pay good money for patterns they're usually super well written and easy to follow. Who knew? hehe  This one is no exception to that trend.

Speaking of Interweave, have you looked at the Winter 2011 yet?  I'm kind of obsessed with the Briar Rose Tunic.  Go there and find out why.  I probably wouldn't knit it quite so long, but otherwise i'm all up ons that pattern.  I need to get my hands on that pattern for sure.

I've also finished a project oh about... 2 months ago that I haven't written about yet.  School and all, blah blah blah. lol It's almost done! Then I can be back to blogging regularly! hehe

I called this the Forest for the Trees cowl.  I just made up a pattern of alternating cable and lace and cast on enough stitched to go around.

The colour is a deep pumpkin and I love love love  the yarn, Fluffy DK from Gaia's Colours (discontinued), but to tell you the truth... I'm just not sure cowls are for me.  I can't figure out how to wear it to look right.  I like it under a coat, but I'm struggling to make it look right after the coat comes off.  Do you guys have any hints for wearing cowls?

Well, I think that's it for me. :)  You folks probably won't hear from me again until after finals, about December 10th or so.  Wish me luck!

{Holy Crap an FO}

Yep, you read that right: I've finished a project!

gloves from the Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns

  When I found this yarn for sale on Ravelry, I pretty much fell in love with it.  Then when I went looking for a pattern and couldn't find one that excited me, I pulled out this book of patterns. It's super handy!  The patterns are all very basic and given in table form where the gauge is down the vertical axis and the size is across the horizontal axis. Pretty brilliant!

  But just because you have a pattern for worsted weight gloves doesn't mean you SHOULD knit them.  The fingers are different lengths (doh) and I didn't manage to close the gaps between the fingers very well.  There are too many hand stitches and not enough finger stitches, too. lol  I'll wear them because they're warm, and I like the yarn, but geez.  I think the next gloves I try will be in fingering weight. lol

Warning: Whining about School Ahead

  So, you may have noticed that I've been missing for a little while too.  Do you want me to tell you about my last month? hehe  This semester has been a KILLER. More than any before. I am a math major, and I never thought it would be *easy* but I seriously considered dropping it as my major and I only have 1 semester left to go.  I just didn't think I could do it anymore.  I've spent fits crying and I've been stressed out of my mind since pretty much the second week of class.  In order to finish on time, I had to take 3 math classes this semester, which is just too much. 

  I came to this University with a perfect 4.0 GPA from my community college, so I'm used to being above average academically speaking.  More than that I'm used to above average coming to me fairly easily.  This has been a real struggle to face a task where no matter how much effort I put in, I don't get the results that I've become accustom to.  In all my other not-math-courses I have earned A's, and they have been harder to get than Community College, but dang.  These math courses are kicking my ass.

  So I was freaking out about my plummeting GPA, knowing that someday I want to go to Grad school.  I also would kinda REALLY like the latin honours on my diploma, which is questionable now whether that will happen.  I spend about 3 weeks not thinking about anything else other than if I want to drop this math - a goal I have worked toward for almost 3 and a half years.  I talked to top women CEOs in the Roanoke area that I had made connections with at a conference, and they all told me to follow my heart and no, they really wouldn't care if I had a math minor or a math major beside my business degree.   But Mr. Pie was still holding out that he believed I would be disappointed if I quit now, but he understood and was supportive of whatever decision I landed on. 

  I was all set to walk in to my math adviser's office and tell her that I was dropping it but after talking wit her she strongly urged me to consider it for another night.  I was only two 2-credit classes short of a bachelor's degree, and no, they really wouldn't be as hard as I was thinking, and do I really want to quit so close to the end?  So I did what all rationally-thinking adults would do and I called my mommy.  She pretty much didn't even let me finish my sentence when I told her what I was thinking of.  She made an analogy that made sense to me: I'm like a marathon runner in the 21st mile and according to her, I couldn't be trusted to think rationally about this right now because I'm so tired and so stressed. 

  So with the opinions of the two people who know me best in the whole world, I decided to have faith in the system and stick it out.  This is going to be so. so. hard and I'm so scared that I'm not going to be able to do it.  Next week I'm registering for my last semester of undergraduate classes EVER.  I'm not sure how I feel about it - not excited, but maybe more resigned to my fate?  If I can make it through just ONE more 12-week stint and I'm done.

