Knitty Love

4 Book Reviews! - Christian fiction, apocalyptic fiction, educational trade, and sci-fi :-P

2012-02-10T15:41:00.001-08:00

So obviously I find enjoyment in reading a number of genres. All 4 of these books were really good although some were better than others of course... If you want more information about these books or information on purchasing them, just click on the links to head over to Amazon :-)

In His Steps by Charles M. Sheldon (Book #8 of 2012):

This novel had a truly wonderful message that is important for any and every Christian to hear and to think about. The story involves a small church in a railroad town taking the pledge to only do things both in their personal lives and business lives once they think about what Jesus would do in their particular situations. One thing that the reader needs to be aware of from the get-go though is that this novel takes place in the late 1800s and the syntax/language as well as some of the cultural norms are extremely foreign to the modern reader. This is compounded by the fact that Charles Sheldon published this book back in the late 1800s as well!! Another caveat in the drive of this story is its hardcore attack of "the saloon" as it refers to any establishment that provides alcohol. Well, we all know what happened when Prohibition actually did occur about 2 decades later, rampant crime of all sorts to keep the continued production of alcohol under wraps. So, with hindsight, this aspect of the book just seemed a little ridiculous to me. Besides that though, the focus on getting one's hands dirty to help those who are less fortunate than you was truly powerful and it was heartbreaking to see the way so many of the upper class citizens saw the poor. I can only hope that our views on the less fortunate of today are FAR different from those held over a century ago. As long as the reader keeps in mind the downfalls of this novel, then it can be an eye-opening and enjoyable read :-)

Sleepers by Jacqueline Druga (Book #9 of 2012):

This book was absolutely amazing! Talk about a page-turner! Note: it is in the apocalyptic fiction genre for those who may not be fans, but even if you aren't, I'd still give it a try ;-) It also has a bit of a zombie-ish flair, but not in the usual manner and so is extremely fresh in that regard. I just loved this novel. I always love stories, whether they be TV-shows or books, that have a random assortment of people coming together as a tight-knit family. All of the main characters were so different, but all truly loved each other in the end. It's just really heartening to see how humans can pull together like this in terrible circumstances and how we don't have to be with blood relatives to feel like we're with family (reminds me of the 4th season of the O.C. lol). So the story begins with a sickness that hits every single child across the planet at the exact same moment and from there, things just get worse. This novel tells the story of the band of people mentioned above surviving in the worst of circumstances and coming to find that the truth is NOT AT ALL what they would have EVER imagined - talk about a plot twist!!! Just read it! - I REFUSE to give too much away ;-) I can't find evidence of a sequel, but I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for one!

In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms by Jacqueline Grennon Brooks & Martin G. Brooks (Book #10 of 2012):

To start out, I wanted to go ahead and say that this is a trade book for educators. If you have no interest in the theories of education then this might not be the most engaging book for you. Personally though, I found it absolutely fascinating!!! I agree with everything the authors were portraying as the best ways to educate students. You simply have to think about how people learn in their everyday lives to have it slap you in the face that traditional schooling methods are just flat out inconsistent with being a human! Not only does this book provide solid examples of constructivist methods, but it also provides a background that helps one understand the current trajectory of schools. I recommend this book to any future educator as well as any current educator who wants to experiment with the best ways to get students engaged and truly understanding the material being taught. Essentially, knowledge is something that we individually build in our minds as a complex framework with multiple interconnections based on our prior knowledge and how we simply view the world. Transmissionist techniques of teaching take none of this truth into account. The most striking idea that this book presented, at least for myself, was that the questions we think we are asking our students may not be the same questions that they actually hear. This is simply because they are children and we are adults and we cannot expect them to see the world through the same adult filter that we have, which is why using prior knowledge and the students' points of view is so incredibly important to getting them to truly connect with academic material.

Containment by Christian Cantrell (Book #11 of 2012):

This was simply an amazing sci-fi read with an exceptional plot line and plot twist! I loved the characters and the technology that they lived with on a daily basis. I found it fascinating to learn more and more about the intricate workings of the Venutian colony. So I guess I should explain. This story takes place on Venus where there is a space colony of the best and brightest who have been taught to solve the most difficult problems of mankind. I found this very similar to my current saturation with Constructivist teaching methods which in itself was super cool! In a sense, I did see the plot twist coming, but ultimately, it blew me away regardless. I found myself staying up until 3 o'clock this morning to find out what happened!! It's been a long time since I've stayed up that late. The only problem is that I WANT TO KNOW MORE!!! There has to be an upcoming sequel otherwise the reader is completely left at a loss as to what Arik's accomplishments and care for his friends and wife eventually led to. I am gripped and truly appreciate the imagination of this author. 5/5 stars for sure!!

Dollar General coffee is surprisingly...

2012-02-08T21:18:00.000-08:00

Dollar General coffee is surprisingly...

So I have a rule now, as a frugalista (if I may claim that as a word), that I will NOT buy an 11-12 ounce container of coffee if it costs more than $3. I have found that this is quite doable when combining coupons and sales, although recently, this has been a very very rare event sadly. Well, several months ago I purchased "Clover Valley Country Sunrise Blend," which is in fact the Dollar General brand of coffee. I bought it as a last resort in case the opportunities of purchasing Folger's and Maxwell at $3 or less a pop ran out. Let me interject here with the note that I drink about 3-6 tablespoons worth of brewed coffee a day...in other words, I need a good stockpile of the stuff!! Continuing with the story, I finally opened my container of Clover Valley a few days ago and, let me tell you, that first whiff was divine! The can has no description of the flavor of the coffee within, but I'll tell you right now that Clover Valley Country Sunrise Blend is a medium flavored coffee with a nutty flavor and strong hints of cocoa that awaken the senses! It smells soooo good and is delicious to boot. Never again will I doubt the dollar store brand of any product! Take it from me and try Clover Valley Country Sunrise Blend...whether you're on a budget (like me!!!)...or not...

What I'm Teaching in Sunday School :-)

2012-02-05T18:07:00.000-08:00

Good evening all!

So tonight I wanted to share with you what I'm currently teaching my middle school girls in Sunday School. I think it is such an important topic for all of us to learn more about and spend time on. I'm creating my lessons as I go through the book entitled, The Peacemaker: student edition - Handling conflict without fighting back or running away by Ken Sande and Kevin Johnson (click this link to head over to Amazon and read about this book in more detail!). This book is separated into what the authors call, "The four G's of peacemaking." We've already gone through the first G, which covers how peacemaking is the most appropriate way to glorify God when dealing with conflict. This section was a bit abstract for the girls and it was obvious that they were having a difficult time relating actual conflicts they may encounter with the fact that having perfect unity and promoting peace is the best way to reveal to others the reality of Christ's love for us. But the 2nd G is much more practical and gives straight forward strategies on how to approach peacemaking in daily life. I am super excited about this section and plan to make it as interactive as possible (the girls never sit still, and love to talk!). I created a worksheet for today's first method of peacemaking, which the authors call "Overlooking." In our discussion this morning, we decided that another term for overlooking, would be forgiving. My worksheet follows.

I started off with a review (above) of the more abstract concepts we had covered previously.

Then, I introduced the 2nd G (above) by getting the girls to analyze the passage from Matthew where Jesus tells us that we must take the plank out of our own eye before telling others about the speck in theirs. When I asked the girls what image came to their mind after hearing this passage, they all responded with wonderful spiritual answers. I was just looking for a literal image of a person with a giant stick coming out of his eye lol. They really are wonderful thinkers when they put their minds to it!

Finally, we began to cover the practical peacemaking method of overlooking (above).

For "homework," I asked the girls to come up with things that frustrate them about other people but that they could easily overlook/forgive if they made the effort. I told them not to consider things that were legitimately wrong, but instead, things people do, that if we did, and had excuses for, we would not want others to call us out on. In other words, God does not treat us harshly for every little mistake we make. In fact, He sent His Son to die for our sins on the cross so that all of our mistakes and sins would be forgiven!! Hopefully, next week I'll get some good lists from the girls of things that they can overlook, and we can dig deeper into how each of us (including myself) can better practically conquer the task of peacemaking!

Just a few notes on why I love this book. There are a number of great example stories in this book that are easy and fun to tell and brilliantly illustrate the concepts being presented. Additionally, all of the Bible verses referenced above are provided in the book. In other words, this is a Biblically centered book that provides practical ideas for living a Christ-like life.

I'll update next week on how it goes.

Btw, feel free to use any parts of my worksheet if you feel it would be useful :-)

An incredible blog that I TOTALLY recommend!!

2012-02-03T19:39:00.000-08:00

So I recently discovered an amazing blog (through one of the couponing blog's I frequent no less) that is marketed for leaders, but is surprisingly relevant to any and everyone that wishes to make their life more fulfilling and impactful. This is Michael Hyatt's blog, and he writes from a Christian perspective which makes the context all the better for myself. I absolutely recommend this blog for anyone who would appreciate occasional tips or jabs in the right direction for simply improving your life and the way you live it! Because I am officially enamored with Mr. Hyatt's posts, I will frequently be linking to them on this blog...so if you'd rather just rely on me to access some of his most helpful ideas for those who are not leaders of corporations or businesses (as I most certainly am not) then feel free to do so.

The most recent post I read of his that impacted me was from the last couple of days. So CLICK HERE to read about actions you can personally take to shift your emotional state...an EXTREMELY relevant topic for myself...and I'm sure many others...

