tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40990752758761220382024-02-06T17:55:17.597-08:00Original StitchesThe ramblings of a college student, knitter, designer, and traveler on new projects, class schedules, random thoughts, and travels.Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-57066202412212144432010-07-23T20:52:00.000-07:002010-07-23T21:05:09.353-07:00I went to Europe!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9y1glwZ6Szw7b_7qzZHtoyUAoxdt3aGuf8WMJkTCUw_mOSJMQ2LkPlQvujTHcsFecRk_hbtzMybSsjn663A6rqzmQQILAl6j8u9hOYikm9sIl1-VdLd-UmnLa7xZ2bHq2nP50SaWG1R8/s1600/100_4355.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9y1glwZ6Szw7b_7qzZHtoyUAoxdt3aGuf8WMJkTCUw_mOSJMQ2LkPlQvujTHcsFecRk_hbtzMybSsjn663A6rqzmQQILAl6j8u9hOYikm9sIl1-VdLd-UmnLa7xZ2bHq2nP50SaWG1R8/s320/100_4355.JPG" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">I've always been a traveler, but... I'm now officially a <i>world</i> traveler. This summer, I took the grand tour of Europe. From Italy to Switzerland to Germany to France to England, I was a student, a tourist, a teenager, an American, and so many things in between. Ah, the stories I can tell about Rome, Florence, Paris, Reims, Strasbourg, Meersburg, Siena, Rothenburg, Assisi, London.... the list goes on and on! The trip is - was - a dream come true. I never believed it would really happen when I first <a href="http://steffi-stitch.blogspot.com/2009/08/i-want-to-goooooo.html">blogged about wanting to go</a> last year. </span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Some of my best memories: </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">1. Climbing up the stairs to Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. Over 506 narrow, dark stairs lead to the most incredible view of the entire city and famous surrounding hills. I loved hearing other tourists' exclamations as they came around the corner from the dark staircase to the lookout point from the tallest building in Rome - it was "Oh, how beautiful," in every language, some more colorful than others. </span></div></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYUTqSEBYdAzn6rdiPTPmfGo8hHMC8MwewuNEF5v-1YdxRT44nNPRBydEafDRrvUambj2JJnMhXRVX7tfresghijohXYS-Q65P8MDFoWKJt8P-22hJPTvNshxrEEoAkSspyVLrG46atgk/s1600/100_2826.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYUTqSEBYdAzn6rdiPTPmfGo8hHMC8MwewuNEF5v-1YdxRT44nNPRBydEafDRrvUambj2JJnMhXRVX7tfresghijohXYS-Q65P8MDFoWKJt8P-22hJPTvNshxrEEoAkSspyVLrG46atgk/s320/100_2826.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from St. Peter's</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"> </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">2. Florence. Our hotel, the <a href="http://www.leduefontane.it/uk/gallery.htm#">Hotel Le Due Fontane</a>, was quaint and old and on one of the city's main squares. After a night of walking to see the Duomo in the dark and enjoying the musicians on the street, we returned to our hotel room, which had a big shuttered window that opened onto the square below. We spent the latest hours of the night and the earliest hours of the morning singing country-western songs (rather badly) out the window. The next morning, we found out that other members of the tour had been kept awake by what they thought were drunk Italians singing on the streets below. Oops. :) </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix4qUNLob1bfoFLCI4LSWjcTGHpX3rbCJlMce3CqBZwlKTtOpl-oPPcv4bDDmTr_q74ntmhmdD8QGT_HVBMaBK_-H0UqGUgzWOgpYUd2fyzvJ-IKF6ojbyVj5Wg-uIdUUWjhqcwXgkqz4/s1600/100_3203.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix4qUNLob1bfoFLCI4LSWjcTGHpX3rbCJlMce3CqBZwlKTtOpl-oPPcv4bDDmTr_q74ntmhmdD8QGT_HVBMaBK_-H0UqGUgzWOgpYUd2fyzvJ-IKF6ojbyVj5Wg-uIdUUWjhqcwXgkqz4/s320/100_3203.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The window where the singing happened</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">3. Canterbury, England - a few of us students were walking on the old city walls when it started raining. We sang, took pictures, laughed, and ended up running along the top of the wall in the pouring rain. I was wearing flip-flops and took them off to run. There was something awesome about that. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy and wet in Canterbury, England</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">4. On our way from Venice to Geneva, we stopped in Chamonix, France for dinner at an amazing ski lodge in the Alps - the Aiguille Du Midi. I had my first taste of foie gras, duck, and potato soufflé, with black forest cake for desert. I can't say that I'm a fan of French food, but the beauty of the scenery and hanging out with the other people on the tour made it incredible. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicbB0RkNt3ZHkyrl02f1NOq34EKBZfUBj3rSUbK1SlP_JzZrt2yhHXQ_bEJVeJcW17wj9bhQaQxLjmLTG8XO4RnhYKZ8uCs1Ibw5jpKwRnioOZ7txkxQaq89VBLJxRUFzA9kM85otnbt4/s1600/100_3513.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicbB0RkNt3ZHkyrl02f1NOq34EKBZfUBj3rSUbK1SlP_JzZrt2yhHXQ_bEJVeJcW17wj9bhQaQxLjmLTG8XO4RnhYKZ8uCs1Ibw5jpKwRnioOZ7txkxQaq89VBLJxRUFzA9kM85otnbt4/s320/100_3513.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dinner in the French Alps<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
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</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">5. London!!! We rode the tube all day, visiting many of the literary landmarks that us nerds were all over - 221B Baker street, Fleet Street, Vauxhall, Charing Cross, Millenium Bridge... A few of us also went to see The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre one night and rode a double-decker bus back to the hotel. Another bus took us to Chinatown, where we found out that all the action happens at the Burger King. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sherlock Holmes!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">I also found a couple of great yarn shops entirely by accident - one in Heidelberg (Wölle Rodel), and one in Rothenburg, Germany. Needless to say, I came away with a few purchases, and ended up trashing some of my clothes so I had room for the souvenirs (both fibery and otherwise). Of course, I worked on some projects along the way - I knitted several charity baby hats on the bus between cities, and taught one of my fellow tour members (a guy, no less!) and my roommate how to crochet somewhere in Bavaria. I finished on project with souvenir yarn shortly after I got home - a Strangling Vine scarf, knitted on size 6 Addi Turbos with Online Supersocke Silk. It's amazing yarn, and I love the scarf - it will be a permanent reminder of the trip, and possibly the best souvenir, even though I knit it after getting back home. The pattern is so simple you hardly have to look at it - and the scarf only took three days to finish. The rubber ducky in the picture is from our hotel in Zurich, Switzerland.</span></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNSGNZm6mz0WMwQLWcSBJvv4T6uojIxdu5bPfWj2yT9GsLuBNDGHPP6HKrn7mnSExSnSjCnmhL8UszsP5NsCyOi5ahwaTXQr5GnpznVI1rjzJ9AelIJu2Fv_Xfw_v7qGVCOhB4ebtbyf4/s1600/100_5324.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNSGNZm6mz0WMwQLWcSBJvv4T6uojIxdu5bPfWj2yT9GsLuBNDGHPP6HKrn7mnSExSnSjCnmhL8UszsP5NsCyOi5ahwaTXQr5GnpznVI1rjzJ9AelIJu2Fv_Xfw_v7qGVCOhB4ebtbyf4/s320/100_5324.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Strangling Vine Scarf</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div>The icing on the cake is the fact that the tour is worth history credit. Now that I don't have to sit through another history class this semester, I can focus more on my real passion - literature and journalism. Pure win. </div></div>Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-79669021614058742562010-04-18T08:58:00.000-07:002010-04-18T08:58:40.138-07:00A different kind of stitch.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja89RFs35GE-5moySJfey5v6Obhu3VaHcWPoSLeChECmA8rtcdYDRNMB95_7TtIlbtVs1WWnR1GlfjdPkhWOOFXyB_FtoEPea__tHLqsFQBOgEt5PA4OGf8jcIglES75Fy_jy_mTyXeQU/s1600/100_1965.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja89RFs35GE-5moySJfey5v6Obhu3VaHcWPoSLeChECmA8rtcdYDRNMB95_7TtIlbtVs1WWnR1GlfjdPkhWOOFXyB_FtoEPea__tHLqsFQBOgEt5PA4OGf8jcIglES75Fy_jy_mTyXeQU/s320/100_1965.JPG" /></a></div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I've been AWOL for quite a stretch, haven't I? I've actually been working on quite a few other projects - namely, school. This is my first semester as a journalism major. I love it! But it keeps me insanely busy. Two more weeks of classes, one week of finals, and I'll be home free. I <i>have</i> been knitting. Sometime since the last time I posted, I started a Forest Canopy shawl - my first lace shawl - that I got pretty excited about, but I stopped working on it sometime around mid-terms, and I'm fairly sure I have forgotten the pattern. I'll probably have to pull out a few hairs when I go back to it with the instructions to try to figure out where I left off. </span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In the meantime, I've been taking different kinds of stitches. Embroidered ones. </span></span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3hHJdq8zVKnMDYKzQ-3grdF9OCcu6qXhuy03KzsCaRKqaMaXYNNAsVV4G7IM939T5rt41nDdR9u0tBUPsBFmEkASDnJxvDblDOWsEkEhr_5VW58DYU_FcCTRglv3ZZk6fF2-TGAGX7GQ/s1600/100_1919.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3hHJdq8zVKnMDYKzQ-3grdF9OCcu6qXhuy03KzsCaRKqaMaXYNNAsVV4G7IM939T5rt41nDdR9u0tBUPsBFmEkASDnJxvDblDOWsEkEhr_5VW58DYU_FcCTRglv3ZZk6fF2-TGAGX7GQ/s320/100_1919.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh738n2_Z_5s57dgKAYGxG_Z6RFG3XFbVtCDkJ2SYd7SgO8-EvS3nbvNQQJ_hiil1dStNd9mUpU9re6Jyec8syFwSHydRVMi-6QgoFardApVyBIv2rlijC2ohiiK7zPy9XhBa8V_dr06yQ/s1600/100_1914.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh738n2_Z_5s57dgKAYGxG_Z6RFG3XFbVtCDkJ2SYd7SgO8-EvS3nbvNQQJ_hiil1dStNd9mUpU9re6Jyec8syFwSHydRVMi-6QgoFardApVyBIv2rlijC2ohiiK7zPy9XhBa8V_dr06yQ/s320/100_1914.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh738n2_Z_5s57dgKAYGxG_Z6RFG3XFbVtCDkJ2SYd7SgO8-EvS3nbvNQQJ_hiil1dStNd9mUpU9re6Jyec8syFwSHydRVMi-6QgoFardApVyBIv2rlijC2ohiiK7zPy9XhBa8V_dr06yQ/s1600/100_1914.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>I need to work on some of the details, but it's a fun concept. :) </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUzv3W-i5M6X6CWV_HFlUOm5VPFtzVCSJOBj4yzzdcE6iytpbskeBqjpDuj0H29oR83aMuR1IH5-9WkV9eOLhJDa2Sqstl4_KCyMAMpN2G04uddpjGuuP0fsuq0XKkNgRmoYA8vniCKQ/s1600/100_1933.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUzv3W-i5M6X6CWV_HFlUOm5VPFtzVCSJOBj4yzzdcE6iytpbskeBqjpDuj0H29oR83aMuR1IH5-9WkV9eOLhJDa2Sqstl4_KCyMAMpN2G04uddpjGuuP0fsuq0XKkNgRmoYA8vniCKQ/s320/100_1933.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I think there's an Elvis and a Michael Jackson in my needlework future, as well. Fun times. </div>Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-40104801711226343502009-12-17T18:40:00.000-08:002009-12-17T18:41:26.140-08:00A little knitting...<div>I'm still here! <br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuK7y1hP1oe4frH95UxOKvo-MMHTMK-J-aPxlLZnQmNuLe6YVREj32fpMcxPfYDuaolfMqYwE0zAuYGN4w9-7XWyr-1lVN8heywjUruJlqu9c8oa339p4NoV0ehr10GupgdgjvPp2X8Po/s1600-h/100_1073.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuK7y1hP1oe4frH95UxOKvo-MMHTMK-J-aPxlLZnQmNuLe6YVREj32fpMcxPfYDuaolfMqYwE0zAuYGN4w9-7XWyr-1lVN8heywjUruJlqu9c8oa339p4NoV0ehr10GupgdgjvPp2X8Po/s400/100_1073.JPG" /></a><br />
