Oh my!

I thought this was too cute not to share.


moar funny pictures


Not much knitting content today. I'm trying to finish up my sooper-sekrit project (I'm over 50% of the way there!) so I am watching Heroes and knitting many, many 12" squares. I think I need 5 or 6 more, and then I it's just the (massive) assembly. Only 6 weeks until the secret project boards a plane with me, moves into an apartment, and can be unveiled to the world.

Woo!

Just in case you forgot...

Just in case those of you who have graduated from College/Uni, and moved on to the real world have forgotten what it is like, I have a story.

See, I have a theory that the longer you are out of college, the more you manage to block things out. My mother looks at me in horror when I relate roommate catastrophes, Residential Life snafus, or other gems of college living, even though I am sure she herself experienced similar sagas. I don't think my experience is worse, I think she's just managed to slowly erase all the scaring memories of writing papers at 3 am or the massive amount of Ramen one can consume in just 4 short years, rendering one's self a walking salt cube.

So, let's recap a night or two over at Chez Skeins and Steins (if only there had been more beer, it might have been better.) I promise, there will be knitting at the end.

Wednesday night, around 11 PM. I enter room, fully intending to go to sleep since I have a 9 AM lecture on Modern Literature. I notice my flatmate has some people over.

Wednesday night, 12 AM. They are loud. Oh well, it's early right? I can still get a good 8 hours of sleep.

Wednesday night, 1 AM. I fall asleep. Yay sleep. I have been slightly sleep deprived lately. I suspect I may be either malnourished or developing an iron deficiency, since my cooking is mostly veggies. Too healthy for my own good? Anyways, yay sleep.

Wednesday night. Undetermined time. I suspect around 3 AM. WHAT? A PARTY? I HAVE CLASS.

Wednesday night. Another, later, undetermined time. Still partying. Loudly. Loud music + thin walls = no sleep. Even with ear plugs. I did not want to confront 20+ drunk people about the fact that I could hear their conversations through the walls. I pull the blanket over my head and dread waking up for my lecture.

Wednesday night. Still later. Some guy WALKS INTO MY ROOM. For serious people. Closed door + lights off+ 4 am. What could be in there? Possibly someone sleeping?

Finally, everyone left. I woke up about 3 or 4 hours later and spent the day really, really caffeinated.

So last night?

Thursday night: 12 AM. I go to bed.
Friday morning: 11 AM. I wake up.

Thank goodness the only thing I have to do today is laundry, and go to the gym.

Now, returning to our regularly scheduled knitting content. Lately I have rediscovered a skill I loved as a kid. A skill I seemed to have forgotten. It lay by the wayside, languishing, and I was so excited when I rediscovered it that I started mixing mediums like a mad woman.

That skill? Embroidery. I know it's a simple idea, embroidering one's knitting, but for some reason it never crossed my mind. Until a few days ago, when it sort of paraded across my mind, blowing horns, full fanfare, throwing flowers, and making a generally grand entrance. Embroidery is here to stay.

Exhibit one:

I wanted to knit a duck, since I love ducks. Every time I see them I am overwhelmed with the desire to pick them up and hold them. Sadly, the ducks find this idea not only extremely underwhelmed, but stupid.

Knitting a duck was much easier than trying to convince one to let me pick it up. First step, Google images. I found a suitable duck. Second step, plug it into knitpro to graph it. (The best website ever for those of you who haven't used it. Check it out.) Third step. Knit brown blob.

Step 3 is where it got a little complicated. I wanted to knit a male Mallard duck, but my gauge was too big to really knit fine details without it being a huge pain. I couldn't figure out what colors to use, where to switch, and the thought of fighting with several different strands of yarn on one little square made my head spin. So, I made it brown. And blob like. In the picture above, I started embroidering the head and beak, but you can see how brown and blobby it truly is.

Step 4. Embroider! This part was fun. After a few episodes of Buffy, and lots of chain and feather stitch, may I present you with...
A duck! He still needs eyes, and maybe a little work on his weirdly shaped feet, but overall, I am really quite enamored of this little guy.

Ways to enjoy a cold winter night

It's been quite brisk in London. Nothing like the ice storms I am thankfully missing back in the Midwest, but still pretty cold. This means I have done absolutely nothing worth mentioning in the last week, besides catch a cold (great) and eat a box of cookies (about as great as the cold. Sugar makes me feel gross).

But last night I had quite an enjoyable evening. Here are some surefire ways to enjoy yourself when the mere thought of going outside makes you panic.

