College

Interesting thing this College experience. First of all...I love it. I have never been a Math Whiz...but I seem to have a knack for Statistics. I'm actually helping other students. As my brother put it:" Who'd you bribe to get an A in Math?" Thanks for the vote of confidence there, little brother.
College has also taught me to not care. What other people think of me that is. I grew up in a home that was very much upper middle class and my Mom put a lot of weight on what the neighbors might think of us.
Growing up in this rather restricted home made me .....well....almost a conformist. I had my rebel outbursts, but mostly I did what was expected of me.
Now...at the tender age of *mumblemumble* I finally realized...I don't care what other people think.
I knit. So what?
I love Heavy Metal music. So what?
I hate what people are doing to this planet. So what?
I rather support a local Wolf Sanctuary than any human cause. So what?
I got a nose piercing. So what?
I quit a nice paying job to go back to college and took a part time job which I love. So what?
I tell you what. I am me. I like who I am.
Deal with it.

APA format and a great cardigan

APA format shall be my nemesis forever.
Apparently you need to find a dead cat and swing it around your head three times by the light of the full moon (which will be hard, since the paper is due on Saturday), UNLESS it is a Tuesday. In that case you italicize only the year, not the name.
What?????
I wish Microsoft Word had a button that says APA or MLA. I could just write the damn thing and push the button and voila! APA paper.
I would also like to know who came up with this crap. The last time I wrote a paper it was in pen on paper. And I got points for putting my name and the date correctly in the upper right corner.
My paper was AARP style! Old school. Literally.
Sighs.
The cardigan is coming along nicely. The back is finished and  spot on with the measurement. I am halfway done with the left front. I made a few adjustments to the pattern. I didn't want the cardi to end at my waist. So I added 3 inches to the length. That will look a lot better for my body type.

The pattern is really easy to follow.
My de-stash is not going so well though. I started the year with about 205000 yards in my stash. So far I managed to turn it into 211000 yards.
Ebay is my achilles heel. That's for sure. There are some great deals to be had.
The sample knit for KnitPicks is going well too. I have about 60% of the stole completed. The sooner I het that baby done the faster I get paid. And I want some spending money for Madrona which is approaching fast.
I will meet with one of my Ravelry friends there for the first time in person and I am looking forward to that. A lot.
I might even be persuaded to take some pics.
We'll see.

The year of the sweaters

Well, what do you know. It is 2013.
No resolutions this year, because I don't keep any of them longer than 24 hours anyway.
I want to knit more sweaters or cardigans this year though. I have cast on the first one: The Wave Hello Cardi by very talented designer Melissa Monday.The pattern can be found here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/wave-hello-knit-cardi
Bulky weight, pretty straight forward, should go fast, right?? WRONG!!!
Since I learned my lesson on the Kiloran top,  I swatched this time. 11 st and 16 rows should give me a 4x4 inch swatch. And so it does. Success!
I still have a 39 inch chest and the cardigan is supposed to have no ease. So size L (40 inch chest) it is. The swatch says so after all, right?? WRONG!!!
Cast on the amount of stitches needed for a size 40" chest. This should give me a width of 22.75 inches  for the back of the cardi.
Cast on the required 80 stitches. Knitted 6 rows. The back is 28 inches. Say what?? Okay. So how many stitches should I cast on then? Wait a minute: Math shall be involved. Since 80 stitches gives me 28 inches, x should give me 23. A little math determines that I should cast on for a size S. That's S. You read that right. 68 stitches.
I have knitted the entire border with 68 stitches now and it is right on the money. How a swatch can be right there and then the actual garment is way to big I will never understand.
But hey....I'm a size S!!! I'll take it.

In other news: I went back to college and me, the forever math challenged, has an A in Math so far. I am rather proud of that. It is entirely besides the point that we are learning statistics. It is mostly text right now. And I am good at that.
In history I blew my first quiz to smithereens with 1 point out of a possible 5. I made a conscious choice to pay my rent instead of buying the book for that class. A decision I can live with. I will be able to catch up quickly by the end of the month.
My English professor is simply wonderful. He understands that there are people like me that do grammar intuitively without really knowing the rules or mechanics of it. His class is so far brilliant, even though it is on Saturdays at 8 AM.
He is worth getting up at an ungodly 6 AM.
I shall keep you updated on successes an failures.

I don't make resolutions...

