But, I’ve got some big news! I am going back to school full-time in September. I will be doing a bachelor’s degree in Communications at Simon Fraser University. I am very excited because the degree sounds perfect for my career goals. I will miss working on awesome events full time, but I think this is the right step for me. I registered for classes this morning!

Other than that, I’ve just got some summer plans and camping trips in the works. I don’t know if I’ll get to do any travelling (I had wanted to drive around BC and Alberta) due to saving money for university.

I’ve been knitting:

The pattern is Gaenor and the yarn is Unwind Yarns: Throwing Sheep into Rainbows which I bought at Gibsons last summer. This photo was taken at wenchlette’s Wedding Send-off party and I was just beginning the decrease rows. Therefore: it is halfway done!

I have some other secret things on the needles and I’ve been test knitting for my friend Carmen, so personal knitting is on the back burner. Speaking of Carmen, I went to go visit her studio (she is MelonHead KnitWear) a couple weeks ago and brought cookies:

Yarn Cookies!!

I’ve got several books I haven’t reviewed—including Up Up Up by Julie Booker—so stay tuned for those. I’m already on book 3 in A Song of Ice & Fire series (Game of Thrones) and recently received an ARC for Marina Endicott’s new book, The Little Shadows.

Also speaking about books, I’ve been using GoodReads more and LibraryThing less. I am finding more people on GoodReads that I know and hence gravitating towards it so that I can see what they’re reading. Find me on GoodReads if you’d like.

Anyway, I must be off to bed. My car is in the shop (because it failed AirCare) and I need to make sure I’m up if the mechanic calls. P.S. Sorry for the downtime on the website. My blog was migrated to a new server so I could upgrade to WP 3.2.

P.P.S. Circle me if you’re on Google+, or let me know if you want an invite.

Since she knew I was a knitter, she gave me the pattern she wrote when I bought 2 skeins of the yarn. However, because it was just her personal notes and not a published pattern, I had some issues and I ended up with waaaay too many stitches. Oops!

Erm, it’s meant to be a slouchy hat, right? Just be distracted by the beautiful colours. Ignore the 200% increase in stitches.

So I frogged and reknit. It’s quite a simple pattern and the yarn is lovely, so I’m not too fussed. I’m now at the crown decreases, and I only wish that I’d had the right size of needles in circulars because I don’t want to have to seam.

I still haven’t finished Gnome. Here is how much I’ve knit of Gaenor:

… yea, not much.

However, I am making good progress on my fingerless gloves:

I should be further along but I decided to frog the first one at about the same point as this picture. With the previous one, I didn’t think the wrist part was long enough. The pattern called for 16 rows before the thumb gusset. I wasn’t happy with it, so I ripped back and what you see here is 30 rows before the thumb gusset.

The pattern is Basic Fingerless Gloves by Sue Brady [rav link] but I just did basic stockinette instead of the a k4, p2 pattern (due to the yarn being already patterned enough).

I also finished a Christmas present for my friend Ben:

The pattern is Instant Gratification Scarf by Cyn [rav link] which uses a twisted drop stitch. I used two skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Bulky Natural (50% merino, 50% alpaca) because Ben was petting and admiring the softness of my Malabrigo Rasta scarf.

I was loving the colours in the skein… look at this gorgeousness! And I was doing fine deciphering the lacy shawl bits.

Then recently I looked at it and wasn’t crazy about how the yarn was working up. Besides being a variegated yarn, there were two things that were bothering me.

(1) This odd pooling section. I liked the green and yellow pooling, but the dark burgundy with the hot pink looked too similar. (2) This shawl is composed in 6 sections and between section 2 and 3 there is this odd line created by knitting short rows. If the yarn wasn’t so variegated I don’t think it would be as noticeable.

So, now the shawl is hibernating. Also, I think the Socks that Rock would be so gorgeous as one of Gladys’ pooling stoles!

