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. (i thought of him.)

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.

snails.slugs.

snails have always been one of my favorites.  i don’t know why.
they’re just so adorable.  i found a whole bunch of them in my neighborhood
while out for my morning walk with my boys this weekend.

they’re so cute!

father’s day.

i finished another keychain. 

that’s for my dad’s car.  and also the requisite aveda shaving cream and balm i buy him evey year.  when i was little, i enjoyed watching my dad make foam with his shaving brush, apply it to his face and then watch the foam disappear as he shaved.  sometimes he let me have a go.  and that was always fun for me. i don’t know if men do this anymore.  they probably all use electric shavers.  but there’s something classy and refined about doing it the old-fashioned way. i guess that applies to a lot of things.

 

cross-stitched keychains.

oh, i haven’t been knitting much these days.
i can’t seem to find a project to be excited over.
so i’ve mostly been cross-stitching.
for my family and friends (one of which i have yet to mail out).

the designs are from a korean company and so are the keychains.
my mom’s back in seoul + thailand on a vacation so i’ll be ordering more designs for her to bring back.
i won’t mind doing more keychains but i’m sick of the designs already.

they were done on plastic aida that came with the keychain.  front and back.

some of the keychains i finished:

the bright red DMC cotton floss bled. very much. 
as you can see how it stained the plastic aida a faint pink. 
i washed and scrubbed it but the stain was set.

i’m so glad i found this out when i did because i started a tulip design that used a lot of red and to refrain from a post-finish, pre-framing wash i’m taking extra precautions when using the scroll frame.  i’ve been inserting a sheet of paper towel when rolling the canvas so the dye doesn’t transfer.  it’s working quite well.  the dye is transferring on the paper towel instead.  crisis averted, if i do say so myself.

and another thing about scroll frames.  LOVE IT!!  i wish i tried it sooner.  i would have if i knew just how convenient, easy to use and non-obtrusive it is.  bye bye hoops.  you and your stitch smooshing, fabric distorting evil self;  i hope i never see you again.