H-Town

Houston!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.

I jumped on a pattern bandwagon a few weeks ago and cast on for the Lace Ribbon Scarf 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.

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?

And the canal behind my dad's apartment that opens into the Bay:

Freshly cut bananas from the back yard:
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.

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 two containers of fudge frosting. You can't eat much of it. Best with a big glass of whole milk.

Peachy

I'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.

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.

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 good. (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 -

I just suddenly feel so alive and so blessed to be alive and so happy with where I am right now. I love being young. I love living in America. I love soaking up every minute of life. I love 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.

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 -

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.

Full-Time Travel

I 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 into later.

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:
Chicago! Picture taken from the Ferris wheel on Navy Pier. Aaaand...

Point Pleasant, WV, right across the Ohio River from the hotel.

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:
One owlet.

Giving Knitting

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.

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.

So the tally for 2009 stands at 21 knitted hats and 22 crocheted. My goal for this year is 250 - hopefully it'll happen! These are a couple of my favorites. I liked the way they turned out.

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: So that's it for now! I'm off to the post office!

Trip!

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.

Well, anyway. At last count, I had forty-one baby hats done for charity (Coveted Yarn Company's 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. :)

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. :)

Now to decide what to knit on the flight. I'll probably have a panic attack if they try to confiscate my needles.

Baby Knitting

More baby knits! I almost enjoy it too much.

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.

This would be a good pattern to work on while reading or watching TV.

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!

Fun 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 and 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.

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, here. I think it's ingenious and way toooo cute not 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 somewhere.

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.

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, Total Baby Knits. 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! And here's the two together. Don't they make a cute pair?

Here's a couple of the baby hats I worked up for charity - I'll photograph the others later when I have more.

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 -

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.