taking the really bad with the really good.

This past week was Kyle's birthday. It was a fun night :) I got him a watch/compass that he wanted from a while ago and a survival book by his favorite survivor dude, Les Stroud. He loved them and that made me so happy. I also ordered him a brownie from the bakery. We shared a lovely appetizer sampler from Applebee's (haha) and then watched a movie. His visits are always happy occasions, possibly because he is the love of my life ;)

Sooo knitterly things.. knitterly things.. I am almost done with my first Tonks sock!

I am currently about halfway done with the foot. I am thrilled! I must reiterate my love for socks. Larri, you must start knitting socks. I have an image in my head of you and I knitting socks around the campfire while Aric and Kyle roll their eyes and Paula saying that we are cute, but that she will continue to buy socks that don't take 15 hours to make. In this image, we would also have a nice glass of wine, and to class it up, a s'more or two. So yes, learn to knit socks! I will be more than happy to help, if needed. And I know you said the double-pointed needles looked awful, and that I firmly agreed, but.. I love them now. Don't be scared! But one or two circs also suffice, so I won't be offended if you don't take my word for it that they are okay.


So, after that little daydream.... I had a foray in City Knitting this past Friday to buy some yarn for the little competition I joined on Ravelry. It was very successful. 4 skeins of wool and 2 skeins of a most delicious sock yarn. My extreme and irrational love of Harry Potter has led me to supreme geekdom. I have been sorted and am proud the announce that I am a Slytherin in the Harry Potter Knitting & Crochet House Cup. Also known as the HPKCHC. For this month, I am taking Defense Against the Dark Arts (assignment: something protective), Charms (assignment: something in House colors), and possibly Muggle Studies (assignment: something to do with muggle TV or movies). I will be doing the Arithmancy O.W.L. which covers all 3 months of the term (assignment: make at least 8 of one pattern). Projects will go as follows:


Defense Against the Dark Arts
Project: Socks
Pattern: Fawkes
Needles: Size 1 1/2 dpn's
Yarn: Crystal Palace Yarns Bamboo Silk, in #4004
{These socks will protects the wearer's feet from cold. The warm colors are such that they will raise the spirits of even the meanest ghost. Fawkes the Phoenix himself is a beckon of hope for all. His tears will cure any harm and his song will give a witch or wizard the strength to keep going.}

Absolutely gorgeous yarn. Colors are beautiful (pictures often do not do them justice; this is no exception). It is 5% silk and feels like a little bit of heaven.


Charms
Project: Hat
Pattern: Wizardly Incognito Cap
Needle: 29" Size 8 circular
Yarn: Cascade 220 Wool, in #8267 (Forest Green); Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in White
{A subtle way to show one's true identity with playful, Slytherin-colored stripes. Wear this hat and magical folks will catch what simple Muggle eyes overlook.}


Muggles Studies (if I do it)
Related to Muggle book series/movie, Twilight
Project: Mittens
Pattern: Bella's Mittens
Needles: Size 8 dpn's or circular?
Yarn: TBD
{A tribute to all the fangirls who daydream about Edward being real and envy the fictitious Bella; if they can't have her husband, then at least they can have her awesome mittens.}


Arithmancy O.W.L.
Project: Dishcloths
Pattern: Diagonal Owl Dishcloth
Needles: Size 7
Yarn: Various-colored cottons, both Lily Sugar 'N Cream and Peaches & Creme; this is a great stash-busting project for me. I have acquired a lot of cotton that needs using.
{These owls do not deliver the post or the newspaper, but instead of making a mess of things like they did when working for the Ministry of Magic, they will help you clean up! These owls will not be late, and will not nip at your fingers if you do not reply quickly enough. They are perfect companion for the stay-at-home witch.}


I have such a clever name for this project, but I will not divulge it until the project is complete! As a collector of owls, I find that knitting 8 or more of this same dishcloth is not a waste of time. They have a function other than cleaning in my world: decoration! I have not decided how many I will do. I am thinking twelve or so, depending on how many solid-colored skeins of cotton I have. I don't believe the owl will look all that nice with a variegated yarn.


I will share the progress of my first term with the HPKCHC. If you laughed during that bit of the post, that is okay. I laughed at my own dorky-ness. They say you can get extra points for a creative explanation of your project, but I think that translates to 'the more nerdy the explanation, the more points.' Well, I'm in. I can bring out the big dogs with my inner-dork, and I shall.


