FO: Err, Sorta

Ok so the project isn't actually finished.  But I'm (sadly) so excited to be done with my first square!

This is the first square done for my Copenhagen Royal Shawl Scarf.  It's exciting because I've had to restart it so many times.  I think I was 75% done once before I realized I was short 1 stitch in one of the repeats.  And since I was working on it in the car during lunch breaks from subbing, of course I didn't put a lifeline in.  I tried fixing it but it just wasn't working so the whole thing was ripped out.  I tried dpns, 2 circs (I forgot how bad the generic box-store circulars are...those cables are so STIFF) before realizing that it really is just best to do magic loop with it.  The first time I tried this I was getting horrible ladders but for some reason it worked this time.  You can't really see the lacework in the picture but once it's blocked I'm sure it'll be awesome.  Now off to work on my NLC a bit before doing some homework.

Some Lovely Things

Happy Valentine's Day!!  A little late, you say?  Well, not for me.  Because of crazy work/school schedules, The Boy and I just celebrated Valentine's Day Monday night so therefore I've been putting off my Valentine's Day post too.

Here's my baking for Valentine's Day (or at least what I haven't shown yet):

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting (at the bottom)

(also available on the package of Hershey's Cocoa Powder)

*it's amazingly delicious*

Yummy Sugar Cookies

Brother ate all of these :o)

Cupcakes

These were supposed to be for Valentine's Gifts, but I had so many extras I wound up giving them away to customers at the card store and The Boy gave some away at Red Lobster.  Dad did have a bunch for breakfast too though the next morning :o)

This was supposed to be a Christmas gift but it didn't ship in time.  I say it was a great Valentine's gift instead:

It's a necklace.  The charm is a ball of yarn with knitting needles sticking out.  :o) yay!  Unfortunately, the charm seems to be too heavy for the chain and the chain keeps slipping through the jump ring.  Gotta get a thicker chain for it I guess.

Here's the finished Emma on the birthday girl (full post to come later):

Oh Brooklyn Flea, how you tease me.  I did not find the Scavenger Hunt item :o(  I did find a bracelet that I liked but The Boy didn't.  I didn't buy it.  Figured I'll come back later if I'm still thinking about it.  While I wasn't looking, he bought it for me :o).  Such a sweetie

The wrist chain is HUGE though.  But I'm thinking since I've been dabbling in jewelry while making stitch markers for the soon-to-be Etsy shop, I have the tools to alter it a bit and find a way to shorten it.  I think it's going to need a new, smaller clamp to hold it close and I can take all the extra jump rings off because I obviously don't need the option to make it longer.  Other loves from Brooklyn Flea:  my Mash Veggie Dog from AsiaDog and a Banana Peanut Butter Cupcake from Kumquat Cupcakery.  (Notice how it's all about the food with me...)  I did see some super soft awesome printed tees there too.  Grabbed the guy's card but I don't know where I put it now.  He did have an Etsy shop though so when I find it beware!

After the Flea a friend and I headed over to Brooklyn Central Library for the first meeting of the Brooklyn Yarn and Fiber Guild (yea we picked the name during the meeting hehe).  It was pretty interesting- we discussed bylaws, dues, meeting places, and had some getting-to-know-you going on.  Of course I have work scheduled when the next meeting is but I'm gonna try to switch days maybe.

Yesterday I came home after class to a teensy box sitting on the floor of the vestibule with my name on it.  What could it be?  (Of course I forgot all about the package I've been waiting for, but then again it wasn't supposed to be here until March 4th).  My business cards came!  Thankfully everything was printed correctly and they look great!  I used a general template from the free section of Vistaprint for now until I get a banner/logo created for the shop.  I just had to order these though so I can start handing them out on the subway.  People stare at me working so I might as well make use of their interest right?

It's all about the loVe...and something I don't love

I was going to write a post about Valentine's day but decided to post-pone.  That fun till have to wait until next week (maybe).  Instead, here's just some fun things I'm loving right now...