May 20th (graduation day) can not get here soon enough for me.

{Knitting News of All Kinds}

Today I have an FO, an imminent cast on and also knitting patterns to share with you!

First: Patterns! Because the new fall Knitty is out!!  Do you all have your faves picked out? The first one that caught my eye was the Tenney Park Pullover.  I love love love the entralac in the front, especially since it's been on my list to learn for ages now!  I'm imagining my version having a slightly lower neckline and a little less contrast in the colours chosen for the front panel.

 

 The Auguste Pullover is a good style for Mr. Pie I think, though I wish I could see it on some dude other than Mr. Twilight Fanclub  that they have it on. (hehe)  Mr. Pie is pretty boxy and large across the shoulders, so the open neck will work well on him I think.  It's also a fairly small gauge so it wouldn't turn out to be a super heavy sweater, which is important because he's practically a furnace all by himself.

 But for me the one that steals the show is the Vignette Cardigan.  I adore the turquoise with the red buttons! The deep V is perfect for me and I love the detail down the arms.It is knitted in pieces and then seamed though, which might be something to keep me from knitting this particular pattern in stead of just say... using it for inspiration.  I can totally hack that lace pattern, right?

In other news entirely, I finished a languishing UFO! YAY!  In you're interested in seeing it, and you're not family to me, then you can go to my Christmas 2012 page at the top of the blog to see pics and details of the latest gift knitting. :)

So with that one off the needles, I think I want to start a new project!  I've foobarred the lace sweater really good and I need to decide if  I really REALLY want to tink back 5 rows (in the round) to put the waste yarn for the arms at the appropriate place.  While pondering my next project, my friends Anna and Jenny informed me they were both knitting the Brandywine Shawl, so I thought I'd hop on board! It's a Rosemary Hill pattern, so I know I'll love knitting it.  I have a semi-solid with quite a bit of contrast in primarily a very dark brown (almost black) from the Unplanned Peacock, so I'll be using that. :) 

{A New but Older FO}

Do you remember me mentioning my Shrug This cardigan that I knit AGES ago during the summer? Ravelry says I finished it on June 30th and I guess I believe it. hehe

Well I wore it today!! I was SO excited when accuweather.com told me it was going to top out at 59 degrees today!! YAY!  I had Mr. Pie take a few pics before I left this morning:

(oh and I also cut my hair this summer. Wattaya think?)

I'm loving this! Over the summer when I tried it on I wasn't digging it at all but just over a black t-shirt and with jeans it's perfect. It's super warm but without full-length sleeves it wasn't TOO warm for hiking around campus in. Perfect!

The yarn I used was from Unplanned Peacock, Superwash Merino Aran and then the edging was a Gaia's Colours yarn, Fluffy DK which is now discontinued.  This one is certainly going to be worn. I got SO MUCH compliments and even another friend of mine asking what it would cost for me to make one for her! I hope the price didn't scare her too much! LOL

And just so you don't think i've been doing NO knitting, I'm getting ready to connect up my lace weight top down sweater together below the neckline. lol  It's a little slow-going.

{I'm BACK! }

My camera finally arrived in the mail!! (Thanks Dad!) and so I can show you my (not so many) knitting accomplishments since I've written last.  The weather has finally broken and it was only about 62 this morning, so I'm hopeful that soon my knitting mojo shall return. I'm even sipping Chai Tea as I write which is definitely a good sign.

The FO completed furthest back is this sweater, which I have been promising a picture of for AGES.  It's from the pattern Shrug This by Toni Kayser.   It's a free one on Ravelry but it's also been published in the One Skein Wonders series.

I made it from two skeins the most SUMPTIOUS yarn I've ever come across and the colours just screams of fall. The body yarn is Superwash Merino Aran by the Unplanned Peacock, who is local to SW Virginia, and the ribbing is in Pales DK (held double, I think) by Gaia's Colours. Both are discontinued but if you can find them used on the Ravelry exchange they are well worth the extra trouble to find.  The length is longer than the pattern as written with lots of waist shaping put in.  It turned out this length because I just wanted to knit until my yarn was gone but it's actually a little but awkward.  I haven't worn it out of the house yet because it's been so hot, but ripping back the length a bit may not be out of the question. 

