Amanda, I miss you.

Rampin'

This weekend didn't yield a lot of knitting, but I am about to start the toes on the second sock of two different pairs (if you follow). Instead of knitting, I was playing in the mountains, the flora is quite a bit behind up there and it is so much fun to see all of the spring flowers. There was loads of trilliums, violets, trout lilies, and others that I can't recall or didn't (couldn't) identify. I was helping to collect data on ramps (or wild leeks for us northerners). There are many people that collect leeks for personal use or festivals; the project monitors the ramp densities and it looks at the effects of harvesting along with other implications. For me it was a great chance to take a break from school and get out into the mountains. We also collected a few ramps and blue is getting set to make a ramp and potato soup. I'm looking forward to it. I will post some pictures when blue returns from the mountains with the camera.
Last friday I purchased the green gable pattern as well as the appropriate needles and yarn to go along with it. I can't wait for my yarn delivery so I can get started. We (the girls of for the love o' knit) along with madisonienne (hopefully) are going to have our own mini knit-along. Should be fun.
(This pic is a drawing I found online of a ramp)

knitting a PhD

I was thinking about school and how it distracts me from my knitting. For the last two weeks I have hardly worked on anything. My wobbly tote is still sitting there, looking at me every time I walk by. My jaywalkers... almost done, but I just haven't had time to finish them and then there are the others, they are behind the backburner. But all of this distraction, keeping me away from my knitting, it got me thinking- would I consider getting a PhD if there was a program for knitting? Honestly, if I could afford it (the yarn, books, etc...), I think I might actually do it. I guess that would put this master's in forest ecology a little out of place. Maybe I could just knit myself a PhD, how do you think that would go over? I have recently discovered (thanks to stitchkommander) that there is an academic knitting blog ring. I am contemplating joining, but they want you to talk about the world of academia that you are involved in, I guess complaining is talking (writing whatever) isn't it. Alright, I don't always complain about it, especially when I get to go and play in the woods. However, my classes have been bringing me down, not only do they distract me from my master's project (you know the whole reason I am here), but they have been keeping me away from my knitting for far too long. I think I might take Friday afternoon off (after I take my test and hand in my paper) to knit, hang out with skatergirl and stitchkommander (?) and maybe have a cocktail (gin&tonic and bloody mary sound equally good).

on the outs

Knitting and I were on the outs for a few days, not because we weren't getting along or anything. I was just really busy with school stuff and I stayed home to work. Usually when I stay home to work my knitting just stares at me until I sit down and knit a few rows or inches, but this time we had a little heart to heart and I let my knitting know that I had other really important things to do. But after a week long dull headache I decided to take a night off from the studying and reading and thinking. Instead, I sat down in my favorite spot and watched my Thursday night shows. I worked on the wobbly circles tote and my jaywalkers when I got sick of reading the chart. They are both coming along slowly due to the fact that I only worked on them twice last week. It might be a while until they are finished due to the end of the semester crunch I am experiencing. Thankfully this is my last semester of classes and I have next weekend to look forward to, I am supposed to go up to the mountains and help blue with some plant surveys!

knit 1, felt 2

This is my latest ( not accomplishment, project). I am using slightly different colors and it is only a few inches of confusing-looking-intarsia. So far no big hang-ups, but I did have to start over once due to doubling back on half of it. I think next time I try to watch a movie with subtitles I will knit something more simple, or at least something I am more familiar with (or maybe I just won't stop in the middle of a row ever again). When it is complete I will try and find an ikea-esque chair to set it on for the photo shoot, then we can do a comparison.

Over the weekend a lot of cleaning, a little schooling, a little knitting, and some felting took place. The patons wool I have been using lately has a worse smell than cascade 220, but wet wool never really smells that good. And the price difference ($2-4) is worth dealing with the temporary bad smell. It felts up pretty well and I am happy with the results.

Last night stitchkommander delivered gin and tonics right to my door. We ended up knitting, drinking g&t's and watching Breakfast at Tiffany's (due to the fact that Grey's Anatomy does not come in at my house and inspired by the 60's knitting mags). It is just one more reason that she is not allowed to move to Louisville!

Blue is out of town for most of the week, as is stitchkommander. Instead of getting lonely, I am going to get some work done. Hopefully it will be productive week (unfortunately I am not referencing knitting...).

