Random Picture

My favorite flower, the Gerber Daisy.

I want to start posting more random pictures. I take so many pictures that it would be fun to pick one every week to post. This picture is the result of a photo shoot with my absolute favorite flower: bright pink Gerber Daisies. I plan to use these as my wedding flowers, along with blue hydrangeas and white lilac. Oh the plans I have for my wedding. They are just dreams in my head right now, but someday they will all be real. And then I will be married to the boy I love. How exciting! ♥

Wire knitting. Part 2!

Presenting Valerie's knitted wire bracelet! Isn't it lovely? She used pearly gray beads and iridescent cylindrical beads to knit a garter stitch bracelet. I believe she cast on 3 stitches and used the same US 7 needles as I did. The garter stitch in the wire resulted in a more 3D effect, which gives it a lot of dimension.

Valerie's bracelet.

Another extreeeeeme close-up!

Lovely job Valerie! It's so fun to knit with someone else. I taught Valerie how to knit last year and she has made some really awesome stuff! Right now she is working on a poncho out of the softest yarn ever! I forget what it is called. It feels like a puffy cloud. It just nice to share the crafty bug with someone who really loves to "create" too. Thanks for knitting with me Valerie! ♥

Wow! I actually finished it!

I finally finished seaming Easy Street during Char*med last night. I really like the end result as it is warm and cozy. It was actually chilly enough this morning to wear it to class. I used Patons Shetland Chunky Frosted Rose (a little over 5 skeins) and the pattern was Easy Street from Patons Street Smart booklet.

My first sweater!

Easy Street from the back.

A couple of lessons I learned from knitting this sweater:

• I don't particularly enjoy seaming. It took awhile to seam-up because there was a 3 month pause between sleeves, but it's finished. Next time, I will not stop seaming after I start. If I seam it all in one go, it will much better.
• Next time, knit to fit!!! It's a little short in the torso and the arms. I hadn't quite grasped the concept of knitting to fit your body type when I knit these peices. I am quite tall and thus have longer than average measurements for arms and torso. Must remember this when knitting sweaters in the future.
• Order more than enough yarn for a sweater! Order an extra ball! I ran out of yarn at the neck line of this sweater. Much scrambling ensued, but it all worked out.

Overall, I am proud of my first sweater! I'm sure there will be many more to come! Yay for finishing! ♥

Knitting with wire.

This weekend, Valerie and I took a trip to Michael's. Valerie was flipping through Simple Knits with a Twist and she noticed the wire knitting among other cool "twists" on knitting. We were inspired to try, so we bought some 26 gauge wire and beads to experiment. I came up with this bracelet! I used US 7 (metal) needles and cast-on 4 stitches. I knit in stockinette which caused most of the beads to show on the purled side so that's the side I used as the "right" side. Then I wove the ends together in some weird grafting and tada! A pretty bangle bracelet.

Knitting with wire!

Extreeeme close-up!

Thank goodness the bracelet isn't too big. Knitting with wire isn't exactly easy on the fingers. My figertips were a little sore afterwards, but it was quick and fun! I want to make more! I wish I could find black wire. I think that would look really awesome. Now Valerie is knitting a bracelet. We only bought one spool of wire so we have to take turns. :) I'll post a picture of hers when she finishes. ♥

Oh goodie!

So, I started to write up my pink poncho pattern a week or so ago, when I realized my trusty scrap of envelope that I had scribbled on my notes on had disappeared. Now you have to understand... I moved from near LA to the middle of PA in 2 days, with a pit stop in Pittsburgh (haha) along the way. There was a high likelihood that the scrap of envelope had been tossed. I was sad. But wait!!!

What is this?!?

Could it be?? It is! The scrap of envelope was found today, right where it belongs, in my knitting binder. :) I had looked everywhere but where it should be! Yay! So pattern writing will commence. Also keeping the pattern scribbles company in the pic above is a new WIP!! Ooops. That makes 4... 5... eh. Who's counting anyway? It's Clapotis! From the Fall Knitty. I like the pattern and would absolutely LOVE to make it using the Lion and Lamb it calls for, but it's a bit out of my price range right now. So I'm using a lil skein from my stash. TLC Cara Mia which is sooooo soft. It's acrylic with a dash of angora, so I'm afraid I may have an issue with curly edges. We will see. But the pattern is way fun, with the dropping of the stitches! And the diagonalness. I am making a much more narrow scarf than the original pattern gives, using only 2 repeats of the increase section (instead of 6). I think it will make a nice snuggly scarf. Perfect for fall in State College. Long live scarves!!! The instant gratification makes me happy! ♥

Roll call!

Presenting, a roll call of my knitting projects!!!

First up is the Skinny Striped Scarf. Knit with Lion Brand Magic Stripes in the Jelly Bean colorway. It's a simple 1x1 rib. Unfortunately, I don't really like the reddish color in the mix, so I have been strategically eliminating most of it from the striping. This will lead to weaving in ends, which is what I was trying to avoid by using self-striping yarn, but oh well. This scarf was requested by my sister. I'm not sure how well it will live up to her request. She wanted something like this. I may have to search for softer yarn, as Magic Stripes is a bit scratchy for a scarf. Hmmm. Maybe a good washing will help. I still have fun with the stripes though.

Skinny Striped Scarf... ahhh, mindless knitting.

Next up is my Cozy Alpaca Cable Hoodie. This little beauty is knit with Peruvian collection Sierra wool/alpaca blend from elann.com in an awesome heathery denim color. The pattern is from Patons Street Smart booklet. I ♥ all of the sweaters in this booklet as you will see in the following paragraphs. :) I'm almost up to the armhole decreases in the back of the hoodie. I started this sweater awhile ago, but it languished over the summer. Now she's back in the rotation.

