Template

Well, the template is complete, at least for now. I plan to upload a picture as the background, but Blogger is NOT co-operating. Also, what you see right now, the all white with just the left sidebar black is not the final template, but again, Blogger problems. They seem to have a problem with uploading my templates. It's been two days since I put the new one up, but only parts of it are registering.

Anyways, I'm going to postpone posting anything big (like pics, etc) until the template's up, because I'm not sure what Blogger will lose. Afterall, I put in the code, and they are only using bits and pieces of it, so they might lose my posts as well.

Until then.

Template change

I am doing a massive revamping of my template, so please stand by. It should be done in a couple days.

A Quick Update

I've been really busy lately, what with Christmas and all, so I haven't had time to take pics and upload them. However, that is my goal for tomorrow.

Several days ago I finished the blue alpaca hat that I posted pics of a while back. I also started and finished presents for both my mother and my sister, but they both have the URL for this blog, so no pictures of those until after Christmas.

I started a sock with size 3 needles (DPNs, of course) and I turned the heel, picked up the stitches from the gusset, and am working on the foot of the sock. Of course I know that after this
sock is finished, I'll suddenly come down with SSS, but that's life, isn't it? lol.

I also gave into my HP fanatic tendancies (I've been denying them for quite some time now), and started a Slytherin scarf. Unfortunately, since my skin is really bad with most wool and I couldn't find the right color of green in a better yarn for under $19 a skein, I had to use Red Heart. ::shudders:: I like acryllic, but I hate Red Heart. It's just so stiff and .... icky. Makes my hands hurt. But I'm using it for the scarf anyways, but only for the green. I'm using Bernat Satin for the silver, a much softer and nicer yarn. My sock is also in Bernat Satin, in sky blue.

Tomorrow I'm going to venture out, fight the hoards of night-before shoppers, and go pick up materials to make my own knitting needles and stitch markers. I'm getting really tired of shelling out such a large sum of money for needles, and since I just started recently, I don't have enough needles in my hoard to be self-sufficient yet.

Hopefully I'll come back alive.

Gotta love Christmas shopping rush.

Productive Knitting Day

Well, I've had very productive last few days. On Wednesday, I finished my sister's present and added over an inch and a half to the hat I'm knitting in the round. Then today, while watching multiple episodes of Grey's Anatomy and South Park, I started and finished my mother's christmas present, using size 19 needles, so it finished pretty quickly. I also started a scarf (another one, I know!), with this really soft black yarn (feels like bunny fur), and have over 8 inches on that with size 15 needles.

Unfortunately, although both presents are absolutely gorgeous, I can't upload pics until after Christmas, as both my sister and my mother have the URL for this blog. I'll upload a pic of my scarf later.

Well, my sleep schedule is already EXTREMELY messed up, so I'm gonna go sleep.

Night!

Another Project

I had my last knitting class today, and I learned how to use a circular knitting needle. I'm working on a hat right now, although I'm only 4 or so rounds into it. I have to repeat the pattern for 7 1/2 inches! I've got to look over the pattern again though, and make sure I understand the order of when to decrease. I'm pretty sure that its about 7 inches in.

Here's a pic of my new project.


And it's ribbed. See?
And I finally took a picture of the beautiful needle case my mom and I made. It's modeled after the Lantern Moon cases, with 9 pockets for needles, 3 pockets for circular needles and 1 zippered pocket.

When it's closed/folded, it looks like this.




And when it's open, voila! The zippered pocket is on the left and the circular needles are in the middle.

My South Park character

I created a South Park character, isn't she cool?

My cat and her addiction to Direct TV

Look at this! This is what my cat does pretty frequently to stay warm. (My house is usually cold)

My ipod

I finally got everything set up on my computer, songs transferred and saved, and updated my new ipod with the songs. It makes me very happy, now I can have my entire library (8GB), everywhere I go.


Here's my ipod. Isn't it pretty?


And it's surprisingly thin. (At least surprising to me)

Invasion of the kiwis

For the last few weeks, my house has been invaded by kiwis. Now, I don't know about you, but when I think of kiwis I think of little green slices of fruit. If I had to go to the grocery store and buy kiwis purely by sight alone, I don't think I could do it. But now, I definitely could. Why? THE INVASION OF THE KIWIS.


