Hollywoooood

I've been RAoK'ed!
My first received Random Act of Kindness is a cool card from Liz in Hollywood. Here it is sitting proudly on my wall:



Love the quote too. (Click the pic to see the back.)
Thanks Liz!

Yeah baby!

My first sock in its natural habitat: on a shrub.
(Funny how many knitters like to model their socks on random flora; see here, here and here.)
I mean of course, on my very own tootsie.
I love how it turned out and grafting the toe was actually pretty easy.
Who'da thunk it? I'd heard some horror stories about that.

Wanna hear something really exceptional? I just cast on for numéro dos. ;)

Interviewing Pettie

Ok Pettie, here we go!

Q. One thing I’ve never seen mentioned in your blog, is what you do. Did you study anything spectacular? Brain surgery or rocket science?

Q. I read that you’re engaged to an Englishman. Where did you “find” him and would you knit him a sweater? (Ok, that’s a double-barrelled question, but it’s my blog and I can do what I want.)

Q. Do you think you’ll always be knitting, or is it a passing phase?

Q. What are your knitting preferences needle- and yarnwise?

Q. And finally: do you believe in “taking back the knit”; are you a die-hard feminist?

For the answers, visit Pettie’s Diary of a Knitknit.

"No pictures please..."

Drawstrings, a great knitblogger from Amsterdam, interviewed me on her blog. Here are my answers to her (good!) questions:

Q. What is your relationship with your UFO's (unfinished projects)? Do they haunt you or exude warmth of hours well spent?

A. Well, since I just started knitting half a year ago, I haven’t had the opportunity to collect many Unfinished Objects yet, which is why I believe I can still refer to them as WIPs, hehehe.
One of them is gradually turning into a UFO as time goes by: my Stitch ‘n Bitch 8-ball tea cozy. I only need to stitch it together, and now that you mention it, I should bring it to my SnB next week. So there; hours aren’t well spent until the item’s finished.

Q. Do you have a knitting 'hero/heroine' and who is your favorite knitwear designer?

A. My knitting heroine is my late grandmother. She could do EVERYTHING. I love using her needles too. Debbie Stoller was the one who got me obsessed and my favourite designer has to be Kim Hargreaves. (But again, I’m still a newbie, so who knows who/what else is out there.)

Q. Do you believe in the "Boyfriend Sweater Curse?" (If you knit a sweater for you boyfriend before you are married then you will not stay together") If so why? Or do you just not like to tempt fortune? *Evil Grin* :¬)

A. I totally believe in the Curse of the Wretched Boyfriend Sweater. For me, it only took a garter stitch Dr. Who scarf.
Giving my sorry single ass lots of spare knitting time. Yey...

Q. When did you learn to knit, and what are your 'landmark' knitting moments' that will always be special to you?

A. I learnt to knit when I was around 14 yrs old, by said grandmother, but I don’t remember anything of that.
Total landmarks for me were the first rows I knit without adding stitches, and finishing my first ribbed scarf. I’m learning so much right now; every week I have tiny landmark knitting moments; picking up my first stitches, joining my first dpns etc.

Q. You confess to be an "Eternal Student" - What would be your "Dream Job" and why?

A. My Dream Job? Oh boy, you know I really have no clue! I’m graduating in three months (!) and I don’t have an ounce of ambition in me. In fact, last week I confessed to my fellow SNBers that I wouldn’t mind becoming a stay at home mom at all.
Yes, it’s tragic. All this brilliance lost to mankind forever.
But seriously, I think I’d like to work at the communication department of a non-profit or at least socially responsible organisation or company. Or start a bookstore; I love the smell of (second-hand) books.

There you go.
Now it's my turn to invite you all to be interviewed. Just follow the rules below:

The Rules are:
Leave a comment just saying "Interview Me".
I will list 5 questions directed to you on THIS blog.
You will give answers to them on YOUR blog.
You will include this explanation and offer to interview someone else in the same post.

Just a quickie, I have a cold...

Sock on, Wayne!
Still working on both socks. For a little mindless straightforward knitting I turn to the Rainbow sock and when I'm feeling hardcore, I work on the pink one. (With the tip of my tongue sticking out; it's really hard to keep the stitches on those damn slippery double pointed Addi's.)

Last Night's SnB, Liza showed me how to do the mock cable pattern for the pink one. Turns out it's Cascading Leaves*, a beautiful lacy sock pattern by Jeanie Townsend, and it's going to end up looking like this. (I'll post pictures of mine as soon as I have knit more than one repeat of the pattern...)
It's done with 5 needles, so I couldn't chicken out and use only three. Yowza, that takes some getting used to!

I'm going to leave you with this:

It had to be done...

* Get the pattern here!

Progress report!

Sorry for the crappy pics; it was late, and the CrappyCam is flash-less.


Cinnamon is going pretty well. I'm halfway through both fronts, and almost ready for the armholes. After that, it's just the sleeves and the shawl collar, and of course putting it all together. This is kinda freaking me out, but my fellow SnB'ers promised to help me sew that puppy up. ;)
I lost two stitches on one of the fronts last week, and SnB-Carla helped me out last Tuesday. The things I learn on those Tuesday nights!

