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!

Picture Hosting

Flickr seems to be the picture hosting website of choice these days, but its always seemed a little awkward to me. Plus, you can only have 3 albums, which annoyed me to no end! So, I've switched:

To Picasa

I'm a huge google fan, and here you can have as many albums as you want, and its really easy to use. There is a 250mb limit, but if you really think people are interested in seeing that many pictures of you, then maybe you deserve to pay $25 a year.

Here's a tantalizing glimpse of my recent trip to Valley Forge, PA.

Ms. Marigold

Its that time of year again, the time of year that I float through in a haze, trying to procrastinate so I don't have to work on writing papers. I haven't been knitting much lately, or doing too much of anything else, but I did finish this a couple of weeks ago. While not having internet access at home is good for my work ethic, its not so good for my attempts to keep in touch with the world.

The pattern is Ms. Marigold from ZephyrStyle, yarn is Knitpicks Elegance. The pattern only called for 3 balls of yarn, and the whole time I was making this I was thinking, "This can't be right, I know I need more yarn, this is going to be so tiny . . ." As it turns out, this probably fits me better than most things I've knit - yarn is surprisingly stretchy. I guess I'll have to wait until warmer seasons to actually wear this, since I'm not really a vest sort of person, but odds are I'll actually wear it.

The work basket overfloweth

A couple weeks ago, I had a case of start-itis, where I was determined to make things out of all of the stray yarn in my closet. You see, while most people have a problem with stashing large amounts of yarn, I hate having stuff. I LOVE throwing things away, giving things to Goodwill, etc. (I get this from my mother, who claims she doesn't even want furniture in her house anymore.) Thus, my knitting basket overflowed with projects I don't really care too much about, but must be finished just so I don't have so much yarn anymore.


The thing that will probably save me from any future yarn problems is this, a log-cabin like scrap blanket. It's not going to be the traditional square round-and-round type log cabin, but rather a more abstract type of creation. I've got about a 2-foot square piece, and there is no end in sight for this monster. I suspect it will take years to complete, but that's ok with me.

Patchwork Scarf

I sewed this up in a fit of activity a few weeks ago - its a pattern from Denyse Schmidt Quilts. Its a combination of suiting fabric and silky asian-print that I inherited for my roommate in the perfect colors. It's very odd to have a scarf that's not knitted, I almost feel like a traitor!

The Socks of Death

I would like to take a moment to reveal the "socks of death."

Unassuming, you say? Non-threatening? NO! I started these back in August, and for some reason just hated working on them. I'm pretty sure its because the 3x1 ribbing is annoying to do on size 1, really inflexible double-points. (I hate bamboos too.) So, I invested in some knitpicks circulars, which are great! With my new needles, I flew to the end. Last night I spent a full 1 1/2 hours creating the most perfect short-row toe you have ever seen, WITHOUT ever "p3tog tbl." And then I tried them on. And they were too big. So, because I am a genius, I said, oh, well I'll just take some rows out of the top. (Duh, you can't do that when thing are knitted in the round.) Riiiiiiiip.

Instead of getting mad at the socks and throwing them into a corner, I am at war. I WILL conquer you, socks!

I'm also working on this green thing. What is it? I need to keep some secrets, people! (Although most of you probably know already . . .)

Project Update

This whole working thing is really cutting into my craft time. But I have finished a few things recently:

I made a pillow to go with my newly redecorated red-white-black living room (remember the disappearing furniture incident?) The pillow towards the back I got for only $6 at Joann's - I love those 40% off coupons!

Here's a rather blurry picture of my most recently completed pair of socks. It's just a standard sock pattern with Lion Brand sock yarn. I know a lot of knitters are down on the Lion Brand (mostly due to the hororrendous Fun Fur debacle), but I have to say that this sock yarn ain't bad. It's cheap, and just as comfortable as any other wool/nylon superwash. I was warned not to machine wash them though - thanks to Mango for the tip!

Snip Snip

I got my hair all cut off, and I should have done it a long time ago. A minute of blow drying, some slimy hair putty, and that's it! I'm sure the extra 5 minutes of sleep will greatly improve my outlook on life. Here's me looking suspicious:

Knitting news: just some toe grafting and I'll have some new socks right quick . . . stay tuned for pictures.

