Not good at all.

I am getting sick. I can feel it in my achy bones and throbbing tonsils. Not a normal kind of sick either. Strep-throat has been going around campus and last week there was a dude in my French class who wore one of those medical masks to class and only took it off to cough into a napkin. This guy (naturally) sits right next to me.
Now you can ask anyone who really knows me, Boyfriend, my family, when I get sick I turn into a giant child. I cannot stand having an achy body so I will do anything to keep from feeling it. Sleep 14 hours, lie on the kitchen floor, hot baths, cold baths, what have you. Last time I was sick I hopped around my parent's house, bouncing from room to room amid whispers of: "What in the world is she doing?" And for like forty minutes! After I was too tired to continue hopping, I bounced my way over to Boyfriend and insisted that he hold me and shake me ever so slightly whilst whispering "shake shake shake shake shake..." to take my mind off of my miserable existence (in Connor's eternal credit he did that for like ten minutes before my mom threatened to make me drink thera-flu if I didn't buck up). I am not a rational adult when I feel icky.
Which is why I'm in the computer lab now about fifteen seconds away from throwing a pencil at the back of a woman's head who is insistent that she has to be on the phone, in the library, having an argument with her child, her Fran Drescher-esque voice blaring at a billion decibels! I of course would never throw anything at another human being (unless it was soft, at family, and they were in a state where they could return fire), but sick Alexis forgives no indiscretion.
As for knitting? I'm making another couch scarf because I really like the pattern and it goes really quickly. I've gotten one Christmas 2012 present done (the first couch scarf) so I'm feeling good. Except that I'm feeling bad... It's a complicated life. Anyway, I hope you're all doing better than me right now. I will definitely try to have pictures in the next post of what I've been working on. Until then!

Excuses excuses.

I know that I super promised pictures of the January vest today but I may or may not have lost said vest. I was just wearing it the other day, but I cannot seem to locate it. I will get you pictures though.
In other news, I finished the scarf from under the couch! It's currently being blocked but once it's done I will try and get pictures to the blog. It's a really pretty deep purple and I'm telling you, it's softer than butter. I'd love to keep it but alas, it has been set aside for Christmas 2012. I enjoyed the pattern so much though that I think I'm going to make another and put it up for sale on Etsy. Yes I do have an Etsy account and a shop and everything, but have not posted anything for sale yet. The Timor shawl was supposed to be my first sale, but alas, things with the T.S. have not gone exactly as I intended them to go. It's going to take a bit more time.
Since I got the couch scarf done, I feel absolutely no guilt in telling you that I also cast on a drop stitch scarf this morning. I'm not exactly loving it though so I might frog it and try something different. Maybe I'll use the yarn for the second couch scarf? We'll see how I'll feel when I get home. Who knows, maybe I'll feel like doing something completely different.

Just a little post...

... Because I have a ridiculous amount of things to do today. The Timor shawl is knitting up super quickly, the January sweater is done but because I woke up late today I didn't get any pictures of it, Christmas 2012 is kind of on hold for the moment because I'm so uninspired with all the gifts I'm knitting, and I have a serious case of startupitus.
I want to cast on a million fun, interesting projects but don't want to finish any of them. I love pouring over my yarn and finding the perfect pattern to go with it. I love starting something with just string and sticks and then having the beginning of what could be something beautiful. It's just the whole middle part I have a problem with. In knitting, one will find a certain phenomena known as a knitting black hole. It's when you knit 50 rows on a project, measure it, and find that it's no longer than before. So you knit 50 more rows, measure it, and see you've only added half an inch. It's enough to drive a Knitter round the bend I tell you.
Anyway, I haven't completed any projects in weeks and that's really starting to get me down. The January sweater doesn't really count because it was supposed to be a full sleeved sweater but I hate doing sleeves so much that I kind of copped out and made it a little vest with cap sleeves. I even lost my Latvian Mitten! Maybe I wasn't meant to be a knitter after all...
Who am I kidding? I'd be completely unmanageable if I didn't have my wool. I'll have the pictures of the January vest to you tomorrow, super promise.

Exciting news!

Connor, my wonderful boyfriend, received an amazing job offer with the Lorosa'e English Language Institute in Dili, East Timor. For those of you who are anything like me, and wouldn't know how to hold a map right-side up:

That is East Timor, or Timor Leste as it's more commonly known. It's a beautiful island in Indonesia with a tropical climate and beautiful beaches. It seems like just my kind of place (Boyfriend has very thoughtfully asked me to go with him).
This has been in the works for a while but because we weren't sure it would happen, we didn't want to tell the world. We wanted to keep it under wraps until Connor signed a contract and we were for sure going, but Connor's brother Carrick (who is currently working in Timor and convinced him to try for the job) was so excited that he told the entirety of Facebook.
So the cat's out of the bag and I'm going to knit a Timor shawl to celebrate! Don't get on me about starting yet another project, for the January sweater is finished! Photos soon to follow.

