Turning. (with a knitting finale.)

I'm a pretty stagnant person, when it comes to likes and dislikes. I'll admit that. What's hard to admit is when you finally realize that something is different. Maybe even suspect. Ok, having a strong craving for meatloaf is one thing, everyone has one of those commercial white-castle urges once in a while, but felting?

.....OK, hand's up. You caught me. I hated felting.
(wait a second, did I just spot a past tense use of the word "hate?")

Don't get me wrong, the workmanship on certain items that are felted are wonderful, the colorways used are gorgeous, their stitching-impeccable. But the texture and the look of felted wool made my skin crawl. Wait, "made?" But now, I can't hide it anymore. It's almost like something's in the air,... and I'm not just talking about the wonderful drop in the temperature. I started growing an interest in the concept. Granted, we all know how that turned out. But this feeling I've had lately is different now... potent, even. Ideas have been storming around in my head during lectures. It has left my head buzzing, while I should be sleeping. What is this?
I've been day-dreaming of what I want my future house to looks like, the coziness of the couches, wood floors, soft sage colors, mosaic coffee table-top ideas, and even felted placeholders. comfy felted clogs. Clutches. Felted coasters. Stop me.

Joe and I went for a walk the other day. I think I love Maples the best in the Fall...the leaves are just so juicy!
Oh, wait a second, while we are on the subject of "botany," how did I do on the test?? Um, horrible, as expected! But since I did the second best (second-least-worst, really) in the class, I pulled of a B! Oh yeah! Thank the Lord for curves!

We also took the week off and lodged at this cozy cabin.
I knit during the day, and cuddled up by the fire with Joe at nightfall.
....I wish.

It's practically the "ancient ruins" of our campus. I once knew a guy that tried to make this "storage" cabin into a small student-runned coffee house. It's a shame noone listened to him.
However, it does make a great place to knit by.

Random note: I just finished Mary Kruger's second installment in her "knitting mystery" series, Knit Fast, Die Young. To be honest, I was a little disappointed. The setting was a little too stale, and only changed half-way through the book, and I knew who "dun-it" from the beginning. Either I'm getting a knack for being a detective, or it was a little too obvious. Unfortunately, I believe the latter is the correct one.

Oh, can I vent for a second?
How did I get stuck with the earliest day to present my research to my Seniors seminar?
I've got less than one month to research and create a ten minute (verbal & visual) presentation on my thesis (we also have to write a 12-ish page research paper), and the pile is still growing.
Some one please pinch me. Is this real?

Crap.
Bang head here.

...And I guess,the moment you have been waiting for...
Here's a quick snap of the beginning workings of my "Infinity Cardigan."

I'm in love with the cables. I love the symmetry of the snake cables around the edges, the tweediness, the color, and the i-cord on the edge, for the zipper. I picture myself wearing this around Halloween & Thanksgiving. Do you notice the sideways "8" look going on in the cables? Just checking.



Spending some quality time with the DF.


Happy Friday.

(This one doesn't count.)

EDIT: I just made an archive of all of the FO's that predate my blog!
Feast your eyes on this!!

First off, I just want to say thank-you to everyone who has cheered me on, and shared my depression on unfair exams! You gals are awesome, and I would do a group hug if I could!! :)
It stinks that bad (exams) happen to (good) people. ha ha.

On to knitterly things:
I am really sorry about the delay, oh wonderful craftsters. I know you all have been very patient for some more eye-candy that has not been sufficiently provided. Darn you academia and non-approved weather!! Anyways, if you live in the Midwest, you probably have empathy for my woes of sticky needles and sweltering rooms this past week. I'm sick of 90 degree weather...my room does not have air-conditioning. But, that's ok, it will start cooling off tomorrow, finally.
I am knitting up the cardigan, but 6'' of 1x1 ribbing goes a little slowly when you are working in the heat, and on 180-ish stitches with size 6 needles.
However, I am almost to the more exciting part (increasing), and will post pictures as soon as the cardigan starts to resemble a snippet of a garment.

