I’m not really one for making resolutions, but I do have a few goals for 2009. First and foremost is to start my career and get my own place! But that is more a matter of circumstance rather than something that I have to resolve to do. Still, I have to build my skills and my resume to look irresistable! On the other side of things, I want to be a more prolific artist and knitter. Last year, I didn’t do much drawing or knitting, and looking back, that’s pretty depressing for a self-defined artist.

To start off, I already knit a hat!

This colour is like… pretty much everything I own anymore. Pink and purple are slowly taking over my closet. I need some… orange and yellow!

Anyway, I have big plans for this year. Hopefully, I’ll be able to make them all realities. :)

Happy New Year!

November was a pretty trying time for my sanity.

I was working two part time jobs (no one is hiring full time!), I got sick complete with fever , body aches and reverse digestion, I quit one job because they would only schedule me for ten hours a week, wtf? I got into a car accident (in the rain, at night). As a result, I have never been so broke in my life. I can’t find a job relating to what I spent 5 years in school for and I’m slowly becoming kind of loony, being forced to work retail when I have a professional degree. I worked 14 hours (from 6AM to 10PM) on Black Friday. And also, I had to tink 6 rows of lace, amounting to tinking and re-knitting about 2,000 stitches. FUN TIMES.

My lace is all better now, and I’m well on the way to completion. I think I’m actually finished, but I will knit a few more repeats to make the shawl longer. I’ve been stretching it a bit to see if it’s big enough, but I can’t quite tell, so I’ll keep knitting just to be on the safe side. I scoured Ravelry for a way to fix the problem without tinking, but I don’t have enough experience, confidence or any crochet needles, so I tinked to be safe. It only took 2 hours! haha.

Being a vegetarian now, I made all vegetarian food for Thanksgiving and cut as much milk out of all the cooking as possible (milk makes me break out and I’m lactose-intolerant). It was good, but the recipes need a bit of tweeking. I did manage a really good pumpkin pie made with tofu instead of with milk! I tried the one my mum made with milk (I’m eating it right now) and it tastes really weird to me now! The tofurkey wasn’t bad, but it was a bit too salty. I also made an awesome vegan green bean casserole… I’m a bit impressed with myself for figuring it out. :) I meant to take photos, but with all the fuss, I forgot. I’ll do on Christmas! :)

Earlier this year, I was invited to be a member of GlamList.com. Signing up wasn’t a hassle and their sales are actually pretty amazing. I bought a camel dress from them sometime in May and they never shipped it until I became rather vocal and annoyed. My dress finally got to my house in June. Ridiculous! They signed me up for their VIP list to get access to the sales 12 hours before they go live, but that’s small cookies in return for all the trouble I had. The funny thing is that after I complained, it only took 1.5 weeks… Sure, that’s not really speedy, but it was coming from Canada using Puralator. I just don’t know why their service is so bad. I’ve been keeping up with their sales and I’d really like to participate, but then I think of the insanity that happened in the summer and I’m immediately turned off.

It’s a pity too because they’ve got this great knit dress in royal blue on sale right now… Maybe I can make it myself with size 0000 needles and threadweight yarn, y/n?

In other news, my holiday knitting has come to a standstill, but I’m still on track. I was knitting the Kiri shawl on the bus, and I didn’t really think before shoving it into my bag before getting off and some of it came undone. I really, really do not want to frog; it was going so quickly before my carelessness! I’ll have to study hard under bright lights to see how to fix it without ripping back. It’s three or so rows, but that’s about 900 stitches. No, thank you!!! But omg, Fino Alpaca with a twist is so pretty knitted up. It really is transformed by the pattern. I got it out of someone else’s stash of Ravelry and when it came, the colour looked a bit washed out and unassuming, but it looks so vibrant when actually knit! It’s a gorgeous transformation. I only hope lace shawls aren’t completely gauche to the person to whom I’m gifting it. It’s hard to feel people out without giving oneself away, but since we’ve got similar good taste, I’m hoping she’ll like it. ;]

I had more people on my list, but I’ve whittled it down to five people plus my three best friends here in WA. One of my good friends in TX is getting married soon, so I’ll skip on trying to squeeze her in for Christmas and instead make something really amazing for her wedding gift. I don’t know what yet. :) For my other friend, I don’t know if I should knit a scarf or a neckwarmer… scarves are so maddening and tedious!

I’m ignoring the election news today. I’ll surely go mad if I follow it like some of my friends are doing. I’ll just wait until the results are announced and either be elated beyond words (I really will scream or cry, I think) or start packing my bags so I can move to Europe accordingly.  My fingers and toes and eyes are crossed. ;) eta: the night is over and Obama won. All is good.

I’ve changed my layout again, since we’re past Halloween.

Brushing up on my French because I dug up a Phildar mag that I bought impulsively last year. I remembered there was a cute cape in it that I wanted to knit! Reading French knitting terms is actually not very difficult once you pick out what all the abbreviations mean. But it’s still a task… I spent an hour last night translating a pattern.  But it was good for practise and adding to my vocabulary, so I’m not complaining!

