The Best Dog in the World

First off, this isn't an obituary or anything, it's actually a story about the best dog in the world, who's name happens to be Shelby. Shelby is our family dog and she's the gentlest, most loving dog who's sole purpose in life is to make her people happy... and occassionally chase some squirrels. She rarely barks, doesn't growl unless she's playing tug-of-war with you and her only fault is that she begs for pizza crust, which she only does because she knows we'll give it to her.

This story is about something that happened this weekend that proves, yet again, that she is truly the best dog in the world. I had a ton of homework to do this weekend, which I was determined to finish by Saturday night. Luckily determination paid off this time and I did finish it by my deadline. So Sunday, I treated myself to a full day of relaxation made up of much neglected knitting and spinning.

I spent hours and hours doing nothing but sitting on my butt, watching movies while I alternated between spinning and knitting. Here's where this all ties into Shelby being the best dog in the world. I was spinning while sitting on the couch with my wheel in between the couch and the coffee table, which just happens to be a high traffic area for pets. On one occassion, Shelby actually tried to get through by squeezing herself through my treadling legs and the wheel. She decided that maybe that wasn't the best route to get to where she wanted to go so she gave up.

However, a little while later she tried again. I just kept spinning away, thinking that she'd give up again. She really looked like she had given up, but she just kept standing there with her head under the flyer. After a minute this seemed really odd to me so I stopped spinning and told her to go lie down. But she just stood there. Thinking that maybe she needed a little encouragement I pet on the head and told her what a silly dog she was being, and that's when I felt it...

While trying to get through while I was spinning, she managed to get a wad of her hair caught and I just kept spinning! To say I felt horrible would be the understatement of the year! I quickly grabbed the scissors and set her free... The reason I say she is the best dog in the world is that she just sat there, patiently waiting for me to realize that her hair was caught. She didn't yelp, she didn't bark or growl or act strange in any way other than just standing there. And then, once I'd cut her free she ran and got her rope toy so that we could play together. Honestly, in my eyes, she is the greatest dog in the entire world!

Ok, time for the pictures

As promised here are some pictures from the Zoo Boo.

This is our fantastic mascot Lutra the Otter doing a little dance for the camera.

And then, of course, Lutra had to join us for a little photo op. (I wasn't kidding about my wings not matching my coat! Hey, it was warmth that counted right?)

I have to say, after eating the amount of candy that I did, seeing a giant M&M didn't exactly do wonders for my stomach!

And I couldn't exclude the Shark! All of these pictures look a little devoid of trick or treaters and that's because I took these early in the morning before they got there.

So, I'm sure you're all dying for some knitting content and apparently the universe saw fit to give me enough time to actually work on the mondo-mitten. I've dubbed it the mondo mitten because, let's face it... the thing is huge, not just huge... MONDO!

One mondo-mitten down, one to go... Oh wait, I have two uncles, both with huge hands... crap, three more mondo-mittens to go.

So in this picture the mondo-mitten doesn't look so mondo does it? Well, you don't have anything in the picture to give you perspective. I've decided you all need a little perspective on what makes this mitten so mondo.

Notice that you can't even see the full size of the mitten. The cuff ends about a third of the way down my forearm! Can we say MONDO?!?!? It hasn't even been blocked yet.... we all know that blocking makes fairisle slightly bigger...

My saving grace here is that I had my brother try it on... He said it was tight....ummmm, do I have giants in the family that I wasn't aware of? Or is it that I'm just that small? Tough call there.

I'll be putting a lining in too so I think by the time it's all said and done, it'll fit just fine...

Zoo Boo 2005

The Zoo Boo was a ton of fun this weekend! (I'll have to post pictures on Thurs. please be patient with me!)

My main concern when choosing a costume was, will it be able to fit over my coat? It wasn't that it was all that cold this weekend (in the 50's or so) but when you're outside for hours at a time in those tempertures, it can get a bit chilly. So I got myself a pair of butterfly wings that fit over the coat (but, incidentally didn't match the coat in any way) and a headband with antennae. Throw in a pair of my angora-lined mittens and I was good to go.

I wasn't all the certain of what I'd be doing exactly, but it turns out my job was to stand by the butterfly house and hand out candy. I had so much fun!

There has never been a Halloween in all of existence when I actually got to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. My entire life, with every house I've lived in (which is only three, but still), there has always been a really long driveway leading up to my house. Even when my family and I lived in a neighborhood, we still had the longest driveway there. These long driveways of mine have always been lined with trees. You could say my family has always liked having their space and that always involved a long drive way and a lot of forest around it.

Now you can imagine the little kids with their buckets and bags, dressed in their best halloween costumes ready to trick-or-treat till their teeth fell out coming to my driveway with it's spooky forest and god knows what sort of unimaginable monsters in it. So, needless to say, I've never had a trick-or-treater (or their parents for that matter) brave enough to walk down to the house to ask for candy! This is somewhat a blessing in disguise because we never bought Halloween candy and therefore were never tempted to eat any of it. This was not the case on Saturday. I never want to see another piece of Halloween candy if I can at all help it.

Despite being tempted and giving in to the call of the candy, the part where I actually got to hand it out was great fun. Especially seeing what all the kids were dressed as and getting to act all excited about how scary, or pretty or cool their costumes were. That part was awesome. Oh and the babies all dressed up in costumes were almost as cute as my kitten picture....almost.

However, the kid that was the cutest wasn't cute because of his costume, but because of what he said. I was dutifully manning my post handing out candy, when this kid dressed up as a football player comes walking up to me. He must have been 8 or 9 years old. I looked at him and asked "Are you the quarterback?" thinking that the quarterback is the most glorified position so surely that's what he was. He looked at me quite confused, almost as if I were speaking another language, then his face abruptly changed as if he finally realized what I said and swiftly turned around and ran up to his mom where he said "Mom, I need a quarter for the candy!" We all had a good laugh when it was explained that I didn't ask him for a quarter, I asked him if he was the quarterback. Too funny!

Old McDonald has.... the most stubborn horse alive... ei ei ooo!

