Summer Knittin'

Hello! Long time no blog!

The semester is over and I'm back to my relaxing summer schedule of knit knit knit all the time! :) As evidenced by the successful completion of half of a pair of Cookie A's Vilai Socks (my Ravlery project page) that I finally finished.



I started these socks last summer (sheesh!) and finally kitchener-ed the heck out of those toes earlier this afternoon. *so proud*

Now to start and finish the second half of the pair. *sigh* Other works in progress: my Holden Shawlette, more affectionately called the Sharf. I finally printed out the lace chart for the final edging and will get started on that tonight. Other than that, I don't have any other real projects going on. I've got an idea in the back of my head for some armwarmers for myself with some leftover Plymouth Yarn Co Happy Feet. Also, I got a gorgeous skein of Jawoll Magic with which I need to find something to do.

Also: THE DRESS! That gorgeous dress pattern I was lusting after a few months back has FINALLY been put back online. I left the yarn in Nashville, but I'll get started on that as soon as I get back.

Other updates from the last post:

I finished the blue armwarmers and gave them to Tessa, and she loved them! I'm soooo glad, and really excited to see pictures of her galavanting around Ireland wearing them next fall. ^^

I got that job I was talking about. The one in Nashville over the summer. Which is AWESOME. I'll be in Nashville acting as part camp counselor, part RA, part mom for middle- to high school-aged kids for the months of June and July. I start on the 6th of June! Can't wait :) I'll have lots of knitting (and blogging!) time, and it'll give me the time to get a head start on my dress! :D

Fishwilliam is also doing very well! He's staying with a friend in Nashville and in very good hands. ^^

Other life updates:

Exams all went well (albeit stressful), and I started my summer by spending a few days in Portland, OR with my brother. Now I'm back in Maine for a few short days to relax (and knit, of course) before running down to Boston to help my sister pack up her apartment and then watch her graduate on Sunday! It still amazes me that she's already graduating. :)

Then a few days of family vacation, a couple weeks to relax in Maine, and then I ship out to Nashville and my sister heads out to Africa! She got accepted into the Peace Corps and starts her tour of duty in June. I'm so incredibly proud of and excited for her :D It's kind of scary, of course. We're not sure of the details, but the only method of communication we're sure to have is the post. So we'll be writing a lot of letters, which will take 6ish weeks to get there! O.O Even though I want to be worried and scared and sad that she's leaving to a far-off, strange country without me, I can't help but imagine all the awesome adventures she'll be having there, too. It'll be hard not seeing her for 27 months, but I can't wait to hear all the cool stories :D

Well, that's enough babbling for one day! I'll post more pictures when I get started on other projects and make more progress on my Sharf and other Vilai sock.

Until then, happy knitting!
~YoungKnitter

Happy National Crochet Month!

Hooray for crochet! I look forward to doing lots of this excellent craft this month in honor of National Crochet Month. :)

Well, Internet, I've been a bad blogger. Again. *sigh* I guess I never learn, huh?

All right: we've got some catching up to do!

First of all, the Guido scarf that I made for 9, the musical that my student organization put on in January, turned out BEAUTIFULLY!

Here's me modeling it:



And here's the actor who got to wear it in the show, Michael, modeling it:



Doesn't he look snappy? The scarf was a big hit, and got lots of great comments both from cast members and from the audience. When the show ended, Michael had grown so attached to the scarf that he asked if he could keep it. And why not? So he's the proud owner of that masterpiece.

It was a great first crazy colorwork project for me. It turned out beautifully, and I'm really proud. It was a hard skill to pick up, but pick it up I did, and I got plenty of practice on that whole huge scarf, and I feel really confident about my colorworking skills now! :)

After the scarf, I haven't been doing a lot of crafting. This semester has taken me for quite a crazy ride so far. I made the hat for Erin that y'all have already, seen, but I'll put in the picture again:



She really likes it! I made it in this great acrylic-mohair blend I got from a yarn swap from the knitting ladies in Portland, and wiht this gorgeous lace pattern called the Carson Cap (Ravelry pattern page). It was a fun project to make, and it turned out great!

Then I'm in the middle of a pair of arm warmers for Tessa! I'm using the CanCans pattern (Ravelry pattern link). The first one came out great!



It's mostly just plain ol' stockinette, but with a cool twisted stitch pattern going up the center of the back of the wrist and hand. So pretty! And it has THUMBS! I've never made thumbs before!!! I'm using the Nature's Palette fingering weight yarn, which is GORGEOUS! It's made all with natural plant dyes, it's all earth-friendly and all that good stuff. I cast on the second one yesterday, so hopefully that'll get done soon!

That's about all the knitting updates. My bummer knitting news is that the pattern for the dress that I've been wanting to make for soooo long got taken down. It'll supposedly be back up soon, but for sale. I just hope they put it back up soon! :(

Now for my exciting life news! I said yesterday that I have 4 cool pieces of news! It turns out that I forgot one of them, so really it's 5 pieces of exciting life news!

