I have been having a TERRIBLE time finishing things lately (see the last post for the list of all of the projects that I have going right now).  But, today I managed to finish one! TaDa!!

Yikes!  I totally did not realize how long it had been!  And that last entry?  Right, ignore it.  Please????? Complete drivel that has since become irrelevant and rather stupid sounding, if you ask me.  SO, back to talking about what I do know.  Yarn and knitting and the occasional digression into college life and dancing and all that other fun stuff.  Not about weird quandaries into my future and all of the possibilities that have come my way but that I have ignored.  Nope, I'll leave that for the shower.

So in my knitting life, I have mastered (for the most part) DPNS and have been using them to create fingerless gloves for my brother and am in the process of knitting my very first pair of socks (squee!)  They are made with super bulky yarn (Lion Brand Wool-ease Thick and Quick) on US11 needles, which I think is the best way to learn to make socks.  No tiny needles, no scary thin yarn, and talk about instant gratification!  I was drawn to this idea through a Lion Brand free pattern (Cottage Socks)* although I ended up using Amy Swanson's universal toe-up worksheet from Knitty to construct them.  In dance we spend a lot of time in drafty studios and cold, drafty theaters and in order to avoid injury to our feet (as well as the rest of us) we have to be as warm as possible.  So dancers tend to like warm cozy socks.  So when I saw this pattern for knee-high socks that were knit thick enough to be slippers....well, let's just say that I was VERY excited.  While this first pair is for myself, I plan to make more for the dancers who are in my senior thesis piece.  At this point I suppose you want a picture....well ok, here you go:
This sock is now finished and I have just stared on the foot of the second.  So much fun and so easy to knit.  Although, they have made me be very very honest about the size of my calves.  But more on that later.

Other projects that are on the needles include a basic garter stitch blanket in Lion Brand Homespun for my mom (late X-mas present), an afghan for the boyfriend's parents (also a late x-mas present), an Entrelac scarf (the final, late x-mas present) a "So-called scarf" in some beautiful hand-dyed BFL from Ellibelly on etsy, and a Clapotis that is going nowhere rally really fast.  Tomorrow I am going to grab some Lily Sugar 'N Cream cotton, to make some quick Valentines Day wash cloths for my mom.  In order to save money and to get rid of some of the stash, which is not all that large, but I live in a REALLY small apartment, I have promised myself that, with the exception of supplies for gifts that I have already committed to making, I will not buy any new yarn for the next 40 days.  (OK, so clearly this is for Lent, but I am not in the habit of advertising my religious beliefs and frankly, I don't think that a yarn diet is really in the "spirit" of Lent.  Yes, I am doing other things, no they are no ones business but my own and no I am not interested in making religion a topic that makes any sort of appearance on this blog.)  Hopefully by the end, I will have made  room physically, mentally, and financially for more yarn and more challenging projects.  I plan on trying to get all of the late X-mas projects done before the end of the month, and then using all of march to make the four pairs of slipper socks for the dancers.  The only exception to this would be the blanket for my mom, since it is the only project that I can comfortably work on while in classes, so I will be saving it to work on in class and using my spare time for other things.  There, now it is official and I can't cheat, right?  I have a plan and I will stick to it! (as long as I can keep the SEVEN BALLS of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in my stash from distracting me)


*I am actually posting from work, so I can't really find all of the stuff that I reference in order to link to it.  If you are curious, you are welcome to look at my notebook on Ravelry for more info.

Edit: I just noticed that I have to entries that have basically the same title.  I think that speaks volumes about the life that I lead, especially when you look at which titles they are.

...if only for the next two weeks.  Oh well.
 This post it going to be all about something totally non knitting, that has been on my mind for a while, so if that bores you to tears, feel free to scram now.

A few days ago I was having friends over for dinner and stuff, mostly to celebrate the end of classes and just to see each other since we all go to different schools and rarely have time to see each other during the school year.  So after a few beers and other libations we started to talk about things that, well, are not any where near family friendly.  Through the course of this discussion it became clear to me that in many ways, one of the guys present, whom I had gone to high school with and with whom there had always been the unspoken possibility of a relationship, was FAR more sexually compatible with me than the Boyfriend is.  Literally there was a comment that he made that stuck in my "head" (ahem) for about a day.