"New literacies" and education

2012-02-03T17:09:00.000-08:00

I want to start off today by saying, "Yay!! I'm better." I only have a touch of residual neck pain, but feel substantially more like myself :-)

A New Literacies Sampler edited by Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear (Book #7 of 2012)

I was assigned a chapter from this book for one of my graduate level education courses and ended up reading the entire book! It was an incredibly interesting look into what the editors call "new literacies." Basically, "new literacies" covers all the ways that children currently act out reading and engaging in literacy. This includes blogs, video games, internet memes, fan-faction, and websites. As a future teacher, I found the topics covered in this book and their relations to the classroom utterly fascinating and it really got me thinking about ideas that I could eventually bring into my own science classroom. I think as a future part of this blog I'll do some brainstorming on ideas I have about teaching strategies/lesson plans. Obviously this is definitely the field for me :-)

I'll probably update more later...I just wanted to go ahead and get back into the groove.

February Broad Goals

2012-01-31T19:20:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess tomorrow is February...meaning...it's time for Goals List #2 :-)

1. Organize all Education material

2. Go through chest of drawers and dresser

3. Complete Defense Presentation...

4. Music

I figured I'd just go ahead and decide on and confirm the 4 big goals. I'll add the subgoals tomorrow night!

p.s. I'm still out of it :-(

Goal set back and intense pain...but keeping it positive!!!

2012-01-30T20:23:00.000-08:00

Well, it looks like I may not finish all of my January Goals after all. But, this will be by no fault of mine...I have shingles!! :-( (Crazy intense debilitating neck pain...) It's hard enough to move around and do normal things, much less take clothes on and off...and drive...,in other words, the last couple of remaining tasks (trying on about 10 items and taking about 3 bags of clothes to Plato's Closet) cannot be completed due to my current physical limitations.

Regardless, I'm still extremely happy about how things have gone this month :-D The closet itself looks fantastic and everything has actually been gone through! I'll post pictures of my newly organized, happiness-inducing closet tomorrow :-P

Now I have to think about what 4 big goals I want to set for February...

Well, it's really hard to concentrate b/c of the pain so I'm gone for now...but with a semblance of a smile on my face :-)

Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project + My January Goals

2012-01-28T12:48:00.000-08:00

So in an attempt to increase my happiness level, my mom gave me Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project" for Christmas a month ago. At first I thought the gesture was a sweet but misguided attempt at her trying to understand why I get lonely at times, what with being in grad school and living alone. But once I started this book and could not stop reading it, my life improved...lol.

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin (Book # 6 of 2012):
While this was an autobiography/self-help book focused on ways that the author herself worked to improve her own personal happiness over the course of a year, I found it to have an incredible amount of tips that were extremely useful in making my own days more fulfilling and satisfying. As I've mentioned before in this blog, my idea for the 4 goals per month, each separated into smaller goals, came from this book. And as any readers have seen, this has been an incredibly successful method for myself of getting things done. A few posts back, I also listed "Marie's Commandments," which was a concept inspired by this book. Inevitably, there will be numerous references to this book as I continue blogging. So all in all, while there were some aspects of her happiness journey that I didn't connect with, that was essentially the overall point of the book - that everyone is a unique individual who must find their own ways to reach happiness. And as a side note, this book is not spiritually or theoretically centered at all, but is much more practical and usable in anyone's happiness journey.

READ IT!!! :-)

JANUARY GOALS UPDATE!! - 3 of 4 DOWN!!
1. Go through my Christmas gifts - COMPLETE :-)
a. make a list of who gave me what - CHECK
b. put items where they go/in places where they will be used - CHECK
c. pull out thank you cards - CHECK
d. write thank you notes - CHECK
e. get addresses - CHECK
f. mail thank you notes - CHECK

2. Financials - COMPLETE :-)
a. find all random financial documents laying around - CHECK
b. stack documents in proper piles - CHECK
c. file away - CHECK
d. place tax pertinent documents in manila envelope - CHECK
e. pull out GrottoFae info and place in above manila envelope - CHECK
f. find last remaining receipt for GrottoFae, was it in Dec though? - No, so CHECK
g. call to make tax filing appointment - CHECK
h. update GrottoFae info - CHECK

3. Closet - maybe a couple more days work...
a. pull out all hanging clothes I have not worn in a year - (only a few more items to try on!!)
b. fold these clothes and place in bags with other give-aways - (I've done this for all the hanging clothes I've gone through)
c. go through non-clothes items on closet floor - CHECK
d. put these things away in proper locations - (still need to hang shadow box on the wall...)
e. go through clothing on closet floor - (bags with future t-shirt quilt materials, clothes I want to keep for my future children) - CHECK
f. try on above mentioned clothes and MAKE DECISIONS - CHECK
g. take all give aways to Plato's Closet -
h. put all items back in closet in an orderly fashion -

4. Memory Box - COMPLETE :-)
a. decide on categories for memory box - CHECK
b. decide on separation method (folders for paper memories and Ziplock bags for 3-d items) - CHECK
c. separate into piles (separated by school) - CHECK
d. file these piles into box - CHECK
e. along with b, I need to find a new box to put the post-college stuff in - CHECK

A Useful Budgeting Tool + January Goal Updates

2012-01-26T10:38:00.000-08:00

Check this out!
First off, I'd like to provide whoever may be reading this blog with an Excel workbook I created. This tool has been a tremendous help with budgeting. It's separated into 2 sheets. The 1st sheet is a breakdown by day (billing cycles for my credit cards provide the overall breakdown) of how much money I have spent in various categories including, for example, Grocery, Automotive, Medical, and Pets. The 2nd sheet keeps track of how much I have saved each month with 1 column for "Out of Pocket," 1 column for "Amount Saved," and a 3rd column for "% Saved." A totals cell below each billing cycle breakdown provides a total savings count for the entire month. CLICK HERE to download
Hopefully someone will find this useful!

I'm still going strong with my goals...
January Goals : 2/4 completed, 6 days left including today = SO DOABLE

1. Go through my Christmas gifts - COMPLETE :-)
a. make a list of who gave me what - CHECK
b. put items where they go/in places where they will be used - CHECK
c. pull out thank you cards - CHECK
d. write thank you notes - CHECK
e. get addresses - CHECK
f. mail thank you notes - CHECK (the envelopes look like stamp collages since I still had some 32 cent stamps :-P )

2. Financials
a. find all random financial documents laying around - CHECK
b. stack documents in proper piles - CHECK
c. file away - CHECK
d. place tax pertinent documents in manila envelope - CHECK
e. pull out GrottoFae info and place in above manila envelope - CHECK
f. find last remaining receipt for GrottoFae, was it in Dec though? - No, so CHECK
g. call to make tax filing appointment - CHECK
h. update GrottoFae info - (I realized my log doesn't include a number of entries so I'm gonna have to look on Etsy to finalize)

3. Closet
a. pull out all hanging clothes I have not worn in a year - (I think this'll just have to wait until I've gone through all of the other clothes)
b. fold these clothes and place in bags with other give-aways -
c. go through non-clothes items on closet floor - CHECK
d. put these things away in proper locations - (still need to hang shadow box on the wall...)
e. go through clothing on closet floor - (bags with future t-shirt quilt materials, clothes I want to keep for my future children)
f. try on above mentioned clothes and MAKE DECISIONS - I only have a very few more things to try on, so almost there!
g. take all give aways to Plato's Closet -
h. put all items back in closet in an orderly fashion -

4. Memory Box - COMPLETE :-)
a. decide on categories for memory box - CHECK
b. decide on separation method (folders for paper memories and Ziplock bags for 3-d items) - CHECK
c. separate into piles (separated by school) - CHECK
d. file these piles into box - CHECK
e. along with b, I need to find a new box to put the post-college stuff in - CHECK

Time for some reviews...

2012-01-23T14:16:00.000-08:00

So I've been holding on to these reviews for a few days now, but here they are...several movies and books.

Revenge of the Nerds (a movie):
So I've always heard that this movie was a classic and just never got the opportunity to see it. Well, it was available on Netflix Instant Play so I decided, "Why not?" While parts of the movie were a little crude for my taste and, I thought, gratuitous, the movie as a whole was definitely funny and ridiculous in a good way. I have to say though, if I was Betty, I'm not sure who I would trust! That poor poor girl :-( My favorite part was the general fact that the nerds ended up being sponsored by an all-black fraternal organization...definitely made for some hysterical moments. And the ending was wonderful, especially for all those of us who are self-proclaimed nerds out there. Definitely a classic :-)

The Sweetest Thing (a movie):
I caught this one on TV one day and the description said romcom so I couldn't help myself. It was in fact quite good and the interplay between the best friend main characters played by Christina Applegate and Cameron Diaz was just plain fun! Every girl wants an awesome friendship like the two of them had. I just enjoyed watching the way they were with each other more than anything...of course the love story was cute too...and super quirky in the end. Totally recommend this one.

Season of the Witch (a movie):
Watch the trailer but NOT the movie. It was stilted, contrived, and just plain awful!!

Blood Will Tell by Samantha Young (Book #4 of 2012):
Fantastic! This was a supernatural young adult novel without an obvious romantic side story which was a surprisingly refreshing change of pace. The story was focused on the difficulties the main character was undergoing in trying to figure out who she really is...and what she really is. It's the first book in a series, so I may run to the library at some point and see if they have the 2nd one (I got this one for free on my KindleFire). I really can't say enough good things about this book. It was a page turner. You're drawn into really caring about the characters. The mythological backdrop was intriguing. And the author just really has a way with putting you in the scenes. Loved it!

