Knit vs. Crochet

Goodbye to an old friend.

2011-01-24T20:05:00.004-05:00

This past weekend we had to put down Cindy, our cat of 15+ years. She was the first (and only) pet our family ever had.

I know that only children are supposed to cry when the family pet dies, but I've loved that cat since I was 12 years old. She was with us through 4 moves, high school, college, medical school. When I came home, she was part of what "home" meant...a furry, orange, often-grumpy constant.

She was an outdoor cat through and through. She was a bit of a menace to the birds in her younger years, and more recently she would follow my parents around the neighborhood for their evening walks. When they stopped in at neighbors' for a chat, she'd wait outside for them, then rejoin them on the walk when they emerged. She was grumpy, but she knew who her peoples were.

I remember about 6 years ago, when I was living in NYC after undergrad, sitting in a knitting shop on 14th st when I got a phone call from my mother. (Unexpected, since we've never been big for phone conversations.) Her news was that Cindy was sick, and they didn't know why...she was unable to eat or drink anything without vomiting for a few days, and they'd taken her to multiple vets without any answers. They were thinking about exploratory surgery, or endoscopy, or putting her down (always on the list of options with non-humans, of course). I burst into tears (incidentally, my first and only public cry in NY) and said I'd write the $1200 check for the endoscopy. It turned out she had just eaten a piece of grass that somehow lodged itself in her nasopharynx, causing irritation that was preventing her from eating. It was such a relief that it was nothing serious. My parents, with perverse humor, saved the offending (expensive) piece of grass for me to see when I came home next.

Damn expensive cat.

This time, though, was different. She lost her vision, stopped being really mobile. The vet said there wasn't much to be done. It was so quick, her decline...just a few weeks.

It was so strange, and surreal, to see her lying in the little white cardboard coffin. I know people say that the dead look like they are sleeping, but I haven't found that to be true in much of my experience (as a pathology resident, I've had a lot). But for her, whether it was the way she was lying, or my own emotional attachment, she for all the world looked curled up for a nap.

And as sentimental and irrational and..stupid...as the thought is, it just kills me, the idea that our sweet, warm, furry, purring, sleeping cat is in the cold ground, never to be warm again. I'm having trouble with my goodbye.

Residency: The Excitement

2009-10-06T20:57:00.002-04:00

While the title of this post was meant to evoke the adrenaline-pumping thrill of a summer blockbuster, I have to admit that the thrills of residency have been of a much more...erm...humbling and exhausting variety. Nonetheless, there have been highlights:

-learning that very little in medical school prepared me to make diagnoses on slides.
-despite the above, getting more cases right than wrong...for the most part

-discovering that even though you're not in a clinical specialty for residency, that you can still hit 75 hours on surg path
-...but your clinical colleagues will still express shock and surprise at seeing you in the hospital at either 7AM or 7PM
-...even though you're pretty much there at those times every day

-having one of "my" thoracic cases on the national news
-...and, prompted by the above case, hearing a story from your attending about the time he had to scope a resident to remove a chunk of Dorito lodged in her bronchus
-...not eating a dorito since

-finding out that we have $7 to spend at the cafeteria for dinner on call. the downside to this is that...A) your dinner is from the hospital caf B) you're staying late enough that you need to eat dinner at the hospital

-husband finding a stray kitten on his jobsite, making our household one where cats outnumber people, and that much closer to crazy-cat-people-dom.

-seeing my platelets through an electron microscope (as a control)--just today, actually!

I'm not sure what my point is...maybe that, despite the often-long hours and sense that the pile of information I need to know is unconquerably enormous, that it's somehow still wonderful...to be doing, finally, and enjoying, the work of my chosen career--rather than playing at different roles as a student, wondering if they'll fit, as I have all my life.

Actually getting paid something for my slave labor is nice too.

Watermelon time!

2009-06-25T17:21:00.008-04:00

In this last week before residency starts, I've been trying to eke out every drop of lazy-summer goodness out of my days, and have been enlisting the help of watermelon to do so...what better summer fruit? You can't bring a watermelon to work as you would an apple...it just screams out "party on the back deck!"
So, in tribute to my watermelon kick, I present to you two watermelon...err, creations:

Frozen Watermelon Mojito
I bought a bottle of Bacardi Grand Melon and kept making watermelon mojitos with it (like anyone with mint in their garden, I need lots of ways to use up the rampaging beast of a plant) I noticed in my online recipe browsing that there were some frozen watermelon cocktails, so...here we are. Freshly squeezed limes, muddled mint, simple syrup, and a mix of frozen and unfrozen watermelon chunks. Add rum if desired.

My first-ever completed cross stitch, incorporating both the goodness of watermelon and the juvenile-ness of, well, me. I stitched the watermelons while listening to A) seemingly endless online orientation training powerpoint clips and B) WNYC's radiolab podcast. I have to say, overall I think I'll still stick to knitting, as it's something I can do without taking my eyes off the TV screen, but cross stitch does have the benefit of being much more compact (great for tucking into one's bag for interminable flight delays that happen pretty much all the time now.)
Did I just blog about the benefits of knitting vs. cross-stitch?
What on EARTH am I doing to do with myself when I'm ACTUALLY 80 years old?

Birth-month wrap-up

2009-06-05T09:14:00.013-04:00

Recently I've noticed a trend of my friends jokingly referring to the month that their birthday falls into as their birth-month, and celebrating accordingly. My birthday falls in early May, and I realize (now that it's June) that it was perhaps the BEST. BIRTH. MONTH. EVER. (Since the one, I suppose, during which I was actually born.)

To start the month, I went on a 10-day trip to Italy by myself--the first time in Italy (my first time in Europe, truth be told) and the first time traveling overseas alone. As a "petite" (read: scrawny) female, I approached the idea of traveling solo with a little nervousness mixed in with my excitement, but I figured--hey, I've lived in Shanghai, Chicago, and NYC--I can handle a little jaunt to a Western country where they're used to tourists and practically everyone in the cities speaks a little english. I packed light and visited the tourist circuit of Milan, Venice, Florence, and Rome.

It was, without a doubt, the nicest thing I've ever done for myself.

I spent time (in near-equal portions) running like crazy through all the tourist highlights (the Piazza San Marco, Michelangelo's David, the Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum...the list of famous stuff goes on) and relaxing with a glass of wine/scoop of gelato and doing nothing. Being alone was beautiful--if I wanted to sit and admire The Birth of Venus for half an hour, I could. If I wanted to zip through the myriad treasures of the Vatican Museums intoning "boring, boring" in my head, I could. The downside was not to be able to share all the beauty, humor, and deliciousness with my SO, who I heartlessly ditched at home.

From the top: Rigatoni alla' amatriciana at Osteria da Nerone right by the Collosseum. Salute in Venice, Giro d'Italia banner in foreground. Trevi Fountain in Rome by night. Sunset over the Arno in Florence

Almost immediately after I returned from my trip, I graduated from medical school--an affair that took up a long weekend and involved several hours of wearing a hot, stuffy, poorly-dry-cleaned rental gown and a ridiculous hat. Nonetheless, it was exciting and gratifying to finally get that diploma--after all these years of hard work, sleep deprivation, and stress--I'm now Sara, M.D.! (Dr. Sara, if you prefer.) Not that the hard work, sleep deprivation, and stress will be ending with the diploma by any means...

Then, to cap off BEST.BIRTH.MONTH.EVER. I went off with my fiance and select portions of both our families down to St. Lucia and got married. Our wedding went off without a hitch, both families seemed to have a good time, and then we sent them home and had a fantastic honeymoon. We did a little scuba diving, flipped a catamaran, and climbed a 2,600 ft mountain (though really we only climbed 2,000 ft of it, as the climb started at 600 ft above sea level). And I ate foie gras twice. Basically, the perfect way to end 7+ years of living in (delightful) sin and start a legally-sanctioned cohabitation together.

From the top: Gros piton (which we climbed) as seen from the beach at Jalousie. Wedding shot. Marigot Bay at sunset. The Pitons.

ABCs

2009-03-16T18:20:00.004-04:00

...and I don't mean Airway Breathing Circulation.
Tired of thinking about important things like where I will be next year, financial solvency with 6 figures of student loan debt, and the practice of humanistic medicine in a non-patient-care-oriented specialty.
Time for some narcissism!

A - Age: 25

B - Bed size: Queen

C - Chore you hate: Cleaning the bathroom. I wish those cute-yet-oh-so-tough-on-grime cartoon scrubbing bubbles would actually appear out of the can to make my life easier.

D - Day of the Week: It's a tie between Friday and Saturday--Friday for the anticipation, Saturday for the sleeping in.

E - Essential start to your day item: COFFEE. And not that mop-water they like to make at gas stations in the south.

F - Favorite actor(s): I more have favorite movies than favorite actors, but a few...Ed Norton, Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Tony Leung, Faye Wong

G - Gold or Silver: Depends on the outfit.

H - Height: 5'5" on a good day. They tried to tell me I was 5' 4 and a quarter last time I was at the doc's, but I refuse to let them take that 3/4" from me!!!

I - Instruments you play(ed): Piano

J - Job title: Medical Student (soon to be PGY-1!!!)

K - Kid(s): For me this should be Kat(s): Mei and Milo

L - Living arrangements: In sin (for about another two months, then it'll be legit in the eyes of god and man) on our compound, the Copperhead Ranch.

M - Mom's name: Huamei

N - Nicknames: S, Sarfa

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Stupid copperhead bite, stayed for study and for them to watch me for DIC.

P - Pet Peeve: Classmates who ask too many questions during lecture on topics which are clearly A) only pertinent to their specific situation B) designed to demonstrate their knowledge of a given field

Q - Quotes you like: Hmm, none off the top of my head... Ralph Waldo Emerson - "A man is what he thinks about all day long."

R - Right or left handed: Right

S - Sex - None of your dang business. I mean...I'm female.

T - Time you wake up: An hour before I have to be at work.

V - Vegetable you dislike: Lima beans...but really beans of all kinds.

W - Ways you run late: 1) Too sleepy, moving too slowly 2) Cat disaster 3) Nothing to wear

X - X-rays you've had done: Chest, that's about it. But I've had a bunch of MRIs for studies, so I have proof that I've got brains for brains, rather than another option.

Y - Yummy food you make (made): Haven't made anything truly decent in a while, but as long as I have my non-stick wok I can always whip up a stir fry or some noodles. (So azn...)

Z - Zodiac: Taurus, which is a convenient excuse for my bull-headedness.

Transitions

2009-03-11T17:11:00.001-04:00

Only two months away from my medical school graduation. I somehow feel obligated to write, but I’m not sure that I’m capable anymore of putting my thoughts, my emotions to paper (or screen).
Our exit course has been so centered around the doctor-patient relationship, the on-call scenarios, preparing us for the trauma of intern year. And I, who will not be starting an intern year in July, feel left out.
Perhaps it’s just the beginning of a lifetime of feeling “left-out”. On the periphery of the human drama and tragedy and wonder—the sound and the fury that drew me to medicine even before I knew (could know) exactly what it entailed. To not feel those depths of emotion, to cry over the frustration of the alcoholic patient who left AMA (whose parents showed me the glamour-shots “before alcohol” picture in the hallway in front of her room, who I assured we would do all we could).
I think it's for the best.

From the far side of the world, in my hometown

2009-02-06T09:14:00.003-05:00

Nothing like being in a foreign country to make one pick up blogging again. In this case, I'm in what should best be termed a quasi-foreign country. After all, I was born right here in Shanghai.
Nonetheless, having grown up and received my education from K on up in the States, I'm more American than Chinese. I can't read or write much of anything, and while I'm fluent in basic conversational Mandarin, complex phrases and humorous wordplay usually escape me. This is part of why I wanted to spend this month studying abroad here--improving my language skills and doing a cardiology rotation just because I think my cardiology skills could use a little honing too.
It's the end of my first week on the wards, and so far it's been fairly rewarding--there are two large teams of attendings, residents and interns (medical students) and everyone's been pretty friendly and interested in helping me out--my medical chinese is almost nonexistent, so it's taken all of my effort to follow what's going on with patients on rounds.
Fortunately, through a combination of improving language skills and guesswork (when the attending percusses the heart borders, feels for ankle edema, and asks the patient for their daily weights, it's easy to guess their diagnosis even without knowing the chinese phrase for heart failure--xin li shuai jie, if you're curious) I've been able to understand the general gist, if not the finer points, of the bedside discussions.
The most frustrating part of the trip so far has been how difficult it's been to find good internet access around the city--either I have to suffer through dark, smoky web bars filled with gamers or pay 100 RMB for wireless at Starbucks, essentially. I finally gave in (only took a week) and shelled out the ridiculous amount of money they wanted to get ADSL installed at the apartment. And now I'm enjoying it sooooo much.
It's not that I can't live without internet so much as--well, everyone else in Shanghai has it, and I've got two manuscripts to write and a lot of residency e-mail correspondence/match stuff to do online. Yep. lots of important things to do online. Which is why I'm blogging.

I'm (one of) the Best!

2009-01-08T09:29:00.003-05:00

I know that I've let this blog fall into frightful disrepair, but my excuse (as usual) is that I've been busy with clerkships, residency interviews, and generally getting ready to blow this medical school popsicle stand.
However, as a long-time Craftster devotee I HAD to blog this--I made the Craftster "Best of 2008"!
I made little "Passports" for our save-the-date cards and they made the list! (About two thirds of the way down the above link, under "Occasions and Holidays")

It made my day!

Wren Wednesday

2008-07-23T18:27:00.004-04:00

I have a hanging basket of impatiens on my shady front porch which I've been remembering to water sporadically over the past season. A few weeks ago, I went to water the basket and noticed a lot of sticks and dead leaves in the basket. WTF did those come from? was my thought as I pulled the basket down to clean it.
I was answered by a small bird flying out at and past my head. Feeling rather strangely guilty (excuse me for perturbing you, miss birdie, during your beauty rest in MY hanging basket which you have so kindly filled with crap while squashing my flowers), I replaced the basket and went back inside.
Of course I've been keeping an eye on the contents of the basket over the past weeks, and noted 4 sweet little white and brown speckled eggs which at some point (I check about weekly rather than daily, both out of a desire to let them have their peace and being busy) turned into some rather unattractive naked babies.
About a week later, they've filled in with some downy feathers and are looking rather cute as a result.
As I sit at my dining room, I can hear the babies chirping through the open window, and every so often turn my head to see the parents bringing tasty little treats to them.
It seems odd to me that they chose to nest on my porch, given that my cats' favorite spot to perch is the long window that faces out onto it, but perhaps they enjoy the irony of being stared at all day by cats stuck inside. Or maybe the rocking of the basket just lulls the babies right to sleep...

