It's gonna be a busy summer... for knitting that is

Despite my crazy schedule, despite my crazy workload and despite the restlessness, I decided to reward myself. This is mainly because I finished one of my projects in record time. (For some reason I thought it would take me a lot longer). It felt so good crossing that off of the list I have. As I was looking at my list I realized that I only have two more things to do. One paper, which I'm already more than halfway finished with and a very quick project. I can tell you the weight of all this work I have to do lifted quite a bit with that realiztion!

So last night I knit.... and knit... and finished the back of Gabe's sweater...

The color definitely isn't right in this picture, it's not as grey as it looks here. It's slightly more chestnut.

I love this type of knitting sometimes... mindless. Exactly what I need right now. So I knit and watched some TV, talked with Gabe (which, by the way, makes me more and more excited about going out there with all the things he's talking about wanting to do!), and I didn't worry a bit about the last couple of assignments that need finishing.

Then today I rewarded myself again. With these:

With summer coming and no real projects in mind, I had to do something! There are definitely quite a few patterns in that IK that I'm planning on making. I was surprised because a lot of times there are only one or two things I like, but this one kept surprising me.




Here are the ones that I like:


























I'd better get to knitting huh?

Feeling restless

It is down to the home stretch now. I'm so close to then end of the semester I can taste it, not only can I taste it but I can see it... in the form of a massive break-out on my face. Nothing like stress to make the pores on my face want to retaliate.

Despite the large amounts of stress and looming deadlines, I feel restless. I feel unmotivated toward any type of school work, which usually isn't the case when deadlines are near. I feel the way I feel when things in my life are about to change. More than just the obvious change of moving to Colorado for a summer, but the kind of change that redefines who I am. This happens to me, more and more frequently it seems, and it's alway preceded by this restlessness and an urge to get back to my spiritual side. As if I've spent too much time caring about the dramas of life and not enough time caring about my soul.

Everything I do now seems to be under intense spiritual scrutiny. Every action I make makes my mind wonder if that action was demonstrating the type of person I want to be. And if not, what can I do in the future to change that. Because if I want to make any sort of change to this world (and if you've looked around lately, we are in desperate need of change), I must first make a change in myself.

I can tell you, it's tiring to constantly evaluate yourself, your actions, and probably most especially, your thoughts, but I can also tell you, it's extremely rewarding. I've grown so much as a direct result of this. Looking back on the person I used to be up to the person I am now, I can say with confidence that they are two different people completely. Not to say the person I was before was bad, it's just that I've seen that the decisions I used to make didn't work, so I changed my choices to what does work... or should I say did work, because now it seems, I'm about to change again. Into what, I can't really say yet, but it's exciting.

It's hard to focus on school work, which seems so inconsequential compared to soul work, but I'll get through. Only six days of classes left, one paper, one lab report, one portfolio and a couple of finals and I can really focus my attention.

As you can imagine, no knitting has been done. I'm afraid you'll have to wait for awhile longer to see any sort of stitch on this blog.

Two and a half more weeks...

You might wonder what's been going on with me and well... I wonder the same thing. When I think about last week all it seems to be filled with is working, studying and bird watching. The bird watching is because I have to have 14 hours worth of bird observations in by the end of the semester and I only have two and a half more weeks left to do it.

Two and half more weeks... It feels so good to say that I only have two and half more weeks left of school. Of course this brings the realization that I only have two and half more weeks to get all my assignments finished. This includes a research paper that I haven't even thought about starting. My problem is finding the time. For me, I have to sit down with a nice chunk of time with no other obligations before I can start a paper and all I seem to have is a couple hours here and there. Usually once classes end I have a couple of hours until I have to go to work... Definitely not conducive to getting a research paper written.

I haven't even had any time to knit very much on Gabe's sweater. For those of you who asked, the pattern is called Castaway and it's in Rowan magazine number 30. It's always been my experience when knitting for men the more basic the sweater, the better. Most guys aren't interested in bells and whistles. Classic is best.

So I've been swamped up to my eyeballs with school work, I've been waitressing non-stop it seems, and I've had no time to knit... what the heck keeps me going? It's the conversations with Gabe on the phone, planning what we're going to do when we finally get to be together over the summer. He plans to take me rock climbing. We had a thorough discussion as to my safety (I'm not an adrenaline junkie, so the safer the better).

He wants to take me up to the flatirons (I think that's what he called them) so that I can watch the eagles and hawks fly up on the thermals. I have to say, since taking this ornithology class, I'm much more interested in bird watching than I used to be. And it's really kind of nice to hear he's willing to fuel that interest.

Pretty much the thought of seeing him everyday is really keeping me going. It makes the school work and the work work not seem so bad at all....

I am a project tramp.

It's true. There was that purple sweater that I started. It lost it's flare quickly to a pair of green socks. Those green socks did entertain me for a short while. Not long enough for me to finish them. Such is the way of being a tramp because when something like this:

arrives on your doorstep you're pretty much obligated to cheat on the projects you have going for something new and exciting.

To be honest, most of it is mom's. She wanted me to order it for her. Not only that, but she wanted me to knit most of it for her. Most of it is yarn for some cool fairisle socks. But some of it is for me and that, my friends, is what I cheated on my green socks for.

This 100% baby alpaca, simply irresistible yarn is going to one day be a sweater for Gabe. He picked the pattern and he even picked the yarn. He's actually very excited about it. So he knows he's getting a sweater, but he doesn't know when. Christmas is so far away, but this yarn is so hard to resist. I had to start it.

Did I mention we had a field trip on Monday to Montreal? Well, let me tell you, that definitely gave me some excellent time to sit and knit (and cheat on my green socks). I'm already about 10 inches into the body and it's on size 6's.

This picture actually makes it look a lot lighter than it actually is, but let me tell you it's gorgeous and it feels great. He's going to love it.

As for the field trip, we went to the Biodome in Montreal. It was actually very cool. It had four different ecosystems and you had to walk through each of them. It was definitely a bit of a shock to walk through a tropical rainforest and then go through a temperate forest in early spring!

Here's a slideshow of the trip. I got the idea from Grace . She had an awesome slideshow and I thought that would be a really cool idea rather than upload a whole ton of pictures! By the way, you can make your own slideshow at Imageshack.

Edited to add: Having a bit of trouble with the slideshow, if you want to view it, you can go here.

Don't Cry for me Argentina....

Don't ask me about the title. It was just the first thing that popped into my head when I thought about the events of yesterday, events that I think everyone of you would be interested in hearing about.

I received a letter in the mail. A letter from the Denver Zoo. Here it was, my ticket (or lack there of) to Colorado for the summer. This is what I'd been waiting for....