Is walking and knitting really possible?

I received a walking and knitting sachel for xmas, thanks to (sweatergirl and her mom). I have used it a few times to knit in public (and on the couch too) and it works really well to contain the yarn and keep things untangled. But tonight is the relay for relay for life and I am wondering, is it really possible to walk and knit at the same time? I am thinking for a really simple pattern that it is possible, but not for anything that I am working on right now. I think the stitches on socks are just too small to concentrate on both the knitting and the walking. So I will have to leave my knitting aside tonight and just do some walking. Plus blue said that he will not walk with me if I am knitting, apparently he has to deal with that at home too much (the knitting, not the knitting and walking).

flea market

Yesterday morning I went to the flea market with stitchkommander and skatergirl. It was my first time and very entertaining. There was a suprising amount of guns, an expected amount of knives, and a lot of over the counter drugs. But best of all was the late sixties needlecraft magazine scores. I have only made it halfway through one of them, but the patterns look pretty sweet. There is this one hat pattern that looks like a helmet with a chin strap and I think it was in basketweave. I definitely plan on making that!
I also took my car in yesterday. Turns out that the horrible clunking noise coming from the front right wheel well was a rock stuck between some stuff. They took it out and I kept it. hee hee hee.
This is one of the magazine covers and my toes (see flickr for more images).

manic monday

Although I was at the library studying last night, I did manage to get a little knitting in before going to bed. A few more hours on the feet of these socks and they will be complete. After knitting them on one circular I am thinking about lifting one and finishing them one at a time, it's just getting annoying. I was also considering comparing my speed both with the magic loop and with double points. Not sure I want to get that involved though.
Last night some tremendous storms rolled through. I love listening to a hard downpour while drifting off to sleep. I am pretty sure it made for some crazy dreams though. It is still rainy today and I am not sure how long it will continue. This is what my backyard looked like this morning. You can't really tell it was raining. On a less knitting related topic, I officially joined the Natural Resources Graduate Student Relay for Life Team. I have been helping out with fundraising breakfasts, but I noticed today that they needed one more team member to reach their team member goal and I thought, "why not me?" So if you are able to donate click here to go to my donation page.
This weekend is the overnight event where we walk in circles for 12 hours (taking turns of course).

april already?

Once again april fools day escapes me without a prank. I always mean to plan ahead, but it never seems to work. Maybe next year.
Another, more recent, april 1 tradition is flash your stash which is what crazy yarn obsessed people do in order to make themselves feel better (or worse?) about their unhealthy obsession. My favorite yarn stash flash is this one. What a great photo, very American Beauty.
My most recent knitting project is the simply lovely lace socks in the newest interweave. I decided to use my debbie bliss cotton cashmere dk weight (purchased on sale of course). The dk weight is such a fast knit compared to the fingering weight I have been using for socks. The larger yarn added with the shorter sock pattern makes this pattern a quick knit. I am half way through with 2 socks. I would suggest that knitters apprehensive of sock knitting to try a dk weight pattern for their first attempt.
Now concerning my other love - burning the woods:
Last Thursday I got to participate in another burning of the woods. Instead of lecture and lab, we went out into the woods and watched it burn. Seeing fire instead of hearing about it in class was great.

a postponed post

Well, I had a lovely springbreak. The weather wasn't anything to write home about, but the company was wonderful and we definitely enjoyed ourselves. We had a few drinks, saw a few sites, and did some shopping, but mostly we knit and ate. On Tuesday we met up with the stitchkommander in Charleston. We did not put on our best show for her due to our hangovers, but we had a nice day anyway. Sweatergirl flew out early Thursday and I went to work, I measured some sites and got to watch a prescribed fire. It was beautiful. Then I suffered a sinus infection for the rest of my break, but was feeling better by yesterday afternoon. So blue and I met up with stitchkommander and fam for a stroll through the botanical gardens and came across the most unusual dwarf conifer.

