Podium!

I did it! I finished Jay's sweater just in the nick of time! The knitting was finished much more quickly than I had expected. But then I had all those ends to weave in. And all that sewing. If I ever do this pattern again, I'll definitely do some different bind-offs. And maybe a provisional cast-on for the hood to make it easier to pick up and knit the ribbing. But I'm still not experienced enough to be able to see the shapes (and, therefore, the appropriate bind-offs) while my projects are still in progress. Some day I will, but not yet!

So the weaving in of ends and the sewing took a week. I finished with just 15 minutes to spare. I hadn't even finished weaving in the ends (from sewing). And here it is:

And best of all, here are my medals:

Posted a week late, but still posted!!

Let the Games Begin! (and let the blog resume)

I didn't blog at all in 2013. That year was kind of crazy. I learned that I passed the bar, I got a job that I truly love, and I got married!

But now that things have been in place for a while, I've been knitting a lot, and I've been thinking about knitting a lot. The college thesis that I finished writing almost eight years ago is still on my mind, and twenty-two year old me would be fascinated with a) the knitting world as I call it, and b) the knitting skills that I have learned over the years, and the skills that I want to improve. So my blog is still a good place to write down my thoughts about knitting.

And no better place to start than the Ravellenic Games! I remember 2006 when almost all of my knitting groups were swept up in what Yarn Harlot termed the Knitting Olympics. The idea was to pick a project and try to finish it, casting on at the opening ceremony of the Olympics and trying to finish by the end of the closing ceremony. I was fascinated that members of the various knitting groups I attended were so into the project. I really wanted to participate, but I was too busy with school. Over the next six years, there was always something keeping me from participating in the Knitting Olympics. I can't remember what happened in 2008, but I think I may have been visiting my family in Australia, but in 2010 and 2012, it was definitely law school. After Ravelry started, people started calling this thing this thing a cross between Ravelry and the Olympics, but then Ravelry apparently got a cease and desist letter. So now it's called the Ravellenic Games. (Get it? Like the Hellenic Games?) Now there are events to enter, and sub-events, and team captains. It's so organized! So I decided to be team captain for my knitting group! We had cast on last night (and I must admit, I was exhausted after a crazy week at work, and I wasn't at my knitting best - drifting into naps during the second half of the opening ceremony until I finally gave into my sleepiness and went home a little early). But I started the Sporty Cardigan, a little hoodie for my baby nephew. Already it seems that finishing by the end of the 16 days may or may not happen, but I really want to give this to him before he turns 1 (especially since I'm making the 12-month size) and at the very least, this will definitely give me a good kick start. I'm so excited to finally be an Olympic knitter!!

Dreaming of...having a life!

For some reason, I am drawn to blog today. I can't believe how fast the time is going!

I graduated law school and now my full time job is...studying for the bar! Less than one month to go!!! And then off to my little sister's wedding in Sydney, Australia!

All of my favorite things (things! Not people!) have been completely abandoned at this point. I can't wait to get my hands on my knitting needles - that queue that's been waiting for me for so long! I can't wait to start up my etsy shop again! And I can't wait to read a good book that's not full of law! Maybe when this is all over, I'll finally train myself for that marathon (or half marathon!) that I've always wanted to run. Oh, and get a bike before the first snow falls.

oh hello there

I seem to have dropped off the face of the blogosphere - although I did not drop off the face of the planet! My world just got so crazy that I completely neglected my blog.

Right after my last entry, Sam and I went on a whirlwind vacation. We drove to Atlantic City with a friends, and from there, Sam and I went to Washington D.C. for one night. Then we went to the Shenandoah Valley to go hiking. It was amazing! We saw bears and snakes and all kinds of wildlife. And it was so beautiful! There was a tour guide, but since Sam and I were the only people who signed up for the tour, we got to go on the hike of our choice. The only downside was that I didn't remember to wear my knee brace, so by the end, I was in quite a lot of pain. But the pain went away after a few days (thankfully it wasn't tendinitis again!) and it was totally worth it.

Then there was fall semester. I liked all my classes a lot, but I didn't have time to come up for air because I was taking five classes (including a clinic) also doing an internship.

And then winter break. Sam and I celebrated our five year anniversary (how time flies!) and then a few days later...we got engaged!! So now I get to plan a wedding, and you can bet there will be lots of crafts involved. I want to knit my own chuppah and maybe bead some bracelets for myself and my bridesmaids. So this will be the era of the weddings, because my little sister is getting married this year, and I'm going to have the honor of making her bridesmaids bracelets too (including one for myself, of course!)

