Back to School

Spring break! The usual happened.

1) Mom fed me too much
2) I got nothing done
3) I didn't find a spring break buddy

Oh well!

I did do one useful thing. I unraveled seven project last Friday. I went through my progress bucket and frogged everything I was never going to touch again. That included nearly everything except two scarves and a pair of socks. One of the scarves were saved only because I put too many beads on it. You're safe for now, scarf!

I want to tear apart all the stuff I haven't finished and start all over again! Some projects stayed in the bucket for so long that I completely forgot about them, and when I saw them again, all I could think of was.. "damn!"

That said, I had a great bundle of fun unraveling, especially now that I have a ball winder.

I did finish some stuff! I went through a doily phase a month ago and made four miniature doilies. They're so cute. Joey's reaction upon seeing them was: "they're multiplying!" I believe I'm sucking the masculinity out of the apartment, but he does have the garage for all his tools. I think his tool stash is starting to catch up to my yarn stash. Just how many drills does a guy need?!

I need at least two, because then I can have a set of single-pointed needles.

Here's the stuff I finished! Warning, there's lots of pictures. Here they are, never in any particular order:









The two doilies with the teacups actually brings me to another issue. That table looks like crap. Joey and I bought it for ten dollars at the Goodwill. It's painted in two colors. The top of the table is what I assume the natural wood color, and the legs are a hideous pastel yellow. It's a bit ... meh, but I still love the table. It's the most sturdy thing ever, I suspect there's lead in it, but I could be wrong. I bought a lot of stuff at Home Depot the other day to redo the table. I bought a sander, varnish thinner, and new taints! I hope it all goes well. It'll be my post Scarf Exchange project.

I want to finish all my obligatory projects so I can start stuff for myself again! I just wound up some silvery yarn in order to make this! I'm so excited. I think I can finish it just in time for the New Year's party!

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As far as schooling goes, I'll say.. meh!

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Crossfit Richardson is starting something fun on April 1st. We're doing a Fifty Day Challenge to get ready for the summer. There's not much detail yet, but one of the things we will do to accumulate twenty five miles of running during the whole thing. This is definitely relevant to my interests because I've been having zombie nightmares lately again. I can't run very fast, but if I can outlast the slow ones, or at least run faster than the slowest survivor, I think I'll be OK.

Ah! It's good to have goals!

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And finally! I loved my wedding cake so much that I want to put it up again! For some reason, it's been jumping out at me for the past couple days when I'm on my Facebook account. I must be going through another pink phase.



And and and! Lauren and Brad are getting married... yea!
And and and... we're going to Austin in a couple weeks!
And and and! Mel's going to Louisiana in the summer! Yea for excuses to go to LA! Let's eat at least 10 pounds of crawfish!

Bittersweet are the finished projects!

I finished two projects the past week.




I'm not quite sure what to feel. During the last one percent of the stitches, I felt accomplished. However, once the last loose end was woven, the happiness I felt disappeared. I was left with a deranged form of postpartum depression.

This was ... it. Weeks of hard work and anticipation dissipated right before my eyes. I no longer had something to look forward to each day. There would be no more updates, no more showings of each row to Joey. It is ... complete.

Joey doesn't really understand, and to be honest, I don't understand either. People speak of gratification upon completion, but all I saw was a piece that didn't live up to expectations. Of course this sounds so melodramatic, but every time I finish a big project, I go through a bit of a difficult stage until I find a new purpose.

And I have! I found out the perfect way to deal with this situation was to start new things, new projects. I have a filet centerpiece on the hooks for Grandma Berglund and a butterfly cross stitch kit ready to go for Aunt Maxine. On top of that, I have plenty of other kits and patterns I need to work on once I finish up Ladydurer's butterfly.

I'm prepared.

Happiness is a pair of socks

I finished my pair of socks last night! I can't seem to find my camera though, so I'll have to update the picture later.

I was dubious when I first started knitting socks. I didn't see the point or the necessity for handmade socks even as a hobby. The yarns I first looked at seemed to be too warm for Texas. But I have a competitive nature, if someone out there is making something, I have to be able to make it too.

My first dozen attempts were horrendous. I tried nearly every method at least five times and unraveled each in frustration. However, I didn't give up and persevered. I managed one sock for Joey with only a guideline for toe-up sock and created my own pattern. Soon after that I made the sock a deformed twin. Joey's first pair of socks did not match and did not fit very comfortably. The yarn, while soft to the touch, did not breath very well and I never even wove in the ends. Nonetheless, I was proud and ready for a real pair.

I went to Woolie Ewe and looked around for affordable sock yarn. Most of the stuff they had were merino wool with a mix of nylon. The yarns were pretty but did not feel too comfortable to the touch. I certainly didn't want to spend so much money that's going to feel itchy afterward.

I soon found a little section with Panda products. I've seen the Panda Cotton before but never found it appealing. Experience from crocheting doilies tell me that cotton yarn was not a prime candidate for clothing. However, underneath the Panda Cotton was a new product I never saw before. Panda Soy was its name and softness was definitely its feel. It is a bamboo, soy, and nylon blend. I bought two skeins of Tibetan Red and started right away.

