A Geek Gone Mild

Just a little update....

Well I'm out in South Dakota for my final rotation now.  The lack of updates was due to a very busy very stressful winter....I should have more time now, but (sadly) I have no internet in my apartment out here!  Thankfully there is a library with internet access nearby so I should be able to get some more posts up soon!

.....and I'm back!  December was probably the worst and busiest month of 2007 for me since I had boards and an insane work schedule.  Sooooo I obviously haven't posted for a few months because of that, but look!  I finished something!!!

Pattern:  My so-called scarf

Yarn:  sheep shop #2 (in what I think is G043, I have to find the tag) , 3 skeins

Dimensions: 5 inches wide x 68 inches long

I got this yarn in Connecticut after a very bad day in which I got a flat tire and found something hanging off the bottom of my car.  I decided I needed some yarn to make the day a little better, so I headed over to the yarn shop after the tire got fixed.  I had been eyeing this colorway for awhile and decided it would make a good scarf so I snatched up 3 skeins.  It was great stress-relieving yarn, very cushy and the colors are so pretty (the pictures are washing the colors out a bit, the scarf is brighter in person).  I may be making another scarf with this yarn since my mom fell in love with it when I took it home too!

We had a couple weeks off from school for Christmas so I just got back from some time home in MN.  It was nice to just get to sit and relax for awhile....I made some progress on Lady Eleanor, caught up on Battlestar Galactica, and ate and ate and ate!!

My schedule should be a little lighter this month so I'm hoping to post a little more regularly....hopefully it won't be another 2 months before the next one!!!

   

This picture, taken from my most favorite seat at the library, has (sadly) pretty much been my view for the past month.  When I haven't been working I've been at the library studying for boards with a cup of coffee, my computer, and some comfort knitting.  The yarn you see there is Sheep Shop Yarn #2 (I'm not exactly sure of the colorway right now) that I picked up at Knitting Central after a particularly bad day involving a flat tire and something hanging off the bottom of my car.  In my distress I headed to the yarn store and picked up 3 skeins of the Sheep Shop...its the perfect comfort yarn, plushy with lots of pretty colors.  I'm using it for another my so-called scarf, but this time I'm keeping it for me!  Here's a closeup:

Tomorrow is my last day in Connecticut...I'll be driving back to good 'ol Minnesota tomorrow.  I can't wait to see some cows and farmland and my family...very exciting!

I swear this area is yarn store heaven.  Which is probably isn't such a good thing since I'm trying to save money and more yarn really isn't in the budget right now.  However, since silly me decided to do my externship in Chicago during the winter, I'm going to need a very warm scarf and a very warm hat.  So today I decided to take a mental health day and go browse some yarn.  I'm planning on making something very simple, maybe like the Purl Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts...I'm dreaming of something big and fluffy and cushy to wear on those cold days.  Both the yarn stores I went to today had some nice choices but I think I'm going to go into New York this weekend and hit Purl Soho.  I'm only here for another three weeks so I figure I might as well go in...I'm a little scared that I'm going to get lost using the bus system, but I think I just need to get over it and go.  Plus I really want to go to Purl Patchwork one more time too to get some more fabric.

I've been chugging along at the Tangled Yoke cardigan.....I swatched with 4's and 5's and although I didn't exactly hit gauge with either (although I was close) I decided to go with the size 4 needles.  I'm knitting the size for a 38'' bust which may be a little big on me to begin with, so I figured it would be safer to go with the smaller needle.   Here's the progress so far:

Sorry this picture isn't the greatest, we get horrible light at home so this was taken at the library.  I was afraid the other library patrons would think I was something of a freak so it was taken very quickly :)  I'm using Rowan Felted Tweed (one of my favorite yarns ever) in Camel...I was thinking of doing it in one of the light pinks or purples but I decide that the neutral colors would probably show off the cables the best.  It has some little black and blue flecks in it which are pretty hard to see in this pic, but it makes things a little more interesting.