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</div><div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">So the other day, I was faced with a dilemma. A good friend of the family asked me to knit her a scarf. She had seen a picture online, and wanted me to duplicate it. Easy enough, right? Of course, I'm cursed with the relentless inability to say "no." Even though the request came right in the middle of a couple of other projects and at the onset of my Christmas knitting, I agreed to take up the challenge. <br />
</div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Weeelll, I was fortunate enough to be able to trace the picture my friend saw to the actual pattern (a miracle in itself?), which was free and listed on Ravelry (yay!). It turns out, the scarf, which Family Friend wants sooon, is a fairly intricate cable pattern knit on fingering weight with size 3 needles. What's more? The scarf requested involves four colors, and several skeins of sort of expensive organic wool. (In case you're wondering, the scarf is the lovely <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/merlie-or-sam-scarf">Merlie Scarf </a>[Rav link]).<br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">This bring up lots of philosophical questions about why you should to say "no" to unreasonable or impractical requests, and whether you should knit for historically picky, unsatisfiable people, and how to deal with similar delicate situations that arise when people who know you can knit ask for things. I chose not to deal with any of those issues.<br />
</div><div>Instead, I bought some cheap acrylic WW yarn (Vanna's Choice) in colors somewhat similar to the ones in the picture (a pumpkin orange, sage green, brown, and dusty blue), and proceeded to design my own 2x2 ribbed cable scarf, letting the cables unwind in the middle of the scarf to make life easier, and trying to make it look enough like the picture that Family Friend wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Towards the beginning of the project, I was forced to explain to the yarn (and the pattern, which I was not following) why I was the boss of it: it being the inanimate object and me being The Designer, able to make sovereign decisions and seemingly insane changes to the pattern, even asymmetrical changes, with impunity. It was incredibly freeing and I loved the results. :) <br />
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</div>Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-44433370247473033942009-12-03T20:54:00.000-08:002009-12-03T21:21:56.900-08:00Sparkleball Mania and Christmas SpiritA sparkleball begins with dozens of plastic drinking cups, a soldering iron, and a string of Christmas lights. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411240963030106882" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2wIoXYFL67cu5qk1bbTYQmLUohosTX9w1p4BhdNPIdE7mQvb9HpKneOVqCW2QACFjTLE93eYgXXziY-vlDxBkjnbXGko6MUODUIbZ5oUCBDb7F0OKxQiw3hc59tqSfBjg1dYqjw5KD-U/s320/100_1131.JPG" border="0" /> <div><div><p>Until yesterday, I had only a shady idea of what a soldering iron was. You don't use them much in the fiber arts, you know? But a compelling desire to make a sparkleball of my very own inspired me to go all out for this project. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411240965695628530" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0rt43CwYUT1WLJmZt6PRuUPsvJs-q1yVgjZ2rd_Ai3gCl8_1Rskf22VoBM7NNCLls5xW3e7tpmxc22Sm1ymwG2pXQncPoDSO9V9SYPdfryR05J0mQBH6d58-hdYB3D3cOBaWm0I82Xfo/s320/100_1128.JPG" border="0" />That's me, looking up with mild annoyance as Mom interrupts my strategic plastic-cup-sculptery.<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411240982487034210" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW6RvDbNAKM6wWy6sdC0xLRDC-y5VPFAyTx7PSs-Irll7qySmHcUs2vIIgb3Ecl3YSmRC9A2rG5mg9Ovu70wkdX1wID9Bb1wHrTumXKApT9Yq-DfMvxP4DQsUzkqtQtyuT8UY8uUa7cf8/s320/100_1130.JPG" border="0" /></p>The assembly is fun.<br /><br /><p>And - the finished object: <em>behold the sparkle</em>. </p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411245680040423394" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCChj2tsyGcx-pmm7VFrGHG3vfv70dON9l5_sIpKtNFVymliK0Dc95FKG8HUzqvWI9GqDMvKtYTsz6cFl1NQ84aJhG7B3M7Ib6-hSJiKNUAMyEpI3xJm1bE9j6Tf1229yiBfMRSxVLR2M/s320/100_1145.JPG" border="0" /> <p>For more information on the magic of sparkleballs, check out <a href="http://www.sparkleball.com/">Sparkleball.com </a>. </p></div></div><br /><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px; HEIGHT: 15px"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/5c653f3b-b813-44d2-90b5-1a79851ff77c/"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; FLOAT: right; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=5c653f3b-b813-44d2-90b5-1a79851ff77c" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript"></script><br /></span></div>Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-68827575613117665062009-11-02T17:35:00.000-08:002009-11-02T17:44:51.031-08:00NaNoWriMo<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2AihePYmPDUVKatv_5jirnE3dSs26S2vJ6MJ11wtvBIrWzmOoiio7h5WMtwH6trkd_-tLy-SkWPdFH5jUsuDZESiW1_Nb5yF9pu5dGMwr7olr7kve9T-aH2oCgKz1m2xiRBTZIRESm68/s1600-h/nano_09_blk_participant_120x240_png.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399687128476473042" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 120px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2AihePYmPDUVKatv_5jirnE3dSs26S2vJ6MJ11wtvBIrWzmOoiio7h5WMtwH6trkd_-tLy-SkWPdFH5jUsuDZESiW1_Nb5yF9pu5dGMwr7olr7kve9T-aH2oCgKz1m2xiRBTZIRESm68/s320/nano_09_blk_participant_120x240_png.png" border="0" /></a> I just found out about NaNoWriMo (via Ravelry, of all places) and have decided to jump in with both feet because (1) I'm a writer, and (2) It sounds like an incredible challenge! <div><div></div><br /><div>For those of you who don't have a clue what I'm talking about, NaNoWriMo is the National Novel Writing Month, and it lasts from November 1-30. The goal is to write a 175-page, 50,000 word novel between those dates. It's all about letting go of writing barriers and expected procedures, throwing off the usual conventions associated with novel writing, and just writing quickly. Sounds like heresy, right?</div><div></div><br /><div>Writing quickly and for quantity is, um, REALLY hard for me, the perpetual editor. I usually can't write a single sentence without analyzing it and changing a couple of words, then rereading paragraphs for flow and clarity, then rereading it and adding a few words and deleting a few others, then rewriting the paragraph... which is impossible, when you only have 30 days! Anyway, writing for NaNoWriMo is a relief because my only expectation in doing it is just so I can say that I did, for the personal accomplishment (much like conquering a new, insane knitting pattern!) and, hopefully, so I can let go of some of my compulsive editing. :) </div><br /><div>Happy writing!</div></div><br /><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px; HEIGHT: 15px"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/176835db-1f46-4101-8692-0e34d27172d8/"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; FLOAT: right; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=176835db-1f46-4101-8692-0e34d27172d8" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript"></script><br /></span></div>Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-18542346025556980802009-10-29T18:47:00.000-07:002009-11-01T06:56:20.792-08:00Knitting in FloridaHi! I'm still here!<br /><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398209549197824706" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlUplFKk7TFrJBWOQryzOsCCR9KgaYeNDGcwpAWfkYk4GD8RyuiGM6SUTeUwjbYzZj3JNsnUMv2tfVKllTXfbB963k1Xs8MOhqvNmg1OYjjQnD1STgil0kd3ltl-1ecyea4FMHZZbRdM8/s320/100_0779.JPG" border="0" />This is a random nature shot from Sarasota, Florida. It's beautiful, but hot and humid at the moment. I've been quite busy lately, so I haven't gotten much accomplished - just a few small projects.</p>My most recent finished object is hat for a friend, who almost died after a bus accident in Jamaica earlier this year. She had a terrible brain injury that required surgery, and they had to shave her head to operate. Charlotte was in a coma for three weeks and even when she came to, doctors said that she would either die shortly or be in a vegetative state for the rest of her life. Miracle of miracles, she recovered completely and is back at home, living life just as she did before the accident. When she asked for a hat to keep her head warm I was more than happy to oblige. I sent her links to a few patterns and she chose the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/in-between-seasons-cap">In-Between Seasons Cap </a>(Ravelry link).<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398206597129922306" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 188px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi8kZZNe6uJfI_wprGRI3HtiQDoZie2aG-A_-y6ReoccNYDl7NgrcFLxMQFYTa5cke5UcAfUrUheg_G2fEyI85q3vhfk0DAaRI9-XvsGkqftBLPb41IROuNFcKPNl5OeputeByugfT51A/s320/100_0710.JPG" border="0" />This is not a great photo (of me or the hat), and I took it before frogging and re-knitting the hat. I'll replace it with a better one soon.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398206390814605458" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5oXviBHo44Cgft75qpWXsO0xclnakmJu7Wt7B7a3mnyH9EGM6WezDmvQqdDCqiMcSeYeaubjzjqIQQCqMpOv_y52WeLBLRpJnReeIl6QYb8PYIrEzpVIZSVAM1UMnz7STrpYEmK9b6HI/s320/100_0720.JPG" border="0" />This hat was my first attempt at twisted stitches, which I like in theory, but they didn't turn out so well in this hat. The stitches up the sides of the hat looked nice - until you put it on, when they stretched in a sort of weird way - one side stretched out a little bit more than the other. I think the problem has to do with my knit vs. purl tension, which I've been working on lately. Anyway, to remedy the problem, I frogged the top part of the hat down to the picked-up stitches and re-knit it without the twisted stitches. I like the result. And the yarn I used - Knit Picks Andean Silk - is amazing! I will definitely be using it again.<br /><br />Then I knit another hat for Charlotte, because the Knit Picks wasn't exactly the right color. I used some Vanna's Choice in a dusty blue to knit <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cabled">Cabled</a> (Ravelry link), by Thea Colman. This is one of my favorite patterns. I made one for myself earlier this year, so I immediately thought of the pattern when I decided to knit a second hat for Charlotte. The Vanna's Choice isn't great, but I found it more pleasant to work with than some other acrylic yarns. I don't have a photo of this, but I'll add it in a day or two.<br /><br /><br />I love knitting for charity. Especially baby things. Especially hats. I like to think of the person who will use the item I'm making. So, I both give and get warm fuzzies. Get it? Give... and get? Never mind. Here's a picture of an almost-finished newborn hat.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398206388094823602" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO6t24CF6qDX3bC3t8mvD5miEUBZXBHV4rQQ17lOGPCh0uW4QBoeV0rWM3vM8Os3SN17KAHatgHtCXcfq5FFGJ9Flo3jOQGb1V2b3KXuXAta-_r75OXo6lJBpCIx_EYVjPrEWQazKfqZQ/s320/100_0665.JPG" border="0" />I promise I'll have some more respectable projects to share soon. In the works: my first cabled scarf - with a deadline (yesterday). Life is... crazy. Maybe one day I'll have it figured out. For now, knitting is a necessary piece of sanity in the midst of all my craziness.Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-40784293937792178052009-08-28T14:35:00.001-07:002009-08-28T15:01:00.049-07:00Douglas<div><div>I wrote a pattern! This cephalopod is my own little rebellion against amigurumi patterns that require tons of finishing - especially octopus patterns, which often require you to assemble and sew on the legs individually. There's only one seam on Douglas (to sew on his underbelly); all of the legs are crocheted onto the body. An abundance of legs are a delight to little hands that love to grab, twist, and pull. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375134146684216050" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 309px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjdymxZYFXW_vNoOQZOtF70JYkhkWdXKeaiUxWX29F8lb4-fobyzGJj0RMtyf3ARC_Pto4KeJQqJVRVoY7JBWTCj82gybWmTvjEI3ZHMm-C9S5MudWref5xCqycbKnbZ4_-mv9wC9VWug/s400/100_0183.JPG" border="0" /></div></div><br /><p>Douglas is quite friendly and settles in quite naturally, even when he's far from the sea. </p><p>I used a size F hook and random worsted-weight scraps of yarn. Any sturdy, washable yarn would work just fine. </p><p>Gauge? Don't sweat it. It's a toy. <br />Body<br /><strong>Row 1</strong> ch 2, 8 sc in second ch from hook. place marker to indicate beg of round. do not join.<br /><strong>Row 2</strong> *2 sc in next st. Repeat from * around. (16 sts)<br /><strong>Row 3</strong> *1 sc in next st, 2 sc in next st. Repeat from * around. (24 sts)<br /><strong>Row 4</strong> *sc in each of next 2 sts, 2 sc in next st. Repeat from * around. (32 sts)<br /><strong>Row 5</strong> *sc in each of next 3 sts, 2 sc in next st. Repeat from * around. (40 sts)<br /><strong>Row 6</strong> *sc in each of next 4 sts, 2 sc in next st. Repeat from * around. (48 sts)<br /><strong>Row 7</strong> *sc in each of next 5 sts, 2 sc in next st. Repeat from * around. (56 sts)<br /><strong>Rows 8-12</strong> 1 sc in each stitch around. (56 sts)<br /><strong>Row 13</strong> sc 10. work a 5 trc cluster (*3 yo, insert hook in stitch, pull up a loop, [yo, pull loop through two sts] 3 times, repeat from * 5 times. Yo and pull through all 5 loops on hook). sc in remaining sts. (56 sts)<br /><strong>Row 14</strong> sc 10. skip next sc. sc in remaining sts. (55 sts)<br /><strong>Rows 15-17</strong> work 1 sc in each st around.<br /><strong>Row 18</strong> (create legs) *ch 20. work 5 hdc in 2nd chain from hook and in each remaining ch. skip 3 sts on body and sc in next 2 sts. repeat from * 11 times.<br /><strong>Row 19</strong> holding legs to the front and working behind them, *work 3 sc in the space left by skipping sts on the previous row. then work a sc around the back of each of the next two sc on the previous row. Repeat from * around. Join with sl st and finish off. (56 sts.)<br /></p><p>Belly<br />Work same as for Body through row 6. Join with a sl st and cut yarn, leaving an 18" tail for seaming.<br /></p><p>Finishing<br />Attach safety eyes (or embroider eyes) as desired. Take a long stitch between the eyes with a loop of yarn and pull as tightly as desired to create a "pinched" look; tie a knot and reinforce with a second stitch for stability. </p><p><br />To make Douglas rattle for small children or babies, put a few dried beans or pennies in a plastic easter egg and tape or glue shut. Wrap in stuffing. </p><p><br />Stuff Douglas firmly. Sew on underbelly with a blunt needle, taking stitches through the front loop of underbelly stitches and the back loop of body stitches. This creates an inconspicuous seam. Pull all loose ends deep into stuffing. Voila! Smile, show him off, and introduce Douglas to his new home.<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375135195754979298" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 286px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLYUhxanjXDkFGDNnRil3zwNLM_I_xsyXQWSqv9dsjfBuiApmSG8egKXWNnKIVnh5UyZe7m0oah9paof1cqFmh2sd2loRCeGSHDfacY_-Hdq52cUjBcGZfeT8LjiCI6wIMBoOHb1pRIAY/s400/100_0181.JPG" border="0" /></p><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px; HEIGHT: 15px"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/2215c89c-2d2a-4647-9208-596f6f9fb3c2/"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; FLOAT: right; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=2215c89c-2d2a-4647-9208-596f6f9fb3c2" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript"></script><br /></span></div>Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-63960966071450672742009-08-22T18:54:00.000-07:002009-08-24T06:47:55.132-07:00Contest!I've never had a contest on my blog, but I've participated in many, and it seems like it'd be such fun to host one! Plus, I'm desperate for a few ideas. Please lend me your ear for a moment.<br /><br />First, the prizes: A special pincushion of your choice from my shop. This is just one of them.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372977798971527186" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikUfWWxroSO1p0w_TiE4md3aWEIPUjWd0RKWarAUG0iOT0WnalmRNODq8W35sBEBuL_7nU3d3Cz6JEK-wfVKlavh1MUxoeoJnUbjXnAP9I-wIpMhzTPccw1wBqPtkpFGadchQlRMmkTv4/s400/100_0205.JPG" border="0" /><br />Also, a set of eight hand-made custom stitch markers for knitting, and two hand-knit (or possibly crocheted) dishcloths made especially for you (I'll ask your color and style preferences when you win, for the markers and the dishcloths).<br /><br />Now, what I need help with. I've just opened an Etsy shop. I have a theme that I love, but I'm not sure where to go with it, and I'd be greatly indebted to you if you'd share your thoughts. My theme is the American South. I've developed a passion for the area, and as I learn more about the history of the South, I have a new respect for the people and traditions that have grown roots here. I'm proud to be a small part of those traditions.<br /><br />My shop's name is <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6010846">Southern Song Designs</a>. I want to know what you like about it. I want to know what you would change. And I also want to know what items I could make to sell in my shop that would fit with the theme. Think dogwoods and magnolias and <em>Gone With the Wind</em> and romance. I want to capture that in my designs. And I definitely want to expand from the little line of pincushions that I'm currently carrying! So tell me what I can knit, crochet, or sell that captures the essence of the South - in your mind. Leave your thoughts as a comment on this post. Make sure you include a Ravelry or Etsy username, email, or some way to contact you in case you win. I'll draw a winner at random.<br /><br />Oh, and if you post about my contest on your blog, I'll put your name in the hat twice. I need all the advice I can get! Thanks in advance! Winner will be drawn on September 9th.Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-82385776451763419722009-08-19T17:09:00.001-07:002009-08-21T20:58:16.056-07:00ExperimentsI just got home after a very long absence in Texas and then in North Carolina. It's good to be home. I'm feeling all productive. I broke out the needle and thread yesterday, partly just to see if I remembered how to use them. It's been a long time since I directed my craftiness in a fabric-y direction - well, since the heartbreaking demise of my sewing machine, so I decided to experiment with pincushions I could sew entirely by hand. There's just something charming about pincushions.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372080502455751282" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 400px; height: 300px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL2xcV3xgn-bIQWNyZVJ8mnM-qGmIhyphenhyphenol36KlPZin4N_u2Iuc4YqaOFmwmakZI38u31HXWNXgH0V37yoBu6Eq4rNQwZqjtJMCJgIgCaCjE5jquzQLx6Nay2Kw1qArp3XdcE_egcOwUL6U/s400/100_0175.JPG" border="0" />Here also are some thread crocheted pincushions. They take a little longer, but I love the feel (and look) of them. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372080511291886610" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 400px; height: 300px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTUitJkPTSkB548JC-FmAIvVKJLJ_N-tSn8tkltlJ0cBHPV99qu9WVqQ996uZLCj1-ihfEKZDQLFCih6IOJM5pLEY_nrf4ZSQy7VLkVk4Ou_RZ7JduCKsH3TQ_fJtMYd-vZfWevt3A3r0/s400/100_0172.JPG" border="0" />And here's the whole, happy bunch. I think they're kind of cute.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372080520475316306" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 400px; height: 300px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikH0qd1ZH2SICbkOrpDUzPRtCfsHmqhEtb500J_Ncmfb9TRMHSLndBxcWSrMkL7kU6LUPe3XgmvtK6QBt23dVOmRlBsVP4pBngM5W-wSy9yhFXs3fM0_Q4mgHKLOg-1wme3qFTmp15nF4/s400/100_0180.JPG" border="0" /> <div>I designed a pattern! They would be octopusses (octopi?), but they have eleven legs. I'm going to test the pattern some more and then I'll post it. It will be my first pattern on Ravelry!<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372080524783686882" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 400px; height: 300px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrWK_9xHlGNJSZ04NNNExOqay6fx9UyU8d7j5g8DIKxCwnxEpVI4n3E8gU57oFQGoCZXGVJucu_QInzVuVuP0OffCCjDcX3HIPO2TnXjo5yeXqrKNhcwR0M5brfMY-AUk2L7uweHgcWeY/s400/100_0184.JPG" border="0" />And... finally... a little progress on Scrunch, my lace ribbon scarf. Please don't mind the terrible picture, taken on a hotel room bed with my dog in the background. It really is going to be beautiful, if I may say so myself. The pattern is lovely.</div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372082507749125538" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 400px; height: 300px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinNwrLUEblxYvgKMSQqpQInivu1QNRCBMGkdrh_LaZGt3t1hIuBX7LTfQAOEF2rCMOcegLRF3sQ8xjVJ2BXl6goZip3gEPia34rZfc85JSQN893oQCZIPv3vHPaHIdeBbAMuIosuSYsxQ/s400/100_0116.JPG" border="0" /> <div>Just for the sake of documentation, I'll note that I also completed five washcloths during the past week, but I won't bore you with pictures of those. </div>Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-73006661202782746802009-08-04T08:04:00.000-07:002009-08-04T09:09:09.526-07:00I want to goooooo.My school is hosting a tour of western Europe next Spring. It's a twenty-day trip exploring various locations in France, Italy, Germany, and England with sites significant to the Protestant Reformation. This is the abbreviated itinerary:<br /><br />1. Depart from Greenville, SC (May 24)<br />2. Rome<br />Colosseum, Forum,Mamertine Prison<br />3. Rome<br />St. Peter’s, Sistine Chapel, Catacombs<br />4. Rome, Assisi, Siena, Florence<br />Basilica of St. Francis, Siena Square<br />5. Florence<br />Sites in Florence<br />6. Florence, Pisa, Lucca, Venice<br />Leaning Tower<br />7. Venice<br />St. Mark’s Basilica, Bridge of Sighs<br />8. Venice, Verona, Milan<br />Romeo & Juliet’s balcony<br />9. Milan, Geneva<br />Milan Cathedral, The Last Supper<br />10. Geneva, Zurich<br />Reformation Monument, Reformation Museum<br />11. Zurich, Rhine Falls, Constance<br />Grossmunster Cathedral, Rhine Falls, Site of the Burning of Huss<br />12. Constance, Meersburg, Rothenburg<br />Meersburg Castle, Rothenburg<br />13. Heidelberg, Worms<br />Heidelberg Castle, Luther Monument<br />14. Heidelberg, Strasburg,Reims<br />Boat Tour, Reims Cathedral<br />15. Reims, Paris<br />Notre Dame, Louvre<br />16. Paris<br />Versailles, Eiffel Tower, Sein Boat Ride<br />17. Canterbury, London<br />Canterbury Cathedral, Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle<br />18. London<br />Westminster Abbey, Tower of London<br />19. London<br />Wesley’s Chapel, Bunhill Fields Cemetery<br />20. London, depart for Greenville, SC (June 12)<br /><br />Rome. Venice. Paris. Milan. Worms. Well, Worms doesn't have quite the same ring to it, but still... What is it about these place names that conjures up romantic, history-steeped snapshots? Gondola rides and the Eiffel Tower and the Sistine Chapel - art and culture and history and, again, romance. I want <em>so badly</em> to go. I really must get my finances in order and see if such a trip would even be possible.Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-65590459088703003692009-07-31T18:36:00.000-07:002009-07-31T18:58:14.396-07:00H-TownHouston!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi70Av2xFjygOXbaKwY-eLa64EMx2gorDc8qO3XYrpKABc4Ww3ScTkP-Zo9vw3LXLd1GusUrnIanJuEpgM4dNmHZgYiTW9TVOOgWCPYnKSZ60rG82-dTeTykLORqLv3a0oFNw-A_qcnXzM/s1600-h/100_0102.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364808429081968002" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi70Av2xFjygOXbaKwY-eLa64EMx2gorDc8qO3XYrpKABc4Ww3ScTkP-Zo9vw3LXLd1GusUrnIanJuEpgM4dNmHZgYiTW9TVOOgWCPYnKSZ60rG82-dTeTykLORqLv3a0oFNw-A_qcnXzM/s400/100_0102.JPG" border="0" /></a>I went to the House of Blues last weekend! It was awesome. The Hard Rock Cafe, as well. Must-see stops next time you're in Houston.<br /><div></div><br /><div>I jumped on a pattern bandwagon a few weeks ago and cast on for the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lace-ribbon-scarf">Lace Ribbon Scarf</a> by Veronik Avery. I usually stay away from patterns that are so enormously popular (the Lace Ribbon Scarf currently has 3800 projects on Ravelry), but this was precisely the pattern I needed to use up my Misti Alpaca Pima Cotton/Silk that I bought in Chicago this spring. Needless to say, the scarf is still in progress - I'm a little over 3' into it right now, planning on making it a total of about 5'. I just haven't been in a knitting mood for the past few weeks. Probably the hot weather.<br /></div><div><div><div>I have done some traveling since my last post. I was in Georgia the last time I posted here. Since then, I've gone back to my home in Greenville, then to Texas to spend a couple of weeks on the beach with some family there, then here, to Houston. Here's a picture of Rockport Beach, where we spent one day. Idyllic, no?</div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364805605708630066" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8H0BJaYdWjZCEkF-O-NWlH23XKV5Bkd_t-Zjpp6KV3wWFTZSlOLiwvzbVoSRYkkTeUcjcy_z6Z43vOlssQLmz6ndDmWxjkJlcin5Z0S1-dzSAAQPlI-hhtAxgcz_0UTkDjUN5pUdvyC4/s400/100_0046.JPG" border="0" />And the canal behind my dad's apartment that opens into the Bay:</div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364807931690721554" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqS9qOGF7jx69OFLYhkoDc6ipsi4edRXnI7hZmKcJZSH-J6OCbR3GVQBE6UU3FqnTt8mg80DrQ3v6BPjoo2ATFrJGVxdcNQMlk-C4BJ7SB_UDOq8foKIm72GF5nr6xyYsIigLqqdvwRbQ/s400/100_0073.JPG" border="0" /><br /><br /><div>Freshly cut bananas from the back yard:<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364805612172692578" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhElAiGBzLMkohwBYDAJWvb3PVDqRfmi3zEOne8hA-845McZ7aMydjfA68A1VU9MGPxmLhUqxxVKrE_Re7QCfadgOeFKbp-J5dczjEkLn7PFtif4HB7ln_Aq-CkHDd7S_LULOM4YVZry2M/s400/100_0071.JPG" border="0" />I've learned that I can pack everything I need for a trip of undetermined length in my carry-on bags alone. That's my knitting, reading, textbook, clothes, toiletries, purse, new purchases, found seashells and EVERYTHING. It took a long time for me to understand how great it is to travel light, but now that I've got it figured out, my travels are going to take on a whole new (and more pleasant) dimension. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364805624987038354" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_s_50tNLDPv2zHBDMvYTwscTUuJonZ6F0MwNlGx7G35jxCrBjpSMLVpHHCF2f0tk0tC8yc42I6ORRsir3g85gFR0hm330AstyG9ZlnMmpl-lIufQaEUKc5t9yD-V-Z8-FVD5tQbycKf4/s400/100_0076.JPG" border="0" /></div></div><br /><div>One last picture: this is the best cake that could possibly come out of a box. The secret? After removing the cake from the oven, while it's still warm, poke holes all over the top of it and cover it in Hershey's syrup. After the syrup soaks in and the cake has cooled, top with <em>two</em> containers of fudge frosting. You can't eat much of it. Best with a big glass of whole milk. </div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364805620255762770" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoN0QAQdlFi8iNwEwFBksiLTM2ScMiewmqkd2iMCeR3ZDILv6Y0R6Pf-pR_TkilDrEnY6Dvmsh2hW7B9jg3vT8ORWkIXNXNyNiUM2ilbKvoaYO1hQTMA_SZYRbU0s62hnsfOBLQcIFl8Q/s400/100_0038.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px; HEIGHT: 15px"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/a05c6642-394e-4662-8ed0-3f7c1912a91c/"><img class="zemanta-pixie-img" style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; FLOAT: right; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a05c6642-394e-4662-8ed0-3f7c1912a91c" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript"></script><br /></span></div>Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-63074304969301523132009-05-30T11:31:00.000-07:002009-05-30T11:59:53.304-07:00PeachyI'm in the peach state! Georgia is one of my favorite places on earth. I've spent extend periods of time here, and though I've never actually called Georgia my home, it always feels like it when I cross the state line. To me, Atlanta is the epitome of Georgia - a big city with small-town people. Southern hospitality reigns supreme. It's great. Now I just need a fruit stand to get myself some real fresh peaches. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341693092561708002" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj-ATYtejOpS3ldT9e_K6X6s4L1NRkxM_IW64CJwU13KC8nquVGpb3v-qemTXJ058VGvnycdIqvTZUEIJRIFmXOUJ1i99yUFmleJKzZmr26_Dr5wX5sYN_8eBPoMRBFl9HE6hwgK4Vvwg/s400/P5260266.JPG" border="0" /> <div><div>Actually, I'm a couple of hours east of Atlanta right now - in Milledgeville. It's a crazy place - home to the state's largest public sanitorium (Central State Hospital, which I had the honor of delivering phone books to). There's also lots of outdoorsy stuff - camping, hiking, the Oconee river and wildlife refuge, canoeing, etc. So fun! The only downside is the lack of yarn shops. The nearest LYS, according to Ravelry's system, is in Macon, about thirty minutes down the road.<br /></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341689617733438850" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZWHaVdg4mbCu-Fe1-P2CRtO5Q53Zp61nB0Ah_14u4djEMJajjmVs3HCNOoKED1R0g-YIMn5QkhkFxhiv8OIj1GO3qJQrYkQTt0sNCywbdpMKPavk4tBHa6KHZWqulQiryCSm-6e506nM/s400/P5260279.JPG" border="0" />I've been singing a lot this trip. It just feels like the thing to do. "Country Roads," "Ain't No Sunshine," "Rock the Boat," "King of the Road," "Sweet Home Alabama," and "Red Dirt Road" have made it into the mix multiple times. I don't know how to put this, but... I feel <em>good.</em> (Oh, yeah, I've been singing that song, as well.) This is about where I was yesterday when it started. You can't see it, but there's a hat in progress in my lap. Feet out the window. First sunny day since we'd been here. And it hit me -<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341689610949829650" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBJslkHy-PxN-STn4Ssw20EgS7yDradBMJoTeTZcf59tdIu5Yoz0FOR_drw1NKt63AU2P-dpvvuH-67u2scNUHV5lY1jAMeN-OscUNUk52fFKHiU745IuYz2xrCkTXuJn3z2FuvMwKJqU/s400/P5260260.JPG" border="0" /><br />I just suddenly feel so alive and so blessed to be alive and so happy with where I am right now. I <em>love </em>being young. I <em>love</em> living in America. I <em>love </em>soaking up every minute of life. I <em>love </em>breathing the fresh air and looking at the beautiful place God created - different parts of it every month. I'm almost giddy with life itself! The only thing better than dreaming about tomorrow is living life. It's so sunshiny and beautiful.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341689609129953426" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHVzrH25yE68y7mKLtYs6AJ1XPuREtwiHarh_H4ooBW7_6q1I2FtY_plGW40zvHYHk1JOQ39XkCItTUMFBy4SuA9oKt-MD2fXLeMUIjlUwDIOG0iBBla_V2L5fXmdQ_A2_0D6M8rM2kAs/s400/P5260270.JPG" border="0" /></div><div><div></div>I don't think Whiskers quite shares my sentiments, but he'll catch on. Phone books and knitting combined are not a good thing in his book. Speaking of knitting -<br /><br /><div>After a huge knitting dearth in my life for the past several weeks, something inspired me to pick up the needles again and knit some baby hats. (Perhaps the same mysterious thing that made be break out in song?) I've finished thirteen hats in the past couple of weeks, more than halfway through with number fourteen. I've been inexplicably drawn to Bernat Softee Baby Jacquards lately - I'm not in love with the yarn. But I keep buying it. Maybe it's just a subconscious desire to see all of the little stripes come out evenly in the middle of the hat (I like symmetry a little too much). In any case, here's a really quick picture of what I've done so far.</div><br /><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341689602321694978" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhTEWAzlPceeeov97FpmPrarBKySVBTTEa5g3tKa1L21l-627ic3iBXLWK9w1XTOmUQEWQPXGU8DHMEhShLE3U8TR07ptFGXskW97kSIsxA9qJxQClPzGC_s_IJVxBuXnXBnG13LDy3z4/s400/P5270294.JPG" border="0" /></div></div>Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-67167672312166430392009-05-13T06:52:00.001-07:002009-05-13T07:11:40.493-07:00Full-Time TravelI must be crazy, because a little over a month ago I quit two jobs to go on the road delivering phone books. Call it wanderlust, itchy feet, cabin fever, youth, or stupidity, I decided that I couldn't be tied down to schedules or hours any longer. Then I realized that, unlike many people, I had the luxury of stepping right out of it without any enduring consequences. So I stepped out of my very orderly life and into... well, more on what I stepped <em>into </em>later.<br /><br />In the past month I've been in Chicago, Illinois (awesome city! I MUST go back!), Gallipolis, OH, back home to Greenville for about 48 hours, then to Madison, AL, where I am now. Here's some evidence that I have been where I say I have: <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335308522543777378" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEispleOfWTn4EwVX3iTs0vrpOgm0D2gDlPBdOYrDJTWLX2IPVuWLZfUvS173QjSrbYQgELpLq1RNvvDNq211qlHbDw1HVRN1ayZV0yKbO4Uk2QhhuFvxq39iHxSl9fRBbSF5KOw-cWmLOw/s320/Another+Needle+024.jpg" border="0" /><br />Chicago! Picture taken from the Ferris wheel on Navy Pier. Aaaand...<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335308526559505890" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRPlq3jN8HVqe7dutYkcC1u2mczT3lvgXuFmcV_bPS6r4p-m6Szf-iasMhL_3tVCgA_G-zMx3d04ABENR_o1afPotiYdBedssRdR-zJnKGYe0650PzUt5gACupqJtMdkeoFzn2GfTd04Y/s320/P5020201.JPG" border="0" />Point Pleasant, WV, right across the Ohio River from the hotel.