Things I Made, plus other stuff

Oblique is hanging out with the clutter while I finish the last sleeve. At least the clutter is in neat stacks :)
I'm so dainty and careful with my knitting projects. Not.

In other creativity news - LOOK WHAT I MADE!
I'm taking a Northwest Coast traditional basket weaving class . This is my first little basket and isn't it the cutest thing ever? It's traditional Haida style in yellow and red cedar - except for the purple part which I accidentally grabbed spruce root for. That's right, it is hand pulled cedar bark and it smells SO good. The Haida natives live south of Juneau, down in Ketchikan and such. The Tlingit (pronounced Klingit) are native to Juneau, and the spruce root is their stuff. I guess mixing the two was kind of a no-no. Oops.

I also made these yesterday (yum):

And I made this guy awhile ago but totally forgot to post the pics! This is my first snowman built all by myself, if you can believe that. His name is Edgar.
Joe and I redecorated the apartment. He got some fancy posters for Christmas, so the previous wrapping paper Christmas tree finally got taken down and replaced with:
and:

Finally, I didn't make these. I just think they're delicious. A whole BOX of them.
And to round out the blog, I'm NOT going running today :) But marathon training starts Monday. Woo, week 1 here I come.

EAT. KNIT. RUN. BLOG.

Back of Oblique Finished!

See :)I apologize for the terrible indoor lighting, but I finished it tonight at 6:30pm and could not wait until better light in the morning to show you! So here she is, partially, in all her unblocked glory.




Eat. KNIT. Run (skipped one today... err). Blog.

Yarn vomit

I'm so sorry, Oblique. But this is for your own good:
Turns out size 9 works great for the moss gauge, but the lace gauge was way off for me. It's supposed to be in size 7 needles, but the moss gauge said I needed 9 when I swatched it! ::Pout:: So it's 2 inches wider than it should be just for the back. Also, the whole time I kept saying in my head Are these lace holes too big? I think they're too big... Nah, I'm probably just crazy.... I'll keep going.... but are they too big??

I'm ok with this. I'm ok with this. I'm ok with this. ::Cry:: No really, I'm ok with this. ::Sniff::

But fear not, Oblique, you shall be resurrected from the ashes (or, frogged yarn vomit) and I will be much happier with you and wear you always.

Love,
Your Creator

p.s. ::Sniff::

Eat. KNIT. Run. Blog.

The fabulous life of a knitter

I keep thinking I should blog more. But sometimes this fabulous life of knitting isn't the most interesting.

Sometimes my day consists of 8 hours of sitting and moving two needles back and forth watching the skein of yarn on the floor wither away like a starving child. (That was a weird image to equate with yarn). I'm a product knitter. I'm not about the process - I want it over so I can have the product! Yet when I am not knitting I feel like part of me is missing. I think it's the yarn part of me.

8 hours you say? When do you have time to knit for 8 hours? Well, I'm a perpetual student who doesn't work (though I applied for a tutoring job - also a desk job where I can knit while answering phones!) This WILL become more than a hobby someday. I figure knitting while getting paid is almost the same thing as being paid to knit, so I'll just stick with that. Shut up, it totally works.

Some days are more interesting than others. Like the days when I throw the knitting across the room because I've effed up the pattern for the tenth time that hour and have to go back three rows AGAIN. That's when I decide the project is out to get me, it's just messing with my head. Some projects do that, you know. There are little demons lying in wait inside some patterns that cause you to do the most awful things. Like missing yo's in multiple places of your lace. Or cabling the wrong way ten rows back, but it's totally obvious and there's no way you could pass it as "yeah it was part of the pattern, weird huh." Or turning the beautiful seed stitch texture into ribs while you were (totally paying attention, but) watching the Lord of the Rings for the billionth time. (I heart those movies).

So interesting is in the eye of the beholder, or something. I just wish I had the motivation to knit in something other than pajamas more often. I'm so fabulous.

Eat. KNIT. Run. Blog.

Oblique! I heart you Veronik

I'm having so much fun knitting up Oblique so far. I don't have much else to say, except that the phantom green secret project is hibernating for a couple more days. I can't seem to put my lovely red Oblique down. I have detailed notes on its Ravelry project page.

Oh yeah, and Lucky? Well she lost. I frogged her. The yarn was not cooperating.