Cat Wednesday

2008-07-16T17:56:00.004-04:00

I've been rather sporadic about posting, I know--what can I say, I've been too busy crafting stuff and being generally lazy and nonproductive to want to brag to the whole wide web about it.
I have been getting some stuff done, however, on three fronts:
1) Wedding plans--so I don't think I mentioned it in the blog, but I'll be doing that whole wedding thing next May. The idea of wedding planning gives me the heebie jeebies--don't get me wrong, I like the guy and all (we HAVE been living in sin for 6+ years, after all), it's just that I'm not the wedding planning type. Thus, we'll be having a destination wedding that the fiance has graciously agreed to arrange. I'll still serve as creative director but he will do the knitty gritty of calling planners, etc. Wedding crafting--now THAT'S more my cup of tea. I've been hard at craft...but more will come on that.

2) Residency application--I've finally started writing a personal statement for pathology programs. Writing personal statements, for me, is a bit like a colonoscopy. (I've yet to have one myself, but I've seen a number of them. Just one of the numerous glamorous perks that medical school offers!) You know it's for your own good , but yet you put it off as long as you can, and you dread the ordeal for months before you have to actually do it. You feel a great deal of relief once it's done, then you wait anxiously for the results. Unfortunately, the writing of a personal statement doesn't come with an anesthesiologist.
3) Taking pictures of the kitties. Who(which) are wonderful, as you can see.

Garden Meal, Before & After.

2008-06-09T18:23:00.003-04:00

The little veggie patch is going like gangbusters despite the past few days of temperatures hanging around 100. I returned from a long weekend in Chicago last weekend to find the sweetest, most adorable little baby rabbit living in with the lettuces. Of course, not being inclined to share, I chased the little guy out. In the interest of eating my veggies before the critters do (my beans have been obviously nibbled upon!) I went out and made a little harvest today and cobbled together some culinary experiments with it.

While the plate of food shown may not be the most balanced dinner you've ever seen, the majority of it WAS home-grown--by me, no less!
Clockwise from top:
-Beet "carpaccio" (raw, thinly sliced, sprinkled with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and salt) over wilted beet greens with crumbled aged cheddar. I did not make the cheese, balsamic vinegar, or olive oil. However I did grow the garlic tossed in with the beet greens myself. And the beets of course.
-Stuffed squash blossom fritters. I'm growing squash for the first time this year and just discovered the joy of stuffing them with a cheese, garlic, and chive mixture, beer-battering them and frying them up. Squash blossoms, garlic, and chives all picked about an hour before they were used. I also battered and fried som elittle baby squash slices, but they were eaten before the photo shoot.
-Raw sugar snap peas off the vine. One of my favorite snacks, and so easy to grow.
-Stir-fry of squash, snow peas, and "Alaska" peas. Normally, I find peas revolting (since I generally have been presented with them in various canned/frozen/otherwise mutilated forms) but these little guys are marvelous. And adorable.

FO Sunday: Creamsicle Sweater

2008-05-25T10:58:00.005-04:00

Yarn: Schachenmayr Aurora Color in Orange colorway
Needles: 7 and 8
Pattern: More or less, Yoke Pullover (#11) by Charlotte Quigglin the Holiday 2005 Vogue Knitting
This sweater has been sitting around half-finished for about a year and a half now. Obviously I did not do this as a fair-isle sweater–I wanted a completely mindless knit for this yarn, and the mindless bit included not having to do any thinking re: pattern.
I followed the pattern as written (minus the fair-isle) except for the yoke bind-off, where instead of using a picot bind-off I worked a few rows of garter stitch to finish the edge.

I'd give this sweater an overall "eh".
Yarn: The yarn makes for a dense, squishy fabric that's very comfortable, however the yarn itself is only "eh" to work with, as it's a knit ribbon tape that is easy to snare/catch/split while knitting. The cotton also makes for a heavy sweater--very drapey.
FO: The sweater is overall a bit too big--the sleeves are bit too big, the body is a bit too big, the neckline is a bit too big. It's not the end of the world, I just usually prefer a tight, fitted silhouette. There are also a few things that bother me, such as the slight lumpiness around the neck made by the DCs, and the holes made by my DCs in the sleeves (you can see these in the shot of the back.
I'll probably wear this once or twice, but it definitely won't be a mainstay in my wardrobe.
Oh, right. And it's bright orange. That probably didn't help either.

An unexpected house guest.

2008-03-18T16:35:00.008-04:00

Sometimes the smallest things can be the most thought-provoking.
This weekend I helped the boy (officially now the "fiancee") tear down the junky old rusted storage shed we had sitting in our front yard. During the course of this we disturbed a nest of mice--a mother and her 4-5 half-grown pups. They huddled, terrified (I could hear the pups squeaking during lulls in the drilling and hammering), under one of the plastic pallets that served as the foundation for the shed (I did mention it was JUNKY, didn't I?) during the entire demolition process. When we got down to moving the pallets, the mother mouse made a run for it with most of the pups and escaped. But one of the pups got separated from them and huddled there, frozen, in the open.
The boy and I looked at each other.
-What should we do?-
-Kill it. Step on it- I say, then turn away, giving him time to carry out the action.
I turn around, and the little pup is still shivering there. An inch long, maybe two. Furry, yes, but with eyes still closed.
He can't bring himself to step on it.
I insist that it's for the best. That the mother's gone and otherwise the little thing will just starve/freeze to death. That we would kill it without a second thought if it were full-grown, and in our house. That just the other day we were contemplating mousetraps at the store. But he can't, and I can't either.

Next thing you know it's crawled onto his glove and I'm making it a little home in a plastic strawberry box (with lid) lined with shredded paper towels. Opening up a can of Slimfast (closest thing we have to formula in the house) and mixing it up with crushed cornflakes in a bottlecap dish. Setting the ersatz mouse house in the under-sink cabinet in the bathroom, the warmest place in the house I can think of that the cats won't be able to get at.
The next morning the little guy is still alive. Eyes open, moving about, trying to find a way out of the strawberry box after all. I close the cabinet door (and the bathroom door--the cats know/smell something interesting is in that cabinet and crouch by it, all intense x-ray stares, when I leave the bathroom open) and go to work.
That evening (yesterday) I let the mouse crawl into my hand (my superego and mother tsk-tsking me in my head), and it laps up a little bit of slimfast from a soaked q-tip. It falls asleep in my palm, the same size as the first segment of my thumb. I can feel myself getting attached.
I "feed" him (attachment requiring a gender, however arbitrary) twice more before I go to bed.

This morning I set my alarm half an hour early.

I hear a little squeak when I come into the bathroom and turn on the lights. (Shutting out cats impatient for their morning attention and meal.)
My heart drops when I see him. If a heart can drop for something as absurdly little as a mouse pup in a strawberry box under a bathroom sink.
I've worked with enough lab mice (healthy, mutants, young, old) to know. And even if I hadn't...he has his eyes closed tight again, and has that tremulous, hesitant, wandering stumble and unkempt fur of a little creature on its way out. I try to feed some more q-tip slimfast, but really only make a mess.
The boy comes groggily into the bathroom and I ask him to "take it outside" in the ol' yeller sense of the word. And he does. And I am guilty, and upset, and relieved.

Because what person in their right mind would try to nurture and raise a mouse?
Or feel sadness when they fail at the task?

Green beginnings?

2008-02-04T17:14:00.000-05:00

Left: The way it all starts. Around the laptop.
This weekend was beautiful--sunny and warm, like a promise of spring.
Was it any wonder, then, that I was inspired to work on garden-related projects?
First, the non-fun stuff--our front flowerbed has been in sad need of re-working for some time, but silly ol' me just threw some gardenias in it last year and crossed my fingers. Apparently crossed fingers were just not enough to keep them alive, and since then all but 2 have gone the way of the dodo.

So. I spent a good 8 solid hours digging half-way through the tangled mess of roots/clay/rocks that purported to be a flower bed. My arms and back are killing me, and it was miserable going, but at least I'm halfway to a flower bed that might sustain something other than crabgrass.
Then, the fun stuff--I decided to try out the Jiffy peat pellet approach to seed starting this year, given that $6 seemed a reasonable price to pay to forego the hassle of the solo-cup misery I went through last year. Here's what's in the little pellets so far:
Tomatoes: Stupice, Tibet Appel, Golden Jubilee, Giant Oxheart, Ponderosa Pink, Campbell's 1327 (all free from Wintersown.org)
Impatiens (Butterfly Hybrid Mix)
Coleus
Thai Basil
Sweet Basil
And in pots, I started:
Sweet Banana Pepper
Bell Pepper
Chinese Lantern
Nasturtium (Jewel Mix)
Iceland Poppy
I also popped some columbine seeds into the fridge.
I know, I know, it's really too early to start these guys, as technically I think our last frost date is in April, but...that's what the sunroom is for.
Below: The little tomaters in their little Jiffy Greenhouse

FO...Tuesday?

2008-01-22T18:07:00.001-05:00

Wow, it's been a red-letter knitting week for me. Just having taken step 1 of my boards a week ago tomorrow, I've been in a knitting-drought-induced frenzy...I cast on for Slink from Domiknitrix (admittedly the literal CO occurred before the exam) and am about halfway through the back already (am trying to use the piece to pick up continental style knitting, but so far I'm having a tough time sticking to it)
I also cast on for Quant from Knitty (hey, 300+ ravelry-ers can't be wrong...right?). I was concerned when I bought the ball of Berocco's "Love It" that the color runs might be too short, but if anything, they're turning out to be too long. I'm into the third row already and the damn thing hasn't switched colors yet! (The outside of the ball was all blue and green. Who knew that the inside end was brown? Color me surprised.)

But enough warm-up...on to the real accomplishments--two FOs in one week! Admittedly, these guys were languishing, just needing a little finishing, but still. It's got to be a record or something.

FO #1: Craftster Circle Shrug(pattern here):
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft Shadows in Dark Moss (used almost exactly 3 skeins - came out with about a yard extra!)
Knit on #9 Bamboo circs, CO 180.
Mods: Did a simple lace rib for the edge/collar for 6". Added a double lace leaf panel in the center of the mock-rib, knit the suggested 20".
The striping is somewhat more subtle in real life, and the green a bit darker and mossier. The yarn was just too pretty to resist--especially given how cheap it was. It was unfortunately somewhat fuzzy--there were a few green furballs generated over the knitting of the piece, which makes me worry about how well it'll hold up in the wash. The design is just perfect--while sometimes the eager-deconstructor craftster mentality is somewhat threatening, I still love me those boards and the tutes that come out of them. The idea is simple, and endlessly flexible, which is just perfect for a gal like me who has to add an extra lace panel here and a cable there. I'm already dreaming of more variations--whether or not they'll ever be knit!

FO #2: Cherie Amour
Pattern: Cherie Amour from Knitty
Yarn: Bernat Softee Chunky in Denim Ombre
Needles: #13 Denise
This was a ridiculously quick knit, and for the past two months has been sitting neglected with about 4 inches left to go on the one sleeve. I finally sat myself down, streamed some lectures, and finished it (took all of...30 minutes?)
Mods: Seamed shoulders first, then picked up 33 st. along each armhole for the sleeves, knitting down (flat, not circular) each sleeve. At 7" long, dec 1 st on ea side on next two RS rows (29 st). At 9", dec 1 st on ea side on next two RS rows (25 st). then I knit until I decided they were long enough (which, in retrospect, does make the sleeves look a teensy bit short, but it'll be perfect for work, where big floppy sleeves hanging out of white coat pockets is both unfashionable and unsanitary.
More pictures on flickr and ravelry...

Cat Ancestry NEWSFLASH!

2008-01-06T18:16:00.000-05:00

This has been a momentous weekend for the larger of our cats, Milo.
You see, for the past months of having him with us we've been uncertain about his pedigree. His face is too three-dimensional to be a persian, yet too long-haired (and un-pointed) to be a siamese, despite his bright blue mildy-crossed eyes. Not to mention the fact that he's a tremendously large-framed cat. Not fat--just big boned. Really!
Well, we've finally figured it out:
He's a Norwegian Forest Cat!
From Wikipedia: "Norwegian Forest Cats have a thick fluffy double-layered coat, tufted ears and a long bushy tail to protect them against the cold. They are very large cats with adult males weighing 6 to 10 kg (13 to 22 lb)....They are not easily stressed and are quite patient...They appreciate high vantage points and enjoy climbing trees, or, if they are indoor cats, climbing on appliances, bookshelves and other elevated surfaces in the home."
The Cat Fancier's Association also describes "These lovely cats are really two for the price of one, they can differ so greatly in looks from summer to winter. Some time in the spring they take off their “winter underwear,” the downy undercoat that provides warmth, and the long non-tangling outer guardhairs that act as protection from rain and snow. The inner-ear hair that deflects the wind and snow (and can be three to four inches long, curving out and around the ear like flexible racing stripes) remains all year.The tail is always magnificent, being as much as twelve inches or more when fanned to its fullest."
It all fits! We even glanced over the breed standards on the CFA site and he'd almost fit the criteria, down to his ruff, his little toe-fur tufts, and hindleg "britches", except for being a tad cross-eyed.
The descriptions also go on to describe them as cats who emerged from the Scandinavian forests to explore the world with Vikings, protecting their grain and leaving progeny in North America. I love it. We're going to call him Milo Fjordnordjanussen from now on.

DNA Cable Fingerless Gloves - Done!

2008-01-06T17:27:00.000-05:00

These were actually a quick knit in terms of the time it took to make them, I had just been sitting on them for about two years or so.
They're made with the awesome June Oshiro DNA Cable pattern, adapted onto ribbed fingerless gloves. I'd made the first glove with finger stubs, but decided it didn't look or feel right, so ripped back and made one ribbed opening, which is an improvement.
Specs: Size 4 dpns, navy sport weight wool/acrylic blend obtained in China.
They still need to be blocked to make them look prettier, but I'm already putting them to use keeping my handsies toasty, so we'll see if that ever actually gets done.
Mei wanted in on some of the mitt action.