Pretty much no knitting has been done this week. Apparently finishing so much last weekend meant that I wouldn't have time to do any knitting this week.... Oh well. I did have a great time yesterday during my clinical lab. We all went over to Old McDonald's Farm (yes, it's really called Old McDonald's Farm...how could I make up this stuff?) to groom the horses there and get familiar with the equipment, etc.

I'm not sure if I could really explain exactly what was so fun about it, other than these people are great, my professor is hysterical, in that really goofy sort of way (and when I say goofy, I mean it. On our first day out in the zoo, we were walking the paths and he came across a stick in the path, held it up and asked us what it was. Thinking he was looking for an educational answer we'd tried to answer him. None of our answers being right of course.... what was it?... A stick up.... yeah, maybe it's more dorky than goofy, but either way funny). Also, I was out working with animals. It really doesn't get much better than that. Unless, of course, I could knit and work with animals at the same time, then it could be better.

This is all of us... oh and the donkey wanted in on the picture action too. Frankly, I don't blame him.

We all worked in groups and groomed all the horses they had. There were about 20 miniature horses and about 5 big horses. I groomed two of the mini's myself and then worked in a group to groom the dirtiest most stubborn horse I've ever met. I swear this guy didn't want us to clean his hooves because he did just about everything he could to keep his weight on the hoof we wanted to clean.

After about a million tries on our part, my professor comes in and in two seconds had the hoof up. Damn that's frustrating. Well, I decided I'd try it again. I may have pulled a muscle, but I did finally get that horse to put it's hoof up for me. It felt so good to finally get the horse to do it.

So this weekend is the Zoo Boo and it looks like the weather might actully be nice. It's supposed to be in the 50's, sure that's chilly, but it's not supposed to rain and there may even be sun, which is the greatest thing in the whole damn world because I have seen nothing but rain for the last month.

But you know what can counteract the effects of seeing nothing but rain? Taking the cutest picture in existence. Seriously, don't try and tell me any other picture you've seen is cuter because I won't believe you.

They're Finished!!!!

Finally, I've finished the socks that I've been working on since... um, I want to say July or August. I've just been so sidetracked with so many things since school started. Anyway, I'm wearing them right now and they are by far the most comfortable socks I've ever made. They're not itchy at all and they're so warm, which has come in handy this weekend with all the rainy, cold dampness we've had.

So, without further ado, I present to you my Mountain Colors socks.

Are they not fabulous? Umm, yeah, I'd say they are, but then I'm bias. I love how the striping turned out. They're not identical, which I also love. I know how some people like to have their stripes match, I'm not one who cares so much about that.

(Is it just me, or are socks that you're wearing really hard to photograph without contorting yourself into a pretzel?)

By the way, the sock yarn is Mountain Colors, I don't remember the colorway because it's been that long (how sad is that?) and the patten is from an old issue of Interweave Knits called Priscilla's Dream Socks. I love this pattern because it's very basic. You can do pretty much any pattern on the leg that you want, in any gauge of yarn for any size foot. It's fantastic. Plus, the short-rowed heels are awesome. I don't think I'll ever make another pair of socks that doesn't have short-rowed heels. Not only do I not like picking up stitches, but I also don't really like the look of the heel flap, so short-rows are perfect for me.

I also finished up spinning that 4 oz of Merino/Tencel. This yarn turned out awesome.

Despite how nice this yarn turned out and how awesome the colors are, I just don't think it would be all that suitable for socks. It's a little bit thick, and it's going to be very drapey and not hold it's shape too well because of the tencel. I'm thinking it's going to be destined for a nice scarf or something.

Last night, I spent of bit of time working on the ginormous mitten. I've added a few more rows and I'm almost to the point where I have to make the thumb and attatch it to the mitten.

I think I'm going to wait on that though. I'd like to try it out on my brother's hand before I go too much further. I'd hate to put all this effort in and have it not fit by the time I'm finished.

Nothing irks a knitter more than wasted effort.

This weekend has been awesome. It's been the first weekend in awhile where I haven't gone anywhere or done anything except knitting, sitting on my butt and watching movies (and a little bit of studying for a test, but I'm not going to count that). I have needed a weekend like this since school started. Ah devine relaxation! I'm afraid it's going to be the last one for awhile too.

Next weekend I'm volunteering at the zoo for their annual Zoo Boo. I get to dress up in a halloween costume and greet all the kids, etc. Should be fun. I've decided to go as a butterfly. My mom found a pair of wings for cheap and obviously cheap is good. The zoo has a butterfly house so guess where I've been stationed? The unfortunate thing about the butterfly house is it's more of big mesh tent than a house, so if it's raining, that "house" is going to do me no good. Keep your fingers crossed for me that it's a nice day!

H-I-P-P-O-P-O-T-A-M-U-S

Everyone has waited so patiently for my Rhinebeck pics and I finally have time to show you. First off, these are the wonderful ladies I went with (minus my mom who was taking the picture)
For some reason, we felt the need to drap ourselves in our fiber/yarn. When you're around that much crack fiber, you get a little loopy. Look at anyone's post from Rhinebeck, people were getting crazy!

I wondered to myself why I even brought the sweater I wore. It was freakin' warm most of the day! Not at all like last year. The weather just doesn't want to cooperate. When half the people in blogland want to show off their sweaters at Rhinebeck, the weather gods decide to make it warm... Not exactly sweater weather. But it's ok, we hadn't seen the sun for quite awhile so it was a nice change.

So you want to see the new additions to my stash?

I ended up with two 2oz hanks of Merino/Tencel roving from the Sheep Shed in colorway Magical and two in Berry. Also, a 4oz bunch of dyed corridale. I usually go for merino just because it's easy to spin, but I thought I'd try something different.


This may not be a huge haul, but, as they say, size doesn't matter... it's what you do with it...

I started spinning this merino/tencel in hopes of making a pair of socks. I'm just in a sock mood, and also Socktoberfest is on my mind. I can't wait to see how this yarn turns out when it's plyed. The colors are awesome and they're going to create some really interesting variegations.

Of course, I haven't got a clue whether this fiber combination will be good for socks, but it's worth a try right?