Well folks, I didn't get it. And I suprised myself because as I read the rejection letter I didn't get upset. I learned awhile ago not to let my happiness ride on circumstances that are outside of my control. This doesn't mean, however, that I just sit idly by when there are choices I can make and circumstance I do have control over.

So why, you might ask, was yesterday one of the most exciting days of my life? Well, I made some choices and changed some circumstances. I talked to my boss and he agreed to have me transferred to the restaurant in Colorado for the summer! Things really couldn't have worked out better!

I called Gabe as soon as I got home from work and we already have the whole thing planned! My roommate from college is getting married in June. I can't miss the wedding so he's going to fly out for it, then we're going to drive across the country in my car! What an adventure that's going to be!

I'm so excited! I know I'll be nervous having to start work at a totally new place with totally new people, but to be with Gabe for the summer, it's going to be worth it.

Three and a half weeks left of school, then it's just a matter of a couple more weeks till I will be in Colorado!

Title? Who needs a title?

My spirits have been feeling better and better. I did a little yoga, I spent some time outside... I just needed a little time to readjust. I got to see him 24/7 for six days straight. Go from that to barely even having the time to talk to him on the phone (we both went back to extremely busy lives) and you can see why I was a little down in the dumps.

Never fear though! Spring is here. The sun is shining, the weather's warming up and the pigeons have made it their duty in life to wake me up every morning with their mating calls. Have you ever heard a pigeon making it's mating calls? For lack of a better description, it sounds as if they're constipated.
Ludo, my cat, is enthralled by this. He's made it his mission to do whatever he can to get to those pigeons. He has found every suitable place in the apartment to sit by a window and watch them. And when he gets tired (because you know it's hard work trying to claw through glass to get to the birds) he just curls right up and goes to sleep... right on my sweaters of course!


So, I got to knit those couple of inches I wanted to and now I can show you this:

Let me tell you, it was a pain in my butt to try to photograph this. First I tried putting it on, but every angle I could shot it at didn't show the pattern well. So I had to settle on the flat shot.

I've actually already turned the heel and am working on the leg portion. But now that I only have 4 weeks left in the semester (4 weeks, can you believe it???) I'm down to the wire on some school projects and haven't had a huge amount of time to knit. Well, 4 weeks isn't a long time so once school is finished I'll be knitting up a storm!

What's a girl to do when she's feeling down?

Play with baby chicks of course!

We hatched these little guys in ornithology lab (ornithology is the study of birds.) They are so darn adorable I can hardly get over it.

They're definitely good for raising the spirits. Especially a spirit that's bogged down by the stresses of school, work and an aching heart!

Knitting news will be on it's way. Just give me a few more days to add a couple more inches!

So damn bittersweet

We had such a wonderful time and the majority of it was spent hanging out. Just being together was enough. But of course, as these things go, my mood gradually went from euphoric at the beginning of the week to somewhat depressed last night when I knew he'd be leaving this morning.

Some of the highlights of this week were little things like taking a walk together when the weather was gorgeous. It must have been 70 degrees outside and it was sunny. I loved it. We also spent a lot of time at his mom's house visiting with her and she let me spin some greased wool on her Louet. I've never tried spinning in the grease before and I have to say it was awesome. I've never spun anything so fine and your hands just feel so healthy with all the lanolin (unless, of course, you're allergic to lanolin.) By the way, she asked me if I wanted to do the Sheep to Shawl competition with her and her daughters this upcoming fall! If I can get the time off, I will definitely be there!

Also, spending time playing cards with my mom who was laid up after having knee surgery was really great. She actually had the surgery the day Gabe arrived and she's already up and walking around!

My favorite times with him, though, were all the times we'd just sit around and cuddle. I know it sounds sentimental and sappy, but it's true. We'd just lay there for hours, talking, cuddling, just being together.

I wish this post could be a bit more upbeat, but I'm so heartsick right now. I still haven't heard anything about the internship yet and to be honest, I really want to spend the summer out there. Gabe really wants me to look into transferring within the company/restaurant I work for to one out in Colorado if the internship doesn't work out. After this last visit I'd do just about anything to be out there for the summer. He said he'd even drive me to and from work if that's what it takes!

I'll keep you updated. Until then I have a crap load of homework and projects to do. Looks like that monster finally caught up with me so if I don't post for awhile, you know why! I'll leave you with some goofy pictures of Gabe and me.

Is there a sock shortage that I'm unaware of?

Because, seriously, there must be. (Though my overflowing sock drawer seems to indicate otherwise.) When I make an honest attempt to knit something other than socks, I feel completely uninspired and the only thing that could even remotely satisfy me is another pair. How crazy is that?

It may have something to do with the fact that every time I pick up the sweater to work on it, I feel like I really don't have time to knit a sweater, after all, I have a million school projects I could be working on instead....I mean should be working on instead. But socks... well... they're just little projects. They can easily be picked up and put down. I don't feel I'm about to be bit in the ass by that monster when I knit socks. But the sweater..... I might as well have a sign on my butt that says "Bite Me."

Here's the newest pair in the works. It's this pattern. It's simple and it looks great. I first tried it out on 2's but it was just so flimsy, I couldn't stand it. So I went down to the 1's and went up a size.

I feel so much better now that I'm working on another pair of socks. Maybe I should just make a bunch of socks and give them away for Christmas. Seriously, I have no more room for socks!

So I'm officially on Spring Break right now. Gabe flys in tomorrow and words do not describe how excited I am! This will probably be my last post until after he leaves. (I know I've been sporatic with the posting but I've just been so busy... I know, I know, broken record over here)

One more thing I wanted to mention. My friend Jill makes awesome needlecases. If anyone is interested in one she has a little online shop set up here. Go check it out!

For now, I'm off. Have a great week and weekend!

All I've been doing!

Finally blogger is working and I have a few minutes to post. Well, here's the haircut I got last week. Like I said before, it's pretty much the exact same haircut I had, only now it's shorter and all those evil split ends are gone!
There's nothing like a good haircut to put you back in the right mood. Don't ask me why, maybe it's symbolic. Cutting off something that's weighing you down... eh, who knows?

So there is now exactly one week, that's 7 days people!, until Gabe gets here. Can you tell I'm excited? Of course, I have three days of school left, each of which has either a test or a quiz, then three (or four depending on how they schedule me) days of work and then I get to drive to the airport and pick him up. I actually think it's better that I'm going to be busy before he gets here because if I wasn't I'd be driven insane by the anticipation!

Oh, right, knitting. I've done a little bit of that. Remember me throwing caution to the wind and starting a sweater? Well, here's what I've done so far.

