A universal truth

If you leave a suitcase out on the floor.. the cat will sleep on it.



Meet Buster.. my friend's cat. He's currently sitting on top of my suitcase. The funny part is, that I had to hide this suitcase from my cats because they managed to shed all over the top of it.

Guess it's a comfortable bed.

Hello

From Alaska!!!!

Oh my, I had forgotten how long that cross country flight really is. And then there was the added stress of only having 30 minutes between flights, and taking off from Philly 20 minutes late. I did make it.. and owe MNKnits an apology because I barely made it and totally forgot to call her and tell her I was on my plane and okay. On the plus side, the middle seat was empty for the flight between MN and AK, so I got to spread out a bit :)

I love Anchorage... that's all I can say.

I give..

Even after patching the damn thing (twice mind you, because the first time the patch didn't hold) I still woke up on the floor this morning. I'll worry about it when I get back.

In knitting news... nada. I'm working on a scarf and trying to figure out how many projects I need to take with me for a 12 hour flight, a 16 hour flight, 2 one hour flights and two weeks in Alaska. As much as I'm off a sock kick right now, I think I have to take at least one pair with me. Wish I had figured out how to upsize Monkey for dad, but I guess I'll have to make do with the new LL my pal sent me.

It's amazing how much room winter gear takes up. Taking my snowshoes doesn't help.

In which I wake up on the floor...

I've been having trouble sleeping lately. I have one of those brains that does NOT like to quiet down at night. So every night, I lay down and not having anything to focus on, start thinking about all the crap I have to do with school and stuff like that. NOT conducive to sleeping, at all. As a kid, I would listen to music to put myself to sleep. I thought I'd give that a try, but having no CD player, no headphones and only my computer to play music on.. well, I needed a little help.

Today I gave in, finally, and bought an iPod. A little 4 GB nano, that now has 1 GB of music on it, and well, that's my whole iTunes collection. And yes, it helped me get to sleep tonight.

But you want to know how I ended up waking up on the floor...

Seems even though my kitties are declawed in front, they still have enough claws left to do damage. See.. I sleep on an aero bed. It just hasn't made sense to buy a real mattress since I got back east. I've just been moving around too much. So tonight, when I went to go to bed, I noticed the bed was a bit soft. I inflated it and heard a soft hissing. There are two, rather small, holes in the top of my bed (apparently, the sheet came off a corner, hence the claw's access to the mattress). Now, I've owned two aerobeds and more therma-rests than I can remember, but do you think I could find a patch kit? NOPE!!! I tore this place apart looking for one. Fine, out comes the duct tape. Nice piece over the holes, inflate the bed, try to sleep.

Hrm.. the bed feels soft again.. Okay.. two more pieces of duct tape and some super glue (the bed has this velvet texture top, and the tape wasn't sticking). Re-inflate the bed... seems to be holding, turn on the new iPod and go to sleep. Fast foward to 4am... yeah, the bed deflated and I'm on the floor (sigh). Out to the couch, only to realize I'm now wide awake.

So, here's to the fact that they (okay, probably Seasa) did this last night and not tonight. Thankfully, there is an EMS down by campus and they should have something to patch this damn bed with.

I love my cats.

Grow your own Snow..

My Snowflake sent me a vial of grow your own snow.... since there have been some questions about it, I thought I'd make up a quick video. Um... please note, this is only the second time ever I've used the video function on a camera I've had for almost five years.







To answer the questions:
1. I could see making enough of it to have a white Christmas, but only if you looked out one small window.
2. It's only cold if you put it in the fridge... if you put it in the freezer like the package suggests, it freezes together.
3. Though it's non-toxic, the package says don't eat it
4. As you can see (kinda) on the video, it's not really flakes.. more like round pellets.
5. The package makes 12 oz according to the directions

SnowSTAR swap!!

I have the mailman from (bleh). He never delivers my packages. Yesterday, I got a slip that said "sorry we missed you". So after waking up at noon (I had a midnight run out to Trenton and didn't get home till 2:30am) I got myself kinda dressed and headed to the post office to pick up my package.

OMG!!! My pal spoiled me!

View upon opening REALLY big box...



Hiding in that bundle on the right was two skeins of LL Shepard Sport!!! One of my favorite sock yarns! Look at those colours!!! I might have to retract my previous statement and start to make socks for me.


Layer two.. note the tin of King Leo soft peppermint sticks... another one of my favorites..


Hiding in that square looking package.. I LOVE it!!! MOOSE!!!!!

Pretty snowflake card.

The other roundish bundle... Ironstone Yarns, New wool... 292 yards of yummy!

All the non yarn items.. mint tea, moose tissues, safety pins without the little circle at the end to get caught up on my stitches, Candy Cane kisses and grow your own snow!!!!


Thank you FujiYamaMama!!!!! I'm going off to grow some snow.

First semester down!

Last final is finished!!!!

My patho prof rocks! She had the grades up on our online system less than eight hours after we all finished the exam. Best part, I got the grade I want in the class and don't even have to do the extra work she offers if you want to better your grade!

Now, if only my other profs could get my grade online for my clinical class so I could be done with it all. Right now my stomach flops every time I go to look up that grade.

Not really knitting on much... a hat for the massage guy, a sweater that uses up the ends from the fish blanket and a X-mas present that I think will be my cross country flight knitting.

I'm on a total anti-small needle kick right now. I have a pair of socks for me that I started and can't even look at plus yarn wound up for dad's socks (but I have to fudge the pattern for those). The size eights I used to make these seemed small to me.

