Whoops!

So I guess I haven’t update in a while. I’ve been pretty busy with starting school. But now I’m pretty settled, and it’s the second week of classes. Classes have been alright, nothing so far that I’m really excited about, but it’s still mostly introductory stuff. Cell Biology, Plant-Animal Interactions, Organic Chemistry, Physics, Ancient Greek Civilizations.

Stitch n Bitch has had one meeting so far. We’re still on Wednesday nights, but we might change still, or add more nights. With the massive help from Jenn, we’ve managed to renew ourselves as a student organization, allowing us to put up flyers to advertise ourselves. So that’s what Jenn and I are doing tonight, and then tomorrow night is SnB. Hopefully we’ll actually get some new people!

I finally put up my free pattern for Starburst, complete with pictures. (And my new haircut). I’ve also been doing Working Diamonds, which is coming along nicely, and soon I’ll have to figure out the neck shaping. I’m also a little nervous because I know it stretches when it’s washed, and that might be ok, but it might affect my shaping. Also, I feel like it goes dead when it gets wet, like all the elasticity it had before I washed it goes out, and this was just on my swatch. I don’t want to make a whole sweater and then just have it hang off me because I decided to be cool and block it. So I might just not, and figure out the measurements the way they are right now, regardless of my swatch.

Ty’s been coming down to DC every weekend since I moved in. Which is actually only two, but he’s coming down again this weekend. He called me last night begging for help, apparently his mom had asked him directly if we were going to get married. I told him that he should just tell her, because, one, he had already acted awkward enough to arouse suspicion after she asked, and two, it would just complicate things later if he said no. Besides, he hasn’t actually told anyone that we are unofficially engaged, and now he has. It’s weird that he’s so closed off about personal things to other people, when I’m very open. Especially since we’re both so open to each other. So hopefully this is a good step forward, and hopefully it won’t freak him out too much. Ugh, with my birthday coming up, and him trying to figure out my present, I keep on telling him to just get me an engagement ring. I know it won’t happen, but I keep on imaging that perfect proposal moment (despite the fact that we already know the answer). Oh well, maybe I’ll get something that’s a close second, and I guess since I know I’m seeing him that weekend that should be enough, but I’m selfish…

No More Summer

Today is my last day of work, and I’m definitely ready to get back to school. Tomorrow and Thursday will be full of packing and shopping and seeing friends. We’re heading down to DC early Friday morning, and moving me at least part of the way in on Friday. Ty will be there too. For the whole long weekend! He was here this past weekend and my parent’s were up in Vermont, but they came back to have dinner with us on Sunday night. Yummy steak and salad made by Ty. The salad is the weird part of it. Radishes (his favorite), feta, and other random vegetables you have (we added cauliflower and snap peas), add a little olive oil and salt and pepper and you’re done. A nice summer salad, which contrasted nicely with the spicy chipotle and cumin rub he had on the steak.

My Starburst shrug is all done, including being soaked and blocked. It’s definitely bigger, but not quite in the way I was hoping. I think it will look better on someone else though, someone smaller. I’ll just have to keep that in mind for my Working Diamonds, seeing as it’s the same yarn. I started that a few days ago, and have at least five inches of progress on the front (or the back if i cop out and don’t want to do the neck shaping yet). I decided not to have any body shaping to it because it’s got cables, which will stretch where necessary and be tight where it’s not. I still have to get the white button up to go underneath it, which will help me decide where the neckline should be, and how long the sleeve will be. I figure that they’d be just below the elbow.

Hopefully Starburst will get a home on Wednesday when I see my friends, and I’ll get pictures of it and Summer Breeze on some lovely models. I also need to take some pictures of my swift. It’s all done, but I haven’t used it since it was completely finished, only when it was nearly finished. I’m think of knitting a carrying case for it, with pockets for the spare parts we made, just in case. It doesn’t take up that much room, and barely looks homemade. My dad is so cool! I’ll try to have him get a picture of it in action, although because I’m winding by hand it won’t be quite as cool as if I had a real ball winder.

I’m currently making Alex (my friend from last year and now my roommate) a stash basket to store (some of) her yarn in. It’s crochet, which I haven’t done in a very long time, but I remember. I haven’t gotten that far, but with an 8 hour car ride to DC, I’ll have plenty of time.

I also want to buy some undyed yarn, so that I can try out this whole dyeing thing and see if I like it. I figure that I can just do the cheap-o Kool-aid dyeing, and the instructions on KnitPicks. I also want to try spinning, but I’d definitely have to do more research. Maybe someone at SnB at school will know…

Decisions, Finally

I’m very close to finishing my Starburst shrug(?). I sewed on the sleeve last night. I was only going to watch one episode of Scrubs (minus commercials) and then go to bed, but I hadn’t finished sewing it on, so I had to stay up until it was done so that I knew if my crazy sleeve cap pattern worked. Fiveepisodes of Scrubs later (supplied by my awesome brother) the sleeve was done and looks gorgeous! I was reading about the yarn that I’m using, KnitPicks Gloss, and found out that it stretches a bit (or a lot) when it’s washed. Well, I don’t think it will be much a a problem, because Starburst was made to be small, and because it’s not a full length sweater, it can’t grow all that much.

The decision that I made is that it will not be submitted to Knitty, it will be published as soon as I finish and get some pictures. I figure that it’s definitely a fall garment, and I’m waaay too impatient to leave it unpublished until spring. My next project is Working Diamond, which I’ll be swatching soon. Because it’s the same yarn as Starburst I could just use the same gauge, but I’m not sure that I want to. I might go up a needle size, I don’t know, but that’s what swatches are for.