I decided to cast on for Gaenor (Argante’s sister) with my skein of Unwind Yarns that I got at Gibson’s this summer. I also have been meaning to make fingerless gloves, and with the window draft at the office, I need to make them fast! I’m using a skein of Mirasol Hacho and just using a basic fingerless glove pattern (since the yarn is so busy). [Ravelry project page]

Tonight I spent some time measuring, cutting, ironing, pinning, and sewing. Take a look at the finished product!

The pillow cases are an “envelope” style so no zippers (which I totally fail at)! The pattern/instructions are from Sew Subversive: Down & Dirty DIY for the Fabulous Fashionista by The Stitch Lounge (Melissa Rannels, Melissa Alvarado, and Hope Meng).

I’ve been in an online sewing class and I picked up some of the recommended tools. My favourite so far is the corner-pokey tool to make sharp, pointy corners.

This weekend I glumly showed my tangled yarn ball to CW (since I’d explained the situation to him). And guess what! He offered to untangle it! Yaay! It’s all happily balled up now and ready to ponder what pattern it should be knit into. I’m definitely thinking shawl… maybe Simple Things or Bakersfield. Wishful thinking is the Traveling Woman Shawl. I think it’s beyond my skill level at this point.

Also, I plunged back into my shawl at Knitting Night yesterday. I’d guestimate I’m about one third done the pattern (Argante).

I think I’ve gotten over the apparent ‘loss’ of my crafty mojo. In fact, it may never have been lost in the first place… I think I just felt discouraged by the yarn tangle and the fabric miscalculation. Anyway, I’ve even started to look at sewing projects and tutorials online as well as sewing books from the library… so I’m feeling very inspired.

That’s my poor Unwind Yarns skein of lovelyness. *sigh* I may have to bring it to knitting night on Monday to get some assistance. I really need to figure out how to use my swift properly. It just keeps flying off the ends and getting tangled.

So instead, I decided to sew my new pillow cases… and I realized I hadn’t pre-washed my fabric. So first of all I had to do a load of laundry to pre-shrink my fabric. Look at this lovely fabric I bought:

Unfortunately, as I was trying to figure the second step (and thinking that the fabric looked too square and not rectangular)… I realized that I miscalculated my yardage and didn’t buy enough at Dressew. *sigh*

Now my apartment is a disaster, covered in fabric scraps, yarn bits, and chunks of chewed paper (from the bunny). I quit the living room and went to the kitchen to make pasta salad. Fortunately that turned out well and it was quite tasty.

I was a little worried that it was too busy. Because at the beginning (tip) when I cast on, the colours pooled together a little more. But as the rows are getting longer, the colours are getting more sporadic. When I asked CW what he thought, he said it looked like yarn barf. I said, “But they’re pretty colours right?” and he agreed that they were pretty. Then I explained how blocking would enhance the lace pattern more, which reassured me too.

Fortunately he didn’t try to kneed or lick or roll in it… but he certainly likes it more than anything acrylic! The pattern (for the knitters out there) is the Herringbone Cowl from Hungry Knitter. [Click for my project page on Ravelry].

Hope everyone is having a nice Whiskers on Wednesday. Henry is napping obviously!

OMG it feels like a dream! And keeping even tension, it looks like a dream! Although it feels lightly under-spun like it has no twist, so it often ends up splitty… but still OMG purrrr. Speaking of purring, Henry helped me photograph the progress on my cowl:

The pattern is the Quickie Cowl and the yarn is Cascade Luna. The red of the Luna is quite true in this picture, at least on my monitor. Okay so this isn’t the most up-to-date photo, but Henry and I were too tired to take another. Basically I just kept knitting until my yarn nearly ran out, and all that’s left is to mattress stitch up the sides. We’re planning a knitting photoshoot this weekend… so hopefully I’ll have some lovely photographs.

Usually I am such a process knitter and don’t get much knitting actually done.