Awesome video

As I become more and more obsessed with lace shawls, it occurred to me that I don't know how to wear one fashionably. This video helped immensely! I highly recommend it.

That moment when...

You email your mom a picture of her finished shawl, and she comments that the picture looks like something "out of those fancy knitting books".

You then reflect on just how many pattern books you must have forced your mother to look at in order for her to be able to reach that conclusion.

You then decide that she is extremely qualified to make that judgement, and then tell yourself for some time just how very right she is.

At the Lake

I am sitting in my aunt's house on Conesus Lake, and the Starlock Socks have been cast off and gifted.

I was halfway though the toe to the second sock when Linnea inquired if these were hers. I replied that if they fit, they were hers, and since they did, they are! She will be a faithful air-dryer! and is a grateful hand knit recipient. Yes Linnea, you can expect more knitted stuff in the future! Plus...isn't she a fantastic sock model?

My sister, who chose the sock-picture location with much expertise, then took a few more pictures of the Pi Shawl.

I promise I have a shirt on in these pictures. It is just skin colored. I absolutely adore this shawl. It is lightweight but still incredibly warm, and the pattern looks so intricate now that it's blocked.

Next up are Patrick's socks, Ellie's socks, Andrea's socks, Grandma Helen's socks...oh, and I just ordered 10 skeins of lace weight from Knit Picks. It was on sale, and shawls are fantastic travel knitting. As long as my needles aren't ripped from my hands when I board the plane to France, I shall happily knit as I cross the Atlantic in July.

Goodies Galore!

I have skipped quite a few planned posts, but trying to backtrack just keeps me from writing frequently enough. So.

My Great Aunt Nan and Great Aunt Mary are both fabulous knitters over on the west coast, living in lovely Oregon. And each have been awesome enough to send me some surprises in the mail this past month :)  I couldn't be happier! Everything is "da bomb!"

First, Aunt Nan had been e-mailing me about a cross stitch (as in a knitting stitch/technique) pattern she had finished on a scarf, and when I didn't find anything online, she offered to send it to me. Curious as ever, I waited around and finally...it came! Along with three sets of...Addi Turbos! She's confirmed the fact that they do in fact make you knit faster, and as soon as I get all of these offers for paid jobs out of the way, (you would think people would realize they should ask in the summer when I actually have time, but whatever), I'm definitely trying some magic loop with those! Knitting on two circulars? Oo, now I can give that a whirl, too! I'll have to time myself.

I don't have the picture on the computer, but the scarf has plenty of texture due to the cross stitch. It's really similar to the bottom of a beach bag I knit a while ago, but this seems to be a little less obnoxious to actually carry out. Hopefully I'll find some hand dyed stuff on sale on KnitPicks when I go shopping for mitten yarn, and can get one of those churned out myself. I can't waaaaaaait!

And just this week, Aunt Mary sent me a Beka loom! Someone gave her an ultra nice one for free, and she sent her old one out east for me (and my sister, if she's interested) to learn to weave! Sure, we both have learned the extreme basics in art class, but this is a tad different...

I haven't the slightest idea of how to work it yet, but I'm pretty proud that I actually managed to put the thing together! Hopefully with the help of Youtube and an old school instructional book, I'll be on my way fairly soon!

THANK YOU AUNT NAN!!! THANK YOU AUNT MARY!!! You guys rock :)

A Pair of Socks...

...for every day of the week!

Yessir, Sunday Swing is my offical seventh pair for ME to wear all winter long!

I think they came out alright, although they're a tad too large on me, so the pattern doesn't show as well as it could, and tends to bunch on the leg. Should have made the size small instead of the medium.

Later last night I had to babysit my cousins, and by the time the evening was over I had another quick project finished as well.

A helmet liner! One of the women at my church saw me knitting my socks, and handed me the free pattern along with some Paton Classic Wool in Deep Olive, supplied by Micheals. They get sent to troops serving overseas, which is why they need to be knit in 100% wool (acrylic is flammable) and in an appropriate color to match their uniforms. (Deep Olive was specified by the instructions). I think it came out alright, and I may look into whipping up a few more. I don't like war, but that's no reason not to support the troops.

Now off to an early Thanksgiving dinner with my mom's side...

