Halloween!

Here are my promised pics of wedding stuff. Firstly I have the dress, which my closet door sports very nicely for you in the picture.

Click for a larger view

The color is a little off, and i have to say, even though it sounds a little egotistical, the dress just really needs me in it to look fabulous. :)

This weekend we decided to shop for rings. we've been looking online, but nothing really seemed to suit us well. Either we found stuff we liked, but didnt have our size, or everything was too ugly. I got a mention from a few people to go to Jewelers Row downtown. So this saturday, we did just that and both came out great! His ring is just a brushed titanium band, and mine is a platinum (looks gold in picture :( ) skinny band with channel set diamonds. I really love it because it will be easy to work with, whether it is knitting, painting, postermaking, papermaking, biking, etc.. Its very light and doesnt get in the way at all... exactly what i was looking for!


We are both really excited that things are moving along smooth. we are now just waiting for a judge to be able to come down to the inn and marry us! he isnt sure of his schedule yet :(

Knitting pictures are sure to come some time early in the week, so keep an eye out!


In spirit of Halloween, here are our pumpkins we carved this weekend. they are hilarious! I baked the seeds today and they came out excellent, using a little dried roasted red pepper and cumin and salt!
Happy Halloween!

cable work

ive been chugging away at my irish hiking scarf! its coming along great! im about halfway done, as of 2 days ago. Im trying to just pump that one out for mikes gramma, and then i just have one more christmas project to do. i wont be able to post that one till after xmas, but i started it last night, and it is looking good so far!!
i also plan on starting on a hat for myself, but am looking around to get ideas for it. i have a super chunky black yarn, made from alpaca and merino, i beleive. i am a big advocate of the alpaca, and this yarn just felt like heaven. Its called Blue sky bulky. check it out!
you know what i think ive learned in the past few months?? men catch on very quickly to knitting, moreso than women i think. i may not be a scientist, but i do have some experience! every male i have taught to knit seems to pick it up like no tomarrow, yet every female struggles with it. perhaps it has something to do with the way i teach it?? i do tend to make friends with the male side easier than the female..
Anyways, just an observation to throw out there. Hopefully, i can finish my irish hiking scarf by saturday and have some photos up!

kittython

I think me and Lauren have found the best game ever to play when you are sad or bored at work. Its called the kittython. Check it out here.

Sock problems

well its my first attempt at socks! its not perfect, but im happy to finally have gone through and finished one! i plan on making many more and conquering socks in any shape, form, or color!!

For now, its on to the irish hiking scarf, I really do need to get these christmas gifts done!

cables are the new black

sick knitting is awesome knitting. i've been home all day, doing little odds and ends of knitting.


I joined the Irish Hiking Scarf knitalong, and it is awesome. Ive wanted to do cables for the longest time, and boy is it easy. WAY easier than it looks. So here's how far I've gotten. Its my very first attempt at cables. big time fun. If this one turns out well, I am going to substitute this gift for mikes gramma instead of the purple peruvian strip one. I dont think im too happy with how that one is turning out.


Last night we decided to go dress shopping. In particular, wedding dress shopping. I know, no one knows yet, but me and mike are planning on getting married on December 18, 2004! Its going to be a very simple and small, nice ordeal. Get married, eat lunch, go for a walk through the state park, and thats pretty much it! We are having our reception with all our acquaintances in June or September. I found a great dress at Nordstrom's that im pretty sure is the one. To show how nontraditional the wedding is, the dress is red! Here's a little sketch I made of the basic shape of the thing. its satiny and the most beautiful red color EVER! I cant for the life of me find an actual photo online.

Hopefully Ill buy the thing if i dont find anything else, and Ill have some photos!

Now make with the sock knitting! I've gotten a little ways into the Joan sock, thanks to savannachik! thank so much! (she will be forever in my debt). Here is the progress so far.

heres the rib and leg sections



Heres a few looks at whats going on with the heel. It looks fine on one side, a perfect diagonal, but the other side is a little knotty. Im sure it was meant to be this way the first time around!
Anyways, I am off to try to finish this one sock, and if I do today, I'll post! I have a super busy weekend in front of me for wedding preparations and need to rest up!

Oddities

Sorry, this post will completely be about all things not knitting. Lauren showed us an awesome site on friday, where you can make little lego people in anyones image!!!
Here's a little comp of me and mike:



You can make your own here!


Besides that, I completely forgot, we went to this awesome garage sale a few weekends ago, they had all this old italian music, and beautiful scarves and coats and vases, but we picked this thingy up:



Mike took it to the fire station and they were all excited to see it! They instantly knew it was a 1950-1960's Fyr Fyter extinguisher. Mike picked it up for the sheer looks of it. He's a geek for that sort of thing. But aren't we all for something!
So we are wondering what its worth is and that kind of thing. i did a quick online search, and my guesses as of now are pretty slim to nothing. The thing thats most interesting about it is that to employ it, you have to turn it upside down, and it disperses soda water. thats very primitive compared to our lock and pin shooting extravaganza (with classifications too!) extinguishers these days.


Actually, I did lie. Today I plan on starting (we'll see how i feel) a sock pattern from Lion Brand that savannahchik recommends for starters in sock knitting. You can see the pattern here! Wish me luck!!

big post

i just realized there were a few old scarves that weren't up in the gallery! Here's a look at the two bandits:


This guy was a quick project, I just used the knit stitch throughout the entire thing, number 10 needles, and used one ball of Yarn Bee eyelash yarn mixed with some cheap red heart black acrylic. Surprisingly, its one of my favorite scarves, even though over time and washings, the sheen of it has dulled.