<br /><br />And we drove every mile of the trip. I've found a couple of incredible yarn shops (though, at this point in my knitterly development, all yarn shops are awesome because I've had so little experience with them) and some incredibly great burger places. But I haven't gotten a lot of knitting/crocheting done. In fact, this is about it: <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335307857055125186" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj42ndfh_1KMHMPxf4hqtYVPAKMKYgL_b85QXEHKNcwaYVRojew5Mgipd6ur3XMJJOf_qCvqCMF_5x8Lr0gUS7tPA63jiQGBU0wwXmT_1Sa2RfaA4mbQzNHF2in6VwhX_qFTtJTu5gnWJc/s320/P5030245.JPG" border="0" /><br />One <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Steffi1190/owlets">owlet</a>.<br /><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px; HEIGHT: 15px"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" title="Enhanced by Zemanta" href="http://www.zemanta.com/"></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" type="text/javascript"></script></span></div>Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-90023097443412715232009-03-24T08:00:00.000-07:002009-03-24T08:16:23.984-07:00Giving Knitting<div><div><div><div><div>My trip to Texas went well - and I came back with a great tan. I'll post pictures soon, or whenever my dad gets around to emailing me the ones on his camera. :) It was so good to be back on Texas soil again - Texas will always be my home. </div><div> </div><div>I didn't get much knitting done while I was gone, but here's pictures of my latest charity bunch, going in the mail today. These are hats that I've made within the last three months or so. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316771155774046322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYn4qa4k2HsgD1VKW8mJ-mhyHGysh-YBll0DE9Nx9z5pfWcAvbORZ8yp9U5Riz_MrWXlxM9Q0JKwQ9otCOgf0plNJbdnT663Juu9I7O-hB6ub6Xsit75H19vTrVFmryQYlJuHEljFWmTI/s320/Another+Needle+121.jpg" border="0" /></div></div></div></div></div><br /><p>So the tally for 2009 stands at 21 knitted hats and 22 crocheted. My goal for this year is 250 - hopefully it'll happen! <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316771161667426194" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZmO3Mahck9fsMnraJQ8A7I7fSeWPZBz5dCpZIkf3veRrzTk_Zkt0rfpokSDDs65SwvYTlHUWIUStMT9pbOQMyndC-GUafX1HKtJl_0u9xandROdhQ6jskjLfLhbdKujzEeS1zwC29COE/s320/Another+Needle+130.jpg" border="0" />These are a couple of my favorites. I liked the way they turned out. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316771162315190514" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix-jfB5uaGDLdXDY7IUWOrGCJ37u2a5fVUgX7y-6Tz1zEHB75mpf4ZEQpTCPtDohFvniaREWrWc_YBKCDiDIcXsIvncEYvgRCfq3zhzwLArybgxmbp-Zb7cxlo8IsLycSpJkWE2SauORI/s320/Another+Needle+129.jpg" border="0" /></p>Also, I've recently taken up a new project - knitted helmetliners for our troops. I've only made three so far - still experimenting with patterns and other options. I bought my first ever Addi Turbo circs to work on them, and I LOVE IT. Now I know I won't be happy until I've replaced all of my circs with Addis. Anwyay, here are the helmetliners: <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316771158774208242" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 307px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 239px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja19XF9i4werU9n2XoIH2jD3pqEYgECB_pI3VvaTiTKMPKgYiVrC0nrBvFccQ1XT9lRjEV5VwI_oGSB0B6TUDN3SmIMveyZnX2gbqh15PFyB2brVU1h2L7BHEZY9m3oz52S8lXSVx5LLA/s320/Another+Needle+124.jpg" border="0" />So that's it for now! I'm off to the post office!Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-27741688675368897902009-03-11T20:00:00.000-07:002009-03-11T20:08:34.317-07:00Trip!Hey, guys! I'm still here - really, I do remember that I have a blog, I've just been SOOOO busy lately. I took an additional part-time job, so now I'm working two part-time positions (one retail, one food service) AND trying to keep up with my twelve college course hours that I'm taking this semester. I thought it was going to be so easy! MmmmmHmmmm.<br /><br />Well, anyway. At last count, I had forty-one baby hats done for charity (<a href="http://www.covetedyarn.com/">Coveted Yarn Company's </a>baby hat contest), and they'll be packaged up to mail up to New England by tomorrow (hopefully). I'll take pictures after I have all the ends woven in. At the beginning of this year I challenged myself to knit three hundred baby hats and crochet three hundred baby hats for charity. Not necessarily all in this year, but maybe in the next two years. I'm excited to see how long it takes. Baby things are so fun. :)<br /><br />Now for the news! I'm leaving for Corpus Christi, Texas on Saturday. I'm so excited! Just to have my feet on Texas soil again will be wonderful, but on top of that I'll be at the beach for the entire spring break week, soakin' up the sun. I'm actually going to see my dad for the first time in six years. It's bound to be an interesting week, so I'd appreciate y'all's prayers. :)<br /><br />Now to decide what to knit on the flight. I'll probably have a panic attack if they try to confiscate my needles.Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-41840989685016722322009-01-09T08:04:00.001-08:002009-01-09T08:13:54.648-08:00Baby KnittingMore baby knits! I almost enjoy it <em>too </em>much.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMNAheyQP2dL0nKnPtdu70GAJ8Rt-YlFIcgiKE6greL2hshcVVU-yO9MowHvQUrqwmGSl9dksvvFPAnIkyJKdJZu0q7LVdN_1uIvAEfdfjjuRuoLPkA-HARR_rZFU6BAG8V3HSCAOsHt4/s1600-h/P1050014.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289325910492063042" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMNAheyQP2dL0nKnPtdu70GAJ8Rt-YlFIcgiKE6greL2hshcVVU-yO9MowHvQUrqwmGSl9dksvvFPAnIkyJKdJZu0q7LVdN_1uIvAEfdfjjuRuoLPkA-HARR_rZFU6BAG8V3HSCAOsHt4/s320/P1050014.JPG" border="0" /></a> This is a little afghan I finished yesterday night. It was knitted with less than one skein of Bernat Baby Boucle. I could have made it bigger but the pattern is so mind-numbing that I wanted to be done with it. I added two rows of single crochet border and a dark blue crocheted edging that looks like embroidered blanket stitch. It turned out cute. I love the texture. Not my favorite yarn, but once again, it had to be washable. At least it's soft and somewhat squishy.<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGxzxdCBiUuZoazmxeftq1PsTeykp0lVW334Li7mYeR7ut9Vc_OhFh91Q-oG5yghYh7hGxEFS0SNFqg_zLkXm-EaIbXfTlQr8IuHYZ8uCh7x61ZEFal6X-pqPfafgJDBS6j1O1-CHUY38/s1600-h/P1050010.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289325908251713746" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGxzxdCBiUuZoazmxeftq1PsTeykp0lVW334Li7mYeR7ut9Vc_OhFh91Q-oG5yghYh7hGxEFS0SNFqg_zLkXm-EaIbXfTlQr8IuHYZ8uCh7x61ZEFal6X-pqPfafgJDBS6j1O1-CHUY38/s320/P1050010.JPG" border="0" /></a> This would be a good pattern to work on while reading or watching TV. </div><div><br /><div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE1oowcKZgzGs-WPm9a1DY2vp92TbK43wFhOyqhZldlM07pynPo-J1-LdXjcrGOXbcoE19h2iHGECHRYnME5-WPjVd0z4SSg_mteCSZlE05P6kdAOdOiIUhJ87yE8ExFHnIrFwOZ76Oe8/s1600-h/P1050003.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289325896587754018" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE1oowcKZgzGs-WPm9a1DY2vp92TbK43wFhOyqhZldlM07pynPo-J1-LdXjcrGOXbcoE19h2iHGECHRYnME5-WPjVd0z4SSg_mteCSZlE05P6kdAOdOiIUhJ87yE8ExFHnIrFwOZ76Oe8/s320/P1050003.JPG" border="0" /></a> And... a pair of little bitty baby socks to top it all off. I don't remember what pattern I used for these; I made them a little over a month ago. Leftover yarn from my Groovy socks - handpainted superwash! Yay! </div><div> </div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289325914105521186" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgShIPQijjKW7B-7AzFVn17x_-wH7c7loZwqjJK5n7yeRdjE9X7x6B641kGp2WCx9CKGshreDppo3dPzciYwNMGARNm9ar8AjRjzbPU12q80xhe_exPNKr5Dld8oJmAA9sU4aBjendVncA/s320/P1050018.JPG" border="0" /></div></div></div>Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-71252529458503407592009-01-01T07:58:00.000-08:002009-01-01T08:30:54.335-08:00Fun Firsts!Finally, a recap of everything (well, most everything) that I've been working on over the past few weeks. I finally got around to taking pictures, and I'm happier than ever with the way everything turned out! I made my first knitted sweater <em>and</em> my first vest in the same week. Well, I should tell you that they are baby items, but I'm still pretty impressed with myself. My resolution for 2009 is to be FEARLESS. But that's a whole blog post of its own; more on that later. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286356149291815218" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg52bA8NSHZyVlb8B5hMgiIEpoVghyphenhyphenG0e6XHPUHBTs9lWr9h2Ye99PnGTRy5dAdm_AGjf6nZTbQmnw98iDz6YAo85bxGIeMzxiAD8nHMFjZmbnVXPCJRNybxTgQHoncFB4AihjfYvh1li8/s320/Li'L+Presto+Better+Pic.jpg" border="0" /> <div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>This is Li'l Presto, made from the Presto Chango pattern designed by Valerie Wallis (aka Shoeless). You can find her pattern on her blog, <a href="http://shoelessval.blogspot.com/2007/08/hey-presto-modifications.html">here</a>. I think it's ingenious and way toooo cute <em>not</em> to knit for your next baby shower. It's definitely a showstopper, and a fast and easy knit. I finished it in one evening and a morning. The only modification I made was to add crocheted edging around the panel and the bottom edge of the sweater for stability. And also because I can't bear to finish a project without a crochet stitch on it <em>somewhere.</em> </div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286356161193887506" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq6G15ccC8aTfWIgs6t88xTHjyyJsHQMlhlawVH1S-fQsWFKThAldydbdFEwG4ByroWhxpTcrtZAp9EqKhpDWgKAle5bOiTh6FHHq65YPE33ZGL5TmZMIU2J5dGt-H6ohUGGxF-1KNGi0/s320/Li'l+Presto+Button+Closeup.jpg" border="0" /></div></div></div></div></div></div><p>Close-up of my favorite wooden buttons. I used every last one on this sweater, which grieved me a little, but they were exactlywhat the khaki-tan-taupe-whatever yarn needed. I knitted this out of Simply Soft, by the way, which would cause a lot of knitters (read: yarn snobs) out there to wince, but this had to be super-washable and, almost as importantly, affordable for me to make. It took less than one skein. And, I must admit, I sort of like Simply Soft. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286356164632393906" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Vqb9KcVK-jmLr69r4xVTzrKN9XxoGO3_PjqMSKnokOG0sYf88XuPw4LJ1SErx2BU2TuttkIANQ-b9VyfZyMirWGQ1cTi3oMY4MfuqS9QkYfZ4SrKOx2Ex-KIl7Jg97GYlERewbeTHVU/s320/Little+Vest+Best+Pic.jpg" border="0" /></p><p>And then, there's Little Vest. I love this guy! I can't believe more people haven't made him, it's such a great pattern, but mine was only the second project on Ravelry. The pattern is Vested Interest from Candi Jensen's book, <em>Total Baby Knits</em>. Great book with great patterns and even cuter pictures. Little Vest was knitted with Simply Soft, as well. The slip stitch pattern made the colorwork turn out incredibly well - no effort - and not too many ends to weave, because I carried the unused yarn along the sides of each row. There's a bit of finishing on this baby - seaming, and picking up stitches for the neck and armholes - but I don't mind the extra work for such a cute finished object. Both Li'l Presto and Little Vest were made for my coworker, Natalie, who is expecting her first baby in February. Her shower is on Jan. 10th, so we'll see how she likes them. I can't wait! <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286356168808810114" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNzUl1CI7UdEt9qTC3vmNb_IVwdpFqjZgYTEWMqNJGd9QqmFDNHdIoAbueYNtqE4mulch0eDq05m_rH3l1K8-LIou9zNvw4jWBl5Cov9VLONiSCChfIhxJkejA5tw-eAAxmqB6V0-mUJQ/s320/Li'l+Presto+and+Little+Vest.jpg" border="0" />And here's the two together. Don't they make a cute pair? </p><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286360660560041330" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBFGKX3QrfFmKXH51QWGSn2TAAG6FoTUHZWoN5CDBUPE_bOZ6LEovjXNgOiqlOViQ5NVgLjPKF5Cv40StAjTzZzD9cwm-HMPWPzG7w9tIfueOATBOBhDcNDUJFMxoqKpmlsULucT75EzA/s320/Two+Baby+Hats.jpg" border="0" /></p></div></div><br /><p>Here's a couple of the baby hats I worked up for charity - I'll photograph the others later when I have more. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286360657792604018" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgubaDGEo696RrA_BsGwtClyhYn9Ar5DNeRSzE1CumnzD08kdm89E6kKnWI6kZH0RTmLl4-lf2unEYflG83a7GIPerZ3kVK4g32Mjn7LQ0YIftlQTn2W1DxOacu3Y4va2JAms0JgzV_8fY/s320/Handwarmers+with+Needles.jpg" border="0" /></p><p>A pair of handwarmers - Emerald Mitts on Ravelry. This is an RAK for a lady in the Handmade Random Acts of Kindness group. I finished these an embarassingly long time ago and haven't gotten to mail them yet. And - for the finale - <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286360664509494338" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyXox4C1haC9WBhy_7XkVKRvbjhfXxlB-_l7DF7zIvF0uOzHFf8rA1WJjuSpVRb1ghshHCOL-a6d5rWSH8VDi7My7BmMK3t23eFIC8uS1_7JmRh0-I5K8f0XKBQOS2a7d_DT-Ma0wuA6g/s320/Random+235.jpg" border="0" /></p>This picture really doesn't do them justice, because I had to photograph them at night under the glow of my living room floor lamp, and it didn't go too well. But these are the completed Groovy Socks - my second ever pair of knitted socks, but these are much closer to matching than the Jaywalkers I made. I gave them to my swap partner - in person! - a couple of weeks ago, and she loved them. Ahhhh, sweet success. I'm now hooked on knitting socks. I have two more skeins of sock yarn (thanks to ever-so-generous Ravelry RAK'ers!) that will be come two pairs of socks sometime in the near future.Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-31523697041471328782008-12-27T10:03:00.000-08:002008-12-27T10:12:44.610-08:00Phew!Hey, guys. I'm still here, really! School is finally out, after many sleepless nights of writing papers and trying to keep up with menacing projects and deadlines. I made it through and somehow ended up with a GPA of 3.60. I was aiming for higher, obviously, but was actually surprised that I earned such a <span style="font-style: italic;">high </span>grade in the end, seeing as I received my share of C's throughout the semester.<br /><br />I'll have more knitting pictures soon, including pictures of my Groovy socks (they turned out really, really awesome, in my humble opinion!), some Christmas knitting, and works in progress for my coworker, who is expecting her first child in February. See ya soon!Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-29906943147033434802008-11-07T11:48:00.000-08:002008-11-08T05:39:32.529-08:00A Handcrafted Christmas<div align="center"> </div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center">Let Us Keep Christmas</div><div align="center">By Grace Noll Crowell</div><div align="center"></div><div align="center">Whatever else be lost among the years,</div><div align="center">Let us keep Christmas still a shining thing;</div><div align="center">Whatever doubts assail us, or what fears,</div><div align="center">Let us hold close one day, remembering</div><div align="center">It's poignant meaning for the hearts of men.</div><div align="center">Let us get back our childlike faith again.</div><br />Listed below are some fabulous links I have found for handmade gift ideas - knitted, crocheted, sewn, or otherwise crafted by hand with love for friends and family. Please, don't let your gift giving become mechanical this year. Put your heart and soul into everything you do. You won't regret it.<br /><br />1. <a href="http://whipup.net/">WhipUp</a>: Handcraft in a Hectic World. Contains lots of tutorials and unique ideas. I especially like their <a href="http://whipup.net/2008/10/06/guide-to-knitted-crochet-slipper-patterns/">slipper page</a>. Knitted Mary Janes + Funky colors = Genius! Couple your handknit footies with an indulgent <a href="http://www.sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=280">rice bag </a>- make sure you scroll down and check out the eye pillow on the same page, as well!<br /><br />2. <a href="http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/">Sew, Mama, Sew</a>! Huge resource with super-cute ideas. I had no idea that you can make an adorable pincushion out of a repurposed bottle cap!<br /><br />3. <a href="http://www.nikibone.com/recipe/jargifts/bavarianmintflavoredcoffee.html">Gifts in a Jar</a>. There are dozens of wonderful ideas here! I think I'm going to have to try the <a href="http://www.nikibone.com/recipe/jargifts/bavarianmintflavoredcoffee.html">Bavarian Mint Flavored Coffee</a>. Maybe gift it with some clever <a href="http://www.chocolate-candy-mall.com/chocolate-candy-spoons.html">chocolate spoons</a>? And check out this - not your grandma's <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucykatecrafts/2630116587/">jam jar topper</a>. Some simple adaptations - jingle bells, anyone? - and you've got the perfect finishing touch for your gift.<br /><br />4. <a href="http://handmadehomeschool.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/handmade-holidays/">Handmade Homeschool</a> has many inspiring ideas and tips on organizing your handmade gift lists. Not to mention the yummy pictures!<br /><br />5. <a href="http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/specialfeature/holiday_gifts_ms/">FamilyFun</a> has a multitude of incredible cute projects and ideas with step-by-step instructions.<br /><br />6. Don't forget to pamper <em>yourself</em> this Christmas season! Take time to bask in the loveliness of this amazing time. Good quality chocolate doesn't hurt the process.Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-65341528623267705252008-10-05T18:13:00.001-07:002008-10-05T18:27:51.813-07:00I Heart Architectural Lettering!Somewhere in the middle of this school assignment I got the feeling that I had gone back to kindergarten. Remember those writing pads with newsprint paper and three blue lines for each line of lettering you were supposed to write? Painstakingly lining up the tops and bottoms and middles of each letter as you learned how to form them for the first time? Picking up your pencil after each stroke? Yup. I've been demoted. I thought I was livin' large as a college student and then they tell me that I have to learn to write once again. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5253843946850768050" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy3o3RZHubVkopFjJK6uuOR0KgyMWVS0mKJ-AoO6Bi1TytRJ-aOWn4AHx8j5eg5phHLBZN36AW6VLE-DUDCgtAKKQnFDwMg_0b2bZotnZZTE4WTQbkElRC3-IW2Jyx19labmXhCLsQxAg/s320/String+016.jpg" border="0" />They have a fancy word for it: architectural lettering. It's the type of lettering they use on floorplans and blueprints and presentation boards to be as legible and neat as possible. My assignment was to write five lines of 1/4" lettering, five lines of 3/16" lettering, ten lines of 1/8" lettering, and ten lines of 1/16" lettering. I had to do two such papers. If you think this sounds easy, try ruling 1/16" wide spaces on a piece of printer paper and writing a word legibly between them. And then doing it again a few hundred times.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEievDo94An3oy0YMByvySPe8RFcRB0MMUXtdVpGg4jvvEiMTtz015PDy8-e0WE_eNzNoOqV8DvHO4IlXxapu8J7VE4HHmkOWSDaUNBEoE_FOEAHiWafCZ9HaXM0s4u4zfMoAfexHUWPaHw/s1600-h/String+019.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5253843949871270866" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEievDo94An3oy0YMByvySPe8RFcRB0MMUXtdVpGg4jvvEiMTtz015PDy8-e0WE_eNzNoOqV8DvHO4IlXxapu8J7VE4HHmkOWSDaUNBEoE_FOEAHiWafCZ9HaXM0s4u4zfMoAfexHUWPaHw/s320/String+019.jpg" border="0" /></a> <div>It was the most mindless of my homework for last week, though. I'd take more of it every now and then. :-)</div>Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-38319646886816056122008-10-03T20:13:00.001-07:002008-10-03T20:25:45.549-07:00Tag, I'm it.I've been tagged by <a href="http://ahomelyheroine.blogspot.com/">A Homely Heroine</a> for the "6 Random Things About Me" meme. Yaaaaaay!<br /><br />Here are the rules....<br />Link to the person who tagged you. (done)<br />Post the rules on your blog. (done)<br />Write six random things about yourself. (see below!)<br />Tag six people at the end of your post. (you know who you are :D)<br />Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. (see above)<br />Let the tagger know your entry is up. (yup.)<br /><br />And here are the random things:<br /><ol><li>I think green is the most incredibly awesome color.</li><li>My supervisor at work keeps spelling my name "Erwin" instead of "Erin" on the daily schedules.</li><li>I like to read interior design magazines in my spare time.</li><li>I'd rather get office supplies as a gift than flowers. </li><li>I have crocheted over 400 newborn hats in the past four years. </li><li>I have a very soft spot for puppies.</li></ol><p>Okay, friends, I'm tagging Lady Dragon Tear, See Sophie Knit, Finally! Fran Knitting!, and Spin, Knit, and Life. Please, tell us more about yourselves! </p>Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-38421901555137060422008-09-21T06:51:00.000-07:002008-09-28T16:04:48.066-07:00A hat! A hat!<div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTZoR2vfTY2-D4QA0KLd-jHvCEmmyWMQIrjalIcE8NMhjHNvgS09lYG9iE-FmBlqiM6R9LQMq1BNwfRczOF0ZsYkyg5HASslV46sDxmCn4dw3zwL0qMq-U8WAx6YYvIT_DYWUA8AdhFGg/s1600-h/gold+medal.