(Book #5 of 2012) - I have read 3 different short stories on my KindleFire that I've decided to combine together as book #5...they are:
-
Transfection by David Gaughran:
This short story has a very intriguing plot but, all in all, I thought the characters were vague and the story was told far too broadly. It spanned far too long a time period and the ending was extremely disappointing.
-
From Above by Jeremy Robinson:
I loved this one. It had great characters with very definite personalities and the story was quite imaginative. I liked the creativity and the depth to which the situational history of the story's backdrop was covered. Quite good.
-
Tuned in to Love by Karen Jerabek:
Short and sweet and lovely. This was a great little story about two people who unwittingly fall in love. It was strange how some of the scenes reminded me of a novel I wrote back in the 6th grade, but that's probably because every female wants to have a crazy electric, this is the man for me kind of feeling in their gut.

Where I am in my January Goals - doin' good!

2012-01-22T13:43:00.001-08:00

I'm so close to being done...at this rate, I may just finish before the month is over :-) The greatest thing about laying out goals in this way of having 4 big goals broken down into smaller goals is that as you discover new goals that need to be met to fulfill a larger goal, you can just add on to the list under the larger goal and it ultimately makes things look easier and more doable (as opposed to a long list of goals that would start to look unwieldy!!).

1. Go through my Christmas gifts
a. make a list of who gave me what - CHECK
b. put items where they go/in places where they will be used - CHECK
c. pull out thank you cards - CHECK
d. write thank you notes - CHECK
e. get addresses - (I might need to call my Mom to get some of these. My address book is a shambles right now and filled with way outdated info...maybe that's a future goal...)
f. mail thank you notes - (hopefully I can do this tomorrow)

2. Financials
a. find all random financial documents laying around - CHECK
b. stack documents in proper piles - CHECK
c. file away - CHECK
d. place tax pertinent documents in manila envelope - CHECK
e. pull out GrottoFae info and place in above manila envelope - CHECK
f. find last remaining receipt for GrottoFae, was it in Dec though? -
g. call to make tax filing appointment -

3. Closet
a. pull out all hanging clothes I have not worn in a year - (I'll double check this tonight)
b. fold these clothes and place in bags with other give-aways - (yeah, still haven't done this lol)
c. go through non-clothes items on closet floor - CHECK (I know what all's there...now proceed to step d)
d. put these things away in proper locations - (I need to hang one thing on the wall and figure out if I still want to keep the shoes I rediscovered...haha)
e. go through clothing on closet floor - (I've already separated everything into bags containing future t-shirt quilt materials, bags of clothes I want to keep for my future children, and bags of clothes that I need to try on and then decide what to do with)
f. try on above mentioned clothes and MAKE DECISIONS -
g. take all give aways to Plato's Closet -
h. put all items back in closet in an orderly fashion -

4. Memory Box - COMPLETE :-)
a. decide on categories for memory box - CHECK
b. decide on separation method (folders for paper memories and Ziplock bags for 3-d items) - CHECK
c. separate into piles (separated by school) - CHECK
d. file these piles into box - CHECK
e. along with b, I need to find a new box to put the post-college stuff in - CHECK (now where to put the box...)

Marie's 12 Commandments

2012-01-20T07:42:00.001-08:00

In Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project," she starts off her journey by coming up with "Gretchen's 12 Commandments," little things that she feels she needs to focus on to improve her outlook on the day and make her as a whole, happier.
Well, after reading over half of the book, my 12 commandments had yet to hit me and then one night several days ago, they all came in a flood. So now that I have "Marie's 12 Commandments," I'd like to share them in hopes that someone else may have a spontaneous mental explosion of little reminders to improve your happiness level :-)

Marie's 12 Commandments::
1. Be Marie
2. Enjoy what I enjoy...without shame!
3. Reply immediately
4. 2-min rule...Just Do It!! (If something will take less than 2 min to do...then go ahead and do it)
5. Communicate with friends and family
6. Be honest with myself / take responsibility
7. I am not defined by others!!
8. Show love
9. Talk to God
10. Shower!! (haha)
11. Use what I have...don't hoard things with expiration dates!
12. It's okay to go to sleep around 9pm :-)

So hopefully this list will inspire someone else to make their own list of things they need to be aware of in their life. Maybe some of these commandments will even ring true for you...

Gratitude, Goals, 2 books, 3 movies!

2012-01-16T18:05:00.000-08:00

So to start off my post tonight, I just wanted to mention a few things that I am thankful for. When I find myself getting down, it's helpful to remember the things in my life that are worth smiling about.
- I have a loving cat who is the sweetest creature a girl could live with :-)
- I'm grateful that I'm not ashamed to get excited about things...it makes watching my favorite movies and TV shows all the more enjoyable!
- And I absolutely love my church. It is an amazing place filled with amazing and loving people :-)

And now for my January Goals update - still going strong!

1. Go through my Christmas gifts
a. make a list of who gave me what - CHECK
b. put items where they go/in places where they will be used - CHECK
c. pull out thank you cards and addresses - (Sometimes, the simplest things are the most difficult things to actually get done...sigh)
d. write thank you notes

2. Financials
a. find all random financial documents laying around - CHECK
b. stack documents in proper piles - CHECK
c. file away - CHECK
d. place tax pertinent documents in manila envelope - CHECK
e. pull out GrottoFae info and place in above manila envelope

3. Closet
a. pull out all hanging clothes I have not worn in a year - (I think I've pulled out all of them, but I need to give it time to make sure I really do get all of them!)
b. fold these clothes and place in bags with other give-aways - (once again, the simplest things take forever...)
c. go through non-clothes items on closet floor - so close to being done! (I actually found a number of items that were supposed to go in my memory box!)
d. put these things away in proper locations - same here!
e. go through clothing on closet floor - ditto!
f. take all give aways to Plato's Closet

4. Memory Box - COMPLETE :-)
a. decide on categories for memory box - CHECK
b. decide on separation method (folders for paper memories and Ziplock bags for 3-d items) - CHECK
c. separate into piles (separated by school) - CHECK
d. file these piles into box - CHECK
e. along with b, I need to find a new box to put the post-college stuff in - CHECK (I decided on a beautiful wooden box I've had laying around for a while now. I purchased this box from The Hospitality Shop back at Sewanee which is basically like a thrift store of everything left behind by college students...a pretty cool place. The box has a beautiful Swedish heart pattern on the lid, which is perfect to honor my heritage :-)

Just to warn you, there's still more. Below are 3 movie reviews and 2 book reviews lol. I think I've been more productive than I realize since I've also been doing homework, prepping for Sunday School, and all of the above goals plus watching/reading the following :-P
I'll start with the books!

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey (Book #2 of 2012)
This was a fantastic story with characters that I truly cared about. I found myself walking from room to room of my house with my Kindle in hand not able to get my eyes off of the pages. To summarize, Jessica finds herself in a very interesting situation involving her surprising past and must learn to love or at least tolerate the new vampire in town. The ending is so intense and gorgeous. Beth Fantaskey is a truly incredible author as she takes you from a barn in Pennsylvania to a castle in Romania and you never question how bizarre the change is, especially since Jessica is undergoing the same crazy journey. I rate this a 5/5!

The Wedding of Antanasia Jessica Packwood and Lucius Valeriu Vladescu by Beth Fantaskey (Book #3 of 2012)
So this is a web-only novella sequel available on bethfantaskey.com. Yes, I did just give away some of the above book, but I promise (!) that nothing can take away from the suspense of the above novel. This novella was fabulous and I read through it in no time. There are a few pictures along with the chapters that show off the Romanian castle, Antanasia's wedding dress, and the wedding rings. I would LOVE to have her dress for whenever I get married...it was so incredibly gorgeous! Even though it is a web-only novella, the writing was just as profound and drawing as the above book...I once again loved it. I was additionally delighted to find out on her website that their is a full-length print sequel that just came out...I can't wait! Rated this one 5/5 too.

My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (a movie)
Frankly, I just wanted to watch a sweet mindless romcom to get my mind off of the fact that I am still oh so single. This movie did the trick. I have to say that the twist at the end absolutely blew me away! And a few tears were most definitely shed. The love story is adorable and Alyssa Milano was, of course, fantastic :-) You won't believe what happens...

Morning Glory (a movie)
This movie was simply a sweet comedy about a passionate and wired workaholic who makes a huge difference in an unlikely place. It was absolutely hysterical at times and the ending produced a moment of open-jawed smiling joy...I'm not exaggerating on this one. Harrison Ford once again plays an insufferable bitter man, but this time I couldn't help having a soft spot in my heart for him.

Hot Tub Time Machine (a movie)
Yes, I did in fact sit through this entire movie despite all of the terrible reviews and warnings against it. Just like Horrible Bosses, the first half was absolutely terrible, but the second half was substantially better. The humor finally become decently funny and the ending was definitely interesting. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this movie as the first half is just awful, but if you're forced to watch it, know that it does improve.

And that's it for today. I've got class at 8am and I'm getting sleepy so I think I'm gonna head on to bed...

3 New Movie Reviews :-)

2012-01-14T16:30:00.000-08:00

So since the last post, I've seen 3 movies. You'd think that all I do is sit around and watch movies but, I'm always multi-tasking regardless of what situation I'm in. So I've been super-productive as well :-) And grad school has started back up...full on education now...I love it :-)

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (a movie)
I should probably preface this by saying that I am a sci-fi junkie and a sucker for prequels. With that in mind, this movie was a slam dunk choice from the get go. I really have nothing negative to say about it after watching it either! This was an incredible lead up to how the planet got over-run with super intelligent apes. Completely objectively though, James Franco could have had a bit more emotion with everything that was going on. I'm with all the critics when I say that Caesar was by far the best actor in the movie!! I watched the last 20 minutes twice to double my adrenaline rush from seeing how it all starts (I've totally done the same x100 with the end of Star Wars Episode II). After a quick web search I found that there is in fact going to be a sequel!! YAYAYA...I canNOT stress my excitement enough :-D This is gonna be one good series...