Alice in Wonderland Trailer...can't wait to see it!!
(Sorry it doesn't fit...it won't let me adjust the size)

http://emilyhopeprice.wordpress.com/
This chick is awesome.  She's created this blog to do her challenge projects:  The 365.  She's writing, recording and posting 1 new song everyday for a year.  That's a biiiiig undertaking I'm sure.  As I can't do any of that stuff, I'm going with that.  She's also in a band (how I found out about her and her project) called Pearl and the Beard.  It's 2 chicks and a guy.  Which I found out from roommie (who works for their record label) that by "Pearl" she (not Emily, the other girl in the band who's name I can't spell) meant "Purl" because she knits!  As if I needed any more reason to love these guys.  They changed the spelling so it would match "Beard."  They are amazing singer and musicians- they have guitar, some sort of drums, cello (that's Emily), a kid's xylophone which is awesome, accordion and maybe a violin (I'm not good with naming instruments haha).  The band's site is http://pearlandthebeard.com/

Oh oh oh I found a funny video of them.  This is their Will Smith Medley (I llooooovvveeee Jocelyn's dress in this video!)


Pearl and the Beard - Will Smith Medley from Goddamn Cobras Collective on Vimeo.

First, the name Pyrex immediately catches my attention.  This is tomorrow's Scavenger Hunt item for Brooklyn Flea.  Basically, it's a giant traveling flea market taking up residency in various parts of Brooklyn for short time periods.  Right now it's in an old bank.  Boring right?  NO!  This place is gorgeous!  It was built back in the day when people actually cared about how their buildings and interiors looked, back when people were all about being ornate and decorative.  There's so much marble there, and being that StepDad is a tile guy specializing in marble, I was suggesting he come if they were going to be in town on a weekend (they were not).  But in telling that, I found out that Grandma used to be a cleaning lady there during the after hours to make some extra money as a kid/youngin' (yes this was back in the day too).  If you want to see some pictures you can check out the owning company's website:  http://www.skylightnyc.com/ (click One Hanson).    The Scavenger Hunt...  Each weekend the Flea posts 2 items (one for each day) that will be free to whoever finds it.  I want these!  Purely because I found a tutorial online for making teacup pincushions.  I hate the boring old tomato/strawberry ones and loved the creative and pretty ones the lady made.  And these would be perfect to make some with!  So tomorrow I will be hunting for them, as well as some fun beads/buttons and such for knitting projects and stitch markers.



Lion Brand never ceases to amaze me with their crazy creations.  These are giant knit animals that were on display the Craft and Hobby Association convention recently.  They blogged about it here on their own site.  But definitely go check out the pictures they're amazing!

This site is hilarious...

Site Caption:  "Because who needs a face when you've got a lot of yarn?"http://whyisthisathing.blogspot.com/2009/12/part-eighty-three-love-no-face.html

It's from the blog http://whyisthisathing.blogspot.com/ which is freakin hilarious.  Definitely check it out.

Here's something I don't love :o(

This is a video from Thursday night/Friday morning of one of the schools I sub at...





With one school down now, looks like I won't be getting many calls for the rest of the school year.  Guess that means more time I can spend developing my etsy shop (and doing homework...maybe).


- <3 -
Steph
xxo

Oooops

So much for trying to update more often.  Can't believe it's been a week already!  For a week of no subbing (public schools are on vacation), I've been pretty busy.  I did work at the card store 2 days and then The Boy and I have been just hanging out a lot- taking advantage of us both having some free time for once.

It's been a month since I gave an update on the NLC.  I really haven't gotten all that much accomplished on it in the past month, mostly because of the nonstop hat commissions.  But there has been advancement!  I've joined the sleeves and started the colorwork.  Check it out:

Starting to Separated the Sleeves

Getting there...

From one to two!

Waiting to be joined to the body

Here's how it fits so far

It's hard to try on when the stitches barely fit on the needles all scrunched up

Laid out

Colorwork closeup

.
I'm still concerned about the sizing.  We'll see about it though as the knitting progresses.  Oh and another problem:  I still can't find buttons.  I went to 3 yarn stores today and nothing.  I'm gonna have to venture into the city one day and check out some of the fabric stores in the fashion district I think.

