Rachel's Ramblings

deadblog

2008-01-06T21:39:00.001-05:00

I'm moving to WordPress. I like Blogger and all, but I've encountered some irritating bugs with pictures and such, and WordPress has a nicer interface, and prettier themes. So come and find me here now.

a wordy post

2008-01-05T18:16:00.000-05:00

I. Introduction – I have so much to say in this post that I decided to organize it 7^th grade English-style. This is how they used to make us organize our essays. Anyway, I'll try to include lots of pictures to make it interesting, and thereby keep resolution IV-b-ii.

II. Regarding Knitting

a. FO: Camera sock

That's my speedy cute little newish camera.

I knitted it a sock. Because that's what I do. You can't see it, but I even grafted the 'toe' with Kitchener stitch.

b. WIP: Manos Raglan

I got a kilogram of gorgeous Manos del Uruguay at Stitches, and I finally started the sweater. That's just a sneak peek. And I think I'm going to have at least a third of the yarn left over, so I can play with felting it! I've seen amazing felted stuff out of Manos.

c. Bobby’s – I got nominated for a Bobby on Ravelry for Most Unusual Project. The voting starts on January 14^th, so please vote for me! There’s a lot of other cool stuff, and you can vote more than once!

d. I have a new idea for a design. I haven't even started knitting one yet, though, so it'll be awhile before a pattern emerges. If it works out, though, I do hope to write it up.

III. Regarding Life

a. Animals now outnumber people in our house – that’s right, our family now consists of five people (mom, dad, brother, sister, me), a dog (Erie), a cat (Pixel), a hamster (Java), two fish (Dimaggio and The Babe), and two birds. They’re zebra finches, called Tweedledee and Tweedledum, after the Lewis Carroll poem, and they’re cute. Addie calls them the Beeperbirds.

Erie. She does this when she thinks we're not looking.

Pixie, doing what she does best - looking down on people.

This is Java. It's really hard to take pictures of twitchy animals.

This is Tweedledee.

The lighter-colored one is Tweedledum. Even though I turned the flash off, they both hated the camera, so these pictures are less than marginal...

b. Snow sports

i. Skiing – Ski club starts this coming Friday, and it’s supposed to be 54^o on Tuesday. On the bright side, ski club conflicts with five swim meets, so I almost hope it’ll be cancelled because Coach is going to kill me if I actually miss that many. Ski club was paid for before I even decided to swim, though, so if it comes down to it, ski club wins, except for the League Meet. Also, we’re going to Gore Mountain over February break, which should be AMAZING.

ii. Skating – Yesterday a bunch of friends and I went ice skating. It was really fun and we took some pictures. But I'm not posting any because they all suck.

c. I can SEEEE! That’s right. My glasses are back! Huzzah! And no, I'm not angry at all about this. I just thought that was a really cool picture.

IV. New Year’s Resolutions (overlaps with II a bit)

a. Break out the spinning wheel again. I barely spun at all in 2007, and I have this lovely Lendrum!

And a wonderful stash of fiber. So I want to spin more and actually use the yarn I make. To make cool stuff like this hat, which was the original inspiration for the Mutant Bunny Hat. Ignore the stunned look in my eyes and focus on the handspun hat, please...

b. Use>Buy: I want to use more of my stash than I accumulate. Here’s my stash now.

And to make me feel better about myself, here's my mom's:

And there's actually more than that, I couldn't back up far enough to fit it all in one frame without falling out the window!

c. Health

i. (continuing from last year) Only eat when I’m hungry. I think this is a good practice for everyone, honestly. It really makes you aware of how much you actually need to eat.

ii. Stay in shape! I love being in shape. I want to keep exercising (running, biking, swimming, whatever, combination) all year and beyond! Buzz Lightyear-style.

d. Blog

i. For myself – it’s like a diary. Both in the sense that barely anyone else reads it, and that it keeps track of my life.

ii. For other people – but, I want to make it interesting! I’m going to try to take more and better pictures, and write coherently about interesting things. Feel free to make suggestions to this effect.

V. Conclusion – This is a concluding conclusion which concludes. It’s quite conclusive. Oh yes, and apologies for the slightly screwed-up formatting. Pasting from Word into Blogger doesn't quite work perfectly.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

Enjoy it, everyone!

Free Pattern: Mutant Bunny Hat

2007-12-28T18:10:00.000-05:00

So I was wearing a jester hat that I made out of some handspun a few years ago, and my sister commented that it looked like a bunny hat. "A bunny with three ears?" "A mutant bunny, then." "Do you want a mutant bunny hat?" "Yeah!" "Well that's good, I didn't know what to get you for Chanukkah."

