I Moved!!

I decided to make a little switcharoo over to typepad. My new blog address is

http://www.knitbrooklynknit.typepad.com/

The new blog title is A Geek Gone Mild....I decided to do a name switch for some reasons I'll mention on the new site :) I won't be posting on this site anymore, but I will leave it up for awhile. So come check out my new home!!

Oops

Due to some techinical difficulties, the post I just wrote ended up dated the 13th of September so it got scooted down the page a bit...so if you want to check it out scroll down a bit you will see a new entry on the Rowan book. Ooooooops.

Thank goodness.

Big News! I passed boards!!!! Yay!!! When my friend told me our scores were up on the internet I almost had a heart attack...it took me about 10 minutes to get the guts to look at my score but I was very happy when I saw it. I didn't even care what the actual score was, I was just happy to see the big P which meant I passed. The thought of having to take that thing again....ugh. So hurray! Part I is over!!! I meant to post more on the Rowan book but I've been a bit busy with school lately. I'm also contemplating a little blog redesign so I've been messing around on the computer more than I've been knitting :) But I promise there will be knitting-related content tomorrow!

Unhealthy Rowan Obsession

I would like to say that Clinton and Stacy would be very proud of me. In my search for jeans I (amazingly) found a pair that fit really well except for the fact they were way too long. So, taking a cue from What Not to Wear, I had them altered and I LOVE how they fit now. I am now a true believer in getting things altered. Thank you Clinton and Stacy, you are my fashion heros. Anyways this pair of jeans was a little spendy so it pretty much broke my meager clothes budget (being the poor student that I am) for Fall. I justified the purchase by telling myself they make my butt look 20x better....I was even tempted to take a picture of it but I didn't think most people really wanted to see that. So I will show you these instead: So, like I said yesterday, I pretty much want to make everything in the Vintage Knits book. Numbered from left to right, here's some descriptions: 1. Salina: I haven't made a "real" sweater yet and I think this would be a good one to start with. I think it looks really classic and i really want to work with the felted tweed, so this may be the first one I tackle 2. Monette: I've been looking for a scarf to make for my mom and this seems like a good one. I like the fact that it's made with kidsilk haze...plus the model looks like Uma Thurman. And I do love Uma. 3. Laurent: I LOVE this one, minus the flowers. I think the flowers are cute, but there is some embroidery involved....and I do not see that going well for me. So I'm thinking of doing it in felted tweed in this color. 4. Joy: I think this is so pretty too, but I'm guessing it would take forever and I don't think I can handle that right now. After the Clapotis I need something with at least a little quicker gratification. 5. Demi: I love this one too, although making bobbles scares me a bit. 6. Fleur: I love the fact that this one is half capelet/half cardigan and that there are no buttons. I have some problems with cardigan buttons doing a rather unattractive "gaping" thing since my chest is a little on the large side, so no buttons = good in my book. 7. Tyrolean: This one is really cute too, although I would probly leave the embroidery off (I love it but, again, I do not forsee embroidery going well for me). 8. Aimee: I love the sheerness of this one and that it uses kidsilk haze. I'm not sure how much use I would get out of it though. So that's my little summary. I'm probly gonna start on either Salina or Laurent after I get the Clapotis done. I've been wanting to start on Eunny's vest though too, so we'll have to see.

public debut

So I've been meaning to post for awhile now, but all of a sudden school kicked in again and I've been super busy. It's so weird, we really haven't had a lot to do for the past month and then BAM its back to normal. It's good I suppose, I was getting a little lazy, but it does seriously cut back on my knitting time hehe. Last Thursday night we had a 3 hour selection process for our externship sites so I figured I might as well bring my knitting. I must admit, I have never knitted in public before. And I was SCARED. I know, its silly, but I was afraid everyone was going to think I was nuts. I haven't met another knitter at school so I wasn't quite sure to expect. It actually took me an hour to muster up the courage to take the knitting out of my bag and start working on it. The first reaction was some laughter from a couple of my good friends, which I took as good "awwww, what a dork she's knitting but it's cute" laughter. So everything was still OK. And then a girl in front of me turned around, saw I was knitting, and got all excited because she was just learning. I couldn't believe it! Another knitter at school!! I am not alone!!!! And then, to make things even better, I got this in the mail the next day.... I've been eyeing this one for awhile, and I finally broke down and bought it the other day. I want to make just about everything in it, but I'll talk more about that on another post. Anyways, after seeing me with the book in class about 3 more people said they knit!!! This probably seems incredibly geeky but it made me very happy. I am not alone. I have been plugging away at my Clapotis but I won't bore you with progress photos (since there are about a million out there). The only thing that is keeping me going at this point is the fact that I want to wear it and that the yarn is so pretty. Otherwise I'm just a wee bit tired of the pattern (it is seriously a great pattern, I've just been at it tooooo long it feels like). I think I'm nearing the end though, hopefully I'll get it done within a week or so.

