Thursday, March 29, 2012

Time and Other Photos

I started work on Tuesday.  I know.  Eek.
I have already been trying to figure out how I will still get everything that I was doing done... I do believe I shall be returning to the schedule making I used at school.  The one where each item on my to do list has a time limit and I try to squeeze 14 hours of work into an 8 hour period... If you have a better organizational idea, PLEASE tell me.

Since I only have 15 mins allotted for this post, here's the promised photo of my colorwork hat!

And the capelet that I finished but never showed off...

Oh yes, and Sorcha got Jean!  He's in the bunny hospital at the moment, poor guy.  Sacha barely got away.





Monday, March 26, 2012

Knitting in the Dark

It may appear to others that I have put my work on hold this week in favor of watching as many free movies at the State as possible.  (Yes, it's Spring Break free movie week at the State again!)  However, if you thought that, you would be wrong.  Rather, I have been perfecting my knitting in the dark skills.  Yesterday I knit a beer cozy, on DPNs, during a French film with subtitles!  Without missing a single moment!  Success.  Now I can watch as many movies as possible this week without feeling like I should be knitting.  Because I will be!

*If you are looking for movie recommendations, I have many.*



I have also been holding photo shoots with the bunnies!  If you haven't met the bunnies yet, the sparkly one is Jean and the striped one is Sacha.  

Friday, March 23, 2012

Oh the Things You Can Do With Yarn!

It's been a long time since I posted and now I have lots to say, so hold on tight!

I have been meaning to talk about knitting as art for while and now seems like a great time.  I think we all, knitters and especially non-knitters, tend to think of knitting as a practical skill rather than an artistic talent.  Can't it be both?  Sure a hardy, warm sweater is knit for the practical purpose of keeping the wearer warm throughout the winter months, but what about the patterns in Knitting On Top of the World?  Those are not simply garments or projects, they are pieces of art.

In my favorite book 10 Secrets of the Laidback Knitters, they highlight Rania Hassan, an artist who combines painting and knitting to create pieces that are truly inspired.  Here's a picture of her work from the book,

Speaking of things you can do with yarn, here's the update on my own projects!  Now that I am back home, I have finally had a chance to take stock, figure out what I've done and start doing more!

The color work hat is knit!  I cast off last night and I am so thrilled with the results.  As soon as I block it, there will be pictures.

The lace tank top is also knit!  However, it needs a lot of finishing, a little crochet edging, and some serious blocking.  My grandpa said it looks like a fish net...so yeah, I have my work cut out for me!

I decided to knit some wrist warmers while I was on the plane.  They are my own pattern and look a little weird at the moment.  I'm confident that once I cover them in buttons and flowers, however, they will be awesome.

The wedding shawl has taken a short hiatus because I broke one of my needles.  One of my lovely rosewood needles.   Yes, there were tears involved.

The birthday present, though, is cruising along quite nicely!  I am on the last piece of it and then there is the usual blocking and sewing.  Soon, though, I will be able to reveal to you all the finished piece and the lucky recipient!

I have gotten sidetracked with knitting little bunnies so the hexipuffs are also on hiatus... So far they haven't multiplied but you never know.

I PROMISE there will be pictures of everything up soon!  Until then, toodles!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Live from New Hampshire! Also Yarn Bombing.

Yup, made it back up north.  Only to the east coast instead of the midwest.  Now that I am back in the cold air, my drive to do some yarn bombing is taking over.  Also I found this blog post from Knitty:
http://knittyblog.com/?p=1399&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+knitty%2FrqNQ+%28knittyBlog%29
I mean, if these kids can graffiti their school, we can do a few trees and telephone poles, right?  So...who's in?  One night, some dark clothes, a few scrap yarns, and our needles!

Here's some of the yarn bombing over by the state hospital in TC:


Sunday, March 11, 2012

Dolphins 'n' Things

So here I am, still writing to you from the poolside in Florida!  It is ridiculously early in the morning because everyone goes to sleep when it's dark out and wakes up with the sun.  Unless you're my grandma, who's up between 3am and 5am every morning.