And so the idea was born. And I designed this hat. The beginning is pretty basic, but the ears get trickier. In fact, I doubt I could really explain it properly, so I've included some YouTube videos of how I did various things.

NOTE: As always, please don't hesitate to suggest improvements for content or clarity of the pattern!

Gauge: 3 stitches per inch resulted in a nice stretchy hat that fits my little sister (Kids Large or Women's Small) but also fits me (probably Women's Large).

Materials:

Bulky yarn, roughly 200 yards (I'm being generous here, I think it's less than that), about 150 of the main color and 50 yards of a contrast color for the ears. I used 3 balls of Reynolds Blizzard and one skein of Malabrigo worsted held double. It came out very nice.
Circular and double pointed needles in an appropriate size - US9 worked for me.
basic supplies such as scissors, darning needle, measuring tape, etc.

Main Hat:
Cast 54 stitches onto the circular needle and knit in the round with main yarn for 6" (uncurled) or desired length before starting ears.
Divide stitches into three sets of 18, putting two sets on scrap yarn and leaving one on the needles. Knit across these 18, then cast on 36 more with e-wrap cast-on, place marker, join, and knit evenly for 3 rounds.

Ears:
The ears are created with a double knitting technique so that the main part has stockinette on either side, one side in main color, and one in contrast color. The outer edges are 1x1 ribbing in main color. When moving from ribbing to doublesided section, the yarns are twisted together to keep the two fabrics from 'peeling' apart.

Round 1: k2, k2tog around (27 st)
Rnd 2: k around
Rnd 3: k1, k2tog (18 st)

Divide stitches onto 2 double pointed needles (9 on each). With a third needle, knit one stitch off of front dpn, then purl one off of the back one. Do this once more. You will now introduce the contrast yarn. Bring main yarn to the back, twist together (bringing the yarn you were working with over the one about to be introduced - this twisting only needs to be done when moving from ribbed section to double knit section) then ssk off the front needle with contrast yarn. *Bring both yarns to front, p1 off the back needle with the main yarn, bring both yarns to back. K1 off front needle with contrast yarn.* Repeat between *'s twice more. Bring both yarns to front and p2tog off of back needle with main yarn. *k1, p1* twice with main, knitting off front needle and purling off the back needle.

This general technique is utilized until the top tip of the ear - knitting off front and purling off back while moving yarns back and forth, but with all stitches on one needle instead of divided onto two. Please watch the videos for clarification.
Regular row, contrast side:

Regular row, main color side:

Work two more regular rows, followed by an increase row, which is worked in the same manner, but after the first 6 stitches (4 of ribbing, 2 of main ear, 1 in each color), increase by one stitch in each color by knitting into the loop below. Also do this when there are 6 stitches left (at the other end of the row). See video below.

Work two regular rows, then another increase row (it will be on the other side, but worked in the same way).

Work 20 more regular rows.

Work a decrease row as follows: Start with ribbing as per normal. You'll have to shuffle some stitches around, but it can be done with an agile-enough finger. SSK the first two contrast stitches, then p2tog the first two main color stitches. Work across until 8 stitches remain on needle (4 ribbed and 2 of each color in the doublesided part). K2tog the contrast stitches and p2tog the main color stitches from left to right through the back loop. See video.

Continue decrease rows every third row until 12 stitches total remain on needle. Work one more row after the final decrease row(not two rows as usual). You should be on the contrast color side. The last decrease row is slightly different. Move the stitches around so that the first three ribbing stitches are followed by the two remaining contrast color stitches.

K1, p1. Bring both yarns to the back. Slip the next stitch as to purl, k2tog with contrast color, then pass slipped stitch over the stitch you've just created. Bring yarns to back. Slip next stitch as to purl, p2tog with main color, then pass slipped stitch over. Finish the row normally. All the stitches on the needle should now be of the main color. Divide them onto two dpns, knits on the front one and purls on the back one. Now you'll finish the ear working in a stockinette circle again, decreasing until 2 stitches remain.

Final decreases:

Rnds 1, 2: knit all the way around (8 sts)
Rnd 3: *ssk, k2tog* twice (4 sts)
Rnd 4: ssk twice

Break yarn and draw through the two remaining stitches. That's an ear!

Ear 2:
Put next set of stitches (clockwise from first completed ear) onto needles. Cast on 9 stitches, then pick up 9 from the half of the bottom edge of the first ear which is closest to the stitches that were on the holder (you may need to read that twice!).

Knit 3 rounds normally, then k27 and place marker. This is the new beginning of the row. Start from the beginning of the ear instructions and work the second ear the same way. It will be identical to the first ear except rotated to face partially the same way.