Eat. KNIT. Run. Blog.

Marathon season has begun

Remember the thing I said I would never do ever again? Running the Rock'n'Roll marathon in San Diego last year? Well, I'm doing it again.

In fact it's already paid for. How's that for motivation? But I got a 10% discount!

So I have started training. My lovely friend Johanna has taken it upon herself to show me the cool places to run around here in Juneau. Plus she runs with me! I still think it's the coolest thing ever when people will run with me. Running alone is okay, but it gets lonely.

Anywho, I've decided to document every run. We'll see how that goes. New YEar's resolution thing? We'll try it.

Training Schedule this week: Tuesday, Thursday = 3 miles each - Saturday = 4 miles

Tuesday's run: WEST GLACIER TRAIL! (I didn't take pics of the trail really - I LOVE trail running - but then we walked across the frozen lake to the glacier - and that's me next to an iceberg!)
Johanna and the dog she was taking care of.

Me, the iceberg, and Tucker the dog.
A little map of our adventure:

Thursday's run: Airport trail along the Gastineau Channel (and the sun!!)
Johanna and friend BJ

This next shot totally made me feel like I was running somewher in a Lord of the Rings movie :)
Then we hot-tubbed at the house Johanna was housesitting for - this was the VIEW from the hot tub :)

Good day :)

Eat. Knit. RUN. Blog

Lucky be a lady tonight

This Lucky sweater is a dream to knit. The lace pattern is intuitive and easy to memorize and remember. I'm modifying it a bit. I made it about 1 1/2 inches longer at the bottom so it will be 21 inches instead of 19 1/2 inches long. Here's what I got so far:



Pretty no?




Eat. KNIT. Run. Blog.

Lucky

Started Lucky Clover Lace Leaf wrap today out of my new Stitch'n'Bitch Nation that I got for Christmas. I got knitting books for christmas and I was very happy - it's like everybody just knew what to get me! I'm such an enigma when it comes to things I like...... cooking, knitting, running.... so much to keep track of.

Ha.

Anyway, back to the new cardi :) I'm excited about this one. It's my project in between projects to keep me sane.
I'm using yarn I reclaimed from a disgustingly baggy sweater I bought at Goodwill a million years ago. It was my very first stab at recycling a sweater..... so the yarn is in multiple balls, due to me not knowing which way to point the scissors...... Ohhh you mean you don't cut the yarn you want to save? ::smacks forehead::
Anyway, I'll post pictures of my progress soon. It's dark time now in Alaska - I would say night time, but it's still the afternoon :) I miss San Diego sunshine a little bit.

But only a little ;)

Eat. KNIT. Run. Blog.

What 'Break' Means to Me

I’m on winter break. I’m a student, have I told you that before? Well, I’m a perpetual student. I don’t usually study one thing for long, making it quite difficult to get a degree. But I do learn quiet a lot of stuff, so that counts for something right?

A break in the schedule means I don’t have school deadlines to adhere to, no late nights typing up papers I’ve procrastinated on (and I can be quite the procrastinator). No classes to attend, no research to be done, no catching up on lecture podcasts, etc. But while I gleefully look forward to this break, I also approach it a bit of apprehension. Why you might ask?

Because all I can think is: WHAT AM I GOING TO DO FOR A WHOLE MONTH?

I’m type A. I need a schedule. A break in one schedule means I can replace it with another. I love rules, I love charts, I love structure. In the case of this break I have been filling it with, you guessed it, knitting and cooking!

Here’s one:

I call them Punk Rock Corset Gloves – the pattern is available for free on theknitteur.com

I can’t show you the other thing I’ve been knitting because I want to submit it to a certain you-know-which-magazine. Well, maybe you don’t know which, but it’s a big one. I can tell you that it involves green yarn, a lot of cables, and possible early-onset arthritis for my poor fingers (because it’s 300 stitches around and I can’t put it down!).

So today is a self-imposed break in knitting to prevent permanent damage to my valuable knitting digits. I have actually found that it is difficult for me to watch a movie without knitting something. I actually picked up the knitting and knit one row. Just one, okay.

So now that I’m on a knitting break – until this afternoon… hehe…. I’m catching up on my blogs. There’s always something interesting to do around here ;)

Eat. KNIT. Run. BLOG.