Oops.

It's been a year (almost) since I updated this last.  Sheesh!  Way too much has gone on to share, so instead I'll post some pictures of things I've knit since then.  It's a little less than I would have liked, but oh well.

The Owl Sweater was actually completed!  Who saw that coming?  Not me.

I knit Jason a hat because 5 years ago (or is it 6 now?) because I told him I would.  I even made him buy the yarn.  Still haven't mailed this off yet...

I made a little soap scrubbie that you can put slivers of soap in.  I added the little flower for a more exotic appeal.  I'm all about the exotic appeal.

And finally the hat I made for Andrew, that guy whose girlfriend was having a baby.  Enjoi is some skateboard company I guess, and they loved the hat.  First successful attempt at duplicate stitch.  Holla!

Well, that's it lovies.  Maybe I'll see you again next year!

Hipster Babies

I made some Converse Booties for my friend Josh's cousin who is having a baby. The short rows were disconcerting - I've dabbled, but I still don't know (or am too lazy to learn?) how to pick up the wraps. Whatev. They turned out great! All I have to do is sew on a little felt circle and star.

For some reason I love the laces. They were just a two stitch i-cord, but they look so great! I've been commissioned to make a pair for my friend Andrew whose girlfriend is pregs. I am going to be a Converse making machine.

I'm also going to knit Josh's cousin's baby a mini Life Aquatic hat, complete with traffic light on the brim. That kid is going to be set.

Ahh! Owls!

Remember how in my last post I had a ton of unfinished knitting projects?  Well, I haven't finished any of them.  And I might have just ordered some Cascade Eco Wool to start another.  I know!  Ugh.  It's going to be my first sort of long-term project (I know, something completely up my alley... ha!) and has OWLS!

I'm in crazy owl mode now and I want the sweater, a matching hat, matching scarf, maybe some mittens, and what else do I need for a warm Nashville winter??  I ordered the "gun metal" color for the sweater so as soon as that comes in I'll probably go picture crazy and post it everywhere.  You are so excited.

I Can't Get No Motivation

I have decided that I have way too much yarn. And way too many unfinished projects.  It's just hard to find the motivation to knit when I work such odd hours and spend most of my free time with a certain someone.  Bah!

I shall document my unfinished projects in an attempt to help me finish them.

Danica.  For Jonathan, who I haven't seen since we moved out of our apartment in February.  It's sitting there, about 1/4 done, taunting me.

Cupcake.  Just a knit cupcake.  I never make Betsy (one of my roommates) anything, and she is the best cupcake baker.  I'm making it out of leftover cotton yarn and some cheap (but soft!) Bernat Satin whatever.

Slippers for Ryan.  Ugh.  I am having a really hard time finding a slipper pattern that is knit in the round, but without double pointed needles.  I started knitting the sole without a pattern, with some Lion Brand Thick and Quick, and I'm beginning to feel that winging it might not be the best idea.

Scarf to match my Beehive Hat (Beehive Hat pictured below):

I finally bought the rest of the yarn to finish the matching square scarf.  I'm going to add lots of fringe and hopefully it will be a good summer-y thing to wear.

Baby Blanket:  A baby blanket for Ryan's best friend and his wife's baby that's on the way.  I actually have a picture of the unfinished product:

And finally, Baby Booties:  All I need to do is sew on the little yellow buttons.  Seriously!  Then they're done!  I somehow cannot find it in me to do it.  Here's one:

I think that's it.  However, my yarn stash is growing too big for my space.  I already have an entire drawer and big, wicker basket filled, with more just sitting in plastic shopping bags strewn haphazardly around my bedroom.  What to do when I have no motivation... what to do.

Spermbert

Lately I've been wanting instant gratification in my knitting.  Here is my newest project that only took a couple of mornings.

I bring your Spermbert:

I think his original purpose is for holding condoms.  I think I shall use him for buttons.  Or maybe candy.  Bite size snickers bars sound delightful.

This was the first project I have done with a three needle bind off.  For some reason I thought that it was a really difficult bind off, and was sort of avoiding it in patterns.  Apparently I'm an idiot.  It's basically the way I do a regular bind off anyway.  Oh life.

My next instant gratification project is something for one of my roommates.  When I finish it, I'll make sure to upload pictures.

Out of my fanny!

Apparently I didn't do anything in April. 

But secretly I did.

And you know that new job I got in February?  Quitting it Friday.  Worst job ever.

Anyway!

I've been knitting for the imaginary etsy store I'm starting.  My thing?  FANNY PACKS.  That's right. 

