faeriedreamz

I am so excited about Christmas this year. Perhaps it is because I have chosen reasonable projects to make for family and friends. It could also be that this is the first year in 3 years that I can actually ENJOY Christmas. I used to work at Wegmans, a food grocer in Upstate NY. Now, I am not saying anything bad about Wegmans, working there was a wonderful learning experience that taught me a lot... However, anyone in retail can tell you, the Christmas season is just no fun. I hope that I can remember that as I shop for the holiday this year. I am ready to listen to happy music, see lights and decorations, and start celebrating the best time of year in my own heart. I am certain that my fiancee living in NY is helping that happy feeling to exist! Now on to other things: These are my happy feet in a bright happy Trekking XXL. As you can see I didnt' weave in the ends yet. I am actually wearing them today, without the ends woven in. I am a naughty knitter. I have had pictures...

someone reads this... i have pictures on the camera, but a large paper due on MOnday and 2 presentations due on Wednesday and a paper due on Wednesday. As a result of those facts... my post with pictures will be put off... I am hoping to have time tonight. But i CAN'T do it now... because I should be revising my paper! :)

So I haven't finished TemptingII, or whatever else we should call it.... I am a slacker. And school started. Its hard to bring an almost done sweater to school to work on it. I really can't do that. Sooo instead I knit Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby surprise Jacket. It was kind of annoying to keep track of all the stitches... but it is so cute it is worth it... and I really didn't figure out how it really worked until I was almost done. SOOOO CLEVER really. She was an engineering GENIUS. GENIUS!! Unfortunately mine is kinda ugly, its red with heather brown accents. I don't know if either of the pregnant ladies at church will want it... so I am going to make more, and I shall see how it turns out! My goal today, in class, is to start a hat; maybe finish it? We shall see. If i can get my camera back from my thieving sister *j/k* I will take some pictures. (I lent it to her so she could work on her digital imaging class.)

Tempting ii was never going to fit. It just isn't designed for a girl who has a 44 DDD. It would never have worked; but I just didn't want to face the facts. Instead, I knit blindly on- working hard on the several inches of 1x1 ribbing until I finally reached the armpit. I checked my gauge, and even put the live stitches on some black crochet cotton to check the size. The body fit... sort of. It fit around me, no doubt, but it didn't fit over my boobs. I have BIG boobs... the sweater fit the back of me, it went from above the tail bone to just under my arm pits... but the front, well the front rode up something fierce. I knew that i would never wear a sweater that rode up in the front. I was ready to frog it and start something new, but I realized that at 12pm such decisions need not be made. (To top it off, at this point I was highly infected with icky icky Upper Respritory Infection !ewww mucus!) So I held off, and waited to talk to my mom. She convinced me not to ...

I picked up Tempting II again- I tried it on with a piece of cotton through the loops so that I could see how it fits. Utimately I realized that my chest is so big that there is no way it is going to fit right as a straight tube top. Right now I am trying to make short rows to fit my boobs. We will see if it is sucessful. Before I picked my Tempting II back up, I worked on the second of my first ever Trekking XXL socks. I got the yarn in a wonderful shop called Creative Yarns in Cohassett. I loved that shop. I would go back in a second if it wasn't over 6 hours away! Soon I will take pictures of the work I have been doing- but here's an update for now!

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the start of Tempting II. I adore the color, and am very happy with the way it is knitting up at 200 st instead of 260. I think the extra stitch s were creating a lot of extra weight on the needles. Hopefully my calculations will prove fairly accurate, and this baby will fit! What I have knit so far is one ball, and I did it in less than 2 days! If I can keep up that speed, I can have this done by next week... and that is the goal. I want to get things done much faster. I am hopeful about this, anyway. And when I am done with it, I want to finish my brother's flame sweater! (the one I "gave" him 2 years ago at Christmas ago!) (Please excuse all the cables.. but the kitchen is the best light I've got right now!)

So i finally got the camera battery charged enough to get the pictures off the camera and up on my blog. I am going to pretty much just post all the pictures at once! The blue pictures are me knitting in the Centenial Park on the 4th of July, and my new $3 on sale yarn from a LYS. I also splurged and bought some Bryspun size 2 needles. I usually go with the lovely Brittany needles, but am so tired of breaking them. So far the Bryspun are a thumbs up! Unfortunatley I did some internet searching and it looks like Bryspun is discontinuing them :( I want to get knitpicks dp ns... but haven't had the courage to order $40 worth of yarn for free shipping yet. I don't need more yarn.... and i don't need $40 of needles! The yarn is regia, and the pattern is just a general toe up pattern with an "invisible" cast on. Instead of increasing in the stitches, such as a knit 1- knit into the back of the stitch, I decided to try a yarn over. I know... its silly they are socks, not...