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251210483459531538" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 157px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 105px" height="89" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTZoR2vfTY2-D4QA0KLd-jHvCEmmyWMQIrjalIcE8NMhjHNvgS09lYG9iE-FmBlqiM6R9LQMq1BNwfRczOF0ZsYkyg5HASslV46sDxmCn4dw3zwL0qMq-U8WAx6YYvIT_DYWUA8AdhFGg/s320/gold+medal.jpg" width="149" border="0" /></a>Look what I won! Isn't it a great medal? It was bestowed upon me by the eminent Bobicus Maximus, the ultimate Ravelympics mascot, during the August 2008 Ravelympics. This is a project - the only project, in fact - I completed for the Ravelympics Hat Dash over on Ravelry. If you ever get bored, you can cruise on over to the Ravelry Ravelympics group and ogle over all the finished objects, unfinished objects, and, um, frogged objects. I had a blast. Though I entered approximately six events and only finished one, I take pride in my accomplishment. It was worth the blood, sweat, and broken fingernails I invested in this project. The hat was completed during my move from Texas to South Carolina, where I am now attending school. Not an incredible car ride take-along project for a beginning cabler - there were a few very tense moments during the process of knitting this hat. But it was all totally worth it. </div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251208184274910386" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRt8A7gjmgI57vcMgA1Nr_iAXxHdRDJvBh5iNkG7X_QBubdE34azIgFB4asRERQ1TXFvbBOglxVwNtFA13lQZDrzUbT3uZPlYknrDpDTI-OG5XBF-273BPVs_cVgRXc8Dp1xH418Twjyo/s320/String+004.jpg" border="0" /> <p align="justify">It was my first real adult-sized hat, and my first real cable project, and I'm in love with this hat. Need I say more? The yarn, Cascade Pima Silk, was from a Ravelry swap earlier this summer, and it was absolutely perfect for this project. Soft and luxurious, but cool enough (hopefully) to wear during the mild South Carolina autumn and winter. I. Love. This. Hat. </p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251208195298741762" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLAN6MELlmo0WgzzRywjLzz0QvEpcetZ4dchEyyC7X_Elwp6IKktRJhyphenhyphentko9LgG81tHP9xjmx772TgVqne8tXabitYtYf8YNrRpzUw6fX0Wj1QKF0qv95JlKeOgqwpldnCk0qhjmLeAGU/s320/String+005.jpg" border="0" /> I've already worn it to school once, even though it's really too warm to be wearing hats yet. I got lots of compliments. I love this hat. Maybe too much.<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251208186319331410" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6vQQfdVpRjSgS1_XR3Q3w6CdMLvVfTWCsVNLLDI3lsW1wmIhWjH8RrXIrZRVNAGGDCPfWpnWxRn6pGiETz-Q1STQey9s4k8yI5xgf_fhNT1x4Gquj5hrDx2CqBNz_QAkxlKvgJct1LVY/s320/String+001.jpg" border="0" />Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-91030633541237216842008-09-17T18:35:00.001-07:002008-09-17T18:37:14.202-07:00Custom Jewels!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOmyP_7lLm_Ovz6ilIKrw9y2j-DRrcFtP2I0fN3Dl-UH9NG2TdTG5xiZRvIFADrbOl3a8kMqX7y3j0PtSsW1otIgSk3ZlpSsCJupvz2SITJIEoT-Zn_2gYr2YhX4-RM9OiIJMVmOw4nTc/s1600-h/bumpyblue.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5247169263522651714" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOmyP_7lLm_Ovz6ilIKrw9y2j-DRrcFtP2I0fN3Dl-UH9NG2TdTG5xiZRvIFADrbOl3a8kMqX7y3j0PtSsW1otIgSk3ZlpSsCJupvz2SITJIEoT-Zn_2gYr2YhX4-RM9OiIJMVmOw4nTc/s200/bumpyblue.jpg" border="0" /></a>Check out my friend's new Etsy shop, <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6155678">The Jewel Co.</a> Ronda does totally awesome jewelry - custom jewelry. Chances are, anything you want, she can make. She has some awesome stuff. (I know. I've been on the receiving end of some of that wonderful stuff. :D) So drop by, wave, smile, and tell her that Erin sent you. You'll be glad you did.<br /><br /><div><div>: : : this is the end of my shameless friend-advertising. we'll now return to our regularly unscheduled programming. : : : </div></div>Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-43387721951372901042008-09-14T18:00:00.000-07:002008-09-14T18:18:19.355-07:00I'm still alive!!!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_-5ct9cEX-AV0TcKUx9FABKbqeks5zOJohs65afppSfGCc74wRbsKBv4kXKiGvHBk54P3kLbqlyxqMgdjbA9-hscPn4n8gSCdV41NPrr3Nhfa1IhiH7c8uXChI5Sp0mkCEDiuKpM2OOY/s1600-h/Greenville.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5246050998552786898" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_-5ct9cEX-AV0TcKUx9FABKbqeks5zOJohs65afppSfGCc74wRbsKBv4kXKiGvHBk54P3kLbqlyxqMgdjbA9-hscPn4n8gSCdV41NPrr3Nhfa1IhiH7c8uXChI5Sp0mkCEDiuKpM2OOY/s320/Greenville.jpg" border="0" /></a>I'm still alive. I'm in Greenville! I started school. You haven't heard from me because I'm alive, I'm in Greenville, and I have started school. Classes at BJU began on Wednesday, September 3rd, and I have yet to come up for a breath. I'm taking a conservative 16 hour courseload - conservative, because I wanted to take 20 hours - and my classes are back-to-back every morning so I can work afternoons.<br /><div></div><br /><div>Knitting? Yeah, I'm still knitting. It's the little piece of sanity that I'm hanging onto when I should be doing homework or sleeping. I finished my Groovy! socks, and several other projects, including my Ravelympics hat project which I finished on time but didn't ever get around to posting. They will be coming up soon, I promise. I've been blessed with multiple Random Acts of Kindness from the sweet souls over on Ravelry this month, and they are helping me settle into my new apartment quite nicely. Nice handmade dishcloths for my bathroom, coasters for my little kitchen, and scarves to liven up my closet - they'll soon be livening up my fall wardrobe, as well. </div><br /><div>I'm currently working on another batch of hat's for Coveted Yarn's Newborn Hat Contest - pics will come when I finish and get a final count. I wanted to do one hundred this quarter, but classes have severely limited that goal - 40 is probably a more realistic number right now - so we'll just have to see what happens. </div><br /><div></div>Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4099075275876122038.post-70517907659000980732008-08-04T14:48:00.000-07:002008-08-30T08:24:49.844-07:00Monahans, TX ..... to ..... Greenville, SC (and the longest blog post ever)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBQjiXQNMuEZsUlx0OpyVoFOPjYxq4SnBI8nL4vVfrNVH4pzC4cNEN0Cggg9rqQ17mK7hfLFT2bZVIpk1WHu5tR6glXZGsKazflYHdwaZUZKedcDylBclOo0_XebVL6SGXk9_8CIig7sw/s1600-h/Trip+to+Greenville+002.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231923283493813410" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBQjiXQNMuEZsUlx0OpyVoFOPjYxq4SnBI8nL4vVfrNVH4pzC4cNEN0Cggg9rqQ17mK7hfLFT2bZVIpk1WHu5tR6glXZGsKazflYHdwaZUZKedcDylBclOo0_XebVL6SGXk9_8CIig7sw/s320/Trip+to+Greenville+002.jpg" border="0" /></a> Trip to South Carolina: Day One 7/31/2008 4:21PM<br /><br />It was 10:30am by the time we left Monahans. Mom had mystery shops scheduled in Sonora, Ozona, and Mccamey, TX, short stops to help pay for gas on the way to Bastrop. Bastrop would be our stopping-off point on the way to Greenville. A very out-of-the way stopping point, but one we chose because my dad was planning on meeting me - closer to his home in Rockport (south Texas, on the gulf). Unfortunately, after Mom had committed to doing multiple mystery shops for various companies and was thus obligated to go the out-of-the-way south route, Dad called and cancelled. Such is life.<br /><br />We had to go through Midland on the way to Mccamey to pick up new cell phones from the FedEx office there. We were making great time - got to Midland in 45 minutes, and found the FedEx office without a problem. Mom ran in and picked up our new (pink!) cell phones. When she came out carrying the box, I saw her wince. And it wasn’t an arthritis-induced wince, either - it was the kind of wince that says: “Oh, Chico, you could’ve made it past Midland!” (Chico is the name of my car.)<br /><br />It wasn’t anything too horrendous. A blowout - the tire was completely gone, but it could’ve been the engine or something worse. Because Mom doesn’t change tires, she went inside to ask to borrow a telephone to call her insurance company for the roadside service. The woman behind the desk said, “Why don’t you just change it? You have a spare, don’t you? We don’t mind if you use the parking lot.” After Mom had explained that the car was new (to us) and she didn’t know how to drop the spare - or anything else that changing a tire entails, for that matter - a kind FedEx employee with a mustache came out of the office to change it for us real quick.<br />Right. He got a dinky little jack from his car - it looked like about the right size to jack up a scooter, not our loaded-sown SUV - and tried (unsuccessfully) for several minutes to get it to work. After about fifteen minutes, one of the ladies from the office came out.<br /><br />Lady: Do you want me to go get Jack’s jack?<br />Mustache: Jack isn’t here, is he?<br />Lady: No, Jack isn’t here, but his jack is.<br />Mustache: There must be something wrong with this jack ‘cause it ain’t working.<br />Lady: I’ll go get Jack’s jack. I’ll be right back.<br /><br />In the meantime I’m holding Whiskers, my poor pooch, who is getting quite overheated by this time. No shade in the parking lot - just the noonday West Texas sun beating down on us. Mom is standing on the side watching the guy try to get the toy jack to work. Then the lady comes back from the warehouse part of the building, dragging a floor jack behind her. The sound reminded me of someone dragging a pallet jack full of phone books across the pavement - a sound that had grown very familiar to me.<br />By this time, Whiskers wasn’t just panting, he was gasping and radiating heat more profusely than a space heater in the dead of winter. Another lady came out and joined us. Mustache stuck the floor jack under the back of Chico and started pumping the handle like his life depended on it. Nothing happened. “Twist the handle,” Lady #2 told him. So he twisted it a little, and resumed the pumping. Nothing. “Twist the handle the other way,” he was told. So he twisted it the other way, started the tireless pumping again, and lo and behold, the jack - and then Chico - actually started to move. So he got it all jacked up - now we were all dripping sweat, and Lady #2 was saying she had to go to lunch. So, once again, it was just Mom, the dog and myself, standing on the sidelines watching Mustache eye Chico’s ample load and the very flat tire. Lady #1 was still watching - helpful, but slightly impatient. Mustache got down on the hot pavement, and muttered something indistinguishable under his breath.<br />Lady #1: You jacked it up on the spare, didn’t you?<br />Mustache: -mutters under breath-<br />Lady #1: Better move it to the side, under the axle, so we can actually drop the tire.<br />Okay. So Mustache sighs deeply, drops the jack, drags it around to the side of Chico - there’s that metallic grating sound again - and starts the endless pumping. Up, down. Up, down. Up, grunt, down. Okay. So he finally gets it sufficiently high off the ground, and climbs under the car again to drop the spare. We’ve been here about 35 minutes now. Lady #1 says, “Do you want me to hold that so it doesn’t fall on you when you unscrew that thing? ‘Cause when it drops, it’s going to DROP.” She had nothing to fear, though. There was nothing to unscrew. Baffled, Mom and Mustache and Lady #2 turn to the handy dandy vehicle owner’s manual, to the ever-helpful chapter, “Changing a tire.” “To drop the spare, remove the spare accessory bar, which is stowed under the rear seat, and proceed to…” Didja notice the emphasis on “under the rear seat?” Ha. Ha. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231923287817779490" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJM5lp77OcM37FVbBY_9JlNp4M1QRgAFti8LhEZoA0ms5_reaiJ-qgz1ZzKt55YlBZTHft_hCywm94frhpmiU1p5m8XGCgJwCSlxEcqUkAyJdmP3LkniUP2d0FTpAbp3zAP52Kv9fK9cM/s320/Trip+to+Greenville+003.jpg" border="0" />So we caravan inside the small FedEx office - a huge relief especially for Whiskers, who was on the verge of getting sick from the extreme heat. Mustache may have needed a couple of women to tell him how to operate a floor jack, but he sure took good care of my pooch. After bringing Mom and I each a glass of ice water, and chairs to sit in, he called Whiskers behind the counter, where he gave him a big Milkbone. Whiskers ran happily back to the front of the store, all hint of heatsickness gone, and under one of the chairs to munch on his treat. Mustache then brought Whiskers his own glass of cool water, which he gulped up, and then a second Milkbone a few minutes later.