Merry Christmas Houston

We had a little surprise...



This was Marty's first snow. He kept giving me this look, "You want me to pee right now? I don't like rain! What makes you think I'd like frozen rain?"



Miller kindly said no thank you.



More to ourselves then.

Gold Nugget Handspun

Some laceweight yarn spawned from boredom and a Project Runway marathon.



Hand-carded batts from Hobbledehoy's Etsy.





Music in the sky

FO - Eva

So I'm still pushing through the Girasole. There's charts A-G, and I am on E. The chart has to be done three times and I'm beginning the third time. Then there is chart F, and chart G that has to be repeated twice. Then the edging and I'm all done.

It's really not a lot but I'm slow and have a terrible attention span.

So, in need of an FO since the Girasole is going slow for me, I finished Eva's Shawl. I actually finished this in July but I finally got around to taking pictures!

Pattern: Eva's Shawl [PDF]
Yarn: Pink Lady laceweight from Knitty Dirty Girl's Etsy
Hook: Size H
Completion Time: June 20, 2009 - July 26, 2009

This was originally for me as a way to add some color to my wardrobe but my mother saw the colors and the word COVET shot out of her eyes. Which is fine since I’m not big on pink, especially hot hot hot pink like this.



So when she’s at work I’m going to surprise her.



This is the first thing I have ever blocked for real. I am definitely buying some lace blocking wires.



The pattern was easy but I think it turns out a great FO. And I’m glad I added the border.



Hopefully my next FO will be the Girasole. Which I hope to finish by my parents anniversary or our trip to Portland, OR.

And it's been rainy here in the Houston area. It is the lovely dreary rain not the FULLY BLOWN SUSHINE rain. It's so nice to have a day where I don't sweat buckets.



Come on Texas, it's September! Can there be a year where we have normal seasons?

No pain, no gain.

This phrase has never throbbed harder in my head till now.

Tired of being jealous and feeling sorry for myself, I've decided to try, yet again, to correct my weight issue. I've tried multiple times before, but failed. I never realized how much Mono screws up your immunity so when I tried to run I'd get sick for a week and not feel as motivated.

I blossomed almost violently in the 5th grade. I've always been big in the bust area, so excercise has always been exceedingly difficult. I've never run a straight mile. The only excercise I've been able to tolerate is swimming and dance.

Now that I've had my breast reduction I'm way more active. Still not able to run a straight mile but I'm able to run the majority of my two mile route. Which is a huge accomplishment for me. I figure that if contestants on The Biggest Loser can do what they do, I, a moderately over-weight woman, can also do it. I keep in mind that running that extra half a street won't kill me but will do quite the opposite.

No real weight loss yet, I'll try again next week. I did weigh in but it's still the same. I figure with certain factors weighing in, I may have lost maybe one or two pounds. Which is not astounding, but it's good enough for me since I've running for a week.

Marty is enjoying our runs. It's improved his behavior by a hundred percent. He's stopped eating cat feces and tearing up tissues.

I need to find a new pair of shoes. I run with Nike Shox right now, but I don't recommend them. I'm pretty flexible anyways, and I seem to walk on the outside of my feet, so these shoes cause me to roll my ankles alot. Also, I run on the balls of my feet so the Shox do no good.
Any suggestions?

Summer is pretty much here...

and my knitting and crochet is in full force oddly enough.

Man, June's pretty much here already. I still feel like I just celebrated my birthday in December.

Due to some personal issues, I've decided to take off the semester and work. This has opened up alot of crafting time for me! To which I am very eager to have.

This past weekend I stood back and took stock of my projects. Some are new, some old.

Monkey by Cookie A. Knit with size US 3 DPNs and with Blood Orange - Heisenberg Sock Yarn from Nerdclub2000. I started them in like March but hadn't really had a chance to finish till now. The first sock was finished last week and I'm halfway through the second sock today thanks to a morning dedicated to cleaning and memorial day weekend trip to Six Flags over Texas.



Three more repeats and a toe and I got a second pair of handknit socks! I seem to be avoiding the Second Sock Syndrome pretty well.

Eva's Shawl by Milobo on Ravelry. Had to have a little crochet action going on. I wanted a airy shawl and the Girasole was going to my mother. Lace yarn from Knitty Dirty Girl.