...no, seriously. Every year I get all worked up and have that "this is it" attitude, only to see it crumple within a few months due to circumstances beyond my control.
So for 2013 I just try to keep everything level. I plan on knitting some sweaters and cardigans. I am starting college January 2nd to get my Master's in Anthropology and a Minor in Arts. I work now part time at Michaels and I could seriously just leave my paycheck in that store. The have added some really nice yarns to their line-up. Not just the dreaded Red Heart Super Saver anymore (which, knitted three strands on a small needle, makes actually a surprisingly sturdy bath mat. It will survive the apocalypse together with cockroaches and Twinkies).
I also plan to finish most of the WIP's in my project bin. I am already off to a head start by pulling out the Hwaet! socks. They have been languishing for a while. There was errata available on the website, but I missed that. Then the store closed that website. So I fudged the heel, which (as you can see on the photo) did not work well. And I couldn't remember how I fudged it.
 I contacted the designer, who was very nice about it and sent me an updated copy of the pattern.
I inserted a needle last night into the last round before the heel increases and just frogged it. I straightened out the stitches (some of them were twisted) and started over with the heel with a new pattern and renewed vigor. This time I will get them done right.

I also accepted another sample knit from KnitPicks. I have the yarn and the beads and I am supposed to start by pre-stringing 700 size 8/0 seed beads. Say what??
I had to ask my friend Kelly (a bead store owner whose website is here: www.beadweaver.com ,awesome beads and awesome customer service) how to do that most efficiently. She recommended a twisted wire beading needle. Well, how lucky that I work at a craft store!!! We have those in stock!!!
I will get started on this one tonight.
I also want to spend a little more time designing and keeping up with my Etsy stores. Maybe next Christmas I can actually make a little spending money with them.
So I will keep this blog updated on how many WIP's I will finish over the course of 2013. Luckily we are all still here...Honestly..did anybody actually believe we would just blow up  on Dec. 21st?

Anyway...I wish a happy, successful and mostly stress free 2013 to all my followers and friends. You make my life a little easier and a little richer. And for that I thank you.

Mission almost complete

17:15, Sunday: Both projects have been finished and are ready to mail. I have sent my assistant on a small recon mission to find out about preferences on candy, tea or coffee and the such. A few small supplies are still needed after all. But the mission is almost complete.

Dyeforsocks - Superhero!

Well, not really. But it got your attention, right?

So. I would like you to picture this whole post as a mix between black&white private detective movie and James Bond, okay? Now that the mood is set...here we go:

10:40 pm, Saturday. Received message from Z. A swapper has gone AWOL and a rescue package is needed. I previously volunteered. Am I up for it?

10:45 pm: After brief consideration of supplies and resources I accept. TO THE YARN CAVE!

11:00 pm: Yarn found, pattern pulled up on computer, needle acquired, wine poured, music looped. I am ready to go.

11:15 pm: After watching a short briefing video, which auto - destructed after viewing, my skills in Magic Cast-on are polished up and the correct number of stitches has been on the needles
.
11:30 pm: Small oversight: I should have gotten the details on the subject's preferences and sizes first. Error corrected and all is going according to plan.

11:48 pm: Dividing the project in 8ths and I need two of them. The instructions given are easy to follow and one 8th has been completed. A refill on the nourishment is needed. A short survey of the music provides assurance that there are still 7 hrs 28 minutes of songs left.

12:15 am, Sunday: Four 8ths of the assignment have been completed. I am way ahead of schedule.

12:23 am: Decided to leave the projects first half unfinished for tonight. I need to be on top of my game to finish this mission successfully.

End of transmission.

Friendships

My mother used to tell me I should chose my friends carefully. She herself chose friends on how useful they could be to her at some point in her life. She was never really close to anyone.
I always found her advice incredibly cold and calculating.
My friends just "happened". I have some really close friends that know just about everything about me and I about them. A few that are reliable, steadfast rocks in my life and are not afraid to tell me when I make an utter fool out of myself. Not that that would stop me.
There are also some friends that are not so close, but I enjoy their company and we share many interests and, most of the time, opinions.
I never thought about a person that I met how useful they could be to me. You could be the CEO of a bank, and therefore useful to me at some point. But you could be a total jerk. So I pretend to like you because I might need a loan in a couple years?
No. There is something profoundly wrong with this. And I for one am grateful for all my friendships that grew out of mutual respect (or none, lol), shared interests, weirdness and just plain "hey, I like you's".
My Dad on the other hand used to say your good friends are the ones you call when you got arrested, so they can bail you out. Your best friend will sit right next to you in the cell saying:" Man, that was awesome!!"


On to something knitting related:
I have a new pattern ready to be released soon. In the next week or so. It's called "Aliens among us". That's what happens, when you watch the History Channel Special on area 51.
 Here is a picture:
The palm is just straight up stockinette. Fingerless of course.





Here is another photo. I was playing around with the Picasa Collage feature. I rather like what you can do with it.
My youngest accused me of being lazy, because I never knit "those cut off fingers". Well, I just know where my limitations are. They either turn out so tight that they cut off the blood circulation, or they are so bulky between the fingers that they are just plain uncomfortable.
Right now I am on a sock tangent.
Maybe I come up with some sock patterns......
I think I saw some interesting swirly patterns in that puddle earlier......
Hmmmmm...
*wanders off*