Christmas '07

Christmas has come and gone. Oh hey look! It's 2008 already! Yeah, probably time to post a Christmas knitting update, eh?

Firstly, remember that big green thing? Yeah, no way that was happening. So I focused myself on two pairs of socks. That's all. I know, I know, kind of a lame year for Christmas knitting. Deal with it. The socks were both made from Knitpicks Bare, Kool-Aid dyed. The first you saw in the previous post. The second was dyed with lots of grape and berry blue. The pink ones went to sister Jill, and the blue/purple to sister Lori. Both were knit using Knitty's universal toe-up formula. They were my first toe-up socks. And let me tell you, I'm in love with toe-up now.




Interestingly, I'd spent weeks hemming and hawing over trying to find a suitable non-wool sock yarn for Lori who is allergic to wool. I even knit a whole sock in Cascade fixation effect (which I do not recommend) and ended up frustrated with the finished product. When Lori got here, I shoved some Knitpicks Bare in her face and said "does it bother you?" Aaaand...it didn't. I could have been knitting her socks with that the whole time. hrmph.



Anyway... They came out great, even though Lori only had a sock and a half on Christmas morning.





In other news. I finally have pictures of my mom with Bristow on! It looks aweosme, long sleeves and all. Mom switched the buttons to some bigger buttons which stay better, and they look really good.




And prehaps most excitingly I'm on Ravelry now!! Yay! The waiting time nearly killed me I was so excited to get on it. I can't stop just playing with things. It's so awesome. :)

I can't figure out how to get the button in my sidebar though. *idiot*

Another knitting lull

Why haven't I been knitting?

This is why:



The Solar Decathlon. Solar powered houses designed and built by university students. It doesn't get much cooler. I'm on the communication subteam for the Cornell team.

http://cusd.cornell.edu

and

http://solardecathlon.org

The house is up and running on the Mall in D.C. We've been running tours since Friday morning. I lead tours through our (awesome) house. I was there all this past weekend. I've come back to Ithaca for a short stint, but I'm heading back down to D.C. to give more tours and help see us through the end of the competition on Wednesday.

I led over 100 tours this past weekend. I'm amazed I still have a voice. I'm psyched to go back down for more. :)

In terms of knitting:

The teaser picture at the end of my last entry? That was the sleeves of Bristow. I finished them, blocked them and sewed them together and onto the body of the sweater just in time to frantically put the sweater in a gift bag to give to my mom for her birthday. This means that I don't have a picture of the finished Bristow :( I'll try to get my mom to model it for me the next time I see her.

Sharing the love

It's study week! So I've actually gotten to a point where I have time to knit! I haven't done anything picture-worthy though. Mostly I've just been working on the sleeve of Mom's Christmas Bristow.

However....

For those of you who wish to see my speech on the yarn addiction rehabilitation center, I have added a widget for you on the left. It's a box.net filesharing widget. I've put in there both the Powerpoint presentation and the speech outline. Some things changed from the outline to when I actually did the speech, but you can get the basic drift from that.

Go ahead and download it and enjoy it. But please, don't use any of it without giving me some credit :)

Also, I assure you it was funnier when I actually presented it. Just imagine someone speaking very very seriously about yarn addiction as if it were akin to alcohol and drug addiction.

branching out = done

Here's Branching out blocked out:

Here's it in the box!

Yaay! I got something else done! On time even! It blocked really well :) This was my first chance to use my new blocking wires, and I love them.

Now if I can just get Bristow done. I blocked the back and front pieces tonight, but have yet to make the sleeves. So at least I can sew those bits together. Mom could end up unwrapping a sleeveless sweater on Christmas.

And finally: Go chek out today's Google logo! There are two kangaroos knitting! I have no idea why this is the logo, but it makes me very happy!

Movin' Out.... big honkin' post.

Time to pack things up to head back home to Auburn tomorrow. I'm really not looking forward to sorting through all the crap that's piled up on my floor and shoving things into bags and boxes, which will then be stuffed into my soccer mom van.

