Check it out!

I'm famous! Can you spot me in that post? (Here's a hint: I look angry. But I'm not, I swear!) I'm now one of Franklin's 1000 Knitters.

Introspection

Apologies for the lack of knitting related content in advance. This is the kind of thing I'd put in my defunct livejournal, but... eh. Does anyone use livejournal anymore?

The sedentary law school lifestyle has done a number on my once skinny bod, as well as the addition of beer on my "favorite things" list. I get to sit around and read and think and take notes for huge portions of my time. Then when I get home, my favorite activities are knitting and video games. Physical activity is all too easy to avoid; I don't really have to walk anywhere, because the bus stops are just so convenient, and my bike isn't up here with me anyway. I had gotten a lot of walking and physical work in at my job after college graduation, lifting boxes of tile, moving carpet, and running around the store like a headless chicken... But now that I'm up here? Forget it. My weight hit an all time high (170 lbs, if you must know) at the doctor's office where I used to happily be around 135-140.

Time to make some adjustments. This wonderful lady has been one hell of an inspiration.

After class every day, I've quietly started what I fondly refer to as the DDR regimen. For those not in the know, DDR is a fun little game where you dance on a mat on the floor. It's hard work. It seems like it's the perfect solution for a nerd like me, plus I've thrown in some crunches and pushups for good measure. It feels nice to work up a sweat for once. Cross your fingers that I don't go crazy from all the bad dance music...

Crochet FO - first ever!

I sorta vaguely knew how to crochet before. But when I saw a pattern for a magnetic katamari, I knew I needed to learn.



Here it is! Magnetically doing its job. I can't collect enough junk to make a star, but perhaps Joann should carry larger magnets... I think it's destined to hold paper clips on my desk or something.

But having learned to properly crochet from a pattern, I feel like a new world has opened up to me; there are a couple patterns out there I've been wanting to tackle, and now it seems possible!

Happy Birthday!

I lied. Orangecat and Blackcat won't actually be a year old until February 2nd... But Steve took some pictures of them and I couldn't resist posting them. The kittens are now cats.

At six weeks:


Today:


They'll always be kittens if you ask me...

Big Damn Hat

I hate making pom-poms. There's a reason I don't ever really do it. I don't have any of those cool plastic pom-pom makers, and it's hard to find cardboard and a nice-sized circle to make templates out of.

That said...




Beer. Is there anything it can't do? The "moon" on the blue moon box was the perfect size for a pom pom! Cut out the centers and voila: nice one-time use pom-pom makers. Why the heck did I need to make a pom-pom?



I had a request for a Firefly hat. (Isn't Steve a smashing model? His curly hair sticking out of the hat cracks me up to no end. There's a reason he doesn't wear hats.) No, I've never seen the show, and I don't really have any intention to run out and watch it. Oh well. I'd hate to fall in love with it and have to make yet another three-color pom-pom. Never again.



In other news, Jason, I have your hat. If you ever want to see it alive again (and your little snow shovel, too!), bring lambrusco to my apartment. You've been warned!

Socks that Don't Rock

So, they're done...



The toes, in the pattern as written, are far too pointy. The second sock, after the cat fiasco involved five little balls of yarn cut away from that mess. Now to cast on something that ACTUALLY rocks...

I also sewed a messenger bag, but all the photos I've attempted to take of it have been absolutely dismal.

Oh, and let's not forget that I could be voting today, but my genius state and the national democratic party have given me a fiasco where I get a choice between Clinton, Kucinich, and "uncommitted." It pisses me off. This explains well what the hell is going on. Normally I'm excited about voting, but... not today. If you hear any pundits tonight saying "Clinton wins Michigan!" they're lying.

Herringbone mittens!

Sadly, I lost the old pink alpaca knucks which had been my favorites for... forever. Okay, a couple of winters. I needed a quick replacement, so I whipped up some mittens!



Oh wait, yes, there are two.



Perfect for the teasing of kittens:



The pattern is (warning, .pdf) here. Steve got me the yarn (wool-ease) as part of my Christmas gift. I'm quite proud of him, actually; he hacked my Ravelry account, pulled this pattern out of my queue, substituted yarn, and then surprised me with it by saying, "I thought you could make these mittens." I guess all my talking at him about types of yarn really does pay off!

FO - Exchequered

So, I started Knitty's Exchequered right when it came out... early in 2006. I had no idea that double knitting was going to be such an incredibly tedious endeavor. Two years later, I've finally cast off one of my perpetual UFOs. Uh, I might have overdid it a bit, because this scarf is seven feet long.





Seven. freaking. feet. of double knitting. I feel like I've just run a marathon or something. Very much worth it, though. This thing is double-thick, warm, and just... yeah, I haven't really taken it off yet. I wish I'd have pulled it out to finish sooner, because it languished as a UFO for far too long. I guess one of my New Year's resolutions should be to finish or frog all the things that have been sitting that way for far too long...

Socks, ornaments

I finished some socks...



They're simple, easy, happy little things. I really just wanted to play with the yarn, Skinny Duets from A Swell Yarn Shop. I can't believe how perfectly the colors worked out. Usually with hand-dyed yarns one can expect some crazy pooling, but that just wasn't the case! Color me happy.



And for some belated Christmas cheer... ornament covers. The furry one went to Jason, and the other two to my mother... Considering I don't have much in the way of a tree to hang them on.

Not much is going on. Still waiting on grades. Still knitting. (I should have some more things to show off soon.) Still playing a lot of Rock Band, which Santa brought me. I RULE at drumming.

Oh, and speaking of video games, you all should check out Sprite Stitch. It proves that 8-bit characters work well in charted form... for knitting, cross-stitch, or otherwise. There are some AWESOME works on there!