The buttons are cut from antlers! Oh my goodness I love them!  They've been in my button tin since I got them for Christmas two years ago from my mom waiting for just the right project.  

Okay, on to my knitting from my trip home.  The plane rides and layovers are always long and annoying, so I decided on some intricate Fair Isle to keep me busy.  At the top of my queue for a long time has been Selbu.

I used Marks and Katten Fame Trend for the background and some Knit Picks Palette I had kicking around for the cream pattern.  I loved knitting it and watching the stripes appear and the pattern take shape.  I really think this was my most favorite pattern to knit ever.  Unlike lace, it's instant gratification!  I totally recommend giving this one a try.  The chart is an easy one too.

That's it for completed knitting for the past month. Crazy, right? I have a couple pairs of socks on the go right now, but they really aren't interesting or complete so I don't think they count. lol

Other FOs include non-knitting (really, non crafty) type things such as.... CARPET!  Our landlord GRACIOUSLY paid for new carpet in our rental home and I can not be more pleased.  We've been here for almost 6 years now and he said he wanted to reward us as good tenants. Yeah!  We did all the heavy lifting though in that we completly moved out of our house and then back in to it two days later.  The Uhaul never moved! lol  Here's a peak at the difference:

BEFORE: 40 years old, dingy, stains, holes, and no padding:

AFTER: bright, clean, and NEW!

It seriously feels like a new house!  I love it but it was  LOT of work.  It's like we moved but without moving. lol We're still unpacking  a few boxes and I've taken one huge load of miscellaneous junk (to me) for the Goodwill.  I made a few tough calls so that our house wouldn't feel cluttered again like before.  I gave away my wedding dress.  Hopefully it'll find a home with a bride on a budget who doesn't mind a little alteration.  It was a gorgeous gown but it was just taking up a LOT of space in my tiny closet. 

I'll wrap up with a couple of photos from home:

My sister and her two oldest girls:

(I'm sure she'll love me for the no-makeup pic. hehe But the girls are cute!)

And the baby, her youngest and my Goddaughter:

doing her fashion pose. hehe

They are getting big too fast and seeing them once a year is not often enough.

{Knitting Updates}

I've had a pretty busy first week at my internship, but I've managed to do quite a bit of knitting as well.  I finished a second From Norway with Love hat, this time a touch bigger so I could wear it!

Also, I've knit the first sock for The Store inside CFSotA.  Have I told you guys about that yet?  There's a new school of the arts around the corner from my house in this tiny town and inside there's a little art supply store that is carrying Unplanned Peacock yarn!!  I offered to knit a sock sample, and here's what I've come up with so far: one Nanner Sock by Wendy Johnson.

I think what I've decided to do is knit two ankle socks out of this 100g skein and then knit a pair of fingerless mitts just to show how far one skein can go instead of knitting one pair of VERY tall socks, ya know?  Is this a good idea or not so much?

And then yesterday I've also cast on for the Lace Saddle Tee out of Interweave Knits Summer 2010.

 

I'm knitting this one in pieces from the bottom up because I think the side seams will actually help support the 100% cotton and keep it from growing too much.  I think I've heard this somewhere... I think I'd rather be knitting it in the round up to the armpits to tell you the truth, but this also keeps too much knitting from sitting in my lap.  I'm knitting it from Estelle Young Touch, which is making a really pretty fabric.  I think I'm going to like this one! Not getting gauge (of course) but when I hold it up to myself it looks like it's going to fit okay, so I'll keep going and pray for the best. lol

I've also got a skirt mostly sewn together on my sewing table and a zipper to go in it, but no zipper foot.  I'm a crossroads here... do I pay for a zipper foot on my little Brother LX-3125 or do I hold out and wait until I upgrade (before the end of the year, I'm thinking) which will most definitely come with a zipper foot.  If I decide to wait, I'll just put elastic in the waist band of this one and keep my eye out for a used or refurbished sewing machine.  Ideas? Advice?

What are you guys up to this summer? :)

{It's a Tiny Baby Sweater}

It's Baby Sophisticate!

I love this tiny sweater! It'll be for some new friends that I'm meeting this weekend who are expecting their first child in November.  YAY!  Perhaps a tiny hat too?

