Two-Thirds.

As of 4:18 this afternoon, I am officially 2/3 of the way through law school. It felt amazing to turn in my last paper for the semester. I finished up exams Tuesday, but I still had a bear of a paper to finish. Before they unleash us onto the world as lawyers, we have to satisfy this enormous writing requirement. I decided to get mine out of the way this semester, and it feels like a HUGE weight has been lifted.

To celebrate, I got take out sushi, poured myself a giant glass of wine and plopped in front of the tv and knit another hat for Obama. I haven't gotten much accomplished other than hats these days.

These guys went to Kentucky:


These went to Oregon:

(I swear, I don't have a prejudice against Oregon. I hear it's quite lovely, actually. I had just pledged my hats to Kentucky instead, but at the last minute I realized I had extras so I mailed them out West.)

And these went wee wee wee, all the way home. Or, maybe just to West Virgina.


There's so many people involved with this project it's insane! West Virgina got a donation of a little more than 100 caps. Here's a picture of the loot that Melissa collected:

Knitting for Obama

I'm in a Ravelry group called "Knitters for Obama." They got a little fed up with the negative media that was happening in this election, and decided to do something about it. In each state that still has a primary, they are collecting baby hats & bibs to do a mass donation in honor of Obama. We all know how much I love knitting baby hats, so I had to contribute a few.

The plan is to use the campaign colors (or, quite honestly, whatever you have in your stash). I ran over to Jo-Ann's and picked up some Caron Simply Soft in red and white, and some Vanna's Choice in Blue. They didn't quite have the right color of blue in Caron at the time, so I did a little mix and matching. I like the results!

These little things knit up pretty fast, so I'm hoping to get a few more than my initial pledge of 6 completed. They've collected about 100 for the Pennsylvania primaries, and the movement seems to be gaining momentum. If you're interested in donating a few, see this thread for details.

Thankgiving & Knitting Go Hand In Hand

Warning: Seriously Picture-Heavy Post. Sorry!

I've been offline for the last week and loved every minute of it. My trip home for Thanksgiving was all that I could have wanted and more. I realize how much I miss my family when I go back home. I cried all the way until Indiana on the drive back today. *sniff*

Anyway! There's been knitting. Whole days of movie marathons with the fam allow for plenty of knitting time. There are now officially enough baby hats for all the babies that are expected to be born (in my hometown) in the month of December.



For all these hats, I used variations of this pattern and then just kinda made changes as I felt like it when knitting. For the most part, these hats are all made out of stash Caron Simply Soft (my favorite-est acrylic yarn). However, there's a little Knit Pick Shine Worsted and Classic Elite Premiere thrown in for good measure.

Also, I know that the black and yellow "bee look" might be a little disturbing to some people out there. However, black & gold are the high school colors, so they make a little more sense when put into that light. My little sister has already requested one the grandson of one of her teachers.

I also finished up two more scarves that have been my bedside knitting for awhile.


Yarn: Wal-Mart No Boundaries Yarn, 2 skeins
Pattern: Plain old garter stitch - cast on about 20 and go!
Needles: Size 13
Time: About two months of just looking at it resting in the knitting basket, about 6 hours of actual knitting time
Cost: Gift yarn - Free!

Before we all snicker & laugh at the Wal-Mart yarn, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I don't shop there, but my mom sent this to me in a care package last spring. It's really soft & has a very pretty sheen. If I didn't live in the middle of Siberia, I'd actually keep this one for myself. It's just too thin to be useful here in Michigan.



Pattern: One-Row Handspun Scarf, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Free
Yarn: Adrienne Vittadini Nadia, 4 skeins - $11 (on sale!!)
Needles: Size 10.5
Time: About 1 month of travel knitting

This is another scarf that's going to the shawl ministry. It's very pretty, but just not quite the right color for my winter coat.

On a funny note, I posted this up on Ravelry earlier tonight and I went back to check something about 5 minutes later, and someone had already "favorited" it. Aww.. I feel special.

Believe it or not, there's actually more pictures to show, but they are just going to have to be brought out at a later date. I'm pooped from all the traveling. I hope that everyone else's Thanksgivings were as wonderful as mine.

(My family! Aren't they cute?)

Small little projects..