I love it! Even though it's not plied very tightly, the sheen and softness of the material won me over. Now that I have a pair of those socks on, they feel extra nice. They breath really well. Each skein comes in about 185 yards, and I needed
only one and a half to make my socks, which meant I only needed to buy one more to make another pair. I bought a yellow skein the other day in order to make myself a pair of red and yellow argyle socks.

In other news, Ladydurer has her own blog now!

Ramblings from a Deranged Mind

Some updates

I crafted quite vigorously for the past week and am almost finished with one project!



This is for my friend Ladydurer. It's coming along very nicely, much faster than I expected. Hopefully I will get it done by the end of this year and frame it for her.



This is the second of the red sock I'm making. With the second one, I have a lot mistakes due to practice and memorization of the pattern.



Finally this is for the baby of mutual friends. It's made with Bernat baby cotton and very nice to knit with. I think because of the needle size (8), the tension is quite lose and almost stretchy, something not too common with cotton thread. But for now it's bouncy and soft.

A Belated Update

Let me get the pictures out of the way first!

Socks made with the most wonderful yarn I found. It's Panda Soy and it loves me!


Shawl for Jeff's mom. I'm not as disheartened as before, it's actually getting substantially larger!


And finally, my precious baby that I would easily trade Joey for on a desperate day.


The three I have been working on diligently without too many breaks in between. I am determined to finish something by the end of the year.

Onto more serious things!

I passed my language proficiency recently. I figured I would, but I didn't know how those mistakes were going to count against me. However, the test only grades according to "pass" or "fail", and I definitely did not do bad enough to fail.

My class of zealous interest right now is the Creative Nonfiction class. There are writing exercises every week, and our topics are usually self-centered due to the nature of the course. It's like an extensive class in academic blogging but without spams in my comment section. The final at the end of the semester is quite unorthodox. Instead of a large paper, we are to send one of our papers in for publication and show the evidence to the professor. This is an exercise to "get us used to rejection." I suspect there will be lots of sniveling at home after I receive my letter.

This class has inspired me to blog more, though I have yet to act on it. Perhaps I'll start posting short essays in order to strengthen my writing for class. Perhaps.

He's here!

First of all, my biggest excitement from last week was when Camus arrived.




For a long time, I wrestled with the idea of getting anime figurines. I was a fangirl but have never crossed the line of actually collecting merchandise. But then I thought, who the hell cares! So on July 21st, I made the purchase on Ebay from a store in Hong Kong and was quite pleased.

He's Aquarius Camus from an old series called Saint Seiya and we plan to run away together.

Onto other stuff now! I took my language proficiency last Wednesday, and I have to admit, I haven't used my brain that much all summer. I had to translate two excerpts from Chinese to English. It was fairly easy since the language was modern and in simplified Chinese. Thank goodness I didn't have to translate hexagrams!

The first piece was an excerpt from a short story written about an event in 1917. Unfortunately, I was not aware of the naming conventions of years, and my best guess for the year was 1955.... doh! I was wondering why there were still rickshaws after the Revolution. The way they said the year was.. "in the sixth year of Ming Guo." Apparently Ming Guo (the start of new... or rather, Nationalist China) starts dating their years from 1900. So in order to get the equivlance in Gregorian calender, you have to add 11 to the number and then to 1900. I know now!

The other piece was a scholarly essay on Lu Xun's "Biography of Q." There was one word in there that could mean two things... "kill" or "cop a feel". Since the essay was so somber throughout, I went with the former since I never read the original. It turned out that the "Biography" was a satirical piece, thus it was the latter meaning... Doh! I know now!

Other than that, I think I did fine. I was able to translate everything and convey all the messages, which was the main goal of the practice. They can't be expecting something perfect because I only had two hours for each.

I am very excited about this upcoming semester. I'm going to be a Teaching Assistant with the department, and that will not only speed up my progress, but also give me invaluable experience in my field. I can't wait!

I do actually have lots of updates this time! Let me start by showing off the FINISHED stuff.





Two dishcloths and a baby blanket! I found out that one of my mom's friends in Burleson is having a baby in October, so I wrapped up this one for her. But I haven't forgotten Alyssa! I already started another one for her, and it'll definitely be done before the end of the year.

The dishcloths, well, Joann's and Michael's were having a sale on their Sugar 'n Cream stock, so that's all I have to say.

Here's some updates on the unfinished stuff:





I have quite a bit to say about the last one. It's a flutter scarf! Ever since I got the goldish yarn from the scarf exchange, I've been dreaming of a ruffle scarf, and now it has finally come true!

On Saturday afternoon at 4:30 PM, 20 minutes before we left for a movie date, I bought the pattern. It was a glorious moment and I casted on the same night. I will now proceed to make seven... one for each day of the week!

Yarn Galore!

Before I start with anything else, let me say...

Good news everyone! Quackers is almost fully grown.



Tonight will be the "release" night when Joey and I send him off at the apartment fountain where the bunnies and the dogs will... ignore him and what not.