I am also excited to announce that I have finally came up with the: suspect, a couple of awesome "big events" that happen in my plot, and some dynamics to my main characters in my "knitting mystery" book. I definitely don't want to wimp on the suspense & hair-raising moments (that some "cozy" books miss), so I came up with something good for now. However, I still don't have an outline on the plot, so this whole preliminary work will take time. Then, I have to figure out the "guidelines" of some mystery publishers. (Most people don't realize that the biggest reason that people get rejected is that they didn't think to get the official "guidelines" for certain sub-genres.) Mystery books have many genres, and you have to be ultra-careful while writing that you meet the criteria of whatever sub-genre you choose. Yikes.

The two skeins of lace and the Victorian Lace Today book was from a distant cousin in Seattle Washington, that just found out that I knit! The short story was that my dad visited Seattle on a business trip, somehow got on the topic about me, told her about me knitting, and she grabbed this pile out of her own house to give to me!! Wasn't that amazing?!? Thank-you Cindy! You're amazing!

On the left is a mystery skein of lace-weight in a almost light royal blue & dark brown. The other skeins is from Prism yarns, in the gorgeous colorway: Ginger.
I love awesome surprises like this! I've always drooled over this book at Borders.

This was from last Saturday, at Wilson's Apple Orchard.

The funny part (sad, really) was that we couldn't pick apples, because of the early frost. Ironic, really, since it's soo hot here.


This snap-shot was intriguing.
We did take a walk around the orchard.

This lovely gentlemen offered our huge group a ride! We rode for at least a half an hour around the orchard, and finally over a creek! Luckily there was enough room for our large group of 15. It was really nice to relax while the tractor did all the work. It was a lovely day. The air was a bit chilly and we had a picture-perfect sunset view above the orchard.



In the meantime, I will leave you with a paradox to answer:
Q: How is it that sometimes, you can feel soo comfy/lazy not leaving your house (ex: just feeling like watching tv) that the mear thought of going outside seems...."blah," yet feel so wonderful being outside that you don't want to come back, once you finally get that nudge to the "world" outside? Do you catch my drift?
This question was hard to formulate, since it's based off of those feelings you get, and I apologize now, because it might only sound clear in my head.


Ok, time to find air-conditioning somewhere in this residence to knit and play some more "catch-up" on my readings:
Luther, Botany & Christian Science.

Current pleasure reading:
Knit Fast, Die Young, by Mary Kruger
The Cairo Diary, by Maxim Chattham.

The morning after...

This had my heart from the very first page. If you like suspense, mystery & romance...I would highly recommend checking this book out! I seriously couldn't put the book down. Please remember that it's a fiction book.

Random Friday #1

I very well will be knitting this WIP for the rest of my life, but I thought that this view was pretty interesting, and definitely a photo-taking chance that I couldn't pass up under any circumstances. Cries for more battery juice just had to wait.

Although my empty battery really did shut the camera off right after this shot, I walked home as happy as a drunk, with a nice comparison of my colorway to this seasoning tree.
You can almost hear my sigh of knitterly pleasure...
But, I've got to get a grip of reality. Seriously.
I need to work more diligently on this WIP, so I can finish it before Winter! Part of the whole problem revolves around my insistance on knitting a shawl with small needles. Now, if I were a normal person, which I'm not (lol), I would be knitting this shawl on size 7's or such.
Nope, I'm knitting the dang thing up on size 4's. Tisk Tisk. It better keep me warm.

~the dreaded "senior's project~
As a Religious Studies Major, I'm required to do my "senior's thesis" project (research paper) on a subject of my own particular liking that relates to my professor's theme, "the part and the whole." You can almost laugh at the dramatics of the theme. As you can see, I've already snatched several books at the library. I've decided to do something related to desert fathers or other such persons who seclude themself from society to inhance their spirituality. As you can see, they generally are more in the "part" category, but I've got to somehow figure out to incorporate how their search for salvation through seclusion & feirce deprevational practices connects them to the whole. The quest is on. (later.)

Good thing it's due at the end of the semester. I've got time to procrastinate.

~me writing??~
Speaking of books, I've decided to work more on my own knitting mystery book.
I'm beginning to realize why I insist on reading mystery books lately: I'm in love with good "cozy" mystery books. I don't like the gore, I love the spice of romance, and a dash of supense within...kind of like a "Ross & Rachel" relationship on Friends, and how everything isn't too intense. So, last night, I decided to look up the criteria for a cozy mystery book.
So ok, don't get me wrong, I realize that my book may never actually be published, but I feel this urge to get my "creative writing" tingle out. I may stink at writing clear and concise essays, but I've always had a nack for writing good fiction snipits. Remember, creativity first, grammer later. lol.

