I made it!

London! I'm here! And apart from the rain, this past week has been fantastic. It all started with the debut of the Cabled Riding Jacket...Buttons! Cables!

Ready for action!

Unfortunately, there are no action pictures, but let me tell you, the Cabled Riding Jacket

in all it's glory is a sight to be seen. I'm quite in love.

I really enjoyed this pattern. The constant cables keep your mind occupied enough that the feet and feet of the jacket never become too overwhelming. A few sections can be a bit tricky, mainly getting the slant of the cables, while increasing and decreasing for the bodice. But the finished project is fantastic.

And those buttons...

Less than two days and I'm insane?

Oh, the cuteness.



What a day. I had a burst of energy (from goodness knows where) and finished packing (for the most part), started cleaning, and in a moment of true insanity decided it was imperative to make (and finish) Christmas presents for the Grandmothers and family friends.


(Don't panic, it's not time to start Christmas shopping. I just didn't want to have to ship things back to the States. I'm leaving them all here, boxed and labeled, so my parents can ship them out around December.)

The wonders of the internet had, in recent days, brought me to two great sites. The first not only inspired me, but provided a wonderful tutorial on how to make felted bars of soap. Six have been made. The second (as well as many great projects on Craftster) lent itself to little soap-carrying bags.

This may sound like a silly present: Felted soap bars in fused plastic bags? But I took the risk and could not be more thrilled. They are so cute! Just look!

Six little piggies to wash you...

Six little recycled bags...

And a whole lotta cute...

4 days, and I'm bored

Anyone getting sick of the environmental slant Skeins and Steins has taken on? Too bad. I'm a beer drinking hippie, who knits mesh bags and rides her bike. C'est la vie.

If you're not too sick of every celebrity/blogger/check out clerk/teacher telling you to "go green," watch this video. I got a kick out of it, you might too.


And, my camera cord has been packed in to the neverending bag o'doom that is my stuff. I'll have to repack (my bag is 9 lbs too heavy) but that might not be until tomorrow. It's all fun and games over here, ain't it?

I am excited though. Emails are whizzing, trips are being planned. Most notably I will be reunited with a friend I have not seen in two years. We have yet to live in the same country: I was in Chicago and he was in Canada, then I was in Michigan and he was in Argentina. Now, by a stroke of luck, we will both be in the UK. (He's studying at the University of Leeds). I simply cannot wait to see him again!

Catherine

It's the Little Things

It's been really great being back in Chicago for a while. I love this city, and one of my oldest friends , Sophie, has been accompanying on all my silly adventures. We go to fabric stores and health food stores. We search for buttons, we buy reusable bags. She's my biggest ally when it comes to changing our lifestyles to be more environmentally friendly (besides Eric of course).

And in my adventures, I was thrilled when I saw this sign:


Because, I really do think it's the little things that count. You (unfortunately) cannot ask a train full of people to carry the morning paper to their office, find the recycling bin, and toss it out. It isn't a stretch though to ask them to choose the container next to the trash can solely for this purpose. And I'm thrilled big companies like the Tribune and the CTA are taking on this issue. (Chicago has also instated solar powered trash compactors along the Magnificent Mile, and cops on bikes or horses are the norm. It's great.)

Catherine

If you're looking for knitting, keep moving.

My laptop is still missing in action. But, many (many, many) calls to Best Buy yielded the information that it is in fact done, but needs to be shipped back to Evanston. I'm hoping for tomorrow...

Because then I will be able to blog properly, and recount the adventures of the Cabled Riding Jacket in full. Friends, after a very long time, it is completely and utterly finished. Buttons, blocking and all. Just in time, too! I leave on Saturday, and I'm sure I'll get a lot of wear out of it.

Other things have been happening at Chez Catherine too. Mystery Stole? Done. (still have to sew in the ends, but blocking it is what led to my computer mishap, so we were not on the best of terms after that.)

Just a glimpse at the wing

Cooking (mostly inspired by the beautiful food my mother keeps getting from the farmer's market) has also been in high order. After 21 years of being banned from kitchens and living in fear of ovens, skillets and their black magic, I seem to have been bitten by the cooking bug. It's a bit overdue if you ask me! As we speak, a loaf of oatmeal walnut bread rises in the oven, a mountain of kale awaits steaming, and a cornucopia of fresh vegetables sits destined for a frittata.