{It's done! It's done!}

The Crossroads quilt is complete! In fact I'm sitting with it wrapped all around me right. now. EEE!  It's the perfect weight for a summer quilt! Breaths easily, but is just heavy enough to feel like you're all wrapped up.  I LERVE it.

Front:

Back:

AS you can see I came to terms with the quilting. In the end I bought a fabric marker and used the width of my long 2' ruler as a guide to make the squares and they came out pretty much perfect and perpendicular. Also, did you notice that little strange square on the back? Yeah... I ran out of backing fabric. hehe  But it's cute and quirky right? please?

OH... and check out what else happened over the weekend:

That's me! On the FRONT PAGE of our local paper!  My friend Josh was nice enough to do a great story on my knitting experience in order to promote the beginner's knitting class I'm teaching a week from today! (eep!)  I'm kinda nervous, but I know it's gonna be great fun too! :D

I've shared this project on Under the Table and Dreaming

{Lydia Cardigan is DONE!}

My Lydia Cardigan has sewn on buttons!  Unfortunately we just took this one picture, but I'll be sure to get more when Mr. Pie has time to point and click. 

I really like this one!  The buttons I chose were from RetroNaNa on Etsy! She has gorgeous buttons and fabrics at reasonable prices, but they take a while to get to the states from China (hence the delay in finishing this sweater!).  Here's her picture of them:

The yarn I used was Marks & Kattens "Lin" sent to me from Sweden (from guess who? Jenny!) in two shades of off-white.  Kind of a cream and a linen colour together.  I really like the very subtle contrast here.  The wide collar is a lot of fun too! I wish I'd cast on a few more stitches at the button of the button band, but hey... I wasn't up to ripping it out at that point. lol I thought I'd be able to fix it with some gros-grain ribbon in the button band, but I ended up opting not to do the ribbon.  With this kind of button band that goes up and around the neck I didn't know where it would be appropriate to stop the ribbon, so I just skipped it.  I was also having trouble finding any wide enough.  Does anyone have a good online ribbon resource?

Overall, I've been enjoying wearing this cardigan a ton.  It was 90+ degrees today and it felt nice wearing it in the air conditioning. Outside it was a little bit warm, though.  I think I expected the linen to be cooler, but it is paired with some acrylic too, so maybe that's giving it some warmness factor.

Either way. Loving it!

{We Built Bookshelves!}

**Edited to add questions and answers at the bottom!**

I'm sure I've written to you folks about the inconveniences of my home.  One of them is storage (but doesn't everyone complain about not enough storage?) but the layout of the house is kind of annoying too.  The square footage just isn't used very wisely.  A prime example is our hallway; at 5 feet wide by 20 feet long, it's almost wide enough to be a room, but not quite.  I've dreamt of bookcases in this hall for EVER, but we all know how expensive good bookcases are.  I really liked these one here, but yeah... $400 each? So not gonna happen.  Plus we have some pretty super high ceilings in this old house, like 10 feet throughout and I wanted to be able to take advantage of the height here.

A plan was born.... we're gonna BUILD them. By Ourselves.  Armed with this tutorial from Popular Mechanics, I drafted up some to scale drawing to plan the heights of each shelf, how much moulding, etc.  I wanted them to work well for this house, but then when we buy a house in oh, 4 or 5 years, I want to be able to use them in that house too.

The Plan: 3 separate bookshelves, each 2 1/2 feet wide by 7 feet tall, then base moulding and crown moulding to tie them together. All anchored to the wall, and to each other in the back.

There was cutting outside, and then building inside:

We used whitewood for all the structural parts and then inexpensive wood paneling for the backs, but turned backwards so the raw wood was showing.

 

It took us about a day and a half of work, but here they are finally standing up, just missing their shelf moulding:

Once I saw them here like this, I decided I liked the raw wood look for a while.  I was thinking first I'd paint them white, like my inspiration bookcases, but then I was thinking that since we bought real wood for all of it, not mdf or ply, that it would be sad to paint.  I began to think about staining.  In the end I think I've decided I like how they are now in this house, and when we move somewhere more permanent, I'll decide then what colour they should be.

After dinner yesterday I started to pull books from everywhere: the shed, under the bed, in plastic storage bins in the office, from under our nightstands, and from the older not as nice bookshelf in the living room.... holy macrel.  I don't think I believed we'd FILL the cases just yet!

