so much happens… February 25, 2007

when i don’t post for a while, so much happens! i suppose i’ll start with the bad news and move on towards better stuff…

grandma went in for her surgery on thursday, but they didn’t end up operating because they found too many tumors. it’s stage four, which is certainly worse than we had hoped for. she will probably start chemo soon, to shrink some of the tumors down so they can operate. we just have to keep praying and hoping for the best…

mom and grandma (not the sick one) came and visited me today… we ran errands and ate and went shopping. it was a really good day. after the week i had, i needed one! i got some really gorgeous clothes and a hair straightener and food. ^^

i’ve been working on fun-fur hats for nearly two months now (in between other projects, of course) and i’m finally done! when i went to count them, there were 22! i was pretty amazed; i didn’t realize that there were so many! forgive that the photo is wacky… something about the light was strange. i really felt so very seuss, haha! (and the iron stain thing in the upper right corner was here when i got in this room… i’m smart enough to use an ironing board!)

fun-fur chemo caps (22)
pattern: lion brand fun fur chemo cap
yarn: lots of different types!
needles: size 15 straights
size: various
comments: these were suprisingly fun to knit, especially since i could start one at the beginning of an hour-long TV show and be done by the end of the show. that’s about as instant as it gets! i hope the kids like them! ^^ oh, and these were for kate’s caps.

blanket of hope square #2
pattern: woozy cloth
yarn: lion brand wool color majestic mountain
needles: size 7 straights
size: ~6.5in x 6.5in
comments: i’ve found that i really like using dishcloth patterns for blanket squares. there don’t seem to be too many blanket square patterns out there, but dishcloth patterns? they’re everywhere, and many are very cool, too.

ok, bedtime! i have pleeenty of work to do tomorrow! can’t wait for spring break… !

crafty! February 19, 2007

so, we found out that grandma does not have breast cancer, just the ovarian cancer, as far as we know. she is having surgery on thursday, so we’ll know more after that. i was going to mail her package (the footies) on monday, but i was paranoid and got them out on friday. i’m so glad i did! i didn’t realize that monday is a post office holiday (president’s day) and the package surely wouldn’t have gotten there on time had i waited. sometimes i’m really glad i’m paranoid!

i’m working on the fun fur chemo caps, since the deadline for those is coming up quickly. but, i’ve been seeing cute crafty things to do and i just couldn’t resist! sometimes i just want to sew!

this is a little pincase that i found a pattern for over on craft leftovers. i didn’t have any of the materials that the pattern called for, but i really liked how hers looked, so i just improvised. i knit the green cabled rectangle with knitpicks palette in green and size 6 needles and then used an old piece of jeans for the sturdy cloth on the inside and finished it off with a snap. i had been using a pincushion for my pins, but the needles always sunk down into the cushion so far i couldn’t find them. this is much better for the space i have! and darn cute, too! ^^

this is a “yo-yo heart” from this pattern. it’s so small and sweet and pretty easy to make. this one (if you can tell) is hanging on my desk lamp. i was going to make a bunch of these for a valentine’s garland, but i couldn’t find cloth i was crazy over, and i didn’t really have enough time anyway. but, this one is cute! ^^

school is still insanely busy… i can’t wait until spring break!

first pair of socks! February 14, 2007

since the last time i posted about my grandma’s situation, some things have changed. i’ll know more soon, since they’re still running tests, but now they think she may have breast cancer, not ovarian cancer. the doctors that she’s had, i don’t know… liver cirrhosis, then ovarian cancer, now maybe breast cancer. maybe it’s hard to diagnose, but she’s been strung along for long enough… anyway!

cable footies
pattern: one skein by leigh radford
yarn: moda dea washable wool color plum (one skein ^^)
needles: size 9 DPNs
size: medium
comments: i’m really pleased with how these turned out. the yarn is so much softer than i thought it would be and the pattern was really easy to work with… very specific, which was great for my first pair of socks. i still think the heels turned out a bit wacky (even after i watched the video on knitting help… not sure what my problem is), but oh well! grandma won’t notice, anyway. these are pretty loose on me (though not “big,” really), which reinforces my belief that there is a reason why i knit tight… because i am small and things only seem to fit when i knit them at smaller gauges (ahaha, cause i rarely swatch, though i did for this project). i’m waiting to mail them, since i want the timing to be right, but i’m getting antsy, because i really think she’ll like them!

blanket of hope square #1
pattern: hob nail dishcloth by hakucho
yarn: patons classic wool color new denim
needles: size 7 straights, one size 7 DPN
size: approx. 6in x 6in
modifications: i cast on 31 stitches and modified the pattern to fit that.
comments: i really wanted to try out the pattern, since i’d never seen anything quite like it before. it was really easy and sort of fun, twisting the yarn around the stitches. i found it a bit easier to knit the three stitches that get wrapped directly onto my DPN, saving a bit of needle shifting.

ok. back to the never-ending load of homework! thanks for all the birthday wishes! OH and happy valentine’s day! hope you’re spending it with someone special. ^^

happy birthday to meee! (part two) February 11, 2007

the birthday story about me that seems to get told most often is the story of my tenth birthday. it was a sunday, and, as we do on sundays, we went to church. this particular sunday, there was a wedding for two hippies (i am not being mean, they were genuinely hippies). well, being ten, i wasn’t too interested, so i went into the storage room with some friends and watched a movie (there was a couch and TV in there). when i came out, my family was gone. they had left me at church on my birthday. both had gone home, thinking i was with the other parent. luckily, another mom at church was able to take me home in time for my birthday party, which, was, by the way, really cool. we used ideas from american girl magazine. i had cake in ice cream cones and a favor hunt that had ribbon all over the house and… i still remember it, if that’s any indication of how cool it was. ^^ i’d show pictures, but they’re at home (and i’m not). but anyway, my friends at church still love to tell that story whenever possible.

