Total Random Content

I'm in love.

I've been sick and cooped up in my house for the past few days and to entertain myself, I sat and knit and watched TV. Tonight, I turned the heel on a sock and I watched the season finale of October Road. I laughed and cried in so many cycles that I really couldn't keep track. There were even a few random shouts at the TV when I didn't agree with the twists and turns. I can't decide what it is that I love so much, but there's just something about that show that really resonates with me. Maybe it's the small town life that I've been missing so much lately. Maybe it's the soundtrack that has some of the best music of any TV show. Maybe it's just the close bond that the friends have. That's something I've been missing so much since moving North.

Whatever it is. I'm in love with October Road. I want to live in Knight's Ridge and be friends with them all too.

Just to throw in some knitting - here's a sneak peek of a sock:

Ash Wednesday

I decided that this year for Lent, I was going to make a true sacrifice. None of this, "no chocolate" or "no caffeine" business for me. No siree! I, my friend, will be giving up yarn buying.

You read that correctly. I am about to attempt a feat so horrible, so gruesome, that only few will attempt it, and even fewer complete the mission successfully. From February 6, 2008 to April 27, 2008, I shall make no yarn purchases.*

People outside of the knitting world think that it's a light promise and that I'm not truly making a sacrifice. However, I know that anyone who reads this message will understand just how painfully difficult it is to resist a beautiful skein on Malabrigo that screams at you to take it home.

Plus, knitting from stash is going to help me out in the long run. I'm moving at the end of the semester, so my yarn will have to go into storage for the summer. That means that it gets packed, toted to the truck, unloaded into a storage locker, sits for the summer, loaded back into a truck and then toted into my new apartment where it gets unpacked. The fewer things that can be included into that vicious cycle, the better!

*Promise excludes yarn related items needed to complete a current project. For example, needles or stitch markers.

Snow Day!

This morning, I woke up to this:

Yuck. Although it doesn't look like it, we got 6-8 inches of snow. (Those cars had been moved during the day, so they are deceiving!) I decided that the best thing I could do would to be stay at home and knit. :-) Life is terrible, I know.

Did I decide to finish one of the 15 UFO's that I have? No. I decided to cast on for another project. That's much more fun!

Back on December, I had an interview in Chicago. Sarah met me afterwards and we went yarn shopping. I didn't get the job, but I did get some fabulous yarn.

It's Austermann Murano in Blue/Purple. It comes in 240m skeins, so one is all you need for a scarf.

To be perfectly honest, I've never been a huge fan of the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf, but this yarn seemed to be calling out for it with the really long self-striping sections. I like the results so far. There's really more color variation than shows up in the picture, and there's a black section that still hasn't came around too.






I'm about a foot into it and I'm liking what I see so far.

This is the last "free" weekend that I have for awhile and I plan to spend as much time as possible knitting. Wish me luck!
I hope that you all have a fabulous weekend as well!

One for the Handknit Hall of Fame.

I survived another semester.

I always hate how when you turn in your last exam, there's never confetti & balloons and people serving cake. It feels like such a big deal to me, yet the proctors rarely even look me in the eye. That's ok, I'll find my own cake.

I'm back home in Tennessee for the holidays and knitting away. I've finished up a few things but forgot to pack my camera cord, so pictures will have to wait.

Here's a neat story. Al Gore is my hometown hero. Everyone loves him. Some people from my community went to Norway to support him when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize recently. They decided to take him a scarf from my church's shawl ministry - after all, who needs more prayer than a man who is trying to save the world & has won an Emmy, an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize in the past year? Turns out, they took him one that I had contributed!! He's definitely a man that I have admired for many, many years and I deeply respect the work that he's doing now. It's really cool to know that if only for a brief moment, he held one of my handknits.

Me v. the Postman, Round 1

The post office refuses to leave things at my door, so if I miss the mailman then I have to go to the main post office to pick it up. Of course, that does not work at all with my school schedule, so if I'm expecting a package, I try my best to be home so that I can avoid that hassle.

I had a knit picks order that was supposed to arrive on Saturday (according to USPS tracking). It didn't. I watched the mailman drive away and I was left with no yarn. I was a little sad to say the least. I'm planning to make the Tomato sweater by Wendy Bernard and I really just wanted to play with the yarn. (Don't lie - you all know that feeling!)

