Vacation & Knitting again

After my horrible airline experience last week, it was nice to see this:

We went to Ruidoso, New Mexico for a short trip - its hard to believe that this is only 3 hours from the desert (which is currently 85 degrees - yay spring!) This picture was taken from a fabulous casino/hotel on the Apache Indian reservation. It's surreal to see a giant casino, complete with an underground parking garage, in the middle of a rural mountain area. Of course we weren't staying there, but since the view was so awesome, and the building so relaxing (lots of comfy couches), I'm hoping to scrape together the cash to stay there on our next visit. (Inn of the Mountain Gods)

Since I am currently on spring break (ahh, my last spring break ever), I've had a little time to knit. I started Green Gable, which I've had my eye on for a while. I know from experience that ZephyrStyle patterns knit up really, really small, so I bought extra yarn - Cotton Fleece on sale! I'm hoping to wear this to Maryland Sheep & Wool in May, so I have incentive to finish it within a month.

Also, the socks in a 2-stitch cable pattern are nearing completion. I'm not sure how much yarn they will take, so I'm knitting them to the same length, then dividing the rest in half. Considering that its already 85 degrees in March, I'm not sure how much use I will get out of them in the near future.

Travel Hell

Why it took me 32 hours to get to New Mexico.

Thursday
8:30am Wake up

10:00 Arrive at school to wait for ride to airport

1:30pm Leave for airport

2:30 Arrive airport, start waiting

5:00 Find out flight is delayed 2 hours, so I'll miss my connection.

5:30 Am told that I only have two options: fly to Houston and stay there overnight, at my own cost, or leave the airport and come back in the morning. I call my roommate, who is able to drive to the airport to pick me up, but not until late. I also find out that my flight in the morning is at 5:30am.

9:00 Arrive back home (more than 12 hours have elapsed, and I'm back where I started.)

10:00 Go to bed.

Friday
2:00 AM Wake up

2:45 $86 airport shuttle picks me up

3:30 Arrive at airport, again

4:30 security opens - the line was HUGE, even though it was 4:30 in the morning

5:00 board plane

10:15am (mountain time) - arrive El Paso

2:15pm - arrive in Carlsbad

So, a journey that should have taken me 7 hours ended up taking me the better part of 2 days. I understand that airlines are delayed by weather, but Continental airlines refused to put me up in a hotel, either in Houston or Philadelphia, and offered me no other solution but to find my own transportation home again and then back to the airport at an ungodly hour. That was the only flight I could get on. I've flown a good number of times, and this was the first with Continental. I'm never flying with them again, and I hope you don't either!

House

See this? This is reason why I haven't posted in a while, and why I haven't knitted anything seriously in about a month. I'm currently in the midst of editing 28 pages about this house. "How is that possible, how can you write 28 pages about one house?" you may ask. And now you know why I'm going crazy. Oh, maybe I should also mention that this house was demolished ten years ago, making this project even more "fun!" The monster is due April 23, so talk amongst yourselves until then. I'll give you a topic: "Grad school seemed like a good idea at the time."

Two-in-One

I present to you a before and after. Before:

Yeah, it makes me look fat, just admit it. I did, which is why I took it out and re-knitted it into a fabulous sweater I'll actually wear!

(Picassa has some fun filters to play with.) Vastly improved, no? The yarn is KnitPicks Merino Style on size 9s, and the pattern is a motified version of the Minisweater. Also, you may notice that I have a new hat!

The pattern is Grumperina's Odessa, in some soft yarn I can't remember the name of . . . Katmandu something? I used a size 6 circular, and probably should have gone down a size for the ribbing, but oh well. I love how the beads turned out, but man were they annoying to push down the yarn the entire time I was knitting this (you have to string them all on beforehand.)

Bag-o-Rama

I finally busted out the sewing machine and finished two bags that have been waiting in the wings. The first is my sister's Christmas present (yes, I know its February), a bag made out of sails! You can buy them online for about $65, but mine was made for much, much cheaper, and (I think) is cooler! (Compare with these.)


The next bag was conceived when I saw this great fabric on sale for $1/yard. I have a thing for tote bags, so this was destined to become one. The picture's a little blurry (I live in a cave), but the bag is awesome and now follows me everywhere.

Next project: altering pants. Necessary but not fun or photogenic.

Riiiip

The cold weather has put a damper on some of my sewing desires. Getting up from the warmth under 2 blankets on the couch and putting down that cup of warm tea is a lot to sacrifice for the cold wooden chair in front of the sewing machine on the dining room table. So I've taken up the knitting for the time being - or rather taken apart the knitting. Remember this?

Well, since completing it about a year ago I think I've worn it twice. Mostly because this was in the days before I understood the necessity of shaping. The boxy look was just not flattering. So, its been ripped up to the neckline join, and is destined to become a pullover that will fit me like a glove. I like sweaters that fit very snugly, since they tend to stretch as I wear them and I don't want to be washing my sweaters after every wear.

