Passover Break

starts today! (Well, for me it started yesterday because I don't have class on Fridays.) My law school is at Yeshiva University, so we get Passover off. It's also kind of our spring break. Passover is really late this year, so I'm pretty focused on outlining for my exams.

Nevertheless, there is always some time for creativity! I'm finally finishing up my Krista tee from two years ago. I worked on it obsessively the last time I was home in Sydney, and it's been sitting there waiting for me to weave in the ends, block it, put it together, and crochet the edging for the past two years. So yesterday, during my study breaks, I wove in all of the ends and blocked three out of four pieces - quite a feat for me!

<3

I love making things. It's like my comfort food. My chocolate cake. (OK, well maybe that's taking it a little too far, but you get my point.)

And that is why I spent my Friday night making myself a necklace. It's the same one that I made for Angela and Hilary, but in olive green. Back in the day when I used to sell jewelry, I always made quite a few pieces for myself. So while I have some new ideas up my sleeve, the first few things will probably be for yours truly. Besides, I use them as measuring devices. (Who needs rulers anyway?) It's just the same as using an old sweater to take measurements for a new one when knitting.

I used Japanese Delica beads that I got with my mom at an expo in Australia a few years ago. As a rule, Japanese seed beads are more uniform than Czech seed beads, and that is why I mostly bead with them these days. But these Delica beads, though freakin' expensive, are the most near-perfectly uniform beads I have ever used. I love love love them!

Olive green has always been a comforting color for me. I know that that is really silly, but it's true! When I was a little kid (like, three years old) my mom put me in a pottery class. The teacher's only complaint about me was that I refused to paint anything any color other than olive green. I can only imagine how strange it would have been to see me come home with a clay sculpture of a bowl of Cheerios, painted olive green. That I, at three, had chosen that color, is pretty bizarre.
Don't worry, I haven't forgotten my UFOs. I've been working on Sam's mystery item, but I think I don't have enough yarn, so I went back to the place where I got it last weekend to see if they could get that dye lot in, and I still haven't heard back from them. (So I should probably follow up on that.) If they can't get it in, I will probably have to incorporate stripes of some sort.

I swear, this is totally not cheating, but I am counting long overdue gifts that I haven't exactly started yet as UFOs. Hence my dad's fiftieth birthday sweater come-post-fiftieth birthday scarf. I am using Misti Alpaca, which is amazingly soft. I looooooooooove it. I using the pattern I mentioned before. It looks pretty cool and it's not as tedious as seed stitch. My only minor annoyance is that it isn't quite symmetrical. On both sides, it starts with garter then knit, and ends with purl then garter. Even though I am a very messy, cluttered person who loves olive green, asymmetry to this magnitude annoys me. But I'm not starting over. And I still love the scarf so far. I just hope my dad isn't allergic to alpaca!

CONGRATULATIONS KATHLEEN AND JUSTIN

on your engagement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!







In other news, this UFO thing isn't working out too well. I'm onto the sewing stage of my sweater, but that's it. Perhaps the month that I got sick, went on vacation, and started studying for the LSATs like it's my job wasn't the best month to do this. I hate to give up on this so lightly, but I don't want to be a downer...soooooooo onto the next thing. Christmas! Hanukka! Dad's birthday! I don't think my dad reads this blog, but I'd like to think that some of my friends do! So a lot of the next few months will be revealed after the presents are given.

That is all. Off to do some reading comp. Wish me luck.

Update

I've been sick. I took two days off last week and on top of all that I got an infection from my wisdom tooth. Apparently, that's kind of common six weeks after the fact. I've also been studying for the LSATS (again). I have been working on a certain UFO though - my sock! I had ample time to do this when I was sick, and it lasted me quite a few episodes of Law and Order. Much of this time (I'd say at least four hours) was spent untangling. Who knew sock yarn was so tangly?!!

My challenge isn't going great, but there is still a long time in October to finish those UFOs.

