Did I Promise You Some Buttons?

*Ahem*

Sorry about the recent ridiculously long absence. In my defense, I haven't knit a stitch since we last spoke.

The sweater is the February Lady Sweater, the yarn Brown Sheep Worsted. Needles, size 8.

The verdict... eh. I don't see what all the fuss is about. It looks really good on other people online, but on me, it's more linebacker than hip, swingy cardigan. Perhaps its just too big, but I don't have the time, energy, or inclination to reknit it.

Luckily, I am co-directing a big charity auction for school one month from now, and have a lovely handknit sweater to donate!

PS- I wouldn't hold your breath for more frequent posting. I'm barely staying above water this semester- with the auction, four seminars and two lecture classes, plus all the wedding day-dreaming I'm doing, I have no baking or knitting to share and no time to share it!

Indulge Me

I can't handle this- I want to be knitting, not studying! Whoever invented one-exam-to-rule-them-all style finals deserved to be poked in the eye with a very sharp knitting needle. Grrrrr.

I have my first final tomorrow (Contracts) then one Monday, Wednesday, and Friday next week. Somebody put me out of my misery.


End of whining. Thank you for your indulgence.

FO: Endpaper Mitts

Pattern: Endpaper Mitts, by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Shibui Knits Sock, in Finch and Midnight
Needles: US o (2.00mm) Brittany white birch dpns and 2 1/2 (3.00 mm) Crystal Palace bamboo dpns

Notes: They fit well, and they're pretty! Success.

The "seam" tends to slide around to the back of my hand, but I think that has to do with my hand shape, and not with the gloves.

It's a great pattern, easy to follow, and with beautiful results.

I don't know how to knit with my left hand, so my colorwork tends to move verrry slowly, as I work both yarns in my right hand. Pick the blue up, knit the stitches, put the blue down, pick the yellow up - whoops, they got twisted! - knit with the yellow... you get the picture. It's actually not too terribly slow, but it'd be faster if I learned Continental knitting. As long as this is working, though, I probably won't take the time to learn.

I like these because they cover my whole wrist, but aren't so long they'll get stuck on my sleeves. I knit another pair of fingerless gloves (in red! acrylic) but they're nearly elbow length, so fairly useless when I'm wearing long sleeves.

I haven't actually played piano since I was about twelve.

I still have about half a skein of the Finch yarn, and a quarter skein of the Midnight... I'm pondering about what I can use these for... maybe someone will have a baby and I can make baby socks!

The rest of today is dedicated to making up for my slacking off this whole week. Step One: go to the public interest career fair. Check. Steps Two-Six: finish scholarship applications, finish trial brief, teach self in personam and quasi in rem jurisdiction, teach self about modifications and changes to contracts, soak sheepy-wool to get the sheepiness out.

Ready, go.

Study Aids

Exhibit A: Pumpkin cheesecake, rosemary Christmas bush & sunshine.

Exhibit B: (L-R) Civil procedure outlines, FRCPs, handknit socks, latte, snacks, caffeinated tea.

This is post #100 on the blog! Celebratory retrospective to come.

The Craziest of Gangs

Me and my friends on our way to the Halloween party. Let me give you the rundown.
A Dinosaur. (Down in front) A Battery (of the pair salt & battery... assault & battery!). A To-do list. The Right to Arm Bears. A Giraffe. A jellyfish.

We were in front of Burger King, waiting for the bus, entertaining the patrons.
And a close-up of the giraffe, which won first prize at the costume contest! Mike spent all day being crafty and sewing up his costume. He started at 9 am with a sheet and ended up with this at 3 pm.

Taking a Deep Breath

This was that week they warn you about before you start law school. Among other things, I had a quiz today in Constitutional Law. Just 10% of the grade, but with all the stress flying around, you'd have thought it was an enormous midterm!

So, this chilly, gray afternoon, I'm taking it easy, listening to the radio, and knitting, finally knitting.

Presents!

Greeting me when I got home from my second day of law school were these lovely presents! In undergrad, they used to deliver flowers to the reception desks (from the olden days when you had to sign boys in and out of your dorm) and I would always walk past, knowing the flowers were never for me. When the flowers are delivered to your front door, there's none of that disappointment!! Thanks Mom, they're beautiful.

