Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Final Grades

Well, the term is over & all of my final tests and papers are turned in.  This week I have no classes and it seems a little odd.  Next term (starting in January), I am taking 3 courses (I usually take 2 per term).  It's not as rough as it sounds - one of those courses is only 6 weeks long, and another is an online course.

But I got my grades for the Fall term.  I got an "A" in Introduction to Software for Business and a "B" in Sociology.  I'm happy!  I wasn't sure what Sociology would be - there was one test that I got a "D" on, and I wasn't sure what grade I got on the final test.  I do have moments that I have to remind myself that a "B" is still a good grade (sometimes I feel that I should only get "A's".  Most of the time, I'm pretty content with the grades.  :-)

I have no new knitting to show you.  I dug the company car out of the snow yesterday & I am feeling it today.  My hands, arms, shoulders all hurt.  I'm not sure if I can knit right now or not.  I have to finish a hat for Christmas, so I guess I'd better suck it up & knit.  :-)

Saturday, December 19, 2009

A Knitting Machine...

I am a knitting machine lately!  I spent a long time (I think it was actually over a YEAR) without knitting and now I'm a knitting machine.  Knitting helps to relax me.  Lately I've been stressed (mind, body, soul, heart), so I've been knitting. 

I started the blue scarf.  One day I decided to knit on it while I watched a movie (SWAT - I've seen it many times, but love the part where LL Cool J says, "Tell Daddy how you want it." - but that's a completely different topic!).  When the movie was finished, I had knit about 12 inches of that scarf.  A foot!  Well, more bad days/nights followed.  And then there was the weekend that I was putting off writing my 5-7 page research paper for Sociology...and before I knew it, that scarf was finished. 

The hat was next.  That took me a total of maybe 6 hours (spread out over 2 or 3 days).  So now the entire set is finished and is ready to be given as a Christmas present.  And it's only December 3rd!  I am not one of these people who has their Christmas shopping done early.  In fact, I rarely have anything done early.  I don't usually knit Christmas presents either, because I tend to not finish them.  So the fact that I have a knitted set finished (by December 3rd) is so amazing!







The second hat does not have a matching scarf.  The recipient already has a scarf that's this color (that he bought), so I made this hat to go along with that scarf.




Ok.  I started this post December 3rd...it is now December 19th!  I had to load the "finished" pictures from my camera & every time I thought of doing it, I didn't have the time.  So tonight I finally uploaded them.

Today we are having a blizzard here in PA.  It sucks.  I am not a big fan of snow.  Tonight I had planned on going out - a girl's night out.  But that all changed when the snow that started in the early morning hours was still going strong at 4PM.  It may still be snowing, I don't know.  I haven't looked outside lately (if I ignore it, it'll go away).  Anyway.  I'm not happy about being stuck in the house.

My friend/co-worker's church was supposed to have a Praise Mime concert tonight & that was re-scheduled.  My church was supposed to have a Christmas cantata tomorrow & that has been re-scheduled.  Snow sucks!

Well, enough of my snowed in sob story.  It's time for me to get to bed.  :-)

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Some knitting pictures.



This is a scarf that I started (11-18-09).  I'm making it as part of a hat/scarf set to give to someone as a Christmas gift.  No - that person does not read this blog.  In fact, that person has no idea that I have a blog.  Strange, how a person's life can have compartments. 

The scarf is now over 2 feet long & I have started on the second hank of yarn.  The yarn is Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Worsted.  The color, #813 (that's a hot name for a color, huh?).  I bought 4 hanks of this yarn.  I'm thinking that I will use a little over one hank for the hat, the rest will be for the scarf.  I am knitting it using KnitPicks Harmony needles in size US 6 (4mm).  It's a simple K2, P2 ribbing.  I cast on 32 sts.  It looks very narrow as I'm knitting it, I'm hoping that blocking will help it to be a little wider. 

The blue is darker than it looks in this picture, and it has some teal or green fibers in it.  It's very pretty, very soft, and I'm pleased with it.  Hopefully the recipient will like it as well.

The hat shown above is a "test" knit of the pattern I'll use for the hat to match the scarf.  The pattern is from the book, One-Skein Wonders 101 Yarn-Shop Favorites edited by Judith Durant.  The hat pattern is called Ribbed Cap, and was designed by Hannah Fettig.  I love this pattern.  It's very simple.  It's a good "guy" hat.  The ribbing goes the whole way through the hat (into the decreases).  It was a quick knit for me (it's knit in the round).  I used size US 6 (4mm) KnitPicks Options needles for this hat.  The yarn in the test hat is Caron Simply Soft Shadow.  I'm not sure what the color is called.  It was a partial skein of yarn that I had laying around.

I'm still getting the hang of blogging/adding pictures.  I didn't think to add captions for the pictures as I added the pictures.  I added all three pictures & then realized I couldn't get between them to add text.  I do love that Blogger now has the strikethrough feature.

That's all I'm knitting right now.  Not very exciting, I know.  What can I say?  I love the K2,P2 ribbing because it's "mindless" knitting for me - I can do it while watching TV, or while thinking about something else.

Oh!  I got the final shipment of the 2009 Rockin Sock Club (Blue Moon Fiber Arts) yesterday.  I have LOVED every single shipment: the yarn colors, the patterns, the extra little gifts that are included, Tina's Dyer's Notes.  I can't wait for next year's Sock Club to begin!  Socks That Rock yarn is my favorite sock yarn.  I love how it feels, how it holds up, the colors...I love it!  Whenever I get a shipment, I feel like Gollum, walking around the house, holding the yarn, saying "my precious....".

That's all I have for now.  I've spent most of the day knitting (the scarf) & watching movies.  I lead a very exciting life.  :-)


Friday, November 27, 2009

Welcome!

Welcome to Knitting the Fabric of Life! 

A few things about me:
  • I am a knitter
  • I am a single-parent, of a pre-teen
  • I am a non-traditional college student
  • During the day, I work helping those affected by chemical dependency to achieve a better quality of life and become productive and accountable individuals
This blog is my second blog.  The first, Angelia's Knitting, died.  I stopped posting to it.  Life happened.  Things changed.  When I got back around to thinking about blogging, it had been so long that I decided to let that blog stay dead.  :-)  My life is somewhat more complex now (did I mention I'm a college student - 20 years after graduating from high school!), so I wanted a blog that reflects that.

Knitting the Fabric of Life.  I love to knit, but had stopped that for about 6 months.  Why?  I'm not sure.  It's not that I no longer enjoyed kniting.  Those of you who knit understand - knitting isn't just a hobby, it's a part of you.  Maybe I was "too busy".  Or, maybe my life was going smoothly.  Anyway.  I'm knitting again.  Right now, my life is pretty stressful (knitting helps to calm me).  I'm busier than ever, but NOW I manage to find time to knit.  Go figure.

I will post pictures soon of what I'm currently working on, so check back often.  :-)  Right now, it's all Christmas presents (I know that the recipients don't read knitting blogs, so it's safe to post pictures on here).