Today is October 1st

and I'm getting sick. I had a tiny sore throat this weekend, and it got a lot worse today.

However, I still got to finish my first October UFO. This should have taken about 10 minutes, but in true Adina fashion, I messed it up first. I had already knit the last row of k2tog, but for some strange reason (I'm blaming it on my sore throat), I knit an extra and then a row of k2tog again. Luckily, it was still easily fixable. I have a habit of making every hat I make for myself a little bit too small, and this one is no exception. However, I think it is still wearable, and I have a nice blue fall!
In other news, the knitting night at Kathleen's was lots of fun. Kathleen always seems to outdo herself, and I never cease to be amazed at her knitting progress. She finished her first mitten, and now has one mitten and one sock (a true knitter - good thing it's UFO month!)
I took a picture of the baby blanket she is knitting, before remembering that the mother-to-be hasn't seen the blanket yet, so I won't put the picture up until the baby is born.

Meanwhile, Joanna taught herself to cable,Kathleen taught Amna how to knit continental,
Sara reunited with a pair of knitting needles and learned how to cast on,

and I worked on my first sock (which is now, technically, another UFO while I finish my other UFOs).
We ate a delicious gourmet meal cooked by Kathleen's boyfriend, Justin, and had yummy cookies that Kathleen had baked. The next time we knit together will be in New Orleans when we visit Jen. Or, more likely, on the plane.

Tomorrow is October 1st

and I spent the weekend moving. Not myself, Sam. (OK, not the whole weekend, we also went to a draw-a-thon and Octoberfest at the Bohenian Beer Garden.) Now Sam has an awesome apartment of his own, but we had no internet. I have yet to write about the awesome knitting night at Kathleen's last Thursday, but I have some great pictures, which will be up here in a day or so. For now, I'd just like to list my goals for UFO month. I'll just go through the inventory...

1. Giant multicolored handbag. I don't see this one happening until I get a sewing machine, so I think this one will stay on hold.

2. Blue hat. Finish it! (Even if it does turn out to be too short.)

3. Black headband. Finish it!

4. Luxe gauntlets. Finish them!

5. Soccer Mom Sweater. Finish it!

6. Crocheted sweater. This one might get finished eventually, but I don't think it is reasonable to expect to finish it in the next month.

7. Lu Mei's hat. I'm going to attempt to felt this one. (I.e. finish it!)

8. Mom's giant purse. I don't think I will be able to finish this one right now, but eventually I would like to make the pattern up as I go along...

9. Green gloves. Finish them!

10. Going out with a bag. Finish it!

11. Yellow and blue bag. Redo the lining. (I.e. refinish it!)

True Confessions

So I took that inventory. And I'm embarrassed to say that many of my UFOs are featured in this very blog:

1. Giant multicolored handbag. I think the last time I wrote about it was, um last week.

2. Blue hat.I was almost finished with it at Cafe Lalo in June. I don't even have any knitting left - I am at the strictly tapestry needle phase. Why did I never finish? I think this one is two short and I kind of didn't want to face that.

3. Black headband. This is a product of my knitting-for-profit phase (in June), which is currently on hold. I based it on the Interweave pattern I used to make two lace headbands of my own. This one has a tiny bit of lace around the edges, but my intention was to knit or crochet a flower or two to sew on. So I have to learn how to that first. Oh, and I have yet to weave in the ends.

4. Luxe gauntlets. I thought I had enough yarn to bind off, but apparently I did not. I didn't have the patience to un-bind off, un-knit, tie on more yarn, knit, and bind off. So I took some of the needles to work on the black headband. And then the one needle came off on its own. I can't remember when I started this project, but it too has been a UFO since June.

5. Soccer Mom Sweater. This pattern is really simple - a good second sweater. If this makes me a (childless) 23-year-old soccer mom, so be it. I just have to finish the last sleeve and sew it all together. (This project appears to by my only "normal" UFO.) I started this one last fall and it has definitely been hiatus since late 2006.

