The trials and tribulations of yarn

Wow... time may not fly, per se, but it does have a way of deceiving you about how much there is. Sneaky. Aren't they adorable? It's the two most importance men in my life and my little girl. Awww... I just had to share!

Anywho, one more week of finals (ahhhh, studying!) and then onto the hectic Christmas/work/knitting/sleeping. Awful, hey?

I finally made it into Ravelery and let me tell you, it's almost as addicting as fluffly merino roving. Or something else similary soft. I can't tear myself off of it, not to study, spend time with hubby, sleep, eat... you know, all those unimportant things.

I've been entranced by homespun yarn lately (how can you not be?) and I decided that instead of spending oodles of money I don't have on it, I would teach myself. I must say, it's less frustrating than teaching myself how to knit. And it's so wonderful to play with the different fibers and colors. *sigh* Now if I only had more time. I would love to get my own lazy kate instead of using cardboard tubes and anything else available to hold my yarn, but it turns out that "real" spinning supplies are uber expensive after all. I can make do...


This is some of my first handspun. It's a beautiful blue corridale wool from Hello Yarn. I'm a little too in love with it though- I won't knit it because it looks better in a skein. Is that weird? I think that's a little weird. Hmm.... as for the next picture, this is some very coarse pencil roving that I found at the Yarn Hous... It's easy to spin because there's no predrafting but I don't really know what to make with it. It's rough enough to make shoes. Suggestions?



I'm also back in the conundrum of Christmas knitting projects. After attempting to overachieve the last two years, I've decided that I've been spending way too much time knitting for other people and not enough knitting for myself. Egocentric? Yes. Important? No.

However, I am going to make a hat for one of my fellow fiber-aficiando friends, although I don't think I should post about it on the offchance she decide to read this soon. Hey, it could happen. I just don't like making something that everyone else is making. I really enjoy experimenting and making up my own patterns, although I usually start with someone else's and just modify the heck out of it. But she saw the picture, said, "OOOOOOhhhh, I LOVE that," and so now I'm stuck. I think I'll use some yummy malabrigo. She'll appreciate that.

Anywho, I'm off to make myself loverly. It's date night, and my hubby and I are celebrating my almost done with school-ness. Mmmm, break....

The evitable inevitable

Well, I had to go and sprain my arm. The timing couldn't have been less perfect if I had tried. Tried really really hard. Anywho, it's in a splint for now. And unless I hear otherwise from the person who reads the x-rays tomorrow, it's just a bad sprain. Ow.

So no more knitting, very little typing, difficulty driving, eating, getting dressed, and basically everything that involves my right hand. Which is everything. Because I am right-handed. Spiffy, hey?

This doesn't explain, however, why I am here. Online. Typing. I can't rationalize it because my wrist hurts like yeah, my homework's not done, and my hubby is peacefully snoring away in our warm and cozy bed. I'd give anything to be able to go to bed at 10:30 every night. Lucky bastard. I keep planning on posting all these really fun pictures I have of everything, but alas, 'tis too much work and I seriously lack motivation. I just want to blather mindlessly on about my life right now.

I can't believe how frusterating it is to be in a situation where I feel isolated. I have absolutely no one that is also female, approximately my age, married, and still finishing up their undergrad degree. They are either preggers or gradumated. It's hard to bitch about married life to someone who's not married. They don't understand and trust me, they don't want to know. Alas.... a conundrum. How to make friends with people that don't exist? Hmmm...

For now, I'll survive. And the next post will bring fun pictures of random stuff. Yay, stuff!

To Make Up for Lost Time...

Here's what you missed: My new puppy, Nate's graduation, our wedding, our honeymoon, and the beginning of another crazy, stressful school year (for me, anywho). I'm even more knitting obsessed and completely and utterly happy with married life.

I ended up with 20 credits this semester through some strange and unplanned circumstances; needless to say, its wayyyy too much to handle. At the moment I'm supposed to be working on my exam that's due tomorrow, finishing my psych test write-up, and studying for the aforementioned psych test. Did I mention it's going to be a really hard psych test? I just want to be done with school, but I'm told that's how quite a few people feel. Not suprised.

I picked up another knitting book today, 101 Designer one-skein wonders, because I really need anything more knitting related. I really really do. Not. There are quite a few cute and quick projects, although some are cheesy and icky looking too.... you have to take the good with the bad, I guess. I'm really looking forward to making two of the hats. I love to knit hats.... I end up giving them away because, well..., I don't wear hats, but that's besides the point. They're so much fun to knit!

I've realized that I don't have the patience or the dedication to knit anything that takes longer than a week to finish.

I'd love to write more, but alas, the homework calls to me. More like screams, but you get the picture.

Overcoming the Present

So I'm still sitting here, doing nothing. Well, thinking.... but that doesn't accomplish much.

Wedding plans, school plans, travel, friends, birthdays, family, relationships, work, bills, paperwork, leases, loans, papers, tests, projects, insurance, food, pets....

Life sucks when you get older. Remember when insurance didn't mean anything? And you didn't really understand what taxes were, except as something that Mom and Dad liked to complain about?

Huh... You never really see it coming, either...

Life is one big head cold...

Now it is truly winter. This past weekend, instead of studying for my A&P test I was supposed to take this morning, I spent all my time laying around in bed doing nothing. Sounds dreamy, right? You'd think so.... but I came down with the most awful head cold and flu combo. I swear, I must have gone through two boxes of Kleenex. I'm still feeling quite sick but I have to make up this test by Wednesday so... a-studying I go.

