Saturday, July 12, 2008

Elementary, my dear readers

I love downtown Toronto, I really do. And I've spent over 40 dollars at Americo and Romni Wools. Good thing or bad? I still haven't decided yet. However, I do have everything necessary to finish my Ester, and I'm totally prepared for the Knitting Olympics!

Seraphina is coming along splendidly - and I'm starting to get bored/frustrated. It's taking me over an hour now to work one row, and as pierine (butterfly-like, in the same manner that canine and feline is used. =) Proud English geek, what can I say?) as it looks right now, I'm itching to go back to my needles.

Speaking of which, needles hold an amazing potential to hurt. Not that I've experienced it first hand (yet), but I'm sure that the good community of knitters could vouch for my statement. Forget the butler, wouldn't it be awesome if we've got a Clue-type mystery going, and it turns out that the sweet little old lady across the street did it with her knitting needles?

Also, yesterday at the subway station:

(On the subject of our love of all things Sherlock Holmesian. Julie's fault. Conversation very paraphrased. Julie, you can yell at me if you ever find this.)
Moi: Seriously, I should knit you the hat, ya know, the one he doesn't actually wear. And the cape too, which he also doesn't actually wear.
Julie: I can go as him for Halloween this year, then! So that makes you Watson, then?
Me: Considering that I'm a lot less observant? That's a given.

So, um, does anyone know a good pattern for Sherlock Holmes knitted stuff?

Friday, July 4, 2008

Summer!

...which started over two weeks ago for me, so yeah...

But yay, I can get back to my knitting now!

My report card just came in the mail today; final average of 93.8 according to the card, but I calculated 93.9 (small difference, but every decimal counts when my parents are holding me accountable...), even factoring in the civics/career as one course. Math was the one that weighed my marks down, coming in at 83, *wince*.

Summer to-do list: Find a summer job to support my yarn habit (nixed by Dad's insistence), figure out what the heck universities are looking for in terms of marks, how the heck applications work, and HOW ON EARTH DOES IT WORK STARTING FROM HERE???, study for the SAT, practise math, go to Wonderland/ROM/science center with friends...

Oh, and knit and crochet in the free seconds I have.

On the bright side, I did finish one project to date!
I call him Baka, because of an obscure pun that traverses two different cultures .

Current project is Seraphina, worked with Sirdar Blur (acrylic + kid mohair). What I've learned so far? Working a big crochet project when my grasp is *very* tentative at best, and with a delicate (read: frustrating) yarn? Not exactly my best idea to date.

Also, Knitting Olympics! I'm a proud member of Team Teen! going for the Sweater Sprint with Titania, my current summer fling <3.

Happy belated Canada Day to my fellow Canucks, and Happy Fourth of July to my American neighbours!

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Earth Hour

Earth Hour 2008

My Mom and I reached a compromise: She'd watch TV or go on her computer and leave all other appliances turned off while I broke out my candles and (attempted to) meditate.

Course, most of my street didn't participate, and turning off street lights were out of the question due to safety issues, so stargazing wasn't exactly the best plan I could've made xD

It was fun, nonetheless.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Thank Goodness Infidelity in Knitting is Normal

Maybe it was March Break being paired so close to a four-days-weekend, maybe I'm a hopeless escapist from schoolwork. Either way, I've got too many projects going on at once, too little time to devote to knitting (well, I should have little time for knitting, but you know how obsessions are...), and both Gr. 10 EQAO Literacy Test as well as summatives looming in the nearby horizon...

This is how my desk looks like right now:
And in more details...

This is a heavily adapted version of Ranee Mueller's Tilting Blocks Baby Blanket, because I apparently can't leave any pattern unmodified. Anyway, I'm using 3 skeins of Sirdar Spree Chunky and about half a hank of Blue Sky Dyed Cotton when I was panicking about not having enough yarn to do the pattern as is. I actually have enough yarn to make the middle block much larger, so I'm
kicking myself for being so paranoid now.





Ester, from Knitty. I have no idea how weird this might turn out since I'm using worsted weight wool instead of aran and I haven't made the corresponding needle substitution (which I'm not even sure what that is...). I actually messed up the cables in the first and third columns from the right, although only the third column is even vaguely visible here. I remain optimistic, though, in the hope that sometimes, good things do happen to bad (knitting) people.



