LOOK IT'S SPRING!

See? That's my friend Sandhya up in a tree, and her boyfriend below her. It was hilarious, because she just grabbed a branch and climbed up, and then was like: how'd I get up here?

It was a very pretty day, and very college-y. I spent much of it outside writing sonnets ( I kid you not) for my medieval renaissance final. I plan to post a couple here when they're typed up. For now I can give you a poem that was published in the litmag; I'll post it at the bottom of the entry.



That's me, sitting with them while they read philosophy and I wrote sonnets.

You'll be proud to know that I started a new sock. Sock's demise did not turn me off knitting them forever. This one's toe-up using the Knitty pattern, and it looks like it actually might fit! We'll see when I get further into the cuff, but there's a lifeline after the heel!

I also received my letter from the Knitterly Letter Swap yesterday! She's like an older me, I swear! And I wish I had time to write back this second, but it may have to wait until the weekend because finals are eating me.

Yesterday Rie and I went to Why Knot Knit and I bought two skeins of Kureyon. I plan to do one Lizard Ridge Block in between Sock and his mate, although I'll cast on the mate first to avoid Second Sock Syndrome.

This may be my last entry for a couple days until finals stop eating me. I have a two page French paper due April 30th, Medieval Ren paper (the sonnets) due May 1st, Honors paper due May 3rd, Shakespeare Preformances May 3rd, French final May 3rd and then a final paper due whenever before May 10th. I'm probably heading home around the 7th and then SUMMER!

For those who didn't know, Shakespeare's birthday was yesterday and in honor of that, I bring you this. Watch. Laugh. Be happy. I'm seriously considering Shakespeare Scholar as a career choice.

And now, knitting poem:

Afghan

Unexpected child, unexpected change

Mother with pursed lips reluctant to lay blame,

Sit in the creaking chair with a ball of yarn.

Clicking needles, ticking clock

Fabric formed under shaky hands.

Baby grabs at moving wooden sticks

Siblings lay quiet on a braided rug

Mama’s singing hugging them tightly as

Papa bangs around the room. Wary eyes do peek

Staring down as stitches fly snow and leaves outside

Wrapped in wool; clock still turning

Children done with growing up

See only a quiet woman in a corner

Kittens crawling on the floor beat yarn about.

Smile up at Grandma, pull a sock off of your foot

The room is still, light is gone

The rocking chair stands still

All that remains is wool and memories

Of a girl, young and scared

Of an unexpected child, the unexpected change.

Lizard Ridge Update and other musings

I was going to post last night about how I did a Lizard Ridge block in twenty-four hours. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned.

'Tis Greek Week, you see, and we had Sing last night. It was a lot of fun, and my sorority put A LOT of work into it. It was evident that ours was better than at least one of the others, and we got third, out of three sororities.

That would not have been so bad; we had fun, that's what matters, but then the Greek advisor said something particularly awful to our president. He made her cry. Needless to say I didn't feel like doing the final repeat on the block that I have decided to christen Motley (it's not so Crayola any more....)

Here it is:


I'm having a lot of fun with Lizard Ridge, and I've decided to focus on it a bit more. When I started I wanted to be done by June. Not sure that that will happen, but I want it done by the end of the summer. I'm up to nine squares (eight picture) which is three-eighths of the entire thing. Why Knot Knit's most recent newsletter mentioned something about a sale room, and I think my friends and I are gonna go check it out tomorrow, as I'm out of Kureyon in my stash.

Finals are fast approaching and I'm oddly unmotivated. Still, off to contemplate my Honors paper and watch Grey's Anatomy

The Saga of Scarf (Sock's Second Cousin)....(Once Removed)

Perhaps you remember this yarn?

It's Trendsetter Tonalita. 50% wool. 50% acrylic. I thought it would be okay.... Oh, was I mistaken!

Scarf started out as just an idea, a garter stitch scarf, 200 yds of yarn. Simple, yes? But The Nose-Pierced Knitter thought that such a pretty yarn deserved ever so much more. So, it became a slanted rib. However, it was determined that two rows would look better between each slant. Thus, frogpond. However, the yarn decided to tangle, so angry was it at being taken down from a flag to mere yarn again:

But during this time of frogging this pattern was discovered, thanks to the help of the LJ Knitting community.

Gorgeous, yeah?

Unfortunately, after one repeat it became grossly apparent that Tonalita was just not going to work for this pattern. The drape is not so great. At all.