If you are still reading, thank you. I know this is a long post. I am avoiding studying for my criminal justice final tomorrow and I am doing spectacularly, if I do say so myself. Let us continue.


Last Thursday, I was able to do several cakes at work and it was great. There is an uproar of cake orders now that the school year is drawing to a close. (Graduation cakes and the like.) One such cake was one that I obliging took on, because it is sort of relative to my family.

Both schools are my dad's alma mater. (State for undergrad and Central for graduate). Although I cannot appreciate this school in the same way as my dad, State is near and dear to his heart. I thought he would enjoy the coincidental nature of this cake. (He did, by the way.)

Side note: My writing is the only part of cake decorating I've tried that I am not 100% confident about. At work, we double-write everything. My underwriting is usually spot on and I am satisfied. The overwriting is usually the bane of my cake-decorating existence. Perhaps outside of work I shall stick to writing the message only once.

Okay, so I've been dying to bake something yummy for a few weeks and today I did! They are chocolate-peanut butter pretzels. All right, they are not baked, but mixing and assembly were required so I consider it baking.

They are giant pillows of love that taste exactly like puppy chow! (Note that the term giant in the previous sentence is relative to one Chex.) What a discovery. Oh my goodness, I've only just realized.. Hello, pillows of love. Welcome to my christmas baking list. Also, these would be just as delicious dipped in white chocolate. This recipe has possibilities, folks.

Ah, this was a good run. I've successfully wasted about two and a half hours, but I'm out of things to say that aren't me just rambling aimlessly. I appreciate any who managed to read this in one sitting. This post is what happens when one is hopped up on coffee, has not blogged in a while and has a million things to share.

3 more days till summer; 730 days until I can begin living my life. Shit. I thought I could be optimistic with the 3 days, but the 730 days is a heavy burden to shoulder.

Anyway, happy knitting to those lucky bastards who have the time right now.

[edited to cut out depressing introduction]

sock-em-bopper

I present to you my first pair of socks! I thoroughly enjoyed making them. I finished the first in about a week and started the second immediately after, but caught the startitis bug, so the second one took about a month. They are done and I'm so pleased. Now I can start a fancy pair!

Pattern: Simple Socks for Ladies on Two Circular Needles
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici, in Martinique
Needles: 2- 24" size 2 circulars
Start-Finish: March 11 - April 21

Remember, how I was so thrilled about my Horcrux socks and the perfect yarn I accidentally bought for them? Yes, well as it turns out the yarn was not perfect. The rayon/tencel blend is not good for socks as I found out. It has no elasticity at all. So instead.. I am making a lace scarf out of the yarn, which I think will turn out beautifully. Here's a peek:

Only true love could compel a girl to make the biggest (in relation to my size 6 foot), most boring plain black socks for her boyfriend...

They are probably about 2 or 3 inches longer than this currently as I've been working on them whenever I get a spare minute this week. (I don't know what I'm saying... I knit and then do other things, such as homework and going to class, in my "spare" time). Anyway, I started these in the first week of April and I don't know who I was kidding myself to think I'd have the pair done by his birthday (April 28) or the anniversary (May 16). So... Christmas it is!

Cheers :)

easter weekend and FO (yes, one)

Today, I am not feeling well at all and will not being going to any of my classes, so now I have time to put up some pictures from Easter weekend. Beginning Thursday, I finished knitting a little headband that will be part of my mom's Mother's Day gift.

Pattern: Arrowhead Lace Headband
Yarn: Cascade 220, color #2449, 0.2 skeins
Needles: size 7
Start-Finish: April 6 - April 6

It was nice to have something completely finished in the midst of all the socks going on right now. Unrelated to knitting, however, another perfectly awesome moment happened this weekend ....

Yes, that is Kyle and I standing next to the Stanley Cup. Before it was our turn to get our picture taken, Kyle said, "I'm going to pick it up." I warned him against it, but when he is set on doing something, nothing anyone can say will stop him. So, we get up there and have a nice picture taken, and I run for it afterwards, knowing his plan. As soon as he got it about an inch off the table, ten people yelled, "You can't pick it up!" (as I predicted) However, no harm was done, so now Kyle can proudly say that he's held the Stanley Cup! I'd say that's better than an Easter basket.