New Knitty!

2007-12-06T21:47:00.000-05:00

New Knitty! Whoo! The beauty of Knitty + Ravelry is that it's only been what, less than a week, and already I can click on the patterns and see finished objects of some of the items!
There are quite a few items that I think are nifty and swell, but would probably never make due to the fact that I'd never use them. For instance:
Deceiving- A great concept, but I've got enough gloves to last me a lifetime already (though I'm still in need of a pair of (FO) fingerless gloves to keep the Reynaud's at bay while I type!)--though I absolutely love the designer's quote that "She finds that if you have wonderful enough accessories, it is possible to look forward to cooler weather so you can finally get to wear them." My sentiments exactly...for some reason this year I find myself wanting MORE MORE MORE scarves. Good thing I..umm...make them.
Tams - So pretty! But unlike scarves and gloves, I almost never wear hats.

Two patterns I'm actually planning to make (maybe, once the WIPs dwindle a bit) are
Quant - I've been wanting to try my hand at entrelac for a while but haven't found a project I wanted to do yet (I'm too busy/lazy to learn new techniques unless there's something I want to make RIGHT NOW with them :)--this looks like the perfect little guy to warm up my ears and learn entrelac at the same time. I may make this in the same Simply Soft Shadows I'm making my Circle Shrug in--I anticipate having some skeins left over.
Jeanie - Like many, I've totally fallen in love with this wrap. I love cables. I love lace. I love this wrap. Now I just need to A) Finish off some of my current projects, because I'm sure this will take a while. B) Find an appropriate yarn sub that isn't 100% wool. (My wool allergy gets worse the more I knit with 100% wool or wear it against my skin, so...kind of trying to stay away from that.)

Ravelry!

2007-10-28T14:32:00.000-04:00

I finally received my invitation to Ravelry last Thursday and promptly spent the entirety of my Clinical Research as well as my Stats class exploring and adding projects. It's addictive, and wonderful--just what a knitter/crocheter wants and needs. Instead of googling for hours before starting a new project I can just click on the projects already added, and drool over finished versions from around the world. It's exactly the internet-knitting tool that I've been dreaming of. <3.

Cherie Amour Progress

2007-10-22T23:27:00.001-04:00

After some car-ride knitting on the way to and from NYC/NJ this weekend, my Cherie Amour has progressed nicely up to the armpits (it's a quick knit--size 13s will do that for ya!)
The pattern is great no-brainer knitting for the most part, though the variegated dark yarn made it surprisingly hard to see the lace pattern clearly, thus making it strangely more tricky for my mind to process the pattern. I'm making the size XS and it seems to be fitting so far--the acrylic yarn is SUPER stretchy and cozy, but unfortunately has very little element of drape--I might crochet a beaded edging along the bottom hem just to give it some weight, but we'll see how it sits once finished. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the pooling of colors in the bottom area yet--I think I like it, but again, that'll really be determined by the finished piece. It's not as if I'd frog (uh, not too worried about salvaging the mill end yarn!) and re-knit the piece unless it is grossly non-proportional, so it's a bit of a moot point.
Please excuse the flashy cat-assisted photo, but it's about all I can do to take an occasional decent photo of a coveted FO, much less a not-even-half-finished WIP. This was actually the kitten on better behavior. After the photo was taken she tried to chew on first the yarn, then my Denise needle cords. They are squishy I guess, but you better believe I put a quick end to THAT nonsense. I love those damn things.
Oh, in other news--I finished seaming up the Tigger Baby Sweater and brought it up to be passed on to the recipient, a little Chinese girl recently adopted by one of the boy's cousins. Of course I forgot to take a picture before giving it away so I'll have to hope for an action shot on the cute baby herself.

Current WIPs

2007-10-09T18:35:00.000-04:00

#1) Grey Lacey Tubey: Progressing slowly but surely through the sleeve/back portion. While I believe that I've got the apparently-critical armpit-to-armpit back measurement correct, I live in constant fear that bunchiness will occur once the body is picked up.

#2) I've been a bad bad girl and couldn't resist swatching for and subequently casting on for Cherie Amour from the Fall Knitty. It's progressing along rather quickly, so I don't feel quite as guilty about starting a second pullover project while the first is still on sleeve island.

In other news, a knitty surprise has come up--while it kind of creeps me out it strikes me as rather clever as well. If I made it I'd almost certainly leave the skellington-mouth off to prevent people clubbing me as a would-be (albeit knit-handy) mugger.

In other other news, I received my holiday vogue knitting today and I am completely unenthused about any of the patterns or features. Given my recent greedy pattern reading and restrained-with-difficulty startitis, this is somewhat of a feat, but that's what you get when half of your patterns make even the lovely models look like squat toadstools and the other half of the patterns are completely unwearable. Sigh.

Zen and the art of gardening in a drought

2007-10-07T14:13:00.000-04:00

It would be only natural that the year I started gardening would be a year of record drought here in central north carolina. The area lakes are all drying up, lawns are crispier than...rice krispies, and we're all on mandatory water restrictions.
Even before the drought, however, I've noticed that gardening has made me a more mindful person--more conscious of my actions, what I eat, what I buy. In a way, gardening has changed my life. It has made me appreciate the difference between good and bad produce on a completely different level. Before I ate a homegrown tomato ripened on the vine I didn't care to eat tomatoes at all--only being familiar with the bland styrofoam-like imitations on store shelves. I knew nothing of the joys of freshly picked lettuce, eating a sugar snap pea off the vine, even fresh herbs.
Or, of the warm little touch of pride when serving something made with veggies you grew yourself. That "do it yourself" attitude has spread itself to other aspects of my eating--making homemade pickles, curing salmon (both of which were delicious, BTW).
And then there's the whole turning into one of those "granola" people...planning a grey-water recycling system to water the garden (my ersatz grey water system right now consists of using dishwater to water my plants), concocting homemade pesticides (neem oil, hot sauce, and liquid soap), shopping at the farmer's market. I'm even going to finally start composting!
Gardening has opened up a whole new world of thinking for me. Mmm. I think I'm in the mood for some pickles.

Itchy Fingers

2007-09-17T18:16:00.000-04:00

So far I've managed to be reasonably good about my knitting projects--I still only have one technically on the needles, but I'm getting so so impatient to start a new project, what with the new knitty and having bought yarn for the Lace Leaf Pullover.
Re: said yarn, being cheap and lazy, I just wandered over to my local A.C. Moore (my favorite craft store, mostly because of the nice ladies that work there, and my being 500 miles away from my beloved metalliferous) and wandered the aisles looking for an acceptable shade of green. Unfortunately I was absolutely unable to find a shade of green that I liked other than in Vanna's Choice, which as you may or may not know is "the first celebrity-endorsed yarn" or some such, and happens to be *gasp, horror* acrylic. I really tried, you know. I looked at every skein of green yarn in that place--twice, even!--cotton, wool, bamboo, alpaca, and every mixture thereof, but I honestly could not find the perfect green in any other yarn. So Olive it is.
Of course, I was also too lazy to go to an actual LYS.
The yarn, of course, is just a worsted weight rather than the bulky called for in the pattern, but at the moment I'm kind of over uber-bulky sweaters--case in point my Ubernatural which was fun to make and comfortable as all get-out but makes me feel as padded as a polar bear while wearing it.
I swatched the VC (as it will now be called) and got 15x20 to 4" in stockinette on 10.5s (the biggest needles the yarn would "work" on), which is quite a bit off from the 10x14 called for by the pattern. Given the many web reports of problems with shoulder shaping, collar tightness, etc. I'm just going to morph the leaf motifs, ribbed collar/hem, and sleeve patterning with another sweater that matches my gauge-- Knitty's Lite Brite and call it a day. Add in this chart of the leaf motif upside-down and away I'll go.
As soon as I finish my Tubey. If I can hold out!

WIPs, progressing nicely!

2007-09-15T13:27:00.000-04:00

Despite my recent book acquisitions, I've been good about not starting anything new (other than doing a little swatching for Teva Durham's Lace Leaf Pullover, shh, don't tell anyone). I've just got two "active" projects, and one's almost finished!

Pattern: Tigger-Like Baby Sweater
Yarn: Jamie Baby "Happy Print" (held doubled throughout) and mystery pink acrylic.
Needles: US size 10 and 10.5
Mods: I adjusted for my (very) different gauge and made the collar in the contrast color rather than main color.
Notes: I liked the Tigger pattern because it's pretty simple and I thought the little pink stripes would be fun--the sweater as a whole reminds me rather of a cupcake. Hopefully if I can get my butt seaming along it'll be in one piece before the intended baby recipient outgrows it!

Pattern: Tubey, from Knitty
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in grey from the stash
Needles: #8 bamboo straights and dpns
Mods planned: Lace panel and ribbing along back/sleeves, not going to increase for belled sleeves. Will start knitting both sleeves from the center of back rather than one side to make lace symmetrical. Body to have lace/cable panels in front, 2x1 rib rather than 3x1 throughout.
Notes: Can you tell I can't start any new project without wanting to throw in lace panels everywhere? It's a disease, I tell you, a disease! Maybe by the time I get to the body I'll be ready for some totally totally mindless knitting and skip out on the lace.

New books, yay!

2007-09-15T11:41:00.000-04:00

I received an order from half.com yesterday containing three knitting books. Needless to say, I was rather excited. (I got a great deal on them, too!)
The Knitters Bible - Claire Crompton - Pretty basic techniques/stitches/projects book. I pretty much just got it for the charted stitch patterns. I work so much better from charted patterns than those written out. There's a cute baby sweater in the patterns, but that's about all.
Yarnplay - Lisa Shobhana Mason - Early in the book, the author says "there are two types of knitters: those who are into intense stitch patterns, like cables or lace, and those who are into working with color" and goes on to say she's one of the latter. Being staunchly one of the former camp (I think the most colors I've had in a project is three...and then only with great angst...), I bought this to try to expand my color horizons. The projects I liked are Edie, a cute asymmetrical cardi (pictured in a lovely shade of blue), Lorelei, a tank with fun construction (though will be a challenge to add shaping to, as the bottom is knit sideways in mostly stockinette. methinks some ribbing might help.), and Everything (but the kitchen sink), a sweater that looks like the perfect stashbuster. (Pictures, L)

Domiknitrix - Jennifer Stafford - I've been wanting this book for the longest time and don't know why I never ended up getting it. I love it. While it's a lot more opinionated than most learn-how-to-knit books out there, that's quite a bit of the appeal. I particularly like the "I'd rather knit a seamless sweater than sew a single seam" bit and the emphasis on shaping and fit. The projects seem pretty solid, though I doubt I could do the devil hat any time other than halloween. I like the l'il red riding hoodie (love the details like the elbow patches) and the sweetheart sweater (love the neckline, would replace the intarsia with a nice intricate lace or cable panel--I'm still a monotone kind of gal!). (pictures, L) I absolutely adore the colored panels on the diva halter as well, but just don't agree with halters knit in bulky yarns (my two previous knit halters have seen little to no wear...). I wonder if I could just join the two straps to the back tank-top style rather than connecting them together to form the halter...
Anyway.

VK Lace Edge Jacket - Done!

2007-08-29T18:16:00.000-04:00

Pattern: Lace Edge Jacket from Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 06
Needles: #9 Denise Circular, F crochet hook
Yarn: Sugar n Cream in 'Ecru' for main body (about 11 ounces) and in 'Jute' for trim. Pink trim is Bernet Softee Chunkee in 'Pale Antique Rose' (I couldn't find a pink I liked in the Sugar n Cream)
Notes: I knit this in size small. While I was worried after knitting the back that it was turning out too big, it actually worked out that it fits tightly! Thank goodness, because I anticipate that the yarn is going to grow/droop a lot. It's actually rather stiff right now. This is actually my first FO with Sugar N Cream, we'll see how it wears. The pattern itself was a very quick, easy TV-knit--it was brilliant how much of the front is just made up of the crochet. I'm trying to decide whether I want to go the button or shawl pin route--I whipped up a quick shawl pin in pink shades (visible in the close-up shot) but it's certainly more of a pain to pin than button. I didn't do much in the way of modifications, other than leaving the last row of crochet off the sleeve and body trim--it's essentially a picot edging which I didn't care for. I'm pleased with my color choices too (didn't go too far off the model)--while it doesn't go particularly well with the lime-green tank I was wearing this afternoon it'll be the perfect coverup for many a sundress that I own. All in all, I'm very pleased.

To knit-list, part deux.

2007-08-28T21:13:00.000-04:00

La Lace-Edge jacket, she is done! No pictures yet, as my photographer has recently started law school (the night version) and has been unavailable to take a nice picture of it in natural light. And I insist that it be shown off in all its glory. Currently on the needles is Tigger in two very different yarns than the ones featured--Jamie Baby, held doubled (I've got a huge stash of it, all in a multicolor print called "Happy Time!", with exclamation point added by me.) and pink stash acrylic. It's for a new baby in the boy's family, which baby will hopefully not be gianormous being that the sweater is turning out less than huge.
On to the knit list!

More from Knitty:
-Arisaig - Beautiful, yes. Three-ply lace, also yes. I'm pretty sure I can find an appropriate yarn in my stash (being that I sit on yarns thinner than worsted weight like they're...10-year bonds?) but the question is whether I feel comfortable committing to a project like this right now. All the finished ones I've googled up look amazing, though...
-Soleil - A nice, basic tank, with a little lace edge. I'd make a lot of modifications if I did knit it, and I'd probably change to a different lace pattern along the bottom edge. Eh. Sounds like too much work for right now.

