Not completely, if at all, knitting related.

I swear, I meant to update during the past month. I can't believe I actually went a complete month (again!) with no update. Well I've got a picture-less updated, followed by a picture update to come sometime over the weekend. I swear. Local University started August 27th, and I am aware that some parts of the country start school earlier than that, but in this neck of the woods, that's early.

The worst part might be that I spent most of the week before fulfilling various orientations. Some for transfer students, others for student-athletes. It made my summer seem squished and over before I was ready for it to be over. Perhaps the worst of the worst part of this entire event is that it was cloudy and some type of precipitationy, like rain or mist or something in between. Very depressing weather.

Good news! After my first week in school, I spent the beautiful, three day weekend on my local beach. Soaking up sun, and getting myself burnt on one half of my face(because I turned most of the day to talk to my boyfriend. Bad move.). I brought my knitting with me, but in the past two or three weeks - I've lost track of the days - I only knit during orientation, pretty much trying to pass time and get the nervous tension out of my system. It kind of helped. People are slowly identifying me as the knitting athlete.

I haven't brought my knitting to school yet, as I've had a great deal of running around and homework to do, things are settling into a nice rhythm and I hope to get this baby blanket done, very soon. The baby was born in August, and no, I don't know what date. I haven't even had the time to visit the baby, but I've seen pictures and he's adorable and healthy and keeping his older sister up at night. I feel horrible saying this because even though it's my mom's boyfriend's sister, we're pretty close. (Think: step aunt if my mom & boyfriend were married, its easier that way.)

I don't think I have half the blanket done, and I really want to get it done and move onto other projects. I have sooooo many projects I want to work on besides this blanket and I have to tell you that I'm tired of knitting it. These feelings kind of make me angry because I would love to knit this blanket but it feels like every time I spent a few minutes on it, I loose rows. I think I may start designating 20 or 30 minutes a day to working on it and perhaps that kind of... stick-to-it-ness may get the blanket done.

I hope.

I have pictures for my post later in the week. I got presents! Anyway, if anyone still reads, thank you very much. I appreciate it and hopefully now that I'm back to a regular, school schedule I'll be posting as often as I did last semester/this past spring.

-Jersey!

Slow and pokey.

I have to tell you, I was surprised to notice that I haven't blogged in a month. Where did the time go? I know I meant to blog, not that I have anything completed to show, but I did think a great deal about knitting over the past month. I didnt have a lot of time during the past month to knit, but considering [now, it's August] that we are eight months into 2007, I don't have a FO to show. Eight months and not a single FO?

So it got me thinking, I think I knit fast. I watch people turn out FO's all the time, but I work night and day on a sock and I didn't have to frog it at all and I'm not even close to done! I must be slow. A slow and pokey knitter. Perhaps, I may not feel the need to finish things. I don't have deadlines or anything. I just knit for pleasure, for fun. My boyfriend's mom recently commented [by recent I mean Memorial Day] that she has never seen me finish anything I started. She is accurate. I have a sweater that's been on hold since April, socks that I haven't officially frogged yet, a baby blanket and squares that I said I was going to send to Kansas. That didn't work out. So, I thought to myself, what's my problem? Why can't I finish anything? Do I have finishers anxiety?


Who knows. Maybe since I'm technically off from school, my brain decided it didn't want to knit either. Speaking of school, this is what I've been up to over the past month.


I've been taking a pre calculus class at Local University so I won't have to be in school as long. Next summer I've got quite a few classes lined up to take. I've also been running back and forth to Local University to sign different forms and turn others in. I'm going to be playing lacrosse there so I've been working out and on a special diet. It really consists of eating things that are good for me and not eating things that are bad for me. Its simple. Egg whites and whole wheat toast with Smart balance butter? yes Chocolate cake? no. I also gave up my morning cup of coffee so that I took about a week to get used to. Headaches are no fun.

I went to a wedding last weekend. I was the boyfriend's date, his cousin was getting married. Beautiful wedding on a local beach and even more beautiful reception, if there is such a thing.

I've been going to my local beach and I must report I have a nice warm glow :) I think Monday may be the next beach expedition. I usually end up throwing and catching with the boyfriend and whoever else is along. I use my lacrosse stick and they use an extra stick I have or they bring baseball gloves with them. Then we play in the water, dry off, relax and do it all over again. I brought the latest project, a baby blanket with me, but I only got about three rows done.

I also rearranged my room. Originally my living arrangements were supposed to be temporary. They are not quite as temporary as I initially thought, so I rearranged things to be more suitable for myself. I didn't take any pictures of my room because it isn't completely done but it is close :)

During the process of moving my room around I needed to hang up a mirror and cork board. I pulled out my handy dandy tool kit..



My mom and her boyfriend have their own house tool kit but I couldn't resist using mine. How often do you get to use a pink hammer?

This is what I've been up to in picture form:



School book are in the LL Bean or Lands End canvas bag (can't remember who I purchased it from), knitting is on the floor, working out materials are to the right of the bag and a recently purchased Basic Cooking that I found last night during at outing at Barnes and Noble with Mom. I read about half of it before I realized it was an excellent book for $9 (+ tax) and that I hadn't even glanced at the knitting section.