Again, time is against me. It seems I only have time to do any spinning or knitting on the weekends, and that's only on weekends when I don't have to study for exams... Speaking of exams, I have a bit of a funny story for you...

My animal management midterm was on Monday. My professor stressed to us before the test that spelling was important and that he wanted us to pay close attention to it. That's fine, because normally I'm very good at spelling so I didn't think it would be a problem for me. I study the spelling of animals that I knew would be hard to spell, like Przewalski's wild horse.

So I went through the exam without many problems. I knew there were a couple of things I may have gotten wrong, just stupid little mistakes, but I also knew I didn't make too many of those so I wasn't too worried. When I finished he test, my professor walked out with me to discuss the fact that he thought I would be perfect for the honors program at the school and to ask me if I was interested in pursuing that. Since I was in the honors program at my last college, I didn't think it would be a problem and I thanked him for considering me.

Then I went to my car and checked over my notes just to see if my stupid mistakes were really that stupid. Turns out they were. Remember back when I gave a presentation on the Hippo? I figured I didn't need to study that because I did some major research on that animal and I should know the information... well, I knew the information.... but I spelled hippopotamus wrong! OH MY GOD! Here I was being asked to be in the honors program and I spelled the name wrong of the animal I presented.... I'm thinking maybe my professor should reconsider....

It's ok though, I had a good laugh about it with my friends and it turns out it didn't make that much of a difference because I got a 95 on the test. It was just extremely funny and sort of ironic.

Well darlings, I must go, but I will leave you with an obligatory kitten picture....
Updated to add: I was informed that I spelled 'pursue' wrong which I've since changed....yeah, ok, so maybe I'm not all that great of a speller after all! Thanks Lynne!

I need what?!?!?!

So... was Rhinebeck awesome? Heck yeah! In a very unexpected turn of events, Jill and Elizabeth joined my mom and I on our fiber expedition. We had a great time going out there together. They definitely made the trip lively! Except, of course, on the way home when everyone started falling asleep in the back seat! Apparently an overload of fibery goodness can do that to a person!

I was very good this year. Last year, after Rhinebeck was over, I swore that I would save up a ton of money for this year and just blow it all on fiber. Unfortunately situations have changed somewhat (ie. school, car payment, saving for an apartment, etc) and I didn't come anywhere close to spending as much as I wanted to. I promised myself I'd only spend about $40 on fiber and you know what? I did! Talk about willpower though! Every single vendor was doing it's best to persuade me to fall, but I didn't. I bought all my fiber almost exclusively from the Sheep Shed. This is mainly because they're what started me spinning in the first place when I went to Rhinebeck last year. However, I am a horrible blogger because I have to wait until Thursday to show you pictures of what I got! So, instead of going into detail about the awesome stuff I got, I'm just going to wait to show you on Thursday.

But I will leave you with that meme that's been going around. You know the one. Where you google "your name" needs... Enjoy!

Erin needs to understand that people don't like to see a pretty white girl with rap talent that would run circles around sir mix a lot.
I don't think anyone should be telling me to dash my hopes and dreams, especially when I can be as great as Sir Mix A Lot.

Erin needs to earn $15000, fast.
Oh dear, this one's true, but I can settle on just a couple thousand.

Erin needs to decide if she should try to work things out with her very hot husband, or get it on with the very hot neighbor.
Is this an episode of Desperate Housewives I'm not familiar with? Because you know it's only on TV where both the neighbor and the husband are hot.

Erin needs a makeover!
You know, I'd really appreciate it if one of my friends would just tell me instead of letting me walk around like it's 1990 and letting me believe big bangs are still in.

Erin needs to roll 3 dice, one for each point of wisdom.
And then I really need to get going because I'm going to be late to my medieval reenactment club meeting.

Erin needs to be more famous
Because clearly, I'm not famous enough.

Erin needs an exorcism, no?
So this is what it feels like to be possessed.

Erin needs to wear shirts
Well damn it! Here's another opportunity for my friends to step up and let me know that it's just not acceptable to go topless! Some friends...

Rhinebeck's here already? Holy Crap!

It's Thursday, and you know what Thursday means right? It means I have my 5 hour break and have time to post! Good stuff huh?

Ok, first off, knitting. I know I've been neglecting that for awhile. In honor of Lolly's Socktoberfest, I give you a picture of the socks I've been working on. (I have to admit I've been working on these things for several months, but you all know how things come up!)
My second sock is actually farther than this picture shows. I'm about a centimeter from turning the heel. I can't guarantee that these will be finished sometime in October, but at least I'm trying. Time is a rare commodity in my house these days!

I've also started another pair of mittens. This time it's a pair for my uncle, who's hands are bigger than my brother's, so I'm making the same mittens I made my brother, but adding four stitches on to the sides. You'd be suprised how much of a difference four stitches makes!
Do you see how big this sucker is compared to my hand? Holy cow, this mitten is going to take me longer to make than the other ones did given how huge it is!

So I probably won't be doing a whole ton of knitting in the car on the way to Rhinebeck considering I'm now going to be the one driving. Plans have changed a bit and now instead of going out there with some blogging friends of mine, I'm going out there with my mom. I contemplated skipping it, but then the call of the fiber got to me and I just couldn't resist (even though I can't splurge on any of it!). Plus the chance to meet all of you is definitely a big draw as well!

In other news my friend's cat gave birth to kittens last week (I was actually there too, which was really cool because I've never seen anything being born before!) And this week, I got to take a few pictures of the fur balls. They're adorable and so helpless. They're eyes aren't open yet, but they do have some lungs on them!


This is them at only a week old. I'll probably be showing updates since I stay with my friend once a week to cut down on the driving. These little guys are killing me with cuteness. I almost can't handle it! And they're just gonna get cuter, I'm not sure how I'll survive!

Last night I went to a presentation on the deforestation of the rainforest. What a seemingly helpless situation that is. I'm the type of person who feels a great responsibility to this world, to the people in it and to all the life on it, so when I hear about this sort of thing, I become almost paralyzed with helplessness and the feeling that hope is lost. I've been grapling with these feelings for awhile and trying desperately to turn my helplessness into action. I've somewhat succeeded in this by becoming vegetarian (which by the way is going excellently, though I find I'm hungry all the time!).