This Wednesday will be my language proficiency test for my Master's. It will consist of four hours of translating in a small room with just me and my dictionary. I really hope they didn't choose something that's in archaic Chinese. I told them I could handle either simplified or traditional Chinese, but if it's written in ancient dialect, I'm screwed! But other test takers have said that the excerpts were always relevant to their field, and I have made it clear that my field was post-Qing dynasty. So hopefully the chosen material will be... understandable!

I came to an uncomfortable yet inevitable conclusion yesterday... I have too much yarn.

It's finally gotten to a point where the amount of yarn I have is overwhelming me. I am also no longer excited every time I look at my stash because ... it's just so damn huge! There's only two more things I want come September, but until then, I'll start destashing by working on my queue.

So here are some updates!



Well, I guess it's just one thing. It's my first attempt at socks! I tried it leg first before, but after looking at Mel's project, I was intrigued by the toe up method. I have to admit, it's a million times easier! I already started on the second sock, albeit with a different pattern, but Joey doesn't mind if his socks don't match.

Here are the new yarns I got over the weekend!



I bought this for my friend's daughter's scarf. She bought the same thing but in alternating colors for the other daughter. I'm so happy that the brand is carrying cotton yarn now! They are a lot smoother and softer than the Sugar 'n Cream brand, so it'll be more suitable for a light garment such as a scarf. The beads are so cute also!



The goldish yarn is actually from the scarf exchange. It's so soft! I've been really interested in a ruffle scarf lately, and the image of a gold ruffle scarf look the best in my head!



This! I have no idea what to do with this yet, but it was so pretty that I had to get it. At Woolie Ewe, there's a small section by the knitting tables with these caked up lace weight yarn, and it looks so delicious there. It's about 630 yards, so I think I can make a substantial shawl from it as long as it's not overly huge.

Finally!

I joined the Ravelympics yesterday with Team Woolie Ewe. This sounds so fun, I'll finally feel obligated to finish something in a set amount of time. Cast on is August 8th during the opening ceremony and I have to finish before the closing ceremony.

The project I chose is a pretty shawl intended for Jeff's mom. She baked our groom's cake for our wedding and I feel that I never thanked her properly. So now I have my chance!

The yarn I'm planning to use is this:



Maybe I'll wind it up tonight...

Crime shows galore!

So I watched Numb3rs aaaaaaaaaall weekend. It's a crime busting show, and our interesting main character this time is a mathematician. Charles Epps uses math to solve crime for his FBI brother.

It's a pretty fun show. I was a bit skeptical, and my concerns were echoed in the show through other characters who were not mathematicians. For instance, the main problem that comes up for Charlie is that he's too logical, and that he's not taking humanism into consideration.

Watching Charlie Epps reminds me of Joey and some members of his family ... in a good way, because I'm obviously still watching the show!

I hope syndicated television will never run out of crime shows... I'd actually have to resort to reading and the outside to pass time.

Other than that, I don't really remember doing anything else this weekend. I cooked quite a bit and knitted a lot, but didn't do anything significant, so here are the updates!







All of them are going great. I'm especially excited about the knitted doily! It's my first attempt at it and it's just so fun!

And finally, our newest addition to the family...



His name is Quackers. I brought him home from Hobby Lobby on Friday, and he's been growing since. He's very cute and Joey and I love him very much. Maomao... not so much, but we love her too.

Seven more days and we'll be able to release him to the wild.

Ack! I'm doing it again!

Once again I'm going through the phase of starting way too many projects! I got really side tracked and started things whenever something catches my fancy.

Before I go too far... here's some of the finished stuff!



I made this baby blanket for one of Joey's friends. It went through many changes before I finally settled on the crochet pattern. It started out with granny squares, then knitted diamonds, then round loom knit. All those were pretty but extremely boring. Not that this design was any more fun, but it was fast and I liked the colors!



I just finished this one today! It's a secret holiday present for the end of the year... yeah!



This is one of the two "Small Red Doilies" from freepatterns.com. It's quite pretty when it's blocked. The doilies called for 450 yards of yarn, so 225 for each. It doesn't really seem to be that much, but it's hard to tell when it's all in loops!

The bottom doily does have an unfinished sibling, which is here...



This is a baby blanket for a family friend. I'll knit the body, and then crochet a border. It'll be very pretty. The lady is actually only about two months into her pregnancy, but it's never too early to start!



Socks! I finally managed to pawn off fingerless gloves onto someone else to make, and then I get bammed with socks. It's not as bad as I thought. I'm not using any patterns in particular, but just trying to make a very simple sock. At first I just knitted the leg, but I'm putting a three by three rib in it. That turned out to be tedious, so it's slowly expanding to a 9x9 rib. Teehee! They're for Joey if they fit him, otherwise... we'll have an reenactment of Cinderella's seesters at home.




I do have two other works in progress! One of them is a Zelda themed towel and a shawl for my grandmother. However, neither are in any photoable stage, so I haven't taken pictures. Though the socks aren't that ready either, but I was so proud of my round knits!