In Which I Scrapbook

Yesterday I thought a lot and decided to write a blog about it. I had every intention of doing what I said I would do, but my brother Kevin came up with an even better idea. Read his post and you can see the challenge I unwittingly got myself into. http://fakingmyway.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/challenge-accepted/

I really appreciate Kevin's support and accountability, and now if all goes well there'll be twice as much creative stuff as there would have been if I'd tried this on my own, and you can follow both of our blogs and see all of that creative output. Also, there'll be a free dinner for one of us sometime in the future.

This creativity duel might change my focus a bit. Knitting and cross-stitching take a long time. I'll continue to do things, but Kevin established that only completed things (I made this sleeve! etc.) count. Due to this I'm going to have to venture out a bit and I will probably end up writing more. Since I've wanted to try my hand at writing for the better part of a year and simply haven't found the time on my own, I expect good things from this. (Good things by way of me practicing, more so than necessarily good writing - I'm still really new at it).

My only question for you, Kevin, is does cooking a meal count? Not making a PB&J, but actually cooking? I don't get to do it as much as I want to, but I've been counting good cooking as creativity in my head.

Finally, if you read his blog you will have noticed that Kevin wasted no time in beginning, and has put some new Haiku on his blog. So, what have I created today? I don't think I mentioned on the last blog that I recently took up digital scrapbooking (thanks Mom!). Today I made this:

I intend on printing it out and hanging it in my apartment post haste. Now we just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings from the both of us.

-Kat

In Which I Start Something

Today I drove from my home in Texas to my second home in Stillwater. A four hour drive on your own allows a lot of time for introspection. While I was driving I listened to a few podcasts. I started out with Bad Philosophy (check it out - it's going to be a thing), and then I moved on to catching up with a knitting podcast I follow. Sometimes I'm amazed at how much inspiration I can get from hearing someone else talk about knitting. I started thinking about how I don't have a class I can knit in this year - which was the most knitting I ever did in the last few semesters - and how I would have more difficulties finding time for my hobbies this semester. That got me thinking about my hobbies and the hobbies I plan on taking up.

Last week I was talking with a friend, and I mentioned how home ec-y I am in my hobbies. I knit, cross-stitch, write, and cook, and I want to learn how to sew and garden. Thinking about them all together I realized that I really enjoy creating things.

When I was young I dreamt of being an artist when I grew up. Then I realized that I can't draw a thing and I gave up that idea. Since then I have come to understand that I still have a strong creative impulse, it just goes through different avenues. Around mile 200 of my drive my thoughts wandered back to my lack of knitting time this semester. I made a resolution - this year I am going to create something every day. Whether that be a few rows of my sweater, a paragraph, a few stitches, or just dinner, I'm going to create a bit each day, keep track of it, and see what happens.

I find joy in creating things - otherwise I wouldn't keep doing it - and one thing I know is that it's important to make time for the things you love, so starting today that's what I'm going to do. And if you're even a smidge interested, you can keep up with me here on this blog.

-Kathryn

In Which I Spread the Love

So summer has already happened.

I have so many interesting things to say, so I'm just going to stick to interesting knitting and school. I think.

Why knitting and school you ask? Why, because those are two things I love and this is technically a knitting blog.

First though, an interesting story - this Tuesday I was leaving my mom's hairdresser and I tripped off a curb. This is not that unusual for me (I'm not particularly graceful), but I twisted my ankle bad enough I though it might be broken. One condescending doctor and an x-ray later, it was determined that I didn't break it but it was swolen bad enough that I got a nifty brace and crutches. I only used the crutches a couple of days, but I've been wearing the brace awhile and was hobbling for several days after.

I and several of my friends have spent this summer trying to get ready to go to college this month and I've been having a great time. Apparently I chose a difficult color scheme for my room because wherever you go it is hard to find eggplant purple bedding and other room stuff. I have bought and returned several items and I think I might actually have everything I need now. I'm still knitting my handtowel, but I should be done by the time I move in without any trouble at all. In an attempt to be organized I've taken a schemeatic of my room and written down where everything I have will be going so that move in day will be a little easier.

