Leaving Utrecht

I arrived with 2 suitcases and 2 backpacks, and I will leave with a whole truck full of stuff and a cat and a boyfriend. Hard to believe my time in Utrecht is almost over. Hard to believe that I have a PhD (more on that in a later post if i ever get around to it). There are some things about Utrecht and the Netherlands in general that I will be sad to leave, but on the whole, I'm glad to be leaving. I will miss my friends here the most, and second I'll miss the fried snacks and speculaas. But I wont miss being confused on a daily basis about communicating and conversing with people in general (since I never managed to grasp the Dutch language). Scared (because who isnt at least a little scared to move to a new country), but mostly excited.

A little stressed that we still have no idea how our stuff is going to make it from point A to B (Utrecht to Birmingham). I like to have everything taken care of in advance, and we thought we did, but then life threw us a curveball. Ugh. If I had had more time or more money I suppose we could have hired professional movers but at this point we are low on funds and time. So crossing my fingers that something works out. That at least one of the people we have asked for help can help us.

Also I hate moving b/c it involves a long list of doing things that I don't like to do. It's so, Adult.

Anyway here is a random assortment of Utrecht pictures.

Because I finish what I start: December 2012 in pictures

Last one - you'd think I could have gotten around to it before now. But... See the post from 2 days ago...

We went with some friends to Maastricht to the Christmas Market which ended up being very small and not very awesome. But I did get some local honey so win to that. Also, there is/was a bookstore in a cathedral which was pretty cool to see.

At some point in December Islay started doing this:
She looks really cute, but dont be fooled, she only accepts 2-4 belly rubs before she kills you.

We made our yearly pilgrimage to the OBER Christmas Beer Festival in Essen, Belgium. Sadly, we could not go this year (2013) because of the chaos in moving to another country, but we hope to be back in 2014.

 I knit a super cool dino hat for my nephew Jake.

Islay inspected the Christmas gifts I made. -- Vanilla extract.

Islay attempted to sneak into the suitcase and go with us to Stevenage for Christmas and Boxing Day. Sadly, we had to leave her behind.

We said our goodbyes to dear Poppy, whose kidneys started to fail at the age of 18. Shortly after we left she peacefully passed away on the lap of Jamie's mom.

And Islay loved her Christmas presents!

Finally! I have wrapped up 2012. And before 2014 even. Goodness sakes, I am not a dedicated writer at all.

weekend away

After a hellish homestretch, my thesis was printed and submitted on Friday morning. I am so beyond relieved that it is done. Then I packed and took the train down to southern Maryland to visit Amanda and Jason.


I knit them a beer cozy as a thanks for having me over for the weekend. Do you recognize this yarn? (: It's ChOrG! My Kool-Aid hand dyed! I love this yarn. It's so soft and smooshy. It's very pretty all knit up.


On Friday night the three of us went out to dinner, Amanda got her 3rd tattoo (some stars on her wrist), and then we went back to the restaurant (next door to the tattoo parlor) and had celebratory drinks.










On Saturday Amanda and I went to Maryland Sheep and Wool. It was dreary, chilly, and pouring rain when we got there which was a giant bummer. But luckily around noon the skies cleared and it got sunny. I didnt get any pictures of the yarn because the festival was jam packed. I could barely get in some of the stalls to look at the goods!!
Sadly I did not find yarn for specific projects, or a shawl pin that I liked, but I did get some beautiful yarn. I tired to take pictures of it, but it was so bleak today that I couldnt get good ones.






Here are some sheeps for you to enjoy. I didnt see a whole lot of alpacas. There were some bunnies too but all the little kids were crowding around them so, no pictures.













After the festival Amanda, Jason and I went out for yummy Thai food. Here is the appetizer platter - it's a party on a plate! Notice the random party explosion coming out of the shrimp thingy. It was very nom nom.

















Today brought more rainy, depressing weather so Amanda and I decided to spend some quality time crafting. Here is Sydney claiming the ironing board as his own while Amanda quilts. I sewed up a new WIP bag.










For the WIP bag, I used this tutorial that I had used before..... But... either we read it wrong the first time or Amanda and I were doing something wrong today, b/c the pattern as written didnt work. The 21 inches of the big rectangle doesnt fit all the way around the 6x6 inch bottom square. Both Amanda and I tried. I ended up having to cut the bottom squares down to 5.5 x 5.5 inches.