Elsewhere:
-Knot Ugly Shrug from Stitch N Bitch; The Happy Hooker - A simple, simple, simple pattern and a quick project. And I've been recently really into the shrug-as-accessory trend (years too late, I know) due to the whole 100+ degrees outside/50 degrees inside phenomenon.
-Wedgewood Blouse from Interweave Knits Summer '06- I love the design, I love the neat paisley bobble and cable pattern (I've never knit anything with bobbles, mostly because usually when I see them they look exceedingly silly.) I'd definitely do some waist shaping. I don't think I have a yarn for this in the stash either.
-Lotus Blossom Tank, also from IK summer '06 - I like the clever way the straps are made, though it looks like the neckline could turn out rather floppy. I have a bit of purple Microspun in the stash that might do, but the question is...will I get gauge? And almost as important...would I like it in purple?
-Picovoli - I've always meant to knit this--it's a project that seems both A) super easy and B) wearable to work, which are both huge huge pluses. For instance, I adore my Cleo, but I hardly ever get a chance to wear it, being that it's hardly work-appropriate!
-Lace Leaf Pullover, from Loop -d- loop as well as Summer '05 IK - Much like many of Teva Durham's projects, I love the design, I love the construction, but I hate the bulky yarn. I've knit enough designs in bulky yarns to realize that I don't like the way bulky yarn projects feel. Even with waist shaping, I'm convinced it'll make me look shapeless as well. However, I might just fudge down on the gauge a bit and go for it once I find the perfect grass-green yarn.

List Time!

2007-08-22T22:36:00.000-04:00

The garden has been withering away over the past month and a half with the drought and 100+ temperatures. I try to water the plants in the beds once every other day (every day for the tomato) and the containers on the deck twice a day, the result of which is that the container plants seem to be doing much better now than the ones in the ground. Right now the ones that are still productive are:
-Better Boy Tomato - just a few left, thanks to drought and an attach of these terrible black beetles.
-Straight 8 cucumbers - though again, in small numbers thanks to the drought. Also, I don't know whether it's due to pollination or some other factors, but some of them are terribly bitter and they're all VERY thick-skinned. I've got some delish refrigerator pickles out of them though!
-Sweet Banana Pepper (container) - my hardiest one so far, making smaller peppers in the heat but still doing well overall. Too bad I don't really care for banana peppers.
-California Wonder Pepper (container) - plant is doing great, fruits are getting destroyed by gigantic grasshoppers/sun scald. Hopefully my moving it into the sunroom will mitigate both these pests. Though of course, I don't really care for bell peppers either.
-Basils - Thai, Sweet Italian, and Cinnamon. All trying their best to seed seed seed but still providing me tons of tasty little leaves for my pizzas, stir-fries, and sauces. Definitely big contributors to my kitchen!
- Sage - Both my big plant and its various little cuttings are going strong. Though not as versatile as the basils, I did make some lovely roast chicken with it this evening.
- Sun Gold Tomato (pictured) - had a barren spell (after my absence and the corresponding inadequate watering) but is starting to fruit again with my love and twice-daily water. Still delicious, but a few of them are getting nibbled at despite my magic spray of soap, neem, and pepper sauce.
There's some morning glory creeping about and some tuberoses that I'm still praying will bloom, as well as a sundry assortment of flowers in various states of despair, but those are the main characters in my gardening sitcom.

On to knitting...I'm too lazy to take a picture of my VK Lace-Edge Jacket, but trust me on this, I'm almost done--just about finished with putting the crocheted trim around the body.
I feel pretty proud of myself for soldiering through this whole project without starting a new one. (Nevermind the endless backlog of WIPs which I keep re-discovering as I'm going through The Stash.) Of course, now that ending time is near, I'm looking for a new project to grace my needles...just for my own recollection, here are a few on my list from Knitty:
-Emerald Seas from Summer '07. I think I love it so much because of the fabulous color and gorgeous photography. I don't think I have a suitable yarn in my stash, but I haven't plowed through the whole bunch yet...
-Isabella from Spring '07. I'm not sure how the split-neck will look in actuality, and I'm concerned it will dip too low for work. It looks like I might be able to just knit the lace together a little higher to draw up the neckline.
-Tempting II from Winter '05. I love the whole knit-in-round-no-finishing thing, I truly truly do, but I hate 1x1 rib, and tend not to find short-sleeve knit sweaters all that wearable. This, too, awaits the right yarn.
-Tubey, also from Winter '05. I was not at first interested in this design, (though the model's sporting it one F train stop from my old home in brooklyn was sort of cool) but looking back at it, it's really a nifty construction and makes for a neat neckline. I'll definitely be able to find some stash yarns to use up in this project, though I'm not sure what direction I want to go with the stripes.
Well, that's enough for now. My whole desk is covered in knitting mags, so I could go on and on forever, but...that'd be boring.

New WIP

2007-08-05T11:25:00.000-04:00

I'm making good progress through my latest WIP--I cast on about a week ago and over the course of a week's worth of LOST-watching I've gotten a good ways through the back. It's the Lace Edge Jacket from the Spring/Summer 06 vogue knitting. I'm doing it in Sugar n Cream (so sue me) in Ecru, on a #9 denise circular. I'm currently trying to decide what color to make the little lace accents (blue and pink on the model). I'm thinking brown/pink or brown/beige would work well. I'm concerned that it's turning out too big. (I'm going for the size S.) When I hold it up against my body it looks ok but it just looks so..large sitting there.

Two new arrivals

2007-07-25T23:26:00.001-04:00

Meet Mei--our new 9-week old kitty. I had quite the day driving her from shelter to home to vet and back! (Not to mention dropping her off briefly at my parents' while I went food shopping for her.) Mei means little sister in Chinese, and sounds a bit like "May", which happens to be the month in which she (and I!) was born.
Don't let those big anime eyes fool you, this was one of the few pictures I could get of her staying still. She's got a personality rather like Milo (maybe it's the siamese in them) -- talkative, affectionate, and liable to climb all over anyone within her little reach.
She's already managed to pry off the Y and F8 keys from my laptop, also.
It's going to be trouble...
The other new arrival--I've got FO, for the first time in probably...a year? I made the hound's tooth cap from vogue knitting of winter 06/07. Specs:
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft (100% acrylic from the stash. yeah baby.) in Grey Heather and Soft Pink
Needles: #10 denise circular, #10 plastic dpns
Modifications: I didn't do an elastic band, just folded the edge over. The visor was cut from a plastic salad container, so I do worry about the edges wearing through the yarn a little. .
I'm actually quite pleased with how the hat turned out--perhaps when it's not 95+ degrees out I might favor y'all with an action shot

Experimentation!

2007-07-22T16:31:00.000-04:00

A little Sunday afternoon science experiment, using hibiscus, sage, sweet basil, and pineapple sage. And...vodka!
What could it be?

Infused vodka, of course!
Even though I rarely drink anything other than coffee, much less cocktails these days (le sigh), it occurred to me that all the fresh herbs I've got in the garden could make some really tasty infused vodkas. I remember (somewhat less-than-clearly) a great evening with friends at the Russian Vodka Room trying a variety of vodkas infused with flavors like strawberry or ginger. While I'm not sure yet what I'll do with sage vodka, the pineapple sage and basil should make for some fun cocktails or at the very least a unique vodka tonic. I'm cautiously optimistic.

And yes, those of you who notice these things may have observed that I'm using a somewhat...budget-conscious vodka for my base. Please feel free to send donations to help me out with this sad situation.

Back to the needles

2007-07-19T21:06:00.000-04:00

I think my hobbies are getting cyclical like the fashion industry. I've been throwing myself into gardening all summer and now that the highs are getting near three digits during the day I'm retreating back onto the couch (yes, I also have some more free time with this rotation) and have re-started knitting. It really started with dropping into a yarn shop down near the coast, picking up the winter Vogue Knitting from last year, and seeing this cute hat. And now, look where we're at.
And yes, I'm watching LOST while doing it. So. Decadent.

AAAAAAAAAARGH!!!

2007-07-06T22:21:00.000-04:00

I'm home this weekend after 3 solid weeks of being away from the home & garden, and this is what I find:
A deck populated with plants in various (advanced) stages of death.
If you care to, you can compare with an earlier picture of the deck, with living, happy plants.
The boy insisted that he watered all the plants every other day "with two whole watering cans of water!"
Yes, that's two *gallon* sized watering cans of water for THE WHOLE DECK's worth of plants. Every other day. In sweltering 90+ degree heat. The tomato plant alone needed that.
Well, at least he tried. I think he's secretly plotting the downfall of my garden so I'll py more attention to him. First with the deck stain, now with the dessication.

Still sad.

2007-07-04T22:25:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking about adopting a new kitten. One which I will successfully keep as an indoor-only cat, so help me god, if it means tethering her to a pole in the center of the house to keep her from running towards the doors. Is it too soon? I'm probably just looking for something to fill the void.
Just as a lark, I was browsing through some "free kittens!" listings, and came across a picture of a little black kitten who looked just like Mack did in his kitten-hood. I promptly burst into tears. Hell, I'm still a little sniffly. I'm surprised by how sad something like this picture can still make me. I've actually been "doing well" in terms of my emotions over the past few weeks--I think about the little guy with relative frequency but haven't been getting bogged down with teariness but for one or two moments. I find myself both embarrassed at still grieving over a cat almost a month later and frustrated that I feel the constant need to justify my emotions (however private) to an invisible-omnipresent "other"--the other, of course, being the imagined judgement of society, non-"animal people", and my friends.
If I keep thinking along these lines I really WILL turn into a crazy cat lady.
A'int no one gonna tell me I caint be sad if'n I wanna.

Free Time

2007-07-03T21:37:00.001-04:00

...something I've had far too little of this year. This rotation I've had more of it than ever, and I find myself back at the old activity of surfing the web (with some help from flickr and...gasp, facebook, to which I've finally succumbed). I found myself looking at this pattern and wanting badly to pick up the needles and whip that bad boy (girl?) up.
Let's face it. Despite everything that medical school is throwing at me and a not-yet-entirely-quenched love of nerdy medical science and patient care, I'm still an obsessive hobbyist. Knitting, crocheting, gardening...I pick new hobbies up like other girls do fashion trends (so I hear), and I read, practice, and blog my little heart out. And I love it. I always want my hobbies and crafts to be part of my life. I want to be the neo-hippie mom who dresses her kids in handknit everything, packs them lunchboxes with organic, homegrown veggies, and forces them to contruct pointless little crafts every weekend. But I want, too, to be a well-read, somewhat-known research-oriented physician who yet spends enough time with their patients to listen to them--and still makes enough to pay for malpractice insurance, medical school loans, and the occasional trip to a carribean country.
Will I ever have enough free time in my life to be able to do everything I want to do--travel, knit, garden, raise cats (and later kids)...and have the career I want, too?

Beach Life

2007-06-24T17:27:00.001-04:00

Life is good. I'm assigned to a preceptor out on a coastal island for my Family Med rotation and I'm living the good life. The condo they have for us is on the 8th hole of a golf course and a 3-minute walk to the beach. Our practice is open 4 days a week, with about 1.5 hours daily for lunch. Patients come in for routine physicals, respiratory infections, UTIs. I have a reasonable diagnosis without lab tests for almost everyone. People are happy, chatty, going about their lives. At the beach, no less.
It's such a stark contrast to the rest of the year, with its 80-hour weeks, night calls, cancer, stroke, surgery. It's what you thought doctoring might be when you were little--if you had the good fortune to only see the doctor for well-child visits. Patients ask about your family, you ask about theirs. It's sort of lovely. Of course, there's the wrestling with insurance companies who don't want to pay you, patients who don't have the resources (or ability) to take care of their health, and, most importantly, the responsibility for all those lives. Not only that you might miss something acute, but that you're the gatekeeper for everything from high cholesterol (leading to a stroke or heart attack later in life) to diabetes (leading to blindness, amputations) to smoking cessation. It's easy for me, the medical student, to miss out on that part of the picture in the lovely day to day of being here at the beach.
On a more personal note, I'm still every so often sad about Mack, and also sorry that I'm not at home to tend my garden enjoying the harvests that I planted oh. so. long ago and forcing the poor boy to water my extensive plant collection scattered over the ground, deck, and windowsill.

Goodbye

2007-06-10T10:19:00.001-04:00

What do I even write?
I thought I'd have your furry little chin to scratch for years, yet. That time would mellow out your feisty (read: bite-y) personality, that by the time I had my first kid you'd be a grumpy graying old-timer with some extra pudge, jealous of the attention I'd pay the baby.
I tried to keep you inside for two whole years, keep you an indoor cat, SAFE AT HOME, but you kept running outside and running away from me (remember when you ran off for four days at the new house and I was out there four times a day yelling "Mackaroni! Mack-Mack!" at the top of my lungs until the folks next door must have thought their new neighbors-to-be were crazy? I was so happy when you came back that I took you to the vet for just about every vaccination known to feline-kind. You loved that.) And finally I gave up and you were an outdoor/indoor cat with a dorky reflective collar, and I could tell you were in your predatory glory, skulking through the underbrush and eating every insect under the sun (and the occasional amphibian, too, if I'm not mistaken).
But I knew you were still my little kitten at heart, because every time I was working in my garden you'd run to me from out of the 'wilderness' and be right there tromping on my lettuces and following me over the stream and through the woods--literally. (And people say cats aren't loyal to their owners.)
I'm sorry that I brought back another cat from the shelter, I know you two never ended up getting along. I'm sorry I didn't ever adequately resolve the itch on your head once and for all, and had to continually scratch it every time you came up to me. I'm sorry I didn't feed you the sugary-salty nine lives chunks-and-gravy cat food (which you loved) in the mistaken belief that by feeding you Iams you'd be healthier in the long run.
How was I to know there'd be no long run?
No more glancing up from my laptop (even now I'm still doing it) to see your black shape prowling through the backyard.
No shadow to accompany me in my yardwork.
No one to use my laptop as a pillow and fill the vents with black fur.
...I could go on forever.
I'm going to miss you so much, Mack.