A few days later, I came down with a stomach bug. It was the first stomach bug I've had in my 27 years on this earth. And it was not pleasant. I started to feel better just in time for our New Years party...and then I got a terrible cold. Just in time for my school's intensive trial advocacy program. When they call the program intense, they're not kidding. But it was an amazing program with lawyers and judges from all over the country and I learned so many trial skills. I got to put on two "trials," which was really fun.

So the program ended on Tuesday, and then school started again on Wednesday. I can't believe it's my last semester of law school!

Summer Goals

I should have posted my summer goals at the beginning of the summer. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you might know that, at least when I'm not immersed in the life of a law student, I'm usually working towards goals in four different arenas - knitting, beading, hiking, and running. So here is an update on how these different things are going for me.

Beading: Right on track! I completed an EBW Challenge piece that I'm really proud of. I listed two pieces that were on the back burner forever. I experimented with shapes, like I wanted to. I have two pieces that are almost ready to list and another piece that's about half finished right now. Now that I have a brand new camera, these pieces will be displayed here and on my Etsy site very soon. I also made a new piece for myself, and as a bonus, Sam found a piece I'd made for myself years ago under the radiator!

Knitting: I kind of told myself that I would finish one sweater this summer. Unfortunately, it looks like that is not going to happen. I've been working on my double v cardigan, but after I messed up and had to unknit for many rows. This was really boring and caused me to avoid the project for a while. So I'm still on the first piece - the back piece - though I'm almost done with it. I'd have to really struggle to finish by the end of the summer, and really, that's not a challenge I feel like undertaking right now. But I'll keep working on it, because it's true that I can't wait to wear it!

Oh, and also, my crocheting is on hold. That one stitch I was doing got very tedious. Hopefully I will get the patience to pick that blanket up again soon.

Hiking: This is a hobby that's never really materialized as much as I would have liked. I did some backpacking in high school, which I absolutely loved, but since then, I haven't hiked very much at all. Sam and I went a couple of times before I started law school, but especially since we live in the city, hiking is an all-day adventure for us, and I simply haven't had time to go on an organized trip. It's true that I had an internship this summer and had weekends off, but law school doesn't really end when the semester is over - there are still things law students need to be working on over the summer (like, you know, finding a job). BUT Sam and I are going hiking in Virginia for two days in about a week and a half! I'm super excited about it!

Running: This was a lost cause this summer. After years of knee pain, I found out a couple of years ago that I had tendinitis and cartilage damage. I can still run, but I have to build up my quads first. This past year and this summer, I was pretty bad about going to the gym. So for now, I have to work on my quads before I can even start running again.

My internship is over now (which is sad, because I really loved it) but I don't quite feel like I'm on vacation. I do have some things that need to get done ASAP. Still, I have two more weeks to work on my goals. But they're really only loose goals - I have enough stress in my life already and I'm not going to let my hobbies add to that stress!

Wednesday: An evening of lines. (Or queues, as we call them in Australia)

I got a new camera! And it works!! After work on Wednesday, Sam and I went to B&H. That place is both insane and awesome. Once I decided what to get, I got a printout of the camera. Then we had to wait in three different lines before we actually received the thing. But for such a crowded place, it was so efficient! I was impressed.

Then, we went to a show on the lower east side. Sam's friend's band was playing for. They were having a BBQ on the roof, so we got tickets and waited. And waited. We were in that line for an hour, and we only saw the band's last two songs! Somehow, though, we made the most of it. Waiting there for our hamburgers and hot dogs was pretty comical. And I haven't been out on a weeknight in forever! Years, probably. This isn't something I can do all the time, especially now that I'm in law school, but mixing it up like that can be really fun every once in a while.

I still have to charge the batteries in my new camera, but pictures WILL be coming to this blog! I promise!

Ice Skating

Things have been pretty hectic around here lately, and they're not going to get less hectic any time soon. There are so many things I have to do that are related to being a law student - even during the summer. So my crafting has slowed down a lot over the past couple of weeks.