This morning, I rushed home after my morning at school for the sole purpose of getting that dang package. I had my windows open so that I could see then the mail truck drove up. He arrived. He left. No package!! I went out to check my mailbox & there was a card telling me that I could pick up my precious yarn at 7:30 the next morning.

The guy never even bothered to knock on my door! Angry and desperately jonesing for a yarn fix, I ran back to my apartment to grab my car keys and I chased him down the road. That's right - it was me versus the mail truck, and I was determined to win. He finally stopped about a half mile down the road and I zipped my little Civic in behind him and whipped out the little orange "you have a package" card. He looked at me like I was a crazy woman, but he handed the yarny goodness over to me. He mumbled something to me about "just missing me" and I politely said, "I guess so."

So, needless to say, I'm now the neighborhood freak who stalks the postal workers. I am not sure that I'm ever going to be able to get deliveries again. I'm definitely on the blacklist. However, the yarn was all worth it.

I wound up with some Shine Worsted on sale, so the sweater is costing me less than $25 to complete. Plus, there was a miscount & they sent me one more skein than was ordered. Yay for free yarn!!

Have a great week everyone!

Contest Winners & Thank yous

I'm proud to announce the winners in my first ever blog contest! In no particular order:

• Carrie Penny
• Kate
• Elaine
• Donna

I put everyone's name in a list, and then used a list randomizer to sort it. The first few names were the winners. Congrats ladies!

And to everyone else who entered the contest - thank you so much. You have absolutely no idea how much it meant to me to read all your inspiring stories. It made me realize that I can get through whatever it is that I'm facing, and do it with grace. You are all inspirations to me.

Also, BIG, BIG shoutouts to Jen and Amy who sent me the cutest care packages when I was down in the dumps. I love you guys. You're the greatest. (I would post pictures, but I tore into the packages like I was a 12 year old at Christmas.)

_________________________________
Update: It will likely be awhile before my next post. I'm in the middle of crunch time at school. I have a mock trial this weekend, a mid term next week, a major paper due after that, and somewhere in there I have to take the ethics portion of the bar. (Insert favorite lawyer/ethics joke here!) Plus, I still have to find a job for next summer.

I sent out 82 resumes this week in addition to the ones that have already went out in the past weeks. 82! Between resume paper and the stamps, those suckers get costly. Don't they know they are dipping into my yarn budget?!

Lemons into Lemonade - A Contest!

First off, thank you all for your lovely comments to me about the loss in my family. Your positive spirits mean more to me than you know. It's so reassuring to know that people out there that I've never met in real life can care so much. (I've chosen not to address nor delete the negative comment from an anonymous reader, and I'm still allowing anonymous comments from now on hoping that it doesn't happen again.)

So, now that I have a small fortune worth of secret pal stuff bought and paid for (and non-refundable), I wondered what to do with it. I decided to turn lemons into lemonade and have a contest. All you have to do is leave a comment about something that you did to turn a bad situation into a positive one & you're entered. You can talk about something that happened to yourself, or something that you helped another person deal with in their own life. It's the positive karma that I'm looking to read about.

However, there's a catch. I'm tired of hearing about rules, so there are no rules for the contest! If I think that your story is just plain awesome - you're going to get more entries. If you post about it on your blog - more entries. Just let me know! The point is that I'd love to hear your stories about the goodness that surrounds us. You can definitely leave an anonymous comment, but if you want to win, make sure that you leave me contact information too.

I might pick one, two or ten winners. I'm not sure just yet, but since there are no rules, I can make it up as I go. I'm not going to tell you exactly what's in those packages, but let me just say that one of the items rhymes with Naddie Lurbos.

Free yarn! Free needles! Free Gadgets! Oh my.

The contest ends on or about October 12th because I just like that date.

Knitting Absence.

I haven't knit a stitch in more than a week. I think I'm in withdrawal.

Classes started back last week, and knitting time went from "lots & lots" to "knitting?? what's that?" Hopefully, I'll be into a schedule again soon so that I can actually squeeze in some therapeutic knitting. There's just something about it that takes me to a happy place, no matter how stressed out I am. Between taking way too many credit hours, and trying to get The Boyfriend's stuff out of my place (remember that??) and into a place of his own, I'm a tad bit overextended at the moment.