You Know You're a Knitter When...

Your class starts reading To Kill A Mockingbord, and you see two books that have a ball of yarn hidden in a tree on the cover. You decide that you want one of THOSE copies.

You get the one with a picture of a ten-year-old.

You feel really, really dissappointed.

Study Hall

...has become knit time! My supervisor is one of the home ec teachers, and she also happens to be an avid knitter! Not in study hall, but still. We make good conversation.

She had brought a huge bin of novelty yarns into class the other day, and after wrapping up my notes on the French Revolution I skipped over to see what she was up to. (I was a little sore from craning my neck to sneak glances for an entire hour, not gonna lie). Turns out, she went to a fiber fest in Georgia, and one of the classes was all about taking scrap yarn and tying it all up into one huge skein to use as a scarf or whatever. Very cool! My little freshman buddy Alex had entered the room at that point, and decided that SHE wanted to learn to knit too! So guess who taught her?

Yes! The following Monday, our supervisor brought in needles and wool from her classroom, and I showed her the basics of garter stitch. Tuesday, she learned purl. And all the while, the tech teacher whose room we're assigned to chuckled at the visual of the three of us, all within six inches of her needles, holding our breath as we watched Alex agonize over each, painstaking stitch. I even brought my sock knitting, doing a pretty good job of ignoring all of the stares from everyone else in the room. I must say, it'll be nice to have one more friend who is as addicted as I am! She's HOOKED.

Literally. She's a crocheter, too.

Yarn Crawl '09!

Yes yes yes, a Yarn Crawl! Four of the main yarn stores in the area came together for a day of yarn sales, demos, door prizes, and (if you visited all four venues in the set time frame), huge gift basket drawings! My birthday is coming up next month, so instead of waiting for my present, my mom suggested that she give me a budget, and take me around from store to store.

Well, what would you have chosen? :) Ben Franklin doesn't have the most sophisticated, well-known-name selection, so I had such a blast digging through the mountains of wooly, sheepy hanks. At the first shop, I petted some Rowan Felted Tweed, and dug around in some Lamb's Pride before finally settling on some ultra light alpaca.

Classic Elite Inca Alpaca, 100% alpaca, 109 yards per 50 gram skein. Two skeins of each color, for a faire isle chullo! The Cross-Country Chullo from Knitty! I've had a total ear-flap-hat obsession lately, but I'll get into that another time...

At the next shop I grabbed some Malabrigo Chunky, kettle dyed, Intenso colorway? Or at least I'm assuming? Either way, it'll make something gorgeous and warm. Maybe a skullcap or mittens.

And then while waiting in line to pay, I snagged some sock yarn...

The Perwinkle Sheep, Watercolors Sock Yarn, 80% superwash merino and 20% nylon. There's 420 yards to a skein, all of it hand dyes Caramel. Either it was renamed or mismarked originally though, because right under that is a crossed-out butter cream. Either way, I think it's gorgeous, and just subtle enough for a cable maybe.

I shall continue this another time, or I fear I'll never finish another post...

Quick Break

Oh my gosh. Portfolio week for IB, and I am BEAT. Since I last posted, I have accomplished the following...

Patrick's birthday hat is finished, with ample time between now and the big day. (Which is one day after mine except, ya know, a year earlier. So we're the same age for one day a year. So my dad can't complain that he's too old for me :D ). I won't post a picture in case my some accident I forget it's on here and he looks, but I'll just have you know. It's pretty sweet. Nuf said.

Secondly, following that hat victory I decided to take a swing at kinda sort half designing my own hat (as modeled by one of my teddy bears :) ).
The shape is an only slightly altered version of another pattern I found (can't remember the source just now...) and the designs are either borrowed from other hat patterns, or taken off of the street or from my own noggin. Overall it's a little big, but that means it won't flatten my hair, so it's all good. I wore it to the sectionals game the other weekend, and though I was freezing, it wasn't because my head was chilly.

I also began a quick pair of ribbed socks, and finished the first one and have started the second.

The ribbing goes from cuff to toes, and I used an Eye of Partridge heel just to see how it would look. Super simple, with a pretty colorway for machine dyed sock yarn. Whether they're for me or for use as a Christmas gift, the ribbing is sure to accommodate at least a few different sizes.