When I couldn't continue with Cinnamon, I picked up the French Market Bag again. I'm done with the bottom now, so I have to pop by my LYS soon to pick out a colour for the body. I'm thinking of doing it in a pale blue. And in Rowan Yorkshire Tweed as well, dahhling. Hey, once a yarn snob...

The pink Regia sock yarn looks very different in real life; it's a nice pale pink.
Unfortunaly, my brand new metal Addi needle slipped right out of the stitches, and I lost a few. I seem to be losing two stitches everywhere..
For this sock, I'm planning to do a mock cable pattern that Liza showed me last Tuesday. According to her, it's pretty simple to do, just increases and decreases. It looks really fancy with this yarn. (We both bought this yarn in the same week. So why stop there, eh? ;)

The rainbow yarn however doesn't need a pattern, it's gorgeous enough as it is. I started with this one two months ago, but had cast on the amount of stitches needed for a WORSTED yarn; 44, which was way too tight for the stuff I was using. D'oh.
And I'm not giving them away to some Cinderella with cute tiny feet, nosirree. So I overcame my Fear of Frogging and ripped it and cast on 64 stitches.

Weekend's almost over; back to my needles and CSI...

Woohoo

Got m'self a Secret Pal!

The idea is that I'm goin to spoil this girl rotten for the next few months.
Someone else got me, and is going to send me all kinds of goodies from far far away. Such fun!

P.s. Just got a message from my own SP. -Hi SP!-
She's out there somewhere and wrote she already got me something!

*Prances off in a funky virtual happy dance*

Posting more spring pics, just because I can

Haven't done much knitting 'cause these school reports are keeping me rediculously busy. Still went to my SnB last night; I really had to let go of everything, if only for 2,5 hours.

I made some good progress on the two fronts of Cinnamon, despite having to frog a few rows. (Somehow, I'd lost two stitches on the side, which were beyond repair.)
Also started another Regia sock with some pink yarn that I bought a few weeks ago. (Man, even more Works in Progress!)

Next week, our SnB is going to be interviewed by a journalist from Carp.
I think they're finally picking up on the trend here. We'll see! ;)

Especially for Nonokitty

Poor Nonokitty's vewwy vewwy cold in Denver right now.

So to make you feel all warm and fuzzy, here are some pics of my roommates having rosé and brie in the frontyard last week. Check out the tops and bare legs, yessiree, spring's here. (The books in the background are mine, as I was studying for some exams. Yeah, I felt sorry for myself too.)

Must.Get.Noro.

Damn!
I think my evil twin just ordered 8 skeins of Noro Kureyon in Germany. I should really tell those nurses not to let her out of her straight jacket again..

Hung over knitting

Ahrr, purling's even worse when you're nursing a really bad hangover. But it was good times last night. ;)

I had to be at Uni today too, and did my first Proud to Knit in Public routine in the school cafeteria. Still mainly a lot of strange looks here, so I've got my work cut out for me. In a few weeks, I'll be having some friends over who want to learn how to knit too. The next step on my road to World Domiknition!

On another note: Jamie and Adam from Mythbusters are my new geek hotties of the year. In the episode I just watched, they put two dead pigs in a Corvette FOR TWO MONTHS two disprove you can't sell the car after attempting to clean it. Disgusting yet completely fascinating.
Plus they blow stuff up.

And then this: Help with completing a knitting circle .
Just sent the guy an email. His idea sounds artsy-fartsy in a cute kinda way. Don't really think it's a scam either; what harm can one do with a knitted patch?

The new Knitty is live

Like you didn't know already:
Spring Knitty is here!

My favorites? Cleaves, I do and Tie one on.

Two down, two more to go. Ever.

I swear, if I don't pass these things, I'm going to drop out and work at McDonald's...with the rest of my class. We already agreed to work in shifts.

Wanna know how you can get me really psycho in just three seconds?
I had signed up perfectly on time, through the online exam registration system, but when it was time to take the exam, my name wasn't on the list.
I had to pay the school €25,- to take these f*cking exams.
It all worked out in the end though; I still had the print-outs of my registration. Glitch in the system etc etc. Got the money back too, thank God. But still. *Raises arms toward the sky* Why am I surrounded by morons?!

Phew. And now for a quiet afternoon of knitting.

Quicky post..

...to show you the progress of Cinnamon:


Tonight, I'm granting myself 1,5 hours at my weekly SnB, followed by a trip to the Fake 'n Bake* and then back to studying until around, oh, 2am.

* The tanning salon. Yeah, I know, bad for your health. So is life in general.

Busy busy busy, with anything but knitting

Ok, exams on Wednesday and Thursday means no knitting for moi.
(I manage to sneak in a few rows every couple hours to cool off, but that's all.)

I did finish the complete back of Cinnamon, and already cast on the fronts. Yep, both of them; my SnB buddy Bert advised me to cast on both at the same time. Saves time AND you can make sure they're exactly the same length.
Where would I be without Bert? ;)

So now I have two projects on one needle, both with their own little ball of yarn hanging from it, very spectacular looking.

Oh, and my mom had to see the back of Cinn, just for measurements. Size L fit her more than perfectly. This is going to be one helluva birthday present!

April 1st Flash your Stash Along!

Meet my stash! Just hover over the pics with your cursor, and read the mouse-overs. (Oh, and you may click too ;)