Ear 3:
Same as Ear 2, but you will not have to cast on any as all stitches will be available to pick up. The round should begin halfway (9 st) across the 18 that were on the third holder.

Here's a diagram to clarify how the ears 'fit together.'

Finish, and enjoy!

Here's an idea: If you're ~~boring~~ interested in creating a more conventional bunny hat, I suggest omitting the first ear and instead of working the ear on those 18 stitches, continuing to decrease as if you were finishing a smaller hat, then drawing the yarn through at the end. Work the second two ears as directed, and there you have it! A normal bunny hat!

Some more pictures for your enjoyment:

Credits:
Addie (my sister): model, recipient, idea-inspirer, cinematographer
Nancy (my mom): Editor, cinematographer (sort of)

Gifts and Such

2007-12-26T14:58:00.001-05:00

So I dropped off Alethia's gloves the other day, and she gave me malabrigo! It wasn't a total surprise, since I had told her I wanted some, but it was certainly welcome.

*drools*

Our nanny, Renee (REE-nee (short for Lorene), not ri-NAY :P ), has worked for my parents since I was 6 months old, so at this point, she's more of an adopted grandmother. Every year since I remember, we've slept over at her house sometime before Christmas and trimmed her tree. (Yes, even though we're Jewish.) We went this past Sunday, and, Renee being Renee, she gave us gifts. I got to pick out a watch I wanted (mine's falling apart), so this one's on its way:

She also gave me some very cozy socks and a pair of pants.

Apologies for the horrible photo, my camera was dying.

Then, we went skiing on Christmas. Both my siblings forgot sweatshirts (how do you forget a sweatshirt when skiing?!), so we made a pitstop in the shop and my mom got them each one. While they were picking them out, I was trying on a very cozy one just for fun, but then she bought it for me! She said I shouldn't be penalized for remembering my sweatshirt, but I think she just liked it and wants to steal it sometimes.

It's very cozy. Quite.

On that same trip, I fell rather hard on my snowboard onto a locked wrist. OUCH. It still hurts today and my mom says I could've broken one of the teensy bones in my wrist, even though I can still move it and it only hurts a little when I'm not moving it, so I might get it X-rayed in a few days if it doesn't stop hurting. At swim practice today, when I tried to explain to the assistant coach about it to imply that I might not be at 100% during practice, she was really obnoxious. She said, "I have no pity for you. You were doing another sport during swim season." Come ON! If she thinks I'll give up skiing/boarding for swimming, she's got another think coming. And she and the head coach will probably both flip out, but if ski club conflicts with any swim meets, ski club comes first. I mean, a) skiing's WAY more fun, and b) My parents already paid for it! Thanks to reason (b), my parents are on my side and will support me if coach gets really pissy. But gragh. I almost hope something is broken just so I can wave it in the assistant coach's face!

And, after ripping out ears entirely too many times, the mutant 3-eared bunny hat is finally almost done! I'm definitely writing a pattern, but I'm pretty bad at explaining stuff, so I think I'll include some videos of how the heck I'm doing it...

Ta ta for now!

Many things

2007-12-21T21:30:00.001-05:00

I'll start with the icky news, then if you read it, you get a reward with happy stuff.

To explain the icky news, I need to impart some good news, though. We finally went skiing today! Sort of. For the morning, I snowboarded, which I think I did a total of once last season, so I was pretty rusty. By lunchtime, I was finally getting the hang of turning again. Sorry, no pictures - you think I trust myself not to fall on a camera?! But on the lift up for our last run before lunch, I was fixing my helmet and had taken off my glasses. As I put them back on, one of the lenses popped out and fell down to the ground. We (my mom and I) spent about 15 minutes searching for it - I do have Transitions lenses, so it was dark-colored. But we didn't find it. I wasn't really comfortable snowboarding without good vision, but I'm a pretty competent skier, so I figured I would just ski for the afternoon - I had brought my skis as well.
However, when I went to put my skis on, it turned out that the people at the shop had adjusted the bindings entirely incorrectly. They were literally about 3 inches too far apart! And the irritating thing was, I didn't even get new boots, so they shouldn't have done anything at all to the bindings! I just left my skis for a tuneup.
Annoyed but not to be defeated after working so hard to convince Mother Dearest to take us, I put on my skiboards and had fun for the rest of the day. On the way home (1.2 hours or so), I could fortunately work on My So Called Scarf, which I don't need to see too well for.
When I got home, I put on my old pair of glasses. Good news: I can see! Bad news: Old prescription now makes me dizzzzzy. Not so fun.