Where to go, where to go.....

So for the 4th and (thankfully) last year of optometry school we have to go on rotations, each of which is 3 months long. Since our class starts rotations in May we are in the process of picking where we want to go now. Naive little me thought this was going to be a fun process since there are lots of sites all over the US that we can pick from. Well, I was wrong. It's kinda complicated, but we have to get a certain number of hours in each specialty and we can only get those in certain places...so it's kinda been a pain in the bum to figure it out. However it hasn't just been figuring out the hours thats been tough...I just can't figure out where I want to go in general. At first I thought it would be fun to go all over the place....like try to go somewhere in the north, south, east, and west....but then reality set in and I realized I would have to drive to each of these places. Not only would this be a lot of driving, but I am like the worst driver in the world. I HATE it. The fact that I haven't had a car for 3 years (thanks to Chicago public transportation) has not helped my driving skills any either. Also I'm an only child and my parents are very, very overprotective and freaked out at the idea of me driving across the country. They are all about me staying in Wisconsin and Iowa for all of the rotations....I understand their reasons, but part of me feels like I should go and live in some new places while I have the chance. Anyways, enough babbling....I made a pair of armwarmers for my best friend since forever (forever being 6th grade) who is currently livin' it up in Canada. Here they are (the left one doesn't look quite as holey in real life): Pattern: Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers from Stitch and Bitch Nation Yarn: Noro Kureyon in color 90, 2 skeins (to get the colors to match correctly) Started: late May 2006 Finished: August 22nd 2006. These really shouldn't have taken so long to make but I kept having issues. On the first try I started the pattern out with a k2 instead of a k1 (I'm not sure what I was thinking) and it just looked bad. I didn't have the heart to frog it though, so I started a second one from the opposite end of the skein. However I didn't like how the colors turned out so I decided to frog the first one and reuse that end of the skein to make a third :) And the third time was a charm!!!! Since this was my first DPN project I learned a lot from the pattern. The thumb gussets were probably the toughest part of it for me, I really had to yank the increases tight to ensure there weren't big holes around the thumb. But it was a great pattern and I loved working with the noro!! Since these were a birthday gift I got to play with ribbon and stamps before I sent them off..... I got the idea from reading the Fig and Plum archives to buy a stamp from an office supply store in which you can insert your own letters to spell whatever words you want. Sorry the pic isn't a little closer up.....its a little hard to see the tag in it but you can kinda get an idea of what it looked like :)

I think I'm in love

Anyone remember the episode of Pee Wee's Playhouse where he loved fruit salad so much that he put a little veil on it and married it? That's what I'm about to do with my Clapotis. Although the pattern is great I think it's the needles and yarn I'm using that is fueling my obsession. The combo of the lion and lamb yarn and the addi turbos makes the knitting smooth as butter :) I LOVE it. Here's a pic of the progress so far.....

And here's a closer one...

The colors are a little darker in real life, but you can get the general idea from these :)

Arbusto was in town this weekend which gave me a chance to do some semi-touristy stuff....we went to the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum, ate out a lot, and went to a Cub's game (he finally got to go to one in Chicago). There was also much TV/movie watching, including Howl's Moving Castle which I highly recommend. Hehe I persuaded him to leave it behind so I could watch it again tonight :)

Hurray! She's finished!!!

