You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘life’ category.
It’s hard to believe it’s almost Christmas, isn’t it? This Saturday is the 25th, which means if you haven’t finished your gift knitting by now, there’s a good chance you’ll be up all night on the 24th, trying not to pull your hair out. I am not experiencing this stress, mostly because I’m not really celebrating any holidays this year. I’m spending Christmas and New Year’s with my boyfriend, who is Jewish and does not celebrate Christmas. Though I must say, I’m sort of feeling the lack of Christmas spirit.
Next year I think I’ll have a tree, a little table-top one, which will be the only size that will fit in our apartment next year. Perhaps I’ll wrap some gifts and make some cinnamon rolls. Spend the day in my pajamas and watch a holiday movie.
But this year, I’ll probably be eating Chinese foot and frantically trying to finish the billion trade and commission knits I have. Not to mention this:
(Sorry for the crappy flash picture. I may or may not have woken up this afternoon at three.)
It’s a muchly-finished sweater that was intended as a birthday gift to my boyfriend. We agreed to exchange gifts when I came to visit over Christmas so I had a couple extra weeks to finish it (his birthday was Dec. 9), but now I’ve run out of yarn and Knit Picks doesn’t appear to be selling that color. I’ve put in a desperate request to the ISO forums on Ravelry, but if any of my readers have some extra Comfy Bulky in Planetarium, PLEASE let me know.
I’ve also been working on this:
It’s one almost finished Kitty Hawk mitt for a WWFY swap. I started it because I was sick of shark mittens, but a nearly elbow-length glove in fingering weight yarn takes FOREVER. I’m going to finish the mitt, knit a pair of shark mittens, knit a hat, knit some more shark mittens, then perhaps knit the other mitt.
I currently have five pairs of outstanding shark mittens that I have to knit. So yes, I’ll be knitting these ittens forever.
So… I was gonna talk about some socks I’m almost done with today, but the view from my balcony is this:
So instead I played in the snow. This is the first snow of the season, and as a gal from Virginia Beach (which despite the recent weather is on the water and usually DOES NOT get any snow at all), I have a sort of childlike wonder for the snow. Which is an eloquent way of saying I want it to snow four feet so I can make tunnels and forts.
I also took pictures. There was holly:
And this cute little snow-covered tree that I wanted to cover in tinsel and ornaments:
I’m celebrating the holidays with my boyfriend, who doesn’t celebrate Christmas, so I have no tree. Plus I won’t be in my apartment for Christmas anyway. But I’m definitely getting a little tree next year. : )
Stay warm, people.
Tomorrow is my 21st birthday! Fortunately, I have no finals (yay), so I’ll mostly be sleeping in late and having a nice dinner + champagne with my boyfriend. And also visiting the ABC store.
So yes. I’ll be 21! Whoo hoo! In honor of my birthday, all of my patterns will be 21% off tomorrow only! So if you were looking to buy one, tomorrow’s the day!
So, uh, sorry for the radio silence, people. It’s finals week, which means last week was hell week, during which all of the last minute homework and projects professors assign is due. So yeah. But I have been knitting. I’ve started a pair of socks for a WWFY trade:
And I’m knitting a hat for a commission from a friend:
And of course I’m knitting eighty six bajillion pairs of shark mittens.
At least winter break starts next week.
So… I sort of fell of the NaBloPoMo bandwagon. Well, I tried anyway. And I did pretty well, I think. I posted most days, and I would have posted more often but I had trouble getting photos during the daylight, especially over Thanksgiving break.
Anyway, the third item of my OliviaGoddess WWFY trade finished drying over break and I finally mailed everything off:
Pattern: Cloud Bolero
Yarn: Claudia Handpainted and CEY Jil Eaton Minnow Merino
Needles: Big. Whatever the pattern calls for.
Mods: None. Made the XS.
This came out well but HOLY HELL is the pattern difficult to follow. It’s confusing and jumbled and really difficult to decipher. I’m pretty sure the only reason I could do it was because I made Liesl first (which is very similar). I considered just making a shrug out of Liesl, but OliviaGoddess said Cloud, so Cloud I made.
As for the yarn: The Claudia Handpainted (the variagated) is lovely, wonderful, dense merino. Like the best handspun and also gorgeous. LOVE. It’s hella expensive and it will never grace my fingers again, but damn is it pretty. The other stuff, the Classic Elite on the bottom, is okay. It’s a pretty basic wool single, though a bit too fuzzy for my taste.
So yeah. So much for NaBloPoMo. BUT: The future: more shark mittens (three more pairs by Friday), maybe some socks, HOPEFULLY a sweater for the boyfriend for Christmas.
