first knit of the year

I haven’t had much time to knit this past winter because I was busy adjusting to my new job and its crazy schedule but I did find time to go yarn shopping couple of times.  I’m not usually one to buy yarn just because it looks pretty, I usually buy yarn specific to a project that I have chosen.  But on both these shopping excursions, that is exactly what I did; buy yarn because it’s freakin pretty and soft.  And now it’s just sitting with all my left-over yarns, collecting dust.  Remind me to never do that again.

Knit Collage's Gypsy Garden

On a trip to Purl Soho, I splurged on a skein of what I call the prettiest and the quirkiest yarn that I ever did see; Knit Collage’s Gypsy Garden in Kinari Bazaar.   (J lovingly calls it “Mermaid Vomit”) It has mini rosettes in blue and pink, sparkle yarn in an assortment of neon colors, orange and silver colored shoelace and bright colored ribbons.  Two balls would make a hat but I felt that it would have been too much so I decided to alternate with a more sedate yarn, Blue Sky Alpalca’s Bulky in Natural.  It blends together very well, you can’t even tell two different yarn brands were used.

I can’t wait to start wearing it when winter comes!

birthdays

I was never a fan of big birthday celebrations, especially if it was mine.  It all seems a bit self-indulgent, although everyone needs to self-indulgence once in awhile. I just don’t feel like it should be done on my birthday.  It’s not like I accomplished a huge feat by being born.  If anything, my mom should be the one getting my birthday gifts.

That being said, my plans for a low-key birthday kind of backfired on me. I decided not to do a celebratory night with all my friends.  Then I realized it was a bad idea when all my good friends then wanted to have separate dinners.  So, what could have been accomplished in one night turned out into dozens of lunches and dinners.  Don’t get me wrong; I love my friends and am glad they want to celebrate but it was just…

Next year, I’ll just go with the social norm and get it all over with in one night because these separate “let me take you out for dinner” was a bit too much.

Anyway, I’m writing this post to gush about an indispensable kitchen “appliance”. Zoku.

My brother and his girlfriend gave me an early birthday gift before leaving for vacation to Aruba.  Anyone who knows me knows that I have an unhealthy obsession with popsicles.  Come to think of it I love almost all foods on a stick.  Anyway, it’s the Zoku popsicle maker and I used it for the first time today and it’s great.  It yields smooth evenly flavored popsicles in 7 minutes.  Believe me, I’ve tried popsicle molds and although it makes delicious popsicles it’s never quite the same; too hard popsicles and cumbersome to use.

Zoku makes popsicles that are firm but tender.  And because it’s not sitting over-night in the freezer you don’t end up with a very sugary tip and unflavored, watery, rock-hard portion on the top end of the popsicle.

tang popsicles

tang popsicle with grape juice center: yes, layers are possible! WIN!

Felting Projects

Felted Basket

As soon as I took my last final, my friends and I went yarn shopping in anticipation of the winter break.  And I finished a couple of knitting projects and I think these are my favorite.  The basket is for my sister who needed something to hang on her bedpost for her remotes. Click here for a ravelry link to the pattern and my ravelry project page for details. It was pretty mindless knitting and I love that I had free reign over the color repeats.  I just went with it and I think the color combinations turned out great.

Yorick

Yorick, came out better than I hoped.  The pattern calls for hand felting but I couldn’t be bothered with it.  I tried for a couple of minutes and I couldn’t do it.  It felt like my skin was going to slough off.  Not pleasant, so I just felted the whole thing in my top loading machine.  Next time, I will remember that it is pretty important to the overall design factor to cut out the eyes and nose before felting is finished.  I cut out the eyes after all the felting was done and it was hard to get clean lines.  I had to stop myself from going overboard in trying to get perfect ovals for the eyes and triangles for the nose.  It kind of ended up looking like a snake but I’m happy with the results.

hello old friend!

a new year means a new planner and i couldn’t resist one in watercolor and a cute picture of un chat avec une jolie petite fille.   And like, it’s in french.  so it’s a win-win all the way.   AND look inside.  she’s knitting!

this blog has been left out in the dust, hasn’t it?
i should update some new photos. as there is another addition to our group of quadrupeds in our household.  and new knitting projects have been finished. (it’s a miracle!)

december 2008 knitting news

finally. i’m posting some knitting news.
i knitted some slippers for christmas gifts.
they were relatively fast knits.
i probably spent more time combining yarn to be worked in 3′s more than knitting itself.  (even with W’s help; it took awhile)
and i don’t even want to think about how much energy and hot water i used for felting them.  it’ll make my stomach churn.
(these projects left a huge carbon foot print.  ya know?)

