GATA club is like and alligator gonna eat you up!

Nearly a month and no update. Jeez. Maybe this blogging thing isn't for me. But I like it. So whatever.

School is just a psycho as ever. 17 hours (my normal being 12....) of work, a teacher/adviser I can't stand even looking at hardly, plus, I'm pledging a club! As a senior. I think I might be suicidal...hmmmm

But anyways, yes! I am going for GATA! Girls Aiming Toward Achievement! The girls (and beaux) are really awesome, plus we're not subjected to nearly as much ridiculous, demeaning idiocy as some of the other clubs. There's one that literally takes their girls in a room and yells at them until they cry. Not necessary. Why would you want to be around those people? Seriously? I love my GATA girls so much. And our cheers are great! We even has a Lady Gaga one! Makes me laugh. So hard.

"Rough night" is Friday and all I know is there's mud involved. But no one knows that.

In other news, my 3 year anniversary with my boy is Wednesday! But as it's pledge week we're celebrating on Saturday by going to Little Rock and having a day and then going to the fancy restaurant in town where we went on our first date before we even starting dating. He took me out on my first date ever, and we weren't even together! Guess it's destined to be!

I'm still up for suggestions on what to make for the booth! See previous post for info!

102 degrees, and that's just me

This has been a very.....hard to explain week, full of family fun, nervous breakdowns, and bad illness. I had a weekend with my mom at our Fall Festival this last weekend and it was really really fun, but it made me extremely homesick as soon as I left. Which has never been a problem before. I started getting a little cold that Saturday, and by Tuesday it had escalated so much that when I went to the nurse Wednesday morning she said I had a fever of 102 and ordered me not to go to class that day or today. Dizzy, achy, shivery, and half-dead I went back to my room and watched movies all day. My wonderful boy took good care of me and got me whatever I wanted/needed.

I had a breakdown over lots of stressed things. From everywhere. But it'll be alright. Things are good.

Lots of knitting in the works. I've got a pair of fingerless gloves/glittens (gloves with the mitten top) on the needles in that shiny skein of $28 orange yarn I got in my package! (See previous post) They're going to be uber happy. I just don't have a lot of stitch holders (they're all sitting on another project) so I'm having to improvise for the fingers....See pattern here. I'm doing the bigger ones at the top, not the bottom pattern.

There is a crafty thing going on in November here in town and my friends and I are going to sell stuff there! As it's in mid-November I'm going to make Christmas-related things. Anyone else have any suggestions? What kind of things would you want to see that would entice you? Mind you, I have just over a month, plus a full school load.

I'll start working at a farm this weekend. A big corn maze, pumpkin patch, petting zoo, and even some singing! It should be rather fun!

Picture Time!

Wow this has been an eventful week! In good and bad ways. Mostly good though. I'm doing the whole club process here at college. (Sorta like sororities, only not as slutty/cruel/alcohol-induced). As a senior. Yeah. I'm kinda insane. But regardless, we've had tons of fun doing all the crazy activities! I've been to a "Holiday" themed mixer, a "Wacky-Tacky" mixer, and a "Little Black Dress/Hollywood" mixer! They've all been fun, but I think tomorrow's will be the best: Nerd Have More Fun!! I'm going as Jayne Cobb of Firefly! My two roommates are the president and vice president of GATA, who've done the Wacky-Tacky mixer and are doing the Nerds Have More Fun one. I think I'm going for them, but going to mixers is fun no matter what club it is! I'm crazy excited for this mixer!
Reference photo of Jayne for the un-educated. Note the amazing knit hat from his Momma. Jayne loves his momma. But don't get him wrong. He'll kill you same as lookin' at you. Gorram it. For more information, see the numerous Jayne Hat patterns in the previous post.

I've made (and by "made" I mean bought and used iron-on sheets) a sort of copy of one of Jayne's shirts. The "Blue Sun" shirt. 'Cept mine is dark brown and has sleeves. And of course the logo is from and iron-on shirt thingy, so it's not as nice. And got white around it. I'll post pictures later.

Now, I call this post "picture time" because I got my Firefly swap package from my awesome swap partner today! And I'm posting the pictures. Everything I got was super shiny!