It's a pattern out of Rowan Magazine #30. I thought it was fairly appropriate because the pattern's name is Erin! I've been wanting to make this sweater forever but I just haven't gotten around to it! This is what it's going to look like when I'm finished, though I'm planning on tweaking the arms a little bit.

Just click on the picture to see it a bit better. White sweater against a snowy background doesn't exactly make it easy to see.

Yesterday I had so much to do. I made a list of all the things I need to work on and I just sat down for hours and got a ton of it done. There's something about making lists and crossing things off of them that feels so gratifying! Anyway, I rewarded myself by doing something I haven't done in such a long time.... I spun! Woohoo!

This stuff may look familiar to you if you've been reading my blog for a long time. That's because it's the exact same stuff I bought at Rhinebeck the first year that I went and made some nice yarn out of, which I then made a pair of nice socks out of. Well, my friend, Jill
bought the same stuff last year because she liked how mine turned out and I agreed to spin in for her.

Well, I'm off to class now! Ta Ta!

Short update

I was going to upload pictures of what I've been knitting and my new haircut (which looks almost exactly like my old haircut only shorter) but blogger is being not so nice right now.

Anyway, I've been busy (what's new right?) And yet, even when I have some down time I feel restless. Not even knitting helps. I'm excited to hear about the internship. By the way, thank you to everyone who wished me luck, I really appreciate that so many people are rooting for me! I have no idea how long it's going to take to hear about it though. I'm also excited because in a week and a day, Gabe will be here! That might have me the most excited I think (shocking, I know.) I've finished the project I wanted to have finished before he arrives. I can't believe I did it with a week to spare. Don't you worry though, I have plenty of projects I can start on to get ahead!

Hopefully blogger will start working again and I can show some pictures!

I did it.

I can't believe it. Let me explain...

Gabe suggested awhile ago that I should look into doing an internship at the Denver Zoo for the summer. Apparently he wants to see me for more than just a week at a time (go figure!) Almost immediately I shot down the idea because I could think of about a million reasons why that wouldn't work, all of them revolving around money. Not to mention I might not have a job when I get back. I hadn't really thought about it again until this past weekend.

I was talking with a roommate of mine and something about our conversation made the idea pop into my head again. And not only that, but it inspired me to look into it. So Saturday morning I used the wonderful, glorious internet to see what kind of internships the zoo has. I found out that they have paid interships!!! I immediately reworked my resume, wrote an awesome cover letter and e-mailed my professor to see if he would write me a letter of recommendation.

Apparently I really like to cut these things close because the deadline for applications is Wednesday! Nothing like doing it last minute huh? My professor was great and had his recommendation all set for me today. So I went to the post office and spent an obscene amount of money to send it all guaranteed next day delivery.

I did it. I sent them and it's in fates hands now. Wish me luck!

I live in a fantasy land.

I think most knitters do. You see, we sometimes greatly overestimate the time we can spend knitting. We put off things that we'd otherwise get done were it not for the draw of some new and exciting project. But here's the problem, our time management skills, though great compared to some, may not allow for those things we've put off until eventually they come and bite us in the ass.

Oh no, I haven't been bitten in the ass.... yet.... But I'm constantly turning around to check and see if something is poised and ready, teeth barred, mouth open in the classic ass-biting position. Why you ask? Well, despite being so busy I can barely keep up, I finished these:

They didn't quite make it knee-high, but they're close. And they're COMFORTABLE!!! The past two days I've worn my socks-that-will-not-be-named and these and my feet have never been so warm. I'm in love with this Knitpicks sock yarn. It's great.

Anyway, back to my fantasy land where I have decided, even though I have many school projects to work on, that I am going to start a sweater. After all, I only have a good month left where fuzzy, mohair/wool is suitable knitting. After that, the sweaty hands are a little more than I can handle.

Hey, did anyone see that little monster just now getting ready to bite my butt?

Being busy is not good for blogging.

I'm sorry it's been a week since I've written. There are really two reasons for this... 1. I'm busy with school and work. If I'm not doing one, than I'm most certainly doing the other and 2. When all you do is school and work, you don't have much time to knit and show off your knitting. And aside from even all of that nothing really interesting has been going on that I could even blog about... (this, of course, excludes my lovesickness and extreme missing of a certain person in CO.)

Right now I'm focusing on getting a ton of projects at least halfway finished so I don't have to work on them when Gabe is here during my spring break. Hopefully I'll find some time to pull away and do something interesting that you all would like to read about! Until then.... have fun knitting without me!

I have been knitting... I really have!

It's been a week since I've been back, but it seems like so much longer. Lucky for me a plan is in the works for Gabe to come back east at the end of March/beginning of April. That is, of course, if everything pans out. If it doesn't we're just going to have to wait until the end of the semester. I can tell you right now that that is going to be extremely difficult. My only saving grace is that I'm going to be so busy with school and work that the time is just going to fly.

My friends and I just realized today that next week marks the first half of the semester being over. If the second half flys by as quickly as the first did, I'll be seeing Gabe in no time!

So is this a knitting blog? I know it might seem questionable, but I promise it is still a knitting blog. I finished the socks that will remain nameless while in Colorado:

I'm very happy with how they turned out. I finally got the tension right so that I can actually fit them over my heel, but at the same time making them tight enough so that the leg is not so loose that it falls to my ankle.

I wore them yesterday and I'm extremely pleased with how comfortable they are. I bought this yarn from KnitPicks. It's one of their merino sock yarns and I'm telling you, you can't even tell you're wearing wool on your feet. (My feet are pretty sensitive and anything slightly itchy are just too uncomfortable).

I finished the socks-that-will-not-be-named while Gabe was off giving a lecture. Luckily, I thought ahead and brought some more sock yarn to keep me occupied. (Don't ask me what is up with me and socks right now, I think it's because they're small and quick and I can pick them up whenever. This is important for a college student/waitress with no time on her hands). They are also made from KnitPicks merino sock yarn.

It may look to you like I'm finished with this one, but I'm not. I'm planning on knitting the leg up as far as the skein will take me. I guess I'm in the mood for some knee-highs! I knit the toe-up method for the first time with these socks and I love it!

I'm starting to feel like I could knit socks in my sleep...hmmm, that's either a really good thing (more time used for sock making) or a really bad thing (I'm really not sleeping at all!)

After these socks I'm either thinking about knitting another pair of socks (shocker, I know...) or starting a sweater. After all, I only have so much time left until the weather turns warm. I don't have a huge stash, but what I have in it is mostly wool and unless you have an air conditioner, wool is just too warm in the summer!

The trip of a lifetime...

