Coloured Plastics*

I am sick, and while still able to breathe, am regularly attempting to cough up a lung or two.  And cold meds?  They tend to make me kinda loopy.  Honestly, I'd rather be drunk - then I'd at least have had the chance to enjoy a few good beers or whiskeys or what-have-yous.  (Is there a drink called "what have you"?  If not, I should create it and lo, it shall be awesome.)

So, I'm home, sick from work, losing my voice just in time for a presentation that I have to give in class on Monday morning.  Should be fun.

Look, knitting (and a kitten...)

Urban Aran, with kitten for scale.  Fronts, back, and most of the sleeves are complete.  I still need to order more yarn to finish the sleeves and collar... Something tells me that I won't be wearing this til the fall.  Which is really no surprise.

Print O the Wave:

Basically, it is a large lump on the floor, as I am sloooooooowly working my way around, attaching the boarder.  Had a few complete brain meltdowns in my attempts to figure out what, exactly, I was supposed to be doing.  Not sure that I'm completely correct, but so far, I like what I see.  (well, minus the endless repeats of this over and over and over again, for the rest of all time.)

OpArt: 

I have started this like, seven times. Not even kidding.  And ... first, I am NOT going to be knitting garter stitch in the round on a blanket that has at least 700+ stitches on the last couple of rows.  Nope, not happening.  Secondly, it puckers and no matter what I did, I could never find a way to join the new color that I liked.  And when I went back and wove the ends in, no matter what I did, it looked bad and felt worse.  I love the concept though, and I think I've figured out a way to translate it into crochet.  

Oh, yes.  I've gone over to the dark side.  I have become a hooker.  But only for this one baby blanket.

Yarn:

I came home one day to find a skein of Lorna's Laces forming a yarn puddle on the carpet.  The kitten had gotten bored and basically, gutted the skein.  I'm still finding bits and pieces of the label here and there, but managed to untangle the whole thing and wind it into a ball.

The yarn basket now lives on top of the fridge.  I'm hoping he doesn't figure out how to climb up there. 

And of course, continuing my habit of coming home and checking under the bed to see what, exactly, is not supposed to be under there.  Current list includes the following:

-one tomato

-one plum

-one tupperware container that had held lunch and had been sitting in the sink, waiting for me to empty the dishwasher so I could reload it.  He managed to pry the lid off and eat all the left-over rice from that particular lunch.

-four or five different skeins or balls of yarn, stolen from my stash.

-various articles of clothing, dug out of the dirty laundry pile

-my glasses - luckily for him, they never seem to land lens-side down

Of course, he is currently curled up on the desk in front of me, using my left arm as a pillow.  Good thing he's so cute.

*Doug Randle

time continues

Things have calmed down some, which is quite helpful.

I got my Knitpicks Andean Treasure, 100% baby alpaca and I am in love. So soft! Such a pretty gray color! So soft! I'm resisting temptation and will not cast on to swatch until AFTER all my final exams have been taken and final papers have been handed in.

I finished the body of Ryan's hat last night, while watching Mean Girls and Full House. So, now to knit the ear flaps, figure out how to knit an applied I-cord, and his hat is mostly done. Woohoo! I should be able to give it to him before Christmas. Tina's sock is still progressing, just makes for some boring pictures. And also, the camera's batteries are charging, so I couldn't take new pictures. And blogger didn't want to upload old pictures, so you get nothing.  Next time?

I finished the second 10 page paper on Friday, just need to read through once more to catch typos and grammar mistakes. I attempted to start the 20 page paper today and just wanted to curl up and cry. I'd rather talk to my professor for 30 minutes about the topic, have him grill me on it than write this paper. Hrm, maybe I could arrange that? Shall have to ponder.. But either way, I need to do some more work on that as I could be giving a 15 minute presentation in class as soon as tomorrow. Oh, joy. Oh, rapture. Oh, yes, I'm totally in trouble.

Though, I'd probably be more than able to wing it for 15 minutes in class tomorrow, even with the short 2 pages I currently have written. At this rate, I would actually be able to finish the paper by its due date.

I've decided not to take the final for one class, and having received an A on the major paper of another class, I can blow off that final a bit and maintain my grade. In the only class I have an actual final exam, I also have an A and can blow off the final. Which leaves me with 25 pages of papers yet to write - one 20 page paper and a 5 page paper. I've sat down and scheduled out the week, figured out what must happen by when for me to maintain my sanity. Luckily, all my favorite TV shows are re-runs this week, so I have an extra 4 hours to write. Or curl up and cry, it is all the same at this point.

Next semester better have fewer papers at the end.. Three English classes, three history classes. Why'd I pick these majors again?

AHHHH

Ugh.. where to start?

The Taiga alpaca? About sock-weight yarn. The Website lied. I am angry. Now I need to decide if I want to spend $3 to ship it BACK to them and get store credit for $17.00 I spent on the yarn or if I want to keep 1040yards of sock weight alpaca. What, exactly, can one knit with that yarn? Shawls and scarves are out, since I'll never really wear them and I don't know anyone to which I could give them. (And donating... eh, the yarns too nice to just give away. And I'm a college student. And broke.)