Yeah. That's about it.

Why I Knit

So lately the temperature has plummeted to almost record lows for this time of year, and with all of the homecoming activities and dog walks (and walks with the boyfriend :D lol ) I had skipped up to the attic to locate our bin full of winter gear. Now, as a knitter I of course own a plethora of hand knit hats, and have little if any real "need" for the store-bought variety. However, there has been one exception to this.

Last year for Christmas, one of my sets of grandparents bestowed upon me a hat. It was from my favorite store, made of chunky cables with a hot pink crown and a white bottom. It had huge ear flaps, and braided ties, and the lower half was lined with the softest ever fleece. I loved this hat. I wore it absolutely everywhere I could, and even declined to knit my own ear flap hat, only to have it fall short of this perfection.

Happily searching through the bin, I pulled out scarf after scarf and mittens galore, thinking fondly of their beginnings. The hat, though stayed in the back of my mind. It was only when my fingertips brushed the bottom of the container that I realized, with a gasp of horror...the hat wasn't there! I panicked, and by the time I had thoroughly searched the attic I had strewn bags and coats and pocket linings all about the floor. How could I have lost it?!? The mudroom received the same treatment. The pantry. The basement. In the end, I finally had to resign myself to the fact that my hat was gone. Heartbroken, I attended football games and tailgates, only halfheartedly displaying my homemade cabled cappers perched atop my hair. Then last night, the night of homecoming, this all changed!

Milling through the impossibly thick crowd, my eyes wandered from hat to hat. Funky color work, chunky diamond cables, and peruvian chullos were everywhere. Wait...it was the hat!!! Over in a group of freshman sat the same exact hat, only with a cheeky red crown instead of a pink one. I felt envy at her fuzzy fleeced brand-named warmth. Until I remembered-wearing that hat meant wearing the same exact hat as a girl I had never met, and may have had nothing in common with. My red topper, bobbled and cabled, spoke volumes more because I had made it. Even if Emmydee goes to the store tomorrow and picks up Charmed Knits and some Patons wool, her hat won't be like mine. Even just looking at our Half Blood Prince hats, anyone could tell two different people made them. This is why I knit. To add some personality and spice that can never be replicated, ever!

32 Degrees

Officially freezing as of 8:30 this morning. I now have another excuse to procrastinate on Christmas knitting-someone is gonna need all of those warm WIP's finished, right? That person could be my sister, my cousins...or, ya know, me. It would be irresponsible to knit thin little ankle socks in the face of possible frost, don't'cha think?

I Lied.

I re-watched The Prisoner of Azkaban, and the movie scarves are dark dark dark dark DARK burgundy. Oh well. I still like my colors :) Luna's scarf is still waiting to be started, but I fear she'll have to wait a bit longer...while crochet projects are quick, a one-day-only 20% off all yarns sale at Ben Franklin means an opportunity for more Christmas gift materials!

Not So Funny Now...Is It? :)

So last night was the first varsity football game of the season, before school has even started. Before I rushed off to the local diner for dinner with Bonnie and Hannah, I slipped into my bag...

Center Square Hat
Hermione's Cable and Eyelet Hat
Hermione's Cable and Bobble Hat
Texting Mittens
Annemor 16
Fetching

...and a random scarf or two. In short, enough to outfit the three of us for the game. Sadly, as is usually the case with genius, my foresight was giggled at by many an acquaintance at the field, as it was still about 75 degrees out, and the hardcore fans were running around shirtless (guys) or in sports bras (girls) covered in paint. Sure enough though, as the game dragged on it got a little chilly. One by one, a each of my friends would reach for a sweatshirt or ask around for spares. Then it got colder still, the game was still going strong...and who were the warmest people there? Me and Emmydee! The only knitters of the posse :) A small victory I admit, but I'll take what I can get.

Partial Luck and Substitution

Alright, so after some debate I finally decided to knit my year-three-and-up Harry Potter scarf from Lion Brand Wool-Ease, in Gryffindor colors for now and maybe another house once I recover from the ribbing coma. But my paycheck has a week or so to show up, so I've been knitting this scarf only in my daydreams. I thought about it all the time--the stripes, the rib, the fringe, how it would wash. Then the other day when I was antiquing with my Grandma Helen and my sister, I was thinking extra hard. Wishing and hoping for Wool-Ease. How much would I need for the main color? Four skeins? Certainly the contrasting color would only need one. Wool-Ease...Wool-Ease...Wool-Ease...I paused in one of the little booths to peek in an old trunk. Rug kit, embroidery...oh my gosh NO WAY! What did I find?