Uphill both ways

2007-06-07T17:32:00.000-04:00

In today's NYTimes most e-mailed, there's an article entitled More Advice Graduates Don't want to hear, wherein the columnist responds to recent grads' criticism of his column's budgeting advice last year with more budgeting advice. I found myself realizing, as I read the column, that I am a stodgy, cynical old matron trapped in a 2o-something's body. I found myself sympathizing with the columnist's viewpoint, if not with his kind (albeit somewhat patronizing) tone. Near the beginning of the essay, he writes "What I suggested was impractical, many said. How would you like to try to live on $40,000 a year in Washington or San Francisco, several asked."
This is where I first got all riled up about kids these days and how spoiled they are. If you don't enjoy hearing your depression-era relatives talk about how tough they had it growing up and how today's young-uns ain't got no grit, you should probably get back to shopping online, since that's pretty much going to be the gist of this entry.
When I graduated from undergrad four short years ago, I wanted to spend some time in NYC. That's where the action (and the boy) were, thus that was where I was going to be. Thankfully, I got essentially the job I wanted--working as a research assistant in clinical/translational research. Unfortunately, it also paid a typical research assistant salary-- $28,000 a year, gross. When I told my friends going into consulting, or I-banking, or basically, any other field, what I'd be making, typical responses were "I don't believe you--they can't pay you that." and "No--you can't live on that!"
Well, as you may have guessed, they were wrong. Not only was I able to live for two years in the city on that salary, but I lived WELL. I ate out at fabulous restaurants, went out drinking/dancing about every weekend, and went to about as many museums, shows, and concerts as I could take. Sure, I lived in Brooklyn, did my share of cooking, and saw the inside of a taxi all of twice, but I was in no way cold, starving, or deprived. I even paid back about $5k worth of student loans.
So my words would be--I WISH I'd had $40k to live on. That would have been 120 more meals at Bouley--or a liver-failure's worth of half-price cosmos.
Kids these days--whiny little snots.
*shakes wizened fist at the lot of 'em*

Pretty new deck!

2007-06-03T13:24:00.000-04:00

My plants in the garden may be withering away, but damn, the deck DOES look nice with a wash and stain...
Yesterday I was in the local Lowe's getting some Black Hen (my mom swears by it, and it's the only place I've been able to find the damn stuff.) when I noticed they had a huge selection of bulbs for 50% off. Being unable to resist anything on sale, however a) useless b) out of season c) difficult to work with, I bought the following:
-tuberose
-dutch iris, blue
-anemone de caen - sylphide
-brodiaea "Queen Fabiola"
-gladiolus "Video"
All but the tuberose were in a blue-hued variety pack. The pictures on the front of the package were just too pretty to resist. So instead of studying for my neurology exam (this coming friday) I spent the last few hours mixing potting soil, compost, sand, and black hen and potting bulbs. Of course it's been pouring all day long so I spent quite some time enjoying being soaked.
I don't know how this flower thing snuck up on me. I've always liked flowers, but usually in cut form, wrapped up with cello and presented to me on some special occasion. The thought of growing them myself would never have crossed my mind a few short months ago...

Sadness

2007-05-29T17:42:00.000-04:00

I'm not a happy camper. Not only are the wards busy and stressful, but the damn boy stained the decks yesterday and splattered deck stain all over my plants. Not only are half of them withering away at every place the stain touched (which is pretty much everywhere), but the plants that I was previously planning to eat as greens (lettuce, sweet pea vines) are now totally inedible because they're covered in brown toxic goop.
And of course to top it off he trampled a few little guys too.
See, if I had just had memorial day off like the rest of the world I could have been supervising him/covered up my plants. Uuugh!
So. Angry!

Whee!

2007-05-25T18:27:00.000-04:00

Look at me! I'm on the front page of Etsy with my Key Lime Pie Hairpins!

Garden update.

2007-05-21T20:47:00.001-04:00

My latest obsession with the garden is still flourishing. Just look at the flickr...
Every morning I wake up and hop outside while the coffee's brewing/reheating to water a few choice sprouts, check my slug beer traps for victims, and pick off an aphid here and there.
Every afternoon I come back, water if necessary (I know, I'm a bum, I just can't bring myself to get up 15 minutes earlier to water EVERYTHING in the morning.), spray with my homemade soap/hot sauce insecticide (now with neem!), and do a quick check for buggies. (Which there always are. In great abundance.)
I've even known to come back past dark on a call night and check my slug traps by flashlight.
I'm crazy. I'll be so sad when this whole project yields nothing but a bunch of stunted, worm-eaten stems...but it certainly has been fun, and a great way for me to spend some time outdoors.
The picture above R is the corner of the deck, with the 'sun gold' tomato (not growing as well as its counterpart, the aptly-named 'better boy' in the ground), a little pepper plant, and my sage plant with 'grand rapids' lettuce sown underneath, just for fun.
Isn't the sage looking beautiful? I'd like to take a moment to talk about this most-beloved of my plants. In some ways it led to my gardening this year--it was a housewarming gift that flourished on my windowsill through the winter, and has yielded numerous cuttings (some living in my care, some given to others) and seasoning for a host of tasty marinades and casseroles. In fact, I'd never really considered using sage as a seasoning until I tried it fresh--somehow the fresh sage has a much more delectable and less overly-strong-breakfast-sausage taste to it. Plus, it's been super easy to grow. Just water and snip off a bunch here and there, and it rewards you by growing ever larger, greener, and bushier. I guess what I'm trying to say is...give sage a chance, if you haven't--in fact, if you stop by, I just might force you to take a cutting :)

Cinco de Mayo + one day

2007-05-06T15:12:00.000-04:00

It's absolutely gorgeous out today--not a cloud in the sky, 70 degree weather, and a fabulous breeze. Why couldn't this have happened yesterday so that my cinco de mayo cookout could have ben spent outside?!
Oh well. Still ate 4 kinds of dip and enjoyed quesadillas with a side of burgers.
Today was a puttering kind of day in the garden-made a new trellis for my peas, of which I'm rather proud...see pictures above, alone and installed in the garden. I'd started crocheting an afghan-square type dealy out of jute quite some time ago (for a bag, I believe) and just crocheted it into thr crook of the branch. I feel not a little bit like a large spider (Arachne, for the mythically-inclined).
Yesterday I sowed some beet and herb seeds directly into the bed as well--there were some unfilled spaces still and I figured they weren't going to grow anything productive by themselves. Also made some strips out of old pantyhose and tied up some of my sugar snap peas to the tree branch trellises.
On the pest-control front, I discovered little green worms on my broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower, which I think might be some sort of cabbage looper worm, but am too lazy to google right now. Very sad. Still have large slugs (found a big fat 3-inch one in one of the beer-traps this morning!) and sprinkled some pennies around some of my plants just because...what else am I doing with those pennies?
Aphids are sprinkled sparsely over just about every one of the plants.
I bit the bullet and bought some Neem oil-based pesticide last weekend, and have continued spraying with my homemade frank's hot sauce and liquid soap concoction. I think I might just have to get rid of the cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower---I planted them so late I doubt I'll get anything edible even if the bugs don't eat them all up first. Sigh.

I'll show you mine...

2007-04-30T22:03:00.000-04:00

Check it out! The garden is now on flickr!
That's right, I'm tired of blogging all those words when pictures will do :)

Impatience

2007-04-25T20:14:00.000-04:00

I think this gardening thing is going to be wonderful in terms of developing my patience and humility.
Doesn't that sound just disgustingly virtuous?
Really, I want to talk about how I fiddle around the garden daily, transplanting this, watering that, moving pots around on my deck.
Though it's definitely warm enough out to move my containers out onto the deck for good, the deck is in the midst of being refinished (i.e. boy is powerwashing, staining, etc.) so they're still living in the sunroom for now. The house has a very wide soffit however so unfortunately the plants in there get little direct sunlight except for first thing in the morning. (Said sunroom, messy, pictured at night.)
Today I had an unexpected two-hour break in the middle of my day so I transplanted the rest of my snap peas into the ground. Of course this was right around noon when the sun was absolutely baking, so perhaps not the best timing on my part, but I had a clinical laboratory to go tour in the afternoon.
I think I've probably bitten off more than I can chew with the gardening this year...with two large decks and 1.7 acres of (albeit mostly wooded) property my space is essentially unlimited, and so I've decided to grow...let's see now...20-some-odd different plants, with absolutely zero gardening knowledge under my belt. Other than a homemade concoction of liquid soap and hot sauce and dishes of stale beer I've got absolutely no pest/disease-fighting skills, and in fact will probably require about 3 hours' worth of googling just to IDENTIFY any pests more exotic than aphids and slugs.
And everything grows so slowly! Unlike any of my other hobbies..knitting...beading...polymer-ing... no matter how much work (or fiddling) I do with the plants, they don't grow any faster! Hence why I keep buying new pots and new plants, because...I want something to do!
When I look at pictures from a month ago, I at least do see some progress. I also realize that I've planted my broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower way too late and that it's going to be too hot out for them. I also grow doubtful about all the labeled "days to maturity" on my plants--70-some days? It's been a month and my beans have barely reached the 1-foot mark, my cabbages are about 3 inches tall, and my carrot seedlings almost require a magnifying glass to see. My pepper seeds didn't even germinate!
I wonder if I'll end up with any edible veggies after all this...

By the way...

2007-04-25T16:46:00.000-04:00

...did I mention that I got another kitty?
Mack, as expected, is not pleased.
Not. Pleased. At. All.

Life as a Hausfrau

2007-04-21T18:12:00.000-04:00

I've been quite the productive little domesticated lady today. What's that, you say? You'd like to hear about my mundane house-lady day in excruciating detail? Well, since you asked so nicely, here it is:
Actually, let me start with last night where I stayed up until 1AM baking creme brulees, cleaning the kitchen (with actual cleaning products, not just a paper towel sprinkled with water!), and tidying up dirty laundry sprinkled liberally about the house.
This morning, I slept in until the unheard-of hour of 9AM...heck, I slept until 9:30! I immediately sprang into action and threw some coffee in a thermos and headed to the Durham farmer's market, which I've been meaning to go to forever. It was absolutely gorgeous out, and while there wasn't much fruit available (perhaps due to recent frosts?) there was a smorgasbord of wonderful, irresistable seedlings.
(Parenthetical note: I've clearly gone mad for this gardening thing. If you had asked me a year ago what I thought about vegetable seedlings I would have said "nothing.")
I restrained myself from purchasing as many plants as I would have liked (I'd have liked to bring home about a dozen different tomatoes alone) and bought only the following little motley crew:

L to R: "Better Boy" Tomato, "Sun Gold" Tomato, Thai Sweet Basil, "Empress of India" Nasturtium (x4).
Total price tag for the little guys above was $5.75, which is certainly a much better price than I would have gotten at the Home Depot, though much steeper than my 10 for $1 seeds (given, my seeded basil has JUST barely sprouted...little bastards...). The nasturtium was a total impulse purchase--I just wanted some edible flowers!
So of course I had to stop at Big Lots and get some more pots too, since I'm all out of containers. A few hours and some sunscreen later, here's what we have:

I split the nasturtium among 4 different pots--mixed with some flowers from seed (that are generally not doing wonderfully, perhaps due to my lack of expertise) and a sage cutting from my beloved windowsill plant (which was transplanted to a larger pot today, yay!)
The Thai basil (in the white wicker) will now grace my kitchen windowsill as will one of the nasturtiums (in the solo cup)--I didn't notice when I was picking out plants that its stem is a bit withery, and hopefully with some close attention it will make it.

The "Better Boy" in the ground. It may not be fancy and exotic but it's supposedly easy to grow and bears fruit fairly early, so...keep you fingers crossed for me.
Otherwise, I didn't do much with the other inhabitants of my sunroom other than move them onto the deck for the day (as I've been doing daily, then back inside at night, because since the frost killed all my little baby bean plants I've been paranoid), but I'd like to show them off anyway:

Boxes of goodies--sugar snap peas, three bean plants which I dug up and sort of salvaged, barely-sprouted asters & snapdragons, and almost totally unsprouted basil.

Hibiscus plant, from a good friend's wedding lunch - coming out of hibernation quite nicely!

Window box of "Flower Garden" mix, and two window boxes of sugar snap peas, the inhabitants of one of which I planted in the ground. So sue me, I didn't know that you were supposed to directly sow beans and peas when I put them in their boxes. Come on, this is my first garden ever.
And then, to make my housewifery complete, I:
-mended two pairs of the boy's jeans which had ripped.
-ironed three shirts (my own), which I almost never do, being that I hate ironing, particularly my women's cut shirts which have all these weird darts and such.
-vaccumed
-mopped the kitchen floor
-tidied the bedroom
-did not tidy my study/lair
-picked up fallen tree branches in the front yard
-swept the front porch and sunroom
I felt quite the grown-up!
Happy Earth Day, everyone!

Accomplishments

2007-04-17T12:37:00.000-04:00

Pictured above: The current plot (looking artificially much greener due to fallen leaves from windy day yesterday). The progress of my broccoli. My windowsill nursery, featuring morning glories. This weekend instead of studying I once again futzed around in the garden, sowed some more veggies (squash, cucumber, and lettuce) and made a dress.
Yes, I made a dress. Somehow I came across a tutorial by rostitchery on sewing a "one-seam infinity dress" and then I got on one of my characteristic impulsive "gotta have it now now now" missions, bought a bunch of red polka dot and olive green stretchy fabric from wally world (6 yds of each, WAY too much) and started cutting.
Sadly, it was then discovered that our current sewing machine, an absolutely gorgeous antique Necchi that belonged to the boy's nana did not have a zig zag stitch. I was sad. I shelved my project, but the little voice in my head would just NOT shut up, so I googled "hand stretch stitch" and handsewed almost the whole darn thing. Hours and hours later, here we are:

The twisted-back style leaves something to be desired given that the wrong side of the fabric makes too much of an appearance. Sigh.
All in all I'm pretty pleased--it's my first dress, and I think it's rather lovely. we'll see how it holds up to wearing this weekend at a semi-formal--hopefully my hand stitching holds up to hours of dancing

High Hopes

2007-03-26T22:36:00.000-04:00

It was a beautiful weekend. I had two whole days off, two glorious days of 80-degree weather that I was to spend studying obstetrics and gynecology.
What did I do instead? Work on gardening. Really. The whole weekend.
About two weeks ago I was at the dollar store (yes, I am classy like that.) and noticed that they had a wide variety of seed packets at the unbeatable price of 10 for $1. I plucked out an assortment of vegetables that did not seem wholly unappetizing (i.e. left the radishes behind) and a flower packet or two and whisked them home to half a bag of potting mix (previously purchased for some tea olives in giant vietnamese glazed pots for our front porch) and some empty plastic nursery pots (left over from said tea olives and 8 gardenias that are now slumping in a front flower bed).
Pictured above: Gardenias, in front flower bed, slumping.