I can't wait until next Monday when Dad and I get to start packing. He and I are both good at making many things fit into a small space so I am not worried about making it all fit at all.

I've bought my school supplies, which I seem to do differently than everyone else. I need a spiral notebook and a folder for all of my classes. I like these to match and have a pretty design on them. I didn't think that that was asking too much because I knew there were brands that made matching supplies. Of course none of the stores seemed to think that people would want this because they seperated all the notebooks and folders, so I had to hobble around (see above story) back and forth comparing to try and get 5 matching sets.

It took 4 stores.

Enough about school (I can't wait!!!), I also have fun summer knitting stories.

Early this summer I finished my orange sweater, fondly known as Pete (go Pokes!). Pete is a bit oversized so I will be able to layer it really well, and it will be a fantastic study sweater because it is rather cuddly.

I have also been working on more washcloths, my blanket, and at least one handtowel.

I have enough washcolths to take now, and the first handtowel will be done before I get to college, but the blanket will not be ready till almost winter I think.

My blanket is also yet to be named, although I've been given plenty of suggestions. My dad says I should name it a guys name so I can shock people by telling them that I sleep with ____ (random guy's name), my brother said something along the lines of Shada, but I'm really not sure what fits yet.

I got back from New Orleans last week and I had an amazing time. There were 4 youth there including me. On the drive down I informed them that if there was a knitting both there like there had been in the past we would be visiting. Come Saturday, I found the booth. I sat everyone down and gave them needles and yarn and began to teach. The two guys, Andy and Jacob and Jo our youth director picked up knitting quite fast and even seemed to enjoy it. Huzza for knitting!

I introuduced them to some of the traditions of knitting and recomended books on the trip down and now I've done all I can and I hope the knitting bug takes hold of at least some of them.

Now I think this blog is long enough so I'm going to go watch some Stargate and knit!

"Get back and let a man do the Popcorn!"

In Which I Knit Socks

So here I am again.

My last post to this blog was in November and a lot has happened then. So much has happened that I actually did not pay attention to any of my emails, ravelry, or any blogs that I follow for almost the whole month of December. Now that I've caught up with everything and gotten through the crazy that has been these past two months I felt it was time for an update.

Apart from my grandmother getting the stomach flu on Thanksgiving day and passing it on to my dad who then passed it on to me (this was the begining of the crazy), then finally starting to work three days a week, and all the other stuff that goes along with Christmas including spending 7 hours at church on Christmas eve. I have actually gotten a lot of knitting done. I have had my first ever Christmas knitting, been knitting to get rid of my stash, and am now working on my knitting new years resolutions.

Chirstmas knitting always has a good story with it. I've heard of many from other knitters which include such fun things as sleep depravation and finishing hats to go in stocings in the wee hours of Christmas morning. My story is this - I was only making Christmas gifts for two people, my Mom and my Brother. For my brother I choose to make a Jayne hat and a set of juggling balls. For mom I was making a wrap she picked out. I started both of these projects very early on so I was sure that I would have plenty of time. Due to this feeling of not needing to rush I worked on my Christmas projects sporadically and worked on other projects in between.

The week before Christmas I suddenly realized how little time I had left and how little yarn I had left for mom's wrap. I ordered more online, hoped it would show up soon, and set to work on finishing Kevin's gifts. A long doctors visit that was mostly waiting gave me time to finish the Jayne hat and start sewing up one of the juggling balls. A few nights later I was up at midnight watching Legaly Blond and finally filling the juggling balls, they went under the tree the next day.

During that time my yarn that I had ordered showed up I opened it on the Tuesday a week before Christmas and suddenly realized it was the wrong yarn. I had accidentally ordered the yarn I had used for the Jayne hat. I frantically ordered more and it didn't show up until the Saturday before Christmas. I frantically worked to finish the last sleeve and was up until 1 a.m. on the 23rd sewing it up it was wrapped on Christmas Eve.