We have been quite busy here, trying to keep up with all the park activities.  Yesterday I sold some of my cards and knitted items in the park craft show!  Hilarious.  These men and women sell every other Saturday from 9-12.  Of course, you have to get there at 8 to set up and be ready for the shoppers who inevitably arrive early.  Everyone gets everywhere at least a half hour early.  And then they all leave the second the event is over. Imagine how much easier event planning would be if everyone everywhere did that!  You'd have weddings that got done at 9pm without a single drunk guest refusing to leave!  


This is the sunset drum circle on the beach that we went to see yesterday.  There were definitely a couple of hundred people there.  

Today we have another busy day.  Mom and I are going to make a bold canoeing attempt before the ice cream social and the park variety show (which starts at 7:30pm but doors open at 6:15pm.  Seriously.)

I promised you dolphins are here they are!  They swim in between the two jetties on Nokomis beach, looking for fish and eating the bait off the end of people's fishing poles.









Friday, March 9, 2012

Vacay

Hello from Florida!

I thought about getting out of my Batman pjs before noon today but then my grandmother reminded me that I'm on vacation so I don't need to.  How silly of me.

Yesterday was a long day of plane travel with a sick woman who went almost entirely deaf on the plane (yes, I do mean my mother).  I tried to just knit and listen to my Kelly Clarkson but she kept yelling to me.  Oh boy.  I must say though, knitting really helps with the plane travel.  I have never been a big fan of being crammed into a confined space with tons of strangers while we are thousands of feet in the air.  Thankfully I decided to knit some crazy, patternless, fingerless, gloves that keep me quite busy throughout the flights.

 The beach in Nokomis.  It was a lovely evening until...
 ...we got attacked by seagulls.  Very Alfred Hitchcock.
I did make a new friend though!  Yes, she is a bee.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Radio Silent

Not really.  But I will be traveling over the next few days and the next time I will write to you, it will be from Florida!  (you have permission to be terribly jealous of me now :)

Like any good knitter, I have spent the past two days agonizing over which projects to bring with me.  I need enough knitting to last me for two weeks but I also have some projects that need to be finished asap.  Finally I decided on Hannah's lace tank top, the wedding shawl, the birthday present, the fair isle hat, yarn to make another fair isle hat (should I ever finish the first), and my drop spindle with roving.

I realize I have a tendency to dramatically over pack but in this case, I am hoping that all of these will be enough to keep me busy!

For those of you who are lucky enough to miss the TC Snowpocalypse 2012, here's a picture of the 17" of snow we got and the giant tree branch that fell in our front yard:













I have not been fulfilling my promise to post obnoxious amounts of cat photos!  So here's the little demon herself:













Oh who am I kidding.  She's really a big soft ball of fur:













Bon voyage!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Snowed In. Day 2. The Brain Begins to go...

Captain's Log.  Star date...

We remain snow bound.  Although the home ship has retained power, many of the outlying fleet are still without heat and electricity.  Last night we harbored a Vulcan friend of first commander Hannah in the guest quarter.  Still I wish there was more we could do.  It seems that, no matter how fast I knit, I cannot outfit the entire fleet in time.  In a desperate attempt to feel useful last night I sent first commander Hannah out to feed the troops while I stationed myself at the entertainment bay in the hopes that we could amuse and warm people with The Artist.  It succeeded.  Mildly.

During my own entrapment yesterday I discovered some rather amusing pictures of knitted food.



Live long and prosper.

Friday, March 2, 2012

From the Eyes of the Hurricane

Well, not quite a hurricane.  But pretty darn close to the snow equivalent of one.  That, dear friends, is what we're dealing with up here in TC.  The good news for you is that it looks like I'll be house bounded and forced to post lots of blog entries.  The bad news for my family is that they will finally be subjected to my "Movies to Watch While Snowed In" marathon that I have been saving since December for just such an occasion.

Triple cheers to Hannah who managed to drive us home in this nastiness.  She is literally a beast behind the wheel.