6. Crocheted sweater. I've been working on it since August of last year and I haven't touched it since September. The reason? I misread the pattern, which is fine - the thing just looks different than it's supposed to look - but now each stitch is a little bit off, and this "Seamless Sweater" has a (slight) diagonal seam down the back.

7. Lu Mei's hat. Last year, I promised my friend, Lu Mei, that I would crochet her a hat. Well, I couldn't figure out how to check crochet gauge, so I thought I'd just wing it. Not so smart. It turned out way too big, and I think think only way to salvage this one would be to felt it - which is something I've never done before. I haven't touched the thing since last September.

8. Mom's giant purse. When it comes to purse size, my mother rivals any New Yorker. When I started the research for my college thesis, I bought yarn from a lot of different yarn stores so that I would be able to get a feel for the stores and the people. At one store, I bought some giant yarn and started knitting what I hoped would be my first felted object, a handbag for my mom, from a free pattern which I promptly lost. About six months later (after I graduated), I contacted the store to ask for the pattern. They were really nice about it and they emailed me a pattern. Unfortunately, it was the wrong one. Maybe I should just wing this one. In any case, this bag has been a UFO since around February of 2006.

8. Green gloves. These were knit on two needles. I didn't finish them because the pattern (which I no longer have) instructed to "darn" the sides together. I didn't know what darning meant. Hence, I never finished them. That was two years ago.

9. Going Out with a Bag. This is the one I've been bitching out since the nascence of this blog. Still not finished. Still gotta learn to sew in zippers. I have the zipper. Right now, I can't even find the thing, so I can't take a picture of it. I was going to make this for my sister's nineteenth birthday. My sister is now 21, and still no bag.

10. Yellow and blue bag. Two and a half years ago, this one was based roughly off of Stitch 'n Bitch Nation's Poster Boy, but I didn't put the boy on it. Technically, it is not a UFO. It was finished at one point. But I made the lining too small and out of fabric that was too light for my heavy school books. I still use it, but the lining is in desperate need of replacement.

Rules

I am making it my own personal challenge to finish as many UFOs as I can during the month of October. To anyone who wants to join me in my quest, here are some simple rules.

1. Take an inventory of your UFOs. Some things will be worth finishing, some things will worth ripping out.
2. Choose the objects you are going to finish during this very productive month. Note how much work each object will need and, just for kicks, how long each object has been a UFO.
3. Be prepared! Stock up on any yarns, finishings, etc. that you will need to finish the project.
4. Start finishing!

I will keep track of my progress here.

Another New Project!

This is the problem with UFOs. There is always a new project. Always just one, five, or ten more before we finish that thing we made last fall. It would be out of the question to ask a knitter to spend a whole month working on nothing but UFOs.

So I think it is perfectly reasonable to start this. You can make squares and send them in to be sewn into afghans, or you can team up with a group and make the whole thing. Joanna gave us the idea for this one, and she, Kathleen, Jen, and I are all very excited. (The four of us are making one together.) At the rate these girls are knitting, we'll be done in no time! It will give us opportunities to experiment with new stitches and techniques, and to use some of our leftover yarn. I think that during October, it would be reasonable for me to work on this, at least sometimes, when I'm busy but just need something to do with my hands.

My friends rock. So I'm going to do this! There is posting of rules to come, but I need to think of the rules first! Everyone's UFOs are different. For a start, just how unfinished these objects are varies greatly. And the numbers of UFOs people have vary greatly. I know better than to even suggest to a knitter to finish everything. Besides, I don't think I could do that myself! There are some things I don't think I'll ever finish, and things on which I've given up (but not taken out) after I've barely started. Any ideas for rules are welcome here!

And in other news....

