Hello, 2012

I feel like I haven't been around here forever! December was, by far, the most academically challenging month of my life and I was left completely exhausted. Once my exams and papers were finished up I entered a vortex of laziness and simultaneous busyness. Now that the madness of Christmas has settled down I have a bit more time for myself and my needles.

I started making myself an Effortless Cardigan (Rav link) to bring in the new year. The theme of my new year seems to be coziness, and this fits the bill perfectly. My next semester is shaping up to be a doozy, with my honours project and some seriously heavy courses, so I'm going to need all the sweaters in the world to keep me warm during my impending late nights. Not to mention that I got the yarn, the not-so-glamourous Patons Classic Wool, on sale on Boxing Day for the lavish sum of $22.

I also have the intention of writing out my goals for the new year, but that will have to wait for a new post and more brain and willpower than I have now. One of these goals, however, is to take more photos and I fortuitously came across this nifty challenge. I'm participating via Instagram and my username is Hannahschm, I would love to hear from any other participants! So far I only have 2 photos, but I'm looking forward to having a collection! I hope the challenge continues for the rest of the year, I failed at a 365 project a year and a bit ago, but I really like that this challenge has some direction to it for days when I'm not feeling inspired.

So that's all I've got for today, I plan on spending my afternoon with Bones on Netflix and some (seemingly) endless raglan increases. 

Happy Monday everybody!

Copycat

I've eluded to my epic procrastination skills before, and I'm sure this is something any student reading this can relate to. Here we are, at the end of October, midterms and assignments looming, schools to be applied for, supervisors to befriend, and I started a new project. 

When I was small and first started playing with yarn crochet was my go-to skill. My ten-year-old self found the two needles far too clumsy and slow so I learned to crochet like the wind. Since I picked up knitting seriously in the last 4 years my crochet hooks have been covered in dust and languishing in a jar. After all, I certainly can't multitask while crocheting the same way I can with knitting. I found myself at a breaking point last weekend where my brain literally felt full. I had spent an hour reading a single page of a journal article and absorbed nothing, so I abandoned all schoolwork and picked up a hook and some fat yarn to re-create a cowl I saw on Tania over at What Would a Nerd Wear. 

The yarn is Bernat roving, an 80% Acrylic and 20% wool blend that leaves something to be desired. I bought it mostly for the lovely teal colour that I imagined in a highly textured cowl, but I didn't think I'd be crocheting it, that's for sure. I've been experimenting with different stitch patterns to little avail. Trying to find the balance between loose and fishnet, firm and rigid, seems to be something my brain isn't doing too well. Also, there's the problem that my swatches have been lying to me. The micro scale just isn't working out in macro, and so far I've crocheted the equivalent of 1.5 cowls and I still haven't settled on a stitch pattern I like. In the photo above I was experimenting with a linen-type stitch that came out to be so stiff I inadvertently made myself a Miss Universe sash. 

Hopefully I'll find time to make some progress which will probably mean picking up a new hook in a size between what I have handy. That is, if I can finish my paper, study for my next skeletal anatomy exam, read a book and prepare a presentation. 

Happy Wednesday! And happy midterm/paper/project/surviving to all students!

New Favourites

I don't have much in the way of knitting content to share. I've been plugging away on my Kerrera but some of the shoulder directions are seriously messing with my brain, so it's in the timeout chair. Given that the weather has taken a turn for the autumnal around here, I've picked up my Fiddlehead Mittens and am burning through them.

I'm using some Manos Silk Blend as a contrast and Rowan Scottish Tweed Aran as a main. I picked up both while on holidays and didn't have anything in mind for either when I bought them, so I'm pleased with this mini stashbuster project. Not to mention the soft hand of the silk is a great contrast to the roughness of the Scottish Tweed. I'm not sure what colour I'm going with for the lining, but I'm thinking a light grey might look nice, but that's a bit boring. Maybe a green? If you guys have any suggestions that would be awesome.

The only other thing I have to share with you my new favourite breakfast food ever. Quinoa.

I use it a lot for dinners and salads, but today was the first day I tried it with a breakfast spin. I used the recipe from Dinner at Julie and it came out perfectly. Hopefully it will fuel my day of writing grad school statement drafts and reading my neglected sociology textbook.

Study Study

In continued new-school-year efforts to procrastinate at every turn, here I am on the eve of a terrifying bell-ringer exam on the upper skeleton. The whole thing. All the little bumps, grooves, tubercles and epicondyles. Add to that the stress of endless readings, my honours project looming in the background and the even bigger, darker cloud of grad school.

Nonetheless, I'm still knitting.

