iamsarah

Eighty Percent

Saturday, March 13, 2010 at 12:53 a.m.

A long time ago I knit this hat for Dave. He requested an alpaca hat with colourwork, and this was what I came up with. A while later I knit another one for the shop.

I'm finally getting around to putting the pattern up! I am slow.

It's knit with less then a ball of each colour of Baby Alpaca Sport from Diamond Yarns, and it would make a great first time fair-isle hat.

and yes, that's crochet along the edge, but if I can do it, so can you!

(i suck royal hippogriff at crochet!)

You can download it here!

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Andromeda shawl.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 4:02 p.m.

I love this shawl.

I love the structure, it's modular, and not like other shawls. I love the edge, even though it's a pain in the ass to knit!

and I love the yarn! It's Viola Sock, dyed by my awesome friend Emily who has an amazing colour sense.

The shawl took me just under a month to knit, and that's with the knitting olympics thrown in. It's not a hard knit, but you do have to pay attention. Every row the chart only repeats once, so you're stuck looking at the chart the whole time. And it's a big chart. But oh so worth it. I love it. Have I said that?

The one bad thing is that I really need blocking wires. Pin blocking just doesn't cut it for this shawl. I'm itching to block it again, properly, with wires.

In other news, lest you all fear I'm still stuck in the middle of a snowpocalypse, Spring has arrived in Rochester. (kind of.)

Aren't they beautiful?

Heading to Toronto for the weekend tomorrow. I can't wait!

Then NYC next weekend! for AIPAD and massive amounts of museums and galleries. Also, I'm thinking Purl Soho, and Brooklyn General.

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Snowstorm aftermath.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 at 5:55 p.m.

Apparently, that was the biggest snowstorm in three years. The snow was crazy!

Here's what it looked like when D'Arcy and I went out on a walk the next evening:

It came up to my knees!

The Eastman House gardens.

GEH

Then, despite the snow, Cheryl came to visit me!

It was fun. We ate too much, and watched Heroes and Supernatural, and on Sunday we went to a concert!

It was Frank Turner, and Flogging Molly. I love Frank Turner, and it was awesome because we got to meet him:

But things got shitty from there. During Flogging Molly, there was a crazy crowd. Now I've been going to punk shows since I was fifteen and thought I was badass. I'm old now. Cheryl and I just wanted to have a few drinks, dance, and enjoy the concert.

The security guards went into the crowd (i'm not sure why, everyone was being very friendly) Someone pushed me, which wasn't an unusual thing, I got pushed around a lot, but this time, I got pushed into security. Hard. They grabbed me, one on each arm and ejected me from the frigging show dragging me the whole way, despite me trying to explain that I was pushed, that my younger sister was in there, and would panic if she couldn't find me.

So I stood outside, in the snow for 45 minutes, in a t-shirt until the show was over. They wouldn't let me back in for my coat, or to find Cheryl who was panicking. Finally, after Cheryl had accosted all the security guards inside telling them that she couldn't find me, she walked by the door and I saw her.

Long story short: Don't go to concerts at the Main Street Armory in Rochester. I'm a fucking 26 year old grad student. I didn't DO anything. The security are assholes.

Nice to pay for a concert you only got to see half of though.

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Gold, and snow.

Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 1:41 p.m.

Ok. so scratch what I said in the last post. Apparently, once I challenge myself to knit a sweater for the olympics, I must finish. Because I finished a week early.

Behold: The Olympic Moch Cardi

Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes, 10.5 balls.

Mods: My gauge was off by a stitch, so I made a smaller size then I would have otherwise. Also, I added a full buttonband after finishing the body, instead of doing the half button band that the pattern calls for. Also, when there's buttons, they'll be all the way down. I didn't want another top-buttoning only sweater - I already have two.

The knitting is finished. However, it's not ready to wear. You see, I hate the colour. I ordered the yarn from Knitpicks, and when it arrived, the blue-ish teal colour I thought I ordered was plain, boring, bland blue.

Not the end of the world. I'm going to overdye it. But I don't have a big enough pot. Well, I do, but it's in Toronto, and I'm not. So, if I can't find one (pot) at the thrift store this weekend, I'll just have to wait 'till I get back to TO.

All is well here in Rochester, where unlike Toronto, we actually are having winter. Check out the snow! (we're supposed to get 12-15 inches in the next day.)

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Knitting Olympics.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 11:48 p.m.

The Knitting Olympics / Ravelympics / whatever you want to call them start this Friday. I've always participated. I've got a team canada jersey from four years ago, and this Friday I'll be casting on as part of team Naked Sheep.

I'm going to make the Moch Cardi, out of knitpicks Wool of the Andes. I've wanted to make this sweater for a while, since it was released. I'm excited to finally have an excuse to knit it, because I think it'll be a very wearable sweater.

However.