So I suppose you'd like to know what I did on my trip other than reconnected with the love of my life huh?

Well, we certainly did some amazing things. He took me to Rocky Mountain National park. That's where the picture of us was taken. By the way, his name is Gabe. I figured I should just get that out of the way because it makes the telling of this so much easier! I would have knit on my way out there but the scenery was just too gorgeous. I couldn't take my eyes off it for a second. Here are some of my favorite pictures from there:This next one was awesome because of the way the sun was hitting the clouds from behind. The picture just doesn't capture how truly beautiful it was.
He also took me to the Denver Zoo. It was amazing. It was huge compared to the one I work in. You could tell they take great care of their animals and they do everything they can to keep them happy and entertained. One of their gorillas had a baby and I tried so hard to get a good picture of it, but my camera battery died just as I was getting one.

This is one of my better pictures of Nemo! I actually took quite a few pictures but none of them turned out very well.

We did many other things like hang out with his friends, go out to eat dinner and hiked a bit on some trails about 10 miles from his apartment. Unfortunately the hiking was a bit trecherous because he didn't tell me to bring my boot so I was hiking in shoes with no traction...that was interesting.

He cooked for me several times which was excellent. He is an amazing cook. Not to mention he's vegetarian too! He made probably the best tofu stirfry I've ever had. I'm drooling just thinking about it!

Now all of those things were exciting, but nothing compared to where we went on my last full day there. He took me to the yarn shop in Boulder. It was called Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins. I have never seen such an awe inspiring shop in my life. Not only did they have the largest selection of my kind of yarn (my kind of yarn being the more classic, non-novelty type) but they also had spinning wheels, roving, weaving looms and spools of thread everywhere. It was amazing. And what's more amazing is Gabe actually had a good time too. He was very tempted by the looms (He used to weave and spin back in high school because his mother owned sheep and he and his sisters would help his mom with the Sheep to Shawl contest at the fair almost every year) To say the least, it was great.

I ended up buying some more sock yarn (because I obviously don't have enough) and another set of needles. Right before leaving for my trip my brother was fooling around and he ended up breaking one of my bamboo sock needles. I could work with just the four that were left, but I much prefer having five.

So there's your brief overview of my trip. It was fantastic, I wish I were still there. It definitely makes being back here much harder!

I just want to leave you with a picture (sorry for the quality, I don't have a scanner so it's a picture of a picture) of Gabe and I back in high school. This was taken at the Junior Prom in 1997. *SIGH*

I left my heart in Colorado

I hadn't said anything about this earlier, mainly because even I wasn't sure what was happening. Now I know and now I can tell you, however, it may need a little bit of back story.

When I was in high school, I dated a guy for nearly two years. Considering how young and immature most people are in high school, two years is a really long time. Not only did we date for such a long time, we were in love. There's just no other words for it. Just about the time when I was going off to college (he still had one year of high school left) we broke up. It's been so long now that I don't remember the actual details as to why but it positively broke my heart. I spent most of my freshman year in college depressed, but eventually it got easier and the days between thinking about him got more numerous. I thought I had gotten over him and in many ways I had, but he was always in the back of my mind.

At this point, I don't really remember how it happened but probably a year or two after we broke up he called me, or I called him, I don't really remember, but ever since then we've talked maybe twice a year. Around Christmas he'd always come home to see his family and I'd be home visiting my family so we'd get together for dinner and just catch up on how the last year has been for each of us.

Every time we'd get together it threatened to stir up old feelings for me, but knowing that it just wasn't an option (either I was with someone that year or he was, or it just wasn't the right time) I'd pretty much squash those feelings the minute I felt them. That is, until this year...

This Christmas we got together like we always do, but something was different. That invisible line we never use to cross had disappeared and it was just us. And then he kissed me. Apparently he had felt the same way I had been feeling, but we didn't really talk about it. We both just sort of knew.

We made plans for me to come out and visit him in Colorado. It was probably the best trip I've ever had. Not only did the scenery take my breath away, but he did too. We finally talked about everything we'd been thinking about and everything we'd been feeling and now I can tell you with confidence that I left my heart with him in Colorado and I took his home with me.

It's nearly here!

I feel like all I've been doing is apologizing for how busy I've been. But it's true. I'm busy. So busy, in fact, I'm almost to the point of breaking down. Thank all that is holy this coming Friday I will be on a plane to Colorado for 5 glorious school/work free days. Of course, I have 5 quizzes and a test before that sweet day, not to mention three more nights of work.

You may have guessed that I haven't been able to do much knitting. I haven't been able to do any knitting and I'm thinking I won't until I'm sitting on the plane. Then I can knit. Zero interruptions, just knitting.

Nothing much else to report other than we took Ludo to the vet last week and besides some ear mites, he's as healthy as can be. I have to say I've never seen a cat so relaxed in the car. On the way out there he was only mildly nervous, but on the way back...

Yeah, he was totally asleep.

Never in my life have I met such a laid back cat.

There probably won't be any more updates before Colorado, so I'll be catching you up when I get back!

Good luck!

I just wanted to add a quick post to all of the knitting athletes out there who are gearing up for tonight's opening ceremony. I won't be participating this time around. I have far too much on my plate at the moment which is why I haven't posted in so long. Just know that I'm still around, very busy, but around none the less. Again, good luck to everyone! I can't wait to see how everyone does!

Ludo.

Well, I promised you a story about a cat...

Everyone, I'd like you to meet Ludo.

Last week my roommates and I decided we couldn't live without a cat. We went to the SPCA on Thursday, but didn't end up taking this bundle of love home until Saturday. I have to tell ya, it nearly broke my heart to go there and see all those animals, the majority of which were incredibly sweet and deserving of a loving home.

Lucky for Ludo we showed up. He's two years old (approx.) and found as a stray by a woman who, just the week before, adopted a cat from the SPCA. I'm thoroughly convinced that he was raised in a home and someone either threw him out or he ran away. What leads me to believe this is I have never seen a cat so well adjusted to being in a totally new home and who loves people as much as he does. And when I say he loves people, I mean he LOVES people. He doesn't care who you are, if you pet him, you're his new best friend.

I'm quite sure he has Maine Coon in him judging by his big mane, big body, long whiskers and ear tufts. Not to mention he has such a laid back personality. He's just a big lover and I'm so happy we have him.

We named him Ludo after that big furry monster in Labyrinth. You remember that 80's movie with David Bowe. I used to watch that movie all the time when I was a kid. One of my roommates had never seen it and last week we ended up watching it. Well, the name Ludo stuck out and it seems to be a great name for our new cat.