Foliage, cozy & murder.

Alas, after much frogging and diverse designs for the sock club, we have a winner! It tingles my heart that it's 100% better than my first version, as it also captures the real quality of the cables. You're looking a sneak peek at my "Coiled Cables & Ribs" cabin sock pattern, before I move on to the heel. (it's useless to take pictures any further, since the beginning of gusset-work looks like poo on the camera.) I've got to finish these socks, finalize the written pattern, take an awesome fall snap outside modeling them, and send them in to the yarn queen by the end of this month. That gives me about a week and a half to finish the socks.



I'm quite in love with the pattern. It's my personal favorite, and I wish that this camera could capture the true beauty. Maybe you can really see how cool the cables work in conjunction with the Fall colorway once they are on the footsies. (I hope really so.)
If You're interesting in joining the "Cuaran Sock Club," go to Liz's etsy shop, where she handles the membership. I think she only has the year-round sock club left, but If you want to do it the month-to-month way, I'll ask her to add more on etsy. Just let me know first.


I'm am so into the mystery & thriller genre right now! This is my 5th mystery book this summer. I've read all of Meggie Stefton's knitting mystery books (which I love, by the way), and decided to venture off to Mary Kruger's knitting mystery books. This one is the first in the series, and has a slightly different style than Stefton. It's really interesting seeing how they both go about mystery books. They both go about characterization in totally different ways, but equally hook you to the plot, credible characters & slight romance...


I have been busy this weekend knitting up this whole pile, "weeding" & "re-templating" my blog. You've probably already noticed though. I think the sidebar is more condensed and manageable. I really love the colors, and the new title photo. Change is good. Honk if you like it.
P.S-The cute small square is actually for me. I've got an interesting afghan idea brewing in my head. My lips are sealed for now.

Irony Without Humor

...Or things you should have used your nogin on (or been sober for...):


So, ok. I admit it. I had a couple of Mike Hard's while starting this sock at the family reunion. Everyone was drinking...why not? And of course, after 6 inches, or when my system digested the booze, I did realize that I was being a jack-A and started the heel at the END of the round, not the middle, thus creating a hideous line running down the front of the foot. Yes, this wasn't the normal Anna knitting. (I dear hope so.) However, when you have frickin' gaps running along all directions like fugin' extra-wide ladders....it's time to put your foot down. And I don't mean on those "steps." What's that???.... I hear a nasty 'frog' approaching from the murky distance. Crud. At least now I can add watery-looking cables to the next attempt. I shall have my "secret waterfall," I promise you all.

...Of course, I would be ripping it right before the toe decreases. How nice, eh? Doesn't that just give you warm fuzzies??

OH, and a nice little piece of advice for anyone moving to a temporary location: when someone helps you pack up your desktop computer....make sure before you've arrived at a different state that the POWER cord was packed... and not lying on the floor of your room, under your desk, plugged into the wall. Forlorn. Useless.
...AND WHILE I'M ON A ROLE....bring a frickin' fan, for goodness sakes! Your room doens't have air conditioning, and it's about 100 degrees during the day in your room!
(Thanks 'Gramps' for the turbo fan from Walmart! You're a life saver! It's a shame that it was repacked from a return, because it looks used and the tilting adjustments don't hold....)

On a lighter note, (SMILE! Shake off the narcistic gloominess of this post....)I finished reading a couple more books this week, before I headed back for school (and I still have a couple more days to start a new one!..."geeky me," the corny equivalence of "magical me"from H.P:



The sock club i'm designing patterns for is ready for joining! It's set up to be purchased through Etsy. It has a huge sum price for the fierce-hearted sock knitters, but per-month billing can be set up through Liz, which I think is a better option for the common person's pocketbook. The sock club has new innovatory every other month. That means, if you are part of the club, you recieve in the MAIL:
1 skein of yarn & 1 printed off sock pattern (themed with the sock yarn colorway) in each shipment. (The yarns will vary between Celtic, Woodland, and Chubby yarn.)
Please Note (and I quote Liz): Each shipment will be sent out every other month. The first shipment will be sent out in early October.There will be contests and prizes every month. The club is limited to 30 individuals. Months for shipments: October,December,February,April,June


...So i'm guessing "Sock it to me!" sock club was vetoed, then? I guess?
Aie-ya-ya.
...Knew in my heart I never really had a say in it....
Stubborn ass.

