People say we monkey around

When Heatherly first posted about the Monkees hat contest for her SP9 group, I thought it was a little silly. With all this gift knitting I'm trying to get through, why would I spend time making a monkey hat? Then I realized I already had made one, and number two was in the works. At any rate and without further ado, I give you the monkey hats:




Specs:
Pattern: Velvet Touch Edge Cap, a free pattern from my LYS
Needles: US 6 DPNs
Yarn: Koigu Kersti in K200 (pink) and K400 (blue and red)
Pattern Notes: Easy peasy. And fun too! That is, all but the pom pom part. I really hate making pom poms. In fact, I think pom poms are kind of an oxymoron. They look so cute and cheery, and even the name "pom pom" sounds like fun, but making them is really anything but. But the hats, now that was fun.

So, two quick knits knocked off the gift list. Now if I could only get through those pairs of socks . . .





Previous Title: The Doobie Brothers, "Black Water"
- To Yarn Coffee: For a long time I thought it was "I'd like to hear that dixie leopard" and I always wondered what a dixie leopard was. Makes a little more sense as "dixieland," but I still have a hard time singing the right lyrics.

Old black water, keep on rollin'

It seems like I should be studying ALL THE TIME, and it usually feels that way, but there has also been some knitting in my world lately. Mostly gifts, but some other stuff just for me. Since my knitting time has been drastically reduced, that amounts to just a row here and a row there. I managed to get some i-cording and some felting done over the weekend, so that entrelac sleeping bag that Henry the Navigator enjoyed is finally finished up. Here goes:





Specs:
Pattern: Entrelac Suki Bag
Needles: US 7 circular
Yarn: Noro Kureyon in color 156
Pattern Notes: I'm not so impressed with this pattern. I took notes while I knitted, and I actually plan on rewriting the pattern as part of a secret pal gift, so if you have any interest, leave me a comment and I'll be happy to pass it along when I get to it. The issue with the pattern is that when you get to the first rectangle of each round, you have to make some fairly major modifications. If I hadn't done entrelac before, I probably would have given up early on. I do like the finished product for the most part, although I might rethink the round bottom and the i-cord handles. This is a gift, and I just know the person who's going to get it will love it, so I'm not so concerned about these issues for now.

Oh yeah, today's title. This colorway of Noro reminded me of this song every time I picked up the bag to work on it. I think it's because of the way the blue diagonal rectangles look a little like waves. It's less obvious now that it's felted, but the waviness is still there.

Can you tell I've been studying too much? I feel like I can barely put together a sentence. I think I need a real break now, one that doesn't involve reading and writing. Have a happy Thanksgiving!



Previous Title: Rolling Stones, "You Can't Always Get What You Want" - Notice the shift to classic rock lately?

If you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need

Sorry for the lame-o depressing post yesterday. Here's a little pick-me-up. Just to clarify, this is a pick-ME-up; you might care less about it, but it makes me VERY much happier than I was yesterday.

I'm going to apply to that program I was talking about! No special favors or anything like that, instead just a high stress level. I just registered to take the GRE on December 8th. Yes, that's right. Just over three weeks from today. So you might hear from me even less than you usually do. Just warning you in advance.

More yarn-y goodness tomorrow . . . maybe. I might be studying instead. Wait and see. But please don't hold your breath.



Previous title: Lou Reed, "Take a Walk on the Wild Side"

Then I guess she had to crash; valium would have helped that bash

I had a minor meltdown this afternoon after my last post. See, my exciting mysterious thing was that I found this great master's degree program and I was really really excited about it. I've had this idea in my head for a long time of where I want my career to go, and it felt like I finally had found a program that could get me there. After posting, I took a closer look at the application and decided to start in on it.

I discovered that it doesn't look like it's going to work out after all. I guess I know better than to jinx something like that by posting about it before it happens, but here I go doing it again anyway. For various reasons, I'm going to have to ask for some special favors in order to even apply to the program, and the chances of that being ok are pretty much slim to none if I had to guess. Tomorrow I'll call someone in admissions to find out what they think. I'll keep you posted, but I'd be pretty much shocked if anything were to work out. I'll continue to look for other ways to get where I want to be, but this one just seemed so right. I've calmed down a lot now, but it's just disappointing, you know?



Previous title: David Bowie, "Changes"

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes; turn and face the strange

Lately I've been thinking about making some changes in my life. I can't really say too much here, because nothing's really settled yet, and we all know about the dangers of telling all out in blogland. But I will say that I'm pretty excited about an opportunity that may present itself this winter.

Change is hard though, you know? It would be so easy to just keep on going the way things have been going, because nothing's really wrong. It's just that I don't think this is the direction I want my life to continue along. I'm a little afraid to get all excited about this new thing because if it doesn't happen, then I'd be really disappointed. On the other hand, if it does happen, that's a little scary too, only because I'd be leaving behind the safety and security of how things are now.

Was that cryptic enough for you?

In lighter news, I've been knitting an awful lot lately. I'll tell you about it someday, but for now my mind's in a million other places. However, here's a sneak peek:





Previous Title: Britney Spears, "Hit Me Baby One More Time" - I know, I'm still a little embarrassed about that one.

Hit me baby one more time

I know. I'm sorry about the title. Once it got stuck in my head I couldn't get it out.

It does fit very nicely, though. See, today I came home to another knitting package. Talk about good karma!

My secret pal hit the nail on the head with just one try. Check out this colorway - it's Lorna's Laces Pioneer:



The colors are actually pretty true in this photo, but it's so much prettier in person. It's so ridiculously me that I had to double-check that I don't already have it. I am so in love with these colors I can't even tell you. If I could marry sock yarn, I would be spending my weekend shopping for a white dress. Beautiful! Thanks Monkey Monkey, you're the best!



Previous title: John Lennon, "Instant Karma"

Instant karma's gonna get you

Warning: VERY photo heavy, but still lots of fun, so please wait while it loads.

After being patient for so long on a few swaps that have been going on, it seems it's finally my turn. First my KSKS bag arrives, and now Henry the Navigator has made his appearance.

Henry brought some terrific goodies from Rhonda. Take a peek!



From left to right, that's a cute sock notepad, A Good Yarn (which I have not read yet), "The Famous Salem Frog Spell" (details coming soon), a sock change purse that came with a piece of Dalmation Jasper, a needle/gauge checker thingy, and some tasty treats.



Oh yeah, and there was yarn. That's some Meilenweit Cotton in a fun orangy blue/brown/cream color - it's direct from Holland! And there's also some VIva CIta, just for fun! What's kinda funny is that I just picked up some of this sock yarn in a different colorway - great minds, you know?

But wait! Wasn't there something sticking out of that book? Oh yeah, check it out! A cutie-pie little sock bookmark guy! Wicked cute!



Thanks Rhonda!

I thought about taking Henry on a tour of Boston, but it turns out he's been here before. So, rather than tour the city AGAIN, I figured we'd just relax a little. Henry seemed quite pleased with this idea after his long journey all the way from Salem. To be fair, he has been all over, from Louisianna to Minnesota to Washington state to the UK, and many stops in between.

We sat out on the balcony (despite the slight chill in the air) and shared a bottle of red. We had some lovely chats about politics, given that today is election day after all.



It seems Henry may have had too much to drink.



Eventually, Henry decided he'd had enough, and laid down for a rest on the couch. It turns out that the Noro entrelac bag I've been working on as part of Norovember is the perfect sleeping bag for my new friend.



A good night was had by all. Henry will resume his journey tomorrow. Will he be sending his good karma to you?












Previous title: Ce Ce Peniston, "Finally"