My Yoda

Hello everyone! Wanted to keep you updated on how everything is going. I must say it’s going pretty well. The Latvian mitten is going pretty quickly. Take a look.

It looks a little chunky to me, but that’s just because I haven’t blocked it yet once it’s off the needles and blocked I’m sure it will look just fine. This mitten is one of my first multi-colored projects that uses more than two colors, and I must admit, that it’s really hard! There are all kinds of strings going across the back that I'll have to take care of, and it can be really frustrating trying to untangle all my balls of yarn. Plus I haven't been paying enough attention to the pattern and twice now I thought I've been done with the navy and snipped it off, just to find I need it a few rows later (yes mom, I know I need to work on my attention to detail).

So just yesterday I had my friend Shelbie over for an "eat pizza and you play video games while I knit mittens" kind of night. Now Shelbie is not a knitter, but she sits and listens to me rant about wool and patterns and does so without telling me to shut the heck up (one of the many reasons I love her). Yesterday Shelbie said something to me about knitting (and I suppose it applies to other things in life) that blew my mind. She was just packing up to leave, and after watching her play Skyrim (great game BTW, five stars) for a few hours, I had a hankering to play it myself. I said to her: "Man, I'm torn. I really want to continue knitting the mittens but I also really want to play Skyrim." Shelbie looked at me and said: "Might as well work on the mittens while you actually want to. Soon enough you'll be dying to get away from them but for now you should knit while you don't hate them. Skyrim will wait for you."

It makes so much sense! I even churned out about ten more rows that night. Shelbie, you are the Yoda to my Luke and I thank you.

An update!

Happy belated Valentines Day to all of you out there! I hope it found you well and delivered unto you a box of chocolate. Just wanted to give you an update on things over here. Remember that scarf from under the couch I mentioned last time? Well it's coming along swimmingly. Instead of knitting the whole thing end to end, I'm knitting to halves and then grafting it together in the middle. It's a lace pattern and I'm a bit weird about perfection so I can't stand the thought of it being wrapped about someone's neck, with one end laying the way it's supposed to and the other being upside down. So I took a page out of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Knitting Rules (great book by the way, has a million little helpful hints) and I'm knitting from start to middle on both of them and then grafting both middles together. It will be the first time I've ever done this, so wish me luck!
On an exciting note, my Latvian Mittens book came in the mail yesterday!

It's so pretty that I can barely stand it. I was flipping through it for about ten minutes before I had to grab my smallest DPN's and headed for the yarn store. I got all the colors I needed from the "Mill ends" bin, and I cast on that evening. Unfortunately I couldn't spend as much time as I wanted to on mittens of Latvian design, because Boyfriend and I had grown-up stuff to do like show up for our Sign Language conversation circle, and go grocery shopping. I did manage to get a few rows done between putting away groceries, making dinner, and then falling into bed. Want to see?
I know, not very impressive right now. But they will be! I'm also quite proud of myself for working with four colors at a time and stopping every few rows to unwind each ball from each other instead of waiting until they're hopelessly tangled and then throwing the whole thing at the wall (it has happened before and I promise you that it's not a pretty sight).
So that's what I'm up to, I hope this blog finds you well and I may or may not disappear into my mittens for the next few days. I'm sure I'll come up for air in the semi-near future.

It's Monday. Blah.

Not much to say really. Spent a nice weekend in Beaverton/Hillsboro visiting the family. Connor's mum taught him how to crochet so now he wants access to my stash. That's all fine and dandy so long as he doesn't touch anything I've got a plan for. He made a joke about the silk lace-weight and a lovely twitch developed over my eye. He's already vacuumed over the skein once (yup rolled right over it, although I did manage to salvage most of it), though it was my own fault, I was trying to clean up quickly so I hid it under the couch. Guess where Boyfriend decided to vacuum that day?
Anyway, for my class knitting today I pulled an old scarf project out from under the couch of hidden yarn (yes I still hide stuff there) and so I'm having fun with that. Other projects have been a bit ignored this weekend, as I am a fickle knitter and feel that the yarn is always softer on the other project. I need to finish up some projects before I cast anything on with that I bought this weekend. It's beautiful and I want to knit all the things with it but I will not allow myself to do so until I've finished at least one project for someone else. Let's see how long that lasts...

Because I have music theory homework...