Four skeins of Wool-Ease, for $7.20. That's only $1.80 a skein, folks! Granted, it's not the right color for any kind of Hogwarts house scarf, but I think I've found something to divert me for a good long time while I wait. After a search on Ravelry, I pulled up the Gwynedd pattern from Knitty winter 2008. It's a gorgeous reversible cable scarf, super thick to hold up against winter winds. It's sure to take quite a while, but I figure it'll be the perfect landscape to try out this new technique on, and get an awesome result at the end of it!

Hanshi Camp

For the last three days, I've been training along with other schools in my area, under the tutelage of Hanshi Steve Arneil. He learned our style of karate (kyokoshun) under it's founder while it was still being developed, and has a plethora of knowledge on fighting and self defense. The camp has always been extremely hard work, and on the third day the adults would have not just one session but two, and I decided to take a little non-"om" meditation with me. My scarf! Little did I know what it would become a memento of later that day.

After lunch, I hopped into the locker room to grab my garter stitch and on the way out found my sensei. Uh, oh, smart remark sure to follow! Sure enough, after a quick double take, he sighed "Are you serious?"

I simply answered "Yes," and continued to stitch without looking.

"Does that, like, soothe you or something?"

"Osu," (some sign of agreement in Japanese, but can kind of cover anything in the dojo).

And with a reluctant "Alright..." I was off the hook! Huzzah! But the best was yet to come! Outside I plopped down on one of the picnic tables, enduring the usual questions. "Are you knitting or crocheting?" "What are you making?" etc. Sempei noticed, and soon all the black belts were chuckling at my expense. I'm used to it. Suddenly, an English accent cut through the little crowd around the tent.

"Are you knitting?" Hanshi was asking about my scarf! Oh wow!

"Osu!"

He answered with something along the lines of "That's good, you don't see many people knitting anymore." Hanshi approved of me knitting! Haha see sensei?

"Oh she's good!' Erica cut in. "She makes, socks and little animals, and all sorts of stuff."

"Oh! Do you think next time I come you'll have a nice pair of socks for me?" Hanshi wanted socks? Oh wow! And my witty self replied...

"haha...maybe..." Oh wow. Must work on my social skills.

Warped Tour '09

No knitting, (shame), but still plenty of fun. But not as fun as knitting. No. Never.


My dad played chaperon to me and my friend (NOT boyfriend) Brad, on a day full of firsts!

• First Warped Tour (duh).
  
• First time hearing Less Than Jake, who turned out to have their fair share of charisma. Must hop on itunes, thanks for the suggestion Bradley!


• First time hearing or seeing Attack Attack, Underoath, and The Devil Wears Prada, who according to Brad are all Christian heavy metal bands. He showed me the lyrics beforehand, which were spiritual and deep, but when you can't comprehend what they're screaming into their mics, they're main selling point kind of loses its effect. Underoath was the most entertaining out of the three, if I had to choose.


• First time playing guitar on Rock Band. (Xbox had a relatively large promo tent set up). Turned out to be no harder than Guitar Hero. Fancy that.


• First time hearing (of) Chiodos, whose femininely-dressed lead singer (capri-esque shorts and I think it was a slight v-neck tee), actually was entertaining. His list of "crowd participation" songs gave everyone something to do, be it as simple as "jump up and down" or "everybody move," to something more chaotic. "Make these four mosh pits into one big one!" "Let's see if we can get 74 people crowd surfing at once!" "Wall of Death! Split down the middle!"


• My first viewing of a Wall of Death. The mosh splits, points out who they're gonna hit on the other side, and on cue charge across the gap. As my Dad put it, it's "Braveheart without the weapons."


• First time on the Viper at Darien Lake, as well as my first time going upside-down on a roller coaster. Wow, it really was nothing. Much easier than the massive drop on the Superman.


