Happy New Year!

Tomorrow is the Chinese New Year, which makes today New Year's Eve. Since I found myself awake at 6 this morning, I called the family in Taiwan and got passed around to the various members. And then I remembered that I had to go to work in an hour or two and promptly fell back asleep.

A couple of days ago, I finished my Everlasting Bagstopper from the Summer 2007 Knitty.

The plan now is to tie this around my waist when I go running and run towards a farmer's market. From the office parking lot, it's about 6 miles to Eastern Market and about 8 miles to the Old Town farmer's market. From one of those, I can then take the metro back to the office. If I can manage to get out of bed on Saturday, I think I'll be headed towards Eastern Market.

Twisted Herringbone Pyrite Cab

The main portion of the necklace is based on the Gemstones in Ndebele Herringbone Components from Bead and Button, April 2007. I attached a pyrite cab to one of the herringbone spikes.

knitted things

I found that after some exercise, my calves really did get smaller! I put on my Anna Socks today

and wore them for the whole day. The first and only time I had worn them, I had to take them off in mid afternoon because they were cutting off the circulation in my legs. I guess after all the running last year, my calves got smaller!

In other news...I sat down and knit with Amber and Amber on Sunday and told them to yell at me if I attempted to work on anything other than sewing in the ends and putting the fringe on Charlotte's Web. It was not as painful as I had imagined it to be.

dear elann...

why are you so fucking evil? first i saw inexpensive kid mohair. now, 100% silk?

"blogging while drunk"

there are some...

frakin' evil people in the world.

I'M GOING TO DENVER!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

and I took a personality test...I'm a mastermind. Mwahahahahahahahaha!!!!

Some housekeeping

Yeah...of the beaded variety. It's a task I've had in mind so I finally got around to it today. I added 2 items to the etsy shop today:




I haven't decided yet what else will be going on there. I've also been toying around with the idea of putting some floral pieces on there.

Blog titles

Has anyone ever wondered why I titled this blog "From the Depths of My Creative Madness"? Well, if you haven't figured out why yet, let me present yet another example...



That second picture is a close up of the needles so you can see how the stitches look.

This is the Snow Shawl. I've now transferred it from DPNs to a 24inch circular needle. And well, I can't seem to stop working on it right now. Even though the needles are tiny for lace...and the mohair is really hairy...and if I'm messed up, I should just kick myself and burn the thing...I.just.can't.stop.

Beginning of the Snow Shawl

Beginning of the Snow Shawl
Originally uploaded by jyiu7

I bought this Snow Shawl Kit at Stitches 2006. I've been thinking about it recently and decided to start in on this after I finished the Swallowtail. It's pretty, I'm in a lace knitting mood and it looks warm.

So, as I started knitting, I started wondering "WTF possessed me to buy this?"

Okay, yeah, it's intriguing and it's a challenge and it sure will be pretty! But those are size 2 needles using kid mohair! And it's not nice small halo mohair like Doceur et Soie. No. This is mean nasty mohair where if you mess it up too badly, you might as well just burn the thing cuz you're never going to frog it.

Finished Swallowtail Shawl

This is my finished Swallowtail Shawl from Interweave Knits, Fall 2006. The yarn was Schaefer Anne using size 8 needles. I did make some modifications to the original pattern. I wanted to try to use up as much of the Schaefer Anne as I could so first I did 2 extra repeats of the Budding Lace chart. This then added 4 extra stitches to each row. I divided the extra stitches evenly by adding an extra stitch just before and after the center yarn overs and an extra stitch by the edge yarn overs. When I get to the Peaked Edging chart, I now have 8 extra stitches on each half of the shawl. Four I added to the what amounts the first repeat (section closest to edge) and the other four I added to what amounts to the last repeat (section closest to center) of each half.

Me is happy.

First finished object of 2008

The Swallowtail Shawl is now soaking in preparation for blocking. I'll post a picture tomorrow.

Finishing

Last time when I wrote, I was working on some socks for my dad. Well, here they are:


Not only was the foot long, he likes a long cuff...I cast on last Wednesday and finished this up last night. I basically made myself sit and knit mindlessly in front of the tv when I was home. I'm glad I got it done. He leaves tomorrow.

And now I continue on with the Swallowtail Shawl and am making good progress.

New Year, New Goals

So, 2008 is finally here. The last months of 2007 have been a bit difficult with some upheaval at work. That caused a funk in the knitting and the beading and a lack of motivation to continue with the running. It saw me running off to New York when I could for whatever reason. So here's to 2008, I hope it's a better year.

What I hope to accomplish this year:

• Create a pattern for a beaded cherry blossom branch


• Knit the Cherry Blossom shawl from Interweave Knits, Spring 2002


• Put the fringe together for Charlotte's Web and finally mark that off as "Done"


• Work through my unfinished objects and either finish them or cut my losses and frog


• Figure out my beading life


• Create some potted plants for some friends to whom I have promised potted plants to in 2007, beaded of course


• Finish 1 amaryllis

Btw, the African Violet pattern is here for anyone who is interested.

Happy Xmas, New Year, everything!

