summer school what?

I'm still in denial that I have class this summer, and even more so about the fact that my final is 22 days away. I am however, running full throttle into my knitting, making it rain FOs.

I finished a "good luck going away" hat for Sonu, but unfortunately was never able to snap a pic of him wearing it. I guess that means I'll have to plan a trip to NYC soon? darnit.

I went with my old standby, fig and plum's cashmere ribbed hat. It's a great pattern that fits just about everyone, and makes for a quick knit. It's especially lovely when knit with misti baby alpaca royal, (in hematite) easily my favorite yarn, so soft, light and warm.

My officemate also headed for greener pastures, (*cough McCain campaign cough*) so to wish her well, I knit up a pair of socks with the sliver moon superwash I picked up at MA Sheep and Wool.

spring forward socks from Knitty summer 2008

I loved the pattern, and from the queue numbers in ravelry, I'd bet it's the next monkey! It was easy to memorize, fast to knit and best of all? No purling! Amber seemed pretty psyched with the gift too. The yarn? OY! The skeins were an absolute mess, and a total nightmare to wind!!! It was rough to knit and felt like chain mail but happily, it washed up soft. Based on the price and the resulting squishy socks, I'll probably pick up some more at Rhinebeck in the fall.

I had a little bit of yarn left over for Sara's birthday surprise on Sunday.

lace headband by mintyfresh

Another great pattern. It's a perfect use for leftover sock yarn, I'm sure I'll be making plenty more! I did make one mod. Instead of i-cord ties, I cast on five stitches and knit for about two inches, binding off in the same fashion. I used the resulting tab to fold over a rubber band, sewing it into the headband at both ends. Turned out well, and Sara seemed pretty psyched. Or was it the vodka?

And finally, after all that knitting for other peeps, I got in some knitting for yours truly. I know, I know, I keep saying I'm going to knit for myself, but my short attention span keeps me easily distracted with fun gift knits.

Anyway, this weekend, I frogged, restarted, and finished my knamaste yoga mat bag.

namaste yoga mat bag from Jenni P McD in noro kureyon

My first go at it I kept forgetting my yarn overs and ended up with some wonkiness from my random increases. This time around I paid closer attention, and I love it, it turned out perfect!

I made a few modifications, skipping the stockinette top and adding rectangle rings to the cast on and bind off edges so that I could thread my yoga strap through to use as the handle. I loathe knitting i-cord, (which concerns me, because the "i" in i-cord is for "idiot" right?) so I made the drawstring with the wonder knitter™ I picked up on my trip to Chicago. Fun tv watching knitting at it's best!

Next up? Finish up my gram's birthday cardigan. Sadly, I ended up missing the big party. Long story short, I apparently am an idiot because when I redeemed my miles for the flight there, I never actually purchased the ticket. Sad Pants.

Instead, and unfortunately for my liver, I was here in the bean for an exciting and debauchery filled GTB weekend, which was pretty fun and of course, very entertaining. Ollie's post recapping the weekend is on the horizon....stay tuned!

summer = baseball and yarn!

So, I'm finished with finals and suddenly summer school is underway. I'm trying my hardest to recuperate while we try to squeeze in as much fun as possible now that I only have one class instead of four. Watch out!

Some law school peeps got together for Lester's no hitter last week. It was my first fenway game and while it wasn't as good as wrigley, it was actually pretty fun!

Except of course during the seventh inning stretch when I got a million glares for singing "root, root-root for the CUBBIES!" during take me out to the ball game. Whatevs.

We kept it low key for memorial day weekend, with one crazy exception....Ollie, Emily and I headed out to Cummington (yes, correctly spelled) for the Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft show. Lamburgers, yarn, shearing and showing; it was a good time. Ollie feigned interest, but I think he enjoyed taking lots of pics with his fancy pants new birthday camera. Some of the sheep were pretty photogenic!

Feigning or not, he wins husband of the year award for driving, and more importantly, for waiting while we shopped at WEBS! So much yarn, such friendly staff, such great prices (discounts!), it was a little overwhelming. I've been resigning for awhile now to knit a sweater for myself, but babies and birthdays keep popping up. No more! I've got enough yarn to knit a few sweaters and then some. Surely WEBS was my last big meal, I've got to go on a yarn diet!

