Velvet

I'm working on some goodies for a wonderful friend in Montréal, Melanie. She requested a scarf, hat and mitten set to get through the cold, cold winters there. I had quite a hard time tracking the yarn down, but eventually, I found the right one. Malabrigo Chunky Merino in Velvet Grapes. It's a dream to work with and is a favorite... as I'm sure everyone has realized by now since four of my last projects have been made from this yarn.



I'm working on the scarf now. It's the same pattern I used for my Malabrigo scarf. It's such a simple stitch and is really wonderful.

I'm off to Ireland for my study abroad trip in 35 days. I'm very excited, but I am really worried about money. I have none left and my student loans got all screwed up for the spring semester which, in turn, screwed up my loans for the summer semester. I'm trying to get it worked out, but I don't think it's going to be resolved before I go. Ugh. It's stressful and irritating.

I have been walking quite a bit lately. I'm trying to loose the weight I gained after knee surgery. Today I walked with my friend (and former co-worker) Jen. We walked over 6 miles! It was quite an adventure. It was nice.

Orchid

So as you might have heard, we had a bit of snow in Colorado yesterday.




(There's my Thorpe in action!)



Since this week is (was) Spring Break, being snowed in for 2 days wasn't really a big deal. I put on my snow boots this afternoon to go by the post office, gas station(for the important stuff: Diet Coke, Lays, and some chocolate) and the liquor store for some Anchor Steam beer. It was super sunny today and the snow is melting fast. We really needed some moisture around here, so I'm glad it snowed so much.

I finished up a scarf I was working on for the store last night. Nothing exciting, simple and pretty. Once it finishes drying, I'll get some photos. I am done with the body of the Cobblestone. It looks good. I need some time to concentrate to get the yoke started, so it's sort of hanging out right now. My red cardigan has been getting a row here and there. I think it's going to be gorgeous when it's done!

A friend from my knitting group knit this wonderful lace scarf out of some Malabrigo Worsted and I loved it so much that I ordered the yarn for it right away. I ended up getting Chunky because I found a color I was in love with.



I cast on late, late, late last night and knit about 8 rows. It's going to be gorgeous.

How refreshing...

Our water is back on...



but it's more beer colored that clear. Ew. They still haven't told us if the water is safe to use or when it will be. It's a little annoying.

Water water everywhere...

and not a drop to drink.

A water main broke in the middle of the street. We have no water at our place and probably won't until this evening or maybe even tomorrow. I have water in jugs in the fridge and there is a bathroom in our gym that I can use... But I really do need a shower. I hope it's on by tomorrow morning or I'm going to work early to shower there.

Roundup - Part 1

I took photos of a lot of things yesterday. A LOT. I've only managed to upload a fraction of them though. I'm re-configuring* my own computer(s) so I've been using Vince's. I have this nifty little Flickr uploading tool on mine that makes uploading photos take about .5 seconds. Doing it manually with the amount of photos I have takes more patience than I currently possess.

(These are not listed in the order they were completed. They're just listed.)


Calorimetry - I loved knitting this. It was fun, fast and the Noro was a perfect yarn for this.



In fact, I liked it so much, I made another one! I had a nice chunk of yarn left from the first one and I hate leaving little orphan balls in my stash. This one is smaller, but it's perfect for spring days in Boulder. It keeps my ears warm without making me super hot.


Oops. Okay, turns out I had only uploaded those 2 sets of photos. I'll try to get some more uploaded today or tomorrow.



*I own two computers. One has been in storage forever and one has been my personal slave that I beat to death with thousands of songs, photos and whatever else I can throw at it. The hard drive in that machine is almost full, so I thought I'd Frankencomputer them together to get a faster, bigger machine. I might stab myself with a tiny screwdriver before I get it all finished though. Thank goodness for friends who are computer geniuses.

Sisters.

One of the many reasons I love Ravelry are the groups. There is a Boulder group which has been amazing. I've been to coffee shops to knit with other people, I've met some great people and now, our groups is working on a project to lend a hand to Boulder's sister city of Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

Dushanbe is currently enduring one of the worst winters in 50 years. People don't have heat or running water. Babies are freezing to death in maternity wards.

Since we're knitters and knitters like to keep people warm and give, we're doing just that. We're knitting for them. We've had volunteers willing to share yarn and other supplies. We're still in the planning stages, but we're knitting for all ages.

I knit a pair of baby booties tonight in less than 2 hours. I'll probably make another pair today and maybe a hat or two. I have all this yarn Oma gave me and I am glad I get to share it like this.

I can't wait to see what we end up with. I'm sure it will be amazing. :)

Here.

I'm finally in Boulder. It was a very hectic few weeks... I've gotten NO knitting done and it's making me insane.

On my trip out, I stopped in Indiana to stay with Oma & Opa.* She had a large bag of yarn waiting for me. :) She always has a mini-stash waiting for me.

I feel like I should mention how awesome a knitter and crocheter Oma is. She knits faster than anyone I've seen in my life. She knits hats for charity. Since she's started she has knit over 2,500 of them!!! It's crazy. She knits them all flat, sews them up and puts pompoms on them too!!!

Okay, back to work. I'm trying to look for a job, unload my car, unpack, and get my life into some sort of order! Wish me luck.

Oh, and I swear that my Hourglass will be done soon. I only have a few rows to knit and then the finishing to do. I promise I'm not just knitting that because I don't have anything else to knit right now. ;)

*Grandma & Grandpa in German, aka, my step-grandparents.

Work it.

I'm officially moving to Boulder in a little over two weeks. My apartment looks like hell and I've been getting nothing done between work, trying to sleep and helping paint a friend's new house.


nataliedee.com

I've gotten a bit of packing done, but not nearly enough. I'm really trying to avoid the traditional last minute pack-a-thon/clean-a-thon/panic attacks in the stairwells while trying to carry 50lb of boxes to stuff into a moving van. We'll see how that goes. About 2/3rds of my books are packed. I still need to figure out what to do with the knitting books and magazines... and the yarn. Hmmm...

The issue is, I'm not moving directly into my own place. I'm going to stay with Vince for a but while I look for a place and stuff. We just wanted to get my move over and done with as soon as possible. So.... How much yarn do I need? What projects do I take? I'm not a very monogamous knitter. I'll be able to get to my knitting stuff, so I really shouldn't be that worried... But I packed 3 projects just for a road trip. I know I need lots of things to knit. I guess I'll just be digging into storage containers a lot.

I really need to knit the LAST 6 ROWS and just finish my damned Hourglass already. I was going to do it last night, but I was in a bad mood and didn't feel like counting. I pulled the Log Cabin throw out from it's storage box and added 2 new strips to it. I'm sort of changing the pattern around a bit now. Frankly, I was bored with it, so now I'm adding big chunks of solid color in random places. I like the variety.

I was also trying to knit another hat for Vince, but I can't find my frakkin' US 8 hat-sized circs ANYWHERE. Granted, I'm packing and my place is a mess, but I started looking for it the day after I got back --- before the packing started. It's vanished. I guess I need to get another since it's one of the needles I use most often.



This is a hat I knit before I left, I'm knitting a larger version of it for Vince. I used the now M.I.A. needles for it. It's super chunky Encore. It's a great color, deep brown with gold and navy running through. Mmm... yarn...