A Kittyville hat, special request by a friend of mine after she saw the one I made for myself (in pink). I'm feeling vaguely exasperated with this one, probably because it reminds me of winter (to my fellow Canadians, you know why.) and because I've made this thing once before. The fact that I'm paranoid about running out of yarn before the ears isn't helping my motivation to finish.





This is Bad Juju. Srsly. It's just a leeeetle hard to tell from the 20 rounds done, the awkward photography angle, and the excessively long waste yarn for provisional cast on (which I think I might have to scavenge in order to complete the Kittyville hat above, since it's insanely long and it's from the same skein.), and possibly the slightly n00bish photography. Yeah...






At this point, I'm going to say that I'm confident I won't run out of knitting projects any time soon (as in, for about a few months, give or take), and I really shouldn't think about starting any new projects, like learning to knit socks, knitting my first sweater, starting Seraphina, any of that stuff...

Ooh boy...

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Nothing to do with knitting whatsoever - GASP!

Daniel Faraday, ILU.

*Am officially a LOST fan now*

Thank you, that is all.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Project Update/Holidays Galore

Um, yeah, it's been almost forever since I've posted... I'm still as busy on the knitting front, and I have a few finished products to showcase and beam with pride at, since my friends and classmates don't appreciate getting a hat waved under their noses and being talked to at length about decreases and how nice the picked up stitches were...

Edited 11/02/08: OK, stealing a quick moment to list my current and possibly future projects:

On the needles
- Alpaca/acrylic capelet for Grandma. roughly 60% completed, need more yarn.
- Bad Juju voodoo doll. Casted on, roughly 7% completed, on-hold until 7th day of the lunar January, due to the imposed rule of no violence, bad things and etc. until then.
- Silvanus felted tote bag. Roughly 0.1% completed xD. Am currently wondering how much I'll mess up the Fair Isle charting or the felting. Also feel that the bright yellow is clashing with the green, and it's not the mellow cream-green effect it was supposed to have =/

Future projects
- Ice Queen. >.< Sheldon. He's adorable and would always make a good gift for someone.
- A baby blanket, maybe. A friend's mother is expecting, and I've wanted to try large cotton or wool knitting.
- A sweater or sock. Because, seriously, I need to learn.
- Heroes illusion scarf =) Yep, after painstakingly studying the alien illusion scarf to figure out how illusion knitting works, then realizing that I can just Google the appropriate information, I drew up a prelim illusion chart for the RNA helix/Godsend symbol that pops up everywhere in Heroes. Knowing me, though, I'll prolly frog and rework a million times before I get it right. =) Yes, I'm a proud fan and total geek.

Recently finished
- After blanking out on the directions online, I borrowed Stitch'n'Bitch and finally made a Kittyville Official Hat for myself! It's in a bright pink acrylic yarn, the seed stitch's uneven in some places, but I'VE FINISHED IT, AND IT LOOKS COOL! (at least, I'm under the delusion that it does on me...)
- Fetching: fingerless gloves, which isn't the most adequate for our frozen Canadian climate, but they look really pretty and I love the picot bind-off, so there!

Chinese New Year just passed and Valentine's Day is coming up. I'm no closer to finishing the capelet for Grandma and I really should think of a present for my little cousin's birthday. On the bright side, I don't have to knit a sweater for anyone this year! Yayz!

Friday, December 28, 2007

Boxing Day, Yay!

Well, technically it was day-after-Boxing-Day, but details schmetails. Yesterday, Julie and I went on a library trip disguised as a shopping trip, hopping across half of downtown Toronto and hitting three libraries along the way.

Of course, I had to pay a visit to Lettuce Knit, a yarn shop downtown because of their Boxing Day sale.

I should've brought my camera with me. I don't know why I didn't.

The place was small, but it was gorgeous! From the moment of entering, I was surrounded by yarn and yarn and more yarn. The needles on stock were bamboo, and I wanted to start knitting socks, but although the size 0 dpns were fairly priced, the sock yarns were a little too expensive for me, even with the sale.

So, after fawning over the sheer selection for over 15 minutes, I picked out some yarn that were useful and moderately priced: 3 skeins of 100% wool in green and 1 in yellow (for Silvanus), and 1 hank of 100% organic cotton in a lovely light blue.