Closeups of the baby blanket.




I bought the yarn at a slightly-out-of-the-way-yarn shop that's going out of business. I'm not sure what type of yarn it is, but I know its machine washable. I'll post tomorrow with that info. I pulled the pattern from a Debbie Bliss book that I had to return to the library [arrest me, I photocopied the pattern from the book] so I'm not entirely sure what that book is called... Could this post be a bit more half assed? I suppose it could, if I was like any other 21 year old at the Jersey Shore I'd be walking down the boardwalk to the next bar.... ahhh yes, see where I'm going?







I think the first and last pictures capture the color very well, at least from my camera to my screen, anyway. The last picture has my manicured toes from the wedding. I figured they looked good, I could post the picture and not worry :)

I hope I have more to post later. Any ideas or comments about my laborious slow knitting would be more than welcome. At this point I'd be thankful if anyone still pokes their head around my blog. I think that I'll be more post-y during the school year again. Seems that the summer is a free-for-all on multiple levels, including but not limited to sleep, cooking, knitting, concentrating....

Pennsylvania

I've been a busy girl. Thursday I spent the day in Philadelphia, which resulted in a trip to Loop . I didn't buy anything but I made the Boyfriend feel the difference between linen and silk, you know, because he's starting to knit as of late.



Friday I spent home, being sick. Well, I actually spent it at Boyfriend's house and he took care of me. We (finally) watched You Me and Dupree which was okay, and we played assorted video games. Friday my dad who usually resides in Florida was flying to a small town in the southern part of the Poconos, Jim Thorpe, to help my aunt out. I took this as an awesome opportunity to visit an old vacationing spot, and see my dad.

Jim Thorpe is a beautiful town, and I've walked up and down the streets of downtown, and I have never found this shop before:



From Broadway, I looked up into the hill and saw what I thought was a yarn shop. The Boyfriend said I must be wrong, no way, blahblahblah.



As I got closer, I realized I was right!!!!!



Boyfriend had to sit in a nicely padded chair while the yarn owner and I spoke, and she told me that, instead of getting high on glue, she gets high on sheep, and proceeds to sniff a skein from Green Mountain Spinnery. Upon close inspection, it does smell like a sheep, and better yet, it still has vegetable matter within the skein. I personally don't mind, and enjoy some vegetable matter among my yarn. I'm not sure why, except that it makes me feel close to the sheep.





I don't know if you can see the vegetable matter, but as far as my computer and camera go, the pictures are very color accurate, which makes me happy because it is beautiful yarn.



This a picture of a very large piece of coal? It is 99% carbon. It's one of the random pictures I took that doesn't have the Boyfriend in it.

On the needles, I've got a baby blanket that I don't have pictures of yet. Hopefully I'll have it done soon. That's about it.

God Bless America and have a safe and happy Fourth of July!

Knitting and Work Does Not Mix.

However, the beach and knitting do mix. People tend to discredit New Jersey, which makes me sad because yes, sometimes I want to move far, far away and other days I hope I grow old and grey here.







This is the reason why I never want to leave New Jersey.

These are shots from a local park. Boyfriend is playing volleyball in the background. I was really far away because it had just finished raining, poor thing had to play in the rain. I took the pictures because of the lush greenery (which I love and is why I have no problem watching him play) and the beautiful rainbow.

The benny's on the other hand.....



They make me want to run screaming.

I will explain two things: in the summertime two things happen at the beach, Benny's invade the beaches, boardwalks, parks, anything that is slightly enjoyable, they come down and ruin. That includes all the nice roads I take to get here and there and back again. It makes driving on the weekends a chore and something only the most daring and patient should try. Don't get me started on Friday and Sunday nights. Garden State Parking Lot (usually its the Parkway)! Anyway, it has taught me to be a very nice, courteous tourist because I've seen what the not-so-nice ones are like.

The second thing I'm going to explain is the 'warming' of the Atlantic. I'm only explaining because I'm not sure if non-Atlantic Ocean goers will know what I'm talking about. Apparently, the Pacific does not do this, although they have better waves. The Gulf Stream makes it way mid July usually, up the East coast and warms the ocean water significantly. It is so pleasant opposed to the colder Atlantic water, the kind that you don't even want to stick your baby toe in.
In other news, I've got a standing beach invitation for Monday's, which is wonderful because the water has warmed up already. I also got quite a bit of sock knitting done, and if you excuse the sheer ugliness of the angles, as the sock is on MY [ugly] foot, I got quite a bit done.













If you look closely you can see a nice sized hole from my lack of skills. I was mildly sad about this, but considered it a good luck charm. If thats the only mistake I made, that's not a bad mistake at all!