So I sowed (planted? scattered?) some of the seeds in pots, labeled them, and sat them in our sunroom (sharing space with the bunny) with frequent waterings to germinate. And lo and behold, some of them actually germinated by this past weekend--notably beans (pictured above), broccoli, cabbage, and some flowers (seeds that were a wedding favor from a good friend's wedding last year). But what to do with the tender little seedlings? My backyard is right now a wilderness of clover, stickerbush, and the occasional wild onion tuft. And how would I keep the deer from eating my (doubtless) soon-to-be-bountiful harvest?
As fate would have it, the boy recently found 30 feet worth of chain-link fence in our stream (also 7 old tires, but those would prove less useful) which after some discussion (involving the word "redneck" not infrequently) we decided would be turned into a little garden fence along with some additional wire fencing on the side of our deck.
Add a few yards of topsoil from the waste management center down the road a ways (it sounds like we live in the boonies because...we sort of do.) and half a hot day's worth of cutting sod, digging, spiking, and wheelbarrowing and we were well on our way to tacky hick yard paradise. (Check it out, pictured above)

Later on in the day when it got a bit cooler I plopped the little sprouts into the new beds and got bitten up like crazy by mosquitos. Fertilized, watered, and latched the fence gate closed and hoped they didn't all die/get eaten overnight.
The next day I got up pretending that I was just going to putter a little bit in the garden before studying, but of course somehow ended up back at that same dollar store buying more seeds (this time of flowers) and some classy garden day-cor, including a little ceramic thermometer with birds on it, a hummingbird sheperd's hook, and a copper-wire and green marble swingy thing. Totally. Sweet.
So then I spent the day planting morning glory around the split rail fence in the front yard (pictured to the left) and the garden fence, sunflowers in a row near a recently transplanted fig tree (taken with much toil from my parents' house a few weeks back) and flowers in various pots and flower beds, and did not learn a damn thing about endometrial, cervical, or ovarian cancers. (Ironically, I am still procrastinating from reading about said topics right now as I am typing this.) The current "garden" layout above (demonstrating my lack of both gardening and photoshop skillz):
Some more random pictures:
Below: Makeshift garden labels from chopsticks, paper, packing tape. I did not take a picture of the "cabbage" flag which I taped upside down onto the chopstick. R: Transplanted fig tree (which was definitely a half-day's worth of work digging up roots, etc. I hope the dang thing lives!):

Post-Call

2007-03-19T09:30:00.000-04:00

The free time that I used to blog in has been taken up by overnight call and studying for shelf exams. Fortunately, I have managed to carve out enough time to keep crafting and maintaining the Etsy store. Unfortunately, my knitting projects have mostly fallen by the wayside as I've made the journey to more instant-gratification projects. Fortunately, my mother has been taking up my slack on the knitting front (read: helping me chip away at my SABLE) by knitting wonderful things in record time--for instance the gorgeous white cabled sweater above.
She wanted to sell some of her things on the etsy site so I went ahead and listed that sweater as well as a leaf-lace scarf that just sold:

Of course, the selling of my mother's handiwork on the site brings up a number of questions about pricing of handmade goods. Despite her lightning-fast needles, the prices listed for these items would be less than minimum wage for her labor, and I've seen a number (dare I say, the majority) of knitted items on Etsy sell for prices that would barely cover the price of materials. The argument of course that she (and many others) makes is that they enjoy their knitting, that projects can be done while sitting in front of the TV, etc. Also driving these prices is of course the fact that many people/consumers would not pay more than these prices for a handknitted piece.
The bottom line is of course that it's her decision. She set the prices that she felt were fair, and that she would be happy with. But...you see how I might be conflicted still--I don't want to feel that I'm exploiting my own mother!

What I've been up to

2006-12-19T16:32:00.001-05:00

I was going to write a big long picture-filled description of what I've been up to, crafting-wise, hence all the big pretty pictures of stuff. However, blogger suckered me into moving into the new blogger beta and now a few different blogs I keep have all rolled into one massive ball connected by the same profile and I'm not happy about it. So far it looks like there's nothing that can be done to fix it, and I am really annoyed. But anyway, here are some pictures of some of my more favorite stuff that I've been making. Perhaps I'll blog about them later...

Papaya fruit necklace

2006-12-19T16:32:00.000-05:00

pearl apple earrings

2006-12-19T16:31:00.000-05:00

four-leaf clover necklace

2006-12-19T16:30:00.000-05:00

lasagna

2006-12-19T16:29:00.001-05:00

Breakfast bracelet

2006-12-19T16:29:00.000-05:00

organza necklace

Knitty & Me

2006-09-11T18:16:00.000-04:00

Eeep! Look who's on Knitty's Cool Stuff Page:
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall06/FEATfall06stuff.html
Scroll down to the Quick Picks and there I am!

Thanks go to the talented SockDiva, who sent some of my sample markers into knitty along with her wonderful omiyage pouches (which are reviewed near the top!).

Skull Heart Wristwarmers

2006-07-21T12:02:00.000-04:00

I made these for the secret Friend of Craftster swap and never got around to posting about them. Unfortunately I've since forgotten most of the details about them.

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in pink and grey, and a brushed black acrylic from my stash.
Needles: Size 7 dpns
I essentially took the hat that my partner had on her WIST and morphed them into wristwarmers. Wristwarmers are an easy thing to design without a pattern--I just did up a quick gauge swatch, measured around my wrist and around my hand at the thumb (the narrowest and widest points) and did some math for the increases and decreases. I started and ended the wristwarmers with about a 1" band of ribbing for a cozy fit.
These were my first attempt at fair isle (I typically don't like the look of colorwork) and I was pretty happy with how the designs came out. I think had I used colors with more contrast the skulls would have popped out more, but I think you could tell what they were.

My first wrap skirt

2006-07-21T11:28:00.000-04:00

So, way back when (say, 2-3 months ago), I got the idea to make a reversible wrap skirt, inspired (as usual) by someone on craftster. Of course, what I forgot was that said person had way more sewing skillz and most likely a sewing machine in working order (which I THOUGHT I had, but was mistaken.)
So off I go to the nearby thrift store (which, as it turns out, has really expensive prices for a thrift store) to get a record for another project, and end up coming across a convenient pattern for a wrap skirt. I go "WTH" and buy it for $1 or something and come home and start slaving away.
Ok, so first of, nobody ever told me what a pain in the a-- it is to lay out and cut pattern pieces. Maybe they did, but I was busy drinking, or my brain was ignoring it because, come ON, when am I EVER going to try to sew something? I lose.
The pressing and pinning and sewing together of pieces was actually ok up to the waistband, which I had (from previous experience with making a ribbon belt or two) decided to make out of contrasting 1" ribbon rather than bands of skirt fabric. During the sewing of the waistband, the machine stalled, and had to be taken apart/re-oiled/tinkered with by the boy. He claims he didn't touch the tension knob, but the machine just hasn't been the same since. The tension was wayyyy off and the machine was doing all sorts of hideous loose stitching, no matter what I tried to do to the knob (which hovered between stuck too tightly to the machine body to popping out on me). Also, the machine continued to stall (probably due to aforementioned tension issues) and I gave up on sewing the waistband and threw the whole damn project into a box, occasionally taking it out and attempting to sew hideously on it before giving up again.
I spent an entire day on Monday wresting with the sewing machine and got the skirt finished, in a manner of speaking. Here it is in all its glory:

Yes, it's reversible, and yes, it needs to be pressed.
Close-up on the best and worst of the waistband/tie stitching:

Incidentally this was made with Simplicity #7391 in case anyone's interested. The skirt ended up being rather heavy but pretty flattering (nothing like a wrap skirt to fit even after a week at an all-inclusive) and had it not been for my inability to fix the f--ed up machine tension I would have been really happy with how it turned out. As it is, I still might weat it but the stitching will embarrass the hell out of me.

Stenciling

2006-07-21T10:58:00.000-04:00

I'd forgotten to post some stenciling projects that I'd made earlier this year (I had been waiting to post them so as to not spoil my secret for a secret Craftster swap)

A shirt I made for a friend whose nickname was "JuiceBox" and is a fellow AZN. Umm, yeah. AZN.

Here's a hoodie I stenciled for that secret swap--my partner had a hoodie like this on her wist. I was pretty happy with how well the guns came out.

Speaking of the secret swap, I also made a not-too-shabby looking ribbon belt for my partner, who liked hot pink and polka dots:

I sort of wanted to keep it, I was really happy with how it came out...

Summer Break

2006-07-21T10:42:00.000-04:00

The short summer break (three weeks) between first year and second year has flown by and is rapidly coming to a close (we start orientation to clinical year next Monday, yikes!). I haven't actually had much time to craft/knit, being that I've been on various trips (mostly to beachy locales) most of the time. I tried to plan lots of trips so that the time would seem longer--days spent lounging at home fly by and blend into one another so much, despite being SO DELICIOUS. In what time at home I've had, I have been working on one big project pretty much exclusively, as well as coming up with a few new items for the Etsy shop, and finishing some sewing.
My newest venture was making a purse from one of those kits with heavy-duty double-sided fusible interfacing ("InnerFuse" in this case). I literally spent an entire day making this--mostly because I kept screwing up and needing to take apart my sewing machine, but also because I didn't know how to do half the things I needed to do to make it. Here it is in all its glory:

blurry detail of the inside:

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out considering it's the first sewn bag I've ever made, but I still don't know whether it's of a quality to actually carry out in public with me.
List of things I learned/fixed during the making of this purse:
-what satin stitch is. and that my machine would need a woman with more skills than I to make it look like it does in the kit's FO pictures.
-what tear-away stabilizer is. I'm not sure I needed it for the edges of this project, but I sure couldn't Google out a solution to doing satin stitches over edges without it.
-how to open up the top of the machine, and the bottom. and put them back together, too (important)
-how the bobbin winder works, and that it doesn't work as well with oil all over the wheel. (said oil being from the boy who seemingly emptied a gallon of the stuff inside the machine).
-how to remove a bent needle that's jammed into the bottom bobbin area (though not what to call that bottom bobbin area)
-how to get somewhat reasonable tension out of a totally f---ed tension know that's falling out of the machine half the time.
-to follow the instructions in order even if at first glance it seems clumsy (since I ended up having to sew a handle tab on by hand due to my reckless sewing on of the inside pocket earlier than instructed)
-that I'm never going to be able to sell handbags for fun and profit, because I just plain don't have the talent for sewing. thank goodness for those who do.

Gack.

2006-06-18T18:38:00.000-04:00

I've obviously been hyper-obsessed with the Etsy store. Often before listing items I'll just do some searches and make sure that someone else hasn't thought of the EXACT same thing, made it, and listed it already. A little paranoid, yes, but I'd hate to come across as a copycat (to revert to my grade school vocabulary).
I guess that in the past when I've come across items on Etsy that look pretty much exactly like mine (and were listed later) I just sort of gave them the benefit of the doubt--that perhaps they independently came up with the same idea, didn't search before listing, yadda yadda. But just now, while searching for something else, an item caught my eye and I was drawn to a shop that had several almost identical items to the ones in my shop--all listed recently, and well after my items were listed and sold. In one case the item description was even similar. And of course they're underpricing me. I noticed that she had some similar items to another polymer clay seller too...sigh.
So, what's a girl to do?
I've decided to just relax after having a long weekend with a few nice sales, and ignore it. From what I've heard on the forums, complaining to admin and direct conversation rarely leads to productive outcomes, so it's really just not worth my time. I know that ignoring the problem will not make it go away and will likely make it grow, but I'm in my last two weeks of school, I've got three exams (two of them finals) and a paper, and I've got better things to do than start a PM war.
Grr. My practicality is making my head hurt.

Mack Goods

2006-06-13T18:15:00.000-04:00

It's official. The Etsy store has taken over my life. I check it obsessively, I list things daily, and I have an ever-growing stash of polymer clay foods. I spent the afternoon working on a custom order (8 bacon stitch markers) and putting together promo materials (charms, business cards).
Should I have been streaming a lecture on gastrointestinal neoplasms? Yes.
Did I? No.
Above is a collage of some of the things I've been making lately. It's interesting to me how the store has developed and taken new directions in a manner which almost indicates to me a life of its own...random ideas for new things to make pop into my head at night before I fall asleep, and I'm compelled to make them. Some are hits, some are misses. It's a fun time. Oh. What's in the picture, you ask? Clockwise from upper left: Fresh Grass Yarn Necklace, Carrot Earrings (as yet unlisted), Luna Bird Necklace, Fried Egg Hairpins, Tiny Lime Hairpins (just listed, and just sold!), Pearly Lining earrings (unlisted).

Sweet Hummingbird

2006-05-25T21:35:00.000-04:00

This weekend I was at the new house with the boy and supervising his construction activities in the comfort of a screened gazebo we set up on the deck. Out of nowhere this big buzzy flying thing swoops in and starts flying frantically around the top of the tent. My first reaction was that it was the biggest of many big bugs I'd seen that day, but then I realized that it, in fact, was a hummingbird! I snapped a few shots of the little critter before helping him out of the tent:

As a side note, apparently hummingbirds are not terribly clever/have extremely limited visual fields, as I actually had to PICK HIM UP and move him outside the tent by hand--gentle shooing just didn't do it. Maybe all that vibrating makes it difficult for the brain to process information properly. But anyway, when was the last time YOU held a hummingbird in your (paper-towel-covered) hand?

Jameson

2006-05-25T21:28:00.000-04:00

I know it's been a while since I updated, but I got a new rabbit last Thursday. Her name is Jameson, after my ol' standby whisky and also due to the fact that we're not absolutely sure whether she's a she or a he.
Either way, Jameson has been a feisty little sweetheart--a little spastic in that funny bunny way, but very sweet--her paws don't get great traction on the floor so she sort of puddles into a sprawl of bunny when I pet her for extended periods of time.
She's also growing exponentially and soon will be bigger than mack, who so far is SOOOO interested in/freaked out by her.
The first time I let them interact somewhat without an intervening cage she hopped towards him and he kept backing up until he was on his hind legs against a corner. WIMP.
And yes, I clip his claws and watched them like a bunny-loving HAWK in those moments.