This was my quick and easy project. I made it for my cell phone, because I COULDN'T stand the idea of buying an over priced cellphone holder from Verizon, or a cheap cheezy one from Walmart. I got the bag at the Women of Faith 2006 Conference in Rochester NY. It was very cool, because it is from World Vision, and I was planning on sponsering a child through them anyway. They gave me the free bag for allowing them to take money from my credit card. :) I was delighted with the bag, its huge, and I have a beautiful young lady named Roda from Zimbabwee. I am going to write her a letter very soon. My boyfriend and I picked out the yarn, it was one of the closest color choices in a thin cotton yarn. What can I say? I went to Micheals! The button was out of my mom's vintage-ish button collection. I ended up giving this one to my mother in law to be, because she really liked it, AND she got a new older cell phone. She didn't like the size of the phone, but it was digital and h...

Wow... Time flies when you are worried about finals! I did very well this quarter, gaining a 4.0. One of my teachers gave me an incomplete for class, but I handed in the final project a week early. Someone else in the class got that too; so I am thinking it is a fluke or mistake with the computer system. I've done a bunch of knitting since I last posted but not a whole lot of it was productive. I haven't finished anything! I ripped out the baby blanket about 3 times now. I started a flat knit with seed stitch that is double stranded and on size 13 needles (i think...) the work is going faster now, but sheesh. I started Eunny's free Print O the Wave stole- I just had to make some lace! I am not joining the great lace- I don't have that kind of time to commit to getting this done! Last week I went to Toronto with my friends for an Anime Convention (Anime North) and afterwards we went camping for the 4 hottest days this summer so far. It was frustrating. We ended up s...

You Are 32% Evil A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well. In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil. How Evil Are You?

I finished the heel on the green sock the other day. I haven't gotten too much farther, but its not with me right now. I will have to take a picture when I get back to it. For the moment I am working on the baby blanket for Josie's neice, Brooke. Here it is! Brooke is newly adopted and 16, but Josie really wanted her to have something special for herself. So i am using the pinwheel blanket, with a beautiful blue color from Lion Brand. Brook lives in a desert so I decided that a cotton blend microfiber would be appropriate. I am really enjoying how the blanket is coming along, but I am hoping that i can figure out how to spice it up a bit, since it is pretty boring. However, I think that I can do a fancy bind off, and I am hopeful that Brook will use the blanket as a shawl as well. (Or at least that she will like it enough to think about it.) Anyway, I am excited about it. Josie seems pleased too. I just hope Kari has been working on her blanket for the other newly adopted niec...

But there is progress on the socks. The green ones. I am turning the heel on #1 as soon as I am done typing. I am stuck at school tonight till 10, again, so the hope I had for photos is little to known. I have to make an interactive PDF based on a brochure that I just finished designing today. Its great. (In all sarcasm) I am trying to find a freind to eat dinner with me, but it looks like I am on my own till 6. I have Metals class tonight. The plan is to kick some wax a** and take names. Actually, I am carving wax rings tonight so that we can cast them, next week I think. I hope to get done early so I can bow out. I would be working on the interactive pdf right now, but the dunder head that I am, I left the power cord at home. It's really really useful there. Soooo yea. Grrrrr. I love Billy Corgan. And I love The Machina of the Gods. Some people think its the worst album the Smashing Pumpkins released, but I think it is wonderful. Oh and Porcupine Tree. I love them too. I need to...

Today, at "work" I did a whole bunch of stuff. I feel the progress, or something. I got 15 minutes left and I finished the 75 pages of reading that was due tonight before class! It's excellent. So anyway new knitting news. I started the baby blanket that I am making for Josie's new neice. Mys sister is making the other blanket for the other new neice. They are adopted, and Josie wanted to give them something nice and new and their very own. I was super excited to help. Later tonight I will try to post a pic. Its a super simple round blanket, but maybe it will double as a shawl. My knitee is 16, after all :) Anyway happy days to all. gtg to class.