All of this made me wonder, about what ifs and missed chances.  Who would I be today if many yesterdays ago I had decided to go for it and attempt a relationship with this friend?  Is there really the future that I imagine for myself and the Boyfriend if there are such fundamental differences?

Something quick and fun for you this evening.  The instructions for this can be found here.

-----------Begin Knitter's Geek Code-----------
Version 1.1
KE>CR Exp+>++ Spm Steel+++ Bamboo>
Den Syn Lux++ Wool Stash++@ Scale(++)
Fin Ent@ FI? Int? Text+@ Lace+@ Felt+
Flat++ Circ+@ DPN@ ML? Swatch KIP+++
Blog+>++ SNB- EZ>++ FO++ WIP++(+++)
GaugeF+ W B++
------------End Knitter's Geek Code-----------

It is indeed pitch black (at only 7pm) outside and the wind is making the windowpanes in my studio apartment rattle.  I am attempting to tap into my muli-tasking chi by working on three papers, two other projects, writing this entry AND, and it is a very large "and" indeed, attempting to figure out entrelac knitting, using this tutorial from The Yarnpath (thus far an incredibly clear set of instructions that has made me very hopeful that my chances of successfully starting and completing the Lady Eleanor entrelac stole from Scarf Style, which I have been dreaming about for a while).  So far LJ and the knitting are winning out big time over the paper and projects.
    So as I sit at my computer, literally FEELING the wind blowing through the chinks around my windows, I am filled with the irony of how much I love, love, love my apartment because it is so cute and so perfect for me but darn it, I have such poor circulation that any further drop in temperature is just unbearable.  I have two pairs of socks and some very fuzzy moccasins/slippers on right now and my toes still feel like ice-cubes.  Why oh why does such a cute apartment have to be so cold!?  To add insult to injury, I am retaining water like there is no tomorrow, to the point that on Sunday my feet and ankles were so swollen that they were double their normal size.  So I have to drink a whole bunch of water to try to regain the whole salt/water/potassium balance.  BUT, I can only stand to drink cold water, ice-cold water more specifically (the boyfriend likes to say that I take water with my ice).  So my insides and my outsides are both incredibly cold.  I have no place to hide.
    School is ending in about a week and while that is unbearably exciting, the amount of work that needs to get done between now and the end is so very, very overwhelming.  I think that classes should end and then we should have a week, a full, whole, week, before professors are allowed to require anything be turned in and exams start.  That way we could have that week to finish ( and most likely start as well) all of the final papers and projects that need to be done without also having classes taking up the better part of out time.  Trying to get everything done, study for exams and still get to classes is just too much.  But when has the educational establishment ever cared what was actually best for students?  Especially at a research institution like my school no one cares about us undergrads.  If you aren't publishing, you don't exist, and while you are welcome to give the school money in exchange for the regular infusion of shame, guilt, stress and heartburn that they are willing to dish out to those whose names do not appear on papers in international research journals, don't expect them to give two seconds thought about what you might need.  Granted, while the huge number of undergraduate students that do go to my school make it difficult to accommodate the needs of everyone, it would still be great if they could try to be a little more humane in their treatment of us.  It is times like this that the alpaca farm in the Andes sounds really inviting.

Well, to all those who missed me while I was "away" from LJ (are there ANY of you?), I apologize.  The semester will end in about one week and then two weeks of exams loom large before I finally can take a break.  At that point I will probably put in a bunch of updates (maybe even postdate a few*gasp*).  But right now I want address the newest temptation that has been attempting to forcibly remove the money from my bank account: The Make One Studio's Year of Lace.  I have recently fallen in love with lace, although as my family and the boyfriend can tell you, I frequently get VERY lost and VERY frustrated with my lace knitting.  When I started my gift project for my ballet teacher/artistic director

If I had my way, this is what my life would be like:

So just a quick update, since I am currently swamped with school work and have only managed to dig myself out momentarily.  Anyways,  I FINALLY was able to join Ravelry, so check me out (knittydancer).  More to come soon, I promise!