Stupidity

You may recall, if you have memorized the contents of my blog, that last summer I did a rash of stupid things (including gluing my fingers together with superglue.) The syndrome has returned.

- Today I locked my keys in my car, for only the second time in my life. (Luckily I was less than a mile away from my apartment complex at the time.)

- I put my shirt on backwards, and didn't realize it until I had driven to where I was going and walked halfway across the parking lot.

- In one day, I managed to damage two pieces of (extremely valuable) furniture at the decorative arts museum where I work. I have the opposite Midias touch.

I can only guess at the cause of such a horrible disease. Possible causes include:

- Massive doses of art historical theory.

- Severe deprivation of Project Runway.

- Lack of yarn buying funds.

- Unlike normal people, Jason has decided to go TO a burning forest. He's currently working in California on this fire, far from civilization, actual beds, and showers:

Actually its kind of pretty. But don't let that mislead you! Its on FIRE!

Let's hope this syndrome passes soon, otherwise you may find me at the bottom of a staircase with multiple broken limbs.

Animals Galore

So could you tell that school started? I've been reluctantly walking through campus for the past few weeks, glaring at girls on cell phones having conversations such as, "I'm going to eat, and then I'm going tanning. I'm so pale, daddy!" We won't even get into how wrong such conversations are in so many ways. Also, what's up with this leggings + miniskirt trend? I've always been forthright in my disgust of 80s pop culture, and I am strongly concerned with this resurgence. (So no, not everyone in their 20s "Loves the 80s." I realize this is hard for some people to understand, but those clothes were ugly and the music was annoying. Face it.)

Instead of working on my thesis I've been perched on my new couch (!) using up some yarn. I made a rabbit for 3-week old Lucas, who was born while I was in New Mexico.


And because I couldn't let my kitty, Kiska (special thanks to Dove for naming her!) think I wasn't paying attention to her, I'm sending her a toy she can destroy almost immediately.


And because I have to be like every other knit blogger and include pictures of my cat, here she is. (Oh, and I fully acknowledge this cat does not live in the same time zone as me, nor have I actually met her, but she'll be my cat eventually. So it still counts.)


(Rabbit: Pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, Lion Brand Microspun, size 5 dpns. Mouse: Pattern from Stitch 'N Bitch Nation, ugly yarn that might be mohair, doubled on size 4 straights.)

Home Sweet . . . ????

"It will feel so good just to collapse onto the couch and watch one of my 4 TV channels," I thought to myself while walking to my apartment door, after spending 6 hours on an airplane and another hour and a half on the shuttle home, subjected to an overly talkative van driver. I opened the door, and saw . . .


this. I realized that my roommate owned most of the furniture, but apparently she owned ALL of the furniture, including the rug, lamps, and aforementioned couch. Despite having to eat dinner while sitting on the floor, I'm actually quite excited: a new year, a clean slate, and endless design possibilities thanks to Ikea!

While I have lost a housefull of furniture, I have gained a very important addition!


This is kitty, a found kitten who does not yet have a name (although she seems like she should have a Russian name). Okay, technically she doesn't live with me, but rather with Jason in New Mexico, but she's still my baby nonetheless. Currently she is fighting for dominance over a stuffed buffalo footrest, and it apparently quite talkative.

Red Bolero

The red bolero made its debut, as planned, at the Santa Fe Opera. I made it to go with a black and white polka-dot dress as a little cover-up, since the opera is an amphitheater open on both sides. It would have been quite effective on a cool, breezy night, but not so much in a 55-degree torrential downpour. Because that's what happened. The rain came in sideways, prompting hoards of people to run as the opera was still going on, chanting from the audience, and smuggling of alcoholic beverages. Classy crowd, it was. Anyway, here's the sweater after I did a lot of math to re-knit the sleeves. I used size 5 circulars and Elann's Endless Summer Collection Luna in I think what is called Zen Red. The pattern is at garnstudio.com, but I wouldn't suggest it unless you feel like writing your own pattern for the sleeves.