Here is a Christmas present I've been waiting to show you until it was sent. It makes me laugh - patterns can be found here.

To Do

Don't you hate being away from your craft supplies? I've been sewing machine-less, yarn-less, and stationary-less for almost a month now. I finally went out and bought a blank book and just started gluing things in it as a crafty outlet. When I get back to the east coast, there's a ton of things on my list to do:

Envelopes made out of magazine pages

Hand-made cloth napkins

Denise Schmidt inspired quilt in blues, gold, oranges, and dark reds

Dragon-scale mitts at The Purl Bee

Tiny happy shoulder bag

No-knead bread

Apparently I've forgotten I still have a semester of school left. Eh, grades are pointless anyway.

A Year of Reading

I read a lot. I remember, as a child, going to the library and checking out huge stacks of book, which I would stay up late reading. In middle school I read John Jakes' North and South (about 800 pages) for fun, and in 9th grade I picked The Count of Monte Cristo, while everyone else fought over Of Mice and Men. Being in grad school has severely diminished my "free reading" time, but I still manage to get in a fair number of books a year. I've been keeping track of the titles over on the sidebar, but its a new year, a new list. Here's the list for posterity, plus some comments on the best and worst.

My Sister's Keeper : As the first book I finished in 2006, I knew it would be hard to top. Everyone who reads this raves about it, and I won't disagree. In a nutshell, a girl is conceived to act as a body farm of sorts for her older sister, who suffers from cancer and all its complications. As a teenager, she decides to sue for the rights to her own body. If the premise wasn't fascinating enough, the story is told from multiple points of view, including all members of the family. And you definitely won't see the ending coming.

Pledged: The Secret Life of Soroities

The Boy Next Door

French Women Don't Get Fat : Eat better quality food, and eat less of it. There, now you don't have to read this.

Zipporah, Wife of Moses

A Million Little Pieces : I hated this book. Technically, it shouldn't even be on this list because I didn't finish it. If you're contemplating reading it, pick it up and read a page. If you can deal with the stream-of-consciousness style page after page after page, then you have a chance. The story (if not entirely true) is the typical drug addict-trying-to-get-sober story we've all heard before, but my main problem was that the entire book seemed self indulgent. Frey should have left this in his diary and left us out of it.

Freakonomics

The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc

Ella Minnow Pea : This is a cute, short book. Set on the fictional island Nollop, the novel is in letters. The residents of the island pay homage to Nollop, who wrote the sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," using every letter in the alphabet. When letters start to fall from a memorial commemorating the sentence, the residents take that as a sign that those letters should be banned. As each letter falls, communication becomes more and more difficult. At the end of the story, only L M N O and P are left - a challenge for the author, who only uses these letters to communicate. You won't be disappointed with this one, especially if you love words.

Memories of My Melancholy Whores

Every Boy's Got One

For Matrimonial Purposes

Little Earthquakes

The Genius Factory

Bel Canto : This was probably my favorite book of the year. At a party in South America at the vice president's house, all the attendees are taken hostage by a group of terrorists. The siege ends up going on for months, and the terrorists and hostages began to grow relationships. The characters are amazing, the writing a treat to read. If you take any book recommendations from me, this is the one!

The Thing About Jane Spring

Brave New World : Despite being an English major, I managed to get away with not reading a lot of the classics. I finally got around to this one, and I wasn't disappointed. I really enjoyed reading this, and without the pressure of "you have to read this for school" I think it was even better.

The Sunday Philosophy Club

Yarny Christmas

I asked for yarn for Christmas this year, and yarn I got!

I never buy expensive yarn for myself, so this was a treat. I'm still thinking up options for this, I'm thinking some gloves with the orange Rowan felted tweed, and either Odessa or Esther Williams for the the red or green yarn. I'm still out on the Noro - any suggestions?

I made it safely to New Mexico, where it has been disappointingly cold. I've been staying inside, but not really knitting due to a particularly horrific case of the stomach flu. I haven't had this since I was a kid! I'm slowly working myself up to eating real meals again. The only knitting going on is this sock:

Its Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, left over from ReMango's gorgeous stole. Since I have pretty small feet, I think I'll be able to eek out a decently tall pair of socks from this. Thanks! Although right after I took that picture . . .

The cat that hates everything discovers yarn. Having lived in a previously yarn-free household, I saw her eyes brighten at something else she could attack. A vicious fight ensued, the yarn and me ultimately winning. But its on now cat, its on.

Death socks - conquered!

I really was never able to figure out why I hated knitting these socks, but I finally finished them! It only took me four months. . . only. Although I like this cotton sock yarn, I need to give it a rest for a while. Next up . . . toe-up socks from Lorna's Laces! (Seriously, this stuff is awesome. I always made fun of people who spent $18 on sock yarn . . . but now, now I understand.)

The countdown has begun: only 4 days until I'm in New Mexico!