Just a few notes

Sorry, gang for my little leave of absence lately. I have been particularly busy the last couple of weeks because I have been putting in extra hours at the library ever since I got promoted to the "Circ Clerk" job. I am still shelving a little AV there, but I have been training the last 2 weeks with my supervisor, sometimes working two shifts, while also taking on my 12 students throughout the week as well. It's been a stressful time, and I have been getting home late, eating late and doing little but watching tv because my brain is fried, overly tired, giving my headaches, or all the above.

I do have lots of things to share with you all though, regrettably not too much in the knitting department. I have been working the past month in a half on various hibernated projects, but I have also casted on for something wintery because I just couldn't take it any longer. I'll talk about it more later on in the post.

I have a new toy! I bought this Wurlitzer piano off of a lady in my hometown, and I'm thrilled to have my very own piano. I have been falling out of practice ever since college, and I am practicing with a vigor that I haven't seen in ages. Granted, I do have to play as quiet as possible, since the piano carries in the apartment and I am trying to avoid a "noise complaint." I haven't gotten one yet, and I want to keep it that way. It is very difficult to play quietly every time I practice, but I tell myself that it is only temporary until our lease is up. Joe and I plan on searching for a reasonably-priced townhouse or a stand-alone when our lease is up.

I've been playing around with photoshop for these pics, because my apartment isn't really photogenic. I really like the edited pics.

I've been cooking too. I've made a cheesy hash brown casserole, experimented with a mango turkey meatloaf, a red cabbage & green apple side dish, scalloped potatoes, a "spaghetti squash" dinner with my specialty garlic bread, etc. The gizmo that you see in the picture was one of my wedding shower gifts from Avon that is really fun. It cuts your veggies into those slices when you push the lid down on it. They cut the potatoes into really nice sized chunks for scalloped potatoes or for cutting carrots.

Has it been snowing a lot by you too? I've been having a hard time just getting out of my parking spot! My balcony is definitely feeling the weight of the snowstorms.

I've been working on EZ's "Mitered Mitts" in the Frog Tree yarn that I bought a while back (the same yarn as used in my Striped Shawl). I'm digging the mitts so far, and I have been knitting them during my work breaks. My Striped Shawl is coming along too. I don't have a recent picture though to share with you all.

I have one more interesting (and a horror)story:
A couple of weeks ago, Joe and I invited some friends over for a "game night" with appetizer foods and some fun board games like "Dirty Minds" and "Cranium." After leaving-this is a Sunday evening mind you, and they were only over like 2ish hours-my friend calls me on the phone and says her car is gone. Now, we ran out of visitor passes, and the apt. office is closed on the weekend, so were were on good faith (naive) that a towing company wouldn't be around on a wintery Sunday evening. She first thought that someone might have stolen her car, but we found out that she actually did get towed! OK, so we called them up, they towed her car just TWENTY MINUTES before my friends left, on one of those random "patrols" they they must do to earn another buck. We ended up having to drive to a town 30 minutes away(!) and have to bail the car out for nearly 200 dollars, meanwhile having to drive to a shady shack in the middle of nowhere with a dark lot and a little house with no heat and carpet ripped out in nearly half the house. The money and drive wasn't the worst part, mind you. While we were paying, one man was taking care of the "business" transaction (only hard cash allowed) while the other man was in the darkest part of the shack, with a hooded sweater on, and hands in is pocket while he stared at us girls (Joe was along, though, it was the three of us). While we finished, we three collectively felt that this short mysterious man that was either DRUNK, or on DRUGS or both... was going to knife us as we walked out (he was standing by the doorway the whole time). Hey, that's three purses/wallets and no money trail since it's cash. This guy gave all us the serious creeps...and he really looked like a serial killer...and I'm not just saying that because of the hood and dark room. Bad vibes were flaring off of him, and we all felt the same way. We almost bolted out of that place, locking our car doors as we got in. We all wonder what would have happened if we didn't give them the money and tried to get out of paying. That place still gives me the goosebumps. We complained to our apt. manager, and he said he got a complaint about the creeps before.
That's my scary story for a while, hopefully. We all keep thinking of it as our "near-death" experience. I was very, very angry about the predicament, but I'm glad that we were all safe. Never, ever go alone to those places if you don't have at least a guy. It was us two girls and a guy, and we still all felt in danger. I can't imagine two girls going alone.

