Stockinette = Fast

I'm just motoring through Kyoto!



The color is actually quite a bit darker than this. At first I wasn't thrilled with the colors I got, since they didn't look at all like they had on the website, but this teal is really growing on me. Since the Sonata is thinner than Cotton Classic, I've had to make a few modifications, but luckily this is a drop-shoulder sweater so it almost doesn't matter how wide the sleeves are compared to the body. Speaking of sleeves, I'm doing them both at once, and boy am I glad.



1.5" of double seed stitch - ugh! I know it will look pretty, though, especially with the diamond brocade on the sash. I'm thinking of trying my hand at some applied i-cord around the sash, but I've never done i-cord (even non-applied), so I might scrap that idea if it's too fiddly.

I love this sweater! I'm really glad I didn't try to knit it earlier in my knitting days. The knitting is easy, but putting it together will be a bit of a trick. I think I'm going to try picking up the stitches for the neckline trim, and maybe even for the sash and working it top-down. I'll just have to see how it works out!

Oh, my brother got me a flickr Pro account for my birthday (thanks, Nick!) so it's no longer "disappearing" my older photos. Yay!

Some Things About Al

1 I like salt, to the point that it grosses people out a little.

2 I have a few poems memorized that I can recite. My favorite is Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen.

3 I am a pacifist. My senior year in high school (2003) I started a Conscientious War Objectors club, but the administration pretty much shut us down.

4 I still regret that I was too afraid of getting in trouble at school to argue when a top administrator called us irresponsible, likening our CWO education campaign to her going out and getting drunk in public.

5 I hate my major in college (Peace and Conflict Studies). I have never felt welcome in the department office.

6 I could not find another major that would suit my interests, so I stuck it out despite feeling like I didn't have a home base.

7 My third semester in college (Fall 2004), I was lonely, depressed, and angry with myself for not knowing what to do about it. I gave myself winter break to snap out of it, and told myself that if Spring semester was still that bad, I would take some time off school.

8 It wasn't; I stayed.

9 I am afraid of fish! Once, when my family went to Hawaii, we took a day cruise to Molokini for snorkeling. I didn't get off the boat once.

10 The trip to Hawaii was a Make-a-Wish trip. In August, 2001, my younger brother was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of leukemia. I remember throwing up soon after learning this.

11 My junior year of high school is kind of a blur. Nick was in and out of the hospital (mostly in) until March. It's five years later and even though he's cured and even goes to college with me, I still suffer from post traumatic stress disorder.

12 Sometimes when I hear "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" I cry, even if it's in Walgreens or something, because it triggers a memory of the year Nick was sick.

13 I met my boyfriend in class right after that really bad semester. He says he was attracted to me because of my shiny hair. It is pretty shiny, I gotta say.

14 I really, really, really like to cook. My boyfriend and I also brew our own beer. I think we eat and drink better than 99% of college kids, and I think half of that 1% is probably just rich or something.

15 I speak French, and I took two years of Arabic in college and next semester I am signed up for Spanish 2. I rarely use these, but they do come in handy.

16 I have lived in California for all but two years of my life. Those years were in St. Louis, when I was 7-9. I loved it.

17 I cut pages out of magazines and catalogs and save them in a little "my future house" folder so I don't forget all the good decorating ideas.

18 I carve rubber stamps and stencils and I would like to learn other printing techniques, but I suck at drawing, so I kind of figure what's the point?

19 I never met my grandfather, but I have this feeling we really would have gotten along if he'd lived.

20 My favorite game is backgammon, but every time I teach someone they kick my butt. It's one game I really don't mind losing, though, because it's so fun to play.

21 I turned 21 today!

(22 I should stop at 4 drinks)

Lace Log Cabin!

OK, stats:

Pattern: My own take on the log cabin blanket, as learned from Mason-Dixon Knitting (the book).

Yarn: Elann.com Sonata (100% cotton) in 3 shades of pink, 3 shades of brown, and 2 shades of green. 3 balls each of each pink and brown, 2 balls dark green, and 1 ball light green.

Needles: US#3 addi turbo circular, plus another inox circular for the border.

Notes: So, I decided to add lace strips that would help further my "theme" of the rose garden look. Unfortunately I only own book 1 of Barbara Walker's treasuries, so my choices were limited. The green strips are the same lace as Kiri, I think it's called fern lace. The light pink is rosebud lace, and to be honest I hate it! Looks kind of lame. The medium pink lace is english mesh, which I'm really happy with, and the medium brown lace is vine lace.

I worked the border in one piece, with backwards miters at each corner. To do this, I made 1 stitch on either side of the center corner stitch on each RS (well, knit, because this was garter st in the round) row. This was a huge pain in the butt. Looks good though!





So I'm pretty sure my friend will like it (everyone else seems to). I'm excited to give it to her, but I admit I'll be sad to see it go! She better treat it well!

