Quick Mitten Story

My cousin made his confirmation today. He is officially a confirmed Roman Catholic. Afterwards, the family gathered at a restaurant and had dinner. It was very lengthy and I am the oldest of my cousins. Of the 7 of us (one of which is my sister who is 20) one is a boy, and we range in ages from myself (almost 22), my sister is 20, boy cousin is almost 14, his sister recently turned 10, girl cousin almost 8, girl cousin, almost 5, girl cousin 4.

I say almost __ years old because our birthdays (the exception is my sister) are between Oct 27 and Dec 3rd. Six of us are born within six weeks of each other. Boy cousin and I are one day and 8 years apart. Fun facts ;)

So, this is where I'm going with this story, outside of cousins, our parents are present at dinner, as well as our grandmother and her sister (our great aunt). Girl Cousin, who is almost 8 years old, somehow notices that my freshly finished mittens fell out of my peacoat pockets, and onto the restaurant floor. Of course, almost-8-year-olds are very in tune to what is on he floor of a somewhat crowed restaurant.

Naturally, she thrusts the mitten into my face, it is not shiny nor does it have buttons, so it is not interesting. I should mention, I all but kept my cellphone in my bra to keep it away from my dear, adorable cousins. As the mitten is thrust into my face, my grandmother yells across the table about how she wants to look at my mittens. I hand her the mitten and my grandma, her sister and my aunt start talking about the mittens. Granny tries them on, yells at her sister (she is nearly deaf) about how proud she is of me and my mittens and I knit them and the whole nine yards.....

When she hands them back to me, she points out that I have a hole in each mitten. (I had issues with the thumb, I'll point it out in other pictures) I reply that I never said they were perfect mittens.

She is not a knitter, although I asked if she wanted to learn. She said people who are 79 don't want to learn new things. I don't mind her criticism of my knits. Granny will say what everyone else is thinking, and I appreciate that. If she thinks my mittens are ugly, she'll tell me they are ugly.

That's all I had to say. The story didn't quite come out the way I wanted it to, but you get the idea. It made me laugh when she handed them back to me. I may or may not have my strongly desired photo shoot this weekend, because I have to write a paper for American Literature. I would also like to mention that I am a science major, and although English and other classes make me a better, more rounded out person, I would much prefer to take an additional physics class, than American Lit.

There. I said it.
knit on! - jersey

Ah yes, FO's.

* Originally I had posted this blog on Nov. 12th, but my awesome picture shrinking skills were less than stellar. I took the blog down, recropped the pictures so that they would be smaller, and better viewed on the blog and I will eventually repost this blog. Thanks! Jersey

Yes, it is November of 2007 and I can actually say I suddenly have quite a few FO's (finished objects) and let me tell you, saying that out loud, IS WONDERFUL! A far cry from my mittens in January, [and getting the jist of how to post pictures....] I have since completed a pair of mittens, an earflap hat and from Knitty, Calorimetry which I just tell my non-knitting friends it's some type of a large headband that I've been wearing to lacrosse.

I should also mention that I've gotten a TON of compliments on my version of Calorimetry. Seriously, a ton. Including lacrosse teammates, my aunt, boyfriend, boyfriend's mom and a stranger or two.

I feel proud. I don't have finished pictures yet, but I will soon. I have to somehow sell taking pictures of me bundled up in mittens/hat and random scarf is fun to my boyfriend. I know. Goodluck.

I used the yarn from my Jim Thorpe, PA trip for the mittens.

Until I have the perfect photoshoot, here are some pictures to hold you over. I included my awesome pumpkin carving skills and a series of half finished mitten pictures.



The cutest dog ever.



My awesomely carved pumpkin.



Pumpkins are healthy.



Non-lit shot of everyones carved pumpkins. (L to R: Boyfriend's sister's pumpkin, mine, boyfriend's)



Lit shot of pumpkins. Same order as earlier.




Painted pumpkins watching the Giant's win. (L to R: Boyfriend's, Boyfriend's mom's, Boyfriend's sister)


The following are mitten shots:










* I originally had a few more mitten shots, but I got so frustrated with Photobucket that I only uploaded a few. I'll have more later.


I have soo much more to share, and with a WONDERFUL four day weekend that is my favorite holiday coming up soon (cough-thanksgiving-cough) I promise to have another update. I do, I promise. I've been a bad knitter/blogger.

Finally, also in italics, I have to also mention I've decided to make up a "What to Buy a Knitter for her Birthday" blog, which should be posted soon, as well as a photoshoot with (hopefully) bunches of pictures of past and present knits. I feel like I woke up to quite a few winter hand knits. Some of them are ugly, some of them are wonderful, but I feel like I am slowly developing quite a collection. Perhaps I'll even have a model .... I'd love to take the pictures myself, but there is only so much a mirror can do. We'll see. Thanks for checking in with me, I'm sorry I haven't been blogging more often. I hope you are all doing well & enjoying the colder weather. I know it took forever for New Jersey to finally get colder. Even today, it was almost 60 degrees at 2pm!

Thanks for checking in! I have plenty of upkeep to do, I joined two different New Jersey related blog rings and I have some general cleaning up of links and dates, etc.

Ok, bed time and I'm really done with my wacky updates. * All updates in italics were done Nov 13th, in case you were wondering... :)

Happy Knitting! - Jersey

Movieland.

I have been having a particularly difficult time signing up for classes next semester. Saturday morning, still in the dark, (530 am) we are leaving to drive to New York to play some other lacrosse teams. I will be working on some reading for class, as well as my ear flap hat. I have ribbed about 6 or 7 rows since I casted on for the front and back, with the ear flaps on as well. I like it very much. I've seen how ribbing looks compared to other types of brims, and I prefer ribbed.

