For those of you that aren’t particularly fond of Harry Potter or knitting, you may want to skip this post. The level of nerdiness I’m about to expose may be shocking to some. Proceed with extreme caution and save the haterade for Travis Tritt.*

For the Potter-heads and the knitters in the audience, prepare yourself for the awesome. No, really — brace yourself against your seat (or the floor, if you’ve had as many Mimosas as I have today) and prepare yourself mentally for The Most Amazing Interactive Knitting Game Of All Time.

Here’s where it gets exciting: I’ve been accepted for my first year at Hogwarts.

Sounds crazy, right?

I am completely serious.

I’m officially participating in this term’s Harry Potter Knitting & Crochet House Cup! Now, if that sounds like total jibberish to you, fear not. It confused the shit out of me when I first discovered it.

At first I was like, “Wait, whaaat??”
and then I was like, “Oh. ….. Oh, WOW.”
and then I was like, “OMFGMOTHEROFMALABRIGO this is absolutely uh-MAY-zing!!”

and then I ran off naked into the woods screaming like a wildcat in heat on a hot summer night… oh wait, that was the end of my last birthday.**

Right, back to the House Cup — so basically, it works like this:

• You sign up (sign-ups are over for this term)
• You wait to be sorted (this part feels like torture in the best way)
• You are finally sorted (I made Slytherin!)
• You choose which class(es) you’d like to take this term (each “class” gives a general description of a project you must complete by term’s end — if completed on time, the corresponding house is awarded points. the house with the most points at the end of term wins)
• You hopefully have a shit ton of fun! (hence why I joined, but also hoping it keeps me motivated to knit some of the things I’ve been meaning to for a while)

I’ve decided I’ll be taking just one class this term; Charms. I’m also writing up my OWL proposal (the equivalent of an extra-credit thesis paper where you complete a large and/or complicated project) and I’m planning a trip to Diagon Alley (read: Twisted, my favorite LYS***) for school supplies (read: yarn and buttons).

With one class and one OWL, I’ll be knitting a total of 2 hats, one cowl, and one pair of fingerless mitts. At least they all call for worsted weight — I may actually have a chance of finishing my classwork on time, unlike high school. (I’m only half kidding.)

__________________________

*“Here’s a quarter, call someone who cares.”

**I’m totally kidding, Mom & Dad. I did not run off naked into the woods.
(I’m too afraid of the dark. And bugs. And bears. Definitely bears.)

***LYS = Local Yarn Shop

Obviously I haven’t been writing much lately. I feel bad when days go passing by while my blog sits stagnant. Silence tends to breed more silence, which really doesn’t work at all when my main outlet is text.

It isn’t that I’ve lost the creative urge to write, it’s that lately when I’ve found myself inspired I don’t have time to type it all out. And when I make time, I forget what I was going to write in the first place. It’s quite the paradox.

Note To Self: Start carrying around a notebook to jot things down.
Bonus: I’ll totally look like a journalist.

In other news, I have a secret: I’m creating a new project that I expect to fully develop over the next week or two. I’m super excited to share it with you, but it’s too early in the game to risk someone stealing my awesome idea. Hang tight for now, I promise to end the suspense soon.

On the knitting front, I finally finished my first Central Park Hoodie sleeve — the third freaking time I’ve knit that damn sleeve and it finally appears to be the correct shape and size. Honestly, I’m just fucking glad to be done with it.

Unfortunately, sweaters do require two sleeves so I put my game face on and cast on the second sleeve immediately after binding off the first.

I’m happy to report that I’ve now passed the halfway point and expect to finish this second sleeve sometime this evening — meaning both sleeves will soon be done! As in I’ll never have to knit them again! (At which point I’m definitely going to sit down and enjoy at least 7 glasses of wine. And then 12 shots of whiskey. Followed by 24 fluid ounces of Drano. Because obviously I’m already dead — this sweater has been on the needles for 193 years.)

After I recuperate from dying, I’ll seam the sweater pieces together, knit up the hood, and then the dreaded button band will be the last leg of the never-ending My First Sweater marathon I’ve been running since September 2008.