In other news, I've started developing the etsy shop.  Nothing is listed yet because I want to make a decent stock of items before actually "opening."  But here's a sneak peak of some of what I'm working on...

I've also finished another pair of Weekend Hats, with quite a bit of yarn leftover:

My first customer, Tijah has just requested another 2 hats!  That'll be 4 in total for her.  She's awesome :o).  I didn't have enough of this black leftover for the plain black hat she requested :o(.  I got some great Crock-O-Dye yarn at Gotham Fine Yarn to make the olive green and off-white hat she requested.  She said I can go crazy with this one (yay no more stripes!!!) so I'm doing argyle.  I knit up 2 swatches to see which order she likes better.  And while we were at the yarn shop, the girls there said The Boy is my Hat Pimp.  I think it's true haha.

Today I ventured out to check out two new yarn stores:  La Casita Yarn and Brooklyn General.  La Casita is new (I think?) and in 2 weeks will be adding the cafe portion of the shop.  They will be serving wine, pastries and coffee.  Can I just move in?  

Brooklyn General was everything I heard it would be and more.  Oh my gosh the amounts of yarn they have.  The store is probably as big as my apartment and one loooooong wall is pretty much only yarns, plus little stands here and there.  There's also amazing fabric...can't wait to go back for some to make some box project bags.  

Purchases today weren't too interesting:  some plain black yarn for one of Tijah's hats, and then some mystery yarn and notions for my Magic Yarn Ball Swap.  Oh and I bought more Fez for some new Emma Hats in more sizes so I can write up the pattern (hers so didn't fit but she liked it anyway) and some blue yarn to knit a laptop sock with the leftover black and grey yarns.

Off to do some knitting!

- <3 -
Steph
xxo

Opening Ceremonies

The Olympics are starting!  I'm once again watching the opening ceremonies.  Second time in my life.  I actually think it's a shame that practically no one I know is watching.  I remember being a kid getting our Scholastic News in school and reading about current events.  They made a big deal of the Olympics all the time.  What a letdown it was to grow and and realize most people in our country just don't care.

Well I do :o)

Good luck to all the competitors. RIP Nodar Kumaritashvili.

Good luck to all the Ravelympic-ers and Knitting Olympic-ers.  I look forward to seeing your projects!.

As for my knitting?  I've spent the day working on Emma.  Here's a sneak peak:

Happy (almost) Valentine's Day

Yesterday brought about some more baking for me...but not so successful.  I attempted sugar cookies but I think I overcooked all of them.  Or else the recipe just comes out a little harder.  But I'd prefer them soft.  I only made half the dough yesterday so I might try cooking a little shorter today.  Doesn't matter because it's all about the decorating...to be done Saturday with the mini cupcakes all for Sunday.

More V-day fun:

Don't these just look delicious??  I found the picture on the Someday Crafts Blog which lead me to the actual baker at Poppies at Play Blog  (here's the post about the cinnamon heart buns).  How flipping cute are those lollipop holders for valentines??  I must archive this idea for when I have kids someday.  Or when I have an actual classroom.  (And now it clicks...no subbing today because everyone's having their V-day parties since next week is vacation.  Damn.)  And a message for the rest of you (especially if you've been snowed in like we were)- if you feel the urge to bake DO IT!  You don't have to go all out, you can use packaged stuff, but there's nothing like having something fresh baked, especially when you share.  (That's for you Jen!)

I need a little space to rant for a moment.  It's the complain that I always have and will have until I'm rich and retired (ha!).  I need more room.  Actually I need a whole apartment just for me and my stuff but that's definitely not feasible right now.  I always try to squeeze into the tiny places and I admit it, I have too much stuff.  I haven't even brought nearly everything from Dad's house to the apartment (I'm so not even interested in moving all my holiday decorations, especially the stuff Mom left for me and Brother when she moved).  But I mostly wish I had better space for crafting.  Knitting is easy.  I can do that anywhere without much need for room.  That doesn't count storage though.  Everything is stored in small bins in my closet or else bags and my project purses and then some things are just scattered throughout my room. 