Extraordinary Measures (a movie)
Hmmmm...honestly, I don't get why this was even made into a movie and Colin Farrell (John) seemed overwrought throughout the entire affair. Keri Russell (good 'ole Felicity :-) was definitely the better actor here. It had a happy ending of course which was great, but the way that that ending was achieved completely disregarded Harrison Ford's character (Dr. Stonehill). This film basically left me feeling cheated because to have been a really satisfying movie, it would've had to've unfolded much differently. Thankfully, the very last 5 seconds gave me a little bit of an uplift for Dr. Stonehill.

Dylan Dog (a movie)
So once again, this movie was a slam dunk choice from the beginning because I knew it would include vampires, zombies, and werewolves and I am a huge fan of the supernatural. Needless to say, I loved it. The feel of the whole movie was actually more like a TV show than a film and this was actually a pretty enjoyable approach to the story. I really hope that another movie comes out so that more stories can be told. It was funny, intense, alluring, suspenseful, and action-packed although I have to admit that the twist at the end was obvious for me from the very beginning. Also, the actor who plays Dylan Dog...whoo boy!!! gorgeous much!!!! The movie was almost worth it just to enjoy his gorgeous face :-P Besides that nice plus though, his sidekick Marcus was hysterical and the movie would have been incomplete without this character's constant banter and freak out moments. Totally recommended :-)

That's it for now!
Oh, and as a side note, the January Goals are still going really well...I'll update on that later.

Horrible Bosses and January Goals update!

2012-01-11T19:19:00.001-08:00

I may post again later, but I thought I would go ahead and post my review of Horrible Bosses, which I finished watching this morning, along with an update on my January goals.

Horrible Bosses (a movie) review:
Okay, so after the first 40 minutes my only thought was that this was the most ridiculous movie that I had ever seen. The jokes were not funny and the characters were far TOO over the top. I decided to give up and go to bed. But I have to admit, the last hour was actually not so bad (which I finished watching this morning before my first class of the day). The jokes finally became funny and everything jelled together for a decently acceptable ending. The funniest character had to be the dental hygenist with the helium-affected voice...especially when he was high on cocaine which was probably one of the funniest scenes in the movie. I don't think I would actually recommend this movie, but if you have to watch it, don't fight it...it does get better if you stick with it...

January Goals update...it's going SO WELL :-D

1. Go through my Christmas gifts
a. make a list of who gave me what - CHECK
b. put items where they go/in places where they will be used - CHECK
c. pull out thank you cards and addresses
d. write thank you notes

2. Financials - almost done!!!
a. find all random financial documents laying around - CHECK (and all put in one location)
b. stack documents in proper piles - CHECK
c. file away - CHECK
d. place tax pertinent documents in manila envelope - almost there, all together except GrottoFae info

3. Closet - I'll start this tonight!!
a. pull out all hanging clothes I have not worn in a year
b. fold these clothes and place in bags with other give aways
c. go through non-clothes items on closet floor
d. put these things away in proper locations
e. go through clothing on closet floor
f. take all give aways to Plato's Closet

4. Memory Box - almost complete!!!
a. decide on categories for memory box - CHECK (The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin really helped with this. I was organizing things by type of memory such as school work or art but she suggested by year. So I reorganized everything by elementary school, early middle, late middle, high school, college, and grad school which worked a LOT better. This book is amazing so far btw!!)
b. decide on separation method (boxes/bags/folders?) - CHECK (folders within the large purple Rubbermaid box) (I think that I'm going to have to separate out post-college memories into a new box b/c the current box is exploding! I'll update how this goes...)
c. separate into piles - CHECK
d. file these piles into box - CHECK
e. along with b, I need to find a new box to put the post-college stuff in

January Goals Update!!!

2012-01-08T19:15:00.001-08:00

The past few days have been incredibly productive and I am so happy. It's amazing how getting things organized can really lift your spirits and feelings of accomplishment.

So:
1. Go through my Christmas gifts
a. make a list of who gave me what - CHECK
b. put items where they go/in places where they will be used - CHECK
c. pull out thank you cards and addresses
d. write thank you notes

2. Financials
a. find all random financial documents laying around - CHECK (and all put in one location)
b. stack documents in proper piles
c. file away
d. place tax pertinent documents in manila envelope

I also caught a movie today on tv that was absolutely adorable so I figured I'd go ahead and review it:
Return to Me
This movie with David Duchovny and Minnie Driver is brilliant and so realistic. It's a romcom without extra slapstick comedy and filled with heart (literally). Ok...that was a bad joke (you'll understand when you see the movie). But still, I highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to spend some time with a lovely family filled with fun people of all ages and two actors with incredibly cute chemistry. The best part is...no sex scenes! Crazy how a romcom can suck you in like this one does when all the two romantic leads do is kiss...*sigh*.

January Goals

2012-01-06T09:25:00.000-08:00

This year I am planning on "goaling" my way through organizing my life.
For each month I will have 4 goals that can be broken down into even smaller goals to make accomplishing everything more doable.
I only have January planned so far but it's certainly a good start. There are a number of free goal accomplishing worksheets that I have come across in several couponing blogs I subscribe to. I will use them this month to see which one helps me break down my goals the best way for me personally.
So to begin! ...

January:
1. Go through my Christmas gifts
a. make a list of who gave me what - CHECK
b. put items where they go/in places where they will be used
c. write thank you notes

2. Financials
a. find all random financial documents laying around
b. stack documents in proper piles
c. file away
d. place tax pertinent documents in manila envelope

3. Closet
a. pull out all hanging clothes I have not worn in a year
b. fold these clothes and place in bags with other give aways
c. go through non-clothes items on closet floor
d. put these things away in proper locations
e. go through clothing on closet floor
f. take all give aways to Plato's Closet

4. Memory Box
a. decide on categories for memory box
b. decide on separation method (boxes/bags/folders?)
c. separate into piles
d. file these piles into box

I'm hoping that I can get through all of this in the next few weeks... It will help me go a long way to making sense of all my chaos :-)

Four Christmases and Solitary...

2012-01-05T09:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I finished a book and watched a movie while anxiously awaiting word from my advisor about the status of my thesis. Well, he had finished looking it over by 4pm and at the moment I'm just editing the little bits and will finally distribute it today!! Hallelujah...that took FOREVER :-O

So, anyway, here are my 2 reviews for the day:

Four Christmases (a movie)
Ok, so I love Vince Vaughn and I love quirky family comedies which made this the perfect movie for my tastes. The situational comedy was hilarious, especially the satellite dish installation scene and the craziness of Vince's brothers. And the movie ended on a sweet note which is always a plus. No mystery here. And for a romcom that's a good thing.

Solitary: The Solitary Tales Series by David Thatcher Book #1 for 2012
Hmmm. This was an entertaining book what with the mystery and intrigue throughout. I had a hard time putting it down at times and so that was pleasant. The only problem was that the ending was incredibly sad and the mystery was never fully explained. I was definitely left wanting more and am debating whether or not I want to read the next book to see if things are wrapped up at all. I'm worried though that the secrets will remain just that as part of this author's M.O.

Hopefully I'll get a chance later to post a picture of Creation #1 for 2012 - a pair of copper chain feather earrings! They are fabulous, if I do say so myself :-)

The New Year --- 2012!!

2012-01-03T17:06:00.000-08:00

It has been a long long time since I posted and I figure that it's time for something different. So this blog is now going to be my way of keeping my life organized and making every little thing that I experience last more than just a few minutes. This may include lists, book and movie reviews, as well as recipes and other such everyday things that make life interesting. To start:

The Ghost Writer (a movie):
I love Ewan McGregor. I have to admit that any movie the man is in I cannot help but at least like just because he is incredible. So I knew regardless of the actual movie's plot that I would in fact enjoy this movie. Well, the credit's are currently rolling and I have to say I'm still left a little confused. I'm not really sure what the ending was supposed to mean and think that this might be one of those films that you have to watch twice to understand exactly what was going on. It was a fabulous movie with interesting intrigue and character interactions but I don't think I was every really sure throughout what exactly was going on. Ultimately, i'll give it... 3/5 stars just b/c it was entertaining and Ewan McGregor of course was the main character...although as I already said...it, in the end, didn't really make any sense. Oh well, now I guess it's my job to scour IMDB for a plot synopsis...

FREEMAIL
Today I received in the mail a free sample of NeilMed Saline Sinus Solution and also downloaded a free audiobook of JI Packer's "Knowing God" which I have heard gushed about for years now. I'm excited to start listening to it soon. Several months ago I received a free NeilMed nettypot, so maybe if my sinuses get really bad I'll try it...seems to be all the rage, although luckily I have not had a need yet this season.

Well, if there's anymore to share, i will post again, but for now I'd just like to say have a fantastic 2012 everybody! Everyone deserves a good year :-)

Mommy's Cloth (Happy belated Mother's Day)

2010-06-01T22:54:00.000-07:00

She loved it!!! Yay :-) And unfortunately as I expected, she didn't want to use it as a dishcloth but wanted to frame it or something equally as absurd lol. I told her that if she kept not using my dishcloths as actual dishcloths that I was just going to make her a giant dishcloth afghan and she...loved the idea :-p haha, guess I should watch my mouth next time. The idea of knitting all those dishcloths makes me very happy but the idea of seaming up all those dishcloths is another story entirely!!