It's a beautiful bag though. Muchas gracias to Amanda who let me dig through her fabric stash for this!










And here is the inside fabric.


It's definatly not fabric I would normally buy for myself, but when I saw it today I really liked it. I dont know what's up with me and red lately. But whatevs, I'll run with it.











Here it is next to the first bag I made. I think my sewing today was not the best quality, but I think non-crafters would have a hard time finding fault with it. I really like that it's taller. Now I just need a cord to cinch it up. I thought I had a light blue shoelace but I dont, it's purple. So I might knit a brown I-cord.


All-in-all, a lovely weekend! And as soon as the sun comes back I will post some pictures of the crazy awesome yarn I bought at MDSW!

I also finished one shawl, and made serious progress on the never ending stole of grey. But the damn thing still isnt close to being done and I have 4 days! Yikes! - I gotta run now and go knit some more!

WIP monday

I've been feverishly working on my reasonably hip hat and I've finally finished the hat body. All i have left is the brim. I tried it on last night and took a picture.

It comes down a bit far for the brim but I think it will be ok anyhow. a little wiggle room. i guess we'll find out after i attach the brim - hopefully tonight!
also, my hair looks insanely red in this picture..... odd. I already like the way that the short rows make the hat curve down the ears though, so that's good.













In other news i'm so not excited about a drinking holiday landing on a work night. booo to that. i'll probably still go out for a Guinness or two, but it wont be nearly as fun a night as it could have been.
Completely forgot to tell the yarners about what happened knit related in Georgia. One of the scientists (JR) I was visiting has a 1.5 yr old daughter. When she was born I knit her a blanket. We stopped at JR's house before a lab dinner out and her daughter was still awake. She was talkative but tentative towards all the new people in the house. Then JR said to her daughter "You know your blanket? The red one you like so much? Well, Cassandra knit it for you." Blank stare from daughter. "Yes, Cassandra made the red blanket for you when you were born." Daughter: "Yay!!! Yay, yay, yay, yay" (she yelled it while jumping up and down). After that the daughter decided I was awesome and kept coming up to me and talking to me and giving me toys.
Honestly, it was one of the best responses I've gotten from knitting a gift because it was such a surprise. I really didnt expect her to react that way. But apparently she loves the blanket, so thats good.

the day after

Well, yesterday was my first true test of Resolution #7 and I have to say, I passed with flying colors. Not only did I refrain from opening a bottle of wine (which Always leads to finishing the bottle of wine) but I also refrained from drinking all my beer. In fact, I didn't drink at all.

I did, however, totally wipe out on a patch of ice on my way to the gym, and feel a little pathetic for staying so long at the gym w/ all the muscle dudes (most people were running in and running back out again), so the day wasn't totally awesome. But at least I'm not so pathetic to answer the requisite e-mail from an ex-boyfriend on Valentines. Seriously, if any guys read this, stop e-mailing old flames on Valentines day, esp if you've already emailed them in the past and they no longer answer!! Gah! This time it sounded like he's on some sort of 12-step program and needs to apologize to everyone he may have hurt. It was weird.

Anyhow, in the past couple days I've made major progress on my exchequered giftie so hopefully it will be done soon!

Transporting a giant cake to work: a tutorial

Have you ever spent 6 hours making the most absolutely delicious Chocolate Stout Cake Ever for a work going away party only to realize you have no round tupperware cake transporter thingie, and in fact have no tall cake holder whatsoever? And how the heck are you going to bring this wonderfully frosted yummy all the way to work? Well, have no fear I have figured it out! And I am here to share my wisdom with you.


Step 1: Bake and frost super yummy 3-layer cake













Step 2: measure lots of plastic containers/drawers until you find a suitable one.

















Step 3: dump said drawer's belongings into a paper bag. Wash plastic drawer vigorously.













Step 4: Put cake on plate in plastic drawer.

















Step 5: plastic wrap the heck out of it.





Step 6: Bring onto bus and endure strange looks.








Step 7: bring to work, cut, and enjoy.










As a side note: this cake was Really heavy. It tasted unbelievably amazing, but is not fun to carry. In the future, I will not make such heavy cakes for work and may even buy myself one of those plastic cake transporter thingies. Maybe.
Also I used Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stout; less butter; less sugar overall; and some brown sugar for the cake. The frosting was a pound of Trader Joe's Belgian Bittersweet and heavy cream.