What can I do? What will actually make a difference in this world? I'm only one person, but despite this, I believe one person can do more than they think. I can be the change I want to see. I can conserve and be less wasteful and teach others to do the same. The greatest thing I can do is educate others and spread awareness. I'm a pretty determined person when I want to be and I've never felt more determined than I do now. And I've never felt more like my entire life has been leading to this point, which is exactly where I'm meant to be. If you've ever gotten to that point in you're life, it's amazing. Knowing that what you're doing or working towards is the exactly what you were always meant to do is indescribable. Scary and exciting all at the same time.

I know you guys don't come here to read about conservation issues. And I really don't want to cram it down your throats either. That's entirely not my goal. But my blog is more than just a way for me to show my knitting and discuss the varying techniques that go along with it. It's a place where I can voice the issues that have been on my mind and help to formulate into words the conclusions I've reached. I promise I won't innundate you with all of this stuff, but sometimes I have to get it out of my own head and put it somewhere so I can be sane!

Ok, done with that. I hope to see all of you who are going to Rhinebeck. I'll be there Saturday, probably by noon or so wearing this:
See you there!

Rhinebeck sweaters and penguins...

So I may have been a little premature when announcing which sweater I'm planning on wearing to Rhinebeck. It seems I greatly overestimated how much time I'd have this weekend to sew in ends. I have a back up plan though, not to worry. I unpacked my sweaters today and realized I have my pink cashmerino lattace cabled sweater. That's going to be the perfect sweater for Rhinebeck, really soft, really warm and the best part, it's already made! By the way, I plan to be there on Saturday.

I didn't have a whole lot of time this weekend because not only did I have to write a pretty big research report, but my friends from school and I went to the zoo here in Syracuse. The weather was crappy, but it didnt matter. It seems no matter what kind of weather it is, we're always gonna have a good time at the zoo.

I haven't been to this zoo in years, probably since I was in a freshman in high school (9 or so years ago). It definitely has changed since then. For instance, they have a new penguin exhibit, which was the coolest thing!
Not only did we get to watch the keeper hand feed them, we got to watch them swim after the fish she threw into the pool.

You don't really get a good idea of just how fast they swim until you are right there next to the pool and all you see are blurs.

One of the volunteers were there and we chatted with him for awhile. Once he found out who we were he told us we should have called ahead so that they could have shown us behind the scenes things! Well, there's always next time.

I didn't take too many pictures because the only pictures that were coming out well were the ones that I took outside. I did get this one though...
Just so you know, that tiger was made of concrete, and it was wet... and cold. So not only does my butt have to suffer through 8 hours of car time, but on the weekend it suffers being frozen on a concrete tiger! The things my butt does for education....

Well dears, that's all for now. I do have knitting news, but I don't have patience to post the pictures using dial up here at home! Remember, patience is a virtue!

Promise finally fulfilled!

Did I not promise pictures soon? Or maybe it's the guilty feeling I have from promising on several occasions to post some pictures and still not doing it for a couple weeks. Yeah, I think that's it.

So in case you were not convinced about my tree falling in the driveway excuse, I have proof... Does it look like a telephone pole would have survived this? Fortunately only part of the tree fell on the pole and we should be getting a phone line again by today.

You may be wondering where I'm blogging from today. Well, wireless internet and a new laptop are wonderous things. As is the five hour break I have between classes on Thursday. That almost makes up for the 8 hours of lost time in the car.... almost.

And knitting has been done as well. I know I've been harping on and on about the mysterious baby blanket. Actually, it should be called the incredibly boring baby blanket. I picked the pattern to be easy and quick, but it's so boring I never want to pick it up.

I finally did last night while watching last week's episode of LOST. I will always be behind because I'm the big dork who has to go to bed at 9pm in order be a functioning human being the next day. More questions with that show. They answer some, but just end up asking more. It's slightly frustrating, but obviously addicting at the same time. Way to go LOST producers, way to go.

Tonight Survivor's on and I've really been getting into this one. It's the only show I really make time for. Am I crazy or what? I remember hating the idea of Survivor and I refused to watch it. Then, of course, my mom was watching it one day and I was being lazy and didn't feel like moving from the couch. Thus began me being hooked to watching Survivor.

Oh, right, knitting, I was talking about knitting... Well, last weekend I finished the lining for the pair of mittens I made. Basically you can put a lining into any gloves or mittens you make. All you have to do is fold down the cuff, pick up stitches around the edge where the cuff meets the mitten and knit a mirror image of the mitten or glove. Of course, you have to make the mitten big enough to fit a lining inside, but I can tell you it's worth it!

I finished both linings and sewed in the ends. Aren't you proud? I'm pretty proud only because I know it's been since... well, I don't really know how long it's been since I've actually sewn in the ends to a project. Remember that sweater I made when I went to England? Yep, the ends still aren't sewn in. I think it's mostly because I haven't had a chance to wear it yet. The weather just hasn't been cool enough. Oh! I just had a great idea. I'll sew in the ends and wear it to Rhinebeck! Why not right? It'll probably be cool enough to wear. I might as well. Now I'll just have to find the time this weekend to spend sewing in ends...

Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend. This'll probably be my last post for the week (after all, I just posted two days in a row, that takes a lot out of a girl!) Have a great long weekend if you have Monday off!

Excuses, excuses...

Seriously, just call me the worst blogger in the world. I go from blogging three or four times a week, with pictures I might add, to barely once a week! What's wrong with me???? A few things come to mind...

1. The tree that fell in the driveway also knocked the telephone pole, but before the phone people could fix it we had to get the electrical people to fix the pole because obviously the telephone people aren't responsible for the 'telephone' pole. I realize, this technically isn't something that's wrong with me, just something that's wrong with my situation. So this leaves me the only option I have left which is to blog at work. And at work my horredously outdated Windows98 crap-machine doesn't allow for uploading pictures.

2. I spend two hours a day, four days a week, making it a grand total of 8 hours (though I'm pretty sure it's more than this) in my car, just commuting to school. That's at least 8 hours of good blogging time wasted. And might I add, this doesn't exactly do wonders to my butt which falls asleep quite regularly now during said 8 hours.