Packing might not be so bad if I didn't have to pack for both the cold winter of Central New York and the heat of the Bahamas (vacationing there with Scott's family after Christmas). Oh....and if I didn't have to stuff my two chinchillas and one snake plus their cages into the car...with the addition of a friend's snake I'm sitting. Oh and I need to decide what I want to knit over break. I.e. what to take from my stash, what WIPs to take, etc. This could get interesting.....

/whining...maybe.....who am I kidding? I never stop whining.

Anyway...on the knitting front. I've picked up a few more projects as Christmas gifts.

Here we have some Cascade 220 with which to make MancalaMia for my lovely sister Lori:

And here is a half finished (small) satchel (Cascade 220 as well) for Lori's husband Brian:



I may buy more yarn to make a second satchel and give one to Brian, and one to my other sister Jill's husband, Tim. Following? Yeah, I thought not.


Anyway, I finally finished the left front of Bristow. You can see the mistake I made on the first cable a lot more clearly in this picture. And I finally got a shot that does justice to the color! Wooo! Still trying to decide what to do with the first two cables on the other side before I cast that side on.

Oh and I re-started the scarf for Scott's father in Plymouth's Baby Alpaca Grande (I convinced Scott). Not very far on that though....

Think I can finish all that before Christmas?
It'll take a miracle.

P.s. Sorry for the weird picture-ness....blogger is being cranky :/

Back from oblivion

Wow! Busy week.
I only have one major paper and one final left now. Then I'm free to knit! I've managed to get a little of the front of Bristow done amongst the stress...that's what breaks are for!

So here's the progress on that:

Believe it or not this is my first time doing cables. Surprisingly easy, they are.

If you look closely you can see how I messed up the first cable...ooops!! I'm thinking about repeating the mistake on the other side? suggestions? Should I just do the other side normal and hope no one notices? I'm not frogging back to there.....

OHHHH!!!!! I almost died of excitement when I saw the new Knitty today!!!!!!!!

AAHHH!!! I want to make this and this and thisss and....well you get the point. Emily and I had a little screeming session in the service center looking at the new patterns. We were very excited.

I think Sheldon will be my first project from the new issue. So cute!

Tonight Scott, Omar and I went to "Skate with the Big Red"
Fun stuff :)





















Me and Topher Scott :)
No...I'm not tall....he's just that short...

The week from hell: Monday

I had two things due today, and managed to get them both in. Hooray!

Normally I would feel very releived after turning in two assignments. However, I still have 4 papers and one exams yet this week plus one exam next week.

UHGGGG.

I finished the back of Bristow on Saturday night after the Union game (Cornell won 6-0, good game). Oh...and we (women's club hockey) lost on Sunday to the Syracuse Warriors. But they were a reaaally good team, and we put up a good fight.

Sooooo...... here it is!


























Very exciting. And that is actually very close to the real color this time!
Now if only I had time to work on the rest of it :(

Hockey hockey hockey

Had a chance to relax last night after the last day of classes! Wooo!
Men's Varsity tied RPI 3-3, but it was an awesome comeback and an intense game.
Got some good knitting time after the game while Scott and I watched Miracle. I'm very, very close to being done with the back of Bristow now.

Today: Women's Club played the Wheatfield blades. We won 7-5 (?). Very fun game.


That's me (in white with the puck) :)

And now for Men's Varsity versus Union.

Let's Go Red!

Bristow day 2

I've been working on Bristow today instead of doing homework, studying for my two exams, or writing any of the five papers I have due next week.

This is not good.


The progress today. Peanut, my female chinchilla, is checking it out. She's your eye candy for this post :)

The yarn is not that red. My room is dark, so I guess the flash washes it out. The yarn is really much more maroon. Closer to what it looks like in the first picture of the last post.

Yay!

My Knitpicks order arrived today!

16 balls of Andean Silk with which to make Bristow!
















I had to start in immediately. I was very excited.


I love this yarn. I'd forgotten how much I love it.

Humble beginnings:
















Looks like everything else will be on the back burner for a while...

*hides*

I just bought yarn. I'm supposed to be on a yarn diet....but I had to. It's going to be for a gift....

16 balls of Knitpicks andean silk in hollyberry. For Bristow.

It's going to be a Christmas gift.

If it gets here in time, and I can knit fast enough......


I want it to get here now!!!