That's a swatch I worked on last week for a hat for James. He's heading off to Europe for a week on Friday, and it's my duty as knitter and girlfriend to keep that head warm from afar. I had him choose a yarn from Mr. Yarn and he chose Madelinetosh Tosh DK in Fig. It's great to work with, and I even got a skein for myself to play with later. The hat's coming along nicely as well. It's morphed into a hybrid of the Jacques Cousteau hat and the decreasing in Turn a Square. He's tremendously picky and never wants to be knit for, so I hope it comes out to his liking in the end.

Apart from that, here are some small joys around these parts:

A fancy and beautiful new necklace from Kate Miss of For Me, For You. I spent way too long admiring her jewellery and took the plunge.

My new latte making suite. I also invested in a Moka pot and an adorable bowl from Anthropologie. I'm hoping to accumulate a set of them over the next year, and 1 is a good start. Not to mention it's the perfect size for a sleep deterring caffeinated treat! This weekend's project is to perfect the pumpkin spice latte as I just can't afford to buy them every day at Starbucks.

Autumn in the river valley. Simply the most beautiful thing. It was also quite hilarious to watch Birch try and get the boats full of rowers coming down the river. (Don't worry, we kept a close eye on him to make sure he didn't get taken away)

Happy Monday!
(Also, most of the photos were, as you guessed, taken with the Instagram app. I drank the Kool-Aid and it's oh, so sweet)

The Lost Summer

I had such big plans for the last summer months. I was going to spend more time spinning and knitting. I was going to learn how to can my plethora of CSA veggies, read more and run farther. Instead, I spun just about nothing, knitted very little and am still afraid of canning. I haven't really read anything extracurricularly and have been merely maintaining my running distance.

Instead my time was consumed by a disappointing summer class and this handsome fella:

He's not mine; he belongs to James' mom and we're the official acting puppy-parents while she's away. He takes up much more of my time than I expected, but it's worth it. I mean, look at that face! (And, if you're so inclined and into dogs, check out this adorable video James put together with footage we took a couple weeks ago)

In my knitting world, nothing much is happening. I feel like I've been knitting my Matsuri forever, so I starting a sanity-saving Meritursas beret. I'm doing it in Canopy Worsted which, like all Fibre Company yarns I've been working with recently, does not disappoint. It's like knitting with a butter/silk blend. Delicious.

So, there's my afternoon in summation. I'll be sitting at my desk working on my hat, watching old episodes of Buffy and drinking a beer. I spent the afternoon dyeing up some laceweight BFL/Silk which is busy drying up in the hot second floor of the house, so I'll be back soon to show off my handiwork!

Happy Saturday!

Slow Saturdays

Good Morning! The first thing I have to share with you this morning is that I did an interview for Deborah over at interrobang knits this week! You can check it out on her blog here, she frequently posts about some really interesting topics so you should run over there even if you don't want to read about me. I was super flattered when Deb asked me to kick of this feature for her. I had so much fun answering the questions she sent over, I hope you enjoy reading my ramblings. I'm looking forward to reading about more people! And if this is your first time over here, welcome!

This weekend, I have actual knitting content for you! I was finally reunited with a camera. I'm posting from my deck while trying to dodge baby raindrops and getting ready to go for a run. It's almost embarrassing how little progress I've made on my Wicker Cowl, but at least I can say I'm over halfway finished. The pattern calls for 5 repeats of the lace pattern but I'm confident I can squeak out 6.

One of the things I love most about lace is how it so naturally pulls fabric into interesting directions. I'm loving the rippled edge on the bottom of this thing.

This project is also my first attempt at using the Zephyr Needles from Knitpicks. I had a bit of a startitis emergency at one of the houses I was cat-sitting at, but realized that I was in the house of a knitter and found these. I was expecting them to be pretty terrible and sticky, but I've been quite impressed overall. The movement is quite good, without being too slick. I think they would be great for working with slippery silks, but there is one flaw that would drive me over the edge with smaller yarns.

You can see right through the needle to the other side, and consequently the other half of the stitch. This project has been pretty easy in terms of having to monitor my stitches, and the yarn is large enough that it's not a huge issue, but I can foresee that driving me bonkers on some projects.

With that, I'm going to finish my breakfast which happily includes tea made from the monster mint plant growing in one of my boxes. All this rain we got has turned it into a beast. A tasty, tasty beast.

It's a chocolate mint plant, and I highly recommend getting your hands on one if you can. It grows like gangbusters with almost no effort and, while I loathe mint tea 90% of the time, makes fab non-gag worthy tea. Do you have any favourite homemade tea ideas? Once the sun comes out I'm planning on making some minty sun tea, but I'm stumped for now.

Happy Saturday! And don't forget to head over to interrobang knits!