Anyway, done with my rant. On to cool stuff! With pictures! Which you're not allowed to comment upon if you don't prove that you read the above woes and misery. :P

My So Called Scarf goes.

As does the bunny hat! I really like how this is coming out, so I think I'll write up the pattern. By the way, mine's out of Blizzard and pink malabrigo (held double to match the gauge of the Blizzard). Here's an incipient ear (one out of three...). It's double-sided, so the back of this is the brownyblackgrey color, as you can kinda see in the next picture.

It's a very soft hat, and I've told my sister that she must wear it every day. She looked a little worried...

Fun in the SNOW!

2007-12-17T14:02:00.000-05:00

We're right in the middle of the blizzard that's still blowing through! So Alethia came over and we sledded yesterday night and this morning. I have a veritable potpourri of pictures thereof, to be followed by some knitting-related schpiel...

Here we see my beloved brother trying to fit into a toddler sled and going over the skateboard jump we set up on the hill next door. This, as you can probably tell, was last night.

And here I am going over the jump as well, with a very strange look on my face. Now for some from today, with actual light...

And Alethia, seeming to defy the laws of physics...

A surreal, but pretty neat picture of me.
And now come some cool pictures of my sister.

She always asks why I randomly take pictures of her...isn't it obvious? She's so photogenic! And by the way, she's wearing a beret I made a few years ago out of a kit from Morehouse Merino.

My multiple WIPs plod along. I've nearly finished the heel on the socks made out of that green yarn from Chanukkah. My So Called Scarf is more or less on hold. I'm working on Alethia's Almost Fingerless Gloves (a birthday present, which was not done by her birthday...), and then I'll do Addie's (the sister) mutant bunny hat - a Chanukkah present, which wasn't done by Chanukah either. It'll be my first time using malabrigo, and I'm SO excited. I'm pretty much in love with that yarn. It also includes Blizzard, which, even though it contains acrylic, I really like. I promise some pictures of all this knitty goodness...at some point. Ta ta for now!

Life, Loot, Love

2007-12-08T22:11:00.000-05:00

Life goes fairly well. Our school gets 2+ weeks of holiday break, which means 4.5 more days! Half day this coming Friday, then FREEDOM! Boy, am I ready. Except there'll still be 2.5 hours of swim practice almost every day through break. Except now there's a purpose. Our past two meets, the girls team won 48-46, and BOY was it intense. They both came down to the last relay, in which I anchored the B-team. The first one, the whole meet came down to the B-team relay, which basically meant down to me. No stress, right? I was so scared of screwing it up for everyone, I beat my time trial time for 100yd freestyle by 10 seconds and nearly puked afterwards. Which was good, I guess. The time, not the puking.

Anyway, getting some sweet loot for Chanukkah, including:
-$25 iTunes card, with which I bought Flood by They Might be Giants, Surprise by Paul Simon, and a few other songs.
-A knit commission from my mom - I said I wanted a new pair of mittens from Anna Zilboorg's Magnificent Mittens, with angora linings. She made me a pair of these several years ago, but I outgrew them.
-A Ripstik (above)- which is like a skateboard, but more dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. I've been ogling them for a few years now:
Nifty, no?
-An amazing bag that my mom and grandma collaborated on to make for me. My mom picked out the fabric and cut it, and my grandma did most of the sewing. It also included a new set of doodads (complete with Altoids tin to hold them) and some sock yarn! See more pictures below.

Almost Fingerless Gloves - Free Pattern

2007-12-07T23:05:00.000-05:00

Note: I corrected the cable pattern - it's 6 rows long, not 8.

So, here it is, guys! My first 'real' pattern, as it were. I'm pretty proud of it. However, please don't hesitate to suggest improvements, especially for clarity. I have trouble explaining things, sometimes, and it'd be great to hear if other people understand this...I would actually like people to knit these, after all. ;) I've also tried to make it clear where customization of the pattern is very easy - I hate for people to feel constrained by instructions.

Note: I recommend reading through the whole pattern before knitting it to ensure understanding, both of techniques, construction, etc. and of the different options given for different parts.

Techniques:
cast on, knit, purl, use double pointed needles (dpns), cabling (c3b = bring 3 stitches to back on cable needle (cn), knit 3, knit 3 off of cn), pick up stitches, increase (knitting into loop below), bind off

Materials:

yarn - I used Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, but Koigu or anything of similar weight would work. Yardage depends on desired wrist length - I used one skein of the Cherry Tree Hill (420 yards, I believe) and had plenty left over. Note: In this weight yarn, the pattern will produce what would probably be a woman's small, or maybe medium - it's fairly stretchy due to the cables and ribbing. To make a larger size, either adjust the stitch count or use thicker yarn.
dpns of appropriate size (to get a gauge that doesn't leave noticeable holes but isn't too stiff, either). US 2 worked well for me.
cable needle (or just a spare dpn, perhaps of one size down)
2 stitch markers
scrap yarn to hold stitches
basic supplies (scissors, darning needle, etc.)

