Strung Out

My great 1 day project! Made out of LionBrand woolspun- thank you Herrschners for selling yarn that has been discontinued... the hat was going to be made with mini-cables instead of ribbing, but there wasn't enough definition in the cables to make it work.

1/2 of the Big Mexiko jacket is done!

skating dress version that I made for my mom (her business is making skating dresses)

Picture as promised!

Being on break means I get lots of knitting time. I did go shopping today for gifts (a little late, I admit- but I had finals) Yesterday I finished mini sweater #3 and the first half of the Big Mexiko jacket!
Today, I made mini sweaters #4 and 5- I'm down to an hour and a half per sweater, but my hands keep cramping up.
Quick descriptions of the mini's-
#3 is green with red stripes
#4 is navy blue with a maize "M" for Michigan!
#5 is green with a red santa hat- fabric and cotton balls are fun!

the new wire for the hangers is from a gigantic craft store- check the flower arranging area, they're cut into lengths already.

Pictures will be up after break- My computer is heading in for some R&R
:) enjoy the holidays!

What I'm working on now (once finals are over)
1. rainbow sock #2
2. Mom's Big Mexiko jacket
3. hot pink and light pink crochet pineapple baby blanket - partner to the blue one in the gallery, since my pregnant friend doesn't know if it's a boy or girl
4. mini sweater ornaments

In the wings...
1. Candy from Kitty's winter in Pingouin Mousse black and mauve (garage sale and ebay!)
2. cabled hat and mittens from Lionbrand Wool-spun in Natural
3. hat/scarf/mittens from grey boucle from Spain and red boucle from Micheal's- I'm a non-discrimnatory knitter - mittens will be thrummed! (red merino roving with gray wool)
4. tanktop (remake of the one Katie Holmes wore on the October Cosmopolition cover) with, get this! vintage Reynolds Palmona - a very thin, cotton boucle.(I found it in the basement-it probably was my grandmother's, but I can't be sure)
5. Shrug from pale blue elastic yarn and grey and blue ladder ribbon from my Europe trip
6. something out of the Cascade Fixation hot pink and light pink- probably socks or a bikini
7. felted bag from unidentified gray wool and the junk I spun :) pattern will imitate Knit It 2002 pattern # 9

Projects lacking yarn
1. Sweater for my nephew- Logan from the Scholler und Stahl baby book I have
2. little dress for my niece- Sophia
3. Shrug from Vogue Knitting Winter 2004 (Filatura Di Crosa advertising section-pg127)
4. Sweater for myself in Shetland Chunky from Chunky Knits Book # 500948 "Cabled Pullover with Hood "
5. possibly a lionbrand homespun cable sweater- but I hate the way homespun ages, so I my have to adapt to a better yarn.

Yarn lacking projects
1. pinkish ladder yarn - same type as blue above- probably destined for a black tank with awesome detailing- I can't picture it yet, but I'll get there
2. a pound of cotton- was being stupid when I bought this, and forgot that cotton grows, yeah, I bought it for a sweater (the Shetland Chunky actually) but now I think I may dye it different shades of reds and purples and blues and knit strips and weave together for a rug.
3. Emerald green sweater that I bought on extreme sale that needs to be rescued, the yarn has great texture but its current form is a sleeveless, shapeless cowl neck. I'm thinking of pairing it with black and maybe have a shaped striped sweater.

Forgotten projects
1. sleeves to an unearthed UFO- it's so old, the stitches are all twisted(yeah- that was my big mistake for a looong time) it's cute, it fits- maybe I'll finish it up.
2. self designed baby blanket- I worked grids out for heart designs and intarsia work, but I have NO enthusiam for this project

oh, God help me, I just discovered http://www.numei.com

riiiight, and I'm in law school why?
can we say not enough time? NOT ENOUGH TIME!

Mini sweater #2 - variation on this one is an extra 2 rows on the neck (I was going for a turtleneck look) heh- it almost worked. Anyway, it's a little washed out, and the tree is actually out of green tweed.

Today's meeting at Marci's home was so much fun! It was a yarn, pattern, needle swap- I managed to part with the rest of my blue/green bulky yarn and some nylon, and I picked up some tweed yarn, in red, light green and cream- I dived right in, they seemed perfect for mini- sweater ornaments. I also picked up a few patterns that will have to be added to the ongoing list of projects to do...

here's my mini-sweater! The pattern I used is from
I made a few changes, I worked the sleeves in the round, and did 5 rows of ribbing. Then I folded over the cuffs and sewed them down- soooo cute!

# posted by Kristine @ 8:47 PM 1 Comments

This was the progress on the Big Mexico jacket as of Saturday morning...