• First time seeing 3OH!3, who weren't that impressive. The only reason that sticks out in my mind is on the way out of the crowd I had my first experience pushing along crowd surfers.


• And my favorite "first," FIRST TIME SEEING FLOGGING MOLLY LIVE! They were the main reason I came to Warped Tour, and they didn't disappoint! They played my three favorite songs, made a not-so-favorite song interesting with different embellishments, and a few previously unheard titles will soon be added to my ipod. There wasn't much moshing to worry about, except for during "Drunken Lullabies," and by the time we left I had converted Brad from an Irish-rock skeptic into at least a tolerant. Thank goodness. My dad and I WILL be going next time they come into the area!

Overall? A cool collection of experiences, some better than others, and the best people watching I've seen in a long time! (I've never seen such creative variations on the typical mohawk)! Back to knitting next post...

KICK BUTT ! ! !

No picture of this FO-it had to be handed off to the recipient far too quickly.

The occasion? As they do every year, people from our dojo go up to the Kanreikai tournament in Montreal. My bff from our dojo and I had been planning to make our first saunter north side by side, so we could room together and root for each other from the sidelines. However, due to conflicts with my softball season and lack of training, I wasn't able to go. How could I show support without actually being there?

Of course, you're right. Knitting is always the answer.

Knucks, in Patons Classic Wool. A dark smoky grey body, reddish magenta ribbed cuffs. And across the knuckles, in chunky white letters, I embroidered my message to her: KICK BUTT. Enough said.

She will too, mark my words. Look out Montreal! The Americans are coming! And the girl in the gloves is a badass!!!

Good luck E! Love ya! <333

Happy Earth Day!

I had completely forgotten the date of this holiday, but coincidentally it was not far from my thoughts yesterday as I broke out Generation T for a little DIY fun yesterday. Once the attic was cleaned and my sewing machine fixed, I hunkered down for an hour or two with my D.A.R.E. shirts (Drug Abuse Resistance Education). One was red from my year of D.A.R.E., the other blue from the year after. (My teacher from the previous year let me and one of my friend's take home the extras). So...same logo, different colors. Potential chemistry. I opted for the "Rock the Tote" bag, I think it was, and ended up with this:

And, such is the nature of the design and materials, it's reversible. So if I flip it around...

I get this (as modeled by my sister).

Not designer, not the best color mix. But hey, it's Earth Day. And a sturdy bag like this-perhaps sturdy enough to withstand knitting needle pokes-is the ultimate in Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Payoff

We had a home game last night, against a school within 20 minutes of us, tops. We ended up having to mercy by the fifth inning, because we were up 17ish-0, so in otherwords there was a LOT of walks around the bases for our runners, and plenty of strikes flying out of our pitcher's glove.

This kind of game is alright in sweaty, muggy July when no on wants to stand in the field any more than necessary, right? The story is entirely different in 40 degree weather. But luckily for me and my teammates, I was highly boyscout-esque in the sense that I had enough knit gear to outfit several individuals for the Iditarod. Norweigen mittens, texting mittens with flip-off thumbs, Fetchings, Dashings, a watchcap, huge scarves...all tumbled from my backpack and onto the forms of my friends. Call me nerd if you like...but in this case, being a knitter really paid off :)

Saturday

Though hardly a lazy Saturday morning, today started off well with a 10:00 softball practice with all the girls and plenty of fair bunts on my part :) So proud!!! The aftermath of a chilly two hours running around outside was a cold brought back on with a new vengeance, so the rest of the day was spent indoors. I knit on the Selbuvotter #1 gloves I started a few days ago, and managed to make it past the pinkie and onto the ring finger. Granted I've had to frog the same ring finger three times, but that's beside the point. I'm using the same yarn as last time, Regia, only with red and white instead of red and black to shake things up a bit. Looks pretty sweet if I do say so myself, and it matches my jersey for cold games spent on the bench. The best part? My set of five size 2US dpns are occupied, so I went hunting for a size 3US to work with my set of four...and actually found a misfit size 2US at the bottom of my dpn canister! Beast!

Of course three froggings has driven me to drop the set for a day or so, but fear not-knitting has yet to be forsaken. My Coupling socks still grace my feet, underneath the hem of my cheery pink-and-yellow flannel pj pants.

I think it's time for tea.