It looks pretty, but just doesn't feel good. The needles slant in a really cool way when it's being knit...

So.... here come the frogs!

Rip it....

Rip it...

"No!" cries Scarf, in agony, "Please! Save me!"

"Why should I?"

"I'm a pretty yarn! Maybe one day you can make something of me! I can't help that I'm half nasty, man-made fiber!"

Okay. Okay. The NPK decides. Maybe stitch holders are in order.

But for now, it's time for Lizard Ridge Square the Eight:

It's Noro Kureyon 95. I think I'll call it the crayola square.

I got an A on my last Medieval and Renaissance lit paper; it was a creative work parodying both The Miller's Tale, from Canterbury Tales and Sir Gaiwin and the Green Knight. (Do you know, I almost typed Green Knit?)

Today skipped a couple classes to go to get my passport then got sushi and went to Ben & Jerry's for free scoop day. AND the B&J was attached to a Starbucks. Hello, Heaven!

What to Knit?

I was going to blog this all yesterday but.... well, by the time I got home I was about to go out again and y'all would not have wanted me to blog then anyway. A water bottle and some of mojito, and then three (mayhavebeenfour) jello shots, a bit of a screwdriver and half a rum and coke are not good influences to blog under. Not good influences for anything really.

However, since I'd cast off this afghan square no knitting was harmed in the pursuit of drunkenness.

I really like this one, I like the pale purples and greys and blues, and the hint of darker purple and green. It all works really well together, I think.

Now, what to knit next? I'm between a garter stitch scarf with the veregated yarn I posted about here and FuzzyFeet with the red brick Cascade 200 in that post too. Thoughts?

Why the complicated?

Working on Afghan Block the Seventh....

So. I got the grant for the trip to France. BUT they want a copy of your passport for registration. A passport I don't have. Granted, I'm putting in my application Monday, expiditing it and will have it in about three weeks. It's good enough for the Consolate in Atlanta remains to be seen if this will be good enough for the French government.

I'm trying not to get to excited, just in case.

But if it works, Mom and I are going to fly into Manchester the week before, go to London, Stratford, Paris and then I'll go on to Avignon.

Anyone know any good yarn stores in those areas? xD


And having used an emoticon I give you this article

Of FOs, What are you knitting? and nose-rings

What's up, y'all? First off, FO.


Spring-y scarf. I knit on it for both the drive home for Easter and the drive back. Didn't knit on it much whilst at home, for reasons to come later. It's Banderas Gerifil color 107 and Laines du Nord Kiddy Print color 600. Basically a mohair and a polyester fun yarn held together. My best friend made a similar blue scarf for her first project and I begged for one in pink and, well, ended up making my own a year later.



Rie and I are listening to Celtic music, and it's awesome. Oh, by the way, Rie's moved into my room for a bit. She's having parental trouble, and I have a spare bed. The administration knows of this not *shifty eyes*

Anywayz, went home for Easter. Saturday was awesome. I went to brunch with a friend and then he had to go to Tech work for the show that was up so I GOT TO SEE THE NEW AUDITORIUM! Twas amazing.

And I got to talk to my high school drama teacher and we argued about Shakespeare concepts. 'Twas awesome. We decided that I could teach Shakespeare in France and it'd work.

On Easter the best part was seeing my little brother open his basket. He got very excited over candy and Cars toys.

Oh, and my mom didn't know that you could blow up Peeps. So of course:


In other news, my grandmother noticed my nose-ring. She had been staring at my face for a while during Easter dinner, and when I went into the kitchen with Mama she said: "I think Nana's noticed your nose-ring".

When Nana went out to get a sweater everyone was laughing. My uncle said he'd only just noticed it, and my older, jerk face of a brother mimed pulling it out with a fork. Nothing was said until dessert when I called my sister strange.

"You're the strange one," Nana said.

"Why?" Mom asked.

"With that thing."

And that was all that was said. I'm waiting for her to call my mom and be all "Why'd you let her do such a thing?" but whatever.


On the ride there, though, I discovered a major knitting pet peeve of mine. Those who ask: "What are you knitting?" when it's a long strip of fabric. I want to say socks.

Or when a little girl at the baseball game I went to (my ride's boyfriend was playing and we stopped in on the way) was staring at the knitting and her mother says:

"She's knittin'; maybe she's making a sweater."

Um.... no?