For Christmas I was given among other nifty tools a yarn meter, so I immediately went to work measuring all my yarn and planning projects for it. I now have great plans for using up almost all of my yarn before I go to college in order to make it easier to travel and store (it's much easier to store nothing than a whole lot of something).

Then the new year came and I made some resolutions. I read the Knitting Daily and one might notice the banner on the side of my blog saying that I was a Fearless Knitter for 2008. I believe I lived up to that name too, I made my first sweater and it fits, and I tackled my first Christmas knitting as well as other things. Now I also have a banner proclaiming myself to be a Fearless Knitter in 2009 and I began to wonder how I would live up to that name. I came up with three ideas. I decided that in the course of this year I would conquer my fears of socks, lace, and colorwork.

I began eagerly last week with socks. I can now proudly say I have knitted a sock and am knitting it's mate and have plans for more!! The rest of the resolutions will hopefully come to fruition in the course of this year.

That's all I have for now, I'm off to finish my second sock!

In Which I find how dependent on knitting I really am.

It has been just under a month since I last blogged.... My life is crazy.

So last update I was about to leave for D.C. I have been there and come back and it was great. I met a lot of really fun people, bought books and knitting magazines, got rained on, learned how to make oragami, and walked about 50 miles.

While I was in D.C. I learned something about myself. When I don't knit for a couple of days I get very angry and a little violent. Really. I nearly punched out a guy I'd barley met because I thought he was talking too much. Instead I went and asked a guy I did know if I could punch him because it would make me feel better. I did and I did feel better.

I also got to lead my group a few times and I remembered how much I like being in charge of a bunch of people. We had a simulation in which we were solving the kidnapping of a 9 week old baby, and we had to interview all the people involved in the case. We could only have 3 people do each interview, and in order to give everyone who wanted to a chance to interview I had do draw out a fun little scheudle and make sure we got where we were supposed to when we were supposed to and had our interview questions ready. It was crazy and hectic and I loved every minute of it.

We presented our case at the end of the confrence and my group got 2nd place which I think is pretty good considering we didn't even have the right guy and a group that did didn't even place.

We spent a lot of time out over that weekend and I got oodles of fantastic and funny pictures. I also got quite a few rather strange ones. It was all great and I had just over a 50 pound suitcase when I was done.

I've also been getting ready for the day camp I'm helping put on next week so I've been busy with that for the past few days. I've decorated a jumpsuit to be a racing uniform (it's awesome) and I've gone over all our Bible studys and made more age appropriate ones for the middle schoolers that I'm teaching (they were all for little kids), and I've also learned how to work the sound board in our church so I can run sound for our assemblies. (like I said, my life is getting crazier by the week)

I've done quite a lot of knitting latley considering how busy I've been with other stuff. I have just finished the sweater front of Nebulous, I'm well on my way with Marianne, and I have bought the yarn for my mom's birthday present which I will start tomorrow on her birthday. I am making her a bag with the same pattern as D.C. but it will be black with a tweedy black and gray front panel. When mom told me that this was what she wanted for her birthday I made her spend an hour on the computer picking out her colors. She just wanted to say a color and be done with it, but there are far too many variations in colors in yarns to not look and pick out exactly what you want.

I also had to go to the dentist twice this last week. The thought of getting my teeth cleaned at the dentist actually makes me want to throw up. In order to combat this feeling while I was actually getting the work done I brought a swatch of knitting with me. I had practiced knitting with my eyes closed and I knit through my entire cleaning. I did pretty good too. Having found out that I had a cavity I went back once again armed with knitting and knit through the entire sandblasting experience. I didn't drop a single stitch the second time. Now I can go to the dentist without fear. But not for another 6 months, thank goodness!

My last bit of big news is that after I got back from D.C. I decided to clean out my closet. Having already done the entire rest of my room and bathroom I assumed that it would be easy. Then I started actually taking stuff out of my closet.

It didn't all fit in my room.

I do not know how I had so much stuff stuffed in there but after two weeks of battle in which I did not always have a sure place to sleep, I have conquered my closet and gotten rid of a room full of stuff. (pictures on the next post) I am very proud of myself for this accomplishment.