3. There are only 81 days (if I counted correctly) left until Christmas. Sure it seems like a long time, but when I factor in the driving, the work, the homework and the sleeping, I rarely even have time to knit the Christmas presents I have planned, let alone blog about them!

4. It's October 5th. It's 81 degrees out. It's sunny and freakin' gorgeous. Though inherently I know something is entirely wrong and strange about this weather, I can't help but want to take advantage of it on what little free time I have, therefore, blogging goes by the wayside while I try to take in the last of the warm weather before the snow comes. Again, not so much a personal problem but a situational one.

So those are my excuses, I hope you can forgive me. I promise I will be doing some blogging with pictures soon!

No title Friday...

You all are simply the best. I knew knitters were supportive, I knew that even if you absolutly think that vegetarianism is complete bull, you'd still be supportive. What I didn't know was how many of my blog friends were vegetarian as well. A special thanks to Erica for sending me some veggie recipes. Anyone else interested in sharing their favorite veggie recipes with me can e-mail me at erleca81AThotmailDOTcom. I can use all the help I can get! Thank you all so much for your support.

This week has be absolutely crazy. Busy beyond belief. I would have posted sooner, but I just haven't had the time, or the opportunity, or the internet connection as it turns out... I was driving down the driveway the other night intent upon getting online and doing some blogging and e-mail reading, when I was stopped. Right in the middle of the driveway a huge tree (and when I say huge, I mean it was probably 7 or 8 feet around) had fallen down from the wind. We've had some nasty wind these past couple of days and this tree couldn't take it I guess. After parking my car, walking around it, and walking the rest of the way down the driveway (my driveway's about a 1/4 mile) I get home to find the tree knocked out the phone line and I therefore couldn't get online. So it's not entirely my fault that I haven't posted!

In a completely unrelated topic...Yesterday in BIO lab I felt like Elliot from ET trying to save the frogs. I honestly had a very strange battle going on between my moral sensibility and my sense of responsibility to my classwork. Our assignment was to see what different sorts of creatures live in different soils. So we dug up samples from the field and samples from the forest, brought them back into the lab and sifted through them to find the critters. Problem was we weren't just supposed to sift and look through the dirt, we had to take the critters out and put them into a medicine bottle full of alcohol.

Part of me said "You're going to be killing these bugs and worms for no other purspose than to study and count them when they were perfectly happy living their life until we went in and dug them up." and the other part of me said "You have a responsibility to your school work and to your teacher, so just suck it up and deal." In the end, my moral side won out, plus my teacher told me I didn't have to do it if I didn't want to, I wouldn't get any penalties taken off my grade as long as I was an objective observer. People probably thought I was crazy because they're just bugs and worms, but I just finished reading those Jane Goodall books (which I think I've mentioned about a million times now!) and her voice was in the back of my mind. She even mentioned something about worms in her book! How could I go and kill them? (My lab partner was pretty understanding, and I think by the end I must have been wearing off on him, because he found a big worm in one of our samples and he took it and put it back outside!)

Anyway, in knitting related news, I've picked up for the lining of the mittens. I (hopefully) will be posting pictures of that progress soon. The baby blanket is coming along, though I am getting a little tired of the pattern which I specifically picked because it's simple... way to think ahead on that one. Had it been complicated, at least it would have been interesting! Ah well...

For those of you who are planning on Rhinebeck I hope to see you there! I've just recently decided to go, even though, being a broke college student, it's going to be torture to look at and feel all the wonderful fiber when I know I can't take any of it home with me! *sigh* ... such is life I guess. At least I'll be able to look and maybe meet some of you wonderful people!

Going Green

I've been trying to think of what my next post was going to be about, mainly because I haven't taken any knitting related pictures recently. (Though on a sidenote, I have finished the mittens and all that needs to be done are the linings and I'm making progress on the baby blanket. I promise I'll take pictures soon) It finally hit me today what to write about.

Ever since I read that Jane Goodall book, I've been feeling like I need to make more of a difference in the world. It's somewhat daunting because you think "how much of a difference can one person make?" Well, I've started reading another of her books The Ten Truths. The more I read it, the more certain I am that I can make a difference, starting with the way that I eat.

All the research I've done recently has shown me what a difference it makes to just bite the bullet and go vegetarian. It's less of an environmental impact, it wastes less energy, I'll save some animal suffering somewhere and maybe the most selfish reason is I won't have a guilty conscience. It's easy to turn a blind eye and say "I really don't want to think about it" and continue living my life the way I always have, but that does no one any good.

I know it's going to be tough for me. I do have willpower and I know I can do it, but it going to be difficult when I don't have much of a support group for it. My brother is vegetarian, so at least I have one person, but my parents aren't (though I think my brother paved the way for me there). I think my biggest challenge is going to be the people who don't understand why I'm doing it. The one's who look at me funny when I mention it, and the ones who try to tell me it's unhealthy (where all my research has suggested otherwise) and then I get the ones who think I'm a crazy PETA person. Part of me wants to give in and join the crowd, but then I realize I've never really been one to join the crowd so I try to ignore it.

This is a decision I had to come to on my own. I think I always knew I'd eventually do this anyway and have been avoiding it because of all the things I'd have to give up. Like tacos. I love tacos! Especially with the crunchy shells because I like to crush them up and make a taco salad out of all the fixings. Well, you know what? I found out today that they make mock-burger! And I know for a fact it tastes kind of like burgers. Maybe this won't be as hard as I imagined.

I'll step down off my soap box now. I just thought I'd let you all know because if knitters are one thing, they're supportive!

Mitten Tutorial

You've all been waiting so patiently, so here's the mitten tutorial. Or at least enough to get you started.

First, I recommend that you go and get the Magnificent Mitten book by Anna Zilboorg, because a lot of what I'm going off of is in that book. Also, just a disclaimer, I'm not going to go into too much detail because that's what the book's for. I'm just showing a couple of things that are a little confusing and hard to see with drawn illustrations.

