My mom got here on Tuesday. She's staying with me, helping me find an apartment, and will soon be helping me move. We have decided that we are definitely going to spend some quality time knitting and crocheting together, but we have yet to find time for that. Not only am I spending my time in the mad New York real estate dash, but I'm also studying for the LSAT, and, most importantly, I've run out of projects....sort of. I still have Lu Mei's hat to finish. And the little present for my sister that I put away for the last time, oh, over a year ago. And I could use the yarn I got at the Philly knit out for something; a hat, for example. So I take all that back.

Anyway, I might have a place to live next month. I just have to be approved (having an overseas guarantor isn't exactly a benifit), and hope that the person who is subletting the place now doesn't get her stuff together and override me.

I was a little extra cautious and bought way too much yarn for my purple headband. I went back to Sophie's to return the extra stuff but they didn't have the anything bulky for the sweater I want to make. They didn't have it there at Loop the last time I was there either. So I decided to make another headband. Turns out, my separation anxiety wasn't just from my thesis. The pattern ended way too quickly. I'm not used to such instant gratification. So I'm making another one now. This one is black baby alpaca. It is amazingly soft. And I can wear it to my new job (at least that's the plan).

One problem. This one will end too; and I won't have anything to bring to New York this weekend. Yes, I'm still working on the green sweater. Maybe I should figure out that little place marker problem.

Separation Anxiety

I forgot to mention that the headband I was making the other night is from Summer 2006 Interweave Knits. There is a picture in the magazine and then you can download the pattern from the Interweave website. I downloaded it about a month ago, so I’m not sure if it’s still up.

Well I finished it! Started it on Friday night and finished on Saturday night. Yes, I know that I’m twenty-two years old…but I had to stay home to study for the LSAT. So I spent more time (at least on Friday night) knitting…oh well. I couldn’t help it. The yarn was calling me. And the pattern was just perfect. It wasn’t hard so I could still knit while watching Roseanne reruns, yet it was complicated enough to keep me interested.

Today I had a practice LSAT test. Then I walked over to the Philadelphia Knit-Out at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. I really wanted to go last year because it would have been really helpful for my thesis, but I only figured out that knitting was definitely my topic and that the Knit-Out even existed the day before it happened. It was a lot smaller than I expected. When I home in Sydney this Summer (Winter), my mom and I went to a craft festival (with an emphasis on Quilting) at the Sydney Exhibition Center. Compared to this, that festival was huge. There was a room of classes, but it wasn’t the type of classes I was expecting, probably because there were so many people at each station. I couldn’t really tell who was instructing.

The best part was the goody bag. It came with size 17 knitting needles, patterns, a booklet of new knitting books that are coming out (some of which look really awesome), a booklet of charities that accept knitted items, and free yarn!

Someone asked me if my headband (that I, of course, am wearing today) was from Interweave Magazine. It reminded me of the part of my thesis where I talk about the recognition of yarns and patterns as a commonality that connects knitters. The whole event would have received an honorable mention somewhere in that thing. Even the way I write about it (and about knitting in general) sounds like an excerpt from my field notes. I must let go! I must beak free! I am turning into such a dork that it’s not even funny anymore.

My new love

Cascade Pima Tencel. I've finally succumbed to the amazingness of the tactile nature of fiber. I found the pattern for this headband in the summer volume of Interweave. It's my second lace pattern ever. I tried to make it out of the same cotton as my scarf but it was too fine. I found this at Sophie's.

I'm also kind of in love with the pattern. My first I-cord. It kind of reminds me of a kind of friendship bracelet that I used to make in the fifth grade. I had to start over a few times but it was well worth it. Then I had to figure out the lace pattern. It uses p2sso and the instructions really confused me. I had to figure it out on my own and that, too, required a lot of unknitting. Then I somehow skipped a yarn over and I had to start over yet again. I've been knitting for two years but, really, I'm still a beginner. I'm still learning so much. It's kind of frustrating because I want to know everything now. It would also be nice to sell my stuff or write my own patterns. Some day...I can dream.

As for my other projects, I seem to be knitting (and crocheting) up a storm. I finally finished my cotton lace scarf. When I wear it in my hair, you can't really see the lace pattern. I should have made it a lot thinner. Oh well. I can still pull it off when I wear hoop earrings.

I seem to be a knitter of all trades. Living alone kind of does that to you. I do the knitting, the blogging, the modelling, and the photographing. Some day, maybe I will even flip the pictures around. For now, they will have to deal with being sideways.

And then there's Lu Mei's hat. For once, I've crocheted something to the pattern. I made very few mistakes. All I have left to do is weave in all the ends. There's just one problem: it's circumference is much bigger than it's supposed to be. It's too big on me -- and I have a big head (literally, not metaphorically). I don't want to start over so I'm thinking about felting it a little. At least the colors will be the same -- and the shells will be there too. I'm just afraid of shrinking it too much. If anyone ever read this blog, I'm sure I'd get some tips. Oh well, I guess I'll post something on a livejournal group.