I'm feeling ambivalent about the whole deadline knitting concept this time around. I am always up for a challenge, but life is hard for me right now. I'm up to my ears in school, and while I'm not going to lie, I still fit in more knitting than I should in any given week, I'm still really busy. Yes, the Olympics fall at the beginning of reading week, so while I'll have more time then normal to knit, I also have a literature survey for my thesis due at the same time.

So yes I'm participating. I'm excited for the sweater, to spend time with my Naked Sheep teammates, and to brag to non-knitting friends about the knitting olympics (it always makes me look like an even bigger freak then I am to them!) But I'm not going to stress the deadline aspect. I'm not going to pull all nighters to finish the sweater, and I'm not going to put knitting ahead of grad school.

6 more months. I keep telling myself that.

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Vintage photographs.

Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.

Today D'Arcy and I went to Bloomfield, a nearby town with a lot of antique markets. I spent 11 dollars total, but walked away with some awesome photographs, and some vintage buttons.

These are the buttons. I'm thinking about them for my upcoming olympic Moch cardi, or perhaps for the Vine Lace cardigan.

I've never posted photos of my vintage photo collection. I've managed to amass some awesome things.

This I bought today. I think it's an early photobooth portrait.

Those three photos came in a set, and all of them have the same woman in it. They are all postcards, and from reading the back, we determined her name is Ellie.

This one i've had for awhile. It's a photo from an old Kodak #1 - the first point and shoot camera -"You press the button, we do the rest."

This is a hand coloured postcard. I have a set of postcards that I keep meaning to frame and hang, all of which are hand coloured.

This one is a portrait of two men in a studio (I'm assuming) in Niagara Falls. There's a painting of the Falls behind them.

I keep all my photographs in an archival box that I made with trays for different sized prints. As a rule I don't pay more than a couple of bucks for any of them, and I choose whatever interests me, either because of the process, or the image.

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Damson or, why my thesis is not evolving as fast as I'd like it to.

Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 11:14 p.m.

I finished another shawl:

It's Damson, from the amazing Ysolda whose designs I seem to knit quite often. (this is the 7th Ysolda project I've knit in the last year... granted I did knit 2 liesls, and 2 ripleys, but still!)

The yarn is Malabrigo sock, and it used just under a ball. I was concerned I was going to run out, but in the end I was fine.

I'm just not sure if I like it on me. I might end up gifting it to my sister for her birthday.

Speaking of my sister, she want's me to KNIT 2 small curtains for her new apartment. I'm thinking of using 5mm-ish needles, the new Noro laceweight from the sheep, and just doing them in stockinette. What do you wise knitters think?

School is kicking my ass this week. I just had to submit a thesis outline, and I STILL don't have a solid research question. Part of the reason is that I didn't get to look at my primary research materials (Kodak ads from the early 20th century) 'till this week, but I'm feeling lost. I know I want to work with the ads, and I kind of know what I want to say, but I just can't get the research, my thoughts, and the material to all make sense together. It's very frustrating.

Reading week is less than two weeks away. I will be home for a week and a half- it'll be wonderful! I miss my sister, and my boyfriend, and my kitties, and my knit night ladies. It'll be NICE to get back to Toronto.

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I'm on a roll

Sunday, January 24, 2010 at 10:11 p.m.

I finished a shawl!

It's Springtime Bandit from Kate Gagnon, and I knit it out of two skeins of Malabrigo.

I know I never use Malabrigo for myself - I don't like the way it pills if you just look at it, but this is a shawl. I figure it's the least likely to get pilly. We'll see.

What else is new? Hmm....

I went home last weekend, to see Rent. It was awesome. This weekend I am buried in reading for my thesis.

Fun stuff.

Also, I cast on for Damson right after I finished the Springtime Bandit, and it's almost done! Two shawls in two weeks (hopefully)

Then, I'm going to start on the Andromeda Shawl using Emily's gorgeous new yarn - Viola.

It's ridiculously warm in Rochester. I can't even wear my Fiddleheads - My hand's get too hot. I've gotta say, I'm a little disappointed. I was all geared up for the EPIC Rochester winters, and then we get hardly any snow. Boo!

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Bad photos of a new hat

Saturday, January 16, 2010 at 1:59 a.m.

The other night, I knit a hat in three episodes of Supernatural, and some course reading. It was pretty awesome.

It's called Capucine and it can be found on Ravelry. I used Briggs and Little double stranded. Honestly, I think B&L is THE best yarn out there. I LOVE it.

Also, the colour is fucked up in these photos. Man, you'd think with a degree in photography I'd understand things like colour balance. Well, I don't. : )

In other news, I am in Toronto this weekend, because Cheryl bought me tickets to see Rent this weekend. We are going tomorrow. It will be awesome!

And check out the epic icicles outside our house in Rochester:

They are awesome, even if it does mean that the house is losing crazy amounts of heat. Every house in the neighbourhood is like that... likely because they are all ancient houses.

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I am mean.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 2:06 a.m.

You see what I did in the last post? I went away for a month, finally blog again, and it's a clip show! What a douche I am!

Well, not to fear, today I have NEW content.

