More than meets the eye...*

Well,

I'm back in Chicago, and it's been hectic. Being "home" is both stressful, odd, and great. Since getting back, I've seen a herd of Elk, been to O'hare Airport 3 times, gone to a chocolate lounge twice, and gone to the doctor. And it's only been about 5 days.

A quick moment about the next year - as I've mentioned before, I'll be flying to London in a few weeks to study at Goldsmith's University for 6 months. It's a wonderful part of the Kalamazoo College curriculum - most juniors spend a year abroad, convening back in Michigan for spring quarter. So, from mid-July to the end of September, flight after flight carries classmates across the globe.

This Friday it was Eric's turn. I picked him up at Union Station, and we celebrated our anniversary two weeks early. This is where knitting comes into the picture. Last week as Eric packed all his belongings into a bag and prepared himself for a year in Japan, I knit. I knit for 3 days straight. I watched an entire season of Scrubs, and I knit.

And Friday was the unveiling of Eric's semi-self designed, comic-inspired sweater. For those of you who don't recognize the logo, that is the Autobots logo from the comic (and movie) the Transformers. For those of you aware of the Autobots, yes, Eric wanted an Autobots sweater. He loved it. It fit perfectly. I could not be more pleased!

The sweater was knit in Woolease on size 5 needles (I knit REALLY loosely). I knit the front and the back flat until the armpits, then seamed it with single crochet. From there I treated it as a circular raglan, attached the arms, and decreased for the yoke. All in all a very easy process, but the sweater turned out as wonderful as could be.

As for charting, it was surprisingly a piece of cake. I have yet to find any sort of online chart or graph paper that really satisfies me, but every once in a while I return to knitpro. And, as you can see, it worked out pretty well.


Another weekend adventure was of the more botanic kind. While driving to our hotel, we stumbled upon a herd of elk. No, really, elk. As in really big deer with really big antlers. As we later learned, the Illinois suburb Elk Grove is home to a herd of elk that they watch over. All that separated ourselves and many other onlookers from the herd of elk was a chain link fence. It was an amazing experience!

Elk in the sunset. Terrifying antlers.

*Again, for those of you unfamiliar with the Transformers, those are lyrics from their theme song.