I took this picture this morning:

That's my desk.  Computer tower is behind the chair under the desk and the white block down there is my sewing machine.  (And that's Mary's Vogue Knitting from 1987 on the desk chair that she loaned me...she's the best!).  I tried to buy a desk with a big enough flat surface that I'd easily be able to put the sewing machine on and work with.  But then there's the monitor and the desk organizer and all the papers and books (currently Stitch 'n Bitch Nation) and other random junk on there.  Ugh no room to sew.  Also no room to cut fabric.  Also, no room for the dress dummy to ever be set up to work with.  Sigh, someday I will have my craft room/office.

As for my knitting, the Weekend Hats for the boys are still not done.  I know, but I spent so much time baking yesterday I didn't get to devote as much time to them as I was hoping (same goes for my homework, which will be taking priority today).  But here they are photographed quickly this morning on my lap (netbook in the back, with the blog being written at the same time).  Emma's birthday is today and I haven't even started designing her hat yet...eek!

**I don't know why but blogger is refusing to center those last two pictures.  They must not be liking me very much today :o(

On to the knitting...

I have made hats now for Tijah, her cousin Jenny, and another Red Lobster friend Dawn.  OTN now is two hats for Jim and Branding who (thankfully) wanted just the opposite of each other:  one black with gray stripes and one gray with black stripes.  I made it through tangled knot portion of knitting because I refuse to cut the yarn between stripings.  I'm working on the decreases for the crown now.

I completely forgot to take a picture of Dawn's pink and white hat :o(  I'll have to have The Boy get a picture of it on her when he gives it to her (if he hasn't already).

With the leftovers from Dawn's hat, I'm making one for The Boy's little sister.  Her birthday is coming up on Friday- she's going to be 6!  We've still got a couple cold months ahead so she's get some use out of it.  And it will perfectly match the colors of her coat :o)

Yesterday's snow day was spent baking for Valentine's Day and shoveling snow.  I shoveled our stoop and sidewalk 4 times (and I know 2 girls in the other apartments did it at least twice) and I shoveled the car out 3 times.  And it was still piling up when I went to bed.  I actually had to turn down subbing for fear of not being able to get my car out/get the car started/make it out there if the roads weren't cleared.  Of course when I woke up they were perfectly cleared, but I'd still have a lot of shoveling to do before leaving which would have taken forever.

Time for some yummy goodness.  I've been planning on making baked goods for Valentine's Day to share with The Boy, his family, Dad and Brother, and Bonnie at the card store (I'll be working that day).  Plans were:  sugar cookies, chocolate mini cupcakes and white mini cupcakes.  The mini cupcakes were to have secret surprise pink centers and either chocolate or vanilla frosting.  Cookies will be glazed and I bought a bunch of sprinkles and confections for the tops of everything.

I wanted to do the sugar cookies yesterday but didn't have enough butter (and did not feel like walking to the store just after an hour of shoveling).  So instead I made two batches of cupcakes.  For the chocolate ones, I used the Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Cake (it's on the back of their cocoa powder boxes) and for the white (and pink filling) I used a basic recipe I found on allrecipes.com.  The way things worked out, it was much easier to pipe the pink filling first and then cover it with the regular chocolate or white batter. 

 I had a lot of  chocolate batter left over when I ran out of the cupcake liners so I figured throw it all in a pan and make a small cake with it.  Since it's someone's birthday this week, I wrote her name with the leftover pink filling batter.  

But that didn't work out so well during baking.

That's ok though because obviously it's going to be covered in frosting.  I might fill it too...we'll see.  But I'll re-pipe her name on it after it's frosted when I'm having fun playing decorator (that's all for Saturday).

This morning I went out and walked (over ice since some people are inconsiderate and don't shovel the sidewalk in front of their apartments/stores...ugh!) to the store to get milk and butter.  Once I'm done catching up on blogs and drinking my coffee, and the butter gets soft it's off to baking sugar cookies for me!