Yayyyy! I'm done with 1st semester finals... and going out for the night. Dinner, drinks, hot tubbing and knitting. Knitting you ask? yeah, because I'm a strung out law student who deserves it.
yeah.

yeah, so I totally forgot to grab my knitting bag on the way out of the door... so pictures of me blissfully knitting in the law school are not forthcoming. That's probably a good thing, because I probably wouldn't have gotten much studying done before the exam.

:) yay! 4 hours of studying and 4 hours of exam and then I'm done with my first semester of law school! (I find out if I survived in mid-January)

Elizabeth had two beautiful FO's with her- she was wearing a beautiful jacket she made as a birthday present to herself, and she also brought her completed flowerbasket shawl out of Colinette fingering weight knitting yarn in Copper Beach. Absolutely beautiful shading and subtlety.

Elizabeth was also wonderful and brought some magazines she no longer wanted. Thank you ! Thank you ! Thank you!!! Of course picked a few... they were calling my name "Kristine, make meeeeee..." how could I not answer? I am defenseless in the wake of the all those magazines. (big smile over here)

As for myself, I had dinner, knit a few rows, collected new projects- and now, sadly... I have to go read. But no more memorizing. yay!

Yikes- I just walked out of the criminal law exam... and I have no idea how I did, all I know is that my stomach is in knots and I feel like curling up into the fetus position. I'm just not going to think about it. And study for my last exam- Torts is on Friday.

But first I get to indulge in a little knitting content... tonight is the meetup.com knitting group at Lula's cafe- 7pm! I'm not sure who's going to show, but I'll be there and Elizabeth will be there, and I get to show off the sleeve of my mom's Big Mexiko jacket. If you're nice, maybe I'll even post a picture :)
Unexpected Big Mexiko development, I got the wrong color... see, I bought "sombrero" instead of "sundown." Heh. Well, I'm on the second skein, and I've pulled out the insides of pretty much every skein because I wanted to find the pattern repeat that matched up, so um, I may not be able to return it- I hope my mom likes this color. I think she will- the repeat is much more colorful with bands of color- well, you'll see.

Off to dinner and a quick torts review, an hour of blissful knitting and then massive reworking of Torts outlines
:) I can't wait for Friday at 5:30p. I'm bringing my knitting to school so I can start the instant I walk out of the exam. Really! I might even post a picture of it if I'm not crying hysterically from relief.

I'm not really sure if anyone is reading this, since I self imposed a no-blogging rule effective until next Friday- but in case anyone is...
I am so relieved the contracts final is over. 3 intense hours (it felt like 1 1/2 hours) and a weight lifted from my shoulders, only to settle down again this morning.

Civil Procedure exam on Monday- so so so so boring. yuck
anyway, todays diversion is a popularity contest!
ok, so it's the Best of Blogs contest
They have a knitting category- so I had to nominate (no, not myself)
I nominated Chic Knits
it's probably my favorite site because she posts pretty much every day and has interesting stories, and of course, Monday morning mirth! I love her sense of humor and style- vote for ChicKnits!

ok- back to the Federal Rules of Procedure- why can't my professor be normal and teach jurisdiction first semester like every other Civ pro prof in the US?

So I talked to my mom today (walking to my car after a long day of studying) and I told her about the LYS in Chinatown. Two seconds after I said "yarn store" and "Chinatown" she says
"oh, yes- I know that place, I went there"

AUGH! AND YOU DIDN"T TELL ME ABOUT ALL THAT FIBER GOODNESS!!!
(ok, not in that tone, my mom wold reach through the cell and throttle me)
but you know what she says next? (This is the kicker)

"I thought you had enough yarn"

obviously, my mother does not knit.

exam tommorow, must let the drama pass ;) Hi Rae

argh. that's enough of that...
I broke the moratorium to annouce my Christmas yarn shopping.

I will be going to Aji Ichiban. Yes, you heard that right- Aji Ichiban.
ok- so it's the candy store in front of the yarn store
one of the law school knitters stumbled on this store and bought some beautiful blue think and thin, super soft yarn. (drooling just thinking about it)

But she couldn't remember exactly where it was... but now, thanks to Step into my Thimble, problem solved!

Did I tell all of you how much I love the knitting, blogging community? You all ROCK!
And now I have something to live for! A LYS TRIP! Yayyy!

2117-A S. China, Chicago
Tel: (312) 238-9998

accessible by the Red line Cermack/Chinatown

and I found this out all because Hillary sent me the link- Thank you thank you thank you!

Alright, enough of that- I have to go back to work... and on Friday, from 1:30p- 5:30p keep me in mind- I know, it's just exams- but send those good thoughts my way anyway- I'm going to need them :)

So here I was, pounding away at my keyboard, missing all the warning signs... my boyfriend is sneaking peeks at me working at my laptop, chuckling a little, and asking me if I was ok... since I was obviously irate - so I tell him about the comment- and he confesses!