And packing. Always packing. Slowly but surely my "London List" is getting shorter. Eye doctor? Done. Visa? Obtained. Tuition paid, banking (for the most part) squared away. In a word, I am set. Except, of course, for the mountain of clothes in the living room.

But since I have little to say (and seem to have done less), I leave you with some eye candy on this beautiful Sunday afternoon. (At least I think it's Sunday. It's definitely afternoon.)

(I just couldn't resist a picture of the puppies. Forgive me.)

Until next time,

Catherine

Dyed and gone to heaven

I'm about to run to the gym so this is a precursor for more brilliant news, but (Justine how did I not know this) Goldsmiths College, where I will be studying for six months has a yarn store on campus.

That's right. On campus. Yarn store.

Catherine

And now, a brief intermission

A break from our not so regularly scheduled knitting content: Welcome to my life. (Let me take a moment to complain about how much this laptop I am using utterly sucks. That is all).

Being home for the past week, and looking into the past and future as I pack up all my possessions and deem what is necessary and what is useless has given me a lot of time to think about the life I want to lead. It's also given me a lot of chance to read and absorb the opinions of others. Much of this is just daydreaming - It will be a long time until I own my first house, or even settle in one apartment longer than a few months. But little by little, I'm making changes to my lifestyle and finding it easier than I thought.

I've become hopelessly inspired by the incredible richness of reading materials about local food, environmentally friendly lifestyle changes, and what they all mean to America, to me, and to you. In particular the website Green as a Thistle and the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle are shaping my viewpoints and illustrating how easy and possible lifestyle changes can be. In addition, the many blogs, books and articles on the subjects of sustainability and "going green" have shown me that trying to reduce our global footprint is not synonymous with only eating tofu and wearing Birkenstocks over socks. (I promise, I only do this in the comfort of my own, empty home.) You don't have to be a card carrying hippy to want to preserve the environment in which you leave, even if it just means helping support that cute store on the corner.

I'm very opinionated and long winded on this subject so I'll try to keep it short. Instead of listening to me rant, check out what other people have to say about the impact of eating and shopping locally, or preserving resources. I will outline a list of what I have been trying to do: it makes me feel better to see my changes materialized in words, and it almost feels as if once I've spoken into the abyss of the world, I can't possibly go back to my old ways. Isn't that why we blog and write anyways?


1. Obviously I like biking, and most weekends found Eric and I on the tail end of a 20-30 mile trek. But the key to biking is using it as a vehicle. In Kalamazoo this wasn't even a question. Eric's car was totaled in January, so since then it's been buses, trains, and bikes. Now that I'm home I have to make the conscious decision to walk or bike wherever I'm going. I'm no angel - it usually takes a nice internal pep talk to get me outside to the backyard, bike key in hand, instead of turning on NPR in the car. But, in my neighborhood, biking is easy and, with the way parking is, just as quick.

2. Body products are another big one. Maybe I live in fear, or maybe I'm slowly becoming one of those card carrying hippies, but I hate the idea of chemicals on my body. This is the reason I've stopped using commercial dryer sheets, and in the past few weeks, commercial body products. Instead, I've switched to Dr. Bronner's, which I'm absolutely in love with. Since using it, my hair has more volume than it ever has before, and I don't have to use conditioner, a hair dryer, or any other product. Truly amazing.

3. Farmer's Markets always seem so decadent. I've been cooking the simplest meals; today I had a pita pizza with tomatoes from our garden and onions from the farmer's market, and yesterday it was a caprese salad with all local ingredients. Its amazing how much better everything tastes and looks - like eating at a fancy restaurant, but for a fraction of the cost and in your own home. And especially with the recent changes to the Farm Bill, I cannot stress the importance of eating locally enough.

Enough of my opinion for now. I'm finishing up my Riding Jacket, so as soon as I get my computer back and can upload images, I'll be back for real.

Catherine

Dejavu all over again...

Well, I'm an idiot.

Last night as I was casting off my Mystery Stole 3 (YES THAT'S RIGHT I FINISHED IT WHOOHOO IT'S AWESOME!), a small incident started with a small glass of wine, involved a towel, the floor, and some panic, and ended up with me needing a new keyboard. Thank goodness for the Geek Squad and my warranty.

So I'll be off the internet for a few days. My parents computer couldn't be slower. I'll be knitting, finishing my riding jacket and starting a few Christmas presents.

Catherine

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.