1. My best friend from Austin's sister had a beautiful baby boy this weekend. I'm SO PROUD! <3
2. I got an interview for the summer job I applied for. I would be a camp counselor/RA at an academic summer camp at Vanderbilt. The interview is Friday. SO EXCITED!
3. I was officially asked to be the Assistant Director for Vanderbilt Off Broadway's production next year. This is REALLY awesome news because I will be in line to be the Director my senior year. Which will be REALLY awesome!
4. I have officially decided to study abroad in Japan next Spring! The application is not due until October or something, so I don't have to do much for it for a while. But in the meantime, it has given me new motivation to do well in my Japanese language classes! Which I needed... this language is SO HARD!!!
5. Last but not least, I got a new pet fishy!!!



His name is Colonel Fishwilliam H. Fishington III, or Mr. Fishy for short. <3 He's a beautiful male betta fish, colored a gorgeous blue-y purple. He's a little camera shy, and it's hard to get a picture that really does his colors justice, but these will have to do for now!



I've always wondered why people have pet fish, since they seem so boring and stuff. My reasons for getting him, though, were that I decided I need to learn to take care of another life. I want to get a cat when I leave Vanderbilt, and I figured my first pet should probably be a fish. I'd feel way worse about accidentally killing a kitten than accidentally killing a fish.

But since I brought Fishy home, I've been so happy! I talk to him a lot (my neighbors must be confused) and it's nice to have someone to say hello to when I come home. And he has a personality and everything! When I sit down at my desk (right by his tank), he swims up to the glass nearest me, and we commune for a bit before he swims away and goes about his fishy business. Then, when it gets close to feeding time, he swims right up to the glass in the corner nearest his food tin. He seems happy and healthy and I'm soooo glad to have a great pet and friend in Fishwilliam! Also, I've been bragging about him to anyone who'll listen and showing him off to anyone who comes by my room. ^^

Well, that's just about everything y'all missed from my looooong blogging hiatus! I'll try to blog more often (I say that too much, don't I?) but in the meantime, have a FANTASTIC National Crochet Month!

Happy Knitting (and Crocheting!),
~YoungKnitter

Yikes, again.

Oh hey, Internet.

Sooo remember how I'm really bad about posting regularly?

Yeah. That's still going on.

So it's the end of the month and I just now finished a project for the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup and I gotta get it on the internet so I can submit it. Yaaay!

Here are Tessa's arm warmers, using the CanCans pattern from Ravelry and Nature's Palette fingering weight in a gorgeous light blue color.



Tomorrow marks the beginning of National Crochet Month, and in honor of that I'm gonna get all my blogging stuff together and actually write a real post! But until then, I have choir rehearsal. O.O

A teaser: I have 4 exciting life announcements and one bummer knitting announcement to make. Get excited!

Lots of yarny love,
~YoungKnitter

Yikes!

I need to get this posted before the midnight deadline runs out for Ravelry's Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup!

Darn my procrastination!

My homework for Defense against the dark arts: an article of clothing to repell the twitchy ears hex!



I used maybe 150 yards of a light worsted weight mystery acrylic/mohair blend I've had sitting around for a while, and I made the Carson Cap pattern from Carol Bristol on Ravelry.

I promise I'll post more soon! And better pictures of the hat!

Until then, happy knitting!
~YoungKnitter

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!"

Happy Sylvester!!!

Happy Sylvester/New Year's Eve, y'all!

Today is a day when most people clean the house, organize their finances, and otherwise prepare for the new year. Or else they reflect on the year soon to be over, and on what all happened in the past 365 days.

Instead, I baked.





Two loaves of fine banana bread, which I enjoyed with a cup of English Breakfast tea. It's seriously yumtastic, if I do say so myself.

I also worked some more on my Guido scarf, which is coming along nicely, albeit slowly, and there isn't much progress to photo-document.

Last night I met with Deborah, one of the knitting ladies here in Portland, and we had a wonderful catching up on all the news of the group (and our own crafting triumphs) since Thanksgiving, when I saw them all last. And, as Deborah does, she gave me a wonderful Christmas gift of a scarf, some nice lotion and other dorm necessities, yummy PB fudge, a gorgeous jewelry box, and, of course, lots of lovely yarn.