So about this particular project:
Mommy's Cloth
Lily Sugar n' Cream in Hot Blue
Size 3 needles - I discovered that using size 3 needles for dishcloths is just not fun at all. The knit ends up being so tight that the final product is really stiff and just not very dishclothesque :-( I vow never to use smaller than size 6 needles on dishcloths again!
Pattern was Mother's Day Cloth by Kris Knits such an awesome design!

Regardless of the stiff ickiness of the final project, mommy still liked it :-) Aren't mothers great??

UFO attack!!!

2010-06-01T22:43:00.001-07:00

So I just realized that I have 9 UFOs right now not including the 2 afghans I'm currently working on!! That's too many and needs to come down so I can crank out some FOs :-)
I've joined Lose the U:23 on the Monthly Adventures group of Ravelry so hopefully this will help!
UFOs =
1. Mama David’s Shawl (June 2008)
2. Super Scarf (Jan 2009)
3. Alpaca - I won a contest scarf (May 2008)
4. Grandaddy’s Computer Gloves (Jan 2010)
5. Baker’s Cloth (a recent addition, but also an overdue gift) (May 2010)
6. Christmas # 1 - Grandma’s Favorite Angel (Jan 2010)
7. Moonlight Mohair vest (March 2009)
8. Hearts for the ones I love (3 almost completed) (2009)
9. Divine Snowflake Sweater (Jan 2009)
In addition to getting at least some of the above completed I also still need to (holdovers from May to-do):
10. Post pic of My Snowbaby on Ravelry
11. Post pic of Elvish Leaves for Sisterly Love on Ravelry
12. Post pic of Diagonal Knit Dishcloth for Sisterly Love on Ravelry
13. Complete January Square for Gmother/Gdaddy Afghan
14. Post January Square pic on Ravelry

To-do list revision :-)

2010-05-29T18:58:00.001-07:00

So once I actually got my knitting mojo back I realized that my to-do list was ridiculous and that there were a bunch of things that I had forgotten about!
So in an attempt to actually get some things to go from UFO to FO, below is my revised to-do list for May - wait...isn't that just the next 2 days?? Ack!!
1. Finish Mommy's Cloth
Done :-)
2. Post Mommy's Cloth pic on Ravelry Done :-)
3. Sew up and stuff Rainbow Sparklies
Done :-)
4. Post Rainbow Sparklies pic on Ravelry Done :-)
5. Post pic of My Snowbaby on Ravelry
6. Post pic of Elvish Leaves for Sisterly Love on Ravelry
7. Post pic of Diagonal Knit Dishcloth for Sisterly Love on Ravelry
8. Complete January Square for Gmother/Gdaddy Afghan
9. Post January Square pic on Ravelry
10. Finish Baker's Cloth for Katy's wedding gift :-)
11. Mail off Baker's Cloth
12. Post Baker's Cloth pic on Ravelry

This should be very doable!!
Oh and Happy Memorial Day Weekend :-)

To-do lists are hard to follow!

2010-05-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

So, obviously I am terrible at staying on track with my knitting. School got so busy that I stopped knitting for about 3 months and finally got back into it a couple weeks ago. Of course instead of finishing up UFOs I had laying around, I decided to start more projects! I think I'm hopeless.
Well, to maybe keep myself on track this time I decided to once again make a list of the projects I would like to complete by the end of this month. Along with this goal, I am taking into account the many KAL Ravelry groups that I am a part of:
1. Twin Leaf Cloth as an afghan square for Sisterly Love (Weekly Christmas Ornament KAL)
2. February Square [haha] (2010 Block a month KAL)
3. Mother's Day Cloth
4. Baked With Love
5. Begin a Cascade Christmas Stocking (Christmas Monthly Make Ahead KAL)

If I can get through the above then maybe I'll finish up some UFOs I've got laying around...

Goals for 2/1 :-)

2010-02-01T21:19:00.001-08:00

So...my realistic goals for this week are:
1. Finish Elvish Leaves GTU afghan square
2. Sew up Rainbow Sparklies
3. Take photos of Rainbow Sparklies, GTU #3, and Flowery Snowbaby as FOs!!
4. maybe even finish up and mail off my friend's Super Scarf :-)
Commencing with the craziness!!!

Christmas wrap-up :-)

2010-01-08T23:11:00.000-08:00

I'm gonna go ahead and display the rest of the Christmas gifts I made this past year before I check out for the night and will hopefully get to do some organized planning tomorrow for future knitting ideas :-D

Mommy's Bama Teddy Bear
She loved it! I think now I'm gonna have to knit her a bear every Christmas lol! She wanted a bear that said, "Someone from BAMA loves me" so I decided to just make her one (from the kit she had purchased me a year ago for the express purpose of me making the bear for her - hee hee) rather than pay too much at the supply store. Turned out great and I can't wait to make her another teddy :-D

Mommy's Blue Hat
This hat was perfect for her small head :-P It's her favorite color which is great! And she wears it a lot so I'll take that as a really good complement :-) Funny back story with this project was that we were at Michael's and I loved the yarn. It had this hat's pattern on the ballband so I just asked her if she would buy me the yarn so I could make her the hat - it worked and now she has a beautiful final product and I got to work with some yummy yarn - Bernat Satin in the Denim colorway.

2010-01-02T01:20:00.000-08:00

So it's now closer to January 6 than December 6 ... really not good at that whole keeping up with posting thing. Ravelry gets me all distracted :-P
So below are the myriad of FO's I gave this past Christmas :-)

Christmas is a hoot! given out to friends and family as a quick and adorable ornament!

Daddy's Coozy given to my Dad who drinks an occasional glass bottle beer. I can't believe how magnificently it turned out. His nickname is W^3 as his first, middle, and last names all begin with W so I thought it would be the most perfect embellishment to just add the little raised 3 :-) It was my first go at duplicate stitch and I really like the result, as opposed to sorta embroidering the lettering on.

Leighton's Pickle given to my brother who loves pickles which I think are extremely gross haha :-P

Papa's Warm Hat given to my Papa who said he was cold all the time so I thought I would remedy that with this warm, bulky, Wool Ease Thick & Quick hat. Now I want one lol.

Well, I will add the rest soon...

2009-12-05T00:28:00.000-08:00

So, as a quick round up and as some motivation, I wanted to list my WIPs front and center (It's a long list). There are several things I want to start for Christmas so not sure if I should just put the WIPs off or what...will have to ponder.
1. Super Scarf (could be a xmas gift)
2. Mama David Shawl (just add fringe)
3. Snowflake Divine Sweater (for me - really do want to finish for xmas)
4. Moonlight Mohair Vest (for me - will probably finish quickly)
5. Indiecita Alpaca Scarf (would love to have this comfy dressy scarf for the upcoming cold weather...!)
6. Sisterly Love (ongoing project...not sure if it will ever be finished lol)
Tomorrow I'll round up the list of additional things I would like to knit for friends and family for Xmas... :-D

Also thought I would mention that my mom has her own ideas of what I should make for family this Christmas lol :-P
1. another Katrine Stripes Afghan (takes forever!!!)
make that, another one for each household (3)
2. another Spring Beret for my aunt (I've already made 2)
Funny how non-knitters don't understand that certain patterns call to you and you must make them and that knitting the same pattern over and over is only pleasurable if you so desire :-)

Hello there...

2009-11-29T00:22:00.000-08:00

I finally finished the Spring Beret I was making for my friend and it turned out really well :-D I can't wait to show pictures!! Instead of using a solid color yarn like I did the first time around (chocolate brown) I used a variegated light orange and cream yarn. I think the variegation actually worked quite well with the pattern.
Oh and Happy Belated Thanksgiving :-)

It's been far too long :-(

2009-03-17T22:30:00.000-07:00

So I'm back and with a completed couple of projects!!! yaya :-D
I finished the Spring Beret and 3 little hearts for my mom (blue), dad (dark red), and little bro (specked red) for Valentine's Day :-)

Mama David's shawl is finally complete except for the fringe and the Super Scarf is well on its way to only needing another Superman "S." The shawl is truly gorgeous, I really hope I can figure out a way to get it to my homestay Mama :-/

I also have just started a turtleneck Moonlight Mohair vest that is movin' fast! I'm hoping it will be done before i have to head back up to school at the end of the week (I'm on spring break).

Well, I've also finished 3 more books! I'll be reviewing them soon.

To everyone else who is on Spring Break I pray y'all have lovely ones and to those who are not, i pray ya'll have lovely weeks with the spirit of Spring Break :-P

Goals for the week and a brief book review

2009-02-03T22:56:00.000-08:00

I'm going to make a list of knitting goals for the week just to see how well I can follow through...
1. Finish current skein on Mama David's Shawl
2. Finish current skein on Indiecita Alpaca Scarf
3. Finish Spring Beret
4. Complete 2/3 of the Super Scarf
5. Finish another A Glittery Christmas

Shouldn't be too hard...lol.

So I have finally completed my first book for 2009, Dewey:The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron.
This is a really sweet book although awkward in spots. The story is sometimes just as much about the author/owner of Dewey as it is about Dewey. In other words, there are some extremely personal autobiographical elements about Vicki. It is an interesting story and quite fascinating that one cat could impact so many lives. The book kept saying that news reports all over the world would talk about Dewey and now I'm really interested in seeking out these reports ... I'll let ya'll know the fruits of my labor when I get around to looking. In conclusion, I do recommend this book but be prepared for some repetition and out of sync timelines as well as a heartwarming story.

