Where have I been?

Around. But not doing much interesting stuff. I am sooooo busy with school. Only TWO weeks left (three if you count the week of finals). One research paper down, one presentation down. Three research papers and one presentation to go. ARGH. I can't wait for summer. I have been true to my word, no sewing. But as soon as school is over, I am on the second tie bag for my friend Jessica. Then maybe I will make something for Tara, I am after all trying to bribe her into buying me a ticket to Alaska! I need a little visit!

So I really should be working on my papers, BUT I just had the urge to go cast on for THE sweater. Yes, the cable knit cutie from Loop D Loop! But... I shouldn't. I did cast on for a sock with the leftover yarn from Kyle's socks. I knit about 4 rounds and tried it on. GOOD THING, it was way too small, I couldn't get it over my heel. I just haven't had it in me to tear it out and start again.

I did join the knitter tea swap (see button to left). I know what tea I want and sent Kyle to the store to buy some. They had none! I may have to order it off the internet (I am also out).

Off I go to do some homework stuff.

A post is just not a post without a picture, so here is one I dug up from the good ol' my pictures folder. Trout in her bed.

Project Spectrum

I never really joined project spectrum and don't think I am going to knit anything up. But all of a sudden I noticed several items that fit the colors this month: Orange/Yellow. Probably because I LOVE orange. So I took one picture and then another and then another. More and more stuff kept popping out at me.

So all this stuff. Wow. We have my water bottle. I carry this with me everyday, everywhere! The lid on it is called gription and can be purchased from REI. I recommend it to anyone who has one of these types of water bottles (it doesn't have to be Nalgene brand).


You will also see my hand dyed yarn (it is much more orange in person. The yarn next to it is pink... for reference) and the napkins from our wedding in the background also pink yellow and orange! Also my teapot pin cussion. Yellow with brown flowers.

Then the carrot man. This legged/armed guy is from Kyle's crop. Kyle then carved a face on him. He likes to hang around the strawberries or the mixer!


Next is one of my yarn baskets. This I bought from JoAnns on clearance. It is all yellow, orange, white and green. Next to it is some tissue paper, also the orange/yellow/green/pink.


And finally. This is my tea kettle pot holder. My sister had one and I fell in love with it while visiting her. She let me know hers was from the stuff my grandma, Moner. I took all these pictures so I could make my own. I love the way it is open and just hangs on all the time. Perfect. Then I came home and went through my box, I had before but somehow I missed this gem! I dug it out and now it always hangs out on the tea kettle. I drink a lot of tea!! A LOT!!! Kyle and I just bought some chamomile. I don't know how to make tea with it, but once there is something there, I will be searching the internet and picking some brains.

I have been knitting a little, I am working on a pair of felted slippers for my mom for Mother's Day. I did a poor job of ordering yarn so they won't be done, but I will have something to give her!

However I have sworn off sewing until I am done with school. Only 5 weeks, I must focus. I do intend to keep knitting, but must also cut back on that. It will fly by!! I hope ;(

I can't believe how cute it is!

Teagan received her package yesterday. She loved the M&M's and chapstick. Then she got to the kimono and said "OOOOOOooooooo, a blanket" (it was all folded and wrapped up). Tara said "no, I don't think so." Teagan was not too excited about anything but the candy. I should have known. Tara tried to get her to try on the top, but Teagan was NOT having it. She tried a few more times to no's from Teagan. It was as I expected, she does not really like to wear the stuff I make for her. (even though there has been progress, she wore the hairy brown pants two days in a row and the swing coat cardigan one morning... YEA). Then I got home last night (Kyle, my dad, and I went to Brewbakers, a great brew pub for dinner and to see a friend play some music, Kyle played too) and there was a message from Tara: "she's wearing it!!" And then these GREAT pictures were in my inbox today. SO CUTE!

Just a Quickie

I have completed the bag. It is fabulous. It is BIG. I love it. It has adjustable straps and hangs down sooooo low. I am still fiddling with the best handle length. I want to wear it across my body, but I don't want it smacking my knees. Work on the handle length will progress for weeks I'm sure. But that is the nice thing about adjustable stuff... you can adjust it all you want. I also got my haircut and when I came home, Kyle saw me and said how cute the combo... new haircut and new bag. He is a silly one! So on with the pictures already...

Here comes the bag.

It has been rough. A bad back, a bad sewing machine, not enough ties. This bag is taking some effort. Plus ties are great but you have to sew each of them together to create a piece of material.