What Did I Do All WEEK?!?

Hey Everyone! I'm back from an entire week of my fioncée's family reunion....that's right....from Saturday to Saturday of, ummmm: fun, silly & confinement with Maliszewski "strangers." lol. I actually was proud of myself...I had everyone's (roughly 28 new peeps) name down by the first day. I actually had a lot of fun. We were up in MadisonGreenbay (oops!), Wisconsin, bunking in two large cabins. We basically didn't have an organized agenda, which allowed me to get a lot of knitting & reading done, as well as swimming, rowing, and corn hole/bags playing. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that the Mal's are crazy for games? We played a card game called "99" almost every night. If you think you've had crazy card nights with your pals....think again! Take almost 30 players-most being of drinking age or a lot OLDER-plus the rowdiness of normal people times a gazillion! You could almost pee your pants during those games, dying of laughter! The only things we didn't do were hike & tubing.

PAST WEEK:

...and yes fellas, that Aqua Float does actually flip over! "I told you so."

...A common Mal' salutation. No questions, please.

Paddle-boating along an inlet. (Ok, paddling AND reading AND knitting.)

...Proof of "knitting in nature." Ahhhh.

...Proof of reading H.P 7, AND knitting.

OH.... I have a "nighty night" story to tell you all later....plus a video to go along with it....DON'T let me forget to post it later on this week. Just remind me if I forget. ;)

Finished Reading during my vacation:

Harry Potter 6 &7, plus C'est La Vie (a very interesting book about a woman starting life over in Paris, after her husband dies. I recommend it to anyone interested in abroad.)

FO:

"Simply Ginny."

WIP:

The first sock in the pair, from my colorway: The Secret Waterfall.

NEW STUFF:

Dyeing! This completes my "summer dyes 2007." These were the last 3 skeins of my bulk. I can anticipate me being too busy to do more dyeing on my last week of summer vacation, before I leave to start my Senior year... whoot whoot!
Top: "Rain Forest"
Middle: Rockin' (my own take of a skein already created. I just loved the colors. However, the grey is lighter than the original.)
Bottom: "Starry Night"

FYI: My blog should be fully updated after this post. I'm taking down the poll, adding skeins to my sidebar and updating my completed reading list. Thanks for your patience. ;)

Debear62, I'll mail your skein out to you sometime this week, now that I'm back. :)

Work tomorrow, plus Cubs game! It's my first baseball outing...ever! (Can you tell i'm not into sports, lol.)

Quickie update....

A WHOLE NEW LOOK ON MY BLOG!

I know i've seriously had a deficiency in knitting updates, but I promise... I'll have a picture soon! I've been quite busy with work & babysitting (yes, that last word requires a groan. But hey, it's more money in my rather empty pocket.)

I just finished two books this week: Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, in time for the movie that i'll see tonight (another reason why i keep not having enough knitting time) and finally, Tuesdays with Morrie, which I just finished a second ago. I highly recommend both books. Tuesdays with Morrie is definately worth your attention, and is a very quick read. I mean, it's only 190 pages long, yet jam-packed with inspirational tid-bits & advice for a meaningful life!

I'm thinking of compiling a "most-read" list for any reader fans out there; however, I don't have much time right now to post the non-knitting related ones, but here is a few "most-read" for knitters (not including pattern books, magazines or stitchionaries):

~~My star ratings, out of 5~~
1 star= bad... don't waste your money & time. I can't believe this sells.
2 stars= Ok, but probably wouldn't touch it again...once is enough.
3 stars=Good-pretty good. I had a good time. It was a mixture of ups and downs. I'd probably read it again later on when I have some spare time.
4 stars="What a good book!" It's definately on my must-read-again list.
5 stars="WOW! I love it! I would highly recommmend this book. (In the category of a life-changing book for some genres.) This is a staple to my bookshelf.