I did end up getting my ball winder this past weekend. (On Friday, to be exact.) Kyle tried to help me wind a hank of yarn (the yarn for my precious Horcrux socks.. ) and it ended up in a huge tangled mess. I spent all day Saturday trying to get it out, then a few hours on Sunday. Only half of it is safely untangled now. I believe that the hank was twisted and that is partly to blame for the mess, but I will not be asking Kyle to help me again. He was not very sympathetic to my plight. But once half of the mess was untangled, I managed to wind many of my scraps.

They are beautiful spring colors! Another addition to the stash was waiting for me at school when I got back. Some gorgeous Cascade Heritage sock yarn (in Jade) that will be my Clapotis.

Now I need to get away from my computer because it is making me feel even more feverish. Goodbye!

coming up in the queue ....

Just received in the mail some gorgeous fingering weight yarn from Yarntopia Treasures. Their colorways are gorgeous, by the way. Definitely worth checking out!




Colorway: Sidewinder
Destination: Horcrux Socks.
This picture is not quite true to color. The green is a very bright neon. It is perfect for the Horcrux socks, because the greens match the colors on the cover of the sixth book :) Also, what a perfect name, Sidewinder. Snake, Parselmouth, Slytherin. It all fits. It is destiny.


Colorway: Willow
Destination: Unknown. Possibly the Fawkes socks or the Dragonfly socks. Orrr the third of the Three Sisters scarves by SmokingHotNeedles.


Colorway: River of Lights
Destination: Spring Forward socks!



Another exciting addition will be the ball winder I just order last night! It is going to be in my "Easter basket." It is a lovely gift from my mom. I am so excited!

ETA: If you ever order yarn from Yarntopia Treasures, I advise you to have them wind it for you. Two of the three hanks were complete crap. They were completely tangled and had knots. The third skein is just sitting all alone in a corner because I don't want to deal with winding it. If it feels unloved, it should! Its sisters were bitches. . .

apple-icious

My dad's birthday is today and yesterday we had a lovely breakfast dinner for him. (To clarify: breakfast for dinner.) Tim [my sister's boyfriend/fiance] made the whole thing. French toast, pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs. It was delicious! For my contribution, I made a Toffee-Apple Cheesecake. I've made cheesecake bars before, but this was my first real cheesecake. I was very pleased with how it turned out.

I also made him a cake to take to work. It was weird to put his name instead of Dad, haha.

In the world of all things knitterly, I am becoming a fanatic of socks. For a person who is chronically cold, I cannot see a more useful thing to knit! They are funnn. And to top it off, I finally have my own Harry Potter Opal sock yarn. I saw it years ago before I started knitting, and I wanted it just because. But now I have it AND I get to knit a pair of awesome socks :)

The colorway is Tonks. I would also like to own: Harry, Harry and Ron, Hedwig, Dumbledore, and Draco. Uhh, I think that's almost all of them.. So I'll go for the lot and add Ron and Lupin ;) I plan to knit my Tonks socks in time for the movie release this summer (July 17!)

Also, I finished my Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet. Last Monday, actually. I haven't had the time to block it yet, so pictures still to come.

Must get back to my knitting now. . .

Proud to Present for the First Time Ever..

A sock made by ME!

I am a sock lover. It is true. Now to experiment with dpn's and two circs to find my favorite way. (After I finish the second one, of course.) It would not do to already be diagnosed with Second Sock Syndrome.

In other super knitting news, I've just begun knitting my first clothing item! It is the Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet. It has been quick and easy thus far. I am about halfway done with it right now and I hope to finish it Sunday or Monday. (Darn college exams get in the way of finished objects). But duty calls sooo I need to be getting to bed. Picture of the capelet to come soon. I'm so excited to wear my own knitting at last! Oooh. Goodnight.

experimentation has never been more yummy or cute :)

At work (MSU Bakers!), we are trying out some decorative cupcakes for next year’s specials.
Here are a few of mine :

I am in love with owls!

In knitting news, I received a package of yarn today I love getting packages. (Honestly, getting mail at the dorm is one of the best things ever. It is also the reason for my addiction to online shopping and my credit card bill.. bleh.)

I am almost done knitting my first sock! I really enjoyed it. I can see myself making many socks. The only part I had trouble with was situating the gusset stitches on two circulars. Hopefully it will go more smoothly in the future!

Happy Knitting!