We have some more gorgeous Yarntopia Treasures Rayon Boucle, this time in the Coral Reef colorway:



And a big hank of the Yarntopia Treasures Summer Cotton Boucle, in the Corsage Colorway:



Deborah has given me a fantastic amount of fine yarns, including lots of gorgeous sock yarn, and some lovely lace weight yarn. Now, I can handle sock yarn, since I always manage to have 2 or 3 pairs of socks on the needles at one time. But I never knew what to do with the lace weight yarn. Which was a shame, since it's all so gorgeous. BUT NO MORE! I went researching last night in search of what to do with the lace weight yarn. I don't wear shawls, since I wear so many hoodies, and those just don't go all that well with shawls worn over the shoulders and back. BUT I saw how a lot of knitters would wear their shawlettes wrapped around their necks like scarves, and it's just gorgeous! SO! I'm making myself a shawlette. More specifically, this this shawlette (Ravelry pattern page). The center is all stockinette stitch, with a gorgeous lace pattern along the two shorter edges, so it'd be nice and warm to wear like the model in the picture does. :-) And I'll make it with this yarn:



That's 500 yards of the Yarntopia Treasures Rayon Boucle (another gift from Deborah) in the "Blue Lagoon" colorway, a gorgeous purple/turquoise color. I wrassled that hank of yarn for a good 45 minutes last night to get it into that lovely little ball. You see, as a poor, starving college student, I don't have the funds for a swift or yarn ball winder, so I wind hanks into balls by hand. My usual method is to sit on my bed/a chair, put my feet up on the bed/another chair in front of me, unwrap the hank, and drape the big, fat, O of yarn over and around my knees so it doesn't get all tangled while I wind it into a ball. Now, this particular hank had been busy tangling in the bottom of a stash bag somewhere for a few months, so it wasn't particularly eager to untangle into a nice, neat ball just yet. 45 minutes, a good deal of cursing, and a surprisingly rigorous ab workout later, and I had this little ball to show for it. Now I can't freaking wait to cast on!

Why not cast on, you ask? Well, I've discovered this amazing social group on Ravelry called the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup , where you join, get sorted, and for each 3-month-term you take "classes," participate in Quidditch, and hang out in the discussion forums of your house (or, for Not-Quite-First-Years, like myself, who missed the sorting deadline, we hang out in the NQFY common room). For each class (8 per month, 3 months in a term), you make something that pertains to the assignment. If you complete it within the month, you earn points for your house (or just kudos and funsies, if you're a NQFY) with extra points for creativity. Then the house with the most points at the end of the 3 months wins the house cup! It sounds like an awesome way to motivate each other to get projects done in a timely fashion (I know I've got one too many WIPs that need the extra kick to get done). Also, everyone I've met in the forums and chat rooms is really nice and encouraging.

Classes start tomorrow, so I've been keeping myself from starting any new projects so I can see if any of them fit the class criteria so I can submit them for that. One important rule is that you have to start AND finish your project within the month of the class for full points.

Anyways. I'm really excited about that! Classes are announced tomorrow, and I can't wait to get started. Also, a side effect of this is that it's motivating me to re-read the HP books by listening to the audiobooks while I knit. :-)

In other news: The brother and sis left this morning for a trip to NYC for New Years, so I've been given the enormous responsibility of caring for Toki, Nora's rat, for the duration of her trip. Also, Mom Dad and I are going for dinner and a movie tonight. We're going to see Tangled, that new Disney movie based off the Rapunzel story, and I am sooooooo excited! :D

One final parting thought: I've been thinking about changing the name of my blog to something that is more representative of what I and my blog are about. YoungKnitter is somewhat apt, as I'm still young, but I won't be young forever (and I'd like to keep up this blog for at least that long), and I knit. But it doesn't say anything about who I AM. And also, I have had the experience that a lot of more "mature" knitters don't take me seriously because of my age. Sales clerks at LYSs will show me straight to the bulky yarn and learn-to-knit books. Even some knitting friends have offered to help me learn to knit, even after I've shown my proficiency in our sit'n'stitch get-togethers. So I'd like to find a name that's more demonstrative of who I am and what I blog about. A thought is that I travel quite a bit. I travel between home and school, I love traveling on breaks and long weekends. I've traveled to lots of places in my childhood, and those places have all made me who I am today. And I plan to travel and live internationally for a living, starting at graduation. So this blog will still be mostly about knitting, crocheting, and spinning, as it always has been, but I'll also start including travel stories and pictures when I have them.

So! With this in mind, I have thought of some possible blog names. In every situation, Knitter and Fiber Freak are interchangeable, as I haven't decided which one to use yet.

Musings of a Mobile Knitter/Fiber Freak
Musings of a Migrant Knitter
Memoirs of a Migrant Fiber Freak
Thoughts of a Traveling Knitter/Fiber Freak
Typings of a Traveling Knitter/Fiber Freak
Tale of a Traveling Knitter
Tales of a Nomadic Knitter
Narrative of a Nomadic Knitter (yaaay alliteration!)
The Wandering Knitter

I'm not sure why I'm so fixed on the "Noun of an Adjective Knitter" format, but it sounds right to me.

Anyways. I welcome your thoughts, opinions, and suggestions, and I hope you all have a lovely New Year's Eve and a great start to 2011!
Signing off for the year,
~YoungKnitter