Hell of a Day

SO let's talk about my awesome day...

First, Cirque Dreams. AMAZING. Let me tell you, I had 8 years of very unsuccessful gymanstics lessons, and I can attest that the things these guys and gals do is RIDICULOUS... plus this thing vaguely had a plot, a fantastic singer that made it very Broadway-esque, and a very attractive adventurer who spent half the show without a shirt on. Who can ask for more? Plus, even though my mom bought seats 4 rows from the back of the balcony, we ended up moving up like 6 or 7 more rows and had a perfect view. Plus afterwards, Bubba Gump. Yum!

Second, OLYMPICS. Let me explain how much I love them. A LOT. I am not exactly a sports loving gal. I have been known to watch world series games (or all of them when your roommates team ends up sweeping them) and Super Bowls (hooray for beating New England!). I've also been known to attend the occasional high school football game and college basketball game in the name of music (aka - I'm with the band). But, do I seek out sports on TV? I might leave on some ice skating or gymnastics if I find them on at 3 pm on Sunday, but I'm definately not the type to follow players and revolve my life around a sports schedule. That being said, I am addicted to the Olympics. The team play, the ADD like coverage of every sport known to man, the super annoying lack of coverage provided by NBC. I can't stop. Basketball, soccer, gymnastics, swimming, beach volleyball, badminton, repeat. Americans, non-Americans, who cares! I even watched equestrian today. I am in love.

Ok, knitting. I have 13 rows of my Vine Lace Hat.


Isn't it pretty with the pink trim?

It's quite difficult to use the wrong yarn on tiny, tiny needles. But the knitting in the round on the DPNs hasn't been too bad. Yay for no all purl rows.

Finally, a FO.

Introducing the Ripple Eyelet Baby Hat


Can you tell I have a thing for colored borders?

Pattern: Ripple Eyelet Baby Hat
Yarn: Red Heart medium worsted for the white and yellow. PS - Seriously, I will take a picture and show you in how many different colors my sister has this yarn. It is ridiculous. Of coarse, she only used to make braids. And I only used a very, very little.
Needle Size: My size 10 straights for the white part, my size 7 circulars for the yellow (not knit in the round)
Time Period: July 31st to Aug 2nd (6 hours)
For: Donation. Size newborn-3 months
Mods: Color, and number of rows before decrease. I added the yellow as an accent color for the first work through of the pattern. I cast on for the newborn size, 73 stitches, but ended the pattern after the yellow section and two work-throughs in white, a little less than the requisite length since it was looking big. Followed with typical decrease pattern.
Notes: Awesome Hat, especially since it is not knit in the round. Next plan, adapt it to knit in the round. Shouldn't be hard, just reverse the purl rows to knit rows and eliminate the seam allowance. However, the seam is subtle enough that I could totally knit this flat again. :-)

Plus, I finished the front of the Mini Bear. But it might become the back. We'll see.

A bit of FRIDAY!

So I spent my lunch hour knitting the Mini Bear... woohoo, six rows. I am a ridiculously slow knitter. To be fair, it was the complicated part with the sleeves and the cast offs and what not, but still, I need to do better.

Goals for tonight: Knit up the head of Mini bear so I can have the front completely done AND have my 7 circulars back. Then I want to attempt to cast on a hat (Vine Lace I think, I kind of like complicated patterns to follow) on some dpns so I can take it to the city with me tomorrow. Mother got tickets for Cirque Dreams and even though we are probably in the last row like we have been for the last 2 plays we've seen (The Drowsy Chaperone w/ Mr. Bob Saget, and Young Frankenstein, sadly without Ms. Mullally), it still should be INCREDIBLE. But, since it involves an hour and half train ride in and back out to island, I definitely want something I can knit without having to bring two skeins. But this will be my first attempt at DPNs so we will see. PS, I'm doing this all while watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, which NBC has forced me to wait 12 hours for. Really NBC? Couldn't you figure out a way to put a bazillion ads on a live stream so I could watch it at work this morning? So sad.

In other news, girls night was fun... we saw The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2... my darling friend Meghan and her mom tagged along too, so it was quite an adventure. Plus the cutest Movie I've seen since Wall-E... I mean, who doesn't love Greece... and Greek Men... ooohh la la

<3> Ciao!

