nevermind that i have a final in 3 hours... a quick post!

i finished Shannon's scarf, and i love it! i will definitely be making this pattern again. it's so fast, easy, and mindless-without-being-boring.

notice that despite the fact that there are only 4 ends to weave in, i still can't be bothered to do it before posting. i'll blame finals, but you know the truth. also, i'm having a hell of a time getting these colors to photograph accurately. it's prettier than it looks here.

it's quite long. i tried to get a picture of it on me so you could see just how long it really is. but, well, it's finals and i look... um, not that hot... which is weird because usually the glasses-on, wet-hair, t-shirt-and-jeans look is oh-so glam. this blurry one is the only one i can fathom posting on the internet, and it doesn't even show the length of the scarf (which comes down to my knees, in case you were actually wondering)
i can't decide whether or not to block it. i'm leaning towards lightly blocking it to open it up a bit, but it's also pretty just as is.

i actually did a new bind-off (yes, i always bind off the same way. :cough: lazy :cough:) so that the two edges match. it's a cable cast-on paired with a decrease bind-off (done by k2togtbl - apparently there are a plethora of options with the decrease bind-off).

and now the real reason that i felt absolutely positively compelled to post today:


WARNING: ROCKIN' SOCK CLUB SPOILER!!! IF YOU DIDN'T GET YOUR SHIPMENT YET AND DON'T WANT TO SEE, STOP READING NOW!!!!!
































ohmygod, this is so beautiful and soft and lovely and i just want to pet it. i love it so much that i'm scared that i'll never knit it up. i will admit that i did not love the first yarn/sock pattern in the rockin' sock club, but this... this makes up for it. i do not think i have ever had such a reaction to yarn before. these are my colors. and the new STR, which 19% silk... on, dear lord, i'm in love.
as you might imagine, the picture does not do it justice.

the best part of this club is forgetting that you're in it, until one day (in the midst of your yarn diet, no less) you get this lovely, squishy little package and you think: what the hell, did i order yarn in my sleep? and then you open it and it's pure bliss (ie. yarn that you paid for a long time ago and had forgotten about).

not a lot of knitting happening here at tightly wound because we have entered into our last-ever hellish law school finals period. not that i've done much work yet. but i'm buckling down today, really.

i have made some progress on Shannon's chevron-inspired scarf (i am a bad secret keeper and told her that i was knitting it for her last weekend. oops! thanks for reading, Shannon!). it is knitting up so quickly, i am basically astounded every time i look at how long it is already. it's already 42 inches long! not exactly the most seasonally appropriate gift, ever, sadly.


also, i'd like to apologize because i'm probably going to go MIA here for awhile. it's law school finals time, with the added twist of graduation and a move to follow. things are... well, let's just say "a bit hectic".

Today I received my winnings from Faith's fugly yarn giveaway!!! I was slow with sending my envelope, but it was totally worth the wait! My favorite is the orange color - the yellow to peach to orange is just yummy, and I am just barely managing not to cast on something immediately.

This was my very first ever blog contest win! Thanks Faith!!!

In other news, I hate taxes.

okay, i admit it. i might have been a wee bit perturbed that my fancy pants expensive camera stopped functioning less than a year into ownership (not to mention whilst in my final days of law school). indeed, i may have been even more concerned when the solution was to ship it off to some seemingly sketchy place in the Midwest, without any indication of when i might see my precious camera again. in fairness, the instructions were: put it in a reasonable sized box, use packing material, include your receipt and this case number and ship it to IL; it seemed sketchy. (i insured the crap out of the package and got delivery confirmation)

but i'll tell ya what: i shipped that package exactly one week ago yesterday. from the delivery confirmation, i know that it arrived in IL on Saturday. Today, my now fully functional camera arrived back on my doorstep. glory, hallelujah, i'm a believer!

here's the type of "quality" pictures my camera was taking before (this is my living room, in case you couldn't tell... ):

and here, my friends, are pictures taken today... and some actual knitting content!

(p.s. check out the chair that is modeling the scarf. yes, i own it. it came from my grandmother's living room, cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die. my sister has the matching one. when my grandma moved into her condo, we claimed them immediately and have been basking in the awesomeness ever since.)

i finished the entrelac scarf yesterday (and have already worn it once... stupid unseasonably cold weather is good for something, i suppose). i love it. it's warm and swishy, and generally wonderful. it took more yarn than i ever would have guessed (although, it is a pretty wide scarf). I used about 5 and a half skeins of Artyarns supermerino handpainted. i'm not going to block it because i prefer the textured look of entrelac unblocked in a scarf (oh, and also i'm lazy).