Here's another great picture of him. You can really see his mane in this one, and his beautiful green eyes. As you can see, he's totally made himself at home. No hiding under a bed for him. He's only been here for two days and if you didn't know any better you'd think that he's lived here his entire life.

In fact, he's sleeping on my bed as I write this. *Sigh* I love having a cat around. Any stress I had is non-existent at this point. I've just now realized the keys to a stress-free life:

Knitting & Cats.

Can we say busy?

Yes, I've been busy. And really, the word 'busy' wouldn't really even begin to describe it. I've had four quizzes this week. Not just those dinky little 'I-really-don't-need-to-study-for-this-quiz' kind of quiz, but full blown mini-tests. Next week is looking to be about the same. I already have three quizzes lined up for next week, we'll see if a fourth one gets thrown in there.

Also, I've been working. Great for the checkbook, not so great for my 'free' time. I say 'free' time, but what I really mean is time I should be studying. My usual day consists of me going to class until noon or 1, then a couple hours later I have to head off to work. One might consider that time in between as down time, but not me. It's the time I get to study for the quiz I have the next day. This is mainly because when I get home from work I'm so tired the only thing I can even contemplate doing is changing into my pj's, possibly knitting a row or two, and going to bed.

Throw in a little volunteering and you see why my week has been one of the busiest I think I've ever had. The days are flying by in no time flat. Before I know it I'll be in Colorado! By the way, I only have to wait two more weeks until I get on that plane and go. Considering how quickly these past two weeks have gone, I'll be there before I know it.

Despite being insanely busy I have been knitting. I'm still working on the socks that won't be named, though I came across a bit of a snag after I turned the heel. Turns out what I thought was loose enough, really, really wasn't. It's the same problem I had the first time. Rather than take it out, I decided to try a little experiment. First I tried it on one needle size bigger, which only produced a sock so huge a troll could fit its foot into it. Then I tried it on the same size I'd used on the first one, but consciously thought with every stitch "LOOSEN UP!" That seemed to do the trick.
Here's a side by side image. Both are knit on size 1 needles. The one on the right is the tight one and the one on the left is just right. You can see how differently the stripe pattern turned out on both of them. I think on the first one I was so concerned with getting the stripe pattern to look good, that I wasn't really paying any attention to the fact that my foot would have to shrink a couple sizes to fit into it.

All's well now though and I think I may actually have this first (read: third attempt, but first of the pair) sock finished by the end of the weekend. Don't quote me on that though!

We took a trip out to my friend's parent's house a couple nights ago. Their dog just had puppies a month ago. Ummm, can you say cute? They were flopping all over the place. It was too adorable. There were nine puppies total. it seemed that everywhere you looked there were little white fluffballs. As much as I wanted to take one home, I knew that the apartment is not only too small for this type of dog (they get pretty huge judging by the size of their parents) but neither me nor my roommates have the time to take care of a puppy.

A cat, however.... well, you're just going to have to wait for that story...

Peace of mind

To say the very least, I am feeling and doing much better with the waitressing. I was experiencing a moment of feeling extremely overwhelmed, and then, when I had to be on my own without my trainer something just clicked into place. My first night alone they stationed me to a two table section which I was confident I could handle. And I did. You have no idea how much better that made me feel!

And I guess you could say I must be pretty good at it because last night (my second night alone) I made $50 in three hours. That translates to roughly $16/hr. Of course, it was a Saturday night, very busy and I had three tables in my section (which I felt I handled fairly well). To say my mind has been put at ease now that I've been "tested" so to speak, would be an understatement.

I owe it all to the knitting I've been doing! It's kept me sane about the whole thing. No matter how busy I get, I force myself to put things down for a few minutes and knit a couple of rounds. It's amazing what a couple of rounds can do!

And here's what I've been working on. I know everyone is making these socks. I almost don't even want to name the pattern because you all know what they are!

The yarn I'm using is KnitPicks Sock Landscapes. It's striping so nicely and really showing off the pattern. And I've made sure to try it on because I know the disaster that was my first attempt at Jaywalkers (there I said it) and it's still a little snug getting it over my heel, but not so much that it would be annoying to put them on.

It's kind of funny, I'm really liking how the inside is turning out almost more than I like the outside. I'm tempted to order some more of this yarn and just knit a plain sock inside out to show off how awesome the stripes look from the inside. Of course that would involve me spending money on something other than necessities which I am just not comfortable with doing yet.

Hopefully I'll have more knitting content for you soon, but I've been scheduled to work 5 nights this week, not to mention classes and homework (I already have three quizzes I have to study for and it's only the second week!) So posting is going to be somewhat sporatic for me for awhile. Don't worry though, I'll be around!

The liberating effects of ripping.

First off, thank you everyone for your wonderful comments. I appreciate them all so much. If any of you are wondering, the pattern is from the Rowan knitting magazine #30, modified slightly to fit me better.

School has started and so far classes are excellent. In fact, at this point, I'm more stressed about my new job than I am about school. I feel like I may have bit off a bit more than I can chew. I knew it wasn't going to be easy at first, but I'm a perfectionist and it's really hard for me to accept that I'm just not that good at waitressing yet. My mom brought it to my attention that I've only been doing it for three days and I shouldn't be so hard on myself, but unfortunately, it's in my nature!

I realized today just why I might be so stressed and it has nothing to do with work. It has to do with the fact that I haven't knit a single stitch since I finished that sweater which was Sunday. I don't know about you, but I'm used to knitting at least a little bit everyday and when I go three or four days without knitting anything, my perspective goes a bit haywire.

So I picked up my needles and some sock yarn and cast on for a new pair of Jaywalkers. Ah, it felt so good to knit again! I wasn't even discouraged when I had to rip the whole thing out because of a mistake made almost at the beginning. In fact, it was sort of liberating! I knit all my stress into the beginning of that sock and ripping it out freed me. I'm definitely feeling better. And having a couple days off of work doesn't hurt either.

So next time you get stressed, find out how long it's been since you knit, and if it's been awhile, just put down what you're doing and knit! You may just find it'll be the best thing you can do for yourself!

Last free weekend...

I had a great weekend. I know it's Sunday and it's technically still the weekend, but I have to work tonight so I don't really count today as a weekend day.

Anyway, Jill, Liz and I got together on Saturday for some fiber fun. We went to the LYS where Jill ended up practically buying the place out. Liz is on a yarn diet. I don't know if you've seen her stash, but for those of us that have, we can definitely see how a yarn diet would be beneficial to her if for no other reason than there is no more space! I am also on a yarn diet. Acutally, diet isn't the word, budget is the word. A strict budget which includes, but is not limited to, not spending money on yarn.