Little Fun Things

I'm going crazy right now waiting for Bonnaroo to announce this summer's lineup.  Not that I have the money to go, but a girl can dream right?  They're announcing the lineup one at a time over twitter.  That's about 200 artists (maybe more?) one at a time...slowly... over who knows how many hours.  Ugh torture!

Here's just some fun things before I head off to get some homework done....

Pretty Pretty Buttons

These are from Applieque Source's etsy shop.  I love the black ans white.  The print is just the right size for such a small product.  I just wish I had something to use them for.  Instead, I'll just stare at them until someone buy's them I guess.

Found this through LionBrand's Twitter yesterday...



How freakin awesome?!?!  I love amigurumi and even more when they sing to me (even if I don't understand what they're saying).  And well ukulele's are just fun.

The other day, a local blog listed what it takes to be a street vendor in the city.  Apparently, anything covered under the first amendment (free speach, political hooha, etc) can be sold without a permit.  One hat maker gets around that by sewing Obama patches/tags to the inside of her hats. Interesting.  I don't think I want to do that so luckily they also linked some info to actually apply for permits/licenses.  So yea I'm thinking about doing that too.  Thinking about that made me think about etsy, so I worked on created policies and such for the shop.  Haven't decided exactly what to work on for it yet though.  I know knits aren't going to be a big seller on there but I do want to start making stitch markers.  I'm slowly gathering the supplies necessary for making them.  Hopefully soon I'll get to that (you know, after the commissioned hats, a birthday present for The Boy's sister this week, the NLC, the Royal Copenhagen Shawl which I've barely started...)

I'm thinking about making some with pearls.  I have a pearl choker-ish necklace that an ex gave me.  I don't like pearls.  They're not my style.  But would it be too wasteful to use them in making stitch markers?  Hmm...

One last fun little thing found on the Ravelry Lost Group Forums:

How To Make a Sandwich on the Island…

Jack

1. Gather ingredients
2. Point gun at ingredients and shout “HOW DO I MAKE A SANDWICH OUT OF YOU?!?!?”
3. Breathe heavily through your nose as though you were about to hit ingredients
4. Give up and make the sandwich yourself, and eat it bitterly

Kate

1. Make separate sandwiches, one with peanut butter and one with jelly
2. Take a bite of the peanut butter sandwich, declaring it the best
3. Take a bite of the jelly sandwich, declaring it the best
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 ad infinitum
5. Follow peanut butter or jelly sandwich into grave danger

Sawyer

1. Throw the jar of jelly at wall, sneering “I don’t need no sandwich”
2. Call the mascot on the jar of peanut butter lots of clever nicknames
3. Huff and puff and stomp around and grumble a lot
4. When no one’s looking, make perfect, even, symmetrical peanut butter and jelly sandwich and sit in a corner, enjoying every bite

Locke

1. Sit idly by, believing that the ingredients will find a way to make a sandwich out of themselves
2. Lose faith and make the sandwich anyway
3. Realize that you were the instrument by which the ingredients chose to make a sandwich after all
4. Run around the room and grab everyone’s knives, insisting that their sandwiches will do the same in time

Hurley

1. Make sandwich
2. Eat sandwich
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 ad infinitum

Sayid

1. Procure 23 milligrams of uranium-20
2. Set hadron supercollider to eight megajoules
3. Program a sandwich-making macro using Cobol or Visual Basic
4. Act all tough-like

Desmond

1. Eat sandwich
2. Call the sandwich “brother”
3. Place peanut butter slice over jelly slice
4. Spread jelly on the other slice
5. Spread peanut butter on one slice
6. Take two slices of bread, a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jelly

Ben

1. Steal someone else’s sandwich
2. Claim you coerced them into making the sandwich for you all along
3. Say you’ll tell them everything if they make you another sandwich
4. Stare at them all creepy-like

Libby

1. Lay out plans for one of the most intricate, fascinating, and delicious sandwiches of all time
2. Just as you start making it, get shot