Or my sister, who asked me if I'd "moved up to blankets yet?".

Driving came up at family dinner. Of course, everyone had an opinion. Don't wanna talk about it. *pouts*. But Daddy's signing me up for Driver's Ed this summer.

Know what'd be awesome? Easter baskets full of yarn instead of eggs and candy....


And this. It's pretty awesome.

PS. Mid-Summer presentation went very well, I think. I played the changeling boy, cuz I'm little like that, and the actual talking went pretty well. I liked my paper.

The King Doth Keep His Revels Here Tonight

I love Shakespeare.

Seriously. How 'bout I just write papers on his plays for the rest of my life? Particularly Mid-Summer.

Sound good.

I mean, as a kid I think I just liked him because I was supposed to. I think I wondered even up to last week if I really liked Shakespeare, or I just thought I did. Mid-Summer was my favorite play because of King of Shadows by Susan Cooper more than for any real understanding of the show. It was the same with, say, Les Miserables and Notre-Dame de Paris (Links are to the books, both in English, me no speak French that good yet!). I liked them because of the musicals, or because I was supposed to. But when you really read them? There's so much there! It took my Drama teacher saying: "Like you need any help talking about Shakespeare!" to make me realize: she's right. I love it.

In Mid-Summer there's the fairies, their involvement in the human world, the father/daughter relationship, Titania's love for the boy versus Oberon, and then both of them being replaced by Bottom, as if she can only love one thing at once, one thing that is half-human. And their's Puck, who claims to only love the mischief, but it is he who at the end "will make amends".

So wonderful! Remind me of this at 1:30 tomorrow when I present.

Today I spent the whole day baby-sitting the printer for the lit mag, but instead of knitting (gasp! shock!) when I wasn't fighting with the machienery that hates me I looked at old yearbooks in the back of the publicaitons office. Fun! And amazing how much my school has changed. Entire buildings aren't here any more. The library was dorms for Pete's sake!

Then Rie and I went on a yarn crawl to The Purly Gates which is going out of business. Twenty-five percent off! I got these:


I only have twenty dollars in my account until next Friday, but whatever. I was hoping that they had Kureyon, but no such luck. That would be too easy.

Wow, I'm a nerd, my iTunes just shuffled to RENT in Dutch. Dutch, not that I speak it, sounds almost like English when you're not paying attention.

Anyway. Pretty yarns.

Speaking of Les Miserables, (look I was, a whole four paragraphs ago! PS. that link's to the musical!), check this out! Les Miserables, in peeps. Amazing. And since when did Borders and Amazon tie the knot? I didn't get to speak! I don't wanna forever hold my peace!

What I was saying earlier, about there being so much hidden in literature, that goes for music too. You hear a song every day, and then one day you suddenly listen to the music and BAM! amazingness! It's an amazing phenomenon.


Okay. Sleep now.

To sleep, perchance to dream.


Wait, wrong play.


"Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream."

It's Thundering

First off: Amy, do you have a blog? It wouldn't let me view your profile, and I loved your comment!!

Funny.... When I was in high school I hated rain. And I don't like it, much, but I find that when I'm not involved in five minute class changes and getting in and out of Mommy's car I don't mind it so much, don't care so much about getting wet....

But I say this all from the safety of my room which I'm not leaving tonight.

Not so worried about my Shakespeare thing, because a bunch of people read their papers to the class instead of presenting an oral and handing in a paper to go with it. I can do better than that. But, since the worry is less I plan on spending the night writing to my Knitterly Swap Pen-pal, eating popcorn and watching House. I can do this in good conscience because

Yet Another Lizard Ridge Square Begun in Lieu of Sock is done!


Between Starbucks with Rie, at which I spilled her tea all over her..... and Knitting through Shakespeare class I got it done.

Speaking of Knitting through Class, I had the "OMB you knit in class?" with someone again today. Yes. I do. But only in the classes where if I did not my head would be on my desk and I would be bored out of my mind. In the classes where I don't have to take notes. I don't do things that require concentration. I answer questions. I am part of the discussion. If a professor asks me not to knit, I don't. I wait a good month of classes before I try, having staked-out which professors will be okay with it.

Power just flickered. Grr.

Anyway. Yes I knit in class. End of story.

Back to the Lizard Square. Through doing this I've learned a lot as to how to work with Noro. You have to choose your skeins carefully. The colors most obvious may not even end up in your square, you have to know when to break and pull out a strand of all one color, or else you have an entirely blue square. It's fun and challenging.

