Resolutions

Well, I suppose since it is New Years Eve I should make some resolutions. I didnt make any last year so I have nothing to review. I read somewhere that resolutions that are specific are more likely to be followed so I'll give it a go.

1. Lose 11 lbs to be back to the weight I was before diabetes.
2. Have better control of the diabetes. Specifically, get my A1c down to 6.4 or below.
3. Keep in touch better w/ faraway friends. ie: send birthday cards on time.
4. Learn to knit socks.
5. Manage money better and spend less.
6. Knit from my stash at least every other project.

Well, I think that should do it. Lets hope I can do it (:{

FO: Felted bag for sister

Well, it's been a long time since I posted a knitted FO on here, so hurrah, finally here is one. I started this bag ages ago as a mindless knit to knit when I got bored with other projects. As Christmas neared and all it needed was to be felted I thouhgt it would make a good gift for my sister (I also thought it would make a good birthday gift for her back in September, but it was no where near finished then).

Project name: Felted bag for Vickie
Pattern: Sophie free on Magknits
Yarn: cascade 220 in grey (dont have the tag anymore so I dont know the actual color code or dyelot)
Needles: 10.5 metal circs and metal dpns
Pattern adjustments: Used US size 10.5 instead of 10 needles. Also made the bag slightly bigger and the handles slightly longer. I also used the remainder yarn to knit up a rectangle (stockinette bordered by garter) to use as a pocket.
Notes: I felted this one the same as the other Sophie I made but it came out completely different. I felted as follows: put in pillow case and tie off. Run through hot wash cycle w/ dirty jeans and a little detergent, then cold rinse cycle. Run another hot wash/cold rinse with no detergent. Open pillow case and check.
The other Sophie I made I used the color of Cascade indicated in the pattern and it turned out wonderfully. This gray yarn felted much differently, SIGH. It came out much smaller than intended and so the handles ended up being shorter than I wanted. It was also thicker than I wanted. And the rectangle for the cellphone pocket was thick and small too. SO it must have felted faster/easier than the yellow-green and thus 2 cycles was overkill. Once again I'm learning things the hard way -- ALWAYS CHECK the felting after each wash/rinse cycle!



Here is the front of the bag.






















This cute bead is hiding the stitches that show on the outside from attaching a snap closure. Cute though.












Here is a picture of the back. You can faintly make out the cell phone pocket that I sewed on after felting. Not sure if an actual cell phone will fit in this tiny pocket though.

Even though it didnt turn out as I planned it my sister did like it so that's good.

Holiday Catch Up

Well now that I'm back from the apathetic void known as my parents house and I'm (shock!) not sick (yet!) I can start updating on my life and my FO's, and proceed with the year-end wind down.

Here is the courtyard of my apartment the day after our first big storm. it looked much the same the day I left Boston except it was snowing like crazy and a couple more inches were on the ground. I would have taken pictures of the somewhat sunny storm the day I left but I had a million bags in my hands and I was trying to make it to the airport (relatively) dry and on time. Or, just in time to be delayed for 6 hours!






Yay nekkid yarn pictures! Here is my Christmas present from Andreas. Very nice wool in a wonderful colorway. He knows me too well! (:{












Close -up of yarny goodness!!













Here is a picture of my sister's fiance's kid, or, my step-nephew-to-be, we'll just call him Jonathon. That's the cats sleeping box and he's proving that he fits inside. I have some nice pictures of the kid when he was in a good mood (he can be such a crankypants!) b/c he hung around me a lot. And that's a big part of why I didn't get much done. I was too busy reading and playing games w/ my new best friend. Its kinda hard to say no to a cute kid who follows you around like a puppy. At least he likes me, it could be worse.


The day after Christmas my sister and I did our usual retail trip to downtown Chicago. This year we didnt buy much due to budgetary constraints but it was nice to just be down there on a beautiful day. Here is a reflection of some skyscrapers in the giant mirrored Bean.









And here is the view looking straight up into the underbelly of the Bean. neat huh?










Other than that everything was pretty low key. Had a nice Christmas other than having a migraine the day of, sigh. But everyone loved their knitted snowflakes so that's good. Still have some Holiday cards to send out though. I'm so behind on everything this year!! Definitely a little lonely here in Boston w/ no one else around!

ooops I did it again

once again I have knit up a christmas gift, way too close to deadline (I'm leaving town weds), from a pattern I invented in my head. and once again, its so small it might not even fit a child's head. this one is possibly fixable as the strands between the colors were too tight, and the different colors are spaced apart, so I could just cut all of the strands that i carried along and weave them in, allowing for the garment to stretch to its full potential. however, that is a heck of a lot of work. so before i do all of that i'm going to gift the hat. b/c what if the recipient doesn't like it? anyhow, i'd show a picture that would better explain all of this, but the person may be reading this. so full explanations will be had at the end of this week.
bah!!
maybe this will teach me......
never knit on a deadline from a pattern you invent in your head.