:-D

A Glittery Christmas (a Christmas tree shaped ornament)

2009-01-27T14:27:00.001-08:00

A Glittery Christmas is the name I am giving to the Christmas tree shaped ornament I designed and gave out to friends and family this year as gifts.

The design is as follows:

A Glittery Christmas (a Christmas tree shaped ornament)

Materials:
Size 8 needles
Red/Green/White Christmas multi yarn (medium weight), even better with tinsel woven in

Finished Measurements: 3 3/4" tall x 2 1/2" wide (at widest)

kfb = knit in front and back to increase 1

Make slip knot w/ 6-7" hanging extra to tie later for loop to hang ornament on the tree.
CO 2 sts
Row 1 - k2
Row 2 - kfb, kfb (4)
Row 3 - k4
Row 4 - kfb, k2, kfb (6)
Row 5 - k6
Row 6 - kfb, k4, kfb (8)
Row 7 - k8
Row 8 - kfb, k6, kfb (10)
Row 9 - BO 3, k7 (7)
Row 10 - BO 3, k4 (4)
Repeat Rows 4 - 10
Repeat Rows 4-8
Row 23 - k10
Row 24 - kfb, k8, kfb (12)
Row 25 - BO 5, k7 (7)
Row 26 - BO 5, k2 (2)
Row 27 - k2
BO
Weave in bottom leftover yarn and tie top leftover yarn in a loop for hanging on the tree.
Sew a fun Christmasy button on to the tree for decoration :-)

Now you have a fun and sparkly ornament that takes absolutely no time to complete!!

Comp Results!!! :-D

2009-01-27T14:22:00.000-08:00

So, the last two weeks are finally over and I ended up passing my Comprehensive Exams with DISTINCTION!!!! Such an amazing feeling for all of my hard work to pay off in such an unexpected way :-D Apparently it's pretty normal for a person to feel like a complete and absolute moron after leaving oral exams. I was told I spoke a lot more intelligibly and articulately than I thought I was :-) Yayness for continuing on with the semester and life.

And now for more knitting...

ORAL COMPS!!!! :-D

2009-01-16T11:56:00.000-08:00

So I completed my comprehensive exams (a huge test encompassing my entire major-Ecology and Biodiversity) Wednesday night and found out today that I did well enough to try for Distinction!!!! This does mean I have to go through another round of testing, but this time it will be oral. Practicing talking about ecological concepts to other people will be great prepartion for my hopeful future of relaying conservation issues to "the public." I'm SOO super excited :-P

On a knitting note, I have relearned how to knit without looking and so have been reading my Geology textbook and knitting at the same time...this way, reading the textbook doesn't make me antsy!!

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

Katrine Stripes Afghan Done!!

2009-01-10T10:57:00.000-08:00

I have finished Mommy's Afghan (pictured above) and given it a real name since I created the pattern myself. It is called the Katrine Stripes Afghan and the pattern is as follows :-D

Katrine Stripes Afghan

Size - 4.5' x 6'

Materials
Size-19 29" circular needles
Tapestry needle
9" long piece of cardboard

Yarn
6 skeins Patons Divine Deep Earth
Bernat Soft Boucle
3 skeins Black
3 skeins Westport Shades
3 skeins Earth Shades

Gauge
I will update this tomorrow

Pattern
Holding all 4 strands together loosely cast on 58 stitches.
Knit 5 rows in garter stitch.
Then begin 2 row pattern repeat.
Row 1: K5, P10, K8, P5, K2, P5, K8, P10, K5
Row 2: P5, K10, P8, K5, P2, K5, P8, K10, P5
Continue 2 row pattern repeat until afghan measures 70" long.
Knit 5 rows in garter stitch.
Loosely bind off.

To make tassels (4):
Holding all 4 strands together, wrap around the 9" piece of cardboard 8 times.
Pull loops off of the cardboard
Cut 1 long separate strand and thread into the tapestry needle.
Thread through the top of the loops and wrap several times around all the loops about 1 1/2" from the top.
Thread strand through opposite side of loops so a strand sticks out on either side and attach to each of the four corners of the afghan.

This afghan is so warm, soft, and cozy!! I love it and my mom does too :-D
First FO of 2009!!!

Resolutions and Challenges

2009-01-06T12:34:00.000-08:00

So to begin the new year I have joined several challenges on Ravelry and have made some resolutions of my own both involving knitting and my general life. My non-knitting Ravelry challenge was to read 52 books in 52 weeks (a.k.a. 1 year). This should be a lot of fun as I have really been skimping on the for-fun books what with all the studying that being a college senior requires. Other Ravelry challenges include stash-busting and UFO-finishing in a variety of groups including Stash Knit Down 2009, Procraftination, Burnin' Up The Stash (BUTS), Finish or Frog and one for general knitting organization called The Organized Knitting Club. This all should be great fun and keep me on track with my knitting and keep knitting fresh and fun! I'm so excited about this upcoming year, I think it is going to be a fantastic one!
Personal resolutions include:
1. Buying no new yarn until a lot of what I already have is used up.
2. Working on as many projects as I want at a time to keep things interesting, BUT
3. I must finish 2 projects a month
4. Keep up with this blog :-)
Non-knitting:
1. Show up 15 minutes early to everything!!!
2. Don't procrastinate or fall behind with anything!!!
I guess the two above are everybody's wish :-P

So far I have begun making personal kits from the "Marie Yarn Store" which I will be calling my MYS in future posts. I have 19 "kits" already!!! TOO much yarn lol. Well, I still have more to go through but am so excited that my organization is already under way :-D

Oh and happy last day of Christmas!!!!

Pictures!!

2009-01-02T00:37:00.000-08:00

Here's a little update on what my current projects look like. Sorry for the super awful resolution, I used my computer camera (my real camera's up in TN).

This is the flower I knitted from the book I got for Christmas. It will eventually be sewn onto my blocked Wildflower Headband. Turned out pretty good huh? I love the dimension.

This is the sweater I cast on tonight, obviously it has a ways to go but I am soo excited that I will finally have a sweater I made that I will be able to just throw on and go with :-) The first 3 inches are ribbing, something I had yet to do, so I actually am finding it quite fun.

I have to say this shawl is probably one of the most tedious projects I have ever done. It just keeps going and going and growing and growing and never seems to end. It's fun to knit a few rows but definitely not an hours on end type project like Mommy's Afghan is despite its size (I gave the afghan a pattern). At least it's being knit out of Homespun yarn so I can look forward to how the yarn is going to appear differently in each row; Corinthian is actually quite an interesting colorway as it seemingly randomly changes from red/blue/gold to red/blue/green.

I love this yarn - 100% baby alpaca. It is so soft to the touch and for some reason my hands always feel moisturized after I work with it. The Indiecita pattern is enticing too with its raised texture. Not a pattern you can mindlessly knit though, the variations in knits and purls do require some attention.

Well, that's all for now and I will hopefully get some pics of the finished Goat, Wildflower Headband, and Brick Pullover shortly. Until then, Happy New Year and a Merry Christmas (5 days left)!!

Yarn Frenzy!!

2009-01-01T18:43:00.000-08:00

I officially went crazy over the past couple of days with yarn...but it was on sale and I only purchased those brands with the best deals. I was especially excited about Patons Divine and the now discontinued (!) yarn Patons Lacette. Using the Patons Divine, I have just begun the Divine Snowflake Sweater, a free pattern on their website, with Richest Rose as MC and Soft Earth as A.This yarn is the softest (18% mohair) most amazing yarn...I'm in love :-) For the Lacette, I purchased the hard to find pattern booklet "Patons Lacette Romance (knit)" which contains some of the most beautiful knits I have ever seen. I've never knit true lace or used lacey yarn so I am super excited about trying out the Lacette and at the same time super sad that it's discontinued :-( Both of these brands were 2/$3!! Much more has been purchased, but I will wait and comment on them until I begin those projects.

As for current projects, Mommy's Afghan is going beautifully and I have made some headway on the alpaca scarf. The afghan must be done by next Wednesday so I need to get a-workin' on it at the same time that I have to study for COMPs!!!
Here is the afghan so far: (isn't it soo pretty? - the blue flecks are just in one of the four yarns and yet they play such a large role in the overall palette which I find really interesting and lucky since blue is my Mom's favorite color...you wouldn't believe how SOFT and WARM it is :-) My Mom is definitely anxious for me to complete it :-P

Oh yeah, Happy New Year!!

Back with a new look

2008-12-29T15:44:00.000-08:00

Hello after a long hiatus. I've decided to restructure this blog to be about knitting, books, music, pets, and anything that strikes my fancy. I hope it will be enjoyed and that I will be able to keep up with it better.