In the red package (with the adorable, and tiny, Lorax sticker), was a knitting shirt (Resistance is Futile) from the very talented (and local) NeitherHipNorFunky! She was having a sale, and I love handmade silkscreens, and I am surviving law school (so far), so I bought myself a present. She even sent along a postcard with some of her paintings on it! Not only is she a very talented knitter and silkscreener, she is a painter as well! Me? All I can do is read casebooks and knit a few rows a day.


I've managed to stay on top of my readings (it is only day two) and have completed all my work for tomorrow. Mike has a music lesson to give tonight, so I'm planning on doing a little Contracts work, due Thursday, watching L'Auberge Espagnol, and knitting! I've started the shoulder decreases on The Minimalist, and perhaps tonight I'll try to finish up the back. I'm still on the first ball of yarn- 220 yards in a skein of Cascade. It's amazing.



This picture pretty much captures the color, but makes it look like I have a very short torso. I do actually have a short torso, but I'm less square-shaped than this picture implies.

I do believe I picked the right pattern to be working on for the beginning of school. It's easy to pick up, and I don't mind doing only a few rows (or a portion of a row). I've just been picking it up right before going to bed- in bed, actually. My knitting basket has even migrated from the living room & office into the bedroom. We'll remedy that tonight with some serious knitting & movie time.

Am I Crazy?

I started a sweater! Two days before law school begins... am I crazy to think I'll have any time to knit in the next four months? It's not a very complicated sweater- the Minimalist Cardigan from the new Interweave.

I've got about 3" done so far, and I'm already wishing I knew how to knit Continental (is that the style where you hold the working yarn in your left hand?), because all this k1 p1 is a little tedious with the working yarn in my right hand.


Even if I only get to work on this a few hours (minutes?) a week, I think it will be a mindless escape from hours and hours of legal reading. And perfect for fall. Just look at the wooly, nubbly goodness!

I'm using Cascade 220 in a lovely heathered shade called Garnet that reminds me of a good red wine. Maybe mulled, to fit with the fall theme.

While I was buying the yarn, a gorgeous, sunny yellow sock yarn caught my eye and I just couldn't resist. Even though I won't be making socks anytime soon (I don't think), it was just sitting there on the shelf, calling to me while my Cascade was being wound into cakes. So I got it. It's Shubui, 100% superwash merino in a colorway called Finch. I'm thinking it will be the perfect antidote to the dreary, gray, rainy, wintry weather I'm facing for the next several months.

27.98

27.98. That's the reading on my bike's odometer after our ride today. It's the most I've ever biked at once, ever! Today was the Bridge Pedal, and it was so much fun. There were over 20,000 riders, and there were bands set up on some of the larger bridges. It was so cool to see bikes pedaling over all the major roadways, and even on the interstate!


We started at 7:30 and finished around 11. When we got home, we pretty much just collapsed and napped the rest of the day. We were especially tired because yesterday we biked all over the city and then to school for a picnic. Then, we stayed up way too late drinking and playing board games with our new law school friends. And, we forgot to eat dinner last night. Six hours of sleep + no pre-ride dinner makes for a very difficult morning when you have to get up at 6:30 am! Luckily, there were plenty of free (and soy-based!) energy bars to be had throughout the ride.

Since we got home, we've only had enough energy to make some grilled cheese sandwiches, nap, and sprawl o nthe couch to watch the Daily Show clips at One Good Move. I also managed to pick up some needles and knit the earflaps for Swell.

Yesterday we went to the coop grocery and they had the Fall Interweave Knits in the magazines at the checkout counter! My first issue (Summer) is supposed to ship on the 15th, so I'm not sure when I'm going to get the fall issue, but I had a good time flipping through it while we were in line. I'm thinking that having a sweater on the needles will provide a good excuse to take a break from studying when I need it.

Also added to the queue are some bedroom slippers for Mike's mom- I'm thinking of using this pattern from Craftster. What do you think, Jackie? Maybe I'll find something a little more intricate on Ravelry- I've been too pooped to look so far.

Here's me, when I had way more energy. Yay bikes!

Raindrops keep falling on my head.

We're moving to Rainy Oregon, and I'm going to law school there.

It was a tough decision, and there were some tears shed (in a cold, rainy parking lot in Boulder), but we are happy with the decision. We might be there as early as the end of next month!

