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.

Mini Sweater

Please excuse my strings.

The beginnings of my minisweater...

I tried to post these pictures last night. However, having to use my cell phone for an internet connection is less than reliable. Ah well. Here they are now. I'm using TLC Amore like Carrioke did for this Minisweater pattern. I like the color* alot and the yarn is fun to knit. I had to recalculate some numbers, as my gauge was off, but it wasn't anything too major and the sweater is top down so you can adjust the length along the way. Which is what I was trying to do, but I still have a ways to go. It will be cute! I can't wait to finish it. ♥

*The color, Lagoon Print, reminds me of the ocean, the Pacific Ocean... I'm really going to miss California.

A Picture Share!

Ze pumpkin hat!

Yay!

Mikey and I are engaged. :) Most people know. He asked me on August 1st. But it still makes me happy everytime I think about that lovely walk on the beach. Best week ever!

And a close-up of the ring because it is absolutely gorgeous. I'm a lucky girl. I love you Mikey!

Gotta love the Pacific Ocean.

I finished my poncho! I'm so proud. It's my first "design." I had some issues with my neckline stretching out, but I remedied that with a single crochet edge. Works like a charm. I love it. I wonder if anyone would like the pattern. I could probably write it up. It's pretty easy. And it only took 3 skeins of CottonEase. I love the satisfaction of finishing something that I came up with from scratch. Woo. I ♥ knitting.

A Picture Share!

Pretty flowers in California.

Hrm.

My sidebar was just totally screwed by blogger. Some how most of my template was deleted. *sigh* I'll have to redo it. Later.

Bummer.

Eeeek!

This summer has gone by soooo fast! I can't even believe it. I have been knitting but not very much! It's so sad. But once I get back to school knitting will be a time-priority again. It's just hard to justify not going to the beach every chance you get when you are in SoCal. And I've had lots of people visiting and it's just been super crazy and SUPER FUN. I really like it out here. So (not like anyone reads this) I apologize for the neglect. I will be better about posting because I like to keep track of my knitting excursions! Yay! ♥

PS. I discovered that I can post my phone pics from my phone! I just email them to the blogger email and voila! They are posted!!! That is so awesome. See the poncho pics below for the (sucessful) trial run.

A Picture Share!

Finished poncho?

A Picture Share!

Not yet.

Beautiful California!

On the pier at Manhatten Beach in southern California.

Hello SoCal

Well, I'm in Thousand Oaks, California. Wow. I can't believe it. It has been a rather mellow day actually. However, it was rather scary when we got to the PIT terminal to find the USAi*ways check-in line to be 3-4 hours long! It was snaked around the whole upper terminal. Insane. But SuperDad to the rescue! He was his usual assertive self and spoke to a gate agent who helped get my ticket in 20 minutes. Woo! Baggage and security were a breeze. My five hour flight in first class was rather nice. The view was awesome. Then I caught my shuttle to my apartment, took a little tour of Malibu and Thousand Oaks while dropping off other people, and then finally made it to home sweet home for the next few months. I still can't believe I'm here! The apartment is gorgeous. Big walk-in closet, nice kitchen, huge bed, fully furnished. :) But no food. I need to take care of that. So I'm going for a walk to see what I can see. Maybe get some groceries. And then get a good night's sleep. ♥

Spring Showers

After the storm. 

Although the pictures aren't of knitting, I have been knitting. But I'm really tired. So I'll write about it tomorrow. I just wanted an excuse to post macro shots from my spiffy camera. Later. ♥

ProtoPoncho

The prototype. 

My lovely lamb model is showcasing my prototype poncho. I knit a stockinette rectangle and dropped strategic stitches to create the ladder effect and then assembled it in the Knitty Villa fashion. I'm not sure if I would use this construction for a life-sized poncho. I think I might like the "two rectangles sewn together for a v-neck" method. I"m also unsure about the dropped stitches. With this boucle yarn, dropping the stitches back is not the easiest thing in the world. But I like the yarn, even if it is just acrylic and baby yarn. It's like knitting cotton candy! And I think I'll enjoy a Cotton Candy Poncho. :)

In other not so knitting news: I haven't worked much on my Kate Tank. She is languishing in my knitting bag downstairs. I had a lovely time on Memorial Day eating yummy strawberry jello preztel yumminess and delicious pasta salad deliciousness. And there were so many puppies to pet! Have you ever seen a Malamute in person? So pretty, but so big! And powerful. And needs constant attention. I think I need a smaller dog. I really want a Boston Terrier! Those guys are so cute! They are on so many commercials right now. Insurance, allergy meds, flea meds, credit cards... these cuties are promoting them all! I saw one down on the Montour Trail the other day and my dad insists that all terriers are crazy. In fact, he says you may aswell call them Boston Crazies. But I don't mind. I will love my Boston Crazy. ♥

BoogaJ Bag

This is my booga bag I knit awhile ago. I'm actually just testing the multiple picture posting capabilities of Hello. But the colors of Noro Kureyon are gorgeous. So it's all good. :) 

Perfect Poncho

I have been searching for the perfect poncho pattern, but most of the ones I like are crocheted. That's ok, but I have decided to try and design one for the fun of it. This swatch shows a concept I saw at Lerners NY yesterday. It involves dropping stitches to create the ladders inbetween the stockinette sections. It looked really neat with textured yarn at Lerners. I just did a little swatch with some baby yarn I had leftover. I like the texture, but much planning is still to be done. ♥ 

My Kate tank.

This is the front of my tank. Exciting, no? It's fun to play with my new camera. I am familiar with the Nikon set up, but my CoolPix 2200 is so little and cute! Down below is a closeup of the stitches. I love close ups. I have tons of knitting closeups on my hard drive. I'll post them on slow days. Anyway. Time to sleep. ♥