Just because I couldn't spend didn't mean that I didn't have a great time drooling over some great yarns! After the shop we went out for dinner for Jill's birthday. We all had a great time. Jill was particularly excited about her salad. Presentation at this place was great.

We must have looked crazy because we were all taking pictures of our "pretty" food. You'd think we've never gone out to a fancy restaurant in our entire lives! Well, at least we were enjoying ourselves.

Today is actually Jill's birthday so Happy Birthday Jill!

There wasn't just eating and yarn buying, on no, there was also knitting. Believe it or not I finished up the sweater I've been working on. I know it only took me a week and a half to knit, but I was working on 11's. Anything goes quick on 11's! I finished up the seaming when I was home then I knit the collar at Jill's. Once I got back up to the apartment today I was determined to sew in the ends. God I hate sewing in ends. I loathe it. I love to seam, but I hate to sew in ends. Well, I sucked it up because I want to wear this sweater tomorrow for my first day of classes.

So I finished it and tried it on for the first time and I gotta say, I love the way it turned out. It's very me. I love the classic, basic sort of sweaters. Anything too out there is just not going to work for me. But this one, it's pretty perfect. And being in Polar, it's incredibly warm. The original sweater was warm, but it was baggy and unflattering. I love this version ten times better!

So what do you think?

A meme I couldn't resist.

Before I go off on another hiatus, Katie tagged me with a meme that seemed pretty interesting. Basically it's to list off 5 weird habits you have. It might take me some time to come up with all five, but I'll do my best.

1. I'm not a huge jewelry wearer, but I have worn the same ring on my right hand since I was in the 8th grade. It may not look like it to you, but one side of the ring is different than the other. Back when I was in Jr. High, I used to believe that if I flipped the ring, put it on and it happened to be on the way I liked, then I would have a good day. I've long since stopped believing that this would in any way affect my day, but I still wear the ring with the side that I like facing the way I like it to.

I recently aquired a new ring and I've found the side I like on this one too. I just realized I have another weird thing about these rings. I've tried several times to find a ring to wear on my left hand (I'm more of a one ring per hand sort of person) and all the ones I bought for myself never really did it for me. They never lasted nearly as long as the first one from 8th grade. Well this newly aquired one looks like it's passed the test and I'll be wearing it for a long, long time. Why is this weird you ask? Both rings were given to me by my mom.

2. Ok, this one is really weird and I don't know when it started or why but my inner monologue speaks in a British accent sometimes. It seems to come more naturally than my American accent. I think by all accounts that's pretty weird.

3. I think I mentioned this one a long time ago, but if no one is home and I'm alone in the house and I'm in a particularly good mood (it's imperitive that all these conditiong are met) I will dance all over the house to whatever song pops into my head. And if it's not dancing, then it's singing and singing loudly. But again, only if no one is home. That's very important!

4. I've kept a journal since I was in the 8th grade. This in and of itself is not that weird, lots of people do that. What might be slightly weird about it is I've signed the end of each and every entry with my first name as if I were writing to a friend.

5. It's been hard to come up with this last weird habit, because let's face, how many of us honestly think our habits are weird? We don't know they're weird until someone tells us they're weird. My last weird habit is when I'm alone in the car I tend to talk to myself. I think I do this mainly to keep myself occupied so the drive doesn't seem so long!

That's it folks. I'm not going to tag anyone with this meme, however, if you found it as fun as I did then you're welcome to try it!

Short and sweet

School starts on Monday so I thought it wise to take little trip back to the parent's house seeing how it might be my last chance to get down there for awhile. I'll be going down tomorrow morning and staying till Sunday night. Should be fun because I'm probably meeting up with my knitting buddies!

I haven't posted much in the last couple of days because work has started up. There's a lot to know, but I'm sure it will eventually become second nature to me. I actually think it'll be pretty fun once I get the hang of it. On top of work, I've been volunteering at the zoo more too. It's been a blast!

Oh, before I let you go (I realize how lame and short this post is, forgive me) I just wanted to let those who asked know that the pattern I'm using to make the sweater is from Rowan Magazine Number 30. It's made out of Rowan Polar. Good stuff.

And another thing. Thanks to metamay and g for commenting. It's always nice to hear that non-knitters enjoy my blog just as much as knitters!

Damn that hat!!!

I did finish the socks just in time for my parent's visit. Mom loved them. And of course, as is the case with variegated yarns, the stripes did not match up, but not nearly as bad as some of the others I've done.

So mom was happy with her socks, but my brother and his hat... that's a whole other story. I was surprised when Mom brought it up with her. Turns out it didn't fit him. Apparently it was too short. So all that "winning" energy I knit into the hat meant squat and I'm thoroughly convince that the Redskins lost because I had to take the hat apart at the same time that they were playing. Ah well, I finished it pretty much at the end of the game and now my brother will have it for next season. Of course, hats are meant to be used and there is a whole lot of winter left so it doesn't necessarily have to sit in a box until next season!

So what am I working on now that the socks have been finished? Finally, I'm knitting a sweater. And I wouldn't even call it a new sweater. It's actually yarn from a sweater I made a long time ago that I just wasn't really all that happy with. The fit always seemed a bit off. So I took it out and now I'm re-knitting it to fit me better.

This is the back all finished. I worked on it all weekend. It's on 11's and boy does this just fly. I'm halfway through the front already. Another couple days worth of knitting and I'll be finished with all the pieces! You just gotta love those big needles.

One thing about this though, it's going to need some major blocking because the yarn still had a bit of crimp from when I took it apart. I'm sure it'll be fine, but I may need to do some real hard core blocking, I'm talking submerging the pieces and letting them dry. We'll see though. Sometimes I'm just not patient enough for that.

Warm wrists and cool socks.

Can you believe I've actually been busy for the past couple days? I could hardly believe it either. The sad part is, I haven't been busy with working (this is sad because I could really use the money) but I've been busy with volunteering. Yesterday my roommate and I spent the entire day at the zoo. We really had a great time actually, even with both of us knee-deep in donkey turd at one point. There's nothing like being knee-deep in crap that really puts your life into perspective. More to the point, there's nothing like a days hard labor, labor that you love, to really make you sure you're on the right path. I'll be volunteering again in the afternoon today.

Since everyone seemed really interested about Colorado in the comments I guess I'll clear a few things up. I'll be going out there in February during my school's mid-winter break. My friend lives in Boulder and I've been assured that there are plenty of great things to see and do in Boulder, even in the middle of February. Also, the Denver zoo is only 45 minutes away. I may have to drag my friend there... and possibly a yarn shop or two if we have the time! I'm really excited and I can hardly wait.