I'm going to leave you on a better note now and end with a trivia question: a thousand points if you can name this chord! :)

Winter Shawl

Meet Victoria.

Victoria has spiritedly joined the KUAS team by displaying FO's. And as a self-model and self-photographer a good portion of the time, it's a good deal. Ain't she purty? I got her at one of my favorite stores; one that has items always on discount and is unpredictable and sells unique things. She was a winner. And boy did I feel weird walking out of the mall with her. ha ha.

Hey, hey hey...I finished a project yesterday. It wasn't on the progress list, so you didn't see that coming. Bada-bing-bada boom! I blocked it on one of my Christmas presents from the hubby, blocking boards. It did need to be blocked, but I have to admit that after knitting the edging and looking at the edging post-blocked...I kind of liked how it looked pre-blocked. It almost looks like I just did garter stitch and stretched it out to have waves, but I did indeed to the work of increases and decreases. Oh well. Experience.

The first finished project that Victoria is displaying is from one of my hibernating projects, my Winter Princess Shawl. Because the body is made out of mohair, it's very warm and perfect as a shawl-scarf for the winter time.

This is a good stashbusting project. I used one skein of KidMo yarn, and did the rest of the border in Malabrigo Lace yarn, in a colorway that is just gorgeous. I just love that lavender, it's soo soothing.

Project: Winter Princess Shawl (KUAS orignial)
Yarn: 1 skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts' KidMo & 1/5 skein of Malabrigo Lace
Needles: size US9 circs
Project started: May 18th 2009 Project Finished: January 16th, 2010

Getting on track

Well folks, I'm happy to say that I'm still on track with my "get 'er finished" frame of mind. I have around 28 projects on my poor needles, and I am picking through a few of them (my "Frozen River" hat, my "Rippled Reading Afghan," a striped shawl and a mohair shawl-still nameless, to say). Despite the enormity of the afghan project, I do have fond memories of knitting almost all of it while getting hooked on the show Lost (while it was STILL good), and I'm in love with the rippling texture and changing colorway. The yarn used isn't anything too special, it's really just 100% wool, but it reminds me of handspun yarn, and the colorway will give a great effect with no effort on my part just by knitting it up in different stitch amount intervals.

I also plan on doing more stashbusting in the near future. My spare room is much too crowded with yarn (not all woolies, don't feel like you need to drool). I should get props this week for not buying any more yarn. My husband bought me a giftcard to a knitting shop, and I not only resisted the urge to go off and spend it guiltlessly...but to throw fuel into the fire, he offered this last weekend to go with me. And boys and girls, I said no. N-O. I've told myself that I need to eat up my stash a bit, and by golly that's what I am doing.

Remember this post? Yeah, it was from the beginning of '08. I've now made it my goal to get this baby done as soon as I can. I've been knitting at least 4 rounds a day. Sometimes 5-6 rounds if I'm watching something good (like Tin Man). Doesn't sound like a lot though, right? Actually, it takes a while for me to knit each round because this bad-boy grew to nearly 600 stitches. That's like doing 10 sock rounds to 1 afghan round, and let's face it, the needle isn't getting any lighter or able to hold any more increases.

Anywho, I've done another revamp of my blog's template; I hope you all enjoy it. I like the simplicity of it. On the left is from my beautiful spinning wheel, and the lavender object is a LT sweater that isn't too far in the "game." I've also included in my sidebar some "progress bars" to show you what I'm working on, and how far along they are even inbetween blog postings.

I've been experimenting with Matzo Balls for some time now. For some reason, I really enjoy the taste and texture of them and I have been working on improving the simple recipe because the texture/density of the balls will vary depending on how you prepare it and how it is cooked. I think I have finally gotten the recipe down, although it might look a little "rustic." I care less about the appearance and care more about how dense the middle is. This particular batch was very light in the middle, and almost tasted buttery.

I put a little blurb on the top of my blog already announcing this, but I want to congratulate Rebecca on winning the New Years contest. A big thanks goes out to all who participated. Check in with me soon for some more posts about old projects that are getting some more attention. Check out that blog KAL I started on dehibranating projects and the growing Ravelry group that goes with it.

Uncovering some dirty secrets

2010 is all about changes. It's the birth of another year, and I, like many are trying to set a new pace for my own good. This is going to be somewhat of an embarrassing post, but it's for the good of all knit-kind, and for the good of my own sanity. This post is about "dehibernating" those many, many projects. In the process, I got rid of the hold, oo-ed and ahh-ed at the forgotten, and reminisced at the old days (college).