Anyway, I’m a fiend for cables. As I write this, I’m knitting the most tedious cable cardigan. Yesterday I was swearing I’d never knit cables again because I’m dying of boredom. I’m somewhat of a monogamous knitter; I can’t have two ongoing projects of the same type going on together. I can knit a jumper and a scarf at the same time, but not two jumpers or two scarves. But anyway, my vow against cables won’t last too long because I really can’t help myself when I see something this gorgeous! Cables add so much interest to any piece!

Pull à Torsades

Isn’t this beautiful? These cables, however, are significantly less arduous than the ones I’m working on now. I even love the colour… Charcoal grey is one of favourites, but I want to work in something a little more… I don’t know. Maybe a chocolate heather. This was a really popular shape/trend last winter, but I think it’s still beautiful. I don’t really keep with what in or out anyway; I only care about what looks good! Read the rest of this entry »

So, with winding down unpacking and getting into the ‘I don’t have school!’ mindset, I’ve been preparing to buckle down and analyse a pattern from a hat to recreate it.

But I was looking on Ravelry for something on which to use up my stash and I stumbled upon a pattern already written for it! I’m pretty ecstatic right now for it. The original hat is about $170 but it’s been marked down to $100. I still feel that’s too much to spend on holiday gifts. I might buy some cashmere yarn now, just so it’s really nice. :) eta: Here is the link, for Ravelry members!

As an aside, I love how easy it is to find fine fibres in yarn, but I hate how there is a distinct lack of small fabric stores! I want silks and wool and things, but there aren’t as many fabric shops are there are yarn shops, and I hate buying things like that online! Oh, well.

Now all I want to do is knit sweaters and hats all day, but I have some studying to do. :P

So after some painful frogging and heavy reluctance, I’ve finally restarted my Seeded Cables Cardigan from Sensual Knits. I’m half-tempted to say, ‘forget it,’ and just put it away and wait for a new yarn because alpaca sheds much too much. I love alpaca, but I probably won’t ever use it again even if it is silky and soft. It’s just not worth having fibres all in my hair and on my clothes. I still have so much alpaca stuff yet. It’s merino and cashmere for me from here on.

Looking at this pattern, there is a bit of a problem on the left-hand side. The outermost cable in the centre pattern lays on top twice instead of weaving over and under like a cable usually does. This isn’t touched upon in the errata (and there was months worth of waiting for multiple error corrections), but I think I’ll go ahead and change it because I hate the way it looks. Unfortunately, I only analysed this after doing two runs through the pattern, so I’m not going to go back and change the few I’ve missed. But, at least it’s on the back and I saw it in time to make the correction of the front. I can’t wait to finish this… I wanted it to be all finished so I can wear it during the cool Seattle nights, but if I can finish it before the end of September, I’ll be happy. Then I can think about whether or not I want to burn myself out on holiday gifts. :D If I end up doing anything for the holidays, I’ll probably keep the list very short.

In other news, I’m finishing my last class before graduation and moving was a complete pain. Hopefully the next time I move, I’ll have much less accumulated junk!

I have a recipe to share later. In the meantime, cheers!

I haven’t been up to much lately. School is over for the next week, and then I start my summer course. My final course ever. I’m kind of aprehensive about going out into the REAL WORLD, but I’m sure things will work out fine.

Anyway, here’s a picture of a dress I bought for my birthday last year! Yellow is quickly becoming an obsession for me… I have 2 yellow dresses now, and I just bought a bunch of sungold yellow yarn for a tank top. I didn’t look at the fibre content and so I was surprised to find that it is 100% acrylic. But I can’t return it.  Hopefully, it will be okay. Acrylic tends to make me sweat like crazy, but since I’m creating light summer clothes, it should be alright.

Here’s the camisole I’m working on right now. I messed up on the lace, but I really couldn’t bring myself to rip back and fix it when I realised. Now my main concern is my decreases. My ssk decreases are always super visible next to my k2tog ones. :( But otherwise, I’m not bothered. Now I need buttons for this tank… some pretty faux pearl ones!

I used Addi Turbos for this and… I don’t get the hype, really. They’re nice, but I feel like I knit the same on them as I do on my Denises (which I loathe, btw). The only difference is that my knitting doesn’t ‘hang’ onto the needle with the Addis like they do with Denises. I think I’m about to invest in Knit Picks Options, but I hear some frequent and scary complaints about the quality of the cords they use. And buying a collection of $20+ needles in every length and size does not appeal to me. What to do!

Anyway, I leave you with a picture of mouth-watering cookies! I got the recipe from VeganYumYum (I don’t know how she got hers so beautiful-looking, but I’ll keep trying!), but modified it a bit since I don’t have all of the ingredients she listed (nor do I know where to even find them!). I also added sweet orange oil because orange + vanilla is so yummy to me.

Have a good weekend!