Pattern: Isabeau tote Started: June 22nd 2006 Finished: August 24th 2006 Yarn: Rowan all seasons cotton in Misty, a little over 4 balls Lining Fabric: white cotton was used as an interface and pink etsuko furaya fabric from reprodepot was used for the actual lining. Modifications: sewed plastic mesh onto the bottom of the bag and inside the front and back panels. I'm really happy with how this turned out. The pattern was great and I learned a lot of new stuff from doing it...how to crochet a seam, making buttonholes, sewing a lining, etc. The reason it took so long was that sewing the interface, plastic, and lining into the bag sucked up a lot of time. Here's a closeup of the lining (sorry its a little blurry):

And since it was really hard to get a decent picture of the inside, here's a pic of the fabric before it was sewn:

I'm particularly proud of the lining since doing it almost killed me. My sewing experience is limited to what I learned in girl scouts and 8th grade Home Ec (during which I made a stuffed mallard...the beak fell off one week later) so I really had no idea of how to cut the fabric to the correct proportions or what stitch would be best. I just used the bag as a template (as the pattern said to do) and backstitched it together. Its not perfect in the inside but its good enough for me!!

And here's a little close up of the button. I got this at Tender Buttons in downtown Chicago....I have never seen so many buttons in one place in my life. They have an amazing selection, its a good place to check out.

So now I'm moving on to the clapotis (which it seems like everyone but me has made)....it's a bit daunting but I'm excited to get started since the lion and lamb yarn is so soft and pretty :) However I need to do some major apartment cleaning before I do anything else since we're having a little dinner party here tomorrow, so there probably will be no casting on until Sunday.

Sorry for the hiatus....

I'm back! Break was really good, but it definitely went by too fast. Here are a few highlights....

that's me eating a giant turkey leg at the Renaissance Festival. I took one bite of it, decided it was gross, and handed it off to Arbusto....but I had to get a picture with it :) The festival was fun, there were lots of bad fake British accents to laugh at and lots of good food.

This is me being a reluctant participant in a magic show at the festival. I'm not big on audience participation, so I was not too happy when he picked me to go onstage. It became even less fun when he (the old man in the spandex) put that white hankercheif down my shirt as part of the act. Ew Ew Ew. But overall it was kinda fun I guess :)

Thats all the pictures I have....besides the fair I spent a lot of time just relaxing and watching TV, it was great. I also basically finished the Isabeau tote, i just have to get the lining sewn in....I'll post the pics as soon as I get it done!! In other knitting news, after 2 months of drooling over Lorna's Laces lion and lamb in the motherlode colorway I finally broke down and bought enough to make a clapotis. And for how much the yarn cost I better wear it every day when I finish it!!!

Adventures in Seaming

I've come to terms with the fact that seaming is not my strong point. However, when I started doing the crochet seams for the tote I thought it was going pretty well. Here I am, happily crocheting away....

However, when I finished one of the sides it looked all wonky, like this.....

Yeah, not pretty. When I did the seam I put the hook through the body of the bag first and then the side of the bag, which left the side of the bag with the bulkier part of the seam. At first I thought I could straighten it out by blocking it, but then I decided to just rip it out and redo the seam, this time putting the hook through the side of the bag first....

Ta-daa!! Much better. It is nice and flat now and is much less wonky :)

I went in search of some white cotton today to use as an interface and ended up in a little fabric shop that I shall leave unnamed :) At first I was really excited, it was very Project Runwayish with the walls of fabric and whatnot (the only fabric store I have really ever been in before is Joann's or Hobby Lobby.....so it was exciting for me hehe) but man, the store person was not so nice. Not really rude, just snobby. I absolutely hate shopping at places like that, but I just wanted to get it taken care of so I decided to just buy the fabric. But anyways, I started lining the bag tonight....it may take me awhile to finish it though since I'll be heading home to Minnesota this week to spend some quality time with my parents and arbusto :)

And she's blocking!!

So now I'm just impatiently waiting for Isabeau to dry so I can sew the seams. The pattern calls for a size 8 crochet hook for this.....since I actually learned how to crochet before I learned how to knit (I never really got the hang of crochet and found myself drooling over more knitting projects than crochet projects so I switched to knitting instead) I had a size 8 hook at one point. However, being the very messy girl I am, I lost it so I had to run and buy a new one today :( I'm hoping that it will be dry later tonight so I can start on the seams!

I don't have to study anymore!!