I finally got an OK photo of my kyoto swatch:



This is just leftover Sonata from the log cabin, I'll actually be doing the sash in the dark gold color in the photo below. Like I said, the colors were way off from what you see on elann.com, but I'm happy with them anyway. On my monitor, these colors are pretty true to real life.



I'm already over halfway through the back. BORING - it's just a big square of stockinette, but it's very pretty in the teal. I'm so bad - I really ought to be finishing my blue sweater and/or starting my boyfriend's hat. I just don't feel like thinking or doing math, so Kyoto is my easy knit. I guess that's still fair a week after school got out, because thinking is NOT on my to-do list right now!

Ok, Merry Christmas everyone! I'll leave you with a winter scene from my back porch:



Gotta love Los Angeles.

A Culmination of Things

Well, Thing.



Yes, I'm done. I still need to weave in a few ends, but I put the border on (with two very long circulars) and I think I might throw it in the washer and dryer just to even out the stitches. Hopefully in the light tomorrow I'll get a better set of photos and I'll post details then.

So finals are over, and my grades are rolling in one by one. I'm 3 for 3 so far with the ones I've seen, so it makes this semester (which sucked) worth it. Freaking penultimate semesters - you can't slack off but you really want to...

I'm at home (parents') for break now, and the L.A. weather is pretty nice. I actually wore flip flops today without losing feeling in one or more toes! We got up early this morning and went out for breakfast burritos and a trip to the farmer's market (local, not the big permanent one) for our xmas veggies. I've been sick - little of this, little of that - all week, but felt a lot better today. A birthday lunch with one of my best friends made me that much happier!



Of course I tend to see old knits around the house when I'm here. My family are pretty welcome recipients. Did I tell you we named the new dog, too?



Shep, in front, is a 10lb chihuahua mix, but looks JUST like a little toy german shepherd or something. SO CUTE. He likes to jump on your head and lick your ear (and neck, and hair, and face). Not so good about not pooping inside, though, yet. In back is Cookie; she's really been a good sport about the whole thing. Yes, those are matching Christmas bandannas.

I got my yarn for Kyoto and started knitting the back. The elann.com Sonata knits up at a smaller gauge than Cotton Classic, so I'm actually following the directions for the XL size to end up with a size Small. I seriously hope I have enough yarn. I decided to go with the peacock color scheme, as you all suggested. The screen colors aren't very true to real life, but the yarn is very pretty and I can tell it will be a pretty dramatic color combo. I think I'm going to knit the sash in King Charles Brocade (see Walker 1) instead of seed/moss stitch. It's a horizontal diamond motif with a double row of purl bumps outlining the stockinette diamonds. I was going to do interlocking cables, but I think the brocade is more appropriate.

I hope to post more tomorrow, I just get so lazy when I'm at my parents' house!

Little Stuff

Having finished my third-to-last final exam/paper, I can really feel the pull of Winter Break. Mailing my graduate school application yesterday was a big step, and a big load off my mind. I still had Statistics this morning, though, an Art Policy paper due tomorrow, and a Planning final Saturday night. Yes, a Saturday night exam. College is awesome.

My roommate gets the Paper Source catalog these days, and I always steal it for a bit to drool over their pretty stuff. Just look at this spread, "Hollywood glam!" I'm usually quick to pooh-pooh Hollywood, having grown up in it (or thereabouts), but I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. So pretty.

I just saw that Paper Source has a partnership with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. If you don't know much about Make-A-Wish, let me just say that they are an amazing organization and will be a regular on my donation roster when I start making the kind of money to really donate. I actually say this from personal experience, but more on that some other day.



I stopped by the fabric store after my exam this morning to get some lining for my boyfriend's hat, and saw that they had a limited selection of Cascade 220 half off (they have a whole wall of it full price, too!) Never having knit with it, but having heard it was the 'perfect yarn' somewhere or other, I thought for $3 and change I'd give it a try. This is lapis heather, though missing its original label. It's the creamiest, sunniest, heatheredest blue you ever saw.

I actually cast on for knitty's Calorimetry with it, but realized I was doing my short row wraps wrong so I either have to rip out a few rows or just frog the whole thing. I think I might like it better in another yarn. Actually, my fingers are itching a little right now, and I'm hoping it's just psychological. I wouldn't want to be allergic to the perfect yarn!

I also picked up a few more colors of acrylic felt. I can't find wool felt anywhere around here, and couldn't find any good woolens in the remnants to actually turn into felt, but here's what I'm working on:



I saw this garland and I just had to make one. I'm wondering what exactly to do with these, though. My family decided we're not really going to do Christmas gifts this year, which is fine with me in terms of receiving, but no fun at all in terms of giving. I love wrapping stuff, picking stuff out - hell, even paying for stuff at Christmas, and you know I'm not so into the paying a lot. I was thinking maybe I'd just make ornaments or some equally benign gift that doesn't say, Now what did you get ME?