Ok, I'm going to tell you my dirty little secret. After frogging TEN projects, I still have TWENTY-FIVE TWENTY-EIGHT projects in the works!! Please excuse the boring background.

Projects, with the year it was started:

1. a Bears pillow ('09--this was supposed to be for my grandfather while he was stuck in the hospital)
2. a market bag ('09)
3. a pair of ribbed socks ('09)
4. a single Hawkeye ribbed socks ('09)
5. a "Carnival" sock ('09)
6. my long forgotten "Rippled Reading Afghan" ('o7!)
7. another "Rippled Reading Afghan" with only 2 colors ('07)
8. a raglan (my "Lana Lang" raglan that I though about soph. year of college) ('08)
9. a baby cardi ("Sweet as Candy") ('07!)
10. a baby cardi ('09)
11. a purled tunic ('8)
12. a lavender LT sweater ('08)
13. a cropped sweater ('09)
14. my "Kahlan" raglan tee ('07!)
15. a hat for Joe ('08)
16. a hat for me ('09)
17. my "Frozen River" hat ('09--but currently being worked on)
18. another "Unique Basketweave" Washcloth ('09)
19. a multi-colored scarf ('07)
20. a ribbed scarf with circle-icord edging ('05!!!?)
21. a shawl ('09--most recently started shawl)
22. a shawl ('08--yarn from Stitches Midwest)
23. a "cabin Shawl" ('06 or '07 maybe--my first shawl)
24. a lacy heart shawl ('08--this makes me really sad now, because of my grandfather who passed away...I started this in the hospital waiting room when his troubles first started. I also knit some of this when Joe and I went to the Dells)
25. the "Aestlight Shawl" ('09--memories of my honeymoon)

Not shown:
26. Mohair shawl
27. Joe's Cubs blanket
28. Pink LT rib socks

Obviously, you see my dilemma. Startitis has bitten me over the years, and it's no wonder why there aren't more projects posted when I was indeed putting hours into these dozens of projects.

So, in hopes to continue working on these projects, I have started a KAL for everyone wanting to dig our projects out of our closets, baskets, beds, couches, or wherever they are stashed and forgotten about...to get them finished up!

This KAL isn't just for knitters, so tell your knitter, crocheter, sewer, or any crafter friend who has neglected their projects just like me!! Spred the word and use this KAL button for your blog (can be found on my sidebar) to link yourself to the KAL. HINT: on blogger, go to "customize," then click on "add a gadget," click on "picture," save and upload the button from my sidebar and add ( http://www.missiondehibernation2010.blogspot.com/) to the "link" box, and push "Save."

Write your email address in the comment box below to join, or email me at knittingupastormATgmailDOTcom so I can add you as one of the publishers on the KAL blog.

I hope you had a fun and safe New Years Eve & day. Mine was definitely loud and eventful.

New Years Contest

I want to wish everyone another great New Year. 2009 has been a significant year for me, I got married, my hubby graduated with a Biomedical Engineering degree (which means that we aren't separated through states anymore, like we were for a year), he found himself a great job with even more potential, we are living happily in my first apartment, we celebrated our first Christmas, I'm applying at my job to try to move upward...but It did have its downs: my grandfather's illness and eventual death, Joe's two grandfathers getting cancer (one terminal), my aunt's constant illnesses, etc.

I've always known how sad my newly windowed grandmother is lately (my grandfather died the week before my wedding), but after spending Christmas Eve with her and my family, I've been more motivated to set important resolutions for 2010:

1. To pick up my grandma once a week to go grocery shopping (she doesn't drive! And now she's all alone!...and she has to order her food) so that she feels loved and can also get out of the house. This also takes care of the fact that I've been really bad about not visiting...

2. To spend more time on charity work (no matter how small it seems).

3. To get back in shape (My muscles are not liking how out of shape I am)

4. To try to move up in the library-world, or if I can't, to spend more time educating myself on various subjects because my brain feels like a blob not doing anything stimulating (besides knitting).

5. To continue to work on a good marriage, to not let anything change our relationship during the first year of our marriage (even though it's still a struggle to work out that whole "toilet seat" thing. ha ha.).

6. To work on my hibernating projects. I have some good projects that have been treated unjustly. You can't even imagine how many are in that pile...