I had hoped to accomplish something this weekend, but I didn't even manage to finish my hat. I didn't really have the energy to dig out my dpns to finish the decreases so it sat forlornly by my bed.... just begging to be finished... It doesn't look like much, but it is the softest yarn ever! It a 100% merino wool by Frog Tree that I had picked up at the LYS for a different project that I never did start. I've knit with some softer yarns, but cashmere and silk all catch on my hands because they're so rough from the dry weather. This stuff just slips right through! I'm thinking that after I finish the millions of projects I have left to finish, I'm going to go down and stock up on some more of this yarn. I mean, its only summer about three months of the year here, so I'm always in need of more cozy warm things.


And yes, I am using my blog for procrastinating... naughty, naughty me....

Valentine's Day Recap

So yay, it's Valentine's Day! And yes, I know that there are those who adamently oppose it, but I feel that it's harmless enough. Any "holiday" that celebrates love can't be all bad. My fiancee and I celebrated last week on Friday to sort of combine our four and one half year anniversary with Valentine's Day by going out to our fave restaurant- Bartolotta's Lake Park Bistro... pricey, but worth every penny. Our puppy was sick this morning so we took him to the vet this afternoon. Turns out he most likely got into something he shouldn't have eaten or picked something up outside any gave himself a royal tummy-ache... poor guy. So he's on the rice and eggs diet for a couple of days. Is it sad when you envy the food your dog gets to eat? I could really go for some stir-fry right now...

Any who, I made Heart Lace washclothes for my roommate and old suitemate following the pattern posted on Smariek Knits blog. It took me a while to figure out how to follow it exactly, but I made two- one in pink varigated (in the picture) and one in a solid pink S&C. They both loved them, so yay!
My roomie is a die-hard (and extremely talented) crocheter and she made me the little black and red heart bag for val-day. Isn't it the most adorable thing ever?! (And it's Fuzzy!!!) If you look at it from the narrow end (side?) you can see the whole heart but I couldn't really take a good picture of it. She whipped it out yesterday when I was at class and it's perfect for my phone as my old bag for it is pretty much falling apart at the seams.


The white scarf is a 100% angora scarf that I started on before Christmas, actually, and never got around to finishing. Well, it's finished! I found the yarn on ebay- it's a discontinued yarn by Cascade called Conejo (which is rabbit in spanish) Chunky. I got a great deal on it too- almost 200 yards new for 12 dollars (yay me!). I planned on making it as C-mas present for myself, but with all the knitting for everyone else I obviously forgot about it. I'm trying to reclaim all my needles from my unfinished projects so I sat down and worked on it today... it's only a repeat of the double moss/seed stitch. I didn't want to do anything too fancy with it as it's fragile and fuzzy enough on it's own. I cannot believe how amazingly soft it is! But enough about that.

I just found out my friend's sister is pregnant again and I missed my opportunity to knit for her first baby, so time to break out the baby patterns! Yay fuzzy stuff! On a more somber note... there is a pile of homework staring at me that I've been ignoring for... um.... six hours now? I should probably go and um... do that now....

My Lea Hat Pattern

So I've been spending my time knitting, watching tv, and attempting to avoid class and any homework associated with it and so I made up my own pattern. This is a take on a pattern I've seen a couple times that I like but was never able to convince myself to purchase (what with it looking so relatively simple).
My bestest best friend is up at school way up north and I'm worried about her poor little head freezing so I made her this hat for her birthday. I thought about making something with lace but that wouldn't have kept as much heat in! I haven't had anyone else test the pattern so let me know if there are any errors... And it's reversible-ish!
My Lea Hat
© Designed by A. Jessup, Feb. 2007

My Lea Hat

Materials: US size 6 16" circular needles and size 6 dpns
Stitch marker
Worsted weight yarn, your choice (I used Paton's Soy Wool Stripes (sws))...
Cast on 80 sts using the long-tail method (although if you want a looser brim you can also use the backwards loop cast on).
Place marker and join to knit in the round, following pattern.
Pattern :
*Knit 1, Purl 4* repeat from * to *.
Repeat pattern 16 times in each round. Knit until desired length before decreasing.

Mine was approx. 6 inches long but to make a longer or shorter (smaller) hat you can knit anywhere from 5 to 7 or more inches before decreasing.

Begin decreasing, switching to dpns when neccessary.
1st dec. rnd: *K1, p1, p2tog, p1*. Repeat from * to * until the end of the round, 64 sts.
2nd dec. rnd: *K1, p2tog, P1*. Repeat from *to* until the end of the round, 48 sts.
Next rnd: *K1, P2*. Repeat to the end of the round.
3rd dec. rnd: *K1, p2tog*. Repeat from *to *, 32 sts.
4th dec. rnd: K1, *K2tog*. Repeat from *to*, 16 sts. When you reach the end of this round you will have one st left over; remove the marker and knit it together with the first st from the next round.
Final dec. rnd: *K2tog*. Repeat from * to *, 8 sts.

Finish off hat by pulling yarn through remaining sts, pulling yarn through to other side, knotting and weaving the end in. Block if absolutely necessary (and only if you used cotton or animal fibers... otherwise you won't have much luck with that).

Because of the striping in the yarn I used the pattern doesn't stand out that strongly, so you might want to take that into consideration if you knit this.

I also decreased quite quickly... if you want to decrease more slowly, feel free to add rounds following the pattern in between decrease rounds, although I'm not sure how that would affect the final product. This is my first posted pattern (although I've created several), so please take that into consideration as well. Thanks, and I'd love any feedback!

Feel free to use for personal private use, but do not distribute, copy, or sell this pattern without my permission.