Today has been such a blah day.  I have gotten absolutely nothing done.  I slept through my ballet class this morning and since then have spent most of the day surfing the web from Boyfriend's couch.  I can hear my homework calling to me, but the devil on my shoulder known as the internet keeps drowning it out with calls of "Just a few minutes more!"  There are days when I think that this "series of tubes" is really not as great as everyone makes it out to be .

I doubt it, and for the following reasons:

Because I have a verifiable s**t ton of work to do for tomorrow...
...because it is very early in the AM...
...and because I apparently am now religiously opposed to sleep in all of its forms...
So I decided it was time to show everyone some pictures!

This is my most recent FO, as well as the first "pattern" that I designed completely before even casting on (as opposed to the whole design on the fly thing I had going for a while).  Also as a disclaimer the colors do actually go together.  The brown has tiny flecks of blue in it and the red  has flecks of brown.  I've started calling it my "Autumn Colors" scarf.


Next we have the only project that I am actively working on.  It is going to end up as a shawl some day. I am making them for all the women at my old office because the place is horribly over air-conditioned, and because I miss them and this way they have to see me again.  The colors are a little wonky in this picture as well.  The yarn is not so orangey and is in fact a really pretty mix of jewel tones.  Also note that I took it off of its straight needles and put it on to circulars just to that you could see it flat instead of all bunched up.  That's how much I care about you all.


Finally we have the yarn for my two upcoming projects.  First for my first project with cables.  It is Lion Brand Jiffy.  The pattern calls for Wool-Ease chunky but my LYS didn't have it and they are the same weight.  Plus Jiffy is so much softer.


Last but not least we have the yarn for this much awaited project.  I had a really hard time picking the color.  I wanted something pretty and feminine but that would also be able to coordinate with the rest of my wardrobe.  So as tampting as it was to create some pink monstrosity I went with neutral instead.  It is Patons SWS, and darn it there are so many wonderful colors of this yarn that I want to make something out of them all!  This is also my first time working with 100% natural fibers (acrylic is cheaper; sad but oh so true and oh so important on a college student's budget) so I am really excited about that as well.

    Boyfriend and I went over to his parents house for dinner last night.  While ostensibly the reason for our visit was to allow him to do laundry while scarfing up as much free food as we could, we were also there to discuss the possibility that he and I might move in together, and that we might be moving into a condo purchased by his parents.  Its all a little tense, but I've known at least one other very successful relationship who first moved in together under similar circumstances, at the same point in their relationship, so I am hoping that we too will have a positive out come.
    While we were there I checked in with my first, and only at this point, knitting pupil, Boyfriend's little sister.  While I am hardly what anyone would call a very experienced knitter I can do pretty well with flat stuff, so I feel pretty confident about starting her down the path.  What ended up happening was that I knit her about 30 "courtesy rows" --thanks to Yarn Harlot for introducing me to that term!--on her project while she studied for a Chem test, all while I had deliberately left my knitting at my apartment so that I could try to get my own copious amounts of school work done while we waited for Boyfriend's laundry to finish.
    In other knitting news, there is a trip to my LYS planned for this afternoon, where I plan to pick up the yarn for this and this.  Both are stretches for me, but that's what I really want/need right now.  I dream of the day when I can look at a charted pattern for a fair isle sweater and think to myself "OK, no problem, now where is the yarn I had stashed for something like this?" instead of my current reaction which is to huff and say something to the effect "Yeah right, in what alternate universe?"  Granted, neither of these projects are anywhere close to that type of pattern.  Small steps people.

     So after many years of knitting (poorly and with out any sense of adventure) and several months of reading various knitting blogs and forums (which made me wish fervently that the previous statement about my knitting experience was not true).  I've decided to start this journal in the hopes that someone who actually knows what they are doing in the world of knitting will notice me, take pity on me, and teach me all they know....so that together, we may RULE THE WORLD!!!!  Well, that's more of my wild fantasy life than what I think will actually happen, but who knows, maybe my dreams will one day come true (pleaseohpleaseohplease!).