swift, baller, socks

I don't get to use my yarn baller and swift as much as I would like (mostly because I can't afford any yarn, especially hanked yarn). But I have had this hank of cherry tree hill yarn for a couple of months and decided it was time to make it into something. I had a few hang-ups, cutting the ties keeping the hank together. Apparently with this particular one, there is only 2 that you are supposed to cut and 2 you are supposed to untie. So I ended up with one large ball and 2 tiny ones - oops. Over the last few days I have been working on the jaywalkers by grumperina. It is a pretty cool pattern, simple, with nice results, and this yarn... ohhh, it is lovely. There are these little pools of color that collect (maybe you can see the river of blue running down the middle?) and they make it so fun to knit. It makes me not want to stop knitting, just so I can see where the pool is going next or if it might disappear. There are several different color pools going on with this sock and it is way more entertaining than you think it would be.
In other events, tomorrow I am off to Savannah. Sweatergirl is flying in and we are going to hang out and knit, and go to yarn stores. We were hoping for some beach activity, but it is looking like rain. Stitchkommander is also going to meet us in Charleston for a day/evening. We are going to go to knit, which is also where I purchased the yarn for the jaywalkers. Oh, I am sooo excited!

Sanguinaria canadensis, of course

It was bloodroot! I didn't even recognize it because I rarely see if flowering, but it is a really cool plant, with very distinct leaves, and if you pull it up, it looks like the roots are bleeding. This picture is pretty close to what the bloodroots looked like this weekend. How statisfying it is to figure out that plant! (yes, I am a plant dork, and I am ok with it)

A warm spring weekend!

I had a nice weekend and it consisted of: sleeping in (2 days), one cookout, one visit to a tavern with outside seating, one visit from a neighbor cat, and one visit to the local botanical garden. The garden was beautiful. The cherry trees are in bloom, the painter and box turtles were out on their usual log, and there was some cute white flowers blooming in the woods that I feel I should know not only the common name, but the latin name of, and do not. Oh well, one semester worth of memorization vanished. Yesterday it got into the low 80s here, it was humid and hot and felt wonderful! (we will just see if I am saying that in a few months)
I finished odd fellow #2 and he is looking stylish. I am still working on the mini-sweater, but finding other small projects to distract me from it. I am also realizing that I will need another ball in order to complete it - huff. I'm thinking I need to put my new Sensational Knitted Socks book to use and start on a pair for myself with my beautiful cherry tree hill yarn.

two socks, check

I finished these fine socks a few nights back at about 1am. I was tired, but also determined to finish them, I was just too close not to. I would have liked to have knit both socks at the same time, but since I used only one ball of yarn, I decided it was best to do them separately. This way the striping is the same on both and I didn't get into a tangled mess either. Yeah!

Last night I started odd fellow #2 in baby colors, for a friend's baby. I am making this one on smaller needles and not doubling the yarn so it is going to be very petite.

The minisweater is still in the works, but has made me realize that I just don't like purling, and only purling, for long rows. So it is going slowly and I have been starting other small projects on the side.

other important matters, trees

After celebrating at a rockin' 3 year old's birthday party, blu and I headed down to the coast. We didn't make it to the ocean or do anything other than work (and watch the oscars), but the weather was beautiful, as were the trees. We measured the burn severity on my plots that were recently burned and we installed some tiles with heat sensitive paint (see picture) on my plots that will (hopefully) be burned soon. The tiles we collected off of the plot that was recently burned did not work, I think it had a really fast residence time (aka it moved too quickly to register on the paint). I am not sure if this is typical, but I really want the paint to detect the fire on the remaining plots.
On the way there and back I worked on the minisweater, and blu's sock. I'm not too far from completing them, but I will have to find the time... I'll let you see them when they are complete. For now you will have to be satiated with pictures of the forests.

Cycling for a Cure

Incase you are interested in helping a friend of mine raise money for Leukemia & Lymphoma research check out his page. He is cycling from Seattle to Portland in order to raise awareness and money for this cause. This link is also useful for a small giggle as there is a picture of him suited up in preparation of the event.

What makes you smile?

Do you ever write a post and then stupid internet explorer just f#$ks it all up? I hate that. Mozilla-foxfire, although not perfect, is much nicer. But as I was saying...

"My" camera has taken a vacation (with baby blu) to Colorado. Thus, I am unable to bring to you a picture of my most recent endeavor, the iPod case. Lemme tell ya, it is amazing. 100% wool felted magic, holes in the right places (allbethey somewhat uneven), screen cover, velcro closure wonderment. I am very happy that my first (and swatchless) attempt has turned out successfully. Of course I used some expendable yarn incase things didn't turn out. So now I can make one to my every desire... maybe some stripes, spots, or maybe just a different color (perhaps with a pocket for the headphones?).

