A Love Story

There once was a chilled bottle of soda who lived alone in the kitchen.

"Brrrrr, I'm cold!"

Then, at that very moment, she received a toasty sweater from a secret admirer!

"A secret admirer?....me?"

The sweater kept her warm, but she soon grew lonely...

"*waaaaaaahhh*..."

Chicklet was rushed in to cheer her up

"Awww, Thanks for the hug Chicklet--I needed that."

Feeling a little better, she decided to get gussied up to go out that night...

...and she ended up meeting the bottle of her dreams!

"Did you like the sweater I sent you...?", he asked. "It's perfect!" She replied.

And they lived cozily ever after-- The End.

Surprise!

Somebody turned 21 today!

(*pssst* it's me!)

So raise your beer cozies & yarntinis--this college knitter is especially happy today!

Basking

I have been working on the Forest Canopy Shawl but opted to not post new pictures (a triangular shawl with fourteen repeats looks a lot like a triangular shawl with nine repeats).

In other news, I found a knitted item from Christmas past! Does this happen to anyone else?

I give you the DROPS shrug:
(The look on my face epitomizes my feelings about my 4-day weekends)

Here are some stats:

Pattern: DROPS Shrug (Ravelry)
Designer: DROPS design...? (It's very vague)
Yarn: 5 skeins of DROPS Eskimo in light ice blue
Needles: US 15 Addi Turbos
Estimated time of knitting: 4 hours in a trance

And here is a better picture of the frontIn a nutshell, It was quick. It was easy. And it's warm. 'nuff said. My only complaint is that the back gapes a little bit at the bottom, but nothing a good blocking or cleverly placed front button wouldn't fix.

Stay tuned to see the fate of this yarn, as well as a surprise sneaking up at the end of the week--hooo boy!

Spring Break!

I've been pretty occupied with the itinerary mentioned prior, but since my last post was a little lacking of knitting, I've decided to spare you the details of how lovely Boston is (it's really lovely). Instead, I'll show off what I've been up to!Enter the Forest Canopy Shawl. This pattern = perfect for airplane/subway knitting because the pattern is so simple it can be easily memorized. In the end, this little number will be gifted to my fantastic mom (along with knitting [and every other crafty thing known to man], my mom has her own chain maille jewelry business! If you do click, disregard the ginormous picture of my face as well as the blinding glare off of my fake engagement ring. heh.)
The story of this shawl goes back all the way to January. My mom had bought 5 skeins of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino baby and, after a few failed attempts at finding a good scarf pattern for herself, she generously donated the yarn to me. Little did she know that I was going to be making her yarn into a shawl for her! Initially, it was going to be a secret, but (as I learned with Jamie's vest) it's too much hassle to hide a project from someone you live with. Production on said shawl came to a halt after knitting 7 repeats on needles that were too small. Ugh. It is officially the largest gauge swatch I've ever made. I switched to size 8's (much better) and knitting commenced!

Now, let's check out the shawl's view out of the Harvard "dorm" windows!Do you see that stately looking brick building? Is it a library? A science center? Admissions? a bank? A museum? It's more student housing. Stunning.

Turning our heads, we have yet ANOTHER view!If you can bring your eye past the extensive courtyard (seriously), you'll be able to see the scenic Charles River!

Not quite Miss Kinkos

I got home from work around 1am and, as per usual, I couldn't get to sleep. After dealing with my sporadic sleeping habits over the past year or so, I've learned that the worst thing I can possibly do is to lay [awake] in bed wanting to go to sleep. Instead, I need to do something productive! Who cares if it's 3:45 am! It's all the more reason to tackle my unfinished projects since there won't be any of those pesky distractions (like other people) that are usually lurking during the day.

These tags are just a little something to personalize a gift one step further. They're also the ideal option for baby garments.

But wait--it wasn't really that easy, was it...?

Of course not.

For your comic relief, I've captured my mistakes and will share them openly.

FIRST Try: I put the paper in upside down, but more importantly, the rounded rectangle I had added to the backside of the card was out of alignment. Goodbye rounded rectangle!
SECOND Try: I decided to try a darker (more sophisticated) yellow than the first time and instead got a decidedly un-classy highlighter/popcorn yellow. Oh, and my margins got reset to default after all of my careful measuring...round 3 shall we?
THIRD Try: I opted for an aqua blue since my eyes were still burning from the first two tries. A little too dark, but what's this? Success! This run is looking good... now just to print the back! Oh no...
FOURTH (and final) Try:color? adjusted.
Margins? set.
Paper? right side up.
Planets? Aligned.
Product? 30 cards wasted, but 10 cards: SUCCESS!
Lessons learned? I should go to sleep.

Busy Busy Busy!

I know it's bizarre (especially lately) for me to just disappear for a week, but I have my reasons! I spent the first half of the week down in Lake Geneva for an industry-related conference (Those of you feeling nosy can Google WIGCOT 2008 to see more). On the plus side, the conference was informative, entertaining, and enjoyable. On the minus side, the professional conference environment isn't exactly conducive for knitting. At all. The end result was me getting about 3 hours of knitting time in the car there and back. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not complaining since, as before mentioned, I had a great time. That being said, however, the rest of the week was spent catching up on everything I had missed the first 4 days of the week. Isn't that how it always goes? Playing catch-up? Regardless of how much I think I've gotten done, I'm nowhere near finished with everything I need to have finished up by next week. What better time then [heh] to decide to write a blog entry! Anyway, here's what I have to show for myself:Yes, he is that cute in person. I had been eying up Ysolda's "Elijah" for months now and finally decided to make the commitment to actually knitting him up. Now, did I have sport weight & DK weight yarn on hand? YES! Did I choose to use either of them? hah-NO WAY! Why make the easy decision in a situation like this? I had 3 skeins of Blue Sky dyed cotton in a pretty ice blue. I actually got the idea from seeing Ysolda's newest toy, Otto, whom she made out of the same yarn in white. "Elijah would look cute if he were bigger too", I thought. "I'm going to give it a try!". The saga continues from there...

I might also add that the pattern construction on this project is just mind-blowing. There was A LOT of careful thought put into this pattern. Meticulous diagrams and vivid descriptions. Given my previous experience with her patterns, I'm not surprised in the slightest. He does look awfully goofy with no arms, ears, and only one leg though--that alone is enough to give me the motivation to finish him!

And lastly, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that SPRING BREAK starts in six short little days. Get ready Boston, I'm almost there! (Those of you in the Boston area: any local yarn shops to check out?)