This is pair one of six that I want to make for Warm Woolies before next fall. My charity knitting got a bit off track, since I'm no longer shooting for a July deadline. I might make myself a pair out of Lamb's Pride Bulky so I can wear my Tevas when it isn't wet out.

YPF

Today's yarn pr0n is brought to you compliments of Brooks Farm Yarns.

Now those of you who have been to a fiber festival with me, know that this is one of the first vendors I head for. I love their yarns, I love their colours, and I love their staff!

I bought two skeins of Tierra Blend (yummy wool/alpaca) at Rhinebeck this year, figuring I'd make myself a scarf. Of course, plans change. My lab partner happened to have this huge hole in her mittens that she noticed while we were walking to lunch. I wanted to make her a set of warm, soft mittens so I decided to use one of the skeins. I knit it tightly to help avoid pilling (it's a VERY loosely spun and plied yarn) and fell in love with the results.

One of S's mittens blocking. She hasn't gotten them yet.. and I'm debating making myself a pair out of the second skein.

I stalk the orphans section on the Brooks Farm website. When skeins of Tierra Blend showed up, I had to have some! I bought two skeins of a red/orange variegated to make a scarf for my winter coat (it's rather orange). Imagine my surprise when this is what came in the mail:


Now.. most of my stash is either blue, green or purple but I was SURE I had ordered the nice red/orange to match my coat (and it was no longer showing up on their web site). So I sent an email off to Dena, and she got back to me the next day. Seems I did order the red/orange, but somehow the skeins got mislabeled and I got sent the blue ones instead. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they still had the two skeins of red/orange and would be sending those to me. Dena even let me keep the two blue ones as an 'I'm sorry about the mix up' gift.

This is why I LOVE this company.

More closeups:





mmmm... soft fuzzy yarn.

Almost done..

One more exam to go and then this semester is FINISHED!!!!

That's all there is to say right now.

Things I learned today..

1. If you really want something to happen, plan it a bit more than two days in advance. Apparently other people have their own lives.

2. When your plans for relaxing fall through, make others as follows:
A. Find local massage school
B. Make an appointment
C. Spend an hour in perfect bliss for 1/3 the price of a salon
D. Make an appointment for next week
E. Go to Naked Chocolate Cafe afterwards, then LYS.

Funny how I had no idea how stressed I was till I tried to relax. It took a good 45 minutes of the hour for my brain to stop working.

Two down, Four to go...

I got two of my finals done today! Now, how can I have six finals when I'm only taking four classes? Well, my "clinical" class has three separate finals. The first, which I finished today and got an 'A' on (@woo!), was my final physical assessment at daycare. Then next week we have a traditional final exam and a final paper due. I also finished my developmental final today, but I have NO idea how I did on that one... and since it's 50% of my grade... well, we'll see. Tomorrow is research, which is essentially an article critque. That one shouldn't be too bad.

On the knitting front.. I'm working on a Christmas present for my friend K up in Alaska. I get a bit of extra time, since I'm not flying up till after Christmas.

I'm currently debating if I want to make something for my friends here at school. I'm thinking of something small for most of them. My lab partner will probably get mittens, after showing me the huge hole in her mitten today as we walked to lunch. I have no idea what to make them. Most of them will be returning to warmer climates once they graduate, and I hate to make something that will only be used for one season. Any ideas? Since most of them are flying out right after our Patho final, I either have two weeks to finish five things (that includes the mittens) or I can give them their gifts when we come back in Jan.

This was a LOT of work...

Well, mom and I spent 8 hours yesterday and 8 hours today sewing the fish into strips and then crocheting the strips together. There goes my idea that it would be ready by Sat night.. but at least I got it to dad before Hanukkah started.


My sister's kitty, Duffy, laying on them after we got the first two together and laid them out to see how they looked. Duffy has decided that this is her blanket, but since dad doesn't live in the same house as her, I guess I'll have to make Duffy a mini version.



Knit Klips holding the two halves together. I did all the sewing of the fish, while mom started to crochet them together. She did rows 1 - 9 and I did 10 - 15. When it was all done, we put the two halves together. I am TOTALLY in love with those Knit Klips. Very good choice of gift sib!

Me putting the two halves together. We had to lay the blanket out on the living room floor. It was way too heavy to fit in my lap. The thing around my head is my sister's head lamp. I needed more light.


A close up of the putting them together. I ended up using two strands of Paton's Wool that I got at Michaels because I left all the yarn I had to sew this thing together in Philly. Mom used a J hook and I used a K. You can't tell the difference.



And finally, it's all worth it (though I had to use a flash to get this picture... we got snow today and it was a bit gray out) My father on his 9+ pound fish blanket. Final dimensions: 83 inches long by 58 inches wide.

I'll show off my Hanukkah booty later this week :) Let's say it was a REALLY good Hanukkah and it hasn't even started yet :)

Fish Update...

Well, all the rows have been sewn together, now mom is working on getting the rows into a blanket. Yes, I got my mom to help me with the crochet. I'll admit, my crochet skills are not anywhere near my knitting skills. Mom is currently in love with my new Knit Klips. I was a bit skeptical at first, but I can now say that they are WONDERFUL!!!! I can't wait to get them home and finish my Rogue.

My family opened our Hanukkah presents tonight, so I'll share those later.. but needles to say, this was a WONDERFUL Hanukkah.


Hrm... I seem to like wonderful tonight.

Pictures tomorrow when there is daylight.