So my roommates got the idea for me to knit them fanny packs.  I couldn't find any patterns, even on Ravelry!  I decided to make my own and was really excited by the results.  Here they are!

I couldn't get a really good picture of the blue one (lamebot), and gave it away too quickly to get a better one.  Anyway.  I'm really excited.  The end.

Mmm.

"There's not a word yet, for old friends who have just met."

Yay.

Life is going SO WELL right now.  That's all.

Snippets of Thought

So I've always thought of myself as an inside kid.  I like to read.  I like to knit.  I like centralized air conditioning.  I do not enjoy running.  With the weather we've been having lately in Nashville, though, I could see the possibility of outdoor kid tendencies emerge.

I'm going to be honest - I haven't really knit in a few weeks.  Within the span of a month I moved into a house, broke up with my boyfriend, started seeing someone else, and got a full time job.  I haven't had time for anything but readjustment.  For someone who doesn't like even small change, I'm sort of enjoying the unpredictability.

My neighbor has a trampoline in their backyard and I can see it from my deck as I type this.  Do you think it would be bad if I got to know them solely for the purpose of its use?  Hmmm...

Daylight Savings time is here again.  My anger is also here again.  I have nothing more to say about this subject.

Before I lived with Alex and Betsy, this dude named Alex (yeah, weird, a boy-Alex and a girl-Alex in one small living space) lived with them.  He left his bicycle when he left.  Now it taunts me.  I want to ride it so bad but all I can think about is the time I got hit by that car on my bike.  One day I will conquer my fears, Magna, and I will conquer you and your 15 Speed Index Shifting gears.

The Sun Don't Shine When Your Baby's Gone Away

Has anyone seen that new yogurt commercial where the girl knits to stave off hunger cravings?  I got really excited when I saw it.

I haven't really been knitting much because we moved AND I got a new, full time job that basically takes up my entire life.  And because I'm still half working at Mikes, that takes up the rest.  My new job is awesome though - they have Beer Friday!  We drink beer!  On Friday!  I was pretty happy.  It's an advocacy group that helps people out of fraudulent business deals.  It's pretty great.

I'm making another Danica for my friend Jonathan, and I'm really, cross my heart going to start knitting hats for my Etsy store.  A lot of stuff has been going on lately, so I've been a little distracted.

Hats, and an Etsy Store?

I've made two new hats.  Of course!  I am beginning to fear that I really only like knitting hats.  Scarves bore me, and everything else takes too long.  Bleh.  Anyway, here you go - I'm finished with these:

Wesley -

It's my first real try at using lots of colors in a knitted thing.  I learned how to carry the yarn up the side in circular knitting!  Woo.  I'm not really sure how much I like it for myself, but it feels good to have another thing to have done.

Another Star Cross (for Jessi at work) -

The easiest and nicest pattern I use for hats.  :)

SO!  I'm going to start an Etsy store!  That means I have to knit a hat of my own design, so I'm in the process of that now.  I'm excited, so we'll see where this takes me.

This old house

So... we might be moving!  One of my roommates was driving around East Nashville and saw a For Rent sign on a house.  She called and left a voicemail.  Now, we weren't looking for a house.  We weren't even looking to move - our lease isn't up until May.  But the guy called back and sent us pictures and dear Lord, it's adorable.  The rent is cheap (only $200 more than we're paying now for our little apartment!), it has three bedrooms, hardwood floors, a sun room, a million other rooms, a HUGE basement, a big back yard... well, let me just show some pictures.

Amazing?  Yes.  We went and looked at it today and it's basically ours!  It comes at a perfect time, although we wouldn't have thought so.  And if we have trouble getting out of our lease (which we shouldn't... we have very legit reasons), our new landlord gave us the number for his real estate lawyer :)

Plum Gone

Hello!  Sometimes I take little knitting hiatuses, say for about 2 weeks or so, but after that amount of time, I invariably get antsy again and I have to knit RIGHT THEN.  Here is the latest result of this itch.

It's called Felicity and was super-insanely easy.  I really need to get out of knitting hats, but they're so fast and easily gratifying.  Besides, it's freezing outside.  Bah to winter.

You really got a hold on champagne from a paper cup

Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel are getting MARRIED?!  What the!!!?  That's the perfect indie music match.  The only thing better would have been Ben getting married to Jenny Lewis.  But I'm glad they didn't because now I can keep my secret girl crush on her.  But dear lord, who knew Ben and Zooey were even dating?  Not me.  That's who.  This is intense.

I miss you, I'm going back home to the West Coast.

