It's a sad, sad day.

Remember that lovely Holden Shawlette I was so I love with?

Had to frog the entire thing. I was working on it after the ASL conversation circle, I had one more row of stockinette to go before I started the beautiful lace boarder, and that's when I noticed. The whole thing was filled with mistakes. The first one I noticed was a dropped stitch that had somehow made it halfway down the entire thing before I noticed it. Then there was a boarder section where I had done five rows of stockinette where it should have been garter. Then there were a handful of stitches where I just must not have been paying attention to my gauge as I had some stitches that were twice as big as they were supposed to be. Any one of these mistakes by themselves, I could have fixed or lived with, but all together? No dice. I've been saving this wool for months. It did not survive a trip through the vacuum cleaner for me to do just any old lazy project. It's 10% cashmere for Pete's sake! I will make this shawlette as close to perfect as I possibly can without making myself go mad. Even if I have to frog it a million times.
I need a break for now though, as the sight of those empty needles still hurts a bit. The wound is just too fresh. I'm going to console myself with some online yarn "shopping". I say "shopping" because the last time I checked I'm still a college student who can't afford most of it. I hope your ventures are going better than mine.

P.S. The yarn I've been using for Holden (if you're interested, as it is really top notch stuff) is Pagewood Farm Hand Dyed Sock Yarn. Colorway: Fabulous Fall. They have a cute little website too, pagewoodfarm.com. I think you can buy stuff online, but I haven't quite figured out how yet...

Finally pictures!

But not the ones I promised you... I'm a fickle knitter, I can't be held accountable for this when all the different yarns are so pretty. Forgive me.
So updates on what I've been knitting: On the needles right now I have the Latvian mittens, the Timor shawl, an Elizabeth Zimmerman Pi shawl, and a Holden Shawlette. I'm not counting the projects that I haven't worked on in more than three months because at this point I just consider those projects lost.
The mittens are, unfortunately, boring me. I haven't worked on them in a few weeks because the color work is driving me bonkers. I absolutely hate weaving in ends and it seems that these mittens are only ends. Every repeat of the pattern I flip the darned thing inside out and then darn the darned thing! I sit for 20 minutes and curse while I wind bits of yarn through other bits of yarn. I can't do it. So the mitten is sitting on the kitchen table. I may or may not get back to it.
The Timor shawl is just sitting on the floor of my living room because I'm terribly bored by the pattern. The yarn is incredibly charming and soft with a wonderful colorway, but the pattern is dull enough to push me into the arms of another shawl. I'm sure I'll finish it eventually. Maybe.
The Elizabeth Zimmerman Pi shawl is wonderful. I am so in love with it that I want to knit on it always. One problem with it is that I ran out of wool. It's about half finished and I really want to continue but this wool is something that I fished out of the stash. Something without a ball band or any indication from where it came. I took a trip to the knitting store but they don't have it, so I took a trip to the other knitting store and they don't have it either. I have no idea how to find another ball of it, I am worried that it will never be finished.
The Holden Shawlette is where my affections now lay. I'm using this pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/holden-shawlette and I absolutely love it. I'm using a hand-spun, hand-dyed wool that I picked up months ago. It is quite literally the nicest yarn I have ever bought. It's laceweight, 80% merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon. Just a bit bouncy and wicked soft. I've been saving it for the perfect project and I think I've finally found it. It's in a colorway called Fabulous Fall and it is truly beautiful. Want proof?

The picture doesn't begin to do it justice but it's the best I can give you for now. What you can't see in the photo is that there is green and mauve mixed in with the orange and red. Up close it looks like all the leaves of fall have been scooped up and worked into this colorway. You want a close up you say?

I'm only working in stockinette and garter right now, but after I've increased to the appropriate amount of stitches, I will begin the lacework! I'm both nervous and excited for that because I haven't really looked at the lace chart yet, so I don't know what kind of techniques I'll be needing to do. I would hate to knit half a shawlette only to discover that I don't have the proper skill level to finish it!
And before you lose all hope for me ever finishing a project, I have finished one. It's another simple little shawlette for my little sister who has a birthday coming up. Very simple pattern, finished it in just a few hours. It's blocking now but once it's finished I'll try and take pictures of it.
Happy knitting everyone!

In my defence.

I have been sick. That's why I haven't posted anything in a good long while. I've also been trying to prepare for this Timor trip. Any way we fly it, we'll be in the air for at least one excruciatingly long flight and you may not know this, but I detest flying. I detest it so much that sometimes knitting doesn't even help (*gasp*). All I can do sometimes is grip the armrests like they're the only thing holding me in the plane and clench my teeth so hard that I feel they might actually shatter. This is not the best way to hold yourself on a plane as I find that panic tends to spread from one passenger to the other. Anyway, so I'm on a mission to collect all kinds of things that will keep me distracted for the duration of said flight from hell. Any recommendations for good books that I should have on the Kindle before we take off?
I super SUPER promise I'll have pictures next time I post. A knitting blog without pictures is like a cake without frosting. Just not quite right.

P.S. I'm knitting a Pi shawl now! Don't judge me...

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.