The question now is, what to knit? I've been eyeing twinkle's twiggy, the CPH, and the tweedy aran. But I've also had my eye on rusted root for awhile, and cherry and sizzle too, and if I knit one of the summery sweaters, maybe I could actually wear it this summer?

all fotos courtesy of the above linked websites

Hmmm....Ollie's gonna kill me for all this blathering on about knitting.

final-ly

I'm done with finals! Woo hoo! As you can imagine dear reader(s?), most of march, april, and may were spent in fits of studying, procrastinating, pouting, and no blogging. Good thing Ollie is such a Pants fan, 'cause I wouldn't wanna put up with me. Needless to say, it's over. How did I do? Dunno. Not much I can do about it now, it is what it is. Besides, I'm sure it's not hard to make the dean's list when you're in kindergarten, right?

Anywho, after finals were finished, I headed out on a whirlwind tour to see fam and friends. First I jetted over to chi-town for a quick visit with Nita, Matt, and Evan. They're doing fantastic. He's a great baby and Nita's such a good mom!

ohmygoodness he's so cute, but boy, do babies poop and puke A LOT!

I managed to finish his blankie in time for the visit, but apparently dropped a stitch (during finals? no! what a shocker!), because after a good washing, it had a ginormous hole in it. Daphne was relieved to find I would be leaving the reject at home. I knit him up a new one, and I've been told he's thrown up on it a few times already. Yay!

I also stopped in for a quick visit with the in-laws and a few bottles of wine in celebration of mother's day...good times were had by all!

don't mind the blurry pics, I wasn't exaggerating about the wine

Since my trip was technically a vacation, I also managed to sneak in a little fiber hunting and found some lovely noro kureyon sock at wool and company, a great LYS in Geneva...which was kind of on my way to Glen Ellyn, according to Carmen (the garmin I rented). Isn't that what everyone does on their vacations?!

After chi-town, I headed to L.A. for three perfect days with my grandma, aunties, and cousins. Grandma was game for a drive to Pasadena to check out another LYS, this time skein. While the store carried a lot of nice yarns, it was WAY overpriced; Gram was commenting on the prices for two days after our trip :-)

She's doing great and she looks fantastic. We hung out, worked on a puzzle, watched the dodgers, watered the flowers, chatted on the porch; you know, the usual. It was a low key visit, but exactly the quality time I love with her. Her front porch is easily my favorite place in the world. The one comfort in saying goodbye was that I knew I'd be back there next month for her 95th birthday party.

Yes, 95! She doesn't look a day over 80!

I've started knitting her a cardigan for the big day, but my progress is slow, and there's a good chance it will turn into a christmas present.

bristow cardigan, lorna's laces shepherd worsted (superwash!) in periwinkle

I'm almost finished with the back section, I've left out the waist shaping and plan to knit the sleeves in the round. Think I can have it seamed by June 7th before my flight?

Yeah, me neither.

Last, but certainly not least, I drove from L.A. and spent the weekend in S.D. with BA and Timmy. I managed to sneak in a great brunch date with Kate and Beth at the americana in Del Mar, and Timmy was a gracious host and picked us up some In-n-Out for dinner on Saturday! It was great to see them, the boys are HUGE, and I got a lot of quality time with frankie.

she's irresistible

They're amazing parents, I really don't know how they do it. I volunteered to help out and take frankie off their hands, but Beth wouldn't have it. Hmph. (Neither would daphne, nor our landlord for that matter, but that's irrelevant!) It was so lovely to spend time with friends and family, even with tearful goodbyes. I'd give anything for a real summer break, but as Butch always says, wish in one hand....

this one's for all you sweethearts out there...

...let's go buf-fa-lo!

Ollie went way over the top this Christmas and bought us two of the greatest seats for last Saturday's Sabres-Bruins game at the Garden. What can I say, we're dinks!

It was Numminen's first game of the season.

I'm going to bore you non-hockey fans with the details, but my-oh-my was it fun! We've sat on the glass before, but behind the bench? Amazing. Amazing and very distracting. I could not focus on the game, because I was so focused on what was going on at the bench, watching the players interact with the coaches, line changes--it was all so fun.