At some point during this week I have made the following decision: Finish first sock, but do not start second sock. Why? I have a baby blanket to knit, I purchased the yarn from a store going out of business. It's in the cutest town, I love visiting it and I only recently learned it was even there. I plan to purchase some 50% sock yarn as soon as I get paid. I'm also considering frogging first sock so that when I find a really awesome pattern, I'll have the Opal saved and ready to go. Thoughts?

Back to my projects. I purchased yarn for a bag I wanted to knit from Interweave Knits, I have to finish my first sweater and I have to get the baby blanket done. So my first sock is going to be a lonely, single sock until I get some more pressing projects done. I don't want to claim one is more important over another, but when I say I "have" to get my sweater done, it means I want to wear it this Fall with my sweet blue flower bag. I also want to find a sock book written for DPNs (trying to translate from two circular needles to three/four DPNs is wearing me down & out) so that when all my other projects are done, I can start making myself some awesome, awesome socks. Aside from socks this winter my only other plan is to knit an earflap hat. Since I won the bamboo DPNs from ebay, this is a very do-able project and I'm excited. I need to keep my ears warm, kids.

That about does it. I can't believe its the end of June already. I have approximately ten more weeks of summer vacation, I start Local University on August 27th. This bums me out a great deal, but Local University has their own knitting club, which makes it worth while :)!

Enjoy the weekend:)!

I have to tell you....

Despite not being in school, I feel like I am knitting and updating less on vacation. I don't have much to say except that I had no idea [nearly] two weeks had passed and I hadn't updated. Not only that, I have nothing to update with.

Hopefully I'll have my sock done soon. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

How I Spent My Day Off

I had off from work today. So for my Granny's 79th birthday, I made key lime pie.



I should mention, crust to filling is from scratch. I am very proud of that fact. I'm also very proud of my first sock. I keep reminding myself that I have to make a second one. Hopefully this will counteract any potential "SSS" (second sock syndrome).






The above are shots of my heel flap, and later on I turned the heel. It's a sad little bump of a turn. I took pictures. It doesn't look right to me at all. I'm currently at the stage of the pattern where I pick up the gusset stitches, which has me the slightest bit concerned.





That's pretty much it. I'm going to try and pick up the gusset stitches tomorrow after work. I've been using this site, Silver's Sock Class as a substitute for Cat Bordhi's book, "Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles" when I get confused. I've obviously been using the 'One Sock on DPN's' tutorial.

Considering I did very little with my body and mainly used my hands and brain today knitting and making pie, I'm pretty tired. I would not mind any comments about the sock. Another big thank you to Shelia for making this all possible! :)

Catching Up

I have a lot to cover in this post. To start off though, I was cruising YouTube when I came across this:


Speaking of "real men", the boyfriend and I are doing well,
I didn't necessarily mean to take the picture, but I figured it's comical and I'd share. This will be a picture heavy post as I have quite a bit to share with you. First and foremost, Shelia sent me a wonderful package of yarns and a book. (My ebay needles snuck in to these photo, for fun)





Of the yarn she sent me I casted on with my brand new, recently won ebay-auction bamboo double pointed needles.







I started a sock! I LOVE the Opal she sent me, its beautiful and I really enjoy knitting it. I thought I would be dismayed by such tiny needles and skinny yarn, but no! No way! It's actually very portable, as I've knit at two family BBQ's, houses, cars, you name it. I really enjoy it. I'm starting to falter as it comes time for the heel/gusset to be worked, but I also haven't had an incredible amount of time to read the book Shelia sent, as well as knit. In fact, I've been bringing knitting with me to work.

I work at a quaint, family owned bagel shop that also serves lunch. We have 'rushes' of customers every so often but for the most part the place is dead. So, I've been knitting at work. I've been knitting squares on the bias for the people in Kansas. My boss thinks it's adorable, and he thinks my knitting is a good luck charm. Every time I bring my knitting with me to work, we're busy, or at least we have a steady stream of customers.

The first square I knit is ugly. There is not other way to describe it other than that. The gauge is obviously messed up.



The second square is coming along nicely.



As I left work today, my boss saw me taking my knitting with me and he told me specifically to "bring it back tomorrow, its good luck!" As I haven't had time to knit at work at all.

Oh well. :) In other news, I dropped by the Local University I'll be attending in the Fall and handed in some paper work and my deposit. I'm really excited about this. They have a knitting club, too! People my own age! That may make me even more excited.

The Season is starting here. Benny's, Shoobie's, everybody comes to the Jersey Shore for the weekends/summer. It's a nightmare if you want to drive anywhere, and if you have to deal with these people as they typically have the worst attitudes known to man. Being a Jersey Girl myself, that only means I have a new place to knit: at the beach. That will hopefully be Monday, as long as it doesn't rain :)

Check out my links, I updated them. Please visit Mike wants to knit. He's a friend from a previous job who I knit a beer cozy for. He has yet to actually receive said cozy, but it is knit for him. Also, recently updated and another good friend of mine, EvoLumiere. EvoLumiere is run by Dan Chosich, a film student at a NJ university. He's got some new films up, as well as old ones.

That is it. I have officially updated on all things knitting related. Goodnight!