It seems fitting that I just might finish knitting this sweater in September 2010 — just 2 short years after I started the project.  </sarcasm>

I’ve hit a motivational road block on my cotton tank, and I decided to whip up a quick-knit project for the sake of my sanity. I chose a cowl; knit in worsted weight it uses only about 120 yards of yarn.

I picked the best shade of Caron Simply Soft I could find in my stash and went for it. And though Sam just doesn’t “get” the idea of a neckwarmer, I love love love this thing!

Pattern: Thermis by Kris Knits, $2.49 via Ravelry.com

Started: August 24, 2010
Finished: August 25, 2010
Estimated # of knitting hours: 8

I’m not feeling well today after a long, outrageously busy week. To tide you over, here’s a little of what I’ve been up to lately:

• I spent a day driving along the Oregon coastline with Sam, stopping at various beach fronts all along the way.
• I spent 4 hours painting and laughing with Jeana — our collaboration piece turned out incredible.
• I drove 100 miles to the beautiful town of Olympia, Washington with Kristin to attend my cousin-in-law’s wedding. It was beautiful.
• I learned that the Grandpa in the 90’s cartoon Hey, Arnold has a gigantic cock’n balls on his head.



• Experienced the most horrific, vivid nightmare where I actually died.
• I spent 1 night alone while Sam was camping in Washington for his dual race day. He was only gone for about 30 hours and I missed him the entire time. I’m very happy he’s home. =)
• and I’ve now been feeling horrifically ill off and on since Friday and I’m ready for it to go away.

Progress on the tank top has been slow and steady lately. I’ve found myself knitting significantly more than I normally do, but the 207 stitches per round makes it a slow-to-grow project.

The heart lace repeat is just 10 rounds, thankfully, and I’ve completed 4 out of the 10-12 suggested. I plan to knit up 10 of the heart repeats (that will be 20,700 stitches I’ll have knit!) before I finally try this bad boy on and see if it covers my belly button or not.

Here was my progress as of yesterday afternoon, at the tail end of my first skein of yarn:

I’m still loving the Cotton Ease yarn and plan to use it again for future garments, assuming it wears as well as I’m expecting.

I’ve done a bit of research on Ravelry and it sounds like cotton stretches quite a bit over time. My only hope is that I’m not knitting this top in vain; can you imagine all of these knitting hours for nothing? Let’s just hope it fits a bit snug and the stretchage that’s bound to happen won’t turn it into a boxy burlap sack.

I’m not sure if my goal of finishing this project by the end of Sam’s next race weekend is feasible at this point. I feel like I’m knitting like hell and not really going anywhere.

Which really makes me wonder how anyone (I’m looking at you, YarnHarlot!) knits magnificent fair aisle sweaters in sock weight yarn. That kind of project would probably take me 342 years to finish. And I just don’t have that kind of time!

With all of my free time lately, I’ve been knitting like a mad woman. Though I’ve yet to pick up my 2-years-and-counting Central Park Hoodie that has sat in Time Out for the past month, I did eventually grow bored after knitting my fourth dishcloth in a week.

During my short dishcloth obsession, something strange happened — I fell in love with cotton.

Normally, I detest knitting with dishcloth cotton as it does feel a bit brash, especially compared to my undying loyalty to the 8th wonder of the world — the unbelievably soft Malabrigo wool. But somehow, my fourth dishcloth left me wondering if cotton could be softer; maybe a cotton blend plied with a much softer fiber.

Before picking out which cotton yarn to try, I decided on a cute lace tank top, the Heart Lace Top. (*FREE knitting pattern altert!)

I ended up buying 3 skeins of Lion Brand’s Cotton Ease (a cotton/acrylic blend; significantly softer than 100% cotton), and so far I’m impressed. Though the color is less than what I was hoping for — I’d have loved a dark, rich purple like the photo on the pattern page — but it was the best of the choices at hand. Because I don’t normally wear such light colors, I plan to knit or crochet a black border along the bottom and I’ll knit the bodice and straps in black as well.

My progress photo doesn’t look like much, but I’ve knit another inch or two since last night when the picture was taken. My goal is to finish the tank by the end of our next race weekend in a few weeks.