Rie knows a yarn store that's going out of business, so I think we're field-tripping there tomorrow! We're also gonna sit outside the cafeteria with some of my stuff to get people interested in our knitting club :D

Oh, and OMG guyz, check this out: Alison over at The Blue Blog is coming out with a book in May, with patterns inspired by Harry Potter. I am très excited! :D

That's all for today. Off to ponder: French homework before or after House?

Comfort Knitting

So after the disappointing misadventures of Sock, on Saturday night I cast on a Calorimetry from the Winter Knitty I'd done one over Christmas Break (pictured), in Plymouth Boku Color 01 (Plymouth's version of Kureyon) with the 120 stitches, and another in February, using Boku Color 05 for my little sister in my sorority to give her on the night of Revelations. On that one I used 84 stitches, I think. Thus, I knew the pattern well. I did a little under half that night, some during Initiation and the rest Sunday night. Less than twenty-four hours, probably about two or three actually working on it. It was a comfort knit. Anyone else do that? My comfort knits are Fetching, Calorimetry and squares for my afghan, I think.



I only cast on 88 for this one, and the yarn is Debbie Bliss SoHo color 37507. That's me modeling it. I forgot the bruse on the bridge of my nose was still there. It's a funny story, involving the metal edge at the bottom of the bunk above me and my face. Anyway, I like the Calorimetry with my hair better than hats, because my hair is teh thick, and I wanted one for spring.

In other news, my Starbucks craving was finally appeased. Sonya, Rieddhi and I set off today for some much needed Starbucks and Knitting (the combination is amazing). I spent most of the day doing layout for the litmag, when not in class, and by the time we went I was DYING for caffiene. My only words were: "Starbucks, please Starbucks. Coffee? Coffee? Coffee?"

We decided to take pictures for the knitting club facebook group, and I like them. We're cute little knitters.
Ah caffeine. Note the grandeness.

Sonya pretending to
work on my afgahn square. She didn't have her knitting with her.

Rie, working on a blanket square for Sonya. (One of her friends is having a baby)

Me, working on my afghan block


I've gotten pretty quick on the Lizard Ridge blocks. I should have this one done by Thursday/Friday-ish, if not sooner. One of my friends is in town, and I'll probably see her tomorrow, and I need to do that whole preparing for class thing.

We're planning a field trip to Knitch next week, which is good because I'm knitting through my stash *gasp, shock*. After this afghan block. (And maybe a scarf....and another afghan block) I'm gonna try socks again. And actually gauge and calculate and stuff. *Mutters angrily about silly gaugeness* Because I want to wear pretty socks.

S0, that's it. Starbucks+Knitting= ultimate stress reliever. Rie and I are planning another exursion later this week.

Oh, and good news. I just found out that my high school just got it's auditorium rebuilt. It was killed in Hurricane Ivan my junior year, so I'm really excited for them, and I talked to my drama teacher for about half an hour and squeed over it.

Laters.

Tales from the Frog-Pond

Meet sock.

(And his pals, Water and Bottle. Water is rolling on the table laughing at one of Bottle's witty jokes)

Sock thought he was a pretty cool guy. He chilled all over campus with his friends, the quadruplets Size 3 Needles and the Doodad who held the needles together.

What no one knew, not his friends, not the Nose-Pierced Knitter, no one but Sock himself, was that Sock had a terrible secret.

He hid it well, all through the time that he grew a cuff, and was dimly aware that eventually he'd have a heel, a foot and then a mate to call his own. He was very happy about this, and also did not want to disappoint the NPK, so he kept quiet.

Then a magical day came. The day Sock got a heel:

He was so excited! So excited that when the NPK decided to try him on, he forgot to hide his secret. It was that moment that led to all that was to come.

Sock, you see, didn't fit.

Oh, it wasn't his fault. The NPK simply hadn't cast on enough stitches, and he just couldn't stretch enough. Unfortunately, it didn't matter whose fault it was.... The truth was there.

Sock began to panic. And then he heard it. The sound that all knit objects on the needles fear.

Rip-it...

Rip-it...

Rip-it....

Closer....

Closer....

Dun-dun-dun:

That was it for Sock. He was unraveled. But not dead. Oh no. He lies in wait for the day that he will be cast on again, this time with more stitches. That day, however, will be several FOs in coming, due to the disappointment of Sock.