For those who do not know what unpeeled kiwis look like, here's a picture.


Now, having one or two of these things around the kitchen is fine, even pretty normal. But do we have one? No. Do we have two? No. Do we even have a higher number of them, like five? No.





THIS IS HOW MANY WE HAVE!!

See the kiwis in the back? And in the front?
THEY'RE TAKING OVER!















And if that wasn't enough, there's more!













AND MORE!!








My dad uses these all for smoothies, and of course he doesn't buy them (Wouldn't that cost a pretty bundle?) he grows them. We have several kiwi plants that are absolutely flourishing here, which is very strange as we are in the Pacific Northwest.

Hopefully, the invasion of kiwis will soon be at an end.

New Template

Voila! We have a new template! Isn't it pretty?

Links and blog template

I just noticed that I still haven't added links, and I was going to do that a while ago. I guess that'll go on the to do list for tomorrow. I'm also going to mess around with the template, as it's kind of plain, but I need to go over the source code first and see how I'm going to modify it.

Toodles!

Andre Rieu, Andrea's Present and Needle Case

I went to the Andre Rieu concert today, oops, yesterday. It was great, he has an incredible personality and he's very high energy, which makes listening to orchestra music fun. He did 7 encores, because we just wouldn't let him leave. ::grins:: He really geared the show towards the audience, with tons of jokes (that didn't fall flat!), and high audience participation. That's pretty amazing considering there were probably 9,000 of us. It made for an enjoyable evening, and I had pretty good seats, where I could actually see him and the orchestra! lol. The music was wonderful, and I heard the best version of 'The Rose' that I've ever heard in my life. It's my new favorite song.

I didn't knit at all today, I was too busy messing with my ipod, email and then going to the concert. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get 20 or so more rows done on Andrea's (my sister's) present. It's gorgeous, so it's killing me not to post a pic of it. But as it's a Christmas present, and she has the URL for this blog... URGHH! In the meantime however, I've momentarily abandoned my own scarf until I get hers done. Then I have to do mom's. It's all good though, I love knitting so it's not a hardship to put in several hours on each one.

My mom made me a wonderful knitting needle cloth case, I picked the fabric, designed it, and helped her piece it together, but she did the sewing. It's modeled after Lantern Moon's series of cloth needle cases, but I didn't feel like shelling out nearly $40 for one. Also, this way I got to chose the fabrics. I absolutely love the fabric; one is shimmery silver and the other is a royal blue background with silver chinese dragons on it. It was absolutely perfect for me.

Here's a sneak peak.

You can find the more about the needlecase in this post.

Quote/Scene of the day

I had written down this quote a long time ago and just recently found it when I cleaned my closet. It's from the mini-series Taken. ( This is in a 5th grade classroom, during the Cold War, right after a nuclear attack drill)


Teacher: Is there any reason why you're not under you desk, Jack?

Jack: I don't see the point

Teacher: The point is to be ready.

Jack: In the event of a nuclear attack on the Grand Falls Air Force base, which is the only military target within 100 miles, the initial blast would be jaring, but it wouldn't even break our windows.

Teacher: You don't take the threat of nuclear attack seriously then?

Jack: On the contary sir, I believe that in three days of an initial attack, 3/4 of the world would have been destroyed. I don't see the point of hiding from that kind of destruction under a desk.




And I just thought that was funny ( I mean the fact that drills were performed in schools where children would duck under desks in the event of a nuclear attack, because that's going to do a whole lot to keep you safe). I just think it's funny what humans will do in order to pretend to have control over something, or to convince themselves that by doing something like performing drills where they hide under desks that they will be safe. Ahh, the human mind.

Little Bit of Everything

So there was a burn ban that went in affect today, and since we have a wood stove it made the house really cold. It's not like we don't have a heater, cause we do, but since the house is around twenty years old the thermometer is just a little bit off and the timing is as well. So consequently, I wear fleece pants around the house as well as a fleece jacket and a couple of blankets. Finally, by about 6 pm, the house was a little warmer. But the problem with being an internet addict like myself is that I am constantly on my computer, meaning that I am not actively moving around. It lets the coldness of the house get to me really quickly.