See all the awesomeness!!! Let's see if I can get these in order: Everything together, and awesome Jaynestown Canton T-shirt!!, a skein from the Sanguine Gryphon ($28!!!! zomg!), Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince pins (not firefly, but still epic), a hand-made (I believe) little bag with a cute knitting sheep!, the Bellatrix sock pattern found here on Ravelry, some nifty wash stuff that I'm not certain how to use yet for my knitted items, and finally, she knitted me the Bellatrix socks!!!!! They're so comfy and happy and made of Claudia Hand Painted yarns (100% Merino wool!). She even gave me the leftovers of the two skeins she used for the socks. So freaking happy.

So, yeah. Awesome times. After the nerds mixer I'll post some shiny pictures. Enjoy!

You Can't Take the Sky from Me

I'm sorry it's been so long (again). My main laptop, Xemda, has the Win7 AV virus. It acts like an antivirus software that you download, except when it tells you that you have "THREE BIG SCARY DEADLY VIRUSES!!!!!!111one" that it can only get rid of by updating, you have to pay like $60 or some such nonsense. And it won't leave you alone until you do. It just keeps popping up every three seconds saying "LOOK! LOOK! VIRUSES! PAY ME!" So I just turned poor Xemda off and need to take her to the dormnet peoples to haev them fix it. Since then I've been using my new netbook Wheatley! He's an Acer Aspire one. Purple on the outside with black keys, but purple all around the keyboard! It's shiny and brings me joy.

But in my absence I've been involved in a Firefly swap! It's still going on, so I won't tell you what I've made, but when it's over I will, with pictures! But, in light of that awesome theme, I've of course been searching lots of happy patterns and things that are Firefly related! So I'm sharing them in another pattern list!

Firefly Patterns

Knitting:

Jayne Cobb Hat Tea Cozy-A cute little tea cozy for the fans of Jayne!

Hoban Washburne "Wash" Cloth-Ravelry download. A wash cloth for a wash lover! It's knit with two colors instead of making the design with knitting and purling. The instructions are charted and written out, so whatever's easier for you!

Jayne Hat Brooch-This looks like you could make it in just an hour or so. Worked flat and sewn.

River Tam-Can't have patterns without there being a nice play on words. The River Tam is exactly what it says: a tam based on River Tam! Available as a PDF or Ravelry download.

Simon Tam-Same as above

Firefly Class Serenity-That's right! Serenity herself! The pattern is a bit complicated, but still very doable! PDF

Wash Sweater-The sweater Wash wears in "Out of Gas" and "The Message" was turned into a pattern by the Big Damn Knitters group on Ravelry (which I am a proud member of!)!

Strawberries-Inspired by Kaylee of course! These are the simplest things ever to knit. And they're adorable.

Leafy Fingerless Gloves-Again, Wash inspired. These are a Ravelry download.

Leaves-I'm not sure what to call this, because the pattern calls for only making a string of around 6, and so it's not terribly long. Of course you can add more or less to make it a headband, necklace, or even a really long scarf!

Jayne Hat 1-Jayne's classic hat! I'm just going to list several versions, though they all have the same basic idea.
Jayne Hat 2
Jayne Hat 3-Ravelry Download
Jayne Hat 4-This one includes a crochet version!

Leaf on the Wind Blanket-A really pretty leafy lace blanket. Ravelry download

Serenity Illusion Scarf-The link just leads to a giant chart. This is the link to the Ravelry page for the pattern

Jayne Hat GPS Cozy-Ravelry Download. More Jayne hat stuff, but for a GPS or other squarish electronic thingy!

Browncoat Insignia Illusion Chart-Ravelry Download.

Crochet:

Kaylee Fry-This one's not free but it was too cute to pass up! It's a little crocheted Kaylee in her outfit when she's looking for passenger's in episode 1 "Serenity". Complete with umbrella!

Our Mrs. Reynolds Shawl-Replica of the shawl that YoSaffBridg wears in episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds"!

River Tam Vest-River's white lacy long vest thing. Not sure what episode it's from.

There it is! A list of shiny things to make that are Firefly related, if only in a roundabout way. Enjoy! If you know of any others, let me know!

Stealing a Concept, or Taking a Leaf?

Is there really all that big a difference. Well...I think so. ChemKnits, a wonderful blog I watch written by an awesome biochemistry PhD candidate knitter (those words together are scary). In her blog she will occasionally do pattern searches for specific items (See her search for Felted Brim Hats and Drop Stitch Scarves) and they're very well done and helpful! So I thought I'd try and do that for things that I really want to make. This will help out when I don't have a camera to take pictures of projects or don't have anything fascinating to say. So I'll actually post more often! Hooray!

For my first search for patterns, I've recently gotten an urge to make a big comfy pullover sweater type deal, so I figured it was a good place to start.