Girasole by Jared Flood. Still in progress. Wasn't able to give to my mother by mother's day or her birthday but maybe I'll just surprise her one day at the high school where she works as the school nurse. I'll find some way to be funny.



We'll see how these go :)

One Lazy Saturday...

Spoiled animals abound!







And Girasole knitty goodness!




Tomorrow I plan on meeting with some fellow Craftsters in the heart of Houston. It's going to be lots of fun. I think we'll be going to Yarns 2 Ewe and maybe I'll finally get to visit this fabric store I've been intent on visiting. Not sure if it's definitely going to happen, we've been discussing it for a month.

We'll see :D

Okay, I lied....

I cast on the Girasole. It may've been the combination of talking about the pattern, and pulling the yarn and fondling it for an hour while I was organizing the stash or I had nothing to do aside from shelling out money to the state of Texas for my EMT certification. Maybe it was also the fact that I remember my mother's birthday is this month and Mother's day is coming up.

Whatever the way, I bustled right through the first two charts and I am already happy with the result. I can tell this is going to be something I will have a hard time giving away but it will be totally worth it.

I don't know if I'll finish it in time to give it to her for her birthday, so I'll just cross my fingers for Mother's day.

Anticipation

It's a little frustrating that I'm in the last month of this semester. My classes end this month and I have finals the first week of May.
This means two things:

1. I've been in a rut. My math class bores me because this is literally my FIFTH time doing REGULAR algebra even though I took a Pre-Calculus class during my senior year of high school. Plus, I'm having difficulty with chemistry because I just do not click with the professor. When a student has to correct her THREE times during ONE problem, I am bound to be confused. Plus, the woman frightens me but oh well.

2. Because I've tackled and completed socks, I've leapt one major knitting hurdle, therefore, I am in a knitting high (even though it was simple stockinette socks lol)! I am eager for the semester to end so that I may finally tackle another lovely hurdle.

Shawls! I have three that I am sitting on my hands and waiting for, but the one I will cast on immediately will be Girasole by Jared Flood.


Photo by Jared Flood

Maybe I'm being ambitious, but I mean look at it! It's GORGEOUS!
It actually comes in two sizes, blanket and shawl, but I will knitting the shawl size. I bought the pattern in the Fall of 08 and the yarn right after but I was finding a good time as to when to start so I could focus and remember details without things like school getting in the way.

I'm even more inspired to knit it now. I bought the pattern hours after it came out but now there 70 completed projects and, OH, the results are gorgeous.

The yarn I purchased came from Twice Sheared Sheep on Etsy. A lovely seller who specializes in recycling yarn that was "unfortunate enough to be born as a store bought sweater."

Yarn is 43% Rayon, 39% Nylon, 10% Angora, 8% Cotton. 5 skeins of fingering weight yarn totalling about 1600 yds, which is well above the 1200 yds needed for the Girasole shawl. It is sickeningly soft, which is great!


Photo by owner of the Twiceshearedsheep.etsy.com

I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!

Cover Me?

I'm dissapointed, I lost a good weekend to craft for my two swaps on craftster to study for a test that I already had taken but failed.

And it did no good, and I'm upset. My dog got sick this morning with diarrhea, which had blood and some weird jelly and there was alot. So, not only did I not get any sleep, I woke up late, was late to school to clean up poo. The biggest reason I am upset? I was late and I just picked up any old calculator I could find. I had this feeling I was forgetting something, and 20 minutes into the test my professor comes up to my area and reminds me I can't use the calculator I picked up because it's programmable. Which means she thinks I put info in the calculator to cheat

I look around everyone is looking at me but no one offers to help and neither does she.
Needless to say, I cried a little. That's the stress coming out.

And it's really really hard to stop crying lol.

So right now I am easing the dissapointment with Tutti-Frutti Jelly Belly Jelly Beans and crocheting for the Friendshipghan Swap.

Fortunately, I took Marty to the vet where I found out he has hookworms. Lovely little blood-sucking parasites. He'll be better now thank goodness.

Poor thing. Hasn't been lucky health-wise either.

Bootee Love

So, right now I am effectively avoiding studying for a test. I've actually took this exam before but my professor was so dissapointed that she's making us retake it since only 3 people out of 33 passed. And she considered above a 60, passing. Not good. I really do not feel like taking this test just to fail again. It hurts too much.