The mittens I'm making are the striped band variety and start off by casting on 5 stitches. Next, knit five rows with the stripe in the middle.After that, the goal is to pick up stitches all around the edge of your little knitted piece. But what you want to do is make sure that the three middle stitches aren't affected.
Eventually, you end up with a sequence that looks a little something like this:


This is the point where you'll be picking up stitches and following the pattern in the book. It can be a little bit difficult to see where you need to pick up the stitches so I have a couple of pictures that should help with it.
Right side pick up:



Another way of describing the right-side pick up is it's the pick up that is done at the beginning of the row.




The Left side pick up is the one that is done at the end of the row:




Continue picking up stitches each row and following the pattern at the same time. My advice here is to take it slow. You don't want to go back because you missed one stitch in the pattern.


Eventually you will get something that looks like this:I know some of you are interested in how to do fairisle, not just fairisle mittens. Well, the best advice I can give there is to learn both ways of knitting, English and Continental. Practice doing whichever one you're less familiar with until you feel comfortable with it. Once you feel comfortable with both methods, then you can hold one strand of color with each hand.

This way, you can throw whichever color yarn you need, when you need it.

I hope this has at least been a little bit helpful and that's it's maybe inspired some of you to take up fairisle, or mittens for that matter!

More changes...

I know it hasn't been an extremely long time since I last posted. I'm still doing what I can to make myself feel better. I want to thank everyone for all your wonderful support. I particularly liked the one that suggested to knit all the pain into a pair of socks so I can walk all over it. I so happen to be working on a pair of socks at the moment, but I don't feel up to knitting the pain in. There's no reason for me to hold on to the pain at this point. And it was nobody's fault so I'm not bitter. I just want to knit and let the rythmn of it soothe me.

I am in particular need of soothing today. I haven't gotten much sleep lately, but last night was on the bad side and today, as I knew I would be while lying awake in the middle of the night wishing I were asleep, I feel groggy and my outlook on the world is pretty bleak. I'm sure with a good night's sleep, I'll start feeling brighter.

I've decided to quit the chorus. Not because it's bad and not because of anything that's been going on, but because I feel like I've just spread myself too thin. I thought I'd be able to handle school, work, and singing, on top of the commute to and from school (which is now going on 1.5 hours each way). As much fun as I'm sure I'd have, I'm also sure it might be what makes or breaks my sanity in the long run. I hate quiting anything, but right now my life is moving in a totally new direction and trying to squeeze singing into it is just going to be too much at this point.

Things aren't all dark and gloomy here though. I just finished an extremely inspirational book by Jane Goodall called Reason for Hope. For anyone who's looking for a bit of inspiration and is also interested in social change, I highly recommend this book. It made me ball my eyes out, first in frustration at how horribly we treat our planet and our fellow inhabitants, and then in hope that changes are being made and that we each can make a difference in the world, no matter how small. I've never felt more like I'm on the right path in life than I do right now. I'm positive everything that has happened to me thus far has led me to this moment and this decision to take my life in a new direction. It's such a great time and I should be focusing on that.

I promise there will be knitting content soon. I'm still planning on doing the fair-isle mitten tutorial, and I started a baby blanket for my cousin's wife, who's expecting twins, so I do have a couple of knitting things to post about!

Bad days

I think Bridget Jones said it best. "Whenever one part of your life starts going right, other parts fall spectacularly to pieces."

Just when I finally find what I want to do with my life and I'm finally feeling like I'm on the right path, my relationship, once again, falls apart. D and I have split up and this time it's permanent. I'd rather not go into details except to say it wasn't anything either of us could control, and as much as we tried it wasn't something that could be fixed.

I may not post for a little bit, but I'll be around.

Awesome is one way to describe it

This weekend was fantastic. I had no idea I'd love volunteering as much as I did. Of course, it probably had a lot to do with the fact that I was volunteering for something I'm excited about and the people I was volunteering with were awesome. It's excellent finding a group of people you feel at home with because they have the same passion you do (incidentally, finding knitters is this way for me too). One of the kids is not only into animals and has had a lot of experience with them, but we got to talking and it turns out he spins and knits!!! How crazy is that?

So my volunteering duties came down to manning the mountain lion exhibit. Everyone, I'd like you to meet Boo. She's one of two mountain lions they have there. At the time of this picture Boo was watching the elk in their enclosure that's directly opposite hers. Apparently she also likes to stalk children as they're walking by. I didn't see her do it, but that's what I was told.

My job was to talk to the visitors about her and mountain lions in general. Oh, and I had to keep the red wagons that people like to pull their kids along in away from her enclosure. It turns out she really doesn't like red wagons at all. Again, I didn't experience it, it's just what I was told.

It was sometimes more interesting watching the people react to seeing the cougars, especially seeing the kids get all excited. Though the kids that liked to scream and yell at them were a bit obnoxious. Sorry kids, but you were.

What was great about being at the mountain lion exhibit was that it was right next to where they had the stage set up for presentations. Here's where one of the zoo staff was giving a presentation on the otter. The zoo has two otters but at this point it's in the process of raising funds to build a new otter exhibit for them. It definitely helps to have some cute and cuddly (or so they seem) otters to make people feel generous!

There was also a group that brought exotic animals to the zoo to raise awareness. The kid I was talking about earlier (you know, the one who knits) worked for them for a couple of summers so he introduced to me to a couple of really cool animals.

For instance, the binturong . It's also known as the asian bear cat, even though it's neither a bear or a cat. My friend is the one holding the leash. A really cool thing about binturongs is that their natural smell smells just like popcorn. Bet you didn't think I was going to say popcorn did ya? So cool. At that point I already thought I was lucky for even getting to see something like that. But that wasn't even the beginning of it.

Here's the African serval that they brought along. Later in the day I actually got to pet him. Talk about an experience only two months ago I never thought I'd ever do! These cats are described as minature cheetahs. The thing is they don't hunt like cheetahs. Their prefered method of hunting is to jump and pluck their prey right out of the air. Can you imagine being able to jump up and catch a bird in mid-flight? Amazing stuff.

Later on in the day, after my mountain lion watching duties were over, I went around to some of the booths that were set up, one belonging to the group that brought all the exotic animals.