(unless you are on Ravelry, which, everyone is, so I'll try to post something even NEWER)

I finished mittens last week:

And what pretty mittens they are!

My Fiddleheads are knit with Diamond's Alpaca Peru on the outside, and pure cashmere from School Products in NYC on the inside. They are beautiful, and almost too warm! I love them!

I almost ripped them out while knitting, because after I had finished the first two colours, I didn't like the way they looked together. But I stuck it out, and I'm glad I did!

They were part of the Fiddlehead KAL @ the Sheep, and took me a little longer then a month, including Christmas knitting, finals, and H1N1. So, not bad all in all!

Today was the first day of class. Tomorrow is the second day. Then Thursday, I'm heading home (already) to see Rent (it was a christmas gift from my sister!) Which means...train knitting! Yay! I'm currently on season 2 of Supernatural - excellent knitting TV. I think I'll bring my Springtime bandit to work on.

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Oh Hai! Remember me?

Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 11:15 p.m.

Oh dear. I went home for the holidays, and forgot all about my blog. So sorry.

(but in my defense, there was christmas knitting, then I got H1N1.)

To make up for it, here's a montage of ALL my FO's from 2009:

That's 33 Finished objects, for those who are too lazy to count!

Including:

8 shop samples

7 grown up sweaters

3 little sweaters

3 pairs of socks

6 hats

2 blankets

1 ginormous scarf

1 penis

I consider that quite an achievement, considering I've also been in grad school this whole time.

Other interesting things that happened to me in 2009:

• Trip to NYC in February

• Internship at the Royal Ontario Museum in the summer

• Knitting classes with Annie Modesitt, and Fiona Ellis @ the Naked Sheep

• The big move to Rochester NY

• Seeing many many amazing photographs in real life, and not behind glass, including Talbot's Pencil of Nature in Ottawa, Atget's at Ryerson, and Lewis Hine, Julia Margaret Cameron, Timothy O'Sullivan and many, many more at the GEH.

Am back in Rochester now. Expect more from me soon! promise!

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See you all in a week!

Monday, December 7, 2009 at 9:36 p.m.

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The end of term.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 1:34 a.m.

Oh crap do I hate the end of term. School is hard and busy all the time, but at the end of term life falls away, and is completely taken over by reading, and writing papers.

So, of course, to prepare for this, I've gone home to Toronto for the last three (!) weekends!

Last weekend, it was American Thanksgiving. I dicked around, didn't do any schoolwork, and worked at the Sheep on Saturday and Sunday. I missed working at the Sheep! I bought yummy yarn, and got to spend time with fantastic people!

The weekend before, I went home for my mother's surprise 50th birthday party. She didn't know I was in town for the weekend, so the party truly was a surprise!

I knit her a blanket which I haven't taken photos of yet! so more on that later. But, I also did all the baking for the party, I made cookies, and this awesome cake:

It was my first time making a cake with fondant icing, and I think I did a pretty damn good job! It tasted yummy, and got rave reviews from the family too!

The weekend before, I went home too, and my Mom and I went to the Royal Winter Fair, as we do every year. We eat alot, watch the fiber demos, have a beer (or two) and go to the cheese tastings. It was fun!

Here we're having a beer at the horse ring.

And I'm hanging out with a sheep!

Back to paper writing hell now. This is all over on the 11th - 11 more days, then I get to go back to Toronto for almost a month! woot!

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Ripley!

Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 12:29 a.m.

I made a hat. I am stocking up for winter, in case you hadn't noticed.

It's Ripley, and holy crap does it knit up fast!

I have been wearing it pretty much non-stop since Thursday!

I made the lace band, and the less-slouchy version. It used much less then one ball of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes bulky. I made the large size, but my gauge was also screwed up (despite my swatch) so it came out small. But meh, wool stretches anyways.

In other news, I shrunk my Selbu Modern (purposely) because it was too big for my non-dreadlock head. I threw it in with my laundry, on warm, and it came out perfect!

This is, unfortunately the only photo I have of it at the moment, before I blocked it again. But it's awesome, trust me.

Also, just for reference, my hat is made in Rowan Felted Tweed. The label says is is machine washable. I consulted Ravelry, and there's a lot of pissed people on there saying that it's not washable, and my felting of the hat proves that for me! Always do a test wash, don't just throw your knits in the washing machine willy-nilly!

I'm in Toronto right now! Tomorrow I'm going to the Royal Winter Fair with my mom. We will eat a lot, drink, look at pretty bunnies, sheep, and fleeces, and have a lot of fun!

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Eighty Percent

Andromeda shawl.

Snowstorm aftermath.

Gold, and snow.

Knitting Olympics.

Vintage photographs.

Damson or, why my thesis is not evolving as fast as I'd like it to.

I'm on a roll

Bad photos of a new hat

I am mean.

Oh Hai! Remember me?

See you all in a week!

The end of term.

Ripley!

Tweets!

Tweets!

ravelry!

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