... I don't really have a lot to say. I was going to wow you with pretty pictures of cable mittens, but the computer has decided that it doesn't know how to turn a picture right side up and I will not besmirch this blog with another sideways picture. One was enough.
So a quick catch-up with what's going on. I have nearly finished one mitten, just need to close the thumb, the January sweater isn't going anywhere because I'm a lazy bum who hates doing sleeves, dad's sock is going okay but I haven't worked on that in a while either, and I've started another project.
I'm making a wee housewarming present for my sister who just bought her very first home. She's very excited and I couldn't be happier for her. Congratulations Adaira! Your gift will probably not be finished until well after you have moved in and finished unpacking, but my adorable procrastination is one of the reasons you love me! Never forget that.
Anyway, not very exciting, I know. I'd give you more but I have to go count musical intervals using half steps. Happy knitting everyone!

The pros and cons of knittng

Allow me dear children, to tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a lone knitter who was sitting in her French class listening to the lecture and every now and again putting down her mitten to take a note or two. This was fairly normal behavior for this knitter as she had asked her professor at the beginning of the term if the knitting would be a problem. The professor had said it wouldn't be a problem so long as it didn't cause the knitter to miss important information in lecture and it never had, so the knitter continued to knit.
Now, upon this day there happened to be a non-knitter sitting across from our beloved mitten-maker, and this non-knitter must have had a terrible day because out of nowhere she snapped: "Why are you always knitting? Don't you have anything better to do?"
Now our Knitter has experienced her fair share of people who are confused by the culture of knitting. She had been told that knitting was for grandmas, she had been told that knitting wasn't cool, she had even been told knitting was a waste of time, but never had she been approached about her knitting in such a hostel, unprovoked way.
The non-knitters outburst had stopped the class dead in its tracks. All eyes were on our knitter and her little burgundy mitten. Our knitter, bless her little heart, was so astounded by this encounter that she couldn't speak for a moment. Her mouth agape like a wee fish and her fingers nervously unsure of whether she should continue knitting or if that might invoke the non-knitter's wrath.
Our knitter began: "I knit because it makes me happy. I take yarn, I take sticks, a few hours of my time, and voila. I made socks."
The non-knitter's eyes became slits as she tried to kill our knitter with a glance. "But you do it all the time and it's really annoying."
The knitter laughed. "Why is it annoying to you? It has nothing to do with you, why are you so offended by it?"
The non-knitter rolled her eyes and turned back to the front of the class, only just realizing that the professor was rather unhappy with such an interruption. The non-knitter was quietly asked to stay after class to discuss "proper classroom behavior" and our knitter did a little jig inside.
After class was dismissed and after the non-knitter was chastised for rude behavior, our knitter approached the professor and asked if the knitting was too distracting for the class. The professor smiled and said: "Doesn't bother me one bit. In fact, I would love to see that mitten pattern you're working from. I've been meaning to make myself a pair all winter."
I think I'll make her a lace scarf. Us knitters have to stick together after all.

For the win.

So after the crap-tastic day that way yesterday, I really needed a win. So this morning I cast on mittens. Not for anyone especially but I really like doing mittens and they just seem to happen on my needles. One second I'm casting on, the next second I'm done with a mitten. It's kinda crazy. I'm not using a pattern or anything, just using my noggin and coming up with something simple and passable.
I also finally utilized all the Amazon gift cards I got for Christmas and I have a library's worth of knitting books coming my way. The one I'm most excited for is Latvian Mittens by Lizbeth Upitis. Let me show you just a glimpse of what I could potentially knit with the patterns from this book. I wan to knit these. Once the book gets here, I shall cast on.
I scoured the internet for the name of the person who knit these so I could give them proper recognition on their insane knitting skills, but the internet is against me today for some reason. So thank you to whoever knit these awe-inspiring mittens, I hope one day to be as good as you. Also thanks to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee for putting the Latvian Mittens idea in my head (I've been going back and reading all the archived SPM blog posts and 2004 is a very mitten heavy year. Also, I want to do thrummed mittens).
Anyway, I'm off to French. Bisous!