My friend was there and he showed me all the different animals that they had like a juvenile alligator, a coatimundi, a chinchilla (which, by the way, is the softest thing ever), lots of different reptiles and rodents, the binturong and serval from the show and probably some other things I didn't get a chance to see. But I did get to play with the bearded dragon and the macaw they named Sunkist.

To say the very least I had an excellent time and I'm really looking forward to all the other awesome things I'm going to do!

A bit of this and a bit of that

It seems I've survived my second week of school. Already I'm starting to feel like I've accomplished more in the past two weeks, than the whole of the past two years. I've been out of school for those two years, working meaningless jobs that don't have the capacity to make me feel like I'm making a difference, and now that I've started down a whole new road I feel rejuvinated again. I feel like I'm working towards something that not only could make a difference in the world, but will also allow me to feel fulfilled in my own life.

This weekend I'm volunteering at the zoo for a big exposition called Fragile Wilderness. It's actually quite a big event with all sorts of wildlife experts, educators and rehabilitators. I'm thinking it's going to be something like a wildlife fair with booths set up throughout the zoo and stages for presenting exotic animals to the public and I hear there's going to be a bird show. I'm not even sure what it is I'm going to be doing at this point, but the possibilities include face painting, working the concession stand, helping the keepers with the education animals, and a million other things including wearing the outfit for the zoo's mascot, which I think is an otter. It should be a ton of fun and the fact that I don't even care that I'm getting nothing but the experience out of it makes it that much better. You know it's something you love to do when you don't care about monitary compensation right? Hopefully I'll get a break to take some pictures for the blog.

Speaking of the blog, I just realized that I started this blog a year ago, so happy bloggiversary to me! I can't believe it's been a year and I've loved everything about blogging. I'm so fortunate to have found such an awesome community to be a part of! Thank you everyone for making my blogging experience excellent.

I also wanted to thank everyone for the links to all the hippo things. I never knew there was so much out there on hippos, or that so many people are obsessed with them! It makes me wonder how into them some people would still be if they knew about some of the things I've been finding out about them. They're interesting, but they are in no way cute and cuddily.

Some people were asking about the mittens I started. They're from Anna Zilboorg's book Magnificent Mittens. The technique is pretty interesting and once you get it down these mittens are really fun to make. Plus they make great Christmas presents. And don't let the fairisle scare you. Blocking is an amazing thing and almost any imperfection with fairisle can be blocked out. So if you're interested I say go for it. Maybe I'll do a little picture tutorial on the mittens. Would anybody be interested in something like that?

Is that a tranquilizer dart in your ass, or are you just happy to see me?

School was eventful today. And by eventful I mean, I got to see a raccoon have a tranquilizer dart shot into it's hind end. This wasn't exactly what was suppose to happen today. It was supposed to be an uneventful day spent out around the zoo, familiarizing ourselves with where all the animals are and how to get to them quickly, then spend a little time observing whichever one we wanted to.

Well, a couple of us noticed the bobcat acting a little funny, as if it was really interested in climbing up one of the poles that holds the mess fencing up. Later, when we passed the bobcats again, we noticed why. There was a raccoon up at the top of the pole. This caused a huge stir when we told the staff about it.

I got to be the lucky one who watched the raccoon and made sure it didn't run away (how, exactly I was going to do that, I have no idea, so it's a good thing it didn't go anywhere) while the vet went to get the tranquilizer darts. They even gave me the walkie talkie. You know you've reached a new level when being the one to hold the walkie talkie makes you feel special.

Unfortunately, class ended before I could find out how the whole raccoon situation played out. All I really got to see was it being tagged by the dart. But still, that's not something you see everyday. And this is only day three!

So I hope you haven't forgotten about me. I know it's been awhile, but you just wouldn't believe how busy I've been.

School is awesome, it's everything I expected and I'm sure it will be even more than I expect. After all, its only been a week so far. I'm still getting adjusted which is tougher than I thought. I think its the early mornings, then the working afterwards. Or vice verse as the case may be. Singing starts up this week too, so that's one more thing to add to the list.

Already I have a presentation to give in one of my classes. Of course the prof. made us draw from a hat to decide who goes when and, as is my luck, I drew the 1. Ha! I have two weeks to prepare a 15 minute presentation on the hippopotamus. I'm psyched because he wants us to make it interesting by adding some humor and I was thinking about playing that hippopotamus song. You know..."I want a hippopotamus for Christmas" song. It's gonna be great!

Believe it or not I have been doing some knitting. My sock is progressing nicely. I turned the heel and am working on the foot. But I'm not gonna show you any pictures of that, instead, I'm gonna show you a picture of this...

Did I not promise some Mitten Cakes? I figure I should get started on these because I can start to feel the chill in the air. And we all know fall flashes by and before you know it, it's Christmas. It likes to sneak up on you, but I'm ready for it. No sneakin' this year.

In totally unrelated news, a couple somethings arrived for me in the mail this past week. One being the new laptop I ordered. I love this thing, it's better than any computer I've ever owned. Not to mention they had a great financing deal going on, so I could get it. Otherwise, it was just not going to happen.

The second package came from Japan. Looks like my sister remembered my birthday. And you'll never guess what she sent me...
Is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen? The minute I opened it I remembered that she and I had a conversation about purses a little while before she left and she said she could probably get a designer purse while she was over there. Looks like she came through huh?

Funny thing is, I'm not much of a purse person. I usually will get one and use it until either it falls apart, or it gets extremely stained and dirty. I pride myself on being a low-maintenance, no nonsense kind of girl. Looks like my sisters trying to turn on my girly side.

And now for the not-so-happy news. My cat, Pookie, hasn't been seen for about two and a half weeks now. I've had her for about eight years and she was a gift from my first boyfriend. It really breaks my heart because I fear the worst. And yet, we don't know what happened. Sometimes not knowing is worse than the unknown. I like to think that she found another family and is doing fine, but the other side of me fears she's dead. If she is, I hope it was quick.

We do have a new feline addition to our family, though, that has nothing to do with the loss of my cat. My brother moved back home and with him and all his stuff came his cat. She's such a sweetheart.