But there ya go.  They're pretty much full.  I had no idea!  Now we have about half a dozen free plastic totes for organizing the shed today!  Maybe I'll be brave enough to take pictures of that too. LOL We'll see!

You've never seen two people more proud of themselves this morning than Mr. Pie and I.  I think this is the beginning of a lot more furniture being built around this house.

Edited to Add:

I've had a few questions so I thought I'd put them here at the bottom, okie?

How much did lumber cost?  We spend about $250 on the 1"x10" lumber, plus the trims, for all three bookcases, then the backing for all three was about $50, so a total of $300 for all materials.

How much lumber did we use?  It was 10 -  1"x10"x10' and 3 - 1"x10"x8', then 10 feet of base moulding, 10 feet of top moulding, and I think 6 - 8' sections of 3/4" shelf trim, and 6 - 1/4" x 1 1/2" x 8' side mouldings.  The other part we added was some 1x1's to hold give the shelves some support, so I think we bought 6 - 8' sections of that those too.

Was this hard?  It was labour intensive for sure.  We're lucky that Mr. Pie had most of the tools we needed like the electric saws and whatnot.  We did decide to invest in an electric nail gun since we know that this won't be the last of the furniture we build, but it totally crapped out on us half way through.  We hoofed it old-skool with a hammer and nails the rest of the way. That sucked.

How much time did it take?  not counting the whole day sucked from our life in the lumber store,  it was about 8 hours one day, and about 4 hours the next day, so about 12 hours total with both of us working.  Mostly I did the measuring and the holding, and Mr. Pie did the operating of spinny blade tools.  It's probably best that way. hehe

Thanks for the questions!

Linked to: http://www.bystephanielynn.com

and http://www.flamingotoes.com/

{For the Love of Collages! (updates)}

So, finals are over and I've survived.  I got A+, an A, and A- and.... a C.  Yes folks, it is my FIRST EVER anything less than a B+, and it is a C.  It has come to me in the form of Multi-Variable Calculus and I worked HARD for it.  With that in mind I should say that I am proud of the grade I got (I PASSED!) but it's still just a teensy bit hard to say.  It bring my 2-year GPA to 3.77. *sigh* 

With the summer plans still hanging in the balance (Hello, Advance Auto? I really REALLY want to intern for you over the summer, preferably paid, but I'll take unpaid.  Call me?)  I've been doing other things to keep busy.

I've been knitting. Are you surprised?  I thought I would attempt Nightsongs , but in a 100% organic worsted cotton on #9 needles to make it a nice quick around-the-neck shawl.  I knit it in 2 days, and now it's blocking:

Soooooo... couple of things.  I really managed to screw up this chart. lol It's one of those free lace patterns that while BEAUTIFUL, you kind of have to know a little about lace knitting in order to be able to figure it out.  It's only two charts, one for the body and one for the edging.  I screwed up the body enough that the edging pattern didn't fit at all.  So I just left it off. lol  Then, when I went to block it, it wouldn't block straight across the neck edge, so I hope it'll wrap okay. Also, it's taking a million years to dry, but I guess that's just the worsted weight cotton talking?  Overall, I'm happy with it I think and I hope that my friend who is graduating on Sunday likes it.  I'm planning another like this in the future for me.

Fiori Del Sole is coming along.  I'm almost 4 repeats done of the main body pattern, then I start the 19 edging charts. hehe I'm just kidding, it's more like 8. But that's still a lot of charts.

Yesterday I had a VERY successful trip to Goodwill!  At Goodwill I either have no luck at all, or all the luck in the world.

Pictured above is a fanTASTIC tulled (tooled?) leather belt with a belt buckle I can replace ($1), a new looking pair of mary-jane style Naturalizers ($2.50) a great 70's style blue dress with an elastic waist, which is the perfect perfect knee length on me ($4) and a very cute knee length skirt ($3.50). This was my one maybe-ish purchase. It's kind of puffy on me, but if I wear a long fitted shirt I think it looks good. Time will tell.  Oh, and also a pair of Adidas track pants for working out in ($3.50?).  THEN, there's the finds I'm particularly fond of:

This floor length dress is made out of pajamas material and i'm in LOVE with it. ($4) I do need to shorten the straps just a bit I think, though. And also,I just realized that maybe i'm wearing the wrong size bra. huh.