So little time.

2006-05-13T21:25:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning to find my new sweetheart lying on her side in her cage, dead.
Yesterday around noon she was fine, happy, hopping around and bringing joy to my heart just watching her play (and you know for a cynical bitch like me to say a phrase like "bring joy to my heart" that it really must have meant something...).
Yesterday early evening she had a little diarrhea and wasn't moving around as much. I figured I'd given her a treat that disagreed with her and kept checking in on her periodically.
Yesterday later in the evening she seemed to be moving around a little more, so I figured she was on the mend and went to bed.
And so it goes.
I should have known better, I should have taken her to the vet, I should have known.
She's just a bunny. I only had her for a week, barely enough time to get attached to her. Poor sweet little girl.
It seems so callous, but I'm going to get a "replacement" thursday. Thank goodness for warranties on pets, eh?
Sigh. I don't know if it was my fault or the pet store's.
I need to stop thinking about it.

2006-05-11T14:38:00.000-04:00

I'm not cat food!

Cute. Overload. For Real.

2006-05-07T22:30:00.000-04:00

What is that?!

Only the cutest little bun-bun ever!

Yes, yes, I'm afraid I gone and did it. I got a rabbit. All that CuteOverload-ing could lead to no good, and here she is.
She's an awfully sweet little lap-fluff-pile, though.

So far I'm just trying to stifle urges to pick her up and squeeze her, and letting her get used to her cage. From what I've read, cats and bunnies can coexist, but there'a no way my demon is getting near this baby right now--hopefully when she grows a bit she'll be able to throw her weight around a little more, but they're in separate rooms right now and for some foreseeable future.
I have to find a name for her. So far she's definitely Lady Fluffington or some such ridiculousness, but I need a proper first name. Any ideas?

Rise & Shine Necklace!

2006-05-06T20:56:00.000-04:00

I've been making a lot of goodies for the Etsy shop and barely have time to list them all, much less blog about all of them. I'm so pleased with this one, though, that I felt it was blog-worthy. I present to you: the rise & shine necklace!

I've been wanting to make plate-o-food necklaces for quite some time now, but just a plate by itself seemed so...forlorn and incomplete. I found these knife and fork charms and voila, the necklace! The chain is repurposed from a necklace that had a bunch of dangly stuff on it (now replaced with breakfast).
In other exciting news, the Mack is Back sale generated $114 for the no-kill shelter, yay! It was really exciting--I think the sale definitely boosted sales, which was AWESOME. Crafting stuff + helping kitties = crazy cat lady nirvana.
So I decided that I'm going to continue this donation business--way back in september of last year I posted about Joggin for the Noggin, an organization started by some amazing folks to benefit brain cancer research. From now on, I will be donating 15% of the purchase price of every item to them. Brain cancer= bad! Craftiness = good!

Kitty Pillow!

2006-05-04T17:57:00.000-04:00

I got the most wonderful kitty pillow from my FOC today! She's so adorable, and absolutely perfect for me.
Look at how freakin' adorable she is! She's totally gorgeous--made out of a vintage-rose-print fabric on one side, and olive corduroy on the back and in a star applique. (My FOC had made me a knitting needle roll out of the olive corduroy and I'd mentioned it was snuggly enough to sleep with at night and here it is!) I had a cat pillow on my wist but this is MUCH CUTER!!!
And what a beautiful little face, with the prettiest black carved victorian rose buttons for eyes--here she is, looking longingly out of the window:

And here she is with Mack:

She is totally awesome and I can't wait to find out who my FOC is! I haven't been trying too hard to figure her out, I've basically established from handwriting I think that I haven't swapped with her before, but you never know...people are sneaky. In any case I've been such a bad detective (1 out of 5 ain't...totally terrible...) that she's really in no danger of being revealed.
Now, to think of a name for my new friend!

Crafty Promo!

2006-05-04T17:56:00.000-04:00

So the amazing hertrigger on craftster is putting together a craft promo program for crafty entrepreners--it'll be like the sampler, but awesomer. Yes, awesomer. I spent all afternoon putting together my contribution:

I made slightly larger versions of my usual mini foods to serve as charms/pendants.

It sort of makes me feel all warm and fuzzy sending these off...like I'm releasing my little babies off into the world!

I hate school.

2006-04-30T14:25:00.000-04:00

It's continually interfering with my crafting time.

State of Creamsicle

2006-04-24T00:14:00.000-04:00

APOLOGIES if any of you were wondering what was up with all the untitled/commentary-less photos, stupid Blogger wasn't letting me publish a darn thing and I just remembered about all these poor unexplained photos just now...

Here's where my Creamsicle sweater is at...just starting on sleeve #2, and wondering whether it's going to come out ok...I'm worried about the width of the upper sleeves...I don't want it to cut off circulation below the elbow, but I don't want big poofy 80s prom dress shoulders either. Sigh. We'll see how it goes.

Short N Sweet!

2006-04-24T00:09:00.000-04:00

Yarn: Schachenmayr Lipomo in color 12, Nougat, a nice beige with a shiny thread in it.
Hook: G (I was stuck at the house and only had a G hook, so I did some fudging with a swatch and decided to make the size M...we'll see how it goes.)
One of the projects I started this past weekend was the Short n Sweet bolero from The Happy Hooker. I had a little conniption when I was working the back--I couldn't figure out where the rest of it was, then I realized after looking at someone else's blog that the back was left half-done while I did the two front bits, then all joined together to avoid seaming. Yes!
Unfortunately this is an exam week, so who knows when I'll be able to work on it again?

Berroco's Celia

2006-04-24T00:08:00.000-04:00

Yarn: Schachenmayr Lipomo in Nougat
Hook: G
Pattern: Berroco's Celia
The project that I intended to work on this weekend at the house was the Celia camisole. Unfortunately when I finished making the cups I realized that for some reason the directions stopped printing out halfway through the second cup. I just made a duplicate of the first cup since I figured it pretty much looks the same. (Seriously. NO ONE is going to ask me why the ridges aren't in the same places on both cups. If they were looking that closely at my chest, I'd smack them upside the head anyway.) I tried it again at home and the same thing happened. Either Berroco has a problem or it's my printer. Considering how often their creations end up on You Knit What?!, I figure I can safely blame it on them.

Crafty Detective Haul!

2006-04-20T22:39:00.000-04:00

Another wonderful package I got recently from my secret crafty detective/stalker:
She figured out that I like cherry blossoms and that I love green, crochet, and cats!

The goodies:
-Painted/stenciled shirt with cherry blossoms (a size too small, I'm afraid...but it will go to a good owner!)
-Cherry blossom art for my walls
-A green pouch with my favorite shades of green--that has belt loops for me to use as a hip belt!

-The cutest catnip snack toys! I love love love the little fortune cookie so much I might eat it myself!

-The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller! I've been wanting this one soooo badly and was unable to find it at my bookstore. I've already started making the Knot Ugly Shrug...unfortunately as it turns out I probably didn't get enough of the yarn (Gedifra Aragona, color 3357, lovely pinks and browns...) and I can't get any more of it...le sigh. Anyway, there are so many things I want to make from this book that I suspect my knitting needles are gonna get a little lonely in the next few months!

Secret FOC package Numero Uno!

2006-04-20T22:07:00.000-04:00

I've been awfully remiss about blogging not only about my yarn exploits but about my
awesome Craftster swaps too! I'm currently active in the secret Friend of Craftster (FOC) swap, where you pick a partner and make them several packages--but it's all very secretive and one tries to figure out who their partner is. My first package was adorable and strawberry-themed:

An adorable strawberry print apron (I love it! I've been neeeeeeeeding an apron so badly!) and strawberry mirror
A somewhat bad action shot--I need to get a better one but my in-house photographer is never around when it's light out!

Close-up of the cute strawberry mirror. It makes me want to sit in cafes checking my makeup and checking out cute boys, but of course my SO would probably take issue unless he were the cute boy in question.

Return of the MACK!

2006-04-16T19:42:00.000-04:00

Without a doubt, I am the luckiest bastard in the whole wide world. I went out to the house first thing this morning and noticed that the stinky wet food I'd left last night had been eaten, and something had urinated in his litter box. That latter fact instilled some hope that Mack was somewhere in the area still. I know, I know...taking heart in cat urine, how much nmore crazy-cat-lady could I get? I headed over to the library and got to work on last week's lectures. I finished my studying at the library around 5:30 and headed out to the new house with a heavy heart--the forecast called for thunderstorms tonight and it was starting to look a little overcast. I wanted to do all my checking up on his food/water/etc. before the skies opened up.
I roll into the driveway with Bjork blasting, and grab a water bottle and a can of stinky tuna cat food out of the backseat of my car before getting out. I hear something--maybe a faint meow, probably my imagination playing tricks on me, but I turn and yell out "mack-mack!" into the woods as I've been doing three times a day for the past few days.
And in return I hear another meow, unmistakeable and plaintive. And then I see my little furball strolling out from behind the shed, looking like all the world like he just woke up from a nap--sleepy eyes and all. I'm almost crying I'm so relieved.
I walk over and he deigns to let me pet him just like he usually does.
He even lets me scoop him up and run him over to his carrier, though he's clearly not overly thrilled at being unceremoniously stuffed into it and rushed straight home.
He wasn't even seemingly that excited to be home--he slurped up his bowl of milk, chewed on his new asian food treats a bit (from my crafty stalker! I'll post about those in a bit...), then flopped down at the foot of the stairs and stared at me.
I'm baking him a cake as we speak...I know baked goods aren't good for kitties but he loves them much more than a nice rotisserie chicken!
I'm so happy and relieved. Thanks to everyone who gave me reassurance in these past few days--you were right, he did come back--but it was so awful to think that I'd never see the little guy again. I wanted to do something nice just to somehow try to thank the powers that be in a karmic sort of way, so for the next 2 weeks I'll donate the price of anything that sells in my store to a no-kill cat shelter in the area. I know, it seems sort of a silly thing to do, but...I'm just so grateful and I can't think of a better outlet for it.
Just look at this face:

Speaking of which, I saw a little flea on there just now...I'll have to schedule a vet appointment to get him all checked out, and maybe give him a dip...

Irresponsible.

2006-04-13T21:58:00.000-04:00

We closed on our new house today and went out to our favorite barbecue place to celebrate with a little fatty dinner. Afterwards, we planned to take a bottle of bubbly that had been chilling in our refrigerator, sit on the back deck, and watch the sunset and listen to crickets in our new giant, overgrown back yard.
We had the brilliant idea to bring the kitten along to start getting him used to the new property. He's been seeming really antsy being cooped up in the apartment lately and has been darting outside every chance he gets. I put him on the halter, put his Sherpa carrier (him inside) into the car and away we went.
Long story short, he got off the halter and disappeared into the undergrowth by our new neighbors' house, and we spent the rest of the time yelling, calling him, jingling bells, and generally walking around like crazy people. Of course he did not materialize again, and as it got dark the chances of seeing a black cat got slimmer and slimmer. We did see a little calico kitten surveying our antics, but not my little demon. I can only hope that he's off humping some strange kitties and having the time of his life...
And so here we are, back at the apartment, minus one little black kitty.
I am the world's worst mother for bringing him out there. I keep trying to tell myself that it's fine, that he's got our phone number on his collar and that he NEVER comes when we call him and he's probably just exploring in his little boy-cat way, and when I head out there tomorrow he'll be mewing at me and expecting his morning can-o-chicken, but I can't help worrying about him being scared and vulnerable and hungry and never seeing him again or knowing how he's doing. How could I have been so stupid and irresponsible?!
Of course in a selfish note the biggest exam of the semester is next Monday and I should be focusing on studying, but I start getting all choked up thinking about him. He's just a demonic little black cat, right? Just a cat.
No, but he's not. I can't turn the switch off just like that. He's my baby and I took responsibility for his little furry life and keeping him safe and now I've failed him.

Update

2006-04-11T20:19:00.000-04:00

Things here have gotten busy and hectic. I'm feeling stressed and unwilling to study, but the studying is piling up nonetheless in a rather unfortunate manner. I started a gray alpaca scarf for my grandfather, but I'm concerned that it's too thin (it's the dk weight "alpaka" one gets from A.C. Moore), so I purchased another two balls of it so I could try to make a scarf doubled up with it...I've yet to make a decision to rip out the 4" in moss stitch I got done while volunteering at the film festival this past weekend.
I'm really excited about the etsy store still...I think about it daily and while I don't have the time to promote/advertise as heavily as I really would need to to get business booming, the sales I make every so often really boost my morale and keep mack in kitty food. (He heard me typing about him and tried to get back into his favorite spot curled around my laptop, right in front of the fan, but I stopped him in time) It's just really gratifying that people actually like the stuff I craft enough to pay their hard-earned money for it. Amazing.
I'm still plodding along on the Creamsicle sweater--I'm halfway up one of the sleeves after I finally gave in and bought another set of #8 dpns--my first set is still on that version of knitty's Shedir that didn't get done in time for christmas, and I don't have the heart to put it on holders, it would REALLY never get finished then.
Anyway, the picture of the day is this dinner tin that I made a while back and never got around to posting--I was so proud of the gravy!

Pizza Stitch Markers - SOLD!

2006-04-10T21:47:00.000-04:00

A while back I'd made this little pizza--pepperoni and sausage--to serve as stitch markers, and listed it in the sty shop. I was all sad because no one else seemed to like them, but joy! They've been sold and are going to find a good home in a neighboring town! Yay! Yay!

Olivine Earrings

2006-04-07T13:15:00.002-04:00

I spent the morning making a green glass multi-strand necklace instead of learning about catacholamine drugs. I don't have pictures of the necklace since I'm wearing it right now, but I ended up wanting some earrings to go with it, but were't too big/long. So this is what I came up with:

I think they're pretty. I bought these beads a while back and have been meaning to do something nice with them. I made a victorian-style woven necklace thing with them but it turned out a total disaster after all the time I spent on it...so I had to put them aside for a while to get over the disappointment.

The power of cheese.

2006-04-07T13:15:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I love cheese. It's bad for you and it smells funny, but it tastes oh so good by itself, on a cracker, or *drools* melted on anything.

