Finally finished!

I've finally finished Demi! It took me a long time but only because I was out of the country!

I'm pretty happy with the results. It seems to add a built of bulk, but it is winter so I'm not going to worry too much. The buttons on the shoulder came out a bit crooked but that can be fixed. And the sleeves blocked out pretty evenly so that is nice.

I am now about six inches into the back of "Hey, Teach!" using Rowan's Wool Cotton. I love the yarn and it's going very quickly and I am happy! More pictures later, tomorrow is Christmas Eve! Kudos to my sister for the above pictures. She came out in the cold with me in her pajamas so yay Muffin.

I'm back!

I have returned from London. It was amazing as I am sure you can imagine. There are many, many pictures over on my Flickr from England and also my travels on the Continent. Click the picture below of the Thames to take you there.

Not surprisingly, knitting was not a frequent occurrence while abroad. I was able to knit Ysolda's Gretel during many hours in a coach. I'm blaming my car sickness for the messed up cables, but otherwise I am happy with it. It is large and it keeps my head warm and it smells like sheep when it gets wet. Which happens a lot in London.

I also finished one sleeve of Demi. Then I promptly forgot what needle size I used when I knit the second one at home. That is why this crappy picture exists. I have managed to block it to the size it should be, but it is still not perfect. Now I just have the finishing which I'm not looking forward to. Soon it will be a real sweater!

Yesterday I knit this up for my aunt for Christmas. It's Ysolda's Urchin beret. I used Lion Brand Chunky which is at least soft for being acrylic. The pattern was easy once you got the hang of it and it was nice not having to knit in the round and decrease all the time.

Bonus photo: I just got this dress today from Anthropologie for $20! I had a gift card so all I paid for was tax. I am in a lot of love with it.

I bought a large amount of Rowan on sale while I was in York so that is what going to be knit up next. It was cheap even with the exchange rate! Glorious! I am thinking "Hey Teach" from the last Knitty and/or Ysolda's Liesl. Can you tell I love her? I even visited K1 in Edinborough! I just turned a corner and its blue storefront came shining out from the rain.


Finally I would like to say a word about my beautiful Lady E. I attended I Knit Day 2008 put on by I Knit London and the Yarn Harlot was there and it was a lot of fun until my Lady E was stolen. It was in my lap during a lecture and it fell to the floor without my noticing and when I came back, literally 20 seconds later, it was gone. I asked loads of people for help and the I Knit guys were really awesome but it never turned up. So curses on whoever took my scarf at a knitting convention of all places. I would have happily given you the money from my wallet instead.

RIP

One quick litle thing...

Hey guys! I'm actually leaving for London today, but I just wanted to show off my last little project. A co-worker of mine from the library is having a baby and although I cannot attend the baby shower, I wanted to give her a little something so I whipped this up. It's a kitty baby bonnet made from this pattern from Hello Yarn.


I made the mistake of not adjusting for my gauge and my yarn so the knitting was a bit tight, especially with this particular mystery yarn. But I think it turned out cute and it will definitely be warm and everything.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do about blogging from the UK, but I will let you guys know when I do if anyone is interested in reading about my adventures. I am considering making a new blog, but I am such a terrible blogger that I know I won't keep up with it as I should. We'll see.

Ahh!

Wow it has been a while. But wasn't I good about consistently posting every week this summer? I am proud of myself. I only haven't been updating lately because I haven't been knitting. Isn't that terrible? I have yet to finish Demi and I leave in two days and unless some absolute magic happens, I am not going to have it finished. Here is my progress on the first sleeve. The front and back are done, but I still have the rest of this and the second sleeve to go.


So instead of actually working on it, I decided to spend all afternoon making a tote bag!

I am in such love. It only took me four hours and I think it looks really nice! The buttons were a pain, but all the sewing went super smoothly. I even made a pocket!

I needed a bag to take with me to England that was book bag sized, not just a purse. I had already made two tote bags whose sizes were completely failures, but this one was perfect.

And check out my pretty backyard! I love sunflowers. When I was a kid, my mom planted sunflowers around this dirt patch and we had this incredible sunflower fort to play in. They grew to be eight feet tall or something ridiculous. And then my brother and his friend hacked them all down in some mock battle of some kind. Ah, little brothers.