I hope to have a large amount of the hat done when I get home from an all day lacrosse tournament. I hope to also have enough sanity and energy to take pictures and post them. I am very upset with myself for only posting once a month the past few months and I vow to change that.

I vow.

Local U Lacrosse had games this past Sunday. We seriously owned. After this weekend we get a week or two off and then we train without sticks. This means weights, cardio, all the not-so-fun stuff. For myself I will probably have very little time off because I have strained or sprained my left quad. Occasionally the athletic trainer hooks me up to a machine that "stimulates" the part of the muscle that is injured. It is called stim and essentially looks like those things you put on someones chest if you are trying to measure their heart rate. In my case, it gets put on my leg and I get shocked. It's not a horrible shock, but it can feel unpleasant and takes some getting used to.

I've been feeling alittle goofy lately. I will explain why. I learned to knit back in Feb of 2005. I learned to knit because I no longer had lacrosse. Lacrosse is my love. I moved to Miami to attend college, I came home because I was sick, and at that time I attended Local Community College. I learned to knit because I had nothing else to do. I learned to knit to cope with doctors appointments, MRIs and bloodwork.

Local University and my high school lacrosse coach cooked up a nice plan to start a lacrosse team. What I didn't know is that when I went to watch a game in April, I would be invited to Local University's Open House the following Sunday. At that time, my former high school lacrosse coach would [basically] make me fill out an application and within the following six weeks, I would have financial aid, and a potential position on the lacrosse team.

I feel like I am living in a movie. I feel extremely fortunate to be enrolled at Local University but to also play lacrosse? This must be movieland, and that is why the post is titled as such. Now, I have the ability to play lacrosse and knit and I certainly plan to. One day, I will not be able to play lacrosse, but I will be knitting.

I don't know if I ever explained that, and I don't know if anyone cares.

:) -jersey

Hello October!

I can't believe another month has gone by. I had a long weekend and I decided to blog, and then I got sidetracked and I had a slightly bad day so I decided to have a photoshoot for one and rock out to some Sufjan Stevens.

Here's where I've been.










Here's what I've been knitting.


















The beach pictures are from Belmar, NJ. It's popular amongst those who come from North Jersey and New York. Huge for college kids. I never quite understood that, but we happened to go there when they had things set up on the beach and people swimming on surf boards and other.. fun, beachy type things. Reminded me of California and that's a strange feeling in Jersey.

The beach chairs are mine and the Boyfriend's. Mine has the flowers. We spent a great deal of time in those chairs chatting like old ladies.

I have had my eye on the Calorimetry pattern for such a longgg time. I finally decided to cast on for it two weekends ago. I knit it on needles that were too big and doubled the yarn. I don't know why exactly, but I frogged the entire thing after I showed my mom and her boyfriend and we had a good laugh. This past weekend I casted on and knit from Thursday to Saturday night. I sewed the button on and I was done. I love it. I've been trying to wear it as often and with anything. I think I could probably go down a needle size or two and make it a wee bit tighter on my noggin. The yarn is 50% cashmere, 50% merino from the SchoolHouse store in NYC. I tried Google-ing it but I can't find a website. I know it was in NYC, and it is sooo soft and warm. I've also thought about blocking it, perhaps the shrinkage will help it fit better.

That will be next weeks project:) Since then, I busted out some of those beautiful bamboo DPNs that I got off eBay and casted on for two sets of ear flaps. Only after I knit them, while watching Bones and House, Tuesday night haha, I realized I made the increases wrong. So I gotta pull them apart and redo them. That won't be hard. The yarn is beautiful baby alpaca I bought in Naples, Florida. I've got it in that light dusty pink, a darker red and a creamy white. I haven't figured out what exactly I'm doing with it, perhaps striping, maybe not, but it will grow up to be an earflap hat. Specifically, Ski Hat with Ear Flaps (aka The Red Baron Flies Again). I've been dying to knit an ear flap hat, and this pattern doesn't seem that difficult at all.

In other news, the baby blanket is coming along very, very slowly. I'm thinking of just letting it sit and getting some smaller items knit. Maybe a pair of mittens? I hope to have a pair of game socks knit for Local University Lacrosse. I think I mentioned I'm playing lacrosse at Local University, and we have our first games this Sunday. We're playing 4 30-minute running clock games which isn't that bad. I've been practing a lot lately and it felt so nice to have merino/cashmere and needles in my hands instead of a lacrosse stick. I play with a wooden stick but even then, it's so nice to have nice fuzzy yarn in my hands instead.

October 20th we're traveling up north to play other teams and then we're done until the end of January. I plan to bring some knitting with me that weekend for the ride. The bad part of lacrosse is that I don't think I'll be attending the New York Sheep and Wool Festival this year. Saturday I have lacrosse almost four hours away and I thought about driving up on Sunday. I don't think it's going to happen though. Hopefully next year. :(

I hope to have more updates, the semester took me by surprise and it took some time to get used to a new school. This week marks the 7th week of school, which is almost exactly half way through the semester. I only have one more transfer seminar class (for students who have transferred) and I'm done with that class! I'm so glad, it felt like such a waste of time.

Sorry about the disappearing act, I hope to be updating more. Especially now that the cold weather has FINALLY come to New Jersey!

-Jersey

PS: I am on Ravelry but I haven't done more than admire other (capital K) Knitters. I feel as though I am still a (lower case k) knitter, and I'm slightly intimidated as to post anything. Also the time constraint has had me like a rattlesnake lately.

PPS: Sufjan Stevens is a one man band type guy, he sings all kinds of songs and todays rock out song is called, Super Sexy Woman. He makes me laugh and sigh and get the sniffles. He's one of the stranger artists on my iPod. Highly recommend him.

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!