Today, though, I'm putting everything on hold to go ice skating! You see, I was a little late jumping on the Groupon bandwagon. When I started paying attention to Groupon, I bought several Groupons all in a row - Groupons to things I've always wanted to do but never had the time, and Groupons to places I haven't been in a really long time. This Groupon to Chelsea Piers Ice Skating is going to expire, and this is the last weekend we can use it. It's kind of nice to have that as an excuse to do something different from my normal routine. I figure skated for a while when I was younger, and I always love to go ice skating - I just never seem to find the time. So now I am making the time!

A lifeline would have been nice...

As was pointed out to me last night at my knitting group, a "lifeline" really could have saved me a huge headache. For those of you who don't live, eat, sleep, and breathe knitting, a "lifeline" is a piece of yarn threaded into live stitches of knitting (stitches that are currently on knitting needles) that can be easily removed. If you make a mistake and you've given yourself a lifeline, you can rip out the stitches up to the lifeline, and the lifeline will keep the stitches in place so you can just put the needles back, instead of painstakingly unknitting for hours, as I have been doing for the past few weeks. I always remember to use lifelines when it's too late. That's how most of my lace projects have ended or been indefinitely postponed. I'm determined not to let all this unknitting stand in the way of my current project, Double V Cardigan, but it sure is making the process a whole lot slower!

my life in the blogosphere

As I think I may have made clear on this blog recently, during the summer, I have a lot more time for my "other" life. Don't get me wrong, I'm interning (at a place I LOVE) and doing other law-related things, but I do have some time to work on crafts and my blog.

So I've been really diligent about Entrecard recently. For those of you who don't know what Entrecard is, it's a site where people find other people's blogs, read them, and then drop an entrecard, which is the new-aged version of an old fashioned calling card (or a business card, perhaps), on the blog's entrecard widget. You get one entrecard credit ("ec") each time you drop on someone else's widget. Then, when you accumulate enough ec's, you can "purchase" an ad on a blog of your choice. The "price" of the ad depends on how popular the blog is with advertisers. So that pretty much sums up Entrecard, right?

I'm really loving "my" Entrecard blogs - I love that I'm keeping up with people all over the world in their various pursuits - art, life, politics, nature...the list goes on! It really is a community! A chapter of my college thesis was about online communities (online knitting communities, to be exact), and since then, I've always been fascinated with online communities.

Facebook is another matter. I may be fascinated with the anthropological aspects of online communities, but I'm still 27! I was in college when Facebook was invented, so it has definitely become a part of my everyday life. It's made me so lazy, because when I like a post on Facebook, I just click "like." But you can't really do that on people's blogs. Sometimes I just want to write "I like this," but then I don't have anything specific to say, other than a general affirmation of the post, so I don't say anything at all. I've got to work on that!

And speaking of blogs, Sam is going to start a new blog! It's going to be a movie review blog, but the movies are going to be movies that are hard to find. (I thought he should call it "Not on Netflix," but he has a different name for it - which now escapes me.) He formed this whole idea months ago. He made a list of movies that are not on Netflix and gave it to his whole family, including me. Then his mom found a movie rental place that is able to order in a lot of the movies on his list, so he took everything that the place carries off of the list for the family. All he wants for his birthday, etc. are movies from the list. So that's what I got him for his birthday on Tuesday! I selected movies from the O-R section of the list, and bought VHS tapes and DVDs from EBay. Now, Sam has watched so many of these movies, he only has to start the blog! (If he had actually started it, I would totally have linked to it, but for now, this post just has to be a teaser.)

the good news and the bad news

I'll start with the bad news.

I called Olympus today. Their tech support has been very helpful (I've also emailed them a couple of times), and apparently, my brand new camera that I've never even used needs repairs and it will cost up to half as much as I paid for the camera to repair it. So I think this is a sunk cost. I have to buy a new camera - my shop can't exist without one.

The good news is that TWO Etsy purchases arrived today. (Maybe if I laid off the Etsy purchases, I could actually afford a new camera!) But these two were well worth it. They're BOTH more beautiful in person than in their photos, but unfortunately, I have no camera with which to take their pictures. But here are the pictures from their Etsy listings.

The first is this pair of earrings by TotusMel. These earrings are my perfect shape, size, and color! And they're so fun/funky and delicate looking at the same time!
The second is this amazing top by iheartfink. I can just tell, it's one of those articles of clothing I will wear every day and only take off (a) to wash, or (b) so that I don't look weird for wearing the same thing every single day - which I have been known to do (just ask my mom!)
Oh, and they look amazing together too!