He didn't think I would be quite so irrated, and was apologetic.
Bad BF! No treat for you!

I apologize for spewing all over the blogosphere

well, I knew people had problems with comments- but I didn't think I would have to deal with idiots quite so soon... (I left it posted at yesterday's comments)

Apparently Anonymous - he really gets around, doesn't he, thinks that "kniting" is for dorks, and that I should pay more attention to law school. What do I have to say in response?

Bite me. I spend all damn day at law school, and don't need someone who not only doesn't know me, but is afraid to leave their damn name on my site because they think OMG- I may have something to say back.

And if you think knitting blogs are so dorky then why the hell are you surfing them... head over to Dungeons and Dragons where you belong.

Anyway- I had to break my blogging moratorium to get that off my chest. Back to the final. See you all briefly on Tuesday.

So last night, when I mean to be working into the night- what do I do? Bf and I made cookies - and while they were baking I knit. The first sleeve of the big Mexiko jacket. Fortunately for a work standpoint, I only got 4 inches into it, since I couldn't find my size 6mm circulars. I actually don't think I have any, so this necessitates a drive over to Erica's or one of the craft super stores (Erica's is lovely, but I'm on a student budget)

Anyway, a picture of the patterning will get put up a bit later- I'm not sure how it's going to turn out- I think the colorway is different than the magazine's jacket. Mildly frustrating, but not the end of the world. Anyone have any advice on how to work with the Mexiko patterned yarn?

Funny thing- my boss at the athletic center asked me what my study habits were, and I answered pretty much 7 or 8 in the morning until 10 at night. I haven't been that good the last couple days. :( let's face it, I'd rather be knitting

one last thing- the Yarn Harlot has written a book (yay) it doesn't come out until March, but head on over there and take a little peek!
Alrighty- back to work. really.

So technically, there are 8 days to finals because my Contracts exam is on the 10th. But counting study days left motivates me better, since the fear sets in a day earlier... :)

anyway- no knitting news for a while... I've banned myself from swatching for the Scholler und Stahl jacket until finals are done... that's the 17th! But if I'm super stressed out right after a final, I may sneak in a bit of sock #2 for an hour or two of relaxation before plunging into the next study day.

Sara- while geriatic skating does sound like fun, I am in major denial. As long as I don't get back on the ice (besides a little teaching) then I might still be able to land my double loop, or double flip (the lutz was never really consistent)- really, I know I lost those... but what if I lost more (gasp)
Denial is good. But there is another law student who has searched out the local clubs and rinks, so I many invest in some ice time next semester to jolt me back to reality...

And finally- today is the last day of my kickboxing class for the semester- my students have been great- they really picked things up quick and were dedicated to class (yeah, I know, my inner coach is showing) so hopefully my nasty sinus infection won't get in the way of a great last class.

Ok- first, I apologize for this mildly negative post... but it needs to be written

so I get Carol Alexander's Talking Crochet newsletter (yeah, I can hear you all giggling)
anyway... she writes
"The “old-fashioned” granny square now has a whole new respect as a chic fashion statement, showing up in wardrobes in everything from hats and scarves to sweaters and ponchos. "
..."Want to see why crochet has finally gone from its former persona of bazaar-sale kitsch to designer showroom dazzle? "

first of all... the granny square is still as ugly as ever. I'm sorry if you don't agree- but it just reeks of the 60's - cool then, but gone the way of fringe and bellbottoms.
secondly, crochet hasn't left the category of bazaar-sale kitsch. Just look at the awful crochet magazines out- heavy blankets, baby stuff, angel patterns, hearts and doilies. Not that there aren't nice things made out of crochet- my point is that the majority of publications out there are nowhere near "showroom dazzle"

I would love to see a magazine use crochet's advantages- it would make great bags, delicate tanks, funky hats and toys. (check out Crazy Lola on the side bar for great examples)

oh! for a good chuckle, go to Knitter's magazine and take a look at the knitter who skinned the Cookie Monster!
last word for tonight? beware the granny square!


8 days to finals!

ok- one more time (I wrote this earlier, but then blogger ate it)
I should be working on my legal writing final... I should be working on outlines... I should be sending out resumes to prospective 1L employers... but what am I doing? I'm posting, because let's face it- I love knitting! (or I really don't want to do any of the above things- whatever)

quick note to knitchick- the scarf pattern from yesterday is mine- unfortunately, I didn't write it out... perhaps we have a winter break project- hmm, perhaps a free pattern area? We'll see.

For now, if anyone wants to try to decipher the pattern, it's over 46 stitches, the outside ridges are 4 stitches each, the middle cable is 4 stitch and the left and right cables (both big and small) aren't just twisted- they have purl stitches on the inside too.

If you figure it out before I write it out, share the wealth and I'll post the pattern with props to you!