Christ. It’s finals week next week and I have a ton of knitting to do. Good thing I only have two finals.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I’m grateful for yarn
and thigh-high socks
and awesome friends
and the love of my life, Joe. ❤ ❤
Hope your Thanksgiving(/Thursday) is great!
So like I mentioned on Thursday, I went to the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollow Part One. I went with a huge group of friends and arrived at the theater three hours early (it’s a small theater so there was no one else there really until like, 45 minutes before midnight) and it was super fun. I dressed up sort of as a Slytherin:
(Image by Caitlin Murphy)
Sweater dress, tights, pumps. I also drew myself a dark mark tattoo:
(sorry for the crappy phone photo).
The premiere was tons of fun, and a bunch of my friends dressed up too:
(Image by Caitlin Murphy)
Okay, this is muchly the fencing and renaissance clubs, neither of which I am a part of, but many of my friends are. So yay.
Anyway, my thoughts on the film, let me show you them (spoilers ahead, obviously).
I liked the movie a lot, but this is mostly because I’ve only seen it once, so my reactions are more like, “It’s things from the book! They’re on the screen! Squee!”. I have to see it again to really judge it thought. I think the direction could have been better (it was very artsy), and it’s annoying that they split the book into two films but still left a TON of important stuff out. And they had time to add in the whole Deathly Hollows story but not to mention A that Xenophillius’s necklace was also Grindewald’s sign and B, who the hell Grindewald was. As a Harry Potter fan and someone who’s read the books, I liked the film, but if you don’t already know what’s going on, you’re going to be totally lost and not have any idea who anyone is (for example who the hell Bill Weasley is) or how they connect (certainly they’ve played down the Harry has his mother’s eyes thing which is important to Snape’s redemption).
So how bout you guys? What were your thoughts on the film?
Sneaking in a picture-less post under the wire to accomplish another day of NaBloPoMo.
Today was spent at the Manassas/Prince William County Fairgrounds for the Holiday Fair. There were lots of people dressed up in Renaissance garb (I was basically the only one NOT in garb; I was wearing jeans and a long sleeved shirt), tons of vendors, and lots of lovely things to buy.
I was pleased that there were several fibery vendors, including Unplanned Peacock. They had a TON of yarn (almost all of which was basically out of my price range). I splurged on a nice skein of sock yarn (pictures tomorrow).
At a different both, I bought a hank of really nice alpaca yarn (sport weight two-ply for FIVE DOLLARS) and at another booth, I bought two silk caps to spin. I’ve never spun silk before so it should be… an experience. I also bought a floofy skirt and some knee socks (pictures of all these tomorrow, as I said).
I also got basically a bajillion orders for shark mittens over the last couple of days, so I’ll be knitting them until I die.
So… I forgot to blog yesterday. Bad NaBloPoMo participant. Oh well. One of these days I’ll do two posts to make up for yesterday. But not today because it’s already after four and I have plans tonight. What plans, you ask?
HARRY POTTER PREMIERE, OF COURSE.
That’s right, folks, I’m going to the premiere of the seventh Harry Potter movie because I am completely obsessed with Harry Potter. I’m sort of dressing up (I’ll be Slytherin-themed with a grey and green striped sweater dress and black tights) and I’ll be drawing a dark mark on my arm. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures of other people’s costumes for tomorrow. : )
As for the WIP:
It’s the Cloud Bolero for a WWFY swap. I think I’ll be casting off soon, but I have to make sure it’s long enough for the recipient’s daughter. I also finished the mitten part of a pair of shark mittens (still need to do mouths and fins). That’s the first of three pairs that were ordered from my Etsy shop the other day. One of them will be in acrylic though, which my brother is sending me from home since I don’t have any grey acrylic yarn here at school.
Is anyone else going to see Harry Potter tonight? Are you dressing up? Tell me in the comments! (No, really, I’m interested. I love people who dress up for movie premieres.)
As I mentioned yesterday, last night I attended a Masquerade ball. Every year the Renaissance Club and the Fencers put on Masquerade and everyone dresses up in costumes and masks and dances. I’m in neither of those clubs, but most of my friends are, so my boyfriend and I attended. It’s great fun and I had a blast last night.
I made my own mask shortly before the dance and I helped my boyfriend make his. I made a template out of paper, traced it onto cardboard and cut it out with an X-acto knife. Here’s mine:
It’s covered in leather and decorated from there. Lace trim from a thrifted shawl/lace handkerchief (or something; it was at the Goodwill outlet), a couple of beads glued to the corners of the eyes and a butterfly that used to be attached to a bobby pin I never wore. I love how it came out. : )
Here’s the one Joe wore:
Same deal, cardboard covered with leather. The design was his idea–crossed ribbon and a shank button with the shank snipped off.
Anyway, yeah, it was tons of fun. I do love an excuse to dress up. : )
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 