So boards are all done, yay!! I'm not really sure how I did, but I don't really want to think about it until the end of September when we get our scores in. All I can say is I am very glad to have my life back. The past few days have involved lots of tv, a much-needed trip to Chinatown for some yummy food, plenty of sleep, and, of course, lots of knitting! The only sad thing I have to report is that Lollapalooza is going on right next door in Grant Park and I'm not there. Being a poor grad student I couldn't really justify spending the money on a ticket (especially when that money could go towards yarn!!!). The worst part is that I can actually hear the music from my apartment so I keep being reminded of it.....but really, I can't complain, the break is great with or without Lollapalooza :)

I picked up my knitting right after boards ended, which was probably not the best idea since my brain pretty much shut down after the test. I ended up ripping out quite a few Isabeau rows because I read the pattern wrong.....oooooops........but I've made quite a bit of progress and hope to block by tonight or tomorrow!

yay for fabric!

Since my life has still been pretty boring....a lot of studying and zero knitting....I haven't had much to post about lately. But look what came in the mail today from reprodepot!!!

Yay! Fabric for my Isabeau tote!! I really know nothing about fabric since I don't sew, but I can tell you this is Japanese and it's by Etsuko Furaya. And whoever that is, they have a lot of cool stuff. Here's a close up:

I LOVE it, and I am so freaking excited to line the bag. Of course I actually have to finish knitting it first....fortunately I only have 5 more days until boards are over and I can start knitting!!!

.....old lady????

So this morning, like every Wednesday morning, I walked to the train station so I could take the green line to school. After I swiped my card I heard them announce my train was coming soon, so I ran up the stairs as fast as I could to get to the platform. Now there are a lot of stairs and I had a big bag....and I am just a little bit out of shape....so I probably wasn't going as fast as I could have. But I thought it was a pretty good speed. However, right about when I was to the top of the stairs I heard some kid's voice right behind me say "hurry it up, old lady!!!" I expected there to actually be an old lady behind me when I turned around, but there was not. There was only the kid, probably 14 years old. Then it registered that he must be talking about me. Old lady? Old lady?????? Come on, I'm 24! And I was not going that slow!!! Now this really isn't a good week to mess with me with all the tests and stuff that are going on, but I managed to stay calm, smile, and just get on the train. Old lady. Yeesh. Poor Isabeau has been swallowed up by all the papers on my desk and there hasn't been any more progress on her. It's actually going to be a sad couple of weeks for knitting...I have a final tommorow and another on Saturday...and then boards of course....so my next projected knitting date is August 2nd. And let me tell you, that is going to be a wonderful day. My plan is to go out and get the 1st season of Lost (I came in on the 2nd season, got addicted, but haven't seen most of the first season) right after boards. Then I am going to sit and knit and watch it, taking breaks only for the bathroom and food. I can't wait :)

I'm Boring

So I've been pretty boring lately. Basically my days have consisted of studying and eating for the past few weeks. As usual the studying has been pretty ineffective. It usually involves reading a few pages and then knitting a few rows or going to the internet. And it's amazing what I find to look at on the internet when I don't want to study. For example I spent about 20 minutes on the PBS website today looking at the Mr. Rogers section. In my defense it's actually a pretty good page......they even a have a video of the crayon factory tour. And come on, who doesn't love that. I've made some progress on the Isabeau tote: It's been nice easy knitting for breaks between studying. I attempted to swatch for Eunny's vest but decided after two rows that it was going to be more than I can handle right now....so I'm gonna start that one after boards instead :)

Flashback

This has been a very 70's week for me so far (which doesn't take much since it's not really my favorite decade). For example......

• I discovered I want a Blythe doll. I used to think these things (introduced way back in 1972) were totally creepy. However now I must have one. Maybe its because she looks like Christina Ricci. Maybe its because I can knit little clothes for her. Or maybe its because her eyes can change 4 different colors at the pull of a string (fitting for a future optometrist to have one then, right?). Anyways this sucker is on my Christmas list. Hopefully santa will be nice and bring me one.
• I spent time I should have been studying for boards watching I love the 70's on VH1. Seeing that I was born in 1982 I usually have no idea what they are talking about. But it's still funny.
• I saw this guy, who is about the cutest knitted toy I've ever seen. Jess Hutch is a genius.