NEW YEARS CONTEST:

What to win: a knitter's goodie bag (including a skein of KUAS yarn and a pattern)!

How to play: Tell me your most important resolution, and why it will effect your life in a good way. You must supply me with an email address (you can send me it via email if you don't want it seen: knittingupastormATgmailDOTcom). After the contest closes, I will randomly pick a name out of the hat.

How to bump up your odds: tell your friends about this contest, or write about this contest on your blog (give me the link) and have them refer you (your name must be stated). Feel free to copy & paste the rules. For every reference and/or posting to your blog, you get another name in the hat.

CONTEST CLOSES 1/2/10 at MIDNIGHT!!! Check out my blog soon after to see the winner announced! See ya'll next year! In the meantime, check out my last post...I'm kind of stepping on it right now.

Christmas '09 knits

Hey gang. Now that the whathaveyou's have died down, I'm back in blogland to post a couple of pics of what I knit for a couple of people for Christmas. I still have Joe's birthday hat to knit up (that's about a week or so away). I choose to not make it for Christmas because I might try to do something fancier than just plain 'ol ribbing. Obviously, I plan WAY in advance for people's presents. Golly...maybe that should be a resolution.

The first scarf is for a volunteer who comes in on Wednesdays at the library to help me out with "feature films" (dvds). She is a very nice lady who is quite knowledgeable with nutrition; she teaches me little tid-bits on those days about vitamins and such, and how "knowledge is power." I've gotten talks about how I should use probiotics more, get more vitamin C (washing my hands every 30 mins isn't enough), the power of tumeric, etc. So, I knit her up something for all of her hard work and for being such a nice person to me all the time.

I came across this "braided scarf" idea while shelving (my mind needs something stimulating to cut the boringness of alphabetizing all of the time). It's not really that original, but I thought that stashbusting with boucle yarn would not only be a better way to show off the braids because it hides the (blah) garter stitch, but it's also really warm and fuzzy. The scarf has a button on it, but I had to snap these pictures really fast before work because they were literally "fresh off the press."

Project: "the Braided Scarf" (KUAS original)
Yarn: stashbusting boucle yarn (I lost the brand labels long ago), 2 skeins in different colors
Needles: size US15 staights
CO: 12/20/09 FO: 12/23/09
Skill Level: easy-schmeasy, only garter stitch.

My brother has been asking me for a "red & black" scarf for several years. I finally decided to oblige (bulky yarn in mind, of course) the day before Christmas Eve. LOL.

It's a woven stitch pattern, to make the two contrasting colors pop. The back is actually cool because it makes the scarf reversible with a weird almost-woven type of garter stitch look.

The most ironic thing was that when my brother opened it up, he wrapped it around him and said "it needs to be longer" and "I'd rather the next one be simpler. Just a solid black and then red stripe."
Blast that boy. He's going to turn my head to mush faster than Hulu.

Project: "Woven Scarf" (KUAS original)
Yarn: 2 skeins of bulky yarn (Lion Brand's "Hometown USA")
Needles: size US17 circular needles
CO: 12/23/09 FO: 12/23/09
Skill Level: easy

Joe and I had fun celebrating our first Christmas together. Wonders beyond wonders...before we opened our presents Christmas morning, I was going to light a candle on our kitchen table in the dinning room, and I felt a cold drip of water on my back. I looked up and saw that the beam on the ceiling was leaking! We had several leaks going that morning. Poor maintenance guy, he had to come and scrape our roof to put a stop to the leak. Of all days! I gave him some baked cookies for his trouble. Other than that, we split the day hitting two of our family's houses.

The Holiday knits poll is closed, and here are the results:

It seemed that knitting hats was the winner, followed closely by scarves and then mittens. That doesn't seem too odd, although I might have believed that scarves would be the winner. I wonder what types of toys were being knit up. Who voted for that? Let me know what you guys knit up. :)

My husband modeling the scarf before I never get to see it again. He's got my heart.

Stay tuned for a "2010 Resolutions contest," to kick off the new year with some fun! Start thinking of some resolutions...

Quick Holiday Knit: Doubled Looped Scarf Pattern

Well, I planned on posting two patterns, but I hope this is sufficient for those of you who still need a 1-2 day knit for a last-minute chic gift. Have a very Merry Christmas and holidays, everyone! Enjoy this super-duper easy and fast pattern! I'm off to brew some hot cocoa and do the annual snowy drive-around in the neighborhood to look at the Christmas lights with my hubby!