AND... la piece de resistance!

A new ceramic lamp!!  Do you see that price tag??  And it WORKS! I don't even need to rewire it! (which I was prepared to do).  She needs a coat of spray paint and a new lamp shade. Stay tuned!!  All in all I spent $25 yesterday at Goodwill.

I also have very exciting other news!  Mr. Pie and I have the next whole week off together!!! I'm so excited!  We couldn't remember the last time we had one whole week with nothing to do except be together.  We have lots of home projects planned, like building library book cases, but weather must cooperate for that to happen.  Our recent weather doesn't leave me entirely too hopeful.

That's HAIL on our front porch!  I hope we have fun pictures to show you soon of home-type projects.  Right now I'm going to go help Mr. Pie plant the veggie garden! YAY!

-this post brought to you by picasa collages

{Kai-Mei: Complete}

Kai Mei is another Cookie A pattern that has been fabulously popular on Ravelry.  And really, why wouldn't it be?  They're fabulous!  I knit them in a sock yarn with 10% Cashmere so they are like HEAVEN on my feet. They haven't come off my feet since they've been off the needles yesterday.  Well... except for sleeping.

I decided I'd had enough socks for a while and promptly cast on for  The Lydia Cardigan.  Mine's in cream and white and I'm LOVING it so far.  I think I was jonesin' for a stockinette project. Pictures to come.

{My First Cookie A's!}

Ta Da!  My Glynis socks are done!

... and I LOVE them!  So comfy!  I used just over 50g of the Drops Fabel that Jenny brought me from Sweden and took me just over two weeks.   The charts were really clear and it's a very unusual pattern. Not sure if I'd knit them again, but they were a nice intro to Cookie A socks, I think.

I've already cast on my next favorite from the book: the estimable Kai-Mei!  More on those later. 

{Stress Knitting is Productive Too!}

 First of all, thank you do everyone who sent me well wishes about my calculus test. I did pass, but not by much.  I got a 69%, which is a D.  My first D EVER.  It pains me just to write it.  I know it's not the end of the world and I'm still working hard. Finals start May 10th! eep!

A TON has happened since my last post.  Jenny (of Jenny's Blog on Knitting fame) and her hubby Thomas came to visit during my spring break and the it was amazing and wonderful and I can't wait to get to Sweden next year.   She's got tons of awesome pictures and the stories from her WHOLE trip over on her blog here:

Jenny's Blog on Knitting - The Vacation Edition

This is my favorite pick of us, knitting at the cabin at Douthat State Park.

Did I mention that Jenny arrived with yarn?  YAY! It was so sweet of her!  I got all of these!

So much yarn!!  The purple, red and green are sock yarns from Drops.  I'm knitting with the purple right now and I'm loving the stitch definition on it! Totally enjoyable to knit with.  The top right is yarn from Swedish Alpacas, no dyes, which I adore.  The pink and yellow ones are from a Swedish hand dyer called  "Handfargat sockgarn" (I guess "hand dyed sock yarn?")  and the big one in the middle is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE.  

During her stay we of course made a stop at the local yarn shop "Yarn Explosions" in Roanoke.  I found some really pretty burnt orange yarn for a cardigan on clearance.  1000 yards of worsted weight wool/rayon for $32!  I couldn't resist. It's really pretty.  I need to find JUST the right cardigan now!  It's a discontinued yarn, so I need to be absolutely sure I have enough for whatever I pick.

And just because of these yarns (yeah right. hehe)  I also bought this book here:  I'm knitting my first Cookie A socks!

During the cabin stay(before the book purchase) I managed to finish a pair of beautiful vanilla socks in Gaias's Colours yarn.  I love the yarn so much that I held it double to get a gorgeous squishy pair of house socks!

Those were done too quickly and with much driving left to do, so I picked up a scarf I had been working on called Cinnamon Grace in some  Madelinetosh Light.  OH my gosh I love this yarn.

 Can you see how pretty the reds and golds and bronzes are in this yarn? love!  This was pre-blocked too.  I'll have to get a new one once it's dry.

 I'll post picks of my first Cookie A experience once those are done.  I'm about 75% of the way through my first top down sock in AGES.  Meanwhile... homework. As usual.