i can’t say my birthday was that great, because it wasn’t (and quite frankly i’m glad it’s over), but i did get some very cool presents in the mail and i made myself some pretty tasty birthday cookies. so, pictures of it all!

my RA put a sign up on my door.

presents! from paola, grandma, mom, and jason.

a closer-up picture of the bracelet from mom (bigger image if you click on it). she made this for me using the viking knit technique. my mom is so incredibly talented… ^^

randy sent a gorgeous bouquet of a dozen roses. last year, for valentine’s day, there was a huge fiasco with the flowers he tried to send (they sent something totally different from what he ordered), so, in comparison, i would say the problems with this were mild. the flowers came in a box (which, how cool is that?! you put it together yourself) and the office clerk downstairs couldn’t find the package because it was TOO SMALL for him to see. the box was nearly waist high! i was very unhappy and maybe a bit emotional? but it ended up ok. they’re beeeautiful and they smell so good, too!

me, looking all happy with my new cowgirl bunny, peppermint louisa, from paola (paola currently resides in texas).

since i was all alone for my birthday, i decided to make myself a cake. but it didn’t make sense to buy eggs, vegetable oil, and a cake pan for a one-time thing (besides the fact that i have no other real use for eggs or vegetable oil) so i just made cookies instead. when i bought the dough, i told myself that if i had to make my own birthday cookies, they were going to be darn good. so i added butter cream icing and star sprinkles. yum yum!

in not so birthday news, look what i got in the mail on thursday from karen (the red scarf project prize). isn’t it pretty?! five skeins of rowan felted tweed. now i just have to decide what to knit with them!

i also finished up my grandma’s footies and my first square for the blanket of hope, but i am totally out of time for tonight and will post about those later!

p.s. it bothers me immensely that blogger seems to have spacing issues whenever i add pictures. it’s a pain to fix!

happy birthday to meee! February 10, 2007

today (well, friday if it’s saturday by the time this post is published) is my 20th birthday. i’m no longer a teenager, whoo. unfortunately, i am absolutely wiped out. my accounting exam took in the neighborhood of two and a half hours of very thought-intensive work. I didn’t get back here until about ten minutes ago (it’s 11:30pm). it has not been a particularly good day. at all. i think i’m going to save my birthday stories and pictures and any actual content for when i’m more awake, though.

BUT i told you i’d announce a winner tonight, so i will. randy chose #2, which happens to be erin. whoo! i feel particularly bad about having people that didn’t win, though. i may need to not have contests… lol. there may be something in it for people who left stories (except jase, who got a package from me this week already) but didn’t win. i’ll think about it in the morning and inquire over any contact information later. for now, i’m going to bed.

more busy busy February 8, 2007

a reminder that my contest is still up until friday. i want to hear those birthday stories! ^^

this has been a very long week and it’s still only wednesday! i have a management exam tomorrow night and an accounting exam friday night so i’ve been busy with that and work for my other classes and… i didn’t get to knit for two days in a row earlier in the week… but it’s ok now because i’m past the heel and onto the toe of my second footie. i hope to be done by the weekend (or on the weekend, at latest).

as things get more hectic, i find that the only thing i want to do is knit. i want to be doing something for someone else, finishing my footies or making a chemo hat (the fun fur ones) or just something more exciting than studying. i know, i know. i have to study. i’m just very easily distracted when i’m doing schoolwork… i find that i really like cookies. ^^

to hide my lack of current knitting content (yes, i’ll admit it), i remembered a little while ago that i never posted pictures of the little pouch i came up with for my grandma (the one who isn’t sick). she wrote me to thank me for her market bag for Christmas and mentioned using it to take her keys and games down to the pool. well, keys in a market bag? didn’t sound so great to me, so i whipped up this little pouch. i told her that she must know i love her a lot, since the pouch has both snaps AND velcro (hand-sewn!). i didn’t use a pattern, but it’s not so difficult to see how it was made. the snap thing goes around the strap of the bag, so your keys don’t end up at the bottom and hard to find.

first sock! (and a contest!) February 4, 2007

thanks to all of you for your kind words and prayers on behalf of my grandma. we still don’t know when she’s having surgery; she’s meeting with the surgeon on wednesday and i suppose we’ll know after that. i started (and finished) the first of her footies today. it’s my first “real” sock ever. i had a few problems with the heel, (mostly from not paying close enough attention) but overall i think it went really well. the picture is horrible, i know, i’ll be sure to take better pictures (and talk more about them) when i have both done. (yes, there is a jeans imprint on my leg, and yes, the door is really that dirty, please don’t ask me why… it was like that when i got here).

it seems that i am indeed on a lucky streak. this morning i found out that i won a prize over at the red scarf project blog. rowan felted tweed… how gorgeous!

because i have been so insanely lucky (randy says i should play the lottery ^^) and because i think someone should get to be happy on my birthday while i’m slaving away on an accounting exam, i am having my own little contest. i’ll probably add pictures of the prize later, but it’s a skein of malabrigo in peach tree (mostly browns and oranges), a skein of patons pebbles (blue), and probably a few magnets or something.

here’s how it goes: (because i love how kelli does her contests)
if you want in, between now and approximately 10:30pm EST friday february 9th (whenever i get back from my exam and am able to think again), you should leave me a comment (on this post, please) telling me about a memorable birthday experience. happy, funny, sad, whatever you want. on friday, i’ll tell about my somewhat memorable tenth birthday (a decade ago, sheesh!) and choose the winner (randomly). sound easy enough? oh, if you don’t knit, tell me a story anyway! if you win, maybe i’ll knit you something. ^^