Cozy Alpaca Cable Hoodie... cables and bobbles are super fun!

Third up is Miss Limey Lacey Mobius Scarf. She is super cushy and soft in Peruvian collection Baby Silk a alpaca/silk blend from elann.com. Scrumptious! I got the pattern from elann as well. This mobius scarf thing is for my mom, who's birthday is coming up so I'm trying to finish before the big day (October 3rd). Miss Limey was born back in February, but being a slightly tedious project with tiny needles and tiny yarn, she has progressed slowly. I'm on the last skein so I think I'll definitely finish in time.

Limey Lacey Mobius Scarf... sooooo cushy and soft.

Now we move on to the Please Finish Me For Pete's Sake pile, which is small (phew!). My Easy Street Pullover has been one armed for a whole summer. It's getting cooler out (yay!) so it's high time I finished seaming the darn thing. Only one sleeve and side seam to go. This sweater is made from Patons Shetland Chunky from a pattern in the Street Smart booklet. I'm actually excited to seam it and be able to wear it now that I have pulled it out from the corner, so hopefully I'll have an FO to show soon.

Pink Easy Street Pullover... finish me pleeeeeease!

And for a peek at coming attractions, the Urban Aran. Also, knit in Patons Shetland Chunky. Also, a pattern from the Street Smart booklet. :) The only other sweater in the book is the Must-Have Cardigan and I will eventually make that as well. The booklet was a good investment for sure!

Mint Urban Aran... I have to exert much will power not to start this NOW!

There you have it. All present and accounted for. I have so many ideas for projects in my head though! Too much to knit, too little time! ♥

Fun at the Crowbar

Random pic for the day.

This is a non-knitting entry. Just a picture from 2 weekends ago. From left to right, it's Valerie, me, and Tessa. We've been best friends at PSU since we were freshman! That was so long ago it seems. School is busy, so I haven't been able to knit as much as I would like. *sigh* It makes me sad when I don't knit. I'm working on 3 projects right now. They are listed in my sidebar. I will have to make entries about each of them soon. ♥

Happy 1st Birthday Ethan!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

The pumpkin hat fits! It fits really well, actually, and I think it will get lots of wear during the fall. :) Isn't he the cutest little kid! When Mike and I are married, I will officially be Aunt Amanda to little Ethan. How lucky am I? His first birthday party was last Sunday and I went home so that I could go to his party. Fun times.

In other news, the school semester is almost 2 weeks old!!! I really love all (or mostly all) of my classes. I'm taking a bunch of fun classes as well as some harder required ones. Fun classes include intro to theater, yoga, and social problems (which doesn't sound that fun, but it's an infamous course at PSU). Even the harder classes are exciting because they are about the biotech field, which is what I did my internship in last summer and what I hope to find a job in when I graduate. There is Ch E 438, which is upstream bioprocessing, and Ch E 448 which is downstream bioprocessing/bioseperations! Yay! Then there is Biochemistry (with a hard*ss professor... not fun) and Biomaterials, which is a graduate level materials science course. However, the Biomaterials professor doesn't believe in exams so it should be relatively stress free. All this comes to 19.5 credits, which is rather hefty. But 7.5 of them are fun!!! So that makes it 12 credits which is definitely doable. *deep breath* I just have to keep telling myself that! :) ♥

The reluctant minisweater.

I had a couple issues with my minisweater before finally finishing. Here's my little story:

Back in California, the minisweater was coming along swimmingly. "Let me try you on for size," I said to my little sweater. So off the needles she came. Alas! The sleeves had about 2" too much floofyness to them. Hmmm. Strike one.

Sleeves that are too floppity.

Then, I took stock of my remaining yarn... Uhoh. Are the poofy sleeves eating up all my yardage?? I am determined to make this sweater out of one skein and I still have many body rows to go, not to mention the rest of the sleeves! Strike two.

Dwindling yarn supply.

Then! I notice the kicker. There is a previously unnoticed dropped stitch right on the front garter stitch band!!! Only about 10 rows from the beginning! Drats! Strike three...

A mischievous dropped stitch... front and center.

YOU'RE OUT! And out she came. I tried to rip back to the mistake, but the stitches were too much of a pain to pick up. So she came completely undone.

Oh no!

However, I cast right back on and knitted furiously on the plane home and a bit the first couple days of classes with my new improved pattern modifications and voila! She is finished.

Success!

I really liked this pattern and I loved the yarn. It's so soft and snuggly. It reminds me of tericloth. As for the modifications: I made less increases on the sleeve so the poofyness was diminished and I didn't knit the 7 or so rows of stockinette to lengthen the sleeves. I just started the decreases right away after I picked the stitches back up from the scrap yarn. I like the shorter cap sleeves. :) So there you have it. The story of the reluctant minisweater. I'll have to take a close-up of the button because it matches perfectly. Yay. ♥

So much has happened!

This last week has been absolutely insane. I had to finish up my internship at Amgen, pack up and move back to Pittsburgh, unpack, then repack to move up to State College. All in 2 days. But the worst part is that I forgot the power cords to my computer and monitor at home. So I haven't had the internet for the last week!!! I'M GOING INSANE. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am dependent on my computer and the internet. I've missed the internet so badly that I have come to the PSU computer labs to post and check out all the blogs that I haven't been able to read. I have pictures to post and words to write, but unfortunately they will have to wait until next week. I'm going home after the football game to visit and get all the stuff I forgot! Oh well. ♥ I will resume the knitting fun as soon as I can.