Pattern:
Wrist:
Cast on 57 stitches, dividing as follows:
on 3 needles - 15, 21, 21
on 4 needles - 15, 21, 10, 11
They should be divided this way to maintain integrity of pattern (cables, etc.). It also makes it easier to try it on while making it, because all the palm stitches are on one or two needles, and all the stitches for the back of the hand are on two needles.

Rnd 1-6: (p2, k6, p2, k3) 3 times, (p3, k3) 3 times
Rnd 7: (p2, c3b, p2, k3) 3 times, (p3, k3) 3 times

Continue in this manner for desired wrist length (roughly 50 rows to do it like in the photos).

Hand:
Stitch pattern remains the same, except: Replace the 21st of 3x3 ribbing at the end of the round with k21. While doing this:

Thumb, method 1 - Gusset:
Thumb is made in between two stitch markers, with the rest of each round continued in the established pattern. For the right glove, place the markers on either side of the first two stitches of the 'k21' at the end of the round. For the left, place on either side of the last two stitches. These rounds are what to do in-between the markers. They may or may not correspond with the rows of the cable pattern.

Rnd 1: k1, inrease by knitting the loop below, k1
Rnd 2, 3: knit
Rnd 4: k1, knit to last st before marker, increase, k1

Repeat rounds 2-4 (while continuing pattern for rest of hand for the rest of each round) until there are 9 stitches between the markers. Continue as established, knitting from marker to marker, until the glove comes up to the place where the thumb separates from the hand. Put the thumb stitches on a piece of scrap yarn, cast on 2 stitches over the gap, and continue with the general pattern, cables on the back and knitting across the palm. At the end, finish the thumb in the same manner as the other fingers.

Thumb, method 2 - Slot:

Begin working back and forth, continuing the cable pattern by replacing knits with purls and purls with knits on the wrong side. Be sure to turn and purl after an even-numbered row so that you won't have to cable from the purl side.

Once the glove comes up past the point where the thumb separates from the hand, reattach and work in the round again.

When the glove goes to slightly below the highest point of the palm, place all the stitches on a piece of scrap yarn.

Fingerlets, as it were (ending 1):
For each finger, take 4 stitches from the palm and 9 from the back of the hand. For the middle finger, take 5 from the palm. Work the pinky finger first, taking the 13 aforementioned and casting on two more across (between pinky and ring finger). Knit these for approximately 3 rows (again, a judgment call), then bind off. For the ring finger, pick up two from the pinky (where they were cast on) and cast on two between the ring and middle finger, then knit these. Continue this procedure across top of hand, and for thumb if you used method 1.

Ending 2 - ribbing:
I haven't tried this, so I don't have a picture, but I think it could also look nice, if you just can't deal with all those fingers and ends, to simply finish with changing back to 3x3 ribbing for the palm at the end of the glove instead of making the fingerlets. It would also go reasonably faster.

Here's a cool idea: On the second glove, make the cables twist the other direction. That is, cable to the front instead of the back.

Finishing:
Weave in all ends. You may want to use the (multiple!) ends around the fingerlets to close up any little holes that may be left from picking up and casting on stitches, just to neaten it up.

Wear (or gift) and enjoy!

I WON!

2007-11-30T21:07:00.001-05:00

That is right, folks. I finished NaNoWriMo! On the last day. Check out my little icon to the left. :D

In addition, my mystery project (which katherine correctly guessed was wristwarmer-thingies and so is no longer a mystery) is coming aong quite well, despite my having ripped it out at least partway about five times by now. I am nearly done with the first one, and once I have figured out how that goes, the second one will be much faster. When I finish, the pattern shall be posted.

You also may have noticed that my grammar in this post has been somewhat formal-sounding. This is because, for some odd reason, I am unable to use contractions at the moment, due to the fact that the apostrophe key on my keyboard keeps taking me to quick search instead of creating an apostrophe in the window. The same is true for the slash. It is like Firefox does not want to acknowledge that I am typing or something...I do not know. It is most irritating.

EDIT: Apostrophe problem seems to have fixed itself. Now I'll be able to use words like 'I'll' again! :P

New Projects, etc...