This one was an experiment in crochet. A few days after i learned to crochet, and made a very lumpy potholder, i decided to use up a ball of Lion Home Spun, and see what i could do with a huge crochet needle. im not too sure how the naming convention goes (letters, but how do you tell what it is without the package??) but it was about the diameter of a quarter. its a very nice and warm scarf, despite its holey-ness, but it does require you fold it in half to shave some length, before you actually wear the thing around town (especially if you're short like me). it has also given up some of its quality to frequent washings and wearings.
i would love to learn how to crochet more, especially in the round. i gave up at the granny squares for now, until i can find someone to show me the ropes. its just too complicated to try to learn from a book!

So here's old purply. The bane of my existence for right now. I don't know what it is about this project, but I think its literally sucking the lifeblood out of me. I can't seem to touch it for a while, and then one day i decide to go and do about 20 inches. If i could finish that last lavendar strip, i think i would be over it. I am thinking to add one more dark purple strip to the lot, and call it quits. Add those flower pins, and pack it up! I have one more gift to go after this one is finished, but it has to be extra secret until after xmas. all i can say is that it involves some mohair and fleece yarn! whee!

comments on commenting

EEP!
I really didn't realize blogger's commenting option is so crummy! does anyone have any advice for somewhere I can go to make commenting easier for everyone? blogger requires a login, otherwise, it shows up as anonymous! I tried visiting haloscan.com, but when I installed it, the commenting option did not change! unfortunately, i am not too html savvy! I don't really know of any other place to go! :(
I think i need some sun soon, this cold windy chicago weather just crept up on me. I reminisce the trip to oregon every time i get down, but i think that i am going to need a refill on vacation soon. i am stir-crazy, cold, and missing old times of going to school. its even too cold in my apartment to knit for any length of time. my fingers get frozen!! there. now im done complaining!

Hooray for Knitting webring!

Yay! I am super excited, because today I got my notification that I've been accepted into the knitting webring !!!!!!!!!! I know, whoop dee doo, big deal, but hey, its a big deal for me! My blog has not been up too long, but its going to be great to hopefully get some traffic here!! And there is just a great online knitting community that I hope to be part of soon! :) I even got my first real comment from froggy knits! Thanks!!! At least I know someones out there! now, off to hopefully finish a strip to the peruvian scarf and decide if i shall do 2 or 3 strips!!

Inspirado?

I finally got my rebecca last week, and i have to say, there are some pretty nifty things in there. im searching for the perfect sweater pattern for my very first try at one. im a little nervous, but since i completed that halter top without a pattern (see gallery) , im sure i could do a sweater following instructions. so now i just have to narrow it down a little. im expecting my new stitch and bitch book this friday (hopefully it will come sooner) and i will peruse thru that and narrow it down. knitty.com has some great sweater patterns that i will also have to take into mind.

Besides wanting to do a sweater, I REALLY REALLY want to learn how to do socks. ive tried making sections of sock in order to learn the heel, but it is just so difficult. The lady at arcadia says no matter what, if i want to learn, work from a pattern, and just take it step by step, even if it feels wrong at times. i suppose she is right!
I havent touched a thing in a few weeks. i think the new autumn weather is making me want to run around outside rather than sit around the house. mike has been a cooking fool after the last few days. For someone who doesnt cook, hes made both a pie, and stuffed shells in the last few days!! amazing!
i had about 3 inches done of mikes grammas peruvian scarf (on the new strip) and finally picked it up on sunday and did about 20 inches. that made me feel so much better, like i had actually done something worthwhile for the christmas gifts!
Hopefully we will have a finished piece to put up soon!

Pickin

This last weekend was a blast. besides riding at palos, we got to take my two older nephews apple and pumpkin picking in Kane County! it was lots of fun, especially to see them so excited about something. they are 12 and 13 years old, just entering thier surly teenage years. no knitting yet, but hopefully tomarrow i can find out if arcadia on balmoral has the english version of Rebecca yet. Maybe that will be the ticket to get me movin again!
Heres some photos of the stuff we picked. we each got a whole peck of apples, so i suppose theres going to be lots of baking going on! Either that or lots of rotting, ew.



Here is the biggest pumpkin I could find, besides the 700+ pound one they had on display!

I'm super-excited to make seeds this year, because i found the kickassingest recipe here for pumpkin seeds.

Coming to work today, I noticed some construction grafitti on the sidewalk that was just stunningly hilarious (if you are a simpsons fan). In ode to simpsons episode "Burns' Heir" I give you

BOE!

OMG

Damn! after knitting up those mary jane slippers, i seem to have lost all drive for knitting! i seriously need some inspiration. Even though the peruvian scarf im working on is just simply ribbing, i need something to get me excited about knitting again! hopefully the stitch and bitch nation book i ordered off of barnes and noble will come soon and i will have all kinds of inspiration coming out of my ears. (Please come soon!) We have been doing a regular weekend ride at Palos for the last 3 weeks, and that has been great.
Something really exciting, I think i may have settled on a new bike frame. My bike frame is going on 4 years old, and its getting all the creakys and crackys, and im really worried one day its just gonna break. I currently have a 2001 Gary Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo , but I think its almost time to put it out to pasture.
For a while it was between these 2 bikes : A Santa Cruz Blur , or a Santa Cruz Juliana .
Although the Juliana is women specific, i think i decided finally on a blur, simply because of the replaceable dropouts. I actually bent my steel one only a year after i got it. so i think getting a replaceable one is the way to go. The only con is adding a little bit of weight to my ride, and more travel on suspension, but those are all things that can be modified anyways!
So now the next decision is whether to get a whole new bike, or to just build up a santa cruz frame with my existing parts.... Id love to keep a hardtail, but i dont want to be Mrs. ten bikes. Hmmmm...