So I really haven't fallen off the face of the planet.  I've just been a very bad blogger.  It's kind of been a weird few months...there really hasn't been too much knitting going on and I've been pretty boring.  I'm still out in Connecticut for the next 4 weeks but I'm pretty ready to get back to Minnesota....I'm pretty good at entertaining myself, but after about 5 months of doing it I'm ready to see my family and friends again!  Basically I've just been watching way too many DVDs here...there's a great library here that has a good selection of DVDs, but I'm afraid my brain is starting to melt from how much of them I've watched in the past 8 weeks.  Here's just some of the list....

• Gillmore Girls seasons 4 through 6
• 3 seasons of South park
• entire series of I, Claudius
• season 2 of Rome
• season 1 of Heros
• Firefly
• sex and the city season 6

...and that's just the tv series, there were quite a few movies thrown in there too.  I was going to calculate how many hours that came out to but I was a bit scared (and too lazy) to find out.  I think that there is going to be less DVD watching now since I need to get cracking on the boards studying.  Part II is coming up in December and there feels like there is a lot of info to cover.  So I will be spending quite a lot of time with this in the library over the next month:

And by the way, is it bad that the library is my favorite place in Westport?  I feel incredible geeky for saying that, but it a really nice library and I could spend all day there.  Geeky geeky geeky, I know.  Anyways there had been some knitting...I actually finished Gretel by Ysolda a few weeks ago.  I had some issues while making it (which were my fault due to gauge) but I'm very happy with the end result.  Here's a teaser pic:

I'll do a better post on it when I acutally have someone to take some pics of it.  I've also been working on the Tangled Yoke Cardigan right now which I adore.  I'll post more on that one later though, I'm going to try and get better at posting more regularly and getting back to commenting on people's blogs again!

What I've been up to....

It's been a busy couple weeks!  I said goodbye to Wilmington:

....and on my way to my new home in CT we stopped and visited Charleston, where we saw lots of bright pretty buildings:

and I got to eat where my hero did:

...we also visited a plantation outside of Charleston, which was soooo pretty:

...and after the plantation we headed down to Savannah, with the main goal of going to Paula Deen's restaurant:

and after this we headed way up to Connecticut, where I"ll be for the next three months:

So yeah, its been a busy few weeks :)  It's really pretty here but it's definitely a lot different from North Carolina (which I loved).   I have however scoped out all the yarn shops here, and let me tell ya, its yarn heaven up here.  I'd say the yarn stores are better than most I've visited in Chicago.  I also took a trip into New York and got to visit Purl (yay!)  and Purl Patchwork (yay!)  which was very exciting.

I'm still plugging away at the baby sweater, but I also got some yarn for Eunny's tangled yoke cardigan which I'm hoping to start on soon.  So stay tuned!

Back in Business

Good News!  I finally have a computer again!!  My fiancee was kind enough to pass on his Mac to poor computerless me....let me tell ya, it's not easy to go without a computer for 2 months.  Thank goodness there was an internet cafe near me, but the computers were pretty slow and old and I was too lazy to ever try and get photos uploaded on them. 

So I think an update on what the heck I've been working on is long overdue.  I'm still plugging away at Lady Eleanor:

Honestly I haven't made much progress on this one over the past few months.  I've resigned myself to the fact that I probably won't get done with this one until Spring...but then I figure thats good timing, since I'll be on my extership in South Dakota (in a very tiny town) and the wrap will be all prairie-sheik, right?

I've also been working on my very first baby item, a little bolero from Baby Cashmerino 2:

Honestly I thought I was going to fly thru this thing, but the instructions at the beginning of the pattern were horrible and took me forever to decipher.  I leave North Carolina in a week though, and since its being made for a North Carolina baby I have to get my butt in gear and get it done.

This indistinguishable thing is Rusted Root:

When my computer crashed I lost the Rusted Root pattern too...it has since been recovered but I can't figure out where the heck I left off on it.  However, my parents are coming down next week to help me move up to Connecticut....we're gonna fit in a little family vacation along the way, so I'll have lots of time in the car to try to figure out where I left off.

So thats all that I've been knitting.  I actually sewed my first dress last month too, but I forgot to have Adam take any pics when he was down here (and I feel like way too much of a dork if I pose for anyone else) so it may be awhile before I get an action shot in that. 