(oh and click photos for more photos and links)

House Slipper from Knit 2 Together

and finally i knit a scarf for my cousin.
something he requested last summer.
it was a very late gift.
he requested a specific color and none of the yarn sites i frequent has “shop by color” option; so it took me awhile to find the exact shade.  and when i did, i only had a couple of days to knit before he arrived in nyc and left again for seoul.
i have never knit so fast in my entire life.
i was amazed at how fast my fingers were moving.
moody teenage boys become so difficult when it comes to taking pictures.

Irish Hiking Scarf from www.helloyarn.com

Mobile blogging

Check check. A test entry to see how it looks when I blog using my mobile.

I’ve downloaded an app. that allows me to blog from my phone. More reason to let my desktop collect dust.

And I haven’t had much time to browse through the app. store but a couple of nights ago I came upon something called “Panolab” that let’s me do this with my pictures.

(metro north train station)

um, hello. it’s been awhile.

i’ve been so busy.  wow the last time i posted was in july?
that was also the last time i was on my desktop.
time flies.

i’ve quit my internship.  so now i’ll have more time.
although it was a tough decision to make, i really feel like i followed what my heart told me to do this time.  at moments like this i’ve always followed the more logical choice but for some reason, my gut instincts were telling me to just fuckin quit and cut my losses.  although it wasn’t a total loss.

i learned how a big veterinary hospital works, i learned that i love ICU, that i might end up with an ulcer if i specialized in surgery, the importance of being social with co-workers and how vet. interns are treated.  (LIKE CRAP).  god, i never knew there was so much shit talking behind co-workers backs.  i found that to be an incredible waste of time and energy.  i don’t know why it was so rampant there.

and then i celebrated the untimely end of the internship by catching a show at iridium jazz cafe and then spending the entire next day at the spa with my friends.

he sang “my funny valentine” and my heart melted.

my foot!

cute vet-wrap!

 

can you believe this?  i’ve been telling my friends i broke my foot because the real diagnosis is a bit too long to explain but it’s not really broken.  but i most definitely hurt it. 

it all happened when i insisted on helping my friend W, unpack.  she herself actually broke her foot so i thought i could be of some help.  we went to eat breakfast at IHOP and then went home to play with her dogs.  i suggested we go to home depot to buy some stuff we might need and on our way to the car we spotted a stray dog.  in the midst of returning the dog to his owner, i missed a step. and the next thing i know, i’m writhering on the pavement digging my fingers into my thighs cause the pain was just so unbearable.  i mean, it was painful, people. 

but the pain was gone in a day and i’m saving my percocet for a rainy day.

where do the days go?

it has been crazy-crazy here in my life the past week, which is really funny because nothing exciting happened to me at all.  i, and a bunch of friends helped one of our other good friend and her husband move into their first home this past week and it was a bit chaotic for all of us.  although we also shared lots of laughs for the 3-4 days; moving is a lot of work.  at the end of moving day, we all went out to eat a really good dinner but i think most of us were too tired to eat.  i did get an hour or two of cross stitching and finished a project.  i really needed to unwind at the end of those days.

i finished the tulip design! 
it doesn’t call for any backstitching at all, which is unfortunate because it would have really added to the design.  the pattern gives color chart for red and yellow tulips.  midway thru the piece, i realized that i could have done the tulips in both yellow and red, and not be constricted to just one color.

my friend remarked that i seem to cross stitch during the summer and knit during the cooler months and that innocent comment got me itching to knit again.  after the moving was done, i did stop by the library to borrow some CDs and some knitting books.  it makes me so mad to find that someone has cut out pages of patterns from the books.  there are copy machines in the library and it’s only 10 cents!!!  why is it still necessary to cut pages out of a book? 

i did borrow a book that i’ve been eyeing.  Classic Knits for Men.  Really traditional designs with some punch of color in a couple of the patterns.  I’ll be knitting something for my dad.  i haven’t knit him anything so far…

tomato plant

my tomato plant grew so much!
it finally sprouted some tomatoes.