1. Queue up a bad movie such as Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

2. Put on some handmade socks that you forgot you owned.
(I think these were some kind of Trekking. I made them last year, and the colors are so delicious I actually smile every time I see them. The whole time I was knitting them I just talked incessantly about how beautiful they were. I am so glad I found them)

3. Make a cup of peppermint tea.


4. Pop a Steak and Guinness pie in the oven. I've had Steak and Guinness pie about 3 times this week. It's bordering on an addiction. It's just such great comfort food, and the Guinness gravy makes it so delicious you can hardly stand it.

5. Need I even say it? Grab your knitting! I am alternating between finishing the foot of my SECOND Q sock and my super secret project. (For more on the super secret project, keep reading. I'm really bad at keeping secrets...)

And that, my friends, is a good night full of comforts. Bad TV, knitting, and warm, yummy food. a girl couldn't ask for more.

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post was how I wrapped my dad's finished sweater. Keeping in the theme of free, recycled and interesting ways to wrap presents, I grabbed my ironing board and a huge stash of grocery bags. I fused them together while listening to a podcast, and voila...

...a sweater envelope. I love it!


I leave for Bath tomorrow at 8:00am and it will probably a long while before I have a chance to blog again. I'll definitely be back at the start of the new year (my flight into London will be on the 6th) with many stories to tell, but probably not too much knitting. According to Eric, Japanese yarn is cheap in Japan, but who knows what that means.

So I leave you with many well wishes for your holiday season, along with a revelation. You see, I'm no good at keeping secrets. And my super secret project most likely won't be blogworthy until I get back to the States and moved into a new apartment. The only reason it's a secret as all is because I don't want a certain someone to see it, someone who doesn't read this blog anyways. (I don't think). So, if you are curious, head on over to Ravelry.com. My username is chasingmyself. Within the confines of the knitting world, consider the cat out of the bag.

Christmas Knitting - Keep on trecking...

Almost there people, almost there!

In 4 days I leave for a weekend in Bath, for some sightseeing and some hardcore Jane Austen worshiping.

In 8 days I leave for Japan! For Christmas! With my boyfriend! I am so excited. So, so, so excited.

In 16 days I leave for Madrid, from where I will go to Venice. I am so excited.

I am also, as a result of this, so broke. But, isn't traveling on the cheap what Study Abroad is supposed to be about? (Say yes...)

With the upcoming travels, I only have one chore left. That is, to ship my presents. Because, I finished my dad's sweater! It's happily blocking on the floor, taking it's sweet time to dry. But that's okay, because it's done. I am so relieved! I just really hope it fits, since I had no one to try it on. (Oh the woes of living alone.)

Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon it will be dry enough to properly photograph, then wrap up and ship. Whoohoo!

The finishing of the sweater also meant that I could get back to my own knitting.

I've loved this pattern for a long time, yet I can't remember what it's called. Some variation on a log cabin, I suppose. So, I made it up! (Which, I think you can tell). It's a bit uneven, the squares are not perfect, and there are many mistakes. But I had fun! I just knit a square, and started adding short row triangles to the sides. For my purposes, it works. This is square 3 of my super secret project, which I now have time to work on!



Sorry for the short post. I'm fighting off a migraine, so I think I'm headed back to my cozy bed, with a cup of tea.

Cheers!

Laundry list of WIP's

I feel like all I do these days is knit. This isn't completely true. I read, sometimes. (I just started Middlemarch for class, and I'm quite excited.) Sometimes I go to yoga. Today I went to the Greenwich market and then walked around in the park, my favorite spot in London.

But mostly I knit. I only have three projects currently on the needles, but it seems like a lot. (They're all relatively large projects, and I'm so excited about all three, I can never decide which to work on.)

A tour of my day might look a little something like this.

Morning: Work on the "Lizzie" sweater. The body is done. I now just need sleeves. Inspiration for sleeves, to be honest. I've got the whole sweater except for the sleeves done.

The lace pattern is called "Leaves of Grass." I actually found it on the lion brand website,which was quite a nice surprise! I like the way it works with the denim. It has a nice drape,and is lacy yet no-nonsense. Just like Elizabeth Bennet.

Midday: Cue the Sweater o' Doom. I had a small panic attack when I realized it was already November 2nd. I have to get this thing done, steeked, sewn, blocked, wrapped and mailed by mid-December to get it to my dad in time! Good thing it's grown.
I'm about 20" into the body, and need about another 6" total before I can start the sleeves. It's actually been less full of doom than I thought, and once I got the hang of the pattern it started clipping along. (You can see the front and sides in this picture. Nifty!)

Decidedly less doomy than I thought. Although I might take that back once I have to steek it.






Night: My "secret project". I know this is the first I've mentioned it. I've had an idea percolating for a while, and figured all this extra knitting time would give me a chance to actually execute the idea. Witness part 1 of the secret project.

The secret project also includes a lot more yarn. If you've ever wondered what $100 of Wool of the Andes looks like, here's your answer.

A lot.