2007-11-28T19:54:00.000-05:00

So after ripping out my poor Jaywalkers, I first started some comfort knitting, which was a chain link scarf out of some lovely Elsebeth Lavold Angora:

But then we drew names for our (nondenominational!) Secret Snowmen on swim team, and I decided I wanted to knit something for my person. I decided what I wanted to make, and picked a yarn, and then looked through several hundred patterns (mostly on Ravelry), but none worked with the yarn and looked nice. So I decided to design something. I've also decided I like it so far, and will write up the pattern later. But, for whatever reason, I've decided not to tell you what it is. But here are pictures:

And this, unlike the two other patterns I've posted, I plan on this being an actual pattern! Like, a pattern that contains instructions such as 'k6, p2, k3!' You will be very proud of me. I know it. If anybody's actually reading this, care to guess what it is I'm making?

Jaywalkers Frogged!

2007-11-25T20:45:00.000-05:00

So, I did notice the other day that they were too small for me. But I figured they would fit someone. However, I tried them on my dear sister today, and we could barely get it on her foot.

She is a woman's size 5. Quite itsy-bitsy. And we were hoping to sell them, but I don't think anybody would pay enough for kids' socks even to compensate for the yarn. So, farewell, Jaywalkers!

What's left. And me post-frogging.

I think I'm taking a sock hiatus for a bit...I'll have to figure out something else to bring to school tomorrow...

On the bright side, I passed 45,000 words! NaNoWriMo is eating my life more than I remembered from last year, and it's been fun, but I'll be really happy when it's done.

Edit - I'm starting the chain link scarf, so I will have something to bring to school. And I'm doing it out of some nice, worsted-weight wool/angora. It's comfort knitting at it's finest.

I am laughing hysterically right now.

2007-11-24T09:18:00.000-05:00

You will NEVER guess what happened to me.

My English teacher (a slightly creepy old man who looks like a hobo) called me because his wife had an urgent question about knitting! I just think that's hilarious and felt the need to immortalize it bloggily.

Turned out she had taught someone (her son's girlfriend) to knit and wanted to get her yarn to make a scarf but wasn't aware that you can get inexpensive yarn at an actual yarn shop. She was going to go to Michaels'! *gasp* Yes, I am a yarn elitist. I don't like acrylic yarn with no dye lots. Shoot. Me. Now. So I kindly explained to her that if she just went back to the LYS and told them what she needed and what her price range was, they'd help her.

*laughs again* My ENGLISH TEACHER called me about KNITTING! Teehee.

Just goes to show you what happens when you knit in class, I guess...

Ah well...

2007-11-23T20:24:00.002-05:00

Well, I vowed to myself that I would try to write 4,000 words today, but as of now (8:24PM) I'm still behind for the day. I'm hoping to write at least 2,000 though and stay ahead of the game. But syzygy's over and we're having fun! I'll have time later...hopefully. We took a lot of pictures of knitted things, so there are many fun pictures up now, such as pictures of the Silky Shrug, the Ruanigan, and my current project, the Jaywalker socks. I think I may get addicted to socks. They'll be good for the sale, anyway.
I particularly like this picture of the shrug:

An 'action photo,' you might say.

Well, back to NaNo. Hopefully.

sigh of relief

2007-11-22T18:11:00.001-05:00

At long last, I am CAUGHT UP in NaNoWriMo! I've been 6,000+ words behind for a week or so now, and with two monumental days yesterday and today, I am at last on target! For the rest of this break (3 more days), I hope to write at least 3,000 a day and get ahead by a goodly amount since swim meets are coming up, so practices are getting tough and I'll be exhausted. Plus, homework and crap as usual.

Anyways, happy Thanksgiving! We had (you guessed it) turkey, stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, crescent rolls, and salad for dinner and I made an apple pie which we will be having soon with vanilla ice cream. I salivate just thinking about it.

Tomorrow, syzygy (I don't know if she (or mor likely, her mom) is comfortable with her name being given out online so I will stick to her Ravelry screen name for now) is coming over and she, my mom (duphly) and I are going to have a picture party! We all have multiple unRaveled (as in not posted) projects that need photographing. It should be funfunfun!

Over and out.

Will have INCOME!

2007-11-12T15:32:00.000-05:00

I've been teaching a kids' knitting class at a LYS near me - we worked out some sort of percentage agreement for payment that I didn't pay much attention to since I was just thrilled to have a job. I got a bit worried when it turned out only four kids signed up for the class, and my mom started teasing me that I would get $5 for the whole thing or something. Well it turns out that whatever I agreed to comes out to $20 an hour!!! AND she's going to pay me that for the extra class we're adding on to the end even though the parents aren't paying any more for it! I was flabbergasted. How many teens earn that much?? I'm so happy! Plus, she said I could probably do another session of classes and make it an ongoing thing. This is so fantabulous.