Despite the fact that the Sabres were out of contention for the playoffs, Vanek's natural hat trick made the night even more fun, and I was lucky enough to snag a sweaty towel from the bench. I use it at the gym everyday!

I was trying to catch the guys coming out of the tunnel, all I got was footage of my towel!
Don't worry, I washed it.

In knitting news, things are moving along nicely on Evan's gifts. Much of my knitting is confined to the T, bus, and tv watching after class, so progress can be slow. Fortunately, this blankie is knit in a bulky gauge yarn which hides imperfections, and knits up quickly. Daphne approves!

Heaven Mini Baby Blanket knit in Plymouth Heaven

I keep resolving to knit for myself as soon as these gifts are done, but Ollie shared our flickr pics with the fam and my FIL discovered that I'm still not knitting the argyle socks he requested a year ago! My fear of seaming has got me thinking of trying intarsia in the round with Lucia's pattern generator.

Sadly, I'm light on adventures as finals are looming. Ollie on the other hand has an action packed adventure coming up; his annual coachella pilgrimage! It really grinds my gears that I can't go. Last year I missed Arcade Fire! Travis! Björk! This year I'm missing Prince! Prince! And I'm certain that by the time I'm finished with law school and can go, the lineup will stink like bonnaroo, and I won't want to go anyway! Pouty much?!

antsy pants

Thus far, March has been a dry month for posts. Perhaps it's the calm before the storm, as we leave this saturday for Vallarta! Woo hoo! And while I have a ton of actual work work to do between now and then, I cannot stop myself from packing, planning, and listing for our trip. I honestly do intend to do some studying for the ol' law school on the plane, but if I were a betting girl....I'd put my money on knitting projects winning out.

I mean look, just LOOOK at the yarn I'm eagerly hoping will arrive before we depart:

Val over at actual size creations has ingeniously hand-dyed yarns in shades inspired by Wes Anderson movies! Ollie's going to get his first hand knitted socks out of the lovely shade above, "Rushmore!" I ordered a bunch more, including Belafonte, Bottle Rocket, Mordecai, and Royal Tennenbaum. I am so dorked out!

Elsewhere on the knitting front, the requisite birthday surprise is past due. Sigh. I managed to finish one sock for My Lisa, (no thanks to the crapload of work I got slammed with) yet failed to get it to her, since la casa de Pants y Ollie was fun-free all weekend; with document review for me (see, actual work work) and Ollie out with the bronchial nasties he's been battling since January!

So My Lisa, if you're watching, Happy Birthday! Feliz Cumpleanos!* Your family misses and loves you! Here's the first half of your birthday present. I promise it will be a pair after our trip.

New Year's Day Socks from Dipsy Doodle
in Socks That Rock Mediumweight in Watermelon Tourmaline.
Short row heel a la cosmicpluto and misocrafty.

Anyway, like I said, we're off on saturday for a week of boat drinks, body surfing, beach knitting, and maybe a little teency bit of airplane studying. Updates and photos to follow. And should you mistakenly think that the fun ends there, Aidan and Michelle are road tripping their way here two days after we get back! Oh, my how the adventures just keep piling up!

*(anyone who knows how to html the proper punctuation including the upside down "!" and "~" over the n, lemme know!)

eye candy sunday

Liz turns 30 on monday, so we headed out to Camp Lizard last night for a little birthday fun. To ensure compliance with the camping theme, Ollie and I brought our PBR, beer cozies, and s'mores cupcakes--chocolate chip graham cracker cupcakes with toasted marshmallow-y frosting. Yum!

Liz and I have a lot in common, and one thing we both do very well is procrastinate the law school studying with arts and crafts. I knit her up a pair of spanish dancer socks, in a nice bubble gum pink to wear while studying, or not studying.....


and she sponge painted a ton of t-shirts so that we all could remember our awesome camp experience:

I didn't get my leatherworking badge, and Ollie sat out the three-legged race, but we had an awesome night nonetheless. So now the question is, do I study today, or do I get to work on more birthday surprises?