The back is a little better, I did not spend all of today in bed like I did for most of Friday and Saturday.

The sewing machine is a little more on track. I never should have tried to adjust the bobbin tension. But I think I have it working okay. Always try the simplest thing first too, I think I did not have the machine threaded correctly. Now it is going much more smoothly!!

I am still short one tie, I think I am going to take one of my dad's funky seventies knit tan ties. I just need a little bit for the back edge of the bag. I changed things up a little. The pattern just had you use the bottoms of 10 ties, 5 for each the front and back. Well, it was hard getting so many ties and I thought instead of wasting the top 2/3 of the tie, I could cut each of the tops of the front five ties in half and use these 10 pieces for the back. Then the front and back would match and they would very obviously look different, more like a front and a back. Plus I could save money on ties (they go for between $1 and $4 each at thrift stores, I really expected them to be cheaper) and I would not need the 14 ties the pattern calls for, just 9. Well I need a tenth because the back is requiring a little extra. So it has been tie crazy and I have been to most of the thrift stores in town. Here are some pictures, both showing my new pair of scissors. Wow - they cut so goood!!

Finished First Pair of Socks... (almost)

Yes that is right, my first ever pair of socks is near completion. So close I can taste it. How close you ask??

One end to weave in, that's it. ONE END. I finished them yesterday morning, wove in three ends and had Kyle try them on. He LOVES them! Woo-Hoo. They are a tad big but not bad.

There has been some bag progress, but nothing worth photographing. Spring Break is next week, so expect much done then.

So this is short, check out the pics. I must go, The Amazing Race awaits me. (How could they move it to Wed, it used to be on Tues, perfect. Then this week, to Wed. I have school and had to set up the good ol' VCR to record it.

Remember Me?

Yes, I know I am from the past. But look at me, all complete and ready to get mailed off to the big north of Alaska to cutie pie Teagan!! It took less then 30 minutes so why did it take so long for me to be complete? Who cares, completion has been reached. And check me out. All I can hope for is once I reach Teagan there is a picture taken of me on her so we can all see how good I look! (Hint Hint Tara).

Tara and I have been kicking around this idea for some time now. We have both been making bags and thought of a catchy name... HoBags. So the beginning of our combo blog is here :



I have also joined the "Sew? I knit" a-long (as mentioned before) and there is a link over to the left side. I'm excited and it looks like it will be fun!

I fear what the rest of tonight will bring!! I always agonize over what to eat. Tonight was no exception, I looked at the food in the kitchen and was stumped as usual. Plus we are REALLY low on food. Time for the grocery store.

Then it came to me, we have one egg left and Kyle picked up some vegetarian sausage today. I know... I'll have breakfast for dinner. I got out the skillet, the egg, put the sausage in the microwave AND dropped the egg. Splat!! There went dinner.

Now what?? Now the agonizing began all over again. What to make, what to eat. Kyle and I are on a NO EATING OUT plan. At least we are trying! I eat out for dinner on wed. because I am at school all day and it makes no sense to come home for an hour. I would spend more time driving.

Now we are REALLY REALLY low on food. We have a lot of condiments, but not much food! So I came up with something... peanut butter and honey on a tortilla. The last tortilla (it was a little funky, I picked that part off). So I hope it is enough to get me through the night. I have a test, I need my brain power. So now I am afraid I am off tonight and this will affect my test power.

So I need luck, all the luck I can get. My studying powers aren't enough to get me through when I am on my top game. Now, I am going to suffer!

I joined up!

I was perusing knitowl today and saw that she joined the Sew? I knit along and I was intrigued. I checked it out and sent off my email. This is perfect for me. I have been knitting like crazy and it all came to a screeching halt (well almost) when I got my sewing machine and changed gears.

So I know I have been a terrible poster, I have been a terrible crafter as well. I am trying really hard to focus on school. I love people who blog everyday, I continue to read them even if I am not posting, so you would think I would be a better poster! Oh well, summer is quickly approaching and time should free up substantially. Well unless I get the second job I am considering!

So this is a short and sweet post, I'll try to get some more goods up soon!

Bag Crazy!!

It's been crazy around here. Bag crazy. I have been a bag making machine. And I just sold my first one. YAY!! I made a few for my friend Jessica and took them to her while she was at work (Barnes and Noble cafe) and one of her co-workers saw them and loved them. So I went to Jo-Ann's yesterday and found this fantastic material. I FELL IN LOVE!! And thought that the two would look good together. So the bags were born.