Santa Fe, Nuevo Mexico

Ahh, mountains. I spent last week in the northern half of the state, in Santa Fe and Taos. People tend to have an overarching view of New Mexico, but really the two halves are quite different. The bottom is truly desert, where there are some mountains but no trees on them, and temperatures frequently are above 100. In the north, there are abundant trees, rain, and humidity - and also a lot of rich people and art. We did all of the stuff that people do in such places, such as shop, eat green chile smothered everything, look at things Hecho en Mexico, and try to get away from bad public music. Some of the highlights included driving many hours to eat at the "Burrito Banquet," a trailer in Cimmarron selling home-made burritos, and a song that Jason wrote while floating in a pool in Taos. "Appendage man, appendage man, doin' the things that appendages can / Like walking around and grabbing stuff." Brilliant.

Questionable Art

Because I flew out to New Mexico instead of driving, I'm currently car-less. The only place within walking distance (1 mile away) is a small, junky thrift store. I spent an hour there just to be out of the house, and came away with this:

I know, you're probably asking yourself why an art historian would bring home something like this. Well, for one, it only cost a dollar. Its also not difficult to notice that two people painted this - or, more likely, one person painted it and someone with questionable artistic ability painted over it for no apparent reason. The reason I loved it so much was the original colors - the green of the leaves and the blue background are great.

The chili peppers are another story - the plan is to possibly remove some of the paint (since its very thick and totally different from the original painting style) and re-paint the chilis. Gotta love do-it-yourself art restoration.

Confident in my recently aquired French reading ability, I finally ordered some knitting patterns from France. I think Phildar rivals Interweave in the wearability of their patterns - no crazy multi-length cardigans or insane colorwork a la Rowan or Vogue. I ordered the Tendances winter 05-06 magazine, which worked out to only around $10 including international shipping. Here are the highlights:

I want to make ALL of them! Yet that may be something of a challenge:

Before Dawn

On Saturday morning, I got up at 3:45am on purpose. Why would I do such a thing?? Well, I had volunteered to work at Carlsbad Caverns 49th Annual Bat Flight Breakfast. I spent an hour and a half serving croissants to tourists, who for some reason had decided to get up insanely early on their vacations. When my shift started at 4:30am, there was a line of hungry visitors. I guess the point of this was to see 100,000 bats fly back into the cave after dining on tiny bugs all night. Since I'm generally violently opposed to waking up before dawn, I had never seen this even after 3 summers of park rangering. Wow! I was totally impressed - the bats made an audible "whooshing" sound as they dive-bombed the cave. I even got my picture in the paper! And by picture I mean "the back of my head is barely visible" and by paper I mean "the specimen of horrible writing known as the Carlsbad Current-Argus." (Bat picture by the talented photographer Luke Fields.)

Screw you, Delaware

Guess where I am?

New Mexico! When I got off the plane in El Paso (not in New Mexico, but in Texas), I thought, "wow, its pretty hot out here, but its not that bad. Maybe its low 90s?" Actually, it was 102, but as I had just left Delaware, where it was 88 degrees with 91% humidity, I'm feeling quite comfortable. Not that I've bothered to leave the couch and actually go outside or anything.

So I've been happily knitting along on my Bolero (pattern is here), and finally got enough pieces finished to pin them together and see if it might fit. Oh, it fits - everything except the sleeves. Observe:

Yeah, you see that part that the sleeve is supposed to fit into? And you see how the sleeve does NOT fit into that spot? I would call that a problem. Now, before you say anything, I followed the pattern exactly, I have perfect gauge, and even remembered to measure everything in centimeters like I was supposed to. I can only blame this pattern. Since it was translated from Norwegian, I even went back and checked the English translation against the original. The 27cm sleeve does not fit into the 36cm sleeve holes. Suggestions? Obviously I'll have to re-knit the sleeves - so they should be longer as opposed to wider, right? The ribbed bottom of the sleeve fits around my arm, so I don't really want to make that bigger. Those crazy Norwegians.

Can't stop sewing

In my continual effort to create a Santa Fe-worthy wardrobe, I found a use for one of the large scarves my roommate gave me. This one was just begging to be a skirt - I cracked one of the tiny mirrors by sewing over it, so does that mean I'll only have 7 minutes of bad luck? (Bangles courtesy of said roommate as well.)