Now for some random thoughts: after hearing all the buzz about Ravelry I signed up for it, but I'm like #15000 on the wait list so I think it'll be awhile before anything happens there.  Oh, and have you seen Eunny Jang's new pattern in the Fall Interweave Knits?  I started drooling when I saw it, and then started drooling even more when I saw it was made with felted tweed (my all time favorite favorite favorite yarn) so I plan on starting that as soon as I get my hands on the magazine and the yarn!

So, sadly, my computer has died.  I admit I had it coming....I am not easy on my computers and I have a tendency to get crumbs all over the keyboard.  In the days (and months) before its death the fan was so loud that it sounded like it was going to blow up.  And then one morning it just wouldn't start up.  I took it into best buy to run a diagnostic and they told me the hard drive was "completely dead" and that it would cost 800-1600 dollars just to get anything off of it!  And apparently that would be a super high-tech endeavor, with space suits and everything.  So yeah, my computer is gone.  Which is why I haven't been posting lately :)  I really need to get a new one, but being a poor grad student I don't really want to spring for one right now.  But I really have my heart set on getting a cute little white mac...but we'll see.  In the meantime I'll be visiting the Internet cafe down the street very frequently.

I have been knitting a bit...I'm still working on Lady Eleanor and I was working on rusted root....however the pattern was on my computer and I was a big dork and didn't print it out.  Sad sad sad.  Oh and I bought a sewing machine!  Hooray!  I've been wanting to learn how to sew for awhile and decided now was probably a good time to learn since I have lots of time on my hands.  It's a Pfaff hobby 1022...its not the newest model, but its pink and white and was 50% off :)  I will put pictures up as soon as I can figure out how to do it from the internet cafe.

I started on a little practice tote project from Lotta Jansdotter's book Simple Sewing (I love that book, I think mostly for the fabrics she used) but I'm not too crazy about the fabric.  I have a tendency to be a yarn snob and I think I'm a fabric snob too.  None of the fabric stores here seem to carry the fabrics I like (which is basically the stuff on the purl website) so I'll probably be doing a lot of ordering online.  My goal is to get to Purl Soho when I'm in Connecticut, but I'm a little scared that I'll get lost in New York if I try to find it :) 

So it's been a very very long time since I posted, but I have a good excuse...I've been moving!  My dad and I did a little half-cross-country drive from Minnesota to North Carolina this past week, which is where I'll be for the next three months.  We finally got everything settled in yesterday, but I still don't have internet (eek!) or cable (eeeeeeek!)...the cable/internet guy can't get here till monday so I'm writing this little post from a coffee shop.  Thankfully I get one TV channel....NBC...so at least I could watch The Office finale on Thursday.  Anyways heres a few pics....

Here's a bad picture of the beach (it was so bright out that I couldn't really see what I was taking a picture of):

And here's cute downtown Wilmington:

I think I've pretty much got my way around town down, but I have yet to find the yarn store :(  So that's probably going to be the goal for this week.  I did find a fabric/sewing store though, and I'm seriously thinking of taking sewing lessons if I can fit it into my schedule.  Honestley I still haven't been knitting much...I did pick up some yarn for rusted root though so I hope to start on that soon.  I hoping that once life starts getting more normal and settled there will be more knitting!

It's been busy busy busy here!  I'm trying to get an early start on packing up the apartment; I'm moving out to North Carolina for my first clinic rotation in May, and it feels like there is so much random stuff to get done around here.   But I have been doing some knitting!

I started on Lady Eleanor from Scarf Style.  I'm using Noro Silk Garden on size 8 needles...I started doing the pattern as directed, but after a couple rows I could tell it was going to be a little narrower than it was supposed to be.  I figured that if I was going to do a big huge wrap it might as well really be a big huge wrap, so I frogged the first attempt and started again, this time adding two more rectangles in.

I'm probably going to be a bad blogger for a month or so....I leave for Florida tomorrow for about a week and after that it's going to be super busy with all the packing and finals stuff going on.  But once I get moved out to NC I'm sure there's gonna be lots of blogging and knitting going on since I won't really know anyone out there.  So stay tuned!