Back in Nashville

I'm back at school! After a last week of relaxing, knitting, and then packing and preparing feverishly, I'm safe and sound back in Nashville. Today is the first day of classes, which is exciting/scary, and it's SNOWING! We've had a relatively constant feathering of snow since I got here. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of the cold, but campus sure does look pretty all cloaked in white. :) I'll see if I can post pictures soon.

Speaking of pictures, here are a few of the Holden Shawlette I've been working on!
This is half of it, from about a week ago. It's significantly larger now, but this pic shows the general shape. The whole thing doesn't quite fit on the needles anymore, so we won't see it stretched out in all its lacy glory until I'm all done.



And here's a closeup of the texture:



Aren't those colors just lovely? Everyone I show this project to is so impressed, because it is so lovely, but (so far, at least) the pattern is so simple that it's just the yarn doing its magical work. :) I've done the first row of the lace, but then life happened so I haven't made much progress beyond that.

The pattern says it's called a Shawlette, since it's a small shawl, but I don't really like that word (go figure?) so I'm calling it a Sharf. It's made like a shawl, but I plan to wear it around my neck like a scarf!

The Guido scarf, on the other hand, is coming along quickly and beautifully. I don't have pictures, though. I took it to rehearsal last night, and the kid playing Guido tried it on, and it looks fabulous! Just 10 or so more inches to go. :) I'll try to get some pictures of him in full costume wearing it when it's all done.

I have the yarn to make some more projects, mostly xmas gifts for school friends, but I have a shipment on its way from KnitPicks containing a try it interchangeable needle set . You know, the one with the three types of needles and two circular cables so I can figure out which tip type I like best. The package also contains the yarn to make my blanket! I've finally found the blanket I want to make for myself. It's called the Winter Lace Plumage Throw. I got the purple colorway. I'm SO EXCITED!

More pictures soon! Until then, Happy Knitting!
~YoungKnitter

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, y'all!

My parents and I welcomed the new year in our PJs at home. We went out to see Tangled (the new Disney movie about Rapunzel - SO AMAZING! I'm in love, I think. I'm practically 20, but somehow Disney movies still manage to make me giggle and cry like a 5-year-old. <3 ) We got burgers at this joint in Cape Elizabeth called Rudy's (very tasty and very Maine-y), then came home and watched X-Men to stay awake (a new New Year's tradition, I think!).

I believe I have started the new year rather well! I slept late, but then had a productive day. I worked out, showered, wrote my NYResolutions, baked chocolate chip cookies, meditated, hung out with Toki (my sister's pet rat), made good progress on my Guido scarf, and now I'm blogging!

The cookies were a great success:



They're so good but so easy. I just use the recipe on the back of the Tollhouse Semisweet Chocolate Chips bag! Yummmmm...

And here's my latest progress on the Guido Scarf:



New Year's Resolutions. This is a very popular topic of conversation among bloggers, it seems, and reading the Resolutions of the bloggers I follow has inspired me to write a list of my own!

Usually people have just one or two resolutions, generally something like "lose weight" and "save more money" or something. Mine are somewhat more specific, and are organized into two groups: Habits and Accomplishments. The Habits are little changes I want to make in my daily, weekly, or yearly routine, but they aren't exactly things I can check off a list, as they'll hopefully last for the rest of my life. Accomplishments are the big things that I want to, well, accomplish by the end of the year. Here goes:

Habits:
Knit for at least 30 Minutes every day - This is an important one for my well-being and sanity. It's easy to make time for knitting when I'm at home on vacation, but when I'm at school, life seems to carry me away, and I don't make time for myself and my passions. So a lot of these "habits" are about changing that.
Meditate 10 mins daily - I found a great website called HeadSpace that has a 10-minutes-a-day-for-10-days program that's supposed to be an introductory course to the practice of meditation.
Email my mother twice weekly - just a good habit. I got a little out of touch with my family this semester (again due to getting carried away with life at school) and I want to change that for this year.
Blog weekly – if not daily - Another great one for you guys, my readers (if you exist?). I do want to blog more, both for myself (it's relaxing) and to document my creative growth.
Write more letters - I did this a lot freshman year, and just fell out of the habit of writing regularly. But there's nothing better than getting a letter from a friend.
Live more healthily - The usual - eat better, exercise more, etc.

Accomplishments:
Study Abroad - Either in Japan this summer (still waiting to hear back!) or
Knit a sweater - Can you believe I haven't yet? It's so scary...
Spin yarn! – enough to knit something. - I have enough gorgeous roving to make plenty of nice things. I just haven't yet. O.o
Complete a HPKCHC term
Start & Finish my dress

I know that's a lot of Resolutions, but I'm ambitious, and I have a feeling that this is going to be a good year. :-) I have a lot to look forward to this year! My sister is graduating and joining the Peace Corps, I'm turning 20, I'll be studying abroad somewhere, and my knitting, crocheting, and spinning skills have a lot of room for growth! Should be fun!

I apologize for my incredible loquaciousness (I'm torn between that word or verbosity. They're both such excellent words, aren't they?) these past few posts, but it seems I have a lot on my mind. Hopefully it'll be less chatter and more crafting from now on, but I can't make any promises. ;)

Luke says: "Happy New Year!"