Her name's Isosceles. Can you tell my brother is really into math? Only a math major would name his cat Isosceles.

She's a real cutie and she almost reminds me of Pookie. Or at least, their personalities are similar.

I'd love to keep writing and tell you all the little details of this past week, but unfortunately it's getting late, and by late I mean 9:30 and that's late for someone who gets up at 5:45am!

Holy Exhausted Batman!

Well, first day of class is over. Little bit exhausted. I woke up at 5:15am; I didn't have to be up that early, but it's when my internal clock woke me up. Much to my dislike, my internal clock is really good at going off early. I regularly wake up at least a half hour before my alarm goes off. Maybe my body knows it needs a good half hour to lay there and wake up. So this morning, I laid there, waking up... wishing I wasn't awake because another half hour of sleep may have made today a little less, well, exhausting.

I got to work this morning at 7am. I have to say there is something so nice about going to work when no one else is there. You can get what you want done, when you want it done without people bugging you or the phone ringing off the hook. I could definitely get used to the going to work early thing.

I left work and drove up to class, which was about an hour drive. I left myself plenty of time, but I didn't take into account that there was construction, basically because I didn't know that there was construction. There's something very uncomfortable about walking into a class on the first day a few minutes late. Fortunately, another kid was walking in the same time so that took a little bit of the pressure off. Then when you have people walking in 15 to 30 minutes late, it makes your 2 or 3 minutes late look like nothin'.

Class today was nothing more than going over the syllabus and getting to know each other. After going over the syllabus, I know it's going to be challenging, but I think I'm ready for a good challenge. I feel like I haven't been challenge for a couple years now and I'm due for it.

Funny how we bring to ourselves exactly what we need. Though this will be physically exhausting and mentally challenging, and I'm sure at times I'll wonder what ever made me do this, but despite all that I feel like it's bringing me closer to what I want and who I want to be. And if I'm not working towards that, then what the heck am I working towards?

A little bit of everything

I feel like I've been gone for so long! There is definitely something you miss when you stop blogging for even a week.

Well, this is it kids, this is my last week of freedom. And when I say freedom I mean freedom from school work, papers, tests and everything else that goes along with going back to school. Then again, who am I kidding? I loved school. I'm postitive I'm going to love it again. Even all the work, papers and test I'm going to love. And there's an added bonus of working with animals. At this point, I can't see a single bad thing about going back to school... except for all the driving. It's almost an hour commute, but my faithful little Honda can handle it.

My classes start on Monday and I'm very excited about the whole thing. I know it's going to be great. Of course, underneath my over-positive, calm exterior there's an emotional hurricane going on. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I have a million and one things going through my head every minute. And even though I don't feel stressed, my body has been doing everything it can to let me know I'm stressed despite what I may think I feel.

And of course, when life gets a little crazy and uncertain I turn to my feel-good stress reliever. Don't think that this past week where I haven't blogged at all means I haven't knit. In fact, I finished the off-white Branching Out scarf and started this one. This is the last of the branching out scarves. These are Christmas presents and I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself for finishing any Christmas presents before Halloween. I'm usually not this prepared. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that once school starts I know I won't have as much time to knit as I used to and I'll have just as many Christmas presents to make.

It's almost time again for me to start making Mitten Cakes. My mom commissioned me to make some for my aunts and uncles for this Christmas. So, don't be suprised if you see me start some mittens in the near future.

I also have finished, well, sort of finished, I just need to do the edging along the armholes and sew in the ends, the shell that I started at the beginning of the summer. And of course, which is just my luck, or maybe just the way knitting works for me, I finished my summer shell just in time for... well, fall. Perfect. I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of that this Thanksgiving.... I really hope you're picking up the sarcasm here.

No worries though, I'm sure it'll still fit next summer when I'll actually wear it. And maybe by that time I'll actually have the ends sewn in. Ok, don't count on it. You never really know with me.

I also started a little side project. Just a pair of socks, but it's a pair of socks out of some truly luscious yarn. It's called Mountain Colors Sock yarn and it's yummy. Most of the socks I make are out of this stuff because I love it and it wears well.

Did I not say I've been pretty busy on the knitting front? And you almost didn't believe me huh?

I now have my own computer again at work so I'm back up and running on that front, though I won't get into the complete incompetence regarding that. I can't say I'm all that suprised, judging by how well they've handled other things in the past.

I know this post has already go on and on, but just a couple more things. I'll be away this weekend at a BBQ, which should be fun. Hey, it's supposed to be nice weather, there's going to be a pool and a bonfire, oh and it's on the same day as my birthday. I suppose I didn't mention my birthday is this Saturday. It's not really going to be an eventful year. I'll be 24.

I remember in middle school and high school thinking that 24 was really old. That really makes me laugh now, mainly because I don't feel old at all. In fact, I still feel like I'm much too young to even get married or have kids though I know that my sister was already married and pregnant by my age. I guess all that means is I'm at a different spot in my life than she was at my age. Nothing wrong with that.

I hope you all have enjoyed my babbling on. I'll leave you with a picture I took last weekend that I really love.

Not my idea of a good time...

This is just a warning in advance. I have not had even a small amount of time to blog or to read anyone else's blogs. I've been leaving comments here and there, but I haven't had any time to really delve into my blogging time like I used to.... Reason? Well, as we all know, my job is slightly boring and on off times when I have to save myself work just so I'll have something to do the next day, I'll go online, catching up on blogs. Unfortunately, this week I've been training my replacement.... not only have I been training my replacement, but it has also fallen upon me to train another person.

Do you happen to remember me mentioning the person I worked with originally and that she left? This was only about two months ago or so. Since then, a new person came. She was trained in just fine, she did the job relatively decently. The only problem I found was we didn't get along so well, but that really didn't matter because I knew I'd be going to a part time position during school.

The week before my vacation this new person, who's only been working in that position for a month, lets keep in mind, announced to everyone that she was putting in her two weeks notice. She apparently decided to only do one week because when I came back from vacation, she wasn't there.

So here I am, training two people in a department. So needless to say I have very little time to catch up on my blogging. I'll try my best to get around to reading everyone's blogs, but if I don't, you know why. I hope everyone has a good week.