So, first off, Merry Christmas! I hope it was wonderful for everybody. Mine was certainly fantastic but went by far too fast. I got some dishware and pots/pans for wherever I end up living after college graduation and everyone in my family got me something to do with knitting! I received 6 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun in Prairie a sort of greenish blue colorway, a Knifty Knitter Long Loom and 2 skeins of Bernat Berella "4" the Afghan Yarn in the Neutral Ombre colorway, The Cool Girl's Guide to Knitting by Nicki Trench, and a gift certificate to the upscale LYS. Sad thing was, I can't start any projects to do with the above until I finish some of the 6 projects I'm currently working on!
I have as of last night finished 3 of the projects including the Bernat Softee Baby Brick Pullover for my professor's baby, the Wildflower Headband of my own design, and the Goat for my brother.
The Brick Pullover came out wonderfully with the pattern definitely looking more complicated than it is and is soft and pretty without being too girly since it uses a purple solid colorway and the Rock-a-Bye Baby colorway which is a purple/blue/green multi. I recommend this pattern from the Bernat Softee Baby "Little Guys" Bonus Book to anyone who wants an easy but still interesting pattern for a child from 3 months to 4 years.
The Wildflower Headband used hand-spun and hand-dyed yarn from Rising Fawn Fibers Studio in Georgia. The yarn was a beautiful pink/white/purple multi. I've never worked with hand-spun yarn before and I have to say it is a treat, such a solid, thick, and smooth fiber that flies off your fingertips. The pattern was basically a 10-stitch wide super long rectangle with alternating wildflower stitches. I also knitted a flower from The Cool Girl's Guide to Knitting that I plan on sewing to one of the ends of the headband once I block it. The flower should add some dimension and extra interest once the headband is flattened.
The Goat was made with two beautiful naturally colored solid yarns that I'll have to get back to you on the brand name. It turned out a little wonky and sort of lopsided but my brother still said he thought it was adorable. This came from Knitted and Felted Toys by Zoe Halstead with the colors modified from the Ziggy Zebra pattern and the horns taken from the Maisie Moo pattern. I would definitely say that finishing a stuffed animal is not the easiest thing in the world.
Since I finished all 3 of these projects in two days man did I have a lot of finishing to do and I hope to never have that same circumstance again. I will upload pics of the above soon.

In the world of reading, I would sincerely like to recommend the novella "Shirley, Goodness, and Mercy" by Debbie Macomber. It is a heartwarming Christmas story that turned out to be a page-turner. Anyone who wants an easy holiday read should try it out!

More yarn!

2008-06-29T09:48:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't really done that much knitting in the past couple of weeks. But I have been in the process of knitting up the baby sweater. It's turning out really well so far - I love the brick pattern and the colors are adorable.
I came home to visit so was able to visit Michael's and will hopefully get to a couple of LYSes tomorrow :-) I bought some amazing new yarn on clearance - Patons Be Mine in Lovely Lilac and Sweetie Aqua which I will be using for the baby booties instead of the Bernat Baby Coordinates - it is SOOO much softer! I also purchased (not on clearance) 3 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun in Corinthian to knit up the triangle shawl pattern on the Lion Brand website for my Tanzanian homestay mama (The Corinthian colorway is absolutely gorgeous with reds and golds and blues!) and some Patons Allure in Aquamarine for knitting up a steering wheel cover from a pattern in "Stitch n' Bitch Nation."
I have too many "to be knitted" projects!!!! Ahhhggghh :-P
I'll be posting photos of the new yarn soon.

Versatile Knit :-D

2008-06-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

Turns out that the Garter Stitch Skinny Tie is perfect as a belt, tie, or headband - my favorite use so far is definitely the headband :-D

It's been 10 days?!

2008-06-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the super long wait. Going home to visit my Mom for her 50th birthday and then getting back in the swing of work this week, took up most of my time, although in the land of knitting I did get a lot done!
First of all, that special someone, if you haven't already guessed was my Mom for whom I knitted a beautiful handtowel of the Corner to Corner Striped pattern from the Lily Sugar'n Cream Kitchen Kolors booklet :-D I do not have the photo yet of the handtowel since it is currently on my Dad's camera, but will get it soon. I knitted the handtowel with Sugar'n Cream yarn of the colors Sunshine and Over the Rainbow for the outside diagonal corner parts and White for the diagonal middle -So pretty!!! and Soft!! I made a discovery: I LOVE COTTON YARN!!! I want to knit everything with cotton yarn now :-P

To follow up the handtowel I knitted a Mosaic Flower Dishcloth with Hot Blue and Sunshine from the same booklet and Sugar'n Cream yarn. This dishcloth looks so super cool and the pattern is ridiculously amazing - I keep thinking - how was it so easy to knit such a difficult looking thing - the wonders of knitting I guess.

I'm now in the process of knitting a gauge swatch for a baby sweater for one of my Professor's new baby! This'll be my first real sweater attempt so hopefully it'll turn out well! I'm using the Bernat Softee Baby Bonus Booklet for Little Guys, although I'm adjusting the colors since the baby is a girl. I'll be doing the Brick Pullover in Bernat Softee Baby Soft Mauve and Rock-a-bye Baby. Such a cute little pattern although I have to admit that I purchased this booklet mostly for the amazing Toy Dragon design - lol :-P So far I'm a little skeptical about the softness of this yarn knitted up for a baby, but if it says baby yarn, I guess it really is.

All else is on hold at this point, while I work on the baby's gifts - I'm looking at bootie patterns as well, for which I will use Soft Mauve in Bernat Baby Coordinates - the same yarn with some more bulk and some silvery shine.

Update

2008-06-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

So, I've begun the Indiecita Baby Alpaca Scarf and it is lovely! I love the look and feel of the yarn and I've never knit on such tiny needles - granted their only size 6 - amazing how much smaller they are than size 7s. I'm wondering what It'll be like to knit on even tinier needles, guess i'll see when I start socks huh?:-P Well, I've only gotten 5 rows done so far, so there's really nothing to show picture wise, but I will say that I'm very proud of my newfound ability to purl and knit variously on the same row, to think something as simple as just moving the yarn in front for purling and in back for knitting would have escaped me.

I'm also currently working on a gift for a particular someone, that I will say more about in a couple days, for now I'll just say that it's very practical and very colorful :-)

Also, once I complete the gift, I will be starting a pillow case pattern from an old library book to use up 1 of my 6 Red Heart Super Saver skeins that I bought when I thought that that yarn was perfectly good for a sweater - not so sure about using itchy acrylic for such a thing any more :-P

Pictures will be posted as soon as I have enough of a product to show, also I will have a picture of the goat since it will be finished this weekend!!

(I haven't forgotten about the Patons Rumor Moonstone Heather yarn...I am still planning on making the Waistclincher from Dixon's Not Your Mama's Knitting and handwarmers, although I'm looking through more handwarmer patterns to decide on my favorite.)

Pics of my Win! and goat update

2008-06-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

Hiya!
To the left is a picture of my wonderful prize yarn and other goodies :-) If you didn't notice, my photo editing skills suck -lol.
I'll be starting that scarf really soon now that I have room on my needles and since I finally figured out ribbing!!! It took me awhile to figure out when to put the yarn in front of and when behind the needles to produce a good rib, but I did some practice last night and it actually looked pretty nice.

As far as currently on the needles goes, all I have left of my brother's goat is seaming it up and stuffing it!! Yay, I'm going home to visit this weekend and hopefully it'll be done by then :-)
Well, I'll be booking it today as I look through patterns to figure out what I want to do next since I'm almost finished with the goat too. I've checked out a large number of library books that have some great patterns for really small things that are super cute + embellishments that I could just knit up and use later...i'll get to that full-size sweater eventually :-P

Tie is now an FO!!

2008-06-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

So, I have just finished the tie which actually posed quite a challenge in getting the stripes to look good - I wasn't that successful, but it still looks pretty nice. The colors are great but hard to match and I really did enjoy working with this yarn. It was all - pattern and yarn - in a kit I got for Christmas a few years ago called I believe Knit III. My roommate realized that it would make a pretty belt, since I already wear ties as belts and it looks really cute, I actually wore it today - it's so much fun to wear a hand-knitted project! All in all, a pretty cool FO :-)

I have a few other updates, but I need to leave those until tomorrow, cuz it's late...more tomorrow!

I won my first knitting blog contest!!

2008-05-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

Hello,
I'm so excited about having won my first knitting blog contest!! It was from Jane at quiddity.typepad.com whose blog you should definitely check out :-) The prize was some beautiful purple/blue 100% baby alpaca yarn - so soft - I can't wait to start knitting the pattern she sent along with it - the Indiecita Baby Alpaca Scarf. It should be a lovely knit - the pattern looks really pretty - and I haven't really done much pattern work yet (meaning stitches besides just purling straight, knitting straight, increasing, and decreasing) so I'm really excited!! I also received a lovely notebook with an adorable sheep on the cover and a fridge list magnet with the same motif. :-D Thanks Jane!!
I have a lot of updating to do, but will have to wait until tomorrow to do so, I also have several pics to post :-) I will say that I have completed all the pieces for the goat except for one horn!! Yay- now just a lot of seaming :-P
p.s. My days have been crazy since I've been getting up at 5am every morning to go out and do field work tromping around in the woods :-P

I BROKE A NEEDLE :-(

2008-05-23T06:08:00.000-07:00

I've been using the pretty plastic colored needles - forgot the brand name, and one of them just broke!!! Thankfully I have another set of 9s with me, but I don't have a duplicate of every size needle :-( Better be more careful next time!! Ahhhhhhhhh!!

Plans for the next few days :-D

2008-05-23T05:44:00.001-07:00

Since I have finished my super cute shrug with the amazing Patons Rumor yarn, I would like to continue knitting with Patons Rumor! I'm planning on knitting the Waist Clincher from Dixon's Not Your Mama's Knitting and the Picot-Edge Gauntlets from Knit.101 with this same yarn because I ended up having so much left over, although I might still have to buy one more skein, not a big deal - I probably currently have about 120+ yards left and the two patterns require <50 and <160.
I'm also back on the goat train, trying to finish it up so when I go down to visit my bro I can give it to him. It's actually more fun :-D than I remember to knit with the particular yarn I'm using, update later on what it is, I don't have the label with me.
I haven't worked on the tie in awhile. I'll get started again eventually :-/.