In other knitting news, I have finished Odessa. She is nice, but would have appreciated being knit with the correct needles... Yeah, use the right size needles if you try this pattern, I recommend it. I have also reached the second heel of the blu's socks. They will be finished soon, I hope. Next on the list of items to knit is more toys I believe. Skatergirl is having a birthday soon and desperately needs another knitted toy to join stevebear. I hope I have all the appropriate colors in my stash because I don't have time/money to get to a town that sells yarn.

In the last couple of weeks I haven't had as much time as I would have liked to devote to knitting. Instead, I have been sitting in front of a computer, entering, preparing, and analyzing my data. I am happy to say that it is my own data and that it was collected from places that look like the photo below. When I am not knitting or playing with data I get to work in beautiful forests such as this. This makes me smile.

sun rays

After yesterdays lengthy rant (I got her to waive the extra $32 btw), I wish that I could post some astounding knitting accomplishments. However, I have only finished the first sock, started the next, and added an inch or two to odessa. Thus, I have decided to create a post that is both light hearted and short. So here is a nice pic of a future knitter. For some reason kids love those huge plastic needles.


And here is a picture of the beautiful mountains that are so close by and that I do not visit often enough.

landlords

About a month ago I finally got a bank account down here in the south. It was a long time coming due to the nature of having a credit union (with one location) over 1,000 miles away as your primary banking source. But I really like my home bank and my debit card is really cute, it has a picture of a hodag on it! Anyway, back to the story at hand...

I got this new bank account, wasn't able to access my account details online, over spent the money I initially deposited and bounced a $100 partial rent check to my landlord. The rest ($350) was paid without problem (with a check from my old account). So I was less than $20 short on covering this check, but because I don't have any money in my savings (yet) it bounced... Nevermind the fact that I have a credit card with this new banking partner and they could have charged the amount on there... Ok so the check bounces, I get an email from my landlord about it

"If you have a hardship with your cash at this time ---lets talk about it! The $100 check was returned. There will be a $30.00 charge for the returned check in cash or made out to..." The subject was " Important Call me ASAP I have to talk to yo9u about a check that was returned and I need your current phone #"

Kind of sweet right, sounds like a nice concerned landlord. So I drop the check off in her drop box (in her carport). Well she apparently didn't get the check because yesterday I got an email from her, subject: " I need to hear from you in order for you not to have your door pad locked one night when you come home!"

The body of the email was blank. Well, I was thinking this was a real humdinger, because I wasn't sure how she was going to padlock my doors...just doesn't really make sense and sounds a little maniacal. So I responded,

" I dropped a new check off at your place this weekend with a note apologizing for the check and explaining that I will pay the fee with next month's rent. Again, I apologize."

Today I check my email and I have this in my inbox,

"Great! I will get it from the box. Any time you put something in the box and it is not rent time---please call me to let me know. Remember to make you late fee on a separate check or cash. $10.00 plus $2 per day the it was late. The return check fee is $30.00 Total $62.00

Thanks for getting in touch. I need you new phone #’s please."

Now apart from all the problems she is having with the english language, I think she is also having a hard time with logic. Isn't a returned check inherently going to be late? And it wasn't the whole amount that was late, it wasn't even half. And I like the part how I need to make the fee check out to her personally, not the company. When I signed the lease (a year and a half ago) she made me pay her like a $60 filing fee - to her, not the company. And yes, I should have known then, and I did, but I was SOL as far as apartments were concerned and her places are nice. Since signing the lease for the first year, I have had no problems with her, until now... You think she would cut me some slack - I have never been late or bounced a check in 17 months.

Once I calm down and figure out something logical and not angry to say to her, I will call her to convince her not to charge me that extra $32... after all, I bounced the check because of lack o' funds, not because I was squirreling away all of my huge graduate student paychecks!

dyed in the wool

I have yet another exam in an hour. So last night I didn't get to knit as much as I would have liked. However, I did knit a few rows on each project and drank some knitting related wine, you know, to relax a little... Baby blu bought me this bottle (because he won't touch white wine with a ten foot pole). He knew I had to have it because of it's cute label. I am not a huge fan of the whites either, but after the first glass this stuff was tasting pretty good.
Well, I must go cram a few more bits of information into my head before this exam.