I am also putting up pictures of the large one I made for myself. This is more like a beach bag. It is HUGE! It will hold a towel, bathing suit, and a few knitting projects, maybe a book or two. It will take its first trip to the beach in less than two weeks. We are going to go to Santa Cruz. I hope the weather is nice. Okay, off I go.

One Sleeve

I cheated and used the sewing machine to sew up the sleeve. Is that cheating? Should I do it by hand? I am not such a fan of the hand finishing. Plus I don't have a whole lot of yarn left (hence the elbow length sleeves) so I don't want to use it for sewing and I had this green thread. It all add up, and here I knit the sleeve which I enjoyed quite a bit but did not have to seam it up. YEA!! So knit another sleeve, sew the rest of the seams and throw on a zipper, not that I ever zip my cardigans. But I am close. Now I just have to wear it.

I saw the wedding I Do shrug (this was the best previous post of I Do I could find, I did not look hard, but it shows it for the most part) in my drawer the other day and thought how sad, all that time and I wore it for about 2 hours max, late at night after most everyone had left the wedding. Oh Well, what are you gonna do, they can't all be super winners!

Ignore the empty photo frames on the wall, I intend to put pictures in them soon!

Tests and a little knitting.

So after one test, not so good; one test, great; and one test, yet to be seen; I feel like I have a little spare time to blog. It has been a very testful kind of past week!!

So I was all set and ready to start knitting the cable sweater. I pulled out the yarn, pulled out the needles. I pulled the center out of two balls of yarn (and did not end up pulling out a quarter of the ball while trying). Two because I am knitting it held double. I scanned and printed the pattern. I don't like to work them from the book, I would wreck my books that way. I took a deep breath, and then...

Decided I had to finish some other stuff first.

So... I got out the Madil Cardigan. I began this in August, that's right SEVEN months ago. I tell you, don't do it, finish them, don't put them away. I could not remember anything about it. I pulled out the pattern hoping I used the needle it called for. And it all came rushing back, the pattern had a miss print, wrong needle size. Oh No!! What did I do (it called for a 14), did I go up to a 15 or down to a 13? I knit a little swatch on 13's to see how it compared. I am confident it was/is the 15's I need. So that is what I am using. Plus I reworked the sleeves for 3/4 length, I just don't think I have enough for full length. I did the reworking last night, that wasn't a problem. But, I think I altered the cable pattern. So now I have to study it and see if I can figure it out.

I have not finished or abandoned the socks, I just wanted to change. So I will work the socks and the sweater at the same time. However, now that I am going on the sleeves, I will finish them one right after another, I can't go through this again. Well off I go, want to get a little cleaning done before bed.

There it is, all the projects in the photo. Sock, Cabled Cardigan, and Madil Cardigan!! I have a cat on my lap biting my hand while I type, a sure sign I need to go. Where is the sweet napping kitty of the other day, as pictured at the top??

I guess I only have the weekend.

I have been busy with school and work. And the other random things that make up life. So it looks like a week since my last post. I made another bag (same pattern as the apron bag and those before it) except this one has a plastic lining. My thought was it could be like a farmer's market bag, you can put wet veggies and what not in it without the water leaking out. Plus it would be able to be wiped down. The plastic was very hard to sew with and I don't think I will continue making bags this way.

Then I took my first shot at a zippered bag today. I also used the plastic with this but was of much simpler construction so it did not slip around near as much.

The sock is coming along. I don't knit on it much and am still working on the leg portion of it, but keep plugging away. Hopefully a finished pair of socks will be here by the end of the month.
I had a couple of tests this past week, so not much time aside from studying.

Textbooks and Knitting

I will read textbooks and knit. That is my goal. I am already working on it. It would be easier if the knitting was not a knit 4, purl 1. This requires a little more attention then I should be giving the knitting. Because if I am to absorb any of the text book, I need to focus there.

The weather was BEAUTIFUL today. I think it was 75 at about 3:30pm. Sunny and warm and fantastic. I came home and got a little cleaning done. Read some more Harry Potter. I can't wait to finish the book because then I can (try to) force myself to do the reading that matters.

I spent over an hour on the computer working on a school project last night to have the computer crash without a save. ARGH!! So when I set back to working on it, I saved about every 1 minute. I may have been being paranoid, but I didn't want to do it three times. Here's hoping to another beautiful day tomorrow... back to reading I go.