-Yarn Harlot (5 stars)
-Knit One, Kill Two (5 stars)
-Needled to Death (4 stars)
-A Deadly Yarn (4 stars)
-A Killer Stitch (3.5 stars)
-Knitlits 1-3(stories average 3.5 stars)


Real Pictures soooooooooon! Sorry for the wait.

Busy busy bumblebee yet the honeycomb is empty

John Angotti is here in Illinois, and I get the privilege of performing with a few others in my church choir at the concert tomorrow night. So, I've been really busy today rehearsing, as I will be tomorrow... leaving the poor sock a wee bit neglected. Hmm. well let's do some math. 1 1/2 hours in the car ride for tomorrow, that will be be, oh, at least 10 real enthusiastically indulged rows on size 1's before I start feeling car sick...

Seriously though, the *first* sock is just about done. The second sock syndrome kicked in (oh let's just say) by the cast-on of the first. Hee Hee.

I'm planning on ripping the giant green blanket-using homespun in a gentle dark lime color- which I started before I began blogging, and will knitting it in a basketweave stitch, soon. I'll double up the strands and knit them on nice and big circular needles that will knit the blanket up quickly. I don't plan on knitting it all up right away, but I want to finally get a good chunk done (finally) by a week or two.

Other than that, i'm going to crash right now-- cuddling up to Maggie Stefton's A Killer Stitch. Hopefully I won't fall asleep right away.

P.S-- thanks for putting up with all this music talk lately. I promise that I will return to a more knitting focus (with mucha pictures!) after tomorrow. Merci beaucoup! Je t'adore tous!

$14 Thrift Shop Bill. Yeah, I'm serious.

Having nothing to do today after watching tv at the bo's house, we decided to take a trip to the thrift shop, because I heard on craftster that someone found a bag of yarn with alpaca and other things for $4! Well, I didn't find alpaca, but I found a bag with shetland wool (50g), 8 skeins of what looks like the Berroco Suede yarn in a variety of colors, 1 1/2 skeins of what looks to be chunky purple wool, blue & white wool, and tweedy wool (80-100g??), a skein of that black lacey blocks yarn on the right, and a questionable tweedy blue skein of yarn. My cost for this whole bag?? $4!! If I bought this at the normal craftstore, that wouldn't even buy me one skein of theses things.

We then looked around at the book selection. I was amazed to find books in my own collection (eh hem!! *library*) at home that was going for only a couple of bucks... paperback and also hardcover! They had quite the selection of stuff. I piced up an interesting find: Snow Falling on Cedars, which supposedly is a #1 bestseller book, and the great price of $1.21 and The Alchemist, which is only 150 pages, and if it isn't good, I won't cry over 88 cents.

Also... I've been looking for ages for a bargain-priced serving tea pot! For 7 bucks, I found an amazing pot in brand-new condition just waiting for me. I looked on the bottom, and I know why I recognize it. I saw it at Target last season, when I was initially searching for the teapot.


Amazing, or what? 14 bucks is pretty good for all that!
Let's hope more people donate yarn, and the cashiers never find out the retail prices of the yarn!!

Playing with fire

...When you know you are on the threshold of insanity, or entering the "darkside."
It all started with a lovely walk down Walmart lanes. I had the whole idea of learning how to do granny squares and knitting a really cool looking afghan. This isn't your orange-white-red combo, mind you; something simple, pleasant, and appealling to the common eyes.

So ok. Maybe this first go wasn't so sucessful. I wasn't even sure I was double crocheting correctly.
The second go was a lot more sucessful. If it weren't for the wonky black and light blue center, this square would look actually quite nicely.
The third go was even more sucessful, but yet the second tier is again a little loose. I decided to do only 3 tiers, since the object started to get more and more circular as you go. Instead of the black double crochet stitch like the second go, this one has single crochet for the border. it looks a lot better. I was thinking that the other color for the borders would alternate with teal and seagreen, in the afghan. Nice idea, yeah?
The fourth, fifth, sixth (didn't even really get past this point)... the guage is considerably tighter! I hesitated to go looser, because I didn't want the wonky-tonky business going on. Mistake? Yup.
Result??? Let's knit the damn afghan, shall we? I'm going to alternate with the foggotting stitch blocks, picking stitches up along the sides and top and such. I almost considered the trinity stitch for it, instead.

