saturdays should be good days… April 28, 2007

i woke up really early this morning to do some last-minute studying for my accounting final, which started at 10am (yes, on a saturday. stupid school). i’m not sure if it’s a bad sign when you’ve already taken a nap by 9am, but i did. the exam was basically terrible. suffice it to say that i am quite worried about my grade.

in an effort to take my mind off of things after the exam and to pick up a few things i needed, i went to the mall. first, let me say, i love the hallmark store. i really do. i have some thirty different sets of notecards and stationary (and i like to use it). the problem is, i hate buying cards for holidays. i wanted to get mom a mother’s day card before i go home so i don’t have to get one when i’m out with her. makes sense, right? but here’s the thing: there may be entire racks of cards, but they have about four basic themes. you have the cards from small children (“i love you, mommy”), the super sappy cards (“mother, i would be nothing without you, you are the reason i am alive, you sculpted me and i am eternally grateful. now that i am also a mother, i realize that i want to be just like you and i treasure our friendship”), the “funny” cards (“i’m surprised you didn’t kill me when i was a kid” OR “aren’t you glad you had such a wonderful kid?!”), and the super expensive cards ($4 for a greeting card is insane, regardless of whether it plays music, has a bit of cloth on it, or has some scrapbooky detailing). every card i saw that i even remotely liked was either $4 or one that i KNOW i’ve given to mom before. i ended up with a blank card that i’ll have to write the message in myself. i feel as though i am caught between age groups. i am not a child, to give mom a cartoon card, but i’m not an adult to send a sappy, flower covered card, either. i want something classsy, simply stated and relatively inexpensive. apparently, this is too much to ask. sigh! (note that i’m not trying to mock people who send sappy cards or people who like to receive them. they just really aren’t my style and my family would be quite surprised if i started sending them).

if that was all the fun the mall had in store for me, things might have been ok. i can deal with a bad card selection. the thing i have very little patience for is clothes shopping. i know that i’m picky, but i don’t feel like i’m horribly misshapen or disproportional and i think that there should be some clothes out there that reflect that and fit and flatter me! i get so frustrated going into store after store and trying on clothes that look terrible on me (in my opinion). one current trend is shirts that are super-long and form-fitting. there is nothing long and lanky about me… i’m 5′4″ and i’m pretty small, but i still have some extra around the middle (in my opinion) that i’m not comfortable highlighting the way those shirts do on me. another trend is to sell basically only two-piece swimwear. i haven’t gotten a new swimsuit in years because anything that is one piece is made for women older than me, in boring, flowery prints or terrible cuts. is it so wrong to want a modest suit with a pattern as fun as those for bikinis without having to pay $100 at a specialty surf shop? most of my clothes are getting old and icky because i can’t find anything to replace them with and it just really bothers me. i feel so inadequate when there isn’t anything that fits me or makes me look good.

i promise that i’m done ranting or being sad or whatever. i think i’m just really stressed out. i haven’t knit at all in the past week due to the wrist problem, so there isn’t too much excitement. i did find and throw away all the unfinished projects i talked about last post. it was really hard to just get rid of them, but it would have taken so much more effort to do anything with them that they just needed to go. i even took a picture, haha.

i really need to get back to studying (stupid exams!), so i’ll leave you with pictures. i think i promised straight hair pictures a while back, so here they are. these are me all cleaned up, going to an academic honorary induction last week.

my poor wrist… April 21, 2007

the bad news first: a few weeks ago, i was taking a lengthy economics exam (all short answer, so a lot of writing) and when i got out, my wrist was sore. now, i’ve had some problems with my wrist before, mostly some muscle seizing when i wake up in the mornings, but this was worse and it has only worsened since then. at this point, it hurts to knit, to type, to use the mouse, to write… to do just about everything i do. because i’m moving back home after next week, i’m going to wait to go to the doctor for it, so i can’t really knit much in the next few days. this might be good, since i should be studying, but most of my studying involves either the computer or writing, so it doesn’t really leave much for me to do. i’m hoping it’s nothing major, but i suppose we’ll see. my desk here (school provided) is so unergonomic that i’m sure it’s not helping the situation, either.

i. love. this. hat. i bought a skein of rowan big wool on closeout from webs and proceeded to make this soft and thick hat. i didn’t use a pattern, just cast on about 52 stitches and worked around. it looks huge when it’s not on my head, but it fits perfectly. it doesn’t even have a pointy top! ^^

mittens!
pattern: http://www.afghansforafghans.org/mittens.html
yarn: bendigo woolen mills 8-ply color dusky rose (doubled)
needles: size 8 dpns
size: kids small (4-6)
comments: i saw afghans for Afghans on MDK and decided i wanted to do something for it. i don’t really have the yarn for a blanket, though, so i did something else that they asked for. i think they turned out well. ^^ if i get to do some more knitting before the deadline, then i’ll probably make another set.