"I wish you would have put yourself in my suitcase"

Merry Christmas!  I got Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Workshop and Knitting Around.  I'm already longing to be back in Nashville with my needles and yarn.  They're like my little children.  Children I manipulate into whatever I want them to be.  Sounds like most parents, right?

I also got other things, a camera, clothes from Elizabeth, Surprised by Hope by NT Wright (I LOVE HIM), candy, iTunes gift card, and other things I can't remember off the top of my head.  And my mom said she wanted to get me yarn, but didn't know what kind, so tomorrow morning before my flight back to Nashville, she's taking me to a cool LYS on the Northwest Side.  I've never been there, but from their website I got the impression that they're the most well stocked in Tucson.  I can't wait to go!  I'm going to get yarn to make the Incredible Custom-Fit Raglan for Chris' birthday!  (Below is a picture of one such that I particularly liked... but really, the pattern is so versatile I can literally make it any way he wants)

I'm thinking I'll do a V-neck cardigan, a dark brown, with maybe some skinny lighter brown stripes?  Stockinette all over and maybe garter stitch button band and cuffs?  Who knows.  I'm super excited to start though.

Merry Christmas, bing bongs, and have a happy new year!  :)

Christmas time is here

I'm back in Tucson for Christmas and all I can think is, "Why did I not bring any knitting needles home??"  I'm seriously going crazy.

Chris and I had our exchanged last night and one of the gifts he gave me was a book called The Friday Night Knitting Club.  Since I had nothing to do with my hands on the plane, I read about half of it.  I'm not sure how I feel about it.  It's like they tried too hard to make it about knitting.  I don't know.  The characters are ok, but I feel no real connection to any of them, sans one or two.  But even then, I wouldn't be heartbroken if anything happened to them, and I really could care less about the main character.  Lame.  Fiction revolving around knitting is an interesting subject to me.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, so I just googled the book to read some reviews and not only was it a New York Times best seller, but they're also making it into a movie with Julia Roberts as the protagonist.  The one I don't care about.  Hmm.  It's sort of ironic because in the book there's a sort of weird film student who keeps staking out the yarn store where the book takes place to see if Julia Roberts goes in.

I'll Be Home for Christmas

I'm going home Sunday!  Hurray!  Even though Nashville's not the coldest of places, Tucson will always be warmer.  Mmmmm, not having to wear a coat.... 

I've done a little knitting in my absence.  I made Tudora, a neck warmer that's reminiscent of Elizabethan times.  I don't know who it's for.  Random Christmas present for someone?  Yep.

I look awesome. 

I've also started my first gloves EVER for my sister Emily.  They're an amazing color of purple (which you can't tell because my camera is broken and I've had to resort to my phone) and are going to be hobo gloves.  She lives in Chicago and actually needs warmth.  Lame.

See?  No bueno.

Things I Will Do When I Get Home:

 - Eat at Viva.

 - See Sara and scream because she got ENGAGED.

 - Go to every yarn store in town.

 - Knit.

So many things to update!

Hello!  I haven't blogged in forever!  It's unfortunate because sort of a lot has been happening, namely me making this...

and this...

Apparently I'm in my yellow period.

I also went to South Carolina for Thanksgiving with Emily and Shannon!  We made Cornish Hens instead of Turkey (and when I say we, I really mean just Shannon because she's a cooking beast), and had all of our favorites - stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, my mom's homemade pumpkin pie, and MORE!  It was glorious.  I love these girls.

I hate making up titles

I added some buttons to the scarf-ette today!  Michael's had a big bag of buttons for like $5 and I picked out three matching ones to quickly sew on.  I love it!  I wish I could have taken more pictures of it, but I gave it to Rachel already.  Oh well.  Here's a camera phone picture of me looking like an idiot and wearing it.

Awesome.

Mr. F!

For all of you who have stayed up multiple nights worrying if I would stop knitting or not, don't worry!  I whipped up a little treat for Rachel Brown's birthday that's today.  My camera is broken, but thankfully my iMac took a couple o' pictures for your viewing pleasure.

I also got bangs!  I'm a fan.  Not in these pictures though - I had just woken up and was obviously gross looking.

The pattern is Fourteen and is a nice little neck warmer / scarf dicky thing.  Isn't dicky a weird word?  I don't know if I'd wear anything that had that name.  Except for this.  I need to get buttons for it still, so I'm going to try and stop by Michael's before we go see Quantum of Solace this afternoon.  Wooo!  James Bond.  Awesome.  Chris and are in the midst of watching them all in chronological order, starting with Dr. No.  We just finished Goldfinger and it was definitely the best so far.  Oh I love Sean Connery.