Baby beluga in the deep blue sea...

This is just a quick update. Yes I'm still alive, no I haven't been knitting (and to be honest, it's killing me!!!) What I have been doing is spending the week job shadowing as a part of my program. Today I got to meet this little guy...He's a baby beluga whale. This picture is pretty fuzzy, but you can sort of see his teeth haven't even grown in yet! Too cute!

I'm too tired to even throw together anything else that might resemble a descent blog post, so I'll catch up again when I have more time... and the energy to keep my eyes open for more than two minutes!

It has been a busy week, but somehow I've managed to find the time to finish up the Candle Flame Shawl.Here's just a tiny corner of it all pinned out and blocking. Don't get me wrong, I love this shawl, but the variegation makes it a little too distracting to see the actual pattern. At least I thought so while it was blocking.

Then I took these pictures and I guess you really can see the pattern given the right background color, namely my white shirt.I would love to try this pattern again, only next time use a solid color. Also, I might make it just a bit shorter as well. This thing turned out huge! I know my mom will love it though!

Here are some specs:
Pattern: Knit Picks Candle Flame Shawl
It's a free pattern, and as free patterns go, I was quite happy with it. I didn't find any errors and it gives you the option of either reading the chart or following written directions.
Yarn: Knit Picks Shimmer - Alpaca and silk, very yummy and it feels great.

Overall, it was a fun pattern and I'd do it again.... but not for awhile!

In other news, I'm going to be on TV tonight. Surprisingly, I'm not nervous or worried or anything. I'm more excited than anything else. All the same, wish me luck! It should be fun!

(The tv link doesn't work anymore. Apparently they only had the info up for a couple days)

A letter to my lace shawl....

My Dearest Candle Flame Shawl,

I don't know if you realize just how much I love you. You taught me how to love lace, how to become one with the pattern. I love how you play with negative and positive space to reveal a picture. You've been nothing but good to me, even when I've been somewhat less than good to you, like the time I threw you in my bookbag so I could take you to school with me and you got snagged on one of my spiral bound notebooks. But did you get mad? No. With a little manipulation you returned the snagged piece back to it's original spot. No fussing, no crying.

All these things I love about you are what make it so hard for me to tell you this.... I'm ready to move on. I'm ready to try new things. I want to get to know a new pattern the way I've gotten to know you. I also want to try new yarns... these in particular.Now don't go telling me I've cheated, I haven't even wound them into little yarn muffins yet. (not that the idea hasn't crossed my mind.) Besides, how could I resist when Knit Picks makes them so affordable?

I wonder sometimes if you're picking up on my vibe because recently, the more I work on you, the less you seem to grow.

Please don't be upset. I'm just being true to my feelings. It wouldn't be fair to either of us if I wasn't. Just know that you will always be in my heart.

Love,
Erin


On a side note, my leg has been particularly fascinating to watch. It's changing colors have been like that of a sunset... or something...
You have to admit, it's very impressive.

The opposite of eye candy...

I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I had the busiest 4 days at work that I've ever had. I suppose that happens when the restaurant is understaffed and they decide to schedule six servers for the dinner rush. To say the least, I busted my butt. There's no question it payed off, but I'm definitely hurting for it. I suppose I didn't realize how much I was hurting for it until this morning when I was toweling off after my shower and found this on the back of my leg...

(Please excuse the white, pasty skin. It is winter here still, just consider yourselves lucky that my legs are shaved!)

Back to the bruise... This picture washes it out a bit, but it's every bit as purple and ugly as you might imagine. Anyway, it became increasingly apparent to me just how busy we were when I realized that I didn't remember what I did to acquire such a lovely souvenir from work. I cannot for the life of me remember how I did it. I suppose it just happened and I was so busy it didn't even register. I suppose getting drink orders for the fifth table I was sat at once was a little more important to me than thinking about why the hell the back of my leg hurt so badly.

Tonight was another lovely one at work. In fact, I actually got to use the emergency eye wash station. I was grabbing some salad dressing from the cooler when the whole shelf came down which in turn made the huge bottle of Thousand Islands dressing fall to the floor. Normally, this wouldn't be such a big deal. The bottles are plastic, sure they're about a gallon or so, but when the lid is screwed on they could practically be punted and not break open... I guess the key words here are "when the lid is screwed on."

Apparently whoever used it last decided it would be quicker not to screw the lid on. So the dressing hit the floor and splashed up into my eyes and my hair. Let me tell you, there's nothing greater than greeting your guest with a lovely Thousand Islands aroma, crunchy hair and blood shot eyes. You're sure to get a big tip then! And if you had any doubt that Thousand Islands dressing stings when it gets in your eyes, let me put your doubts to rest... it definitely does.

A question of motivation...

The incredible lack of things to do in this town that don't involve stuffing my face with greasy food or getting hit on by military guys has given me an awful lot of free time to work on some knitting. True, I have school work, but even that hasn't been taking up much of my time. The first half of the semester has been somewhat of a joke. I feel like I have senioritis, not because I want to, but because more than half of my classes get let out early or cancelled all together and now it's what I'm used to.

I have to push myself to get motivated to do something, but there's always seemed to be one thing on the back of my mind that I never have to push myself to do...

Lace knitting...50 inches down, 20 more to go. I am officially addicted. I've even gotten to the point where I've practically memorized this 36 row repeat pattern. It sounds amazing, but it's not as impressive as it sounds. There's a flow to the pattern that's easy to pick up.

I'm thinking about spending a bit more money at KnitPicks and getting myself some more lace weight to make some other patterns, and then possibly (if my addiction continues) try to design my own pattern.