travelling vines dishcloth
pattern: http://smariek.blogspot.com/2006/11/travelling-vine-cloth.html
yarn: sugar n’ cream mill ends color dark-ish green
needles: size 7 straights
size: pretty small; about 6in x 6in
comments: the color is actually darker than the picture shows. i can’t say i was thrilled with the purl-two-through-the-back-loops, but it turned out alright. i may give this to mom for mother’s day or something.

i also crocheted another hat just like this one from a few months ago. it isn’t very exciting, so i didn’t even take more pictures.

i have a few unfinished toys that i just need to get off my chest (and out of my favorites!) and either frog or throw away. they are this chinchilla that i was knitting for my roommate for Christmas (the ears ended up the wrong size entirely) and this monkey that i was knitting for my boyfriend (i was using needles waaay too small for the yarn weight). whoo, that was cathartic, HAHA. now i can get rid of the projects when i come across them in my stash again. ^^

oh, the yarn! April 12, 2007

have you ever had that dream where you’re in a big room full of gorgeous yarn that is dirt cheap? where you stand in awe and then proceed to grab up as much as you can? (i hope that i’m not the only one who occasionally dreams of yarn!) well, something very similar happened to me last weekend. we were at my grandparents’ house for Easter and mom and i wanted to get out of the house for a little while, so we were going to jo-ann’s for buttons for the bibs that i’d finished. lo and behold, the store was closing so everything was on sale. yarn (and they had a LOT of it) was 50% off. 60% off if you bought 10 or more skeins. 70% off if you bought 15 or more. i’ll just let you guess how many i bought. ^^ i ended up with mostly patons classic wool and a jo-ann brand wool/cotton blend that feels insanely soft on my skin. i really just had to laugh at the whole thing, though. here i was knitting bibs out of little scraps of leftover cotton to “de-stash” and then i turn around and buy waaay more yarn. can’t pass up a good deal like that, though!! my yarn now only barely fits in my craft area so i can’t buy any more for a while, HAHA.

Easter was really good. i was surprised that grandma looked and seemed so healthy and normal (minus her lack of hair). i guess i was expecting her to seem much sicker, with the chemo and all. she has a lot of hope, though, so i think that keeps her active and doing well. she was wearing the slippers i made her, so maybe she did like them after all? or at least she wanted me to think she did, which is really quite sweet. we watched charlotte’s web and happy feet while we were there… both were so cute! mom gave me an Easter basket with candy and adorable hello kitty pajama pants! i can’t wait to do laundry so i can wear them.

my latest mason-dixon bibs. i also knit a pink one, but mom took it home with her. it would make so much more sense to knit bibs if i actually had people to give them to! oh well.

i can’t wait for the school year to be over! i had an exam last night, so now i’m done with exams until finals (which are only two weeks away). i always seem to get really burnt out towards the end of spring term, so i’m trying to get out of that rut and finish strong. we’ll see how it goes! i still have a few quizzes, though, so it’s not like i can relax altogether.

cotton… April 5, 2007

so, last week when i finished my socks, (which, by the way, i happen to be wearing today and they’re great ^^) i looked for something new to knit and was almost instantly frightened by the amount of dishcloth cotton in my stash. now, i know that i don’t really have that much, but it bothers me just the same. it was time for some cotton stash reduction. i’m doing fairly well, if i do say so myself.

a few mason-dixon bibs (that still need buttons) and a last-minute knitted gifts hat for a cousin who’s having a baby boy in july. i’m kind of enjoying the bibs… right now, i’m working on a girly one (i’m sure i can find a baby for it!) and i’ve got ideas for more, too.

here we have a mason-dixon burp cloth that i made to put on top of my microwave. it’s my drying rack, of sorts, as you can tell from the second picture. i can’t help it that i have no kitchen! i really like how it turned out, from the colors to the size, etc. i think i cast on 55 stitches (10 inches wide) and worked for 17 or 18 inches.

i haven’t been neglecting other projects during my little cotton de-stash, though.

i finally needle-felted and sewed in the zipper of my second camera case. i was pretty excited that i put in the zipper myself on this one. i don’t think it looks too terrible, either. ^^

oh, a few other things. we’re going to my grandparents’ house (in the tampa area) for Easter, which hopefully won’t be too eventful, but rather relaxing and fun. school is pretty blah at the moment and i’m basically counting down the weeks until summer. i joined a charity blanket project over here, which should be pretty fun. the reason i got the yarn for the socks in the last post for $1.50 is because it was on double clearance at garden ridge over the summer… i got some really good steals. our gator basketball team won the national champtionship on monday (two in a row, whoo). ok, that paragraph was random. sorry, but i’m in a bit of a hurry. management exam tonight! O_O