<br />Mom got on the phone with Progressive to talk about some roadside assistance - we sure needed it - while Whiskers and I sat in the chairs. I whipped out my Groovy sock in progress - I always keep knitting stashed somewhere on my person - and Whiskers munched on his second bone. I listened in on Mom’s conversation. “Yes, I just activated the policy this morning, it’s a new vehicle and we’re starting out on a road trip. No, the vehicle was not disabled when I activated the roadside service. People actually do that?… yes… well, it’s sort of urgent, we’re parked in the middle of a business parking lot… we have brown hair. Yes. UmmmHmmmmm….Please tell the tow truck driver that we need the tool to lower the spare tire, because we don’t have ours. --silence-- Forty-five minutes to an hour. Okay.” Click.<br />So I sit there. Knit. Pick up Whiskers when a customer comes in to mail something. Knit. Get a drink of water. Knit. Give Whiskers another drink. Knit. Fifteen minutes later, the tow truck pulled up - ahead of schedule. He goes, looks at Chico, and says, “Do you have that long bar that you use to drop the spare tire?” Of course, he didn’t have one. So he loaded up Chico on the truck bed, and Whiskers, Mom and I climbed into the cab next to the driver - I can’t count how many times I’ve been in a similar situation over the past several years - and we rode. While the Mom and the driver discussed how crazy and inconsiderate people are on the road these days, the driver swerved in and out of traffic and narrowly missed a pickup on a close left-hand turn. “Yeah, people just don’t get that it’s not worth risking a life…” VFROOM! “To potentially save thirty seconds of their time. “They just don’t realize how dangerous it can be….” BEEEEEP!!! “To cut people off and act like they own the road…” Whiskers dug his toenails into my thighs, I tried to cling to my dpns without dropping any stitches or stabbing somebody in the very close quarters, and we finally got to the tire store. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231923292588174402" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn4EzpY_6DTrANeYY2r1WVnd4cUzNywPxVIRwrT-1fsWiDVNXXkKX4hfgvZcV4cpOolFY9Hxs37twe31GqJalbFa-Sr4mgGlsXWkcgzRYgDIgSTsblOlxnxq9YShelfdPrWdFhrAVZOeI/s320/Trip+to+Greenville+005.jpg" border="0" />Mom bought not one, not two, but four new tires. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231923297103286226" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjojDq7Y-OJSrriWK2_WonmM6dIDsAz01ivUABgruAvxZT5_gmzvxs2vSXtGhqO-codKiyZ8facbJfVfQ9J1zf7HWZv_QhQ2s3CKaxniWBNglj856WP6lOBAYCsAYPTEz82UO98JlOnuDM/s320/Trip+to+Greenville+006.jpg" border="0" />We really did need them, especially for such a long trip - and we were on our way. After we stopped and got gas and lunch. It was now 2pm, a problem because some of Mom‘s shops had a deadline of 6pm, and we were on the road. I finally got to inspect my new (pink!) phone and explore its features. Whiskers wouldn‘t get in the cubbyhole I made for him in the back, so he rode with his toenails on the inside of my elbow all the way to Bastrop, 350 miles down the road. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231925228446241234" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPsTG1VlCB2yNsVhIfPJGLsmhfFQIQHJZ9lwoji1TdNFMICQ4ckDBKnqlT4XuMP2zjf2dyH79o9iGnJHNuwIu2PKWHkacs2hrxRKnoqjG5VmocvKBvzXBoZInCuA65PBEEVIKjh7o8Mms/s320/Trip+to+Greenville+027.jpg" border="0" />The scenery was gorgeous. I loved seeing the flat desert turn into desert plateaus and the mesquite trees turning into live oak, grass growing instead of bare sand, and brilliant blue skies speckled by fluffy white clouds. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231925226331859138" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYyJb62nuRv0iyUvz6ugc6cQC65oNiVWSEdEXBCjaqP8spoIwS0zakYuxkOoU83o9rlf1vXpysyRglou5A2QYKKTjn2A1zyn34SU1o9lFk9vrEDcKvspHhLYqmZntiuOQVTIcZdfwrhaM/s320/Trip+to+Greenville+011.jpg" border="0" />Vineyards and B&Bs and old German restaurants and gorgeous rolling hills, all characteristics of the area around Austin, TX, enthralled me after two years of nothing but desert landscapes. When we drove into Austin just after dark, the buildings and traffic and clover-leaf highways were a sight for sore eyes. I love the city. Looking at the skyline at night speaks hope and wonder and mystery and ambition to my wildest dreams. It reminds me of how great God is and how wondrous His plans for my life, not limited by anything on this earth.<br />So we’re in Bastrop for an undefined amount of time. There are two dogs at Mom’s friend’s house: a big border collie - a regular Lassie (who happens to be named Bobby) and a small, fat Chihuahua named Price. Whiskers won’t quit bugging Bobby and Price snarls every time Whiskers gets to close to him or otherwise encroaches on his “territory.” Whiskers gets shut out in the backyard when I’m not looking, and by the time I’ve retrieved him, he’s overheated and covered in stickers. So, as long as we’re here, I’ll pretty much just be watching Whiskers and the other dogs, and trying to knit a stitch or two in the meantime. And trying to find something to eat. I don’t know what these people eat, but I simply can’t subside for long on Heinz ketchup and Sprite. WITHOUT RAVELRY.<br />Price is laying on the back of the couch right now, staring at me. I can’t help but wonder what he’s thinking. I probably don’t want to know.<br />All in all, so far I’m having a blast, though it may not sound like it. I love being away from Monahans and out on the road, even if it entails feisty Mexican pooches and Ravelry withdrawal symptoms.<br /><br /><br />Trip to Greenville, Day Two.<br />August 1, 2008 12:38pm<br /><br />I woke up early on our first day in Bastrop. R’s grandkids, twins who just celebrated their 2nd birthday, were up and getting ready for “school.” Whiskers was thankfully calmer than the night before, with Price sequestered in R’s son’s room. Bobby and Whiskers were getting along okay - I guess they came to some kind of resolution in the overnight hours. Now the attached kitchen was bustling and the noises of eager, hungry toddlers filled the house. Soon they were off to school and I was feeling very undressed in my PJ’s, so I headed off to the bathroom to brush my teeth and change. The day went on. I was given two pieces of wheat toast with a generous slathering of Jif. When 12:30 rolled around, Mom volunteered me to drive R’s mother to Wal-Mart to pick up a cake mix for the twins’ party and commissioned me to raid the store’s deli and bring home enough fried chicken and potato wedges to feed four normal people plus one teenage guy.<br />The day went on. Mom had a couple of shops to do in Bastrop that afternoon, after which she borrowed said teenage guy’s computer to enter her reports online. The guy (J) was remarkably magnanimous and even taught me (sort of) how to use his PS3 - he even refrained from laughing too loudly when I made a total idiot of myself and drove the car I was racing the wrong way down the Bayside Speedway. At least it was a cool car. It was after one in the morning when Mom finished her reports and my sad lesson in the art of video gaming came to an end. The air mattress once again came out, and a much subdued - almost TOO subdued - Whiskers paced around the living room until after I fell asleep. I worried a little that he had hurt his hip - he has arthritic haunches - or had another mini-seizure like he sometimes does.<br /><br /><br />Trip to Greenville, Days Four and Five<br />August 4, 2008<br /><br />Day Three in Bastrop passed much like the day before it. The highlight was when Price came trotting in from the twins’ room wearing a pair of very soiled baby underwear, his head through one of the leg holes. “Those are the dirty underwear from a few weeks ago that I couldn’t find! I thought I threw them away accidentally!” Well, Price looked pretty happy with himself. But before we could snap a candid of a Chihuahua in boxers, one of the twins pulled them off. R took them carefully between her thumb and index finger and deposited them… somewhere.<br /><br />On day four we left Bastrop at about 10:30. I drank in the scenery as we wound around the little roads of south Texas on our way to I-20. I had forgotten how picturesque it is down there - the word idyllic comes to mind. Live oak and evergreens, rolling hills, the occasional pasture with three cows and a pond. Like something off a postcard. I snapped a few shots through Chico’s window, but they all turned out pretty inferior. We stopped around 7pm in Pearl, Mississippi. I tried (unsuccessfully) for about an hour to get the wireless internet to work, then gave up and went to bed. I slept like a rock - the best I’ve slept in ages, it seems, or else I was more tired than I thought. Mom got up early, did a load of laundry and got us some breakfast at a nearby McDonald’s while I slept. Then we hit the road again, around 9:30. Once again, the drive was great, despite the increased traffic and all the billboards on I-20, and we arrived in Anderson, SC before dark. Anderson, about 30 miles southwest of Greenville, was our intended destination for now - the plan was to deliver phone books for a couple of weeks, just as I had done for several years of my life, as long as the job lasted - probably until about the 15th - to help pay for college, which starts the first of September.<br /><br /><br /><br />I was pleasantly surprised to find that Atlanta, my absolute favorite city <em>ever, </em>is only about an hours' drive from Greenville. YAY! I love Atlanta! <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231926249540245586" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS0dSDnm7TJmxbg8L7a09nt_85qMq6Bl6lX3D2lOYqIQEr8xOMNPJ_In07l95zM98EAm7K3lZyTyhRqn53x1iePXAGGtSCt1YjM-uHMg0mPUmCMEszFMqxJMGDrEUJGgnv3q5SCVd6i_c/s320/Trip+to+Greenville+053.jpg" border="0" />When we drove into Anderson, I knew it was going to be harder than I had anticipated. Well, first of all, was the totally weird sense of déjà vu, like I had been there before. Mom said she had it to. EVERYTHING looked familiar, from the highway to the downtown to the individual houses lining the roads. Creepily familiar. But the problem was, the delivery didn’t look so hot. Spread-out houses around a lake community - an old lake community. No big apartment complexes or subdivisions. Just a cute little town, probably a great place to live but a very difficult place to deliver books and make any money. As Mom hadn’t ever met the manager who was running the job, I resolved to sit back and relax and wait to see what would happen. We found a hotel - not quite as comfy as the one the night before - ordered Chinese, watched Cold Case, and crashed.<br /><br />LATER<br />Now, here I am, holed up in a hotel (thank goodness, the wireless internet FINALLY works!!!). The Anderson job was canceled, so all plans are way up in the air tomorrow... I'm trusting God that all those pieces will land in the correct places. Really bad pics of the trip up here will follow soon, whenever I dig the camera out of the mess in Chico.Steffihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06308149192809815164noreply@blogger.com0