I can't believe it's taken me this long to make mini cheeses. Poor cheese, I'm sorry I took so long to make you. Clockwise from top we have Blue, Swiss, Cheddar, and a delicious smoked Gouda.

And now they're available in necklace form in the Etsy shop.
I know, I know, I keep posting things I put in my shop, but what can I say? The etsy bug has bitten me bigtime and it's a great excuse to spend entire days crafting! (Oh, what was that honey? You ask what I'm going to do with all the stuff I keep making? No worries, I'll just SELL it! What? You say no one's going to buy a pendant shaped like swiss cheese? You may have a point there...)

Crafty Detective Swap

2006-04-03T19:48:00.000-04:00

Craftster had a crafty detective swap, where we "stalked" a given partner to figure out their likes/dislikes and send them a package. My partner received last week according to the DC# but hadn't posted/PMed/etc. and I was a little worried, but as it turns out it was just the usual computer problems--here's what I made:
Two necklaces--she'd asked for natural rather than sparkly, so I tried my best, but I think some sparkles may have slipped through:

Necklace with blue glass beads--the pendant is a piece of coral I found on the beach in barbados, wrapped with silver wire and a sea turtle charm I received from one of the craftsters that spoiled me in the unconditional swap.

This necklace has a big swirly glass bead for a pendant and the body of the necklace has a variety of semi-precious stone chips.

An amigurimi bunny named Isadore--my first amigurumi (I'd never have made one for myself, but I thought she came out rather cute, if I may say so myself.) She'd crocheted out of brushed and regular acrylic with a G hook roughly following this pattern--she didn't quite come out like the one pictured, but I think she looks more "adult" in her proportions.

Cabled fingerless gloves, finished on a long car trip (5 hours for each glove, am I a slow knitter/cabler or what?) Knit from brushed green acrylic on #7 DPNs, roughly following this pattern, except I put ribbing at the tops and bottoms for a neater edge and a band of ribbing down the palm for better fit.

Here's the whole package--I also added some blue stitch markers and a vogue knitting magazine to encourage her knitting, a sea turtle t-shirt for her to recon (and some ribbons, trim, and an eyelet kit--I don't sew/recon so I have no idea what comes in useful...) I hope she enjoys it...

Late Stash Flashing

2006-04-02T23:02:00.000-04:00

Ack! I've just returned from a wonderful weekend in the mountains and am catching up on e-mails, craftster, etc. and suddenly it occurs to me that I forgot that I was supposed to be flashing my stash! Ack!
I took some pictures of the stash location prior to leaving, but I didn't end up unpacking all my yarn to take nice, well-lit pictures of it. I don't really have anything terribly drool-worthy anyway...though I did pick up some Schachenmayr Lipomo (10 balls of the mocca color) and some more Gedifra Aragona (in a lovely pink/brown colorway) for a song!
Anyway, you get some pictures of my chaotic crafting room/study (shared with the SO--poor guy basically has nowhere to move what with all the crap...)

Here's my hanging Ikea organizer, stuffed full of yarn and A.C. Moore bags. The circular support of the top compartment has actually collapsed in under the weight of the yarn. If only I had more space, I'd put up another organizer (I got three of them) and re-distribute. Alas. A project for when we move into the new house...

The top shelf of my craft closet--the first bin from the left is filled with FOs (some that I wear, some that I don't), the middle bin actually has little yarn, and the bin on the right has a cotton fair-isle yoked sweater that I started taking apart for yarn and then sort of got bored with. Oh, the brown bag on the left is FILLED with lion brand Jamie Baby yarn. I have enough for about 20 years' worth of friends' babies.

Check it out. the 4 giant gray rubbermaid bins on either side of that closet are packed to bursting with yarn, the two plastic drawers on the floor of the closet are filled with yarn, fabric, and notions (dude, I don't even SEW. why do I have a fabric stash?)The middle bins have a variety of packing materials, various WIPs, and the Amazing Stud Setting Machine.

This is truly the heart of my stash, though it doesn't provide much in the way of yarn porn. It's my excel spreadsheet of my collection--I find everything much more quickly with it--I can sort by color, weight, amount, type, fiber content, yardage, etc. etc. ad nauseum, and it gives locations (bins by number, hanging basket, etc.). My SO laughs every time he sees me open it up, but it's really an invaluable tool.
But yes, I am sort of crazy.
Currently I'm at over 200 balls/skeins/cones of yarn, and growing. Yay!

Steek Tank- Done!

2006-03-30T20:57:00.000-05:00

Just in case my recent posts have convinced you that I've gone Etsy crazy and stopped knitting altogether, dear reader, I have an FO to show you!
Presenting....the Teva Durham Loop-D-Loop Yarn-Over Steek Vest!

I had to throw in the view with mack sitting in the window staring out. He looks evil...and that's because he is. But I adore him anyway.
The stats:
Yarn: Moda Dea Ticker Tape in Pink Passion (about 4.5 balls)
Needles: Denise #15 circulars
Pattern modifications: I added an extra 1" to the bottom ribbing band, and inserted an extra K and P row even after Row 1 and row 4 of the neck/shoulder shaping (4 extra rows, total, on each side). This basically made the tank longer and thus fit my torso a bit better (I'm sick of finding after I've finished that I made myself a belly shirt.)
I've been wanting to make this tank top ever since I first laid eyes on it. I just had to get the right yarn for it, and the Ticker Tape was on sale for $3 a ball. Despite my recent projects, I rather dislike yarn with colorways in it. I know, I'm a bad bad yarn snob in that I don't like yarn that self-stripes itself in every color of the rainbow, but I just don't care to wear rainbow-colored sweaters. And it's not because I'm anti-pride or anything like that, so don't even go there. Oh, where was I? The tank top.
I love how quickly this knit up, what with the #15 needles. Like most big-yarn knits, it's very bulky, but since it's a sleeveless tank top and is missing essentially a slice down the front, it doesn't look too bad.
And...an action shot (pardon the armpit and what looks like a double chin) with lots of little ends hanging off...I subsequently wove the ends in and wore it on the town for a hot date involving pizza, stromboli, and shopping for used CDs. Sweet.

Food Earrings

2006-03-30T16:30:00.000-05:00

It was suggested to me on one of the craftster boards that I do something with my mini foods other than stitch markers, since not everyone knits. I figured that this was a good point and so I made some earrings--it wasn't hard, I just replaced the nickel steel jump rings with sterling silver chain and hooks, and look, I'm in business!
Basically, I figured these were the foods that translated best into earrings--I thought the t-bone steaks (my personal favorite) were a little weird, but I don't know why eggs are ok. No one's bought them yet, I wonder if I should just use regular ol' base metal findings and sell them for less (sterling is expensive, yo!)

So, I finally got around to using the TLS to make gravies/sauces/jams. I'm loving how the peanut butter and jelly look with it!

Poppy Pins!

2006-03-30T16:19:00.000-05:00

I've been a busy bee. It's my spring break this week and since I was too lazy to make plans ahead of time, I've been spending this entire time crafting! Yay!
I made two versions of the same poppy pin here:

One with grosgrain threads in the middle for stamens/pistils,
and one with a button in the middle:

I think they look much better in person, but I may be biased. The button one is on sale at the Etsy shop. If there's one thing the etsy marketplace is saturated with, it's flower pins. (If there are two, it's jewelry...but that's the next post...) But hey, it's only a dime to list items, why not?!

Sheep Knitting Tin

2006-03-16T16:58:00.000-05:00

Speaking of Craftster swaps, I noticed that I'd forgotten to post a picture of the One Tiny Thing that I made for the lovely knitter who made me my One Tiny Knitting Brooch. I covered an altoid tin with swirl canes to look sheep-like (she'd mentioned she was born in the year of the sheep and collected sheep stuff, so I put two and two together and here it is) and put a sheep on the front. The tail is supposed to be getting unraveled into a ball of yarn in the corner.

I decoupaged a knitting needle/crochet hook size conversion chart to the inside of the lid (I figured an experienced knitter like her didn't need an abbreviations chart.) and filled the tin with some knitting accessories--tape measure, scissors, tapestry needle, row counter, and stitch markers (made with glass beads that I tried to match to the outside of the tin).
All in all I was pretty happy with the way it turned out--it was funny how great minds think alike, though--another crafter (a seamstress paired with a knitter) made One Tiny Knitting Kit as well--though hers was a cool fabric roll-up kit. It was totally sweet.

Sushi + Knitting = LOVE

2006-03-16T16:50:00.000-05:00

So remember my mysterious purple project? It was a plum-colored Cleo with lace modifications for Craftster's knit/sew/crochet swap, in which sewing-impaired knitters (like myself) get paired up with knitting-impaired sewers, and vice versa. I didn't end up getting a very good shot of it before I sent out (and have since deleted the shots, silly me), but the very talented recipient said she liked it (yay!) and sent me all this delightfulness in return:
A knitting tote, needle roll, and coin pouch, all done in this absolutely to-die-for sushi fabric that she went out of her way to get for little ol'me. *blushes*

Inside of the tote--there are two pockets in the side for goodies

Knitting needle roll in action
Action Shot
I absolutely love Craftster for this...not only do I get to craft for people, but I also get awesome awesome stuff in return...le happiness!

Tins A' Plenty

2006-03-16T16:34:00.000-05:00

Good lord. I need to stop with this polymer clay thing. I've LITERALLY been sitting in class thinking about the things I'm going to craft as soon as I get home. yesterday I made two little tiny covered tins. I made an easter-y one with a bunny and big carrots on top. I put it on sale at the Etsy store. I mean, it is sort of almost easter, right?

Is it sort of sad that I found these little tins in the store and immediately thought: "these would be perfect to cover with polymer clay!"?
Ok, it sort of is, huh?

A ruler to get a sense of the size.

And the second tin:

Delicious. The toast and bacon are basically made of the same components as my breakfast stitch markers, and I mixed up some scrambled eggs because I'd rather have scrambled eggs than sunny-side-up ones. (But the scrambled eggs don't translate as well to stitch markers!)

Sushi Stitch Markers

2006-03-13T19:28:00.001-05:00

The finished sushi - Clockwise from top: Shrimp (Ebi), Tuna (Maguro), Egg (Tamago), Eel (Unagi), and Salmon Roe (Ikura)
These were a custom Alchemy order on Etsy.com --basically, Alchemy is a place where people can post items they'd like to be crafted, and folks can bid on projects they'd like to do. You can also ask for custom orders from a particular shop/artist, which is how it happened here. I was so flattered--this customer had bought my meaty stitch markers and I'm so happy that she liked them.

I think they came out pretty darn cute, if I may say so myself--my favorite has got to be the salmon roe-it took a little extra time rolling each of those little guys individually, but I think the result is just somehow really precious.

I'm flashing it...

2006-03-08T18:02:00.000-05:00

I can't wait to share my stash with the whole wide world...
Umm, even if it contains a high percentage acrylic.
It'll be THAT MUCH SHINIER!

One Tiny Knit!

2006-03-04T21:33:00.000-05:00

I got a package from Canada today! It was my One Tiny Thing from the eponymous craftster swap!

My fellow asia knits weblogger made me a sweet orange mini-knitting pin! I've been wanting one of these since I first saw them, and now I can parade around town with it, yay! She also included a nice chocolate note and some keyboard magnets which I also have been wanting since I first saw them!
A close-up of the pin. Unfortunately for some reason the orange didn't want to photograph right. I would beat it into submission but it's too cute!
A shot of the keyboard key magnets in action. I love these, and they're going to be perfect since I have two big magnetic noteboards above my desk that I put EVERYTHING on. So. Cute.
I love swaps.

DIY Kit Goodness

2006-03-02T14:42:00.000-05:00

From this:
DIY Kits
To these:
Felted Soap
Votive

I received two lovely craft kits from a Craftster a little while ago and just now am getting around to posting about them...I got a felted soap kit and a mosaic votive kit.
The felted soap smells like delicious delicious almond, and the votive is my first attempt, made with some picture marbles I had lying around and some marbles that were included in her kit. I love how it came out--I need to work on my mosaic technique somewhat, I suspect, but I think it's cute!

School Lunch!

2006-03-02T14:39:00.000-05:00

So I made these new stitch markers. I swear, I am the cheesiest Mofo ever--check out my little description under them for the Etsy shop:
"Do you ever get nostalgic for the school lunches your mom would pack for you every morning? That brown bag with your name in magic marker on the outside, handed to you as you ran out the door (late for the school bus, as always) with a kiss and a pat on the head?
Well, maybe, like me, you never got that sort of thing. But hey--it's never too late to relive that imaginary childhood--especially while you're knitting!"
Yes, I am ridiculous.

Embellishing

2006-02-13T17:32:00.000-05:00

So this weekend I picked up some women's undershirts in order to try my hand at embellishing clothing. Needless to say, I am no seamstress, and no fashion designer either. So this is what came out of it:

The grey tank has some vintage lace seam binding (I wasn't going to do anything else with it, that's for sure...) poorly handsewn around the neckline, and the pink bow is from a fondue kit and is detachable (via a pin).

The black tank has the "queen of hearts" design courtesy of my "Incredible Stud Setting Machine" i.e. the ghetto-style BeDazzler I got off eBay years ago. Let me tell ya...NOT WORTH THE TIME. Every other stone I had to pry out and straighten the prongs of the setting because the damn thing just didn't work like it was supposed to. The settings still look wonky enough that you guys don't get a close-up.
So in conclusion, I am never going to be a fashion designer.

Rise & Shine!

2006-02-12T18:13:00.000-05:00

Since I had the entire afternoon free, I decided to spend it crafting instead of studying (no one saw that one coming, eh?) I embellished two undershirts and made a bunch of breakfast foods out of clay. Breakfast food is the cutest!

More Stitch Markers

2006-02-10T15:05:00.000-05:00

Heartened by the quick sale of my green stitch markers, I made these just now instead of studying the lectures I missed on Wednesday morning.
Sadly, when I did the math on my pricing of those other stitch markers, it turned out that between the PayPal fee, the Etsy commission, and the actual price of shipping and handling, I barely covered the cost of materials, much less my time. Sigh. But it's still fun to make them...

Emerald Stitch Markers

2006-02-10T13:44:00.000-05:00

I like how this photo of these stitch markers came out. The afternoon sun really brought out the...err...green inside the glass. They sold quickly! Yay!