So, I ordered KnitPicks Andean Treasure, in Fog, since I've seen a few people knit Blaze with that yarn, and It. Shall. Work. To get the free shipping, I bought a hank of natural sock yarn to dye my own yarn.

The hat, it continues. The sock, it also continues, past the heel. Both shall be done by Christmas.

Christmas shopping, that might not be done. I HAVE NO TIME.

And papers? Well, they kinda have to be done, so we'll just say that I have to finished editing a 10 page paper, write a 5 page paper, write a 25 page paper (this weekend... I'm screwed), write a 4 page paper for a take home final, take an in-class final, take a final during finals week, and something that I'm forgetting. Oh, decide if I want to take a take home final due the same day as 7 other things.

So, yeah. Back to the grindstone. Or knitting to avoid the grindstone. Which will be ok, as long as no yarn is harmed. Right?

alpaca goodness

There's something about buying yarn that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I bought 5 balls of this in lavender. That's a bit over 1000 yards, should be more than enough to knit Blaze.

Of course, that means I have at least one sock and one hat to finish knitting first. Nothing quite like a little pressure.

I'm over halfway done the leg of Tina's sock and started the last big chart for Ryan's hat, having bought myself bamboo addis. I'm thinking I should have gotten the metal addis, to make this go a bit faster, but I'm pretty sure that I'll end up using the needle for socks later and I love the bamboo for the socks. Ah well, live and learn. It means I can buy more needles later, right? Or demand the knitpicks options set... for Christmas.

Here's Tina's sock, next to the first one. So far, they are matching very nicely. I'm not sure what, exactly, will happen when I get to the heel, but Tina won't care if they don't match. In fact, she would prolly enjoy it if they don't match.


And Ryan's Hat:

As you can see, the hat is starting to get a little big for even Eeyore. I don't have any larger stuffed animals, so I'll have to start taking pictures using Ryan as the model. We'll see how that goes.

I'm ready for Christmas break, minus the 25 page paper that is hanging over my head, making mean faces.

(Ah, I so love Opera as a web browser. Never mind that I have to check e-mail with FireFox, but if I look at a preview of my post and accidentally click on a picture, when I hit the back button to my post-editing window, all the text comes back! YAY Opera for not losing my text!)

In other computer dorky news, I discovered a new computer lab on campus today. All the computers in the lab run Linux. I don't really know linux, but I was able to log on, sign on Gaim, open firefox and bring up a website with the Middle English version of Canterbury Tales, and play a few games. Best part? The lab, with some 20 computers, was empty for most of the hour+ I spent there. The person in there when I got there left within 5 minutes and someone else showed up right as I was leaving. I have discovered the perfect spot to do homework and knit while on campus. Woohoo!

I supposed I should now do homework (and knit!) while at home, too. Drat.

Knitting is a disease

One ball of this:

Can knit into about this much sock:

I finished them last week, on Sunday, I think. Since then, I've been working on my lace scarf (on the 5th repeat out of 27...) but I actually have to pay attention to that one and read the pattern, meaning that I can't knit and watch TV.

I'm also working on a felting project- pot holders. I ended up with a lot of Patton's left over and it is supposed to be great wool for felting. My mother has been after me to knit potholders and I figured I could manage to knit and felt a potholder before finals week.

I bought three skeins of Opal sock yarn off of eBay this week, two arrived today. I'm excited to start with those, though the yarn looks super tiny. Lots of little stitches on little dpns. Woo!

I also ventured out to Stitch Your Art Out today, the local yarn/quiting store. Cute little shop, lots of awesome and yummy yarns. Sadly, there is a yarn store closer at school than at home... Bah. Oh, well. Should just encourage me to buy online or in bulk. (Somehow, that doesn't seem like a good thing for my wallet...)

So, now I have three balls of yarn to start for socks so I'm looking around for patterns. And I'll be able to start my SixSock knit-along socks, which will be awesome.

The Evolution of a Sock

I blame the Yarn Harlot for my decision to make a sock. (ok, two. Socks are not useful if you only have one unless you plan on making sock puppets.) But first, one has to learn how to knit in the round on dpns.

So cute! So tiny! So pointy and hard to hold!

Then comes the swatching and the measuring (of swatch and foot) and the calculating. Then one can cast on the sock, join, and knit.
I think my aunt has had that table cloth since forever.

I ended up knitting while reading for class. And while watching TV. And on the bus to NYC, during Phantom of the Opera, the bus ride back.

Also, while reading knitting blogs.

The leg warmer became a leg-and-ankle warmer, which then grew to warm a heel and part of the foot as well.

I also knit when I should be working on a study guide for an exam.

Eventually, I ended up with a whole sock. That I knitted all by myself in less than 3 weeks. I'm proud to announce that I've already cast on the second sock and am over 4" into the 6" cuff. Funny, how the second sock seems to go faster, once one actually has some idea of what one is doing.

A sock! Made by me! And yarn and sticks! And it looks very sock-like!

After the sock, I want to knit with some mircospun by LionBrand. Problem is, I can only find patterns that require more than one ball of yarn. I, the nearly broke college student, only have one ball of lilac and one ball of white. I'm really liking the way it knits up on smallish needles- solid, dense, and soft fabric. But what do I do with it? Right now, I seem to just be admiring the swatch. Any suggestions? Any? No? Ok then.