Danielle

1. Apply peanut butter
2. Disappear for eight months
3. Apply jelly
4. Disappear for eight months
5. Eat sandwich

Claire 
1. Mmmmmmm, peanut butter

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse

1. Make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
2. Have someone take a bite, then tell them it’s a baloney sandwich
3. Make up a whole bunch of other shit, then say you had planned it all along
4. Buy a few yachts

Sorry for the Offensive Smell

Things have been busy.  Between school, working (subbing), knitting commissions, and other new endeavors not to mention the always family/friends/boyfriend time consumers, I haven't had much time to just sit and write.  Not that I haven't wanted to.  Not that I haven't fantasized about the posts I want to be writing.  Unfortunately, blogging is not allowed to be a priority in my life...not when I have piles of school work to do (and trust me, I do).

I want to change that though.  I want to write more often.  Sometimes, I feel like I just don't have anything to add.  But right now I have so much, I don't know where to start...

Have I mentioned the brand new laptop I bought decided it doesn’t like letting me use wireless internet?  Yup, the happy new netbook must stay wired.  That is until the replacement one arrives.  Geek Squad (the best! as always) told me that netbooks are so cheap, that if they malfunction they will just swap it out for a brand spanking new one (I’m assuming there’s a time limit to this…seeing as how mine broke within a week I’m sure I was within that limit).  I asked Chris* what happens to the laptop when it’s sent back:  Answer:  fixed by manufacturer or scrapped for parts.  I can’t believe this thing, only a week old, can be sent to the scrap pile.  What a shame for my toy.

What's been keeping me so busy, you ask?

My new endeavor is…. Weight Watchers.  I officially am a member now and have gone to a meeting!  I’m not overweight so my mom keeps yelling at me for doing this, but I really want to be healthier.  Being a vegetarian, I know I don’t get all the nutrients I need.  WW used to have the Core Program where you have to meet a number of foods per food group (as opposed to the points system).  They got rid of this but since I did the eTools, I can still log this information on the website and it even puts a little smiley face next to the food group if I meet the minimum for a day.  The hardest group I have to meet is water (I don’t drink enough liquids period per day) and fruits/veggies.  I’m starting with babysteps- trying to just eat within the points I’m allowed per day and not to use too many of the weekly 35 additional points.  At the same time I’m focusing on trying to eat more fruits and veggies (especially because they’re so low in points).  Next focus (coming in March) is exercising more, especially regularly.  I have to get all my workout videos to the apartment from Dad’s.  A Florida trip at the end of March/beginning of April is also inspiring the get-in-shape thoughts :o)

So as far healthy eating when it comes to a picky-on-top-of-being-vegetarian like me...well, it's just hard.  Today's lunch though was yummy :o)

First, my WW bread was moldy so there goes the sandwich idea.  Check the freezer... Hmm a veggie dog sounds good.  Damn no bread (which I used instead of buns because I'm only one person and buying more than one kind of bread-product would just go to waste).  Well, why not eat my veggie dog like a kid?  Oh, because I only like them with tons of sauerkraut.  No problem, I'll make veggie dog-sauerkraut soup as I called it today.  

I'm weird.  I looooove sauerkraut (and dill pickles mmmm...).  So this look delicious to me but smelled icky to the roomie (sorry!):

Just throw some sauerkraut in a pot, toss in a cut up veggie dog, add a bit of water, and cook until it's hot enough to eat.

Pour it into a dish/bowl, add some ketchup and mustard, and viola!  Easy, instant, low-in-points meal!

Sauerkraut = 0 Points
Veggie Dog = 2 Points
Ketchup and Mustard = 0 Points
Carrots I had on the side = 0 Points
And then I rewarded myself with a WW Chocolate Frosted Creme Filled Cake snacky thingy.  That was 1 point.  All this talk about food has me hungry again though.

Coming up soon:  NLC updates, Weekend Hat updates, and a LYS review!

*I think this was his name.  He’s the same guy who helped me when Brother mis-reinstalled Windows on my desktop a couple months ago.  He memorably (still) has a broken arm on his glasses, which always makes me think of Harry Potter :o)