PS - I am working on getting better pics... my camera's screen hasn't felt like working for the last 3 months, so I've been shooting blind... like, I dno, I was stuck in the 90s with a 35 mm... but I'm set up my Flickr account and I'm learning (outside photos!). So, we'll see...

The Bear that Started it All

My very first FO.

Introducing the Bear that Started it All


I picked up a little book to go with the gift since I had to go to the bookstore anyway to pick up Breaking Dawn.

Pattern: Benji Bear
Yarn: Red Heart for the white, green, and yellow; unknown for the pink. PS - I am starting out with my sisters yarn stash (she's 14 and had a yarn obsession FOREVER, but she gladly gave me some for my first couple projects). No idea how much since I started with leftovers.
Needle Size: My size 10 straight needles
Time Period: July 21st to July 31st
For: Riley Smith (My darling step cousins baby, due in November).


The front of this adorable bear... he was way bigger than I expected!

Mods: Only in the color, I gave him a sweater. Started six rows past the join. Stripes are 4 rows thick and I started with the sleeve color so it would line up well, which it did. Although, the five strands up at the top were a little difficult to manage.



The back of the sweater... the hardest part.

Verdict: Sweet Deal... for my first real project outside a scarf, and I hope I can re-work this pattern to be at a smaller scale. Also, the head was a little taller than wide and that threw of my perception of it, so I think I need to modify that on my next go around.


<3>

So some goals

So, in order to not to completely lose track of goal, I am going to list some goals. A lot of this stems from thinking about my Junior Year service project. We are required to do a community service project as part of the honors program at my university. So, I came up with this idea. Now, I have to convince my roommates to do it with me, as it has to be a group project. But, even if they out vote me and we go with something else, this is what I would like to do.

To donate to a neonatal unit in Rhode Island:

hats
booties/socks
mini teddy bears (either for the babies or for anxious big brothers and sisters)

I want to put together a box of them sometime in January, because I think that sounds like a reasonable goal. Actually, I would like them to be done by the first day of spring classes, January 28th. (Side note, can you believe I have 6 1/2 weeks off for winter break this year? It's pretty much ridiculous considering we are starting classes really early this fall and really late in the spring. Hopefully the boss will take back this lovely intern or I will be extremely bored and extremely poor) I am not going to specify how many of each, although I am hoping for at least 5 or 6.

What I have already:

1 hat

OTN:

1 mini teddy bear (a shrunk down pattern I am working on based loosely on the pattern I used for the full size shower gift).

I plan on posting some pictures, however, I can't really do that at work without my camera with me, so hopefully I will get a chance tonight. Well, maybe. The Sisterhood 2 is on the agenda for tonight so that may severely limit my blogging/knitting time.


Other goals:

Learn a variety of knitting techniques. Numero Uno on this list? Knitting in the round on DPNs. I'd really like to be able to make socks. And seamless hats. Yea. That's definately my next project.

Finish one or two things for myself. Like a bag for my knitting ;-).

Save up to buy some relaly nice yarn for a shrug for me... I have a white one that has basically fallen apart over the past year and it was a pain in the arse to find in the first place. So, I am going to make one. Maybe to wear to my sisters Sister's Sweet 16. Next summer.

Meet other knitters. Because, really, I like to talk to people. I mean, it's been about a week since I discovered knitters had blogs and I have been obsessively reading for that week (well, except when I was reading Breaking Dawn. ObviouslyEdward trumps everything.)

So, now that I have produced a ridiculously long post, I should probably go back to work.

<3 Katie

An Introduction

Welcome to the ramblings of a novice knitter. This whole thing started when I was invited to my step-cousins baby shower... as a poor college student, I decided, why not use my sisters never ending stash of yarn to make something. A few hours on the internet and I found a pattern for the cutest teddy bear. Took me two weeks, but the thing is beautiful. I gifted it on Saturday, and decided that, well, I really like knitting. So I am thinking about knitting for charity. Not sure which one, probably a hospital, as the things I am currently intent on making include stuffed animals and baby hats. So, we will see how it goes!

PS - this blog is to make sure I keep up on things... I hate starting projects and then slacking off...