I've nearly finished my first adult sweater. It didn't come out quite as good as I would have hoped. It looks a little frumpy, so I might do a rip & redo at a later date. However, right now I'm stuck on the last & final step. I need to graft live stitches onto a stockinette panel and make it look seamless. I'm sure this has a fancy name, but I don't know what it's called, and therefore when I'm googling for answers, I'm coming up with nothing. Any help would be appreciated.

I have lots to blog about later. I have an awesome secret pal who sent me some cool stuff, I won a knitting book, I won some scrapbooking supplies, and I won some yarn for knitting Greensburg squares. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. Details to come.

In search of advice..

So, I'm at home in Tennessee & loving every minute of it. I've been busy knitting away, but since it's my first adult sized sweater, there's really no progress to report. (Plus, who wants to see a giant pile of black stockinette stich? BORING!) I'm hoping to be finished by the end of the week. I'm just working on the trim now, and I have another pocket to sew on. It's so exciting!

Anyway, I'm hoping to get some input from you guys. Here's the situation: since starting law school, I've become very selfish with my time. It's just the nature of the program - you have very little "free" time, and even then they guilt you into doing something law related. Anyway, I don't have time to give back to my community like I used to, and knitting things for charity is the closest I get anymore.

My church at home does a Shawl Ministry program where I send scarves, baby hats, etc. Anyway, this past Sunday, when I brought in some new things (here and here) to add to the collection, they gave me a check. I was hesitant to take the check, so my mom took it for me. The purpose of the money is so that I can continue knitting things for the program without taking away from my own fixed, student income. However, most of the things that I've been making have been made out of my leftover stash and a few gifted items, so only rarely has it been an out of pocket expense.

I feel like taking the money makes me even more selfish, but my mom says that I need to take it and buy yarn for more projects. So, the question I've been asking myself is - do I take the money & just go out sale hunting and stretch it as far as possible, or should I stick it back in the collection plate on Sunday? (However, option #2 just puts the money back in the general fund, not with the shawl ministry.)

I'd seriously appreciate your advice on this one!

Where Have I Been??

Wow. I'm whooped. In 5 days, I've been in 10 states, and I'm supposed to get up bright and early in the morning to drive to Tennessee. I made it back to Michigan tonight, but unfortunately my luggage didn't, so I might be putting off that trip another day. The last two hours of the trip are all on curvy highways, and I don't want to drive that at night when I'm tired. It's a really fun drive - You feel like a racecar driver on all those hills!!

I didn't check my email for several days, and I must say that I was floored by the number of comments that I've gotten in that time. I just love comments.. they really make me happy. Each and every one of them! Because of that, I always try to leave comments on someone else's blog when I read it, even if I don't have time to say something more than, "That looks pretty." There's something nice about knowing that someone reads the words that you put out there.

I have zero pictures to post, although I swear there's been knitting! I finished about half of my first adult sized sweater on the trip, although on the plane back tonight I got the sinking feeling that I might have to rip out the sleeve that's 90% done. It just seems like it's going to be waaaaay to big. I think I miscounted rows somewhere and added in one (or ten!) extra. (I've actually taken pictures, but since the sweater is made is black wool is just looks like a blob of material at the moment.) I'm pretty much spot on gauge, so I think I just flat out screwed up the pattern somewhere.

The road trip from Michigan to LA was surprisingly fun. It was nice to spend time with The Boyfriend when he wasn't studying for the bar exam, and when I wasn't trying to read for class. It made us remember why we're together in the first place. We spent three days driving, one day in LA buying him a new car, and the last day we drove up PCH and went to Malibu. He knows the way to my heart is through the beach. Five whole, uninterrupted days with each other was exactly what we needed.

Funniest experience from the road trip: On the second night we stopped in Beaver, Utah at a really nice little hotel that was recently remodeled. There was a soap dispenser in the shower for "Body, Hair, and Bath" soap. I tried to pay The Boyfriend $1 to wash his hair with it, but suddenly he was a shampoo snob & could only use my Pantene.

Updates.

I completely just jacked Sarah's idea and added a Flickr badge to my sidebar. Because I'm posting pics my WIP's on Ravelry, you might see a few things over there that I haven't posted here yet.

I also learned something kinda cool today, the more people link to your webpage, the higher your Google pagerank is. I've always tried to do links whenever possible, but now I'm going to make a special effort at it. I'm doing some blogging spring cleaning, and my next goal is to update my links on the sidebar. I've been kinda bad at it since I discovered Bloglines.