I also had some Very Serious Issues with the ill-fated Endpaper's today. I effed up the kitchener bind-off in a major way and lost some stitches off the needles. sigh. maybe today was just not a good day to knit. maybe my brain is too cluttered to knit complicated patterns. whatever happened to knitting for relaxation? its never good when your knitting stresses you out.
And today was one of those days that I really needed Something to go right. B/c it was such a downer. Thanks to the nor'easter and warm temps there is nothing but flood and slush in addition to the snow piles outside. and as i was walking to work to pour some plates i was drenched completely in road slush by motorists speeding unsafely down longwood ave. not once, not twice, but four times! by the time i got to hsph i was ready to cry and freezing and drenched in dirty water. b/c it isnt bad enough that i had to go to work on a crappy sunday. thank you masshole drivers. i hope karma is a giant bucket of sewage that drops on your head. luckily i have access to the mouse breeding facility that has clean scrubs.

Blizzard!!

Well, today I was planning on going to the Harvard Ceramics Program Holiday Show and Sale opening night, but, the weather predictions turned out to be true and traffic was worse than I thought so I walked home. Except that by 4 pm there was a foot of snow on the ground and nothing had been shoveled or plowed and the snow was still falling like crazy!! And me being me I didnt believe the weather prediction so I left all my perfectly good snow gear at home. At least I was wearing ankle boots or the 1.5 miles home would have been even worse. Really quite amazing how much snow fell in just a few hours.


These pictures are from my balcony around 5 pm tonight.





























But I did get some secret holiday knitting done. Yay! And since its another pattern from my head I'm crossing my fingers and praying that it turns out alright and not like the hat I tried to make for my brother's girlfriend last Christmas. We shall see.

update and thanks

Just wanted to say thanks again to everyone for offering their condolences. (realized of course after the last post that ive been spelling it as granpa and everyone else in the fam spells it grampa. ah well). i'm back from Chicago now. and i've caught a cold of course. been working on lots of snowflakes and about to start some holiday knitting (i swore i had size 8 needles but could not for the life of me find them before i left for my trip). ive been avoiding the endpapers as ive been sick and didnt want to cover them in whatever i'm coughing out, but they are sooo close to done.
i have lots and lots of ceramics fo's to post but with it being so dreary out i havent been able to get some good pictures, so hopefully soon!

Death, it always comes too soon

The first fish I ever caught, with Grampa's help of course.














Well since I've spent most of the day crying anyway, I may as well write the post that's going to make me cry. Today my sister called me, and I could tell she had been crying. My first thought was that something happened between her and her fiance. But then she said "Grampa died this morning." I will forever remember this day as the first time I truly knew loss and grief.
I have counted myself lucky that though they are not always in the best of health, and though there have been some close calls, every family member that I have been close to was still with me except for my great gramma. But when she passed in 2004 she was 101, and we were prepared for her passing as she had been ill for some time. We had time to make peace and say goodbye. I couldnt make the funeral because it was in the middle of finals at college but my family told me it was a more happy occasion, a celebration of her life, for she had lived a long and full life, one worthy of celebration. This time its not such a happy occasion. This was too sudden. Even though his health had been declining for a couple of years he wasnt that ill, just old. I know that everyone must die but that doesnt make it any easier when its your own granpa. He was a wonderful man and I will miss him terribly. He liked to tell jokes and make people smile. He liked to buy everyone gag gifts at Christmas. Or silly games that we could all play. He was a fisherman. He was a war veteran. He was "Chuck the Windspinner Man."

When I called him to wish him a happy birthday last year he asked me how the rats were (I work with mice), how the research was going, and if I got along with my roommates. He told me that he thought my sister was too young to be thinking about marriage and how happy he was that I'd chosen to live a life on my own before I settled down. He told me to see the world, have a career and "sow my wild oates" before I got married. When I laughed that that was strange advice for a grandfather to give a granddaughter he brushed it off and said it was true, I would live a longer life than I ever expected and I didnt want to get to an age where I regretted not doing all the exciting things when I was young. The fact that he not only supported my decisions but encouraged them at a time when most of my relatives were asking me when I was going to "find a nice guy and settle down" meant everything to me.

This Christmas is going to be so hard without him. I didnt go home for thanksgiving and I had looked forward to seeing him at Christmas. I am so incredibly sad. I know in time it will get easier... But right now this pain in my gut, this knot in my throat, reminding me that something I loved has been lost forever, is horrible. Right now I hate that I am alone in Boston. I'll be taking a red-eye flight to Chicago on weds and back to Boston saturday, but before then I have to present my research at our yearly Gates Foundation meeting and I just hope I can muster enough concentration to get through the day on tuesday.
This week will be rough but I know I'll get through it somehow. Also, thanks to everyone who has already sent me good wishes of love and support - it means a lot.


Grampa, me, my sister, and my dad at Six Flags.

When you are stressed

You get this (on the right):

instead of the five pointed one on the left. I worked on that "lace triangle" this past week, which was a particularly stressful one at work and i just had to laugh tonight when i finally bound it off and realized what it was. its even more funny since i tried so hard to make it right. i kept miscounting stitches and ripping back and starting over. oh well.

at least i had the arrival of some yarny goodness to help. (yes the stash has grown!! gah!)

Here we have some Socks That Rock from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in the new Raven series.
This is Grawk. isn't she beautiful?













And this is Tlingit.
I'm sad to say that I'm a little disappointed in Tlingit, she seems just like a muted Grawk. I had contemplated getting Rook-y instead, but its so hard to guess true color from the computer. So I didnt. And I wish I had. Ariel got a skein of Rook-y and I was very jealous. Ah well.





I love Grawk though so that makes me happy.
(:{