I went hiking at Breakneck Ridge with Sam and Cecily for the second time yesterday. This time, we were also joined by Adam. It was awesome! The last train was at 8:57 and I almost didn't wake up for it, but I'm so glad I went. Last time, we accidentally took an easier trail, but this time there was a lot of steep rock climbing. The views were picture perfect and the climbing made me feel amazing. (The company was pretty cool too.)

If I were a famous knitting blogger...

Come on, we all know they exist. I don't dream big but I do dream. [Enter ironic chuckle or deadpan stare.] Well, if I had my own knitting empire, I would declare October the month of the UFO. I have several items I am so close to finishing but have not finished because of various reasons (I'm not the biggest fan of weaving in ends, I don't know how to sew in zippers, I can't find one of my needles, I'm worried that when I finish I'll have to submit myself to knowing that the dimensions are wrong...) But I would set up a challenge for people to finish as many unfinished objects as they could throughout the month of October. That would, of course, give me the motivation to do so myself. But alas, I am not a famous knitting blogger. I have until the end of September to decide if I want to give myself that challenge, or if it would be just another boring, dead-end task.

At the knitting night at Kathleen's, two weeks ago, I had no idea what to knit. I brought a book with me, as well as ample yarn and needles. It seems that, for various annoying reasons, I was unable to knit the things that I had been working toward. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Grey sweater started last year: couldn't find one of the needles!
2. Dad's sweater: couldn't find (either of) my knit1 magazines, one of which contains the pattern
3. new projects from new knitting books, such as "Sexy Little Knits": When I bought yarn for one of these patterns online, it turned out to be more or less useless (more like thread with parts hanging off of it) than yarn - not at all useful for the patterns.
4. sweater I started crocheting last year: couldn't find the crochet hook - besides, wanted to knit for this group, at least for right now
5. gauntlets I'm almost done with: started binding off and almost made it but found i didn't have quite enough yarn to finish (very annoying!) took some of the needles for another project and now they're somewhere in my apartment.

From this list, two things are apparent:
1. I need to clean/organize my apartment
2. I need to actually buy the yarn for the patterns in the books I buy - the patterns won't knit themselves!

So, when I went to Kathleen's I just through I bunch of yarn and a book in my bag.

When I got there, I decided to knit with some recycled silk my mom had gotten me when she visited me in Philadelphia. I casted on a number of stitches based on a pattern from speed knitting, but decided that the yarn would work better if it was not bumpy. Besides, straight knitting and purling makes socializing easier. But I decided that I would knit one long piece and flip it over and sew it up so that it would look like the "messenger bag" with a flap over it.

I worked on this bag at Kathleen's and the next time I picked it up was at Joanna's. But then on Friday I got my wisdom teeth out and since then have had very limited mobility. Sam knew I was getting better when, on Sunday, I asked him to help me find my knitting!

So I knit a lot on Sunday. I realized that I probably wouldn't use a messenger bag much, since my wallet along could barely fit in one (living in New York does that to you) and making an extremely long one would probably look very weird. But my work could be salvaged! I would use what I had done so far as the first of several panels, which I would sew together and line with something strong and durable and make a purse. I'm very excited about this and, as usual, running away with my imagination - I'm even thinking of finally getting a sewing machine (something I've been wanting for years anyway).

So far, I've just finished the two main side panels. Here is a picture of what it looked like yesterday, when I just had one and a half of the panels:So this brings me to knitting at Central Park, which is how I spent some of my Labor Day. So much fun! Yesterday, I finally went outside for the first time since the wisdom teeth. Sam took me to get some frozen yogurt. The five minute walk there and back made me feel so much better. I knew what I was lacking: sunshine! I knew for a fact that Jen and the girls were knitting in Central Park, so I decided to join them. Knitting is so therapeutic! I was kind of whacked out on pain killers and a possible overdose of antibiotics (I still don't know how many doses I took yesterday) but it was, nevertheless, lots of fun. I am definitely going to host the new knitting night at my place the week after next.