One of those days

It is only 9:36 in the morning and it's shaping up to be one of those days. You know the day I'm talking about, the day where nothing is quite working right and the stars and planets align just right so that nothing you try to do today will actually work out. One of those sneaky, spiteful, completely and unnecessarily hateful days.
It started like any other day, with the exception that instead of starting at 8am like it normally does on Mondays, it started at 6am for some unknown reason. I actually woke up at 5 but gave sleep the good ol' college try before giving up on it at 6. It's not that I was fully rested or anything. Connor and I didn't hit the sack until about one in the morning (it's our own fault, we were having a Sherlock marathon).
So after sleep abandons me, I make for the shower. Much to my disdain, there is no hot water. There's not even any mildly tepid water. So I shower in the cold. Many swearwords were had, and in retrospect I shouldn't have called the loofa a "piece of fluffy garbage designed to hang uselessly from the evil shower-head of cold". Loofa, I do apologize for my behavior and I fully intend to buy you some nice lavender body wash.
So then I kill some time buy trying to knit Lauren's Christmas gift but I had to frog the whole damn thing again. At this point I'm convinced that the material I'm working with hates me and will never bow down to my needles. I throw it at the wall and pout for several minutes.
When pouting yields no results, I pack up and head to campus early, hoping I could get some blog time in. Instead I spent half an hour in the apartment parking lot trying to scrape ice from my windows with a broken CD case. When I finally remove all the ice, I sit in my car (which I remind you has no heat) and try to flick on the wipers. Imagine the sound of a hippo fighting with a manatee and you have the sound my wipers made before promptly getting stuck in the middle of my windshield, somehow crossed over one another in a giant X.
I make the drive up the giant icey hill of doom at about 30 miles an hour stuck behind a bus and a garbage truck. When I finally arrive at school an hour later than I intended to, I find that the administrators of Lane Community College (in their infinite wisdom) have blocked off the three main parking lots on campus. For what, I hear you ask? Absolutely no discernible reason! Maybe they knew I was having one of those days and they thought it would be funny. I had to park way out near the woods where Cougars are spotted every few weeks. What do you bet that when I finish class today and try to go home, one will be sitting in my back seat?
Sorry, no knitting updates today. I'm too grumpy to take pictures. Hope your day is going better than mine!

A flaw in my plan.

So Christmas 2012 is going fairly well. Or so I thought. The pattern I'm using for Lauren's gift is totally killing me. I've cast on that darned thing about eight times and it just never works out. So I decided to design a little something and then I remembered that I have never had a self-designed project turn out properly. Sure, I've altered patterns to include a stitch I like or make it a bit more fitted or a bit more loose, but every time I try to start from scratch bad things happen. Just ask the Harry Potter quilt I designed. It's about ten squares of different sizes hidden in the back of my closet. Bad news bears I tell you.
My dad's socks, on the other hand, are going swimmingly.

With just one teeny tiny little problem. I'm knitting these for Christmas and I just remembered that my dad's birthday is in April. I forget that there are reasons to knit outside of Christmas, things like birthdays and mothers day and step-fathers day (that's a little one we invented as kids for my awesome step-dad Don). In fact, my older sister just bought her first house and I wanted to knit her a house warming afghan.
I must say that once I realized there was all this knitting to be done, I may have had a little panic attack. You non-knitters laugh but let me share something with you: knitting is love. When gift giving holidays come around, us Knitters have a field day. We know that we're going to spend hours on our gift for you. Picking out the right pattern, with the perfect yarn in the perfect color. Then we're going to spend a lot more hours actually knitting this thing we have spent hours planning to knit. We will rip it back a thousand times just to get that one row right, we will scour the internet all night to find the cast-off method that will work best with what we've made. We will pull our hair out, scream at the top of our lungs, and knock back six cups of coffee on Christmas eve, just so that your gift is done on time. And then when we finally give it to you, and you unwrap it and say: "Oh my goodness, this is great! Thank you so much." We will reply with: "Of course, it was nothing." because we love you so much that spending $40.00 on yarn and 20 hours and 30,000 stitches to bring this pair of socks to you, all that is nothing compared to how much we love you.
So I had my little panic attack... and then I cast on Lauren's gift again. Because that my friends is what it's all about. My dad's socks are now his birthday socks and I'll just have to show my love in a different form of wool come December.

Ten minutes until class starts...

... so this will be brief.
I'd like to start by saying that I've been on campus for the last hour will the full intention to write a nice long post and catch up, but I spent 20 minutes circling around the parking lot like a vulture, desperately trying to find a parking spot, and then another 20 minutes in the library trying to procure an open computer. Let me tell you something, a school that has thousands of students should not only have 50 computers working on any given day. It should have a festival of computers. Hell, they have an electric car charging station in the main parking lot, but not enough computers? That's just dumb.
And now my computer is not working. It's not showing the curser so I have no idea what I'm clicking on and I have no idea where my typing is going to show up. Seriously Lane? I know you're a community college, but get your stuff together. You're a center for higher education and you can't even get a few working computers? Blah, Alexis is grumpy today.
Okay about the sweater, it's going rather well. The body is done and I've just barely started on one of the sleeves. Maintaining Old Shale on four DPNs is unpleasant to say the least, but I will succeed and make an awesome January/February sweater.

It looks a little misshapen but I haven't blocked it yet.

I also tried to cast on Lauren's project again. As you might have gleaned by my tone, it did not go well. I am now designing her something very loosely based on the previous pattern, hopefully I can make something work. Sorry for the shortness, but I'm off to class.