I am very very proud of me. It took 2 coffee shops, a library, and 11 dollars in food/coffee/tea but I managed to study all day. This might not seem like a big deal, but lately I haven't been able to study for more than 15 minutes without going nuts. This is not a good thing with boards coming up. I have about 50 million subjects to study over the next few weeks so hopefully my motivation will come running back to me. So I finished one of the armwarmers:

This one was worked from the opposite end of the skein of noro than the one I had started previously. I think I got a weird skein because there was a repeat of the brownish pink/purple section that the other skein I bought doesn't have. Anyways I'm considering this one a practice one for a few reasons. For starters......

Oh yeah, nice big hole right under the thumb. I think I need to pull the stitches for the increases tighter or something....this is the first thumb gusset I've ever done and it's not very good :) Reason #2 is that I knit and bound off the stitches a little too tightly. There's not a lot of room to spread fingers out and the thumb is really snug too. And reason #3 is that I'm not sure how crazy I am about the color combo, plus I think the person I'm giving these to will like the colors on the other end of the skein better. Soooo I'm going to make a new pair from the darker end of the skein. Luckily this pattern is fun and quick so I don't mind doing them again :)

A Lelah and a Leela

First for the Lelah:

the front view....

the side view......

and the back view (in which my shoulders look huge, but I'm blaming it on the camera angle)....

Pattern: Lelah strapless top from craftster/Lotus blossom tank from summer 2006 Interweave Knits.

Yarn: 4 balls of Blue Sky Organic Cotton in Bone (weird color name)

Modifications:

1. I started out by knitting the medium size of the Lelah pattern. I followed the pattern as written until about 3 inches above the eyelet round, at which point I started the Lotus blossom pattern. If I was going to do this again I probably would have done another inch or so in stockinette before beginning the other pattern.
2. I decided to begin the Lotus blossom pattern at the "shape front" section of the body. I didn't follow a particular size for this pattern; instead I just did lots of ratios and things seemed to work out :)
3. I didn't really change anything with the back of the piece....I just did some more ratios when it came time to do the short rows and the straps. For example, heading into row 1 of the short rows they had 79 stitches and you were to start out by knitting 66 of them. That's about 84%, so I took .84 and multiplied it by what I had at that point (around 50 stitches) to get around 42 stitches. I kept doing that for the rest of the short rows and it worked out fine.

So I've had this done for awhile but haven't gotten around to putting pictures up until now. To be honest I'm not sure how I feel about this one, mostly because it makes my boobs look huge in a scary way. It's not so bad in these pictures, but there are some other pictures where they look ginormous. I will say that I learned a lot of things from this top...it was my first experience with any kind of lace and my first time really trying to alter a pattern. So I'm glad I made it, it was definitely fun to knit, but I'm not sure how much I'm going to wear it.

I also have to say that I am absolutely done knitting with any white yarn for a very long time. White is not my best color since I am very, very pasty. However, I knit the capelet in white because I figured it would go with more, and decided to do this one in white because I needed something to go with some specific pants and skirts I had. But from now on no more white garments :) I did LOVE working with the blue sky organic cotton for the Lelah tank though, it was sooooo soft! Now for the Leela....

This is Arbusto's new kitty, Leela. Isn't she cute? We got her from the shelter last week. It was a tough decision, we were torn between a little orange kitten and Leela. But she has such a pretty face and is such a sweet cat that we had to take her home :)

Vegas!

Oh Yeah. We're cool :) This is my roomate and I with the giant Opti-free tear drop at the Optometry convention in Vegas. It was a lot of fun...got lots of free stuff, sat by the pool, ate a ton of food, and got to do some sightseeing. Here's some highlights....

Contacts and Figure Skating, two of my favorite things! Turns out the olympic silver medalists in ice dancing are the spokespeople for Acuvue Oasis contact lenses so they made an appearance at the conference. I was very excited about this. However my friends were not, so I made the trek over to see them by myself on Friday. They gave a little talk on the wonders of Acuvue Oasis lenses (I actually have friends who say they are the best contacts they've ever had) and then they did an autograph session. So yay I got an autograph!!

Yesterday we decided to brave the heat and go exploring......it was like walking in an oven (it was around 110 degrees that day) but it was worth it to get to see the hotels and stuff. Here's a view down the strip.......