So yeah, if you didn't catch that, I am leaving in two days to spend the semester in London. I am terribly excited, but I am pretty sure the time for knitting will be slim. But if anyone has any good yarn store recommendations from across the pond, please let me know!

Finally, I want to plug my friend Joel's Etsy page. He just listed an iPod sleeve that he has sewn. They're really cool, very low key, but still good protection. They would be a great gift for a guy especially. And I'm sure if you had any custom needs, he would be more than willing to comply. He does a lot of custom messenger bags out of his blog.

Flickrrrr

Just to let you guys know, I have finally uploaded a ton of pictures from my Alaskan cruise vacation from last year. So please take a look around. I also have uploaded pictures from the Renaissance Faire and a John Green book signing event, if any of those things interest you. Having a pro account is fun!

Knitting will return shortly, but I must warn that I've kind of hit a road block when it comes to knitting the sleeves of Demi. I just can't bring myself to pick it up, even though I am leaving in LESS THAN THREE WEEKS. Ahhh.

Somebody likes alpaca...

So the rest of my family was gone this weekend, leaving me alone with the animals.

This is my dog, Tessa. Sometimes she looks really sad. Sometimes she is scared of thunderstorms and so she crawls into bed with me at 7:30 in the morning.

And this is my cat Winnie, called Soups for short (long story). After baking another batch of granola this weekend, I climbed the stairs to see her carefully avoiding eye contact. She completely ignored the attention I disposed upon her and soon I would learn why.


Dun dun dun! That is the beginning of my Gretel beret. Usually it lives in a plastic bag in my room, but someone (see image above) decided that my new alpaca would be a nice toy.

The silly cat had dragged it out of its bag, around my dresser, and into the hallway. Stinker.

I don't think I've ever showed pictures of my dresser before. For most of my life, I have been entranced by Europe and I've picked up many books from booksales, mainly on France and England. Well I decided to put all those pictures to good use and I decoupaged them onto my dresser. I really, really loved how it turned out. Someday I'll get some awesome drawer pulls from Anthropologie or something, but for now, I love this thing.


Two bonus shots for you all today:

This is my mom's antique spinning well silhouetted against our front window. It's a really neat piece, it has definitely gone on the "Things I Want Once You're Dead" list, as morbid as that is.

The second shot is of the tshirt that I made for the boy for his birthday. I think I have mentioned that he sews, and he once talked about having a shirt with stitches running all over it, so this was my interpretation. I copied the sewing machine off some image online and embroided it and then used the sewing machine to stitch out the rest of the design. There are a couple mess ups and once place where I forgot to secure the thread, but I think it is cool. I did not spend much time on it so that's as good as it was going to get.

Did I say there'd be progress shots of Demi last time? Well there will be next time! I'm almost done with the front!

This is not so much a knitting post...

So if you weren't aware, I am spending the fall semester in London. I leave in a month and so preparations are really starting to take up my time and focus. I am still working on the Demi sweater though, I'm a couple inches into the front now. But I keep having to redo rows because I'm not paying attention. There are so many different things to keep track of with that pattern! I am going to love it when it is finished though.

Check out these shoes! I bought them because I wanted cute walking shoes to tramp around London in, not gym shoes. They were only $50 at the Naturalizer and I am so pleased. Now I just need to finish my Pomatomus socks to wear with them.
But the biggest news of all is that I bought a new camera! It's a Canon Rebel XT and I am so excited. I usually use a Canon Powershot A520, but my sister has the Rebel and I was quite envious. And I'm going to Europe, I want the best pictures I can get. Here are a couple pictures that I took while out with my friend Hannah.




But this is what really has been taking up my time. For the past few years we've fostered kittens. When they come in from the wild or other places, we keep them in our house until we can find someone to adopt them. It's a great arrangement because we always have kittens and we never keep them long enough to become cats. But this time, we have puppies. Three of them actually, Bingley, Rigby, and Paco. This is a picture of Paco with my brother's shoe that he dragged out from the house. They are cute, but a lot of work and a constant reminder that I am a cat person!

I should have some progress shots next time. Oh oh and I also finally succumbed and bought a Flickr Pro account! So all my old projects should show up now. And I am not limited by space or anything so that is awesome.