In Which I Get More Yarn and Find a Place For It

I had a very productive last couple of days.

It all started on Tuesday when I was looking in my room(which was rather messy) for my copy of To Kill A Mockingbird. I hadn't found it on my bookshelf so I went to look in my nightstand. Among other things in my nightstand that hadn't seen the light of day for years I found a book that my mother had bought me many years ago called Organizing From the Inside Out. Since I still didn't have TKAM I picked it up and started reading.

All of the first part seemed rather familliar and I even found some notes I had made tucked into the pages. Tuesday night I finally got through the first part and was ready to get to the part of actually orginizing my bedroom, which at that point I was determined to do.

At that same time I got an email from my mom that the Halfknits (A charity knitting group made up mostly of homeschoolers that I used to be involved in) were having a yarn sale. Apparently someone had contacted them and wanted to donate all of her yarn.

Why would anyone do this? Well it turns out that for some reason this particular lady was going to marry someone who wouldn't let her keep her yarn. Weird, right?

Anyway, the halfknits had all this yarn and they couldn't use it because they only use machine washable yarn for their projects. Thus they were having a yarn sale on Wednesday night. I was of course planning to go.

So, now we're to Wednesday. Despite my plans for Wednesday, first I had to go to work for the last time for a month. I had left work early the previous day so I was really hoping I'd get to stay for a little while so I could make a bit more money. Of course, when I showed up there was nothing to do. Nothing at all. I stood at my station talking to Patty about the new system we were begining to try and then Amy(my boss) came in and I was pretty sure that she was going to tell most of us to leave. We had a meeting about the new system we're implementing (which should be all set in by the time I get back) and then she did tell most of us to leave. At least I got to stay for half an hour and get paid for it.

So I came home and got started on my organizing project. I read through the chapter on one's bedroom first (I always read all the directions before I start), and began. The first step was to sort, so I took everything out of my nightstand, desk, under my bed, and where ever else I found stuff and sorted it into many piles on my bed and the floor next to it. A couple of hours later I was ready for the next step. This step was to get rid of stuff from each pile. To go through them and decide what to keep, what belonged elsewhere, what to give away, and what to toss. Awhile after that my piles looked much tidier. One of my worst piles was my stash. I had long ago planned to be a knitter without stash. So I have no idea how my stash got to be so big. I went through it and got most of my old acrylic I had bought for baby hats and a blanket I was never going to finish and set it aside to give to the Halfknits. At this point I had been working for about 4 hours straight and my mom was coming home so we could go to the yarn sale. A good time for a break.

Now I've heard about these yarn sales where people are getting rid of some or all of their stash for outrageously cheap prices, but I'd never been to one before. I had heard what might happen so I went and got 50 dollars out of the bank so I could spend no more than that. I got there and there were 2 bins and a whole dining room table loaded with yarn. It was awesome. I began to sort through it and start a "maybe I'll buy this pile." after awhile, when I had sorted through most of the yarns I looked into my maybe pile. There were a few skeins of hand dyed ribbon yarn in there that even on sale were $15 a skein so I set those aside and even after that my pile came up to $64 rather than the $50 I had planned to spend. My mom however told me to get the yarn and she would cover the difference. She's awesome.

So I went home with less yarn than I had gone with (I had a lot of acrylic) but I was very happy. After watching a couple of tv shows with my mom, I had to put most of my piles of stuff away somewhere if I wanted to sleep on my bed that night. I had decided that my desk is really the place I do most knitting that I don't do in public so my desk has turned into a Knitting and DVD zone. My chair across the room is where I'll do my homework and studying, and My current books are kept by my bed.

I'm not entirely done, but I feel so much better now that I have most of my room organized. I have to talckle my bookshelf and closet separately and I also want to do my bathroom which I can barely use for all the stuff I don't know where to put right now.

Now if only I had the money to buy the extra containiers I need....

TTFN!

P.S. It's Friday the 13th!!!

"I dare you to move."