Another decision that I made is that my lace shirt/dress idea (Cable Me Pink) will be submitted to Knitty for their spring issue. I’ll probably be ordering the yarn in the next month, and starting it once I finish Working Diamonds. I’ve never worked with lace weight yarn before, but how different can it be? Besides, if all goes horribly wrong, I don’t have to submit it.

Hard Work

I spent most of this past weekend in the basement with my dad working on my new umbrella swift! It’s not quite finished yet, but the important parts are put together and I tested it out last night. It definitely makes winding the yarn go faster, but I’ll probably start looking for a cheap ball winder. While I was testing it out, my mom says to me, ‘why don’t they just sell it like that to begin with?’ The answer? I’m not sure. All I know is that some come in a skein, and some come in a hank, but all need love.

My test skein was of my knitpicks gloss for my Working Diamonds, which I’m sure I’ll be starting sometime this week. Starburst is coming along very nicely. Once I figure out the sleeve, all I’ll have left is to sew them on and sew in the ends! Although I do need to remember some way to fasten it… Perhaps a crocheted on button hole and a little bobble? I know that it’s going to look amazing once it’s done. Although it is a bit small for me, but that was the point, so that it wouldn’t be huge for someone else. I’m still not sure if I want to submit it to knitty for the spring issue. Especially because if it gets in, I’ll have to wait so long until it’s published! And I’m rather impatient. I’m still slightly confused as to what to call it. Is a sweater that has the bottom cut off called a shrug or is it still a sweater? And because it has a split front is it therefore a cardigan? or a jacket? I guess it doesn’t really matter, but I would like to know how everything is classified.

On other exciting news, I got my hair cut! It’s pretty short now, just barely touching my shoulders. And I have bangs! It’s so much fun to play with, and it curls up super short if I don’t do anything to it after I shower. Yesterday I decided that I look like Baby, from Dirty Dancing.

Teeth, Stars, and Stupidity…

… in no particular order, definitely not chronological.

So I’m starting with Teeth, which was my Monday. I went in for a cleaning, which is actually about two months late. That went fine and dandy, pretty much. They found out that the two cavities I had know about from January had gotten much bigger, and I had a new little one too. I had already scheduled an appointment for Thursday to get them filled, but seeing as they had an opening later on Monday, I went with that. Two days after having my jaw wrenched open for an hour, it still hurts. Of course I have to have a tiny mouth, and the cavities are in the waay back. Go figure. I know that my dad has a bad dental history, despite the intense oral hygiene. And my mom’s gums receded so much that she had to have a skin graft to replace them. And now they tell me that six of my teeth seem to have receding gums. All of this coming not even two years after my root canal (at 17!). I should just resign myself to having horrible teeth, and unfortunately giving them to my children.

Next topic: Stars! Well, kinda. More like my weekend in Vermont with my parents and Ty. His plane didn’t get in until eleven, plus a three hour drive to Killington equals non-existent Friday. Add in an afternoon departure on Sunday (plus that three hour drive) equals a super short weekend. But Saturday was nice. In the morning we went for a short hike because it was gorgeous out, for once. In the afternoon we went to this little art fair thing, with people selling paintings, jewelery, and most importantly: fudge! Unfortunately there were no vendors with any fiber related trade, so I was disappointed. After this we went out for dinner, and went to see Les Mis as a professional stage. I’ve only ever seen the film version of it, with Liam Neeson, which is spectacular, but the musical was amazing too. It wasn’t a sob worthy performance, but I did shed a tear. (And now I’m reading the book, which is looong, but good so far). On the way back from the play, we stopped by a lake and lay down to look at the stars. There literally wasn’t a cloud in sight, and It’s one of the few times that I’ve seen so many stars. It wasn’t quite the peak of the meteor shower, but we did manage to see some pretty amazing meteors. Ty said that that’s the only time he can remember seeing the milky way. It stretched all the way across the sky, and it’s just amazing to think that we’re just this dinky planet in a disk full of hundreds of billions of stars. It’s strange feeling so small and yet so big at the same time. I can’t describe it, so go see the stars for yourself!

Onto my knitting, I mean, Stupidity. Yet again I have hurdled into a design (Starburst) without planning everything (which I personally think is the more creative way to do it). Unfortunately, some of my measurements ended up a bit wrong leaving the whole a bit wrong. This time though, it was not width ways, and I can fix it by adding another inch to the top and it will still work out great. I’m confident that the final product will come out nicely, but it’s the pattern I’m a bit worried about. I tend to change things about the pattern after I’ve done the piece to make the pattern easier. But because I’m making it up as I go along, and the pattern and my piece are slightly different, I tend to get a little confused. Long story short, I make a lot of extra work for myself. Although I guess I could have figured that out from the fact that I make up my own patterns, and that I want other people to be able to follow them.

I received my knitpicks order, and jumped up and down in joy with my three new stitchionaries. I also got my yarn for my Working Diamonds sweater, and some sock yarn. This weekend’s plan is to construct my own umbrella swift, with the help of my dad. After that I’ll probably start the sweater! I’m so excited for this swift, it will definitely make winding go a little faster. If only I had a ball winder to go with it! Maybe a birthday present for myself? Or maybe I’ll be more patient and ask Santa for it.