Geisha Sweater-Worked flat in pieces. The sizes are in UK measurements, so I don't know what they fit, but the picture looks like it would fit a large maybe? Maybe bigger. If anyone knows UK measurements I'd appreciate the help! (This site keeps bringing up a username and password box, but it doesn't kick me off for not entering one so.....)

DROPS Jumper with Hood-Worked flat in pieces. Sizes S-XXL. This hoodie is adorable and looks pretty simple. And there's a bonus hat pattern!

Harry Potter House Sweater-Another flat-knit sweater modeled after the Harry Potter movies! Fits ladies size 10.

Urban Bat Sweater-Free Ravelry Download. I'm having PDF troubles so I don't have details on this one.

Summer Storm-Another free Ravelry download. Another PDF I can't look at, but the picture looks happy.

Banff-Another one knit in pieces. Oversized sleeves and big size for lots of comfort. Sizes S/M and L/XL

Casual Hooded Pullover-A pattern from the Creative Knitting newsletter. Knit in pieces with some cabling, so it's a little more complicated.

It's a little short, but these are some nice sweaters that are big and comfy looking. If you have any patterns you'd like to submit, just leave me a comment!

Woah My Bad

I had no idea how long I'd gone without posting...oopsie. It's mostly that I don't like talking about my projects when I don't have pictures! Numerous things have indeed happened though.

Let's see. My boy adopted a 4 mo. old chocolate lab puppy a week ago. Then left to visit his family in California. Since that time his landlords have discovered him and ordered him out by last night. So I had some wonderfully generous friends (a couple who live about 20 minutes from here) take him in just to hold on to him for me so we could find him a home (since the shelter wouldn't take him). Well they've grown attached already and might keep him themselves! I already miss that puppy...he was so loving and adorable and smart and sweet.....

Moving on....*sniff*

I earned $50 for making a purse! It was unevenly striped with Caron Natura in Espresso, Lt. Rose, Peach, and Sky Blue! I even added a little intarsia bird (found here) in the rose color with a little blue eye! It was adorable. But I only added the bird because she wanted one. It was a very large purse. 75 stitches across, and a little taller than it is wide. I found a really nice (remnant bin!) fabric with pink and green and white and a tiny bit of orange stripes. Honestly I was sad I had to give it away! I loved it! Hopefully I can get a picture of her with it and post it....Or at least a picture of the purse itself. I wrote the purse pattern myself and will post it soon.

At the moment in still working on the mitered square Super Mario 8-Bit Blanket. But Katie, I hear you say, that's a crocheted granny square blanket! Well you silly skeptics, I am part of an "8-bit Knits" group on Ravelry, and upon mentioning my sadness that it was a crochet pattern, some lovely people pointed out that you could easily make the same thing using mitered squares! And I found out that they were right! Mitered squares are very very easy and I can make several squares in a day (which is good because there are a lot of squares to make!). I haven't worked on it in awhile...I should get back to that.

I've also been working on a 1950's Shoulderette that is about halfway done. And I cast on the stitches for this awesome Brownwin Skirt. I hear that and my mind instantly jumps to "Browncoat" so it's going to be my Firefly-esque skirt! (For those of you unfamiliar with Firefly, go to Hulu and educate yourself on it's awesomeness. Go. Now!)

This skirt has brought me a trouble that I seem to have with large projects: CIRCULAR NEEDLES!!!! I hate them....I'd rather have 10 dpns going at once than deal with circs....does anyone know a good way to stop the yarn from bunching up on one end!? Am I a knitting failure!? HELP!!!! I actually want to make this skirt a lot, but if I get frustrated with having to stop every 10 stitches and push the bundles of bunched up stitches down (lather rinse repeat), I'm not going to ever work on it.

The boy comes back from Cali on Monday and I'm so excited! I miss him. Happy knitting!

Just a Little Update to Make You Jealous

That's right! I made a first try at Intarsia, and this is what happened! A Super Mario villains purse!!!!!!! It took me two days of work, which isn't bad given that I've never done intarsia before, and both of these had three colors each.

Be jealous of the awesomeness that is Blooper the Squid and...Cloud Man! (if you happen to know his name let me know!)

The purse itself was a made up pattern of my own, but the Mario character charts were found here. I love this so so so much!

I lined it with one of my old t-shirts so that my keys wouldn't poke through it since it's just acrylic Red-Heart Super Saver.

I've just been informed that Cloud Man is called Lakitu!