I also dug down deep and found the motivation to finish that half a sock. The yarn is a no-name from Maryland Sheep and Wool, which I scored for a mere $3.95. I'm not sure what I think of cotton socks, but I better like them because I still have 3 more balls of this stuff.

Never Talk to Strangers

Last winter I made the mistake of opening my front door to some Jehovah's Witnesses. I should have known better, seeing as that no one I know has EVER shown up unannounced. I talked to them for a little, telling them I was in fact Catholic, and knew all about the Bible and whatever else they were selling.

Obviously I didn't learn my lesson the first time, because when someone knocked on the door this afternoon I opened it, and saw the same two ladies standing there. "Hi, Sarah?" They asked. I thought quick, "Um no, she's not here, that's my roommate." Wow, they said, "You two look a lot alike! Has anyone ever told you that?" Attempting to add credibility to my obvious lie I said, "Um, she's my sister. She went home to visit her parents." (I SHOULD have said OUR parents . . . but I'm not that good at lying.) "Oh," they said, "we'll just come back later and see how she's doing."

I've gotten in the habit of just hanging up on telemarketers, but that's a little harder to do when there's two sweet looking ladies standing at your front door. Maybe I'm doomed for lying to Jehovah's Witnesses, but I still don't understand their agenda. It's not as if I stood there and told them I didn't believe in God or had never heard of the Bible. If they keep coming to see me, do they get to steal salvation credits from the Catholic school I went to for nine years?

In crafting news, there are in fact many projects going on. But I never finish any of them.

There's one completed sock out of Lion Brand simple stripes, a lacy scarf, a sock in-progress made from my discount Maryland Sheep and Wool cotton sock yarn, and a green scarf (now frogged - I HATE big needles). That pile of red that you see is the back, one sleeve, and one front of a short sleeved bolero to go with the best dress ever. What IS this "best dress ever" that I speak of?? Well, you'll just have to wait and see.

I love summer vacation

While the sewing machine was still taking up the majority of the dining room table (if a table in a corner of my apartment actually qualifies as a "dining room"), I thought I would finish up some small projects I've been thinking about for a while. First are two headbands made from Heather Bailey's simple yet awesome pattern.

I also made another knitting needle case, this one for my double points and crochet hooks.

Then, I packed up the machine and put in back in my closet. And then my roommate did a horrible, horrible thing. She's moving back to Pakistan after living in the US for 6 years, and decided to give me all of her old clothes. And by clothes I mean extremely beautiful Pakistani scarves with impressive designs. I have 15 of these, and at about 2 yards apiece, I have just aquired nearly 100 feet of fabric. Just when I was getting my addiction under control.

More Sewing

The sewing binge continues (enabled by the 60% off sale at JoAnn's) with a skirt. The fabric is slippery and flowing and perfect for a skirt. And it was my first zipper - I don't need no stinkin' zipper foot.

New Clothes!

There comes a time in every woman's life when she starts hating all the clothes she owns. I hit this point a couple of weeks ago, and a giant shopping bag to Goodwill later, I now want more clothes! Being my crafty (and cheap) self, I'm not going to BUY new clothes, of course. I've had this fabric for a few years ($1 a yard at Wal-mart), and it was destined to become a skirt. In fact, it was sitting on the table, under the pattern, when I realized it was um, see-through. I found a pattern that featured a nifty doubled-bodice section that turned out to be perfect! I replaced the zipper in the back with some buttons, and added a ribbon to eliminate a rather scandalous gap in the front.

Also, you probably have noticed the change in my blog template - the change is still in progress, so if anyone knows how to get the banner to actually fit the area its supposed to, then let me know!

The Joy of Children

This week I've been voluntarily exhausting myself by teaching a summer camp for 19 children, 17 of which are boys, ranging in age from 7 to 12. Um yeah, hopefully you can see a bad idea when you see one, because I sure couldn't. Oh, the majority of them are great kids and have gotten really into the projects we've done, but there's always a few spores who spark a mold invasion.

Did you know that boys love to throw things? Anything, anywhere, anytime. When I was a child, I don't remember ever picking up a marshmallow and thinking, "Hey, this would make a great projectile!" If they can't throw it, then it must be destroyed. If we are doing something with balloons, then I hear, "Can we pop them??" Or, "Are we going to blow anything up today?" Or, "Can we crush it when we're done?"