I'm so thrilled that the template included gingko leaves that I might make an all-gingko garland. We have some gingko in my neighborhood and I just love them, especially when they drop their millions of bright yellow leaves all over the rainy sidewalk. I wonder how I can work in the light green accents - maybe stamp pad + paintbrush?

Well, Happy Hanukkah everyone! Boyfriend and I are going to make some bitchin' latkes sometime soon - a boxed mix/fresh potato hybrid. How did I get so unlucky as not to be born Jewish: a holiday that insists on fried foods?! COME ON!

Why I Haven't Been Posting

See, it's not because I stopped loving you, or knitting. I haven't been knitting a ton, admittedly, but look:




Could it be? A border? Really?

Stay tuned for a culmination of things.

C'mon, Knitty!

I, like many I'm sure, have been checking out knitty.com* since Friday, hoping to see the new issue. I do this every time I'm anticipating one, but it ALWAYS happens that I find out that the new one is out from someone else - a blog, yahoo group, etc. Then I'm in the middle of someone's blog entry and I don't want to stop reading it but in my head I'm like, NEWKNITTYNEWKNITTYNEWKNITTY. I know I should be more zen about it but a new knitty is just so exciting, you know?

Then I read about some fall knitty drama (designers using their own line of yarns) that made me not entirely as excited. Should paying advertisers get to exhibit patterns in knitty? I don't know - don't really care - but it does rub me the wrong way a little. I always thought it was kind of a for the people, by the people thing.

Anyway, I ran into a feature of flickr that I didn't know about: free accounts are limited to 200 photos. I spent a lot of time yesterday going through my archives switching photo URLs to my new(er) flickr account, so I can free up my old one for family photos and such, and now it's asking me to please pay for a pro account. I'm sure I will keep blogging for the forseeable future (I like you guys!) so it's worth it, but what if my old account fills up quickly, too? I'll have to pay for TWO pro accounts, each with UNLIMITED storage?! Ugh. So inefficient.

Anyway, besides my term papers, here's what I've been working on since Thanksgiving:



Yes, my acrylic baseball blanket. Goooooooo Giants!

I'm going to make a total of 48 squares for this, using Kay's lo-sew method, so I have plenty of room to play with stripe patterns. I think I should let the traditional 6-row stripe pattern dominate, and not try to match adjacent squares as much. Humans just aren't good at the random!

I decided to hold off on picking a new shawl pattern. I only have Walker's first book right now, and I do think the Berkeley public library has some but it will take a while for me to get down there. Meanwhile, though, I ordered this from colourmartUK's ebay site:



It's a teeny tiny 100% silk thread. I will have to go to new lows in terms of needle size. I decided to order a neutral color and possibly dye it before knitting with it. Dyeing is going to be my post-finals project, I decided. Lots of things to dye. And knit.

I don't know how much delicate stuff I'll want to do at my parents' house this winter break, though, seeing as we'll be a bit more crowded this year:



We got a new puppy! My mom has been looking for one to help keep our dog, Cookie, entertained while no one is home (that happens a lot more now that all the kids have moved out, and Cookie gets really lonely and nervous). So I need a good name for a 10lb boy dog. And don't say "dough" - my boyfriend beat you to it ;)


*I don't link directly to knitty.com because it uses the script that breaks your "back" button and I think this is really uncool and pointless, anyway, because hello! if someone wants to leave your website they will, regardless of your stupid html skillz.

Love & Pottery

I love the pottery sale at school. I always find something. I went in yesterday between classes looking for cool, simple gifts, but none of the mugs or bowls really did it for me. I'm not doing many gifts this year. But I did find this (bigger). I love it! I'm not sure what it's supposed to be; the artist had some similar pieces and one was marked "sushi platter," so maybe that's it. I'm just going to put it on my wall. It cost me $3. God, I love that sale.



Now that I finished Adamas, I'm looking for my next lace project. I was planning to make a version of Marianne Kinzel's Azalea tea cloth pattern, using only half of the repeats to make a half-hexagon shawl. I did all my math wrong when I halved the pattern, though, and I don't feel like doing it over. I'm sort of thinking rectangular shawl, but there aren't that many patterns out there. I could make one up, but...

well I could also make this.



I've been avoiding Print o' the Wave. I don't know why. I have no real reason not to make it. It would be awesome in this yarn. I have few alternatives available. I should just do it. I need to buy a new US#1 or 2 needle for it, since my #2 circular has the worst join in the world. I used it for Sarcelle and cringed every time I had to drag the stitches across it. This yarn is even finer than the Merino Oro, too. So I guess I had better get a new needle.

Well, if anyone knows of any reason why I shouldn't make PotW, comment now or forever hold your peace. I am itching to knit lace again (it's been over a WEEK!)