I spent today going through my yarn and organizing it. It's nice to re-remember what all I have. Even though I'm on Ravelry, I don't have all my stash uploaded because I'm just plain lazy.

One of the things that I did was to put all my remnant yarns in one central location. That's what I use when I'm making baby hats, so having the colors all together can let me see exactly what it is that I have to work with. After doing that, I made a hat:


Pattern: My favorite trusty Basic Knit Hat, Free
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy, Leftover from another project
Needles: Size 7 DPNs
Time: 2 hours

I'm in the Monthly Dishcloth KAL group, although I can't remember the last time that I actually did the KAL. One of the members just lost her husband so the group has banded together to make her an afghan. Every one is supposed to make the same heart cloth in whatever cotton they have laying around.. so I did.

Pattern: Victoria's Heart Pattern, Free
Yarn: SnC, Robin's Egg Blue; less than $1
Needles: Size 6 straights
Time: About 1.5 hours

I'm going home for Thanksgiving next Friday (YAAAAY!!!), and I'm hoping to have a few more hats done to deliver before then. Right now I've only made 3 newborn caps since my last delivery in August, and three just doesn't seem like too much.

I've been knitting for me a little too much and not knitting for others as much as I should. On that note, I'm hoping to debut my first completed handmade sweater this week!! I just have one more section of ribbing to go. The best part about it?? It fits.

Another Baby Cap

I got a little excited about the instant gratification from the baby hat the other night, so I made another one. I made some pattern modifications, so mine is a little different from the original. I used a thicker yarn and bigger needles, and left off the i-cord tie. Although it was oh-so-cute cute, I was low on leftover yarn, so I just bound off and left it naked at the top.

It was a nice project.. not too mindless with the color changes, but not too complex that I couldn't watch The Way We Were on OnDemand. (Moment of silence for such a great movie!)


Pattern: Errsie's Easy Beanie, Free
Yarn: Remnant Caron Simply Soft in Orchid & Iris
Needles: Size 7 circs
Time: Two evenings of TV knitting

It's way too big for it to go with the other newborn cap donations, so I'm not sure where this hat is eventually going to find a home. For now, it's just going in the closet, but I'm sure a worthwhile cause will find me. I really like the Afghans for Afghans idea, but they request that you send only wool items - and this baby is 100% acrylic. So, I'll just be patient in finding this cap a new home.

**Edited to remove the link to the pattern per the author's request, as she's now charging $3.00 for it & doesn't want people to be able to access it for free. I apologize for this. When I found the pattern on ravelry, it was listed as being a free pattern. If you want to use it for free, you'll need to contact her directly.

A fun way to spend a Saturday..

I went to the Ann Arbor Fiber Expo today with Amy. We got there bright & early to make sure that we got the best finds.. and we did! I was really excited to see all the fuzzy animals. They had llamas, alpacas and bunnies - what could be better??


When I got home, I started to kinda feel bad about all my recent yarn purchases, so I decided to whip up a baby hat from my stash as my act of attrition.



Project Specs:
Pattern: TLL Basic Knit Hat Pattern, Free
Yarn: Universal Yarn, Classic Worsted Long Print, Color 9728
Needles: Size 7 circs
Time: Two episodes of Law & Order SVU
Total Cost: Stash yarn, baby!

A small little FO

This past week was the lightest one I've had this semester, and I loved every minute of it. I was home from the library by 11:00PM almost every night, and when I did come home - I brought zero (count them - ZERO!) law books home with me. It was fabulous!

I actually got to do some knitting and I was much happier because if it. I worked on a sweater for me and I finished up the last i-cord on a baby hat. I used some of the leftovers from the Tulip Sweater kit. I know that I've raved about Dream in Color yarn before, but if you're ever in a position to use it, do it! It's slightly pricey, but worth every single penny of it. The variegations are beautifully subtle and it's so soft & cushy. I have some left overs in other colors too, so I'll probably make at least another baby hat out of that.


Final Specs:
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy
Pattern: Last Minute Knitted Gifts, Children's Cotton Hat
Needles: Size 7 double points
Cost: Umm.. all stash yarns, so free??

P.S. Don't forget to enter my contest! Be sure that you leave me a way to contact you back in case you win.

P.P.S. Go over to Sarah's blog and wish her a happy birthday on Monday. She's one of the most wonderful women that I know and deserves a lot of birthday shout outs on her big day.