And below is a view of the water show at the Bellagio.

After the sightseeing we went to a Cirque du Soleil show called Mystere which was amazing. Some of the costumes and props were kinda creepy though and there was definitely the potential for nightmares after watching it. But the stuff they can do (the bending and swinging and flipping) is really really cool. Anyways I have some more pictures on my flickr site if you want to check them out. It's nice to be back in Chicago but I really have to work my butt of this month to get ready for boards. I kept telling myself that after Vegas I would start studying hard...and thats now....so I've gotta get to work :(

Oops.

I knew this pattern was going too well. I was working on the armwarmers and got to the thumb gusset when I realized something was weird. To make a long story short, I went to the craftster forum, looked at pictures of other people's armwarmers, and realized I started the rib off wrong at the very beginning. Instead of starting and ending with k1 I did k2. I'm not really sure what I was thinking :) It doesn't really make a huge difference in the cable pattern, especially since its hard to see since the yarn is dark. It basically just pushes things over to the left, but I still think it looks funny. I probably wouldn't care about it but these are intended as a gift and I am a bit anal about things, especially with gifts. I don't really have the heart to frog the whole thing, so I might just keep the weird pair I'm making now for myself and start a new one for the gift. Gives me an excuse to buy more noro I guess. In other news I finished the Lelah top but probably wont have time to put pictures up till I get back from Las Vegas. We leave on Wednesday for an optometry convention and don't get back until Sunday. I've never been to Vegas so I'm reaaalllllllly looking forward to it. I'm not a big gambler but I do love the slot machines :) Should be fun!

Almost there...

The Lelah top is finally almost done.... I just have to pick up stictches on the left arm and around the neckline and it will be finished. I swear this feels like it has taken me FOREVER to finish. So i'll be glad to see it done. In other news, Arbusto is coming for what was supposed to be a surprise visit tomorrow. It's a long story but somehow I found out he's coming...so it obviously is not a surprise anymore :) We're gonna try to go to the cubs game saturday...hopefully we can get tickets so the poor kid can finally see a cubs game at Wrigley!

DPN goodness

So I started my first double pointed project, the hurry up spring armwarmers from the stitch 'n bitch nation book. And ooooooh they are fun :) I love love love noro. Here's the early stages: I feel like I'm knitting with three very big toothpicks. In other news I have to get my butt in gear and start studying for part I of boards. The problem is I can't get myself motivated because the test seems so far away. Sadly, its not. It's August 1st, which is SOON. And I wouldn't be so concerned about passing it the first time if the test didn't cost 600 dollars. I don't really have another 600 dollars to spend in December to retake it....that should probly be motivation enough to study straight until August :) My friend got the DS lite today, and I must say it is very pretty. I am very happy with the pink one Arbusto got me for Valentines day, but I was definatley lusting over the new one when I saw it. The screen is really bright and I like the size better. However I love my pink one so I can't complain!

Long time no blog

So I managed to finish the Lelah top this weekend. Like I said before, I don't do well with strapless so I decided to stick some straps on it. Well I knit some on the top and realized they looked like crap. Even Arbusto agreed that they didn't look quite right. At first I thought I could live with it, but the more I looked at it the less I liked it. I was looking on the internet for solutions last night and found a picture of the lotus blossom tank from the cover of interweave knits. It's actually very similar to the Lelah top, so I decided to try to modify what I have based on the Lotus pattern. So, rip rip rip..... and now I've got a big pile of yarn. Oh well, hopefully the 2nd try will better :) So we decided to be super-tourists this weekend and go take some pictures at Buckingham fountain since it was such a nice day:

Oooooooh pretty, see the rainbow? While I've got you looking at Chicago pics, here's some pictures from the 7th floor of our building:

And here is a shot directly below:

yeah, they're building another stupid condo right in front of ours, so the view is gonna be very gone. I swear they are trying to pack as many buildings in as they can around here!!!! oh well :)

I survived!

Yay! I survived my first week of clinic! Of course I gave a 3 hour eye exam....eeeeeek.....but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. And now I'm basically done till next Tuesday which is nice. I should be using the time to study for boards, but we'll see..... Anyways, not much knitting has been done lately...I started on the Lelah top but kept having to rip out rows cause I kept messing up. I'm hoping to make some progress on it this week though.

