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!

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 . . .)