I'd also like to thank everyone for you wonderful comments on the hats I made. They were really fun to make. And definitely quick. You know what else are really fun and quick? A set of wristwarmers.

I know the yarn is dark and it's hard to make out the pattern, but it's from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I was thinking to myself the other night as my fingers were nearly freezing off, that a pair of wristwarmers would be just the thing I need to keep my hands warm while I'm working on the computer. Of course, now that I have them finished the weather has decided it wants to be in the 50's. Typical. (though on a side note, this is some of the weirdest weather. It's like spring and it's only January. I wonder how many more times in the next few years I'm going to be saying how weird the weather is being....)

Anyway, mom's socks are continuing right along. In fact, I'm hoping to finish them tonight or tomorrow morning because mom and dad are coming up to visit and it would be great if I could give mom her Christmas present... I'm such a slacker!

So what do you think? Do you think I can finish these socks by tomorrow morning? Keep in mind I have errands to run today as well as volunteering at the zoo.

Yeah, I think I can too.

The other day I was bored beyond belief and you know how when you're bored beyond belief you fell stir crazy and you just need to get out of the house/apartment? Well that was me the other day. It was such a dangerous thing too because I decided to go to the mall to walk around... The self-control I had was astonishing. I bought a belt, which I actually needed seeing how mine deserted me during the move and I spent a good hour and a half in Borders looking over their knitting books. I may be the last person in blogland to buy it, but I bought this.

I took it with me when I went to do laundry the other day (sad that at that point the only thing exciting in my day was doing the laundry, but I digress) and I really had to hold myself back from laughing out loud a couple of times!

It really is too funny because I can totally relate to some of the things she's talking about. Not the stash size, mind you. I could only aspire to have the sort of stash she does. Damn my poor college student status!

The Redskin's can't lose now.

Last Saturday night a couple of my knitting friends, Jill and Liz, drove all the way up here just to visit and knit awhile. The funny thing was, the only one knitting was me! They both decided to take advantage of the wireless internet we have at my apartment (no more dial-up for me!!!) and write some blog posts. Despite the highly computer based visit, we still had a blast! They both ended up staying until past midnight and they both had to work in the morning! Truly the best kind of friends! We had so much fun and I hope we can do it again soon.

You may not believe it, but I wasn't working on my mom's socks when they were over. Nope, I decided to put the socks on hold for a little while for a more urgent project. My brother's Redskin's hat. After all, the Redskins did win on Saturday, so to give my brother (and I suppose the team) some extra luck, I knit on his hat. In fact, I finished his hat.

It's actually a bit big on me, but that's a good thing because it's for my brother who definitely has a bigger head.

This hat only took me about 5 or 6 hours to make. I'm telling you, when you've been working on nothing but size 1's for the past few months, then all of a sudden go to 8's it's like knitting magic with how fast the projects get done.

Case in point, I liked my brother's hat so much that I decided to make on for myself, not to mention, there was tons of extra yarn left over. Of course, a few modifications were in order. I'm not what you might call a football fan, so the stripes were out. Plus, I was thinking I'd use this hat for the coming semester where I'd be spending a lot of time outdoors in the freezing cold, so making it longer and folding it up would give my ears some extra warmth. The end result, turned out beautifully, and not a bit itchy!

You just gotta love alpaca and silk. Pretty much the most non-itchy fibers known to man...that is of course, if you're not allergic to them, which, thankfully, I am not.

So my brother's hat is in the mail, it will probably get to him just in time for the next playoff game. The Redskins are totally going to win now. I knit winning energy right into that hat!

As for other goings on, there really haven't been any. You have no idea how boring it is when you have no work, no commitments, no school, nowhere you have to be. I'm barely keeping it together over here. I never thought I'd say this, but I just can't wait until I have a regular schedule at work! I know I'll be kicking myself for saying that once the semester starts, but as for now, it's totally true!

One last thing before I call this post finished. The tickets have been booked... I'm going to Colorado!!!

For Sh*ts and Giggles

Because I've been so lazy I figure the least I can do is post more often. Even if it is just a meme. This one I found over at the Stoned Knitter. Go check her out, she just got a very cute kitten! I'm such a sucker for the animals. Anyway, let the memeing begin...

Have you ever...?

Smoked a cigar: Can't say that I have.
Crashed a friend's car: That's a no.
Stolen a car: No... are you seeing a trend here?
Been in love: Absolutely! It's wonderful.
Been dumped: Ummm, I'm not sure. I suppose if you count being dumped by a kid in 8th grade after we'd dated for a week.
Dumped someone: Unfortunately yes.
Taken shots of alcohol: This is honestly a question? Ok, yes, I have I was a college student after all.
Been fired: Nope, I'm a good girl.
Been in a fist fight: No, if I was, I know I'd lose
Snuck out of your house: Never needed to. My parents were awesome and really weren't that strict
Been arrested: Can't say that I have
Made out with a stranger: I'm not proud of this, but yes.
Gone on a blind date: Yes, twice. One was good and one was very, very bad.
Lied to a friend: Nope
Seen someone die: Thankfully no.
Thrown up in a bar: No, I've only thrown up once from drinking... I totally learned my lesson that night!
Miss someone right now: Yes
Laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by: Oh yes, as often as I can.
Made a snow angel: Ha! Absolutely, in fact, my friend in college and I would make a regular routine of making snow angels on our way home from going out.
Cheated while playing a game: Not that I can remember, but I may have when I was a kid.
Been lonely: Haven't we all at some point?
Fallen asleep at work/school: Only one time in one class, but I have an excuse. The professor was the most boring teacher I've ever had!
Used a fake id: I've never needed to.
Felt an earthquake: Yes, it shook me right out of bed. I totally freaked out, I didn't know what was happening having just woken up, I was totally disoriented. I laugh at myself now thinking back on my reaction. It was really only a little earthquake, nothing serious at all, but I ran out of bed and to the door frame because that's what I remembered you're supposed to do!
Touched a snake: Many times.
Run a red light: Probably, but I was just trying to make it through the yellow light!
Been in a car accident: No
Hated the way you look: Um, yeah, pretty much every day of junior high and most of high school
Been lost: Spiritually or physically because I'd probably answer yes to both.
Been to the opposite side of the country: No, working on that.
Felt like dying: Yes but I'm so happy I didn't
Cried yourself to sleep: Yes
Played cops and robbers: Yep
Karaoke: I'm too chicken for Karaoke
Done something you told yourself you wouldn't: Oh man, yes.
Laughed till some kind of beverage came out of your nose: Oh yeah. Kind of hurts when that happens!
Caught a snowflake on your tongue: Absolutely, it's tons of fun
Kissed in the rain: *sigh* Yes
Sang in the shower: Oh yeah, especially when I know no one's home. And then it's not limited to just the shower!
Made love in a park: It's on my to-do list.
Had a dream that you married someone: Yes
Glued your hand to something: No!
Got your tongue stuck to a flag pole: Again, no
Worn the opposite sex's clothes: yes, but it was for a play... can you believe they wanted me to play a boy??
Been a cheerleader: Nope
Sat on a roof top: Yes, I used to do that a lot during the summer when the sun was going down...
Talked on the phone all night: I certainly have.
Ever too scared to watch scary movies alone: Oh yes, in fact, I never watch scary movies, ever.
Played chicken fight: Ummm, I don't think so.
Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on: No
Been told you're hot by a complete stranger: Actually yes.
Broken a bone: Does a toe count?
Dipped snuff: Yuck, no
Lived overseas: No, but I'd love to someday.
Ever passed out/fainted: No, but I've come very close. Dayquil is not my friend!