One of the ways I was avoiding this test was with Saartje's Bootees. I'm probably jumping on the bandwagon a little late.

I have to give kudos to the designer for creating such an easy and fantastic pattern. Such a cute little FO too! I told SO about what I was knitting and he gave me the most perplexed look. I assured him it was for whoever got preggers next.

I actually saw this pattern when I first started knitting and only judged the picture. I gave up, thinking it was too complicated. And looking back, I probably would've been able to accomplish it. The pattern was so clear, that even though I just completed my first pair of socks, I'm sure a beginner would be able knit these.

These bootees are knit from the leftover sock yarn from my first socks. There's actually some left over that I could probably squeeze out another pair!

Spring Break

My break has been FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC.

The only good thing about this week was that I got to see my SO. He got automatically accepted into his college of choice and I'm staying behind to save money at a community college and get my basics out of the way. It's been hard, but I'll be joining him soon.

We took a trip to Oklahoma to stay with his mother's parents for a bit. It was fun but SO's brothers decided to run the AC all night long. It NEVER turned off. I woke up to a vibrating air mattress because SO was shivering so fiercely.

I woke up the next morning with the most terrible sore throat. Later, I got dizzy and hypersensitve to everything so Tylenol was my best friend the WHOLE week. The day after I got back to Texas I completely lost my voice. I could say nothing above a whisper. Three days later, I went to the same doctor as I had for my mono, and staph infection, and found out I got laryngitis.

My mother and I were joking one day after I got over the scabies and saying that I am going to go to the doctor one and he's going to tell me I have Meningitis or something.
Well looky here! Not Meningtitis, but Laryngitis.

On the bright side, I recently attempted my first sock! My very first pair of socks! I can see why they’re so addicting and why the lone sock syndrome occurs so much. They are great but it does seem like alot of energy goes into them so I’ve already cast on the second pair to stave off the want to just leave it alone. I fear if I don’t completely finish the pair I’ll never want to finish the second sock of any pair ever.

There is something about the sock that my puppy loves. I couldn’t take a picture for the longest time because he kept licking my feet.

The sock yarn is from Pigeonroofstudios! I love it, fantastic colors!

Ailing

So, beginning from July these are the things that have affected me. ARGH. Third picture is Mononucleosis. Yep, Mono. I had this from July to December. 6 MONTHS. And had to endure Hurricane Ike through horrible fatigue. I went to a PA, who, like other prescription-happy PAs decided to give me antibiotics for a viral infection. I told her my tonsils had been swollen for THREE months and I felt fine except for fatigue, and maybe I needed bloodwork. But she dismissed me with antibiotics. But finally, after waiting another month I got a doctor who actually suggested bloodwork. Fine, I just want to know what the hell I have. Mono? Cool, I can live with that.

The second picture is Staph. Had it on my right elbow so basically I could not operate my right arm. My doctor (or rather PA) had me on a wild goose chase with antibiotics and x-rays for a week. After that amount of time and the meds having no effect, my mother and I expressed it ourselves since it seemed like we were getting no where. 3 days later, we finally see a doctor who was going to do the surgery to express it. It had healed up well by her observances and informed us that had we not done it when we did I would've had to have a surgery and hospital stay. Needless to say, we won't be seeing that PA anymore due to this experience and my Mono experience.

The first picture is Mange. My dog got Mange and gave it to me. Great, when I thought I was well, here comes incessant itching. But I wasn't concerned for me since my baby was bleeding from scratching so much. The first vet dismissed his condition with "well, he IS a Cocker." She said staph with secondary yeast infection. It got worse and I got a second opinion which determined he has Sarcoptic Mange.

Do I have this aura in which people just dismiss me?

New Years!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone transitioned into this year in a positive way. Of course, I set some resolutions for myself. These are not in order of importance.

1. Wean myself off foundation. I don't mind make up, and God knows this is not a good action for a pasty white ginger like myself, but I would love to look young and fresh naturally.

2. Learn to cook! I became a vegetarian, and I'm trying new foods! Unfortunately, I became one of those carb crazed vegetarians. I would love to eventually convert to vegan but right now I need to learn to eat better so I can feel better.

3. Get into the university of my choice and get a nice apartment.

4. Finally become an EMT.

5. Do more charity work.

6. Knit more! I would like to finally tackle a sweater and shawl!

7. Look like Jillian Michaels! :D