Another weekend of Apartment Hunting

I spent the entire weekend in New York. We wanted to get started early so I splurged on Amtrak this time. I LOVE Amtrak. It's the classiest train ride ever. I don't know why they even bother having a first class carriage, because the whole train really is first class, compared to Septa and New Jersey Transit.

I took my green sweater to crochet on the way there. The woman next to me talked about how she used to crochet and she had been meaning to start again. That seems to be a comment I get a lot about knitting and crocheting. Then I inevitably mention my thesis. It's found its way into my repertoire of small talk.

New York real estate is the biggest headache ever. We didn't sign a lease yet, so by New York standards, the trip was unsuccessful. The whole idea of a four person loft didn't work out. One of the girls didn't come and wasn't answering her phone. Laura and I tried to see an apartment with a broker -- and the tenant answered the door. She had signed the lease the day before. It wouldn't have worked, though, because the second bedroom was the size of the closet in my room in my parents' house.

But we saw this awesome place in Park Slope, Brooklyn. A girl Laura knows in moving out, and she's going to talk to her landlord about renting it to us. That way he doesn't have to go through the hassles of either a broker or Craigslist. We are keeping our fingers crossed. The bedrooms are very small but there is an enormous livingroom, a sizeable kitchen, and outdoor space.

I stayed over at Laura's house in Connecticut. She has a huge collection of DVDs and I chose a spy movie to watch with her and her sister. I got out my sweater and pattern book, which I had lugged around all day in my backpack in the rain. Now the book was wet and kind of wrinkly. I hate it when that happens, especially to books I like, and ESPECIALLY to my knitting (and crochet) books. After a couple of minutes, I came to the next part of the pattern. I was supposed to put markers on the sweater. Not only did I not have any markers with me (although I'm sure I could have imrpovised), I have no idea how to place markers on crocheted garments. I know how to do it when knitting, but I just can't figure out the crocheting equivalent. And there were no instructions in the book. I'll have to figure that out tomorrow. In other news, it's my sister's birthday today. Happy 20th birthday, Devon! She opened her birthday present today and says she loves the hat. She wore it for two hours even though it's not really winter in Australia anymore. What a sweet heart.

So I'm Making a Different Sweater...

I tried to make the seamless sweater from, you guessed it, Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet, my favorite and only crochet book.

After Lu Mei and Lindsey had watched me unravel the first few rows of my new sweater several times over the course of several episodes of Weeds, they were feeling its pain. I, on the other hand, custom to the inevitable countless frogging that comes with knitting, especially at my level, didn't really notice until they pointed it out.

That was on Friday night. Then, on Saturday, I took Septa and New Jersey Transit to New York to meet some potential future roommates. I brought LSAT homework and a book for the ride. I also took my crocheting. I had planned to spend most of the time studying, but instead I spent the entire time on that sweater. I got really far. That's one of the things I love about crocheting; with the exception of sc, it's so quick! And it's just as relaxing as knitting. The problem with this project was that some time between Newark and Princeton Junction I realized that I had wrongly interperated the directions. I don't know why it took me so long to realize that what I was making looked very different from the picture. But the great thing about crocheting is that anything goes; it looks like I intentially made it like this. So I'm going to finish it and then some time in the future I will follow it for real, but I can totally wear this. The only problem is that on Sunday, after I took these pictures and added the waste section (done actually according to the pattern!) I tried this on. And I think I might have started it too tight, because I don't know how well the bottom will go around my hips. I guess we'll soon find out.

On the Needles...I'm starting to get some use out of this new digital camera. Excuse my floor as the background, I'll have to find something classier.

This is my first lace project. It's a scarf, but the idea was to wear it in my hair. I'm making it out of cotton instead of laceweight wool. I'm almost done, but it's taking me forever to finish. At first it was captivating but now I'm getting really bored with it.

And I just finished this. I crocheted it for my sister's birthday (Sept. 5th). I crocheted it, based on the Anarchy Irony Hat from "Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: the Happy Hooker." I used the same yarn as I did for a scarf that I made for her a year ago, so now they match. I was going to have just the last row in blue, but I ran out of purple. The great thing about crocheting is that it's really hard to see mistakes and easy to make changes. I'm modelling the hat because my sister doesn't yet have it to take a pictue.

Welcome to my new knitting blog!

I wrote my senior thesis in anthropology last year on knitting. Unlike most college seniors, as I progressed more on my thesis, I became increasingly OBSESSED with my topic, knitting. I focused largely on the internet as a means of communication amongst knitters and as I researched and wrote, I just itched to start my own knitting blog. But alas, I thought that perhaps starting the blog during this research would be counterproductive in two ways. (1) it would probably taint my research because I was working (and knitting) with multiple groups and (2) because it would add to the list of knitting-related distractions that was keeping me from finishing the thesis which, after all, was needed for me to, well, graduate.

Well I finally finished my thesis! And I finally graduated! AND I'm moving to New York next month which means that I'm going to be seeing less of all my amazing knitting friends. So now I get to start this knitting blog AND keep in touch with my knitting friends.

I think this is going to turn into more of a fiber arts blog than a knitting blog per se, because this summer I also learned to crochet, and I've become a little obsessed with that too. (Notice any trends here? At least I'm consistant...)