I don’t have a great track record when it comes to finishing new projects in a timely manner, but a girl can hope… right?

For the past week or two I’ve felt relieved. I thought I’d made a final decision. I was finally giving my lifelong dream of being a licensed Cosmetologist a rightful chance. I was going for it — chasing my dream. That is, until a few days ago.

Let’s start with some back story.

I’ve been THISCLOSE to starting beauty school twice now; a few years ago I even went so far as to pay the admission fee to officially enroll. But in the end, when it came right down to it, Sam and I realized it just wasn’t financially feasible at the time. The week before my first day of class, I called the admissions department at the beauty school I’d chosen and politely retracted my approved application. The whole situation was just stressful.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and the steady 9-5′r I’ve held for the past 3.5 years suddenly came to an end. After basking in the awesomeness that is not having a job for a few days, I sat down and really started to think about what I want to do with myself in this one life I’m living — was I going to continue working desk jobs for little pay or was I going to progress myself into a position where I both earn and deserve a better living than I was making before?

The choice seemed an obvious one, but the decision-making part has proved quite difficult.

I’m hesitant to make a final decision, and I keep putting it off. I’ve toured countless schools, met with numerous counselors and financial aid advisers, and I even have 2 more schools left to tour, but no one else is going to make my mind up for me. This is my life we’re talking about here; my career; my way of contributing and supporting myself.

And the way I see it, if I’m going to change anything at all, I either change it like WHOA or not change it at ALL. Go big or go home.

And that’s where I feel like I’m at right now — I’m looking straight ahead, but there’s no road in front of me. To the left is the road to beauty, fashion, and a snobby, gossip and money-driven lifestyle that I just don’t quite fit. To the right is the endless possibility of “regular” college - graphics designer, web designer, documentary filmmaker, best-selling author (hey, we can all dream, right?), who knows where I’d end up - all I have to do is make the decision.

In my best Chris Rock voice, “Man, why decisions gotta be so damn hard to make?”

I’ve worked out a deal with myself that I’ll never take more than one knitting project with me to a race day. This rule forces me to concentrate on a particular project for an entire day often resulting in 6-8 hours of knitting time; something otherwise unheard of for me. Tomorrow is another race day for Sam, and I just finished packing my knitting bag with a single project: my Central Park Hoodie. (Yes, the hoodie I started in September of 2008 and haven’t worked on since Timberline Lodge in March.)

I’ve packed enough yarn for at least 10 sleeves and an emergency repair kit that would rival what NASA must have created for the first moon landing. I’m definitely not a fan of knitting in public, but if you had any idea just how much Hurry Up And Wait goes on during these things, you’d probably bring something else to do, too. When I’m not playing photographer while Sam is tearing up the track, I’ll be making some headway on the sleeves. I plan to knit them two-at-a-time.

Thankfully, the hoodie is knit with big yarn on big needles. That will come as a very welcome change, as the largest needles I’ve used in over 2 weeks are US size 1 (a.k.a. really. effing. tiny.)

Wish us luck!

I am a knitting MACHINE lately. I feel like I’ve been pumping out *FO’s left and right lately, and this sweet, tiny newborn hat is even made of cashmere! This project knit up in about 4 hours time, and knocks another task off my 101 Things in 1001 Days list (knit something to donate).

Pattern: Cabled Baby Hats by Julie Hentz (FREE knitting pattern)

• Start Date: June 5, 2010
• Finish Date: June 6, 2010

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (55% Merino, 33% Microfiber, 12% Cashmere)

From the top view you can see the flower:

P.S. I’ve cast on a rainbow sock. Progress pictures to come soon. :)

*FO = Finished Object

Originally meant for christmas of 2008, this evening I finally sat down and finished the pair of cashmere fingerless mitts I started for my Portland Mom nearly 2 years ago. Go figure, we’re heading into the heat of summer as I’m giving her warm cashmere mittens, but at least she’ll have them this winter (and when the A/C at work is set to -35 degrees during 100 degree weather next month).

Pattern: Fetching by Cheryl Niamath (FREE pattern)

• Start Date: August 15, 2008
• Finish Date: June 5, 2010