I sorted my yarn today, (early morning Saturday), and got it all boxed up and in a newly cleaned space of my closet. I don't have a lot, at least compared to some, but for me... it's enough that I'm 'strongly discouraged' by certain people to buy any more. Especially since I have 3 or so sweaters I haven't even started to frog, and 3 that are currently WIP (works in progress). So I definitely shouldn't buy any more yarn, at least not right now.

However, I did put yarn on my christmas list. lol.

My mom bought me another pair of bamboo needles, size eight, which I am very happy about. I'm working on a couple different projects which require size eight needles and I was getting tired of using dowels to put in place of the needles. I also went out and bought size 15 needles for a new project I'm starting.

So tomorrow, oops, today, I'll try to round up all my other knitting supplies that have been scattered throughout the house and put them all in one central location, namely that shelf in my closet.

My scarf and Gap sweater

So today I got over 26 rows done on my scarf. I really like how the white is zigzaging across the width of the scarf.


See the zigzag?




I also really like how the blocks are looking. Isn't it cool?

I know I'm easily impressed cause it's my first knitting project, but I like it!

I'm also taking apart a dark wine red Gap sweater that I bought at Goodwill for around $5 dollars. I got 272 yds from the first sleeve I frogged. Last night I unraveled the collar (it came apart beautifully!) and got over 80 yds just from that. Anyone want to guess how much yardage I'll get from the main pieces, ie. the back and the front? I don't know, but I'll probably find out tomorrow.

So I washed the yarn from the sleeve and collar, and hung them up to dry.

I'll hopefully put some better pics up tomorrow. My house depends a lot on natural light, so all these pictures I've taken (all at night) have been darker than they should be.

I'll put up more pics tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have another 20 or so rows on my scarf done.

Ipod and knitting needles

I really need to buy some more knitting needles. I have one pair, size eight. I'm working on two projects = DOES NOT WORK! Actually, it does because I have a small dowel I'm using to keep the loops of one project on while I work on the other, but it gets very old very quickly. I think I'll try some bamboo needles next, the ones I have right now are plastic, and I want to try several different types.

I bought an ipod! I bought it used from a woman who lives in Seattle. She was updating to a 60 GB. I found it on Craigs list and got a very good price. So now I have an ipod! I'm finally with the times. lol.

Usually, I'm the one to get technology WAY before anyone else; I was one of the first if not the first, person to get an mp3/cd player in high school. But ipods were so expensive I wanted to wait until I could buy a used one for a good price. And now I could!

There's still snow at my house. SNOW! Crispy and crunchy snow, but still snow!

Great new band

Ok, technically they aren't 'new'. They have released two albums in the U.S. and three in the U.K. They're Swedish and although the band name is Dungen, but it's NOT pronounced like Dungeon. It's Doong gyen. It's very... 70's indie rock. I heard them on 107.7 and now I'm hooked.

I can't recommend this group enough. Listen to Panda, or anything on their first record. It's really good!

A very funny quote from my sister

Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Muhahaha!

Finals are OVER!!! And the peasants rejoice! I've started a new project, it's going to be a scarf.


Although you can't see it very clearly in this picture, it's a brick pattern (from Stitch n Bitch Nation). I'm making it from this skein of yarn.



Isn't it beautiful?

I've made my own skeins from frogging a couple of sweaters, and I'll upload the pics in a bit.

Welcome to my new blog!

Hello! I doubt there will be anyone who sees this for a while, but oh well. This is as much for my own enjoyment as that of others. And was that not the most awkwardly worded sentence ever created?

So, right now I'm slacking off. I have a Biology 101/Chem 101/ other science course final tomorrow, and my brain is fried. I've been studying for the last 6 hrs or so, and I just can't seem to focus and do any more. I'll just rely on a 1 hour review before the test tomorrow.

Anyways, so about the knitting. Got to say that I love it, even more than crochet. I started classes last week at Hilltop yarn, and I learned how to knit and purl. As last week I had a huge test, and this week I have a final (thank god it's over on Monday) I haven't had too much time to work on it.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll post some pics of what I'm working on, like the sweater's I'm frogging.