Doubled Looped Scarf Pdf (links to Ravelry) 
Skill: EASY
TYPES: Seed Stitch & Garter Scarves

MATERIALS:
Needles: 1 skein (240yds) bulky yarn in Main Color. 10-20 yds in contrast color for the border.
Needles: size US15 circular needle (29'') & darning needle.
Hook: size K or N

GUAGE: approx. 5 sts=2''


MEASUREMENTS: 47'' circumference

ABBREVIATIONS:
K=knit P=purl ST(S)=stitch(es) RD=round

leftovers never looked so gourmet...

Just checking in. I just got back from work from the library (yup, on a Sunday), and I was planning on making this gourmet leftover dinner ever since I made the grilled steak and chicken dinner last night.

Above is a soup-salad-sandwich combo that's mostly Asian inspired. Because the steak and chicken was grilled with a sesame, ginger and garlic marinade, I used the sauce again for the salad that has sesame seeds, almonds and carrots and the leftover medium-well cooked steak. I also used the marinaded chicken to make an Asian chicken salad sandwich on a fresh croissant. The soup is cheesy cauliflower soup that is semi-homemade and topped with crustini bread that is seasoned with oil, salt and garlic and is crusty enough to taste like flat croutons. Goodness gratious... it was Delish!

Check in with me in a day or so. I plan on uploading a couple of free scarf patterns (the double-looped scarf & also a new unique scarf one) in the next post so you have another fast and east knit pattern that you can knit up really quickly for the holidays. Off to watch more Meerkat Manor (so cute and addicting!!)

Winter waltzes

Sorry, gang, for being rather quiet and boring the past couple of weeks. I've been as busy as one of Santa's elves with a lot of the holiday bustling. I've been taking photos along the way, but they just haven't made it into the computer until just now.

Above is a photo of one of the many batches of gingerbread men I've been making. They are scrumptious! I plan on hanging with a friend or two tonight to make gingerbread houses!

I'll just jump into the knitting right away, since these are just WIPs, and not really worth the suspense. These two knits are both KUAS originals that I've started and worked on here and there. The purple knit is a baby cardi that is a little similar to EZ's "February Lady," but has a different, and more wavy lace pattern. The blue heathered project (not really visible in the photo) is a hat pattern that has a different construction than the hat patterns that I'm sick of used to. I knit the cabled band first, and then picked up the stitches around the rim before continuing with another cable pattern.

A little ironic: once I did all the cable work, and picked up stitches (twice, since I ripped it out the first time to do things differently), I realized that the cable pattern could probably have been done vertically, and still look the same. To stop laughing myself silly, I told myself that I wouldn't have known how many stitches to cast-on to fit my head perfectly (who's swatches really work out in the end?), and this way was better because I'll just end up doing another cable pattern that can't be done vertically for some other hat...and this is my guinea pig project. Fair enough.

On another note, I was excited when the first snowfall happened. There is something magical about that first fall...an electric spark of awe and hope for that white Christmas that you remembered as a kid. Or it might just be me...one who is a little into the sensory around this time of year. Cold crunchy snow. A warm fireplace cracking and popping. Aromatic pine needles burning. Cookies of all sorts baking. The soft yet brilliant glow of the lights on the Christmas tree. Holiday-inspired coffees of peppermint, eggnog and gingerbread...

Speaking of winterly things. Joe and I rode the train to Chicago and enjoyed a Saturday in the city, shopping and eating at a pub. We enjoyed all of the lights littering the city trees, and checked out Macy's displays. Let me tell you, that store is a little intimidating, what with its 8 or 9 floors...

Macy's had a magnificent Christmas display. I can't even imagine how much it cost, but things where hanging every which way from the ceiling.

And the most current news: I celebrated my 24th birthday on the 12th. We had a great time going to see the Nutcracker and eating out at Jimmy's Charhouse and drinking up at Chilies. I'm enjoying my birthday gift, the new Wii Mario game (awesome!! I love mario, and I'm stoked that they remade the game while trying to keep the wonderful elements of the first couple of marios). Last night, I cooked a yummy dinner, a Shepherd's Pie that I tried to replicated from the pub in Chicago (Elephant & Castle...or was is Castle & Elephant? I forgot).

Let me leave you with a wonderful photo from one of the winterly Sunsets from a week ago: