A Cold Summer.

Welcome to the Midwest.  It’s halfway through June, and I’m still wearing jeans and sweatshirts.  I went to a bonfire last night, and the host let the (tiny) fire go out around 11:00.  We stayed outside until midnight, and it was COLD.  

I’ve also just started a new job!  I’m working as a graphic designer at an engineering firm, and I love it.  The office is especially gorgeous:  it has high wooden ceilings, exposed brick walls, and a lovely sage color throughout.  However, it is drafty.  Since it’s been rather chilly outside, and office buildings always seem to have the air on, I’ve been miserable.  That’s why I’m working on this in the middle of June:

 

Jocelyn Tunney’s RittenhouseTown Wrap found on Ravelry.

I wanted something that I could just throw on the back of my chair and make my cubicle feel a little more homey.  I chose a light dusty blue, and it’s very pretty so far.  The best part was that I got a pair of circular needles and four skeins of worsted weight for less than $15!

I’m hoping this project will go quick, because I’m very cold in my office.  I’m so set on this shawl that I refuse to bring any kind of extra sweater.  I will suffer until my dream is finished.

What do you like knitting in the summer?

It’s been awhile.

Since the last time I posted, I’ve completed finals, graduated from finals, and moved back into the house of my parents.  I’ve been working on unpacking and unwinding.  I’ve had insatiable urges to play The Sims 3, so I’ve been doing that instead of knitting.  I have been reading, however.  I’ve been rereading one of my favorite books, “The Little Lady Agency” for the millionth time. I’m almost done, and then I’ll post a LitCrit about that.

It’s also starting to get warm in Southeastern WI, so I’ve been enjoying that.

Happy knitting/reading!

I <3 Mom

My mother is the one who taught me how to knit.  She also encouraged my love of reading from a very early age.  One of my favorite baby pictures, which I wish I had, was of me, around age 1 1/2, reading.  If I wasn’t reading, then I was at least looking at the pictures.

I learned to read so young that I don’t even remember learning how.  I was writing in cursive before I started kindergarten.  I had an ambition that I wish I still had.  I was determined to be able to do everything that my brother, 2 years older, could.  My mom encouraged me to do so, and never told me that I was too young to do anything.  If anything, my mom loved that I was so quick to pick up new skills at young ages.

Sometimes I’ll see a pattern on ravelry and really want it.  However, I don’t always feel like making things for myself.  Sometimes it’s because something in the pattern looks too difficult, and other times it’s because I have too many other things to knit, often for pay.  Below are a few things that my mother has knit, and created, for me.

LitCrit: Oleander Girl by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Oleander Girl by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is the story of a young Indian woman, Korobi.  Though Korobi has never known her parents, she has lived a happy childhood in the care of her adoring, but strict, grandparents.  At college, she met the love of her life, Rajat, and was set to marry him just months after meeting him.  However, with the death of her grandfather on her engagement day, Korobi’s life is changed:  her grandmother informs her that her father is alive and living overseas.  Korobi, against the wishes of her in-laws and fiance, decides to hire a private investigator, then travel to the United States to try to find the father she was denied.

Spoilers and stream-of-conscious writing (apologies) under the cut!

Past Project: Fox in the Snow Mittens

I’ve been told I resemble a fox.  I have red hair, a kind of pointy face, and I can be pretty sneaky.  I’ve embraced foxes as my patronus, and am actually glad that they’ve become mainstream because that means there’s more available out there!

When I saw Paton’s Fox in the Snow Mittens I was absolutely in love.  This was just months after I started knitting again, so they were a very ambitious project.  I knew I had to have them, though.

Twitchy Fingers: Katniss Cowl

I’m going to pull some hipster status here, just for a moment:  I was a fan of The Hunger Games soon after it was first published.  One of my friends read it for a book report weeks after it was released, and I was hooked after her presentation.  Also, as I’ll publish later on, Young Adult Dystopian Fiction is kind of my thing.  I wrote my senior thesis for my English degree on it.  It was a really good excuse to read books like The Hunger Games, The Giver, Gathering Blue, Delirium, Divergent, and more.  Maybe I’ll post my thesis on here at some point.

ANYWAY, as a diehard books fan, it took me awhile to see the movie.  For books that I love, I make sure not to watch any trailers, look at promotional pictures, or anything until I see the movie.  I learned my lesson during the lead-up to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  I’m much happier.  This is why I didn’t see this picture of Katniss until after the movie had been out for awhile.  Apparently, while I was busy avoiding spoilers, the knitting world was in a tizzy trying to replicate this unique piece of knitwear.  I, however, was completely blown away by it as I sat in the theatre.  I immediately did a search for some patterns after the movie, and was really surprised that so many people were already replicating it!

Baby blue elephants.

My good friend Zach just recently began dating an adorable girl, and they have a cute story to match.   Anyway, it’s been awhile since he’s had a girlfriend, and Lorna’s birthday came up very quickly after they began dating.  He asked me for ideas, and I managed to coax more ideas out of him.  Together, we came up with the idea of a hat with a poof to replace one her cat had just eaten.  (Apparently this cat is good at getting into drawers and closets.)  Her favorite animals are elephants, and her favorite color is sky blue.  Thus, the elephant hat was created!

In the beginning.

I learned how to knit when I was 8 years old.  My mother gave me some old white yarn, and taught me the basic stitch.  I knitted on that same piece for a year or more, though it never seemed to gain any length.  It probably started out with about 30 stitches, but since I was learning, did not end with that few.  In fact, I somehow picked up so many stitches that eventually they did not all fit on the needle.  There were so many holes and gaps that I don’t know why I continued to work on it for so long.  Practice, I suppose.

I knit for a few years, working up to some truly heinous scarves in various colors, but all with eyelash yarn.  I don’t know why my mom let me out of the house with them.  What a sight I must have been:  wearing old t-shirts with cats and Pokemon printed on, and “glamourous” scarves that I knit myself.  I’m glad that my family doesn’t take pictures.

Anyway, I stopped knitting when I was around 13.  I went to high school and was very involved in the Robotics program, so I kind of lost any hobbies.

Fast forward:  Junior year of college.  I was living in the dorms as an RA, and was required to hang around the building a lot.  I was browsing the internet for hobbies to pick up when I saw this:  the Purlbee Bandana Cowl.  For some reason, it was the most perfect thing I had ever seen.  Even though I hadn’t touched my needles in years, I decided I HAD to do this.

I had my mom send me our old needles, and she sent me a lovely blue yarn.  And I did it.  I knit it.  I somehow conquered purling and short rows, even though I had never heard of advanced knitting techniques before.  Here I am today, wearing my cowl:

My first real knitting project, completed October 2012.

And that’s what got me back into knitting.  I love wearing this underneath my favorite fall/spring jacket, which is a navy wool and military style.

I’ll be using this blog to display other projects that I’ve worked on or completed.

Once summer starts, and once I can read for fun again, I’ll also be using it to write book reviews.  I’ll be graduating with a literature degree, but I promise my reviews will be easy to understand and honest!