The modified Clessidra socks are coming along- except I have great difficulty counting. And remembering what row I was on when I stopped. If I were just doing the hourglass cable, I'd be fine (ish), but with the 12-round hourglass cable and the 4-round simple cables, it's a little much for my non-math oriented brain.

Also, it's the most enormous sock I've ever seen, second only to the Long Sock). It's so wide, and since I don't exercize, my calves just aren't that big! However, I've tried them on and they seem to fit just right. Hopefully they won't stretch after wear, or fall down during wear. Slouch socks are only so hip.

I only have this picture of me working on the plane, 1) because it's dark and pictures come out poorly in the dark. 2) Because I messed up in several places and am a little embarassed that I didn't rip out. 3) Because I might frog the entire thing and just make plain old ribbed woll socks, since my trusty ol' ragland pair just sprouted two holes. And 4) To prove I did some knitting on my trip! (A lot of planes, trains, automobiles, and a bus to get us from CA - Philly- Massachusetts - NH - VT - MA - Colorado - CA in just 9 days... only plane and train knitting happened though.)

Also, while I was knitting on the train, and watching this amazing sunset over Brooklyn, a woman across the aisle from me whipped out her knitting. It was wonderful. The red Clessidra for me, and what looked like a cotton sweater in a delicious orange for her. No pictures, because I'm not the Subway Knitter, and I feel self-conscious taking pictures of strangers. I wanted to bust out my knitting when I was on the T in Boston, just in the hopes of being spotted, but I was too tired, and we only rode for a few stops.

SS asked for an Easter bonnet, but I made her one of these. I'm trying to use up some of the fluffy pink yarn I got for the cupcakes. She hasn't seen it yet, but it has made friends with her bedmate, Puppy.

Home again, home again.

I'm back, for just a few days, and my trip has proved two things.

1. I am not going to the University of Oregon. It just didn't wow me. Also, they gave me the least in scholarships. Also, I would have to buy a new computer, which sucks because I like mine and I just bought it last November! However, Lewis & Clark was just lovely, as was Portland. Laid back, chill, academic and intellectual, and beautiful (the school is on the edge of a large state park).

2. I did not knit as much in the car as I thought I would. Despite being in the car for 1,278 miles, and only driving less than half of the time, I only reknit the toe of Mike's Long Sock. The first attempt was ugly and far too large. I still think that the way I knit it is ugly, but I followed the directions. Here it is modelled on my hand (Mike's foot was out getting groceries at the time of posting). Perhaps I will take out where I psuedo-grafted the ends and try to redo that again. The toe is just so... square. I might go check out some other sock patterns to get some alternative ideas on toe-shaping. But I welcome anyone's suggestions!

I hope to knit more on the various planes and trains we will be taking this weekend and next week as we dash all over New England and Colorado. The second of the Long Socks, and my mother has requested an Unbiased bag of her own for Mother's Day, and then there's my knee-highs I've been planning.

I managed to visit only one yarn shop, in Eugene, which was quite lovely. I didn't buy anything, because I generally buy only for projects (and even with that, I run out of yarn all the time!). I wonder how Portland is as a knitter's-city. It seems hip and funky enough to have some excellent LYSes. Or Boulder, for that matter. This might end up being the deciding factor in where I attend law school. (The yarn shops and you know, where Mike wants to live).

Here, though, is the lone picture we took on our vacation. I'm very surprised we only took this one picture, of a truck on the I-5 through the mountains in northern CA, because we usually take 100's of pictures wherever we go. I don't know what it means, but I'll be heading over to the truck's advertized websites shortly.

(Saturday is the Lord's Day, Sunday is the Pope's Day).

This makes a little more sense now, as we listened to The DaVinci Code on CD as we drove to and from Oregon.

A Wonderful Day

Several amazing things happened today:

1. I woke up with a wonderful man
2. I got the yarn for my button-sweater after all (see post below)
3. At work, a wonderful customer gave me a rose for no reason! (Not a creepy man, but a sweet, lovely British woman, a professor at Mills)
4. I decorated cupcakes
5. I was accepted to Lewis & Clark University Law School
5a. They gave me a $16,000 annual Public Interest Scholarship, narrowly beating out the $15,000 merit scholarship I was given by Vermont Law!
5b. They also offered me a $500 travel reimbursement so I can afford to visit them
6. I bought plane tickets for Mike and I to travel to the East Coast to visit VT Law (as well as Philadelphia, my friends still in college, my mother's house, and friends in Boston)