Hope you've enjoyed it! More to come in the near future

The paradox of having nothing to do.

Yes, I realize it's been a week, if not more, since I last posted. And it's not that I've been incredibly busy... To be perfectly honest, it's that I've been incredibly lazy. After all, I've only "worked" one day at the new job and am not scheduled again until the end of next week. I say "worked" because it was only orientation with a lot videos to watch, papers to fill out and computer learning stuff. Also, school doesn't start again until the 23rd so I have no studying to do. There's only so much daytime TV I can watch (in fact, I don't watch it, I'd rather the apartment be silent than watch soaps)

It's one of those crazy paradoxes where the less you have to do, the less you want to do. But the busier you are, the more you get done. So I've had very little to do and therefore have wanted to do very little. I spend my days trying to decide what to do, sometimes what to cook for myself. Seriously an entire day is planned around what I'm going to cook and whether I need to go to the grocery store for anything. Though it's great to cook for myself, it's sad that that constitutes my entire day. It better be one fantastic meal!

So you wonder why I'm not jumping for joy because of all the free time I have to knit right? Well let me tell you. I'm an thoroughly uninspired by what I'm working on. Mom's socks... completely unispiring. After all, I've knit a much cooler version of socks, only to rip them out. These are just plain, slightly boring and not nearly doing a good enough job keeping me interested.

I just want to knock them out so I can move on to something different. Preferably non-sock. Though I have a ton of sock yarn left, I think I need a bit of a break from the socks.

Lucky for me, my brother requested something while we were home for Christmas. Take a look at the yarn, it just came in.

Some of you might think "well, those are Harry Potter colors so you must be making one of those new HP scarves." Oh, dear reader, I wish that were true.

Instead they are the colors of my brother's favorite football team, the Washington Redskins, and he'd like me to make him a hat. I must be bored with socks, because I'm actually looking forward to knitting this hat!

Hopefully after the hat, I can move on to knitting a sweater. It has been far too long since I've knit myself a sweater! It is winter after all, I should be knitting a sweater.

Anyway, when I ordered this yarn from Knitpicks, I also ordered a bunch of their color cards so that I know what these colors actually look like in person. The computer screen is such an unrelyable gauge of color.

Look at this one for variegated sock yarn. Isn't that awesome how they knit up a swatch for you just so you can see how the colors look together. I may not be buying yarn from any other supplier! Ok, who am I fooling? There are so many good yarns out there, I can't just buy from one. Though I can when my yarn budget is next to nothing for the next year and a half. Ah, the joys of being a broke college student!

So I have some really exciting news. At least, it's exciting to me. But nothing's final yet so I really don't want to jinx it. Ah, what the hell. A plan is in the works right now for me to fly out to Colorado in February to visit a friend of mine! How cool is that? I've never been that far west. Though I've been all the way around to the other side when I went to China, I still haven't even seen the western part of the country I live in. Well, this will be my chance to go farther west than the Mississippi. Woohoo!

Mom's socks Update and various other things...

Well, I had to totally rip out mom's socks. If my intention was to totally strangle the life out of mom's feet and ankles, then I definitely should have left it and went on to knit the other one, but since I value my mom's good circulation, I decided it'd be best to just rip it out and start again. The only thing is, that wonderful elastic that's in this sock yarn is throwing off my gauge. Not only that, but the Jaywalker pattern is not very stretchy to begin with. So, after talking it over with mom we've decided to go with a plain old, plain old pattern and perhaps with some different yarn I'll give Jaywalker another try. Ah well...

In other news, I recieved the coolest gift from Amy. Turns out I won one of her twelve days of Christmas contests and just look at what she sent:

Not only did she send hot chocolate, but it's white hot chocolate, I can't wait to try it. There are also little candy bags, YARN (which you really can't go wrong with, though now I have to think of what to make with it!) and her very own Limited Edition stitch markers. Look at how cute these things are:

Seriously, how can you deny that these aren't the cutest things you've ever seen? I tell you, the girl is too creative for her own good! Thanks so much Amy! I absolutely love it all!

My new year's was certainly the most uneventful new year's known to man. New Year's eve was spent in a car, driving back up to NY. By the time we got home I was dead tired. I didn't even stay up to watch the ball drop. Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to 2006, I just wasn't willing to be awake for the first few hours of it.

Today I moved the rest of my stuff up to the new apartment. I was convinced that I only had a little bit more left to bring up. Turns out I was wrong. When did I accumulate so much crap? Ok, so not all of it's crap, but seriously, I have a lot of stuff. More stuff than I probably should have. And then I think to myself, I just threw out and donated several boxes worth of stuff... How is it possible that I still have so much? Crazyness...

I've been unpacking all day long. It always takes me a long time to unpack because I'm a total nerd. Not only a nerd, but an anal nerd. I'll unpack things and figure out where they will go, carefully deciding what the optimum spot would be based on usage. Once it's put in it's spot that will bascially be it's spot forever (or at least until I get tired of it). Serious nerd over here! But anyway, my room now looks like someone actually lives here. With all of my decorations out and posters up, it feels more like my room, comfortable and cozy, just the way I like it.

I did promise pictures of the drapes, well here you go: I think they look so fantastic. They're another thing that makes my room feel nice and cozy. I just gotta love my mom for that!

My room looks crowded from this picture, but actually it's just the angle. There's quite a bit of room around my bed and between my bed and dresser. Speaking of my bed, I'm so looking forward to sleeping in it. Couches have been my horizontal surface to sleep on for the past week and half. Sure, couches are fine sometimes, but I definitely missed my bed and the million and one blankets on it! I'm getting sleepy just thinking about it...