I also passed 21k on my NaNo today - I'm actually ahead, for the first time this week! Hurray! Between 500-word spurts, I've been allowing myself to waste time online for a bit - an effective motivational tactic, I've discovered. I've been browsing many online knitting patterns, so check out my Ravelry faves, which have grown quite suddenly yesterday and today. Except now I delude myself into thinking that this blog is any more than a diary currently - I really don't think much of anybody is reading it. Ah well. It's probably the longest diary I've ever kept... :P

On the not-quite-so-happy front, I have swimmer's ear, which means my ears hurt all the time and I have to take these icky ear drops three times a day for a week. Not fun. And I haven't had to swim since it got bad because I didn't have a ride today, so I'm not so much looking forward to swim practice...Oh well.

Another sad thing...my sister's hamster died yesterday. She was hysterical, and I remember when my guinea pig died how hard it was, and I cried with her. He was adorable, too. She's been crying on and off all day today. They have a lifespan of two to three years, but he didn't even live one, so obviously we were all really shocked. And my brother was totally insensitive about it, to the point where I started yelling at him. He's such an idiot sometimes. *sigh*

Back on the bright side again, a 4-day week this week and a 2-day week next week, for Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving, respectively. Huzzah!

I love my neighbors...and cookies!

2007-11-10T20:46:00.000-05:00

So after dinner, I was pondering how I really wanted some cookies. Then, I remembered that earlier in the week, my neighbor had called asking for WiFi help. I had told her that with swim team and all, I was really busy during the week, but that I could probably help her over the weekend. So I called her and she said to come on over. I reinstalled the wireless card on her husband's laptop, and they were happy.
Jokingly, he said, "Pay the girl!"
Jokingly, I said, "Pay me in cookies. I've been craving them and was going to make some but we don't have any butter."
Five minutes later, I held in my hand a quart-size zip baggie full of cookies!
See title of post.

On the slightly more normal front, NaNo is going decently; I'm at about 15,000, which is about 1,500 words behind at the moment, but I'll have lots of time over the 3-day weekend, and over Thanksgiving Break next week, so I'm not too worried.

For Ravelers, I finally felted my Lucy Bag, which had been hovering at 95% complete for a few days because I hadn't yet. Then I decided it hadn't felted enough so I felted it more. Now it's done and I'm quite happy with it. So I'm working on some mittens that I got a free kit for at Stitches. Not this year - either last year or the year before, I don't remember. They're very very soft and they make me happy. Also, the kit claims I have enough for 3 pairs, but I have a hunch that I might be able to squeeze four out of it, which would be great for our sale.

Oh yeah, need to explain that - we (my mom and I) have, for the past few years, sold things we have knitted at the Chanukkah Bazaar at our temple and given the profits to a charity (such as the Humane Society or Heifer International), but because most of the things sold there are cheap plastic dreidels or acrylic fun fur scarves shoddily made by Sunday School teachers and we like to think that we are slightly classier, we decided to skip it this year and apply to a local crafts festival and sale for next year, where we can set appropriate prices. So anything on my Ravelry that says it's for sale is for that, not for people to buy from me. ;)

The great things about selling stuff in general are:

If we're going to sell it, my mom will buy the yarn since we keep back materials costs at the sale.
We can make things that have no specific recipient in mind.
We donate the profits to a good cause!

The not-quite-so-great-but-still-tolerable thing is that for our table to not look all hodgepodgey, we're thinking we should have a good number of some things so it's not just 3 hats, 2 pairs of mittens, 2 purses, etc. which would be kind of unprofessional. So we have to make multiple similar things, which can get a bit boring. But that's okay. Also, that's why making a bunch of mittens is good - and I've been a mitten machine these past few days, churning out 1+ per day, relatively painlessly. i.e. without getting bored of it, as yet.

Well, that's my life for now, and now we're watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, so I bid thee farewell.
Farewell.

Odd Happenings

2007-11-05T21:23:00.000-05:00

Hi all. So, first off, NaNoWriMo goes well, all though I haven't worked on it at all today and probably should be right now...*sigh* But I'm at about 8,500 words, so still ahead for the time being. However, swim team started today, which means I won't get home until around 7PM each night, and I currently have no free periods (although I will next trimester) so homework is about to get even crazier...
Anyway, WEIRD things happened today. I'll share some of them. For one, I rather enthusiastically smashed my head into the corner of a towel rack. Paintful. There's a big bump now and it huuurts! :(
Another weird thing which occurred shortly thereafter (I underlined the odd part):

Is that not bizarre? I'm really worried, though. What if it stops working before I die??? :O
I'm thinking that this oddity has something to do with when I fell off the next chair at Alethia's house (laptop in tow) and when I turned it back on it decided the date was 629 days earlier...Except this time it's multiplied to 5 million whatever.
We played at a wedding this weekend, which was quite fun. And being us, we found the local knitting shop, which we visited between the ceremony and the reception. And I found a copy of Interweave Felt! Now I can make the Lock Nest Hat which I fell in love with. I saw it, but then forgot where I saw it, then figured it out, then couldn't find the magazine ANYWHERE! So I was really happy when I found it. :)
That is all. Signing off.