A lot of yarn

So somehow I managed to survive finals even with zero motivation. Most of the time when I should have been studying I was looking at stuff I could knit when finals were over. And that is how I ended up with a ridiculous amount of yarn when I came back from break :) Break was soooo good but went by way too fast. We usually get a week between quarters but it got cut short because of clinic orientation today. It was good to be back in Minnesota...got to hang out with my parents for a bit and got up to see Arbusto too. And both of them took me to a yarn store :) This was the result of the trip to the yarn store in Rochester:

Yay for Noro! And yay for mom buying the Noro! I'm gonna use this for the armwarmers from the Stitch 'n Bitch Nation book....I've been wanting to make them since I first saw the book.

I also picked up some Rowan all seasons cotton when Arbusto (the wonderful, patient boyfriend he is) took me to the yarnery in St. Paul, which is honestly one of my favorite places on earth. I'm planning on using the Rowan for the Isabeau tote.

Oh yes, there's more. Actually we're going back in time now, since I picked this up before I left for Minnesota. I took a trip out to Arcadia knitting to de-stress after finals and saw the blue sky cotton...it was so soft I couldn't put it down, so it came home with me. This is for the Lelah top, which is going to be converted from a strapless top to a tank (I don't do well with strapless).

And look what came today. During finals I ordered some knitpicks merino style for the deep V argyle vest and I just got it today. The brown is really a weird color but its growing on me. I was gonna send it back but I think I'm gonna keep it instead.

So yeah, I have enough yarn for awhile. I swore I wouldn't buy any more for the rest of the summer, but we'll see :) Ok one more picture:

And this one is actually of a project! Its the little Koigu ipod cozy I'm making. I am absolutley in LOVE with this yarn. I couldn't really think of anything else to make with it since I'm not really into the idea of making socks and this is such a thin yarn. I'm a dork and left the buttons I'm going to use for this at home so I have to wait for my mom to send them before I can really finish it, but its pretty close to being done. Ok thats it, no more pictures :)

I finally finished something!

I didn't realize it was this possible to be this unmotivated to study for finals. The lack of motivation and frustration with school in general has been bad for the grades but great for the knitting. I was so upset after my optometry practical last week that i went into a knitting frenzy. I started the anthropologie-inspried caplet an hour after my practical and finished it exactly one week later. I was pretty excited, seeing that this was my first non-scarf project. So here it is...

and here's the obligatory mirror shot:

I was so freaking excited when i got the sleeves seamed and it turned into something i could actually wear. yay for my first sweater! Well it's technically only half a sweater, but it's a start. And I want to wear it everyday cause i made it :)

So next up i'm thinking of doing Isabeau tote....sooooo cute.....and I also want to make Picovoli in Rowan kidsilk haze (I was originally thinking of doing the ballet t-shirt from loop-d-loop in the kidsilk, but I'm thinking Grumperina's pattern will look better on me). I've also been wanting to do the hourglass sweater from Last minute knitted gifts have been too scared to tackle it...but i think I might beable to handle it now :) Sadly all this must wait until after finals...gotta pass so they'll let me into clinic!

Cubs game!

Yesterday was my very first cubs game at Wrigley! Yay! Unfortuanely we didn't pick a good day to go, it was sooooo cold. Like it was so cold I was in pain. I ended up putting 30 dollars down for a kinda ugly (but very soft) cubs blanket because I couldn't take it anymore. But other than the cold it was a lot of fun....i got to eat a lot and it was a good game. My boyfriend probably should have been there instead of me but hopefully he'll get to a Cub's game here eventually :) As a side note, ushers do not take very good pictures (as seen below...i think i was the only one ready for the picture)

My first post!

So I've finally caved and decided to start a blog. I just learned to knit like a month ago and got inspired by all the knitting blogs out there (I know its geeky)....anyways it made me want to start one where I could post my stuff! However since i'm new at it I'm a very, very slow knitter so it will be awhile until i get anything interesting made :) So until then there will be more life than knitting on here!

So anyways the nice pic above is my room. That is the state of my life right now as well :) School has been so busy that the apartment has been very neglected. I'm messy to begin with and my room is very, very small but this is the worst its been in a long time. And I thought it needed to be shared with the public :)