It's funny how much of a high finishing a project that looks good really is :-P

2008-05-22T15:17:00.000-07:00

SO CUTE!!!

Updates coming on my next plans :-)

Finished with shrug :-D

2008-05-21T07:50:00.000-07:00

I finished the cap-sleeved shrug (Barbi) from Dixon's Not Your Mama's Knitting. I used Patons Rumor in Moonstone Heather and it turned out so cute!! It's so cool that I chose a yarn I liked much better than that in the pattern and intuitively knew to knit it on a size smaller needle than the pattern asked for, resulting in a perfect guage - yes I did do a swatch. I'm super excited because I loved the process of knitting this pattern and it turned out so quickly, it's actually only 36 rows. I was afraid it wouldn't fit, but it in fact fits quite nicely. I will be posting a photo before the days up :-) Of course there are the few beginnner's errors, but for my first "sweater," I think it's pretty darn good. Also, the needle lenght thing ended up not being a problem, It's incredible how many stitches you can comfortably fit on a regular length needle - this was up to 121. I'm super excited about starting a new project now - I have no idea what I'm going to do, but I do need to get back to finishing up my brother's goat :-)
Also, I'm back at school for the summer to start working on my Pileated Woodpecker research and I'm quite excited about having the evenings for knitting and reading :-)

Needles

2008-05-17T13:47:00.000-07:00

I need longer needles!! My current project is growing as I add new loops (on purpose) to every other row and I'm running out of needle space...oh no!! Hopefully it'll all fit on the regular length needles I'm currently using, if not I guess I'll just have to wait until I can find some long ones. I didn't realize how invaluable longer needles really are...oh well :-P Just felt like expressing my laughable beginner woes :-)

I'm Back :-D

2008-05-16T02:06:00.000-07:00

So, I finally realized that it wasn't just my being sick for the past 3 weeks (I've been well for 1 now...yay!) that caused my decrease in knitting activity, but that I was bored with the project I was working on - the green and blue tie - probably because there was nothing new and interesting about it...no cool new stitches or techniques to learn (although it is my first attempt at striping - not the most fun technique to me). Well, I started over on the Barbi cap-sleeved shrug from Heather Dixon's Not Your Mama's Knitting and looked at four different books to figure out how to do the kfb or knit front and back or bar increase or increase in an existing stich (the reason why I had stopped this project originally)...why does this stitch have so many friggin' names?!? It was so rewarding when I finally figured out how to do the stitch and to find that it is such an easy stitch! - great instructions found in Jennifer Worick's Getting Started Knitting! I love the Patons Rumor yarn that I'm using it's so soft and has such fun colors - I can't wait to see the end result, but the actual knitting process is a lot of fun at this point as well since I'm practicing some new stitches/techniques now :-D Here's a little pic of me happily holding the beginnings of my first "sweater." Yay for new-found knitting happiness :-P

Ravelry

2008-05-10T13:14:00.001-07:00

Hello, I haven't posted in a week because I've been feeling a little under the weather and haven't really been knitting much. But, I would like to update the fact that I'm now on Ravelry! My username is KnittyKittyLove. I'm so excited about having a place to enter my stash and search for projects other people have done using that yarn!! Should be fun - now I'm just trying to find time to do exactly that :-) Hopefully I'll have a knitting update soon! Oh and Happy Mother's Day - bad KnittyKitty for not making anything for your Mom :-P

LYS gone!

2008-04-29T22:32:00.000-07:00

So I went to the nearest LYS to my house today and lo and behold it was their last day of business! Huge bummer because now to get fancy yarns I can't find at Michael's, i'll have to go all the way to the richer side of town. A nice enough place, but I don't always feel like I fit in over there. Plus, I really liked the LYS closer to home, it was quainter and had super-friendly southern people working there. I was hoping to start taking a knitting class there as well. Guess not anymore, but that's okay because I bought some more books to help me with the stitches I can't figure out. One was "Teach Yourself Visually Knitting" which has photographs and detailed instructions for every different method of increasing and decreasing...yay!! Also, the yarn was on sale for 70% off so I bought a ridiculous amount! I'm planning on knitting a vest from some NY red, green, and yellow Fiesta yarn and a couple of pairs of mittens with Scenic yarn pink and orange as well as lots of dishcloths of varying colors from some beautiful Sugar N' Cream yarn. I had a great time shopping beyond what I can currently afford, but of course you can always convince yourself that it's okay because it was a Sale!!...oh well:-P I went to Target afterwards to pick up some metal cubicles to finally make myself a yarn shelf (Pictured above)...yaya!! I've been wanting one ever since I started accumulating yarn like crazy.

Left is a picture of how I'm coming with the Skinny Tie, I think it's looking pretty good for its being my first attempt at striping! :-D I've completed 6 out of 17 stripes so far...it feels good to be completing projects again.

I'm home!

2008-04-28T23:20:00.000-07:00

So, I'm now back from Tanzania and am once again ready to get knitting. I did do some knitting while overseas, but it was a shawl of my own design and is not even worthy to be displayed in a photo it turned out so badly :-( It was intended for my host Mama. I will make her another shawl though, following a pattern, and send it to her by mail. Hopefully it'll get there! Mail when it comes to packages is super iffy between Tanzania and the US. Another issue with knitting in Tanzania was the utter lack of yarn stores! I knew of one, but it was so out of the way that I never got to check it out and from what I could tell by the different yarns that my host Mama bought, they were just one color very simple acrylics. Nothing fancy at all. So it is nice and dangerous money-wise to be back in the world of beautiful yarn!! Something I fell prey to a couple days ago when I went to Michael's and purchased 3 skeins of Patons Rumor in Moonstone Heather (pictured right), an incredibly 80's looking pattern a.k.a. super cute and colorful! I'm planning on making the Barbi cropped sweater from Heather Dixon's Not Your Mama's Knitting - the gauge worked out perfectly!! Excitement :-P The only problem with this pattern is that I'm having serious issues on the whole knitting into the front and then back of the stitch or kfb thing, which is why I'm heading over to the local yarn store tomorrow to figure it all out. Also, as I have just returned from this semi-hiatus from knitting I have jumped into the world of way too many UFOs. I'm still working on that goat for my little bro (I have what is completed of it so far pictured below) and I just started a skinny tie (from a kit my mom got me for Christmas some time ago) with thick green stripes and thin blue stripes (super cute colors) and I'm still working on my green and blue blanket of various swatches for GTU (although this project is also a learning process in stitch patterns). Also, I unraveled the scarf for my dad cuz it was just way too girly looking and I don't think he even wears scarves anyway (I'm gonna have to rethink the whole making my dad something thing). With the yarn I was going to use to make his scarf, I'm planning on knitting the Cable Access purse also from HD's NYM's Kntg, although I'm having issues there too, once again reason for my venture to the yarn store tomorrow. I hope all this confusion works itself out and I can start knitting away again on all kinds of new projects. I do still have the simple project of my cross necklace to begin (amazing bamboo yarn is involved!). So current actually begun projects = 4 and Soon to begin projects = 2. I better finish one soon so I'm not too overloaded :-P (That goats been around for awhile!)

p.s. Tanzania is an amazing country!!

I forgot to show off the Moose pin :-P

2008-01-28T00:32:00.001-08:00

My Mom's Two Gifts

2008-01-27T21:25:00.000-08:00

I had this sorta-tacky red, green, and white with silver metallic Christmas yarn

and wasn't so sure what to do with it, so I decided Christmas coasters for my Mom might be the best idea. I have so much yarn left over, I should start thinking on what else to make from it (maybe Christmas placemats?), since the coasters did turn out well and my Mom liked them :-P These pictures don't really show the metallic bits in the yarn very well, but they are pretty obvious on the coasters, kinda neat.

She then wanted a scarf so I took her to Michael's to pick out a yarn she liked. The first one she chose was way funky and thin and would only make a good summery-type scarf (and I don't even know if I'm ready to work with that type of crazy yarn yet) so I made her keep looking and she ended up finding this amazing Lion Brand Homespun yarn

that is super soft and warm and thick. Also, it is a beautiful blue, her favorite color, with some nice greens mixed in. The scarf ended up looking ridged because I doubled up the yarn following a pattern on the back of the yarn label itself. She wears it a lot too which is definitely rewarding :-)

The Beginning of Knitty Love

2008-01-25T21:53:00.000-08:00

Hello, this is my first post and I'm very excited about starting a knitting blog. I actually only learned how to knit last month, but surprise! I'm now an avid knitter. :-D

So, I wanted to go ahead and post my second FO ever which is the Three-Way Tassel Hat from Knitting for Dummies. My biggest modification was in the cuff where I just let the backwards stockinette stitch roll up instead of trying to tame it straight and flip it up. This resulted in a rolled up cuff displaying garter stitch and it works great by being quite easy to pull over my ears. I used 2 skeins of Patons SWS (Soy Wool Stripes) in Natural Blue. This yarn was really frustrating at first but I have since realized that that's just because the first few rows are always frustrating. The finished product is super soft

and adorable. I can wear it as either a double-pointed hat or as a dog-eared hat. I prefer dog-eared, but I'm

sure a child would love keeping this hat double-pointed. It's such a fun item.

The picture uploading is going much slower than I thought it would, so I think I'll have to wait until tomorrow to post a close-up of the adorable brown moose pin!

Thanks for listening and happy knitting!

p.s. I'll be posting my other so-far FOs within the week.