When I was at Micheals, I picked up some awesome ribbon, that I plan to use as my wedding theme. I will put it on the invitations and such, since i'm doing it all by myself. You'll see later on... it will look good once it's all put together. On the right side picture, we are looking at 5 skiens of Sugar & Cream cotton, for washcloths. Colorful and happy-looking... I think so!


Oh my! A book that i'm reading that isn't required for school? You can see that I only got 11 pages through, but i'll pick it up again tomorrow. Bruce Feiler is such an exellent writer/storyteller! I recomment his books to anyone that happens to be Jewish or Christian (or Muslim-- for the book "Abraham")

DID I FORGET TO MENTION THAT SCHOOL'S DONE?!?! I had a great semester, and i'm sure all of my grades will show for it. :)

My FH and I went to Caribou Coffee yesturday, after a couple of months of Starbucks and such, I read some of my book and sipped on their mocha coffee. Now that's mocha!!

Update on Victoria: doesn't look like much, but let's just say that the cabled border took a little while! Then, I had to sew it all around the border-- eeek!! I'm now entering the trinity stitch zone, and am playing with the stitch variation numbers in my head right now. I'll have to figure out how many knit stitches should be in between, or yo's and such.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

--->I've been tagged!
(by She'sa crafty one)

Rules: if you've been tagged, you have to write 7 random facts about yourself (usually fun and interesting ones) on your blog, tag 7 others and write to the original tagger to read your facts, so they know you've done your part.

1. )I hate beer. I'll go straight for the hard mixed stuff.

2.) I don't watch sports, nor do I know any trivia about them, or care much about it

3.) As a child, I took eleven(ish) years of piano, played flute (without instruction, but still very sucessfully) for six years--before I decided not to play in band anymore, and I sing a lot!

4.) I hate all forms of seafood! And I don't care for steak (bloody and red... yuck)-- I'm a cheap dinner date, aren't I?

5.) I live in the Chicagoland, but I rarely visit the city

6.) Rap, alternative and techno music doesn't do it for me-- I listen to classical, contemporary Christitan/gospel, broadway musicals, baroque, some new age and pop music

7.) I really enjoy cooking. I watch a lot of foodnetwork. However, whenever my FH is supposed to help me cook, I usually hog the cooking!

8.) I'm one of the lightest sleepers in the world, and it's almost always a struggle to fall asleep. My creativity kicks in-as well as songs in my head-around the time when I should be sleeping!

9.) I love to read! I mostly read fantasy novels, some Christianity books, Knitting stuff, Harry Potter... etc. You can look up my list on "library thing" under my profile.

10.) I'm engaged to the most loving, caring and wonderful man in the world. We will tie the knot September 19, 2009 (a million years away still).

...11.) I only have one more year left of college... whoohoo!

Interweave Knits & Kiltie CO

I went to Barnes & Nobles today, and this is what I picked up:


Interweave Knits, Spring 2007 & Bruce Feiler's Where God Was Born. I flipped through a lot of the pages, and it looks really interesting. Interweave has a lot of really neat patterns this season. A few are posted below. My random thoughts are numbered ...

1. I plan on trying Entrellac.
Eunny's Entrellac socks are awesome, and I plan on starting them in the summer after I "master" the entrellac technique. Isn't Eunny amazing?!? These socks kick butt! I love the color choice, and how the boxes switch colors.

2. I was thinking that this blue tank would be awesome, if it were shorter. I could make it into a really cool exercising tank in cotton.
3. The "Dollar and a Half" Cardi looks interesting. You can't see what's going on with it, due to the crappy quality of the pic, but it's a good future knit, or something that I could use as a basis to create some other cabled cardi. Actually, if you click on the picture, you can see the cables and such, because it will be super-sized. :)


4. This light blue sweater looks nice, for the future. That's really all I have to say about it.
5. The "Rippled Skirt" looks airy, and great for the summer.



6. I started my Kiltie Skirt. Anyone else wanna join me?? If you go to my sidebar, you can click on the "Kiltie Skirt" KAL, and get the free pattern. Leave a comment, if you think you would like to knit along with me. :) The picture on the right is the yarn i'm using. Notice how the skeins are $1.59 at Walmart... all the cheap but soft glory for a poor college student, right?