To rub it all in, there is also a preschool camp going on outside my room where adorable 4 year olds sit complaisantly around a parachute or go on fieldtrips to the library. (My kids made fun of them . . . "They're going on a field trip to the LIBRARY! Hahaha.") After my class, there is some sort of odd girly-girl camp where they teach girls how to do manicures and be good wives, probably. Oh, I made fun of it at first, but now I'm just jealous.

2 more days, and then Sarah's wine camp begins.

Summer

Ahh, the beginning of summer and time for the air-conditioning stand-off. This is my first summer in three years back on the east coast, and the fact that it isn't 105 degrees has me wondering why anyone has their air conditioning on at all. Wimps.

Not too much knitting has been going on, since I now have the time to tackle all those other projects I've been thinking up. I finally painted my ikea desk thing, which I've been meaning to do since September. There was also some experimental clothes sewing, but we're not going to talk about that disaster . . .

Next week I teach science camp (an art historian teaching science camp, what's going on??), but in the meantime I continue toiling away in the land of slides. Ahh, boringness, I love it.

Missed me?

After finishing my first year of grad school you didn't really expect me to hang around, did you? Two days later I set off on a 1100-mile tour of everyone I know on the east coast, from Alexandria to Williamsburg to North Carolina's outer banks to Charlottesville. Since I didn't make my usual 2,000 mile drive to the Southwest this year, I really needed some road time.

In North Carolina (Emerald Isle specifically) I frolicked on the beach with a park ranger friend and drank extremely large margaritas at a very tasty Mexican restaurant with a flirty waiter. I also got in some thrift store shopping, which involved a tense moment outside the fitting room with a transvestite. (The story is not as interesting as I'm making it seem, so let's just leave it at that.)


In Alexandria I saw my elementary/middle school/college friend who has just returned from two years in the Peace Corps in Mongolia. In addition to smelly sheep vests, she brought this with her:


That's mussik, still in her drugged-on-the-plane state. Right before she decided that my head was the best place to sleep.

I then had to visit my own kitty, who is much too furry for her own good.


I also visited my former college roommate, her husband, and their 8-month old boy, who I can tell was much appreciative of the sweater I knit him. Unfortunately (or fortunately), he has extremely tall parents who have passed their size onto him, and he'll probably outgrow the sweater before cold weather. (And that's why they should have more children!)


(Knitty stuff: Pattern is from Weekend Knitting, yarn is Scooter (some kind of cotton from the sale bin at the yarn store), on size 5s)

Quick project

To celebrate my newly acquired freedom, I did what most people do: I brought out the sewing machine. I've been thinking about this design, from the new Denyse Schmidt Quilts book, for a while, so I sliced up some fabric scraps. I do have one piece of advice for anyone that makes these: it doesn't work so well if you fold the card in half and then sew the fabric on. Not that I would know that from experience or anything.

Of endings, birthdays, and dinosaurs

One word cannot possibly illustrate the relief I feel now that my first year of grad school is over, but I'll try: whew! The French exam has been successfully failed (I think), papers have been turned in, final parties have been attended. And for those of you who may have thought to yourself, "Geez, Sarah sure complains a lot about all that reading she has to do," I present to you this:

That would be my photocopied reading for 4 classes (it doesn't include many, many books.) Let this be a lesson to all of you, particularly those who think grad school would be "a good idea" or especially "fun."

In other news, I celebrated my "golden" birthday recently (25 on 25!) and received not one but TWO handmade gifts! The first one came all the way from Mongolia.

This was knitted by the world's most unlikely knitter, and it is what I believe to be her first finished project ever! How special am I? I think its something like camel hair, which makes it just about the coolest thing ever. My second handmade present came from my boyfriend's mom, who cross-stitched me this:

("Welcome friends" for non-Spanish speakers.) Also, one of the coolest things ever. When your boyfriend's mom starts cross-stitching for you, you have to feel special.

And finally, I did some handmade gift-giving of my own. This dinosaur went to live with someone who has the exact same birthday as me! Rwrrrrr...

(For the knitters, the pattern is from xtreme-knitting.com, link above. Size 6 Susan Bates really short circulars, on the squeekiest of all yarns, Red Heart.)