So, I know I have too much yarn. I saw the other bloggers do "flash your stash" at the beginning of April, and I realized I could never do that. I have way too much yarn floating around. It's kind of a sick obsession. I may be able to brainwash some friends into getting paid in yarn to help me organize it all this summer. I just want to label the darn boxes and have the same stuff in the same box. Hopefully a lot of it will be used by the community knitting group I hope to start. Nothing new on that front. I think maybe this summer can be a jumping off point. I was really on fire about it, but the desire to continue trying to do it has abated somewhat. (Sadly :()I think reality of RIT set in, and there just hasn't been a lot of time to do anything. I got a new computer between now and the last time I posted, and I know have a camera on my computer. This is exciting because I hope to be able to at least post pictures of my knitting projects. Speaking of which, her...

Sorry I haven't updated in so long, I was hoping for a camera, and waiting to take pictures until i got one. Unfortunately neither has happened. I will just have to post pictures from the camera I have, and hope its enough! I just finished a baby sweater last night as I watched the Superbowl at church. It is pretty awesome, my church- we used the projector last night as a BIG screen and watched the game. For me it was really more of a social event, but I was rooting for the Steelers- and they won :) I have to get a zipper tonight, if I remember. Hopefully I will have the baby sweater finished and in the mail tomorrow. I have to send the stripey socks to tony too... They are done and have been done for over a month now... And the presents for my bf family from christmas. I didn't buy them till i had money, but they haven't gotten sent yet either. :( I will get to it soon! The baby sweater is soo cute, everyone that has watched me knit it is so proud of my progress! Now o...

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. Life has been crazy! I am an RIT student now, work at RIT now (goodbye wegmans!) and I haven't had too many minutes to myself since November 28. I am currently working on 3 projects. Working actively, that is. I found the strawberry pie shawl so I started that with some lovely yarn (LionBrand 100% wool) that I dyed with Koolaid. The picture is of me frogging, but the project is much farther now. If i can dig up my digi cam i will take a few more. I started a second shawl in lionbrand white wool (the big 8oz one), and I will make my best friend help me dye that after I knit it. The other project I have been working on is my mom's socks. They are a late Christmas present, she decided she wanted them about a week before Christmas-- so she got yarn in her stocking. I am using some LionBrand Magic Stripes. The yarn flavor is Denim Stripes. Mom likes the one that is done... the second one is in the works. In other knitting news, I mee...

I went to the Warm Up America website and I was so wrong... Warm Up America is an organization that knits and crochets blankets for many needy people, including the homeless. So I apologize for my last post and that it was so upset. I was dealing with my own perceptions of the homeless. Honestly I have seen that thinking elsewhere, and it is definatley one of the things I want to overcome. I talked to Kathy, my coach, yesterday, and she was really excited about my ideas. She and I are gonna talk in depth about it tomorrow. I am excited. I am supposed to come up with an outline... and I just don't know how to set it up!... but i will manage. Its very cold here at home tonight.

I was thinking about how exactly to get the knitting for the homeless project started. What do I need to do? What do I need to think about? One of the things I have been noticing is that there are a lot of knitting for charity projects/charities out there. I have read several that use money and knitted items to help children (who are essentially poor), people who are very ill, and people who are in dire living situations. So, why, do I see so little about homeless organizations? Why is it that the only people who get consideration are those who cannot help the situation they are in? I have noticed that there is a commonly held idea about the homeless. It is that they brought it upon themselves. Perhaps they were too lazy to get a job, too fat, too slow... whatever. We Americans, and I can only speak of Americans... we don't want to help people when we think that whatever has happened to them is "thier own damn fault." This, i think is the primary reason why I haven...

so this is the beginning. of something i hope that will prove to help me get going. Get going on what, you ask? Well, I will tell you, since you asked. Recently I took a class at church about Spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are things that a person is talented at and that they use to help others. (Usually used for others benefits and not themselves.) This is really important, because Spiritual gifts are different than natural talents. Well, ultimately what we realized, as I went through the course, is that I have a heart for hurting people, and I desire to care for them. This would generally consist of doing things to help people with physical, spiritual, and emotional needs. This seems so very much a wide and huge category-- but i realized that the person group I really cared about... had a burden for... where the homeless of the Rochester area. Apparently, the Rochester subway system (now defunct) is where many homeless people reside and live in the winter. This would explain why I...

This is my first post in blogger, and actually I already like it better than my LJ account, it is definately prettier to look at :) I hope that this journal will be a place to post images, talk about my knitting, and to show others my work. I also have a "in progress" website , thanks to my boyfriend, Brian Blankenship. He is on this site too, my love