NaNoWriMo

2007-11-01T17:14:00.000-04:00

It's November, which means NaNoWriMo! National Novel Writing Month, that is. This is my third time doing it, and it's been a psycho-amazing blast each time! Basically, you try to write 50,000 words of fiction during the month of November. This year, I'm doing a series of short stories based on images I find online. I'm up to 2,755 words as we speak, which is ahead of the 1,667 daily requirement to finish right on time. Yay! It should be pretty crazy this year, though, since I've got more homework and all. But if you're from Ravelry, that's why I probably won't be finishing too many things this month...:P

Oh yes, and here is a Halloween picture. :)

Are the antlers not glorious?

Hurray!

2007-10-30T17:24:00.000-04:00

My internet lives once again! Also, Halloween is coming up, and I'm going trick-or-treating with friends (who says you can't in junior year?). I shall be Bullwinkle, although I don't think I'll manage to convince Alethia to be Rocky. *sigh* It'll be fun anyway. I made an awesome set of antlers. Pictures to come.

*revels in her internetty glory*

Farewell, for now!

Celtic Socks pattern

2007-10-27T17:48:00.000-04:00

Here's the pattern for these socks that I designed. It's not a pattern in the sense that I give you specific numbers (I'm too lazy for that), but I'll tell you generally what I did.

Cuff: You'll need to cast on a multiple of 8 stitches, because the fair isle is an 8-stitch repeat. I did four bumpy things of reverse stockinette for the cuff, doing 6 rounds of purling, then 3 of knitting.

Fair Isle Band: Here's the chart for the fair isle:

Heel: I did a short-row heel, using the yarn-over technique called Japanese Short Rows.

Toe: Your basic decrease-twice-on-either-edge toe. Divide the stitches in half on four needles, the ends of the halves lining up with the sides of the heel.
Round 1, needles 1, 3: k1, ssk, knit to end of needle
needles 2, 4: knit to last 3 st, k2tog, k1
Round 2: knit around
Repeat these rounds until it seems the right length (like I said, not too scientific), then join with kitchener stitch.

Hope you enjoy this pattern!

FrusTRATION!

2007-10-24T18:43:00.000-04:00

I am very irritated.
But I suppose I should back up.

For my Bat Mitzvah (3.5ish years ago) I got a lovely Gateway laptop. Unfortunately, mere weeks out of warranty, the hard drive crashed and I was informed that it wasn't worth fixing. Taking pity on me, my parents contributed 2/3 of the cost of my current laptop - an HP Pavilion. I did rather extensive research before buying it. However, within 6 months of getting it, I began to have problems with the keyboard. After multiple unsuccessful correspondences with the HP people, I finally sent it back. They returned it to me several weeks later, reportedly having replaced the keyboard. But the problem was still there. I learned to deal with it. It stopped driving me crazy. Then recently, we bought a new router. Immediately after installing it, the wifi on the lovely machine stopped working. Something about Windows not being able to configure the connection. And I know for sure that the two should be compatible. So I assumed that the wifi adaptor had died. Anyway, I adjusted. I moved my computer into the guest room (where the modem and router are) and plugged it in with an ethernet cable. So I still had internet. Then, two days ago, even that stopped working. Everyone else in the house could still connect on wifi, mind you. It was just me that was having problems. So I'm considering sending it back to HP again, since I bought the exgtended warranty and may as well use it. But I'm rather doubtful about whether they'll actually do anything to fix it. All in all, a most disappointing experience.
Well, I've been drooling over the new iMac anyway. If this one totally dies, that's what I'm getting. I'm fed up with Windows, and I definitely wouldn't want Vista anyway. I wish I had a real job so I could just buy myself one now...

On the bright side, there's a 3-day weekend coming up!

Hello, World!

2007-10-22T19:55:00.000-04:00

So, I mainly made this for Ravelry purposes - I may or may not use it for other things. We shall see...

By the by (weird phrase), I LOVE RAVELRY! It's an inspiring, pretty site with a great community and it just makes me want to knit all the time!

And that's my first enlightening message to you all...