this scarf went much faster than the last entrelac i tried... obviously size 7 needles and 3 squares across are faster than size 4 needles and 4 squares across... but also i'm waaaay faster at picking up stitches than i used to be (hurray for progress!) also, knitting in a handpainted yarn for color variance and weaving in 10 ends rather than knitting two colors and having to weave in 130 ends (oh, how i wish that was an exaggeration) was a big step in the right direction, sanity-wise.

immediately after i finished the entrelac, i did some bandwagon-jumping. i kept looking at the chevron scarf flickr group and salivating. then i saw this pattern, which is similar, but "pointy-er" and it was all over. besides, i left my newly purchased sock needle set at my parents house in PA, not to mention the fact that i had decided that i didn't want penis socks. so, that left the STR sock club yarn (and frankly, the colorway didn't excite me that much. it's lovely, really, just not very "me") with no intended purpose. i also had some cherry tree hill solid red sock yarn laying around (don't ask me why. i swear to you, i have as yet never knit a sock in my life).

anyway, i totally love the result. it's quite different than anything i saw on the flickr group (which makes me proud. i tend to see something i like and then copy it EXACTLY).

also, this is the progress after less than 1 day of sporadic knitting on size 4 needles. i realize it's a skinny scarf, but, man, either i'm getting faster or this baby just really flies off the needles!

happy easter!

here's a picture of the newest member of my extended family:

doesn't that just make you want to go knit baby things until you can't move your fingers?

this little darling was the recipient of all of my baby knitting earlier this year

New Boy v. Knitter: the trials and tribulations of dating and understanding your knitter

particularly funny: what it means to "watch a movie"

i remember in college when i first learned exactly what a guy really meant when he asked me if i wanted to watch a movie. i was completely floored (shocked, appalled, etc... oh, to be that innocent again...) by the knowledge that while a movie generally was playing in the background, the intent to watch was almost completely absent.

ask a knitter if she (or he) wants to watch a movie and they, too, usually have only a small interest in the actual "watching" (depending, of course, on how talented the knitter is or how simple the project is - heck, even i can look up from stockinette or garter).

now, pair these two interpretations of the very same phrase...
imagine being the new boy and settling in for the movie, only to find two sharp pointy sticks, clicking away menacingly, between you and the girl who is supposed to be resting her head on your shoulder.
this has to be the epitome of what i'll dub "knitting culture shock".



For starters, my New Boy actually wanted to watch the movie, so I don't want to go lumping him in with all the ridiculous college boys from my past. More importantly, he took the whole knitting thing pretty much in stride (although I've been slowly hinting at this whole "I'm always going to love yarn at least as much as I love any man" thing for awhile so he might have seen it coming). He only warned me that I was going to miss the physical comedic genius if I didn't look up at the screen.

i have sad news: my camera is sick.
now, since my camera is less than a year old and cost me more than i dare admit on this blog, this makes me pretty darn angry. it all started about two weeks ago (at a bridal shower, so don't go getting any ideas that i dropped it in a puddle of beer and broke it; for once, this is not my fault), and it's just been a downward spiral from there.
i called the warranty 800 number. i have to send my camera to somewhere in the midwest for an unspecified amount of time, where they will either fix it, send me a new one, or send me a refurbished one (their choice). the good news is that it is in fact still under warranty and so it shouldn't cost me anything.

so, no new knitting pictures for awhile :-(
and no pictures make for a pretty darn crappy blog :-(

don't abandon me...


*sigh*

in much better news:

i kinda made knitting friends! Pia and I met on Sunday and went to SnB together. It was kind of comforting to be around people who discussed things like Maryland Sheep & Wool, gauge, knitting a sweater out of tiny needles and mohair, sock yarn on etsy, and new cast-ons like they are totally normal topics of conversation. (i mean, they ARE totally normal topics, but somehow my non-knitter friends seem to be less convinced of this obviously true fact).

i finally got my Knit Happens sale yarn yesterday! Something about having 30 skeins of yarn show up at your door really makes to look at your ever-growing stash and think "what on earth am i doing here?" so, no more yarn until Maryland Sheep & Wool. seriously. my favorite thing that i ordered was some Lorna's Laces Bullfrogs & Butterflies in the Vera colorway. It is pink & brown, and all-around fabulous. I only got 3 skeins (idiot), and so now I'm going to go in search of one more to make.... a clapotis. yeah, i am SO late to this party, I know. don't care, it's going to be gorgeous. i also got some cascade 220 and debbie bliss cashmerino for good measure.

i read the Yarn Harlot's new book in less than 24 hours. i am thinking about making everyone i know read it so they stop asking me about the pile of yarn.
i also bought Stephanie Japel's Fitted Knits. I love it, but it's given me startitis... happily, i have yarn for at least a couple of the sweaters. i may pick another pattern to buy yarn for at Maryland Sheep & Wool... we'll see.