So, I spent Christmas day on a plane back from Las Vegas. I really enjoyed it! Good eats! Good shopping! Good gaming. I took the $200 that I won and we ate with it that night. I didn't take that many pictures but they're found here. I took a few pictures out the plane window. It's amazing to see a desert and then a city pops up. I admit that I ended up leaving the camera at the hotel for most of the trip. I also finished some socks.


These were made with Colinette Jitterbug on a 40 inch size 2 (magic loop). Pattern was Wendy's generic toe up sock pattern.

Beady Inspiration

My god! Two posts within a week! Things have been hectic and I had been forced to stop and do some beading. I had class this weekend so I was forced to write up the instructions for that, so we'll start there:


Yes, I am quite happy with how this turned out. The tea cup is one of a set of 4 that I had picked up in an antique store in Old Town Alexandria.

Class itself went well, I thought. There were only a couple of students so the pace was slow. Also, I think this may be a better fit for a beginner pattern.

The tiger eye cabochon went to the Bead Obsessions staff party gift exchange. I was trying to decide between that one and this one:

Yeah, inspiration struck and finally, between the beading and the knitting, I was truly inspired. I just hadn't been for a while. And in the mean time, I've been struck with a need to make shawl pins. "Need" I say. I've given one away as a present so far...and the one in the picture may end up on etsy sometime soon. It would, of course, be after I wear it.


That's a purple glass heart that I've had for a while and I've been trying to figure out what to do with.

still beading

8am at Target

It seems that 8am at Target in Parsippany, NJ is very similar to 8am at Target in Alexandria, VA. You have 10-20 cars with people sitting in them waiting for the Target to open. Yes, I have sat at Target here at home waiting for them to open. The one at Potamac Yards, that area gets crazy if you go on a weekend so you might as well go early when everyone else is still asleep! Well, I was successful. I found a $40 dress that fit me perfectly and is a muted purple/grey color with lace and lining. I think I'll wear it to my other friend's reception next summer as well. I also found some jewelry to match as well and what was going through my head was, "These look great but 1. They could be of so much better quality if I made them myself! 2. I must stop and examine this style of necklace so I can recreate it. 3. The quality really would be much better if I just made it myself! 4. Why do I travel and not bring my own jewelry supply???"

I spent last night in Brooklyn with a friend. We went to Hill Country for more BBQ cuz we were both craving it. I had about a pound of meat consisting of prime rib (don't get the end cut), moist brisket, and a pork rib. Oh, and some diet coke. That's right, no vegetables. Our eating adventures were ruined by this couple sitting next to us. The woman was complaining about how the food wasn't done right and how the meat was too fatty and not cooked enough. I was ready to reach across the table and smack her.

The drive time back went remarkably fast, even with the weather. It snowed last night in Brooklyn and it rained all the way back and I still made it in just under 4.5 hours.

Lilfe spins out of control

Work's been crazy. People wonder why they haven't seen me? I've been at work. Currently, I'm in NJ. I left work at 3pm this afternoon to get to NJ. I'm here for a friend's wedding reception tomorrow. I sat through traffic in DC. And then I got to sit on the NJ Turnpike for a bit and knit and send emails. I even shut off my car a few times. And finally, after 7 hours, I get to my destination after driving up and down the road looking for the hotel. And as I get my stuff in the room, I look at it and go..."Wasn't there supposed to be a nice dress type thing on a hanger here? Oh F-! It is sitting back in f-ing Virginia on my f-ing couch by the door." The reception starts at 11am tomorrow morning. There is supposedly a target in the vicinity. I guess I will be hitting that at 8am tomorrow.

Mid Thanksgiving break

I finished some socks. Just in time too cuz I'm going to see the recipient for a hockey game tomorrow! Cornell vs. BU at Madison Square Garden. How awesome is that? The arena is going to be all red and white cuz both schools are going to be all red and white. I'm going to see people I normally see once a year. Going to eat some good food, watch a hockey game, hang out with some friends into the night. Gotta love New York! Anyways, it's on my way home.

Back to the socks. Wendy's generic toe up pattern using Colinette Jitterbug. This color way kept making me think of a hot fudge sundae with a cherry.



I started out the week in Philly where I ran the half. It was cold, it was raining. Did I mention that it was cold? I still managed to finish in under 3 hours with little to no training the last month from illness and being overstressed at work.

Then I continued on up the east coast to Providence, RI for Thanksgiving. Pulled back into work on my travel day so we're going to have to talk about my days off when I get back about when can I take a day off for real? Two exhausting days working full days and did another 3 hours or so of work Thursday morning before I got busy with the turkey. And after that I pretty much just said "fuck it" to the work. I'm not a miracle worker, even though people think I can just make things happen with a quick motion of my magic wand. No. You're just going to send me to the mental facility THAT MUCH SOONER! My brain keeps seizing up everytime I log back into work. Edited to remove some overly emotional venting

Oh right, food. Sorry to side track into life. It's either bitch and complain here or not post at all due to all the negativity spewing out right now. Turkey turned out well. We get a turkey from Whole Foods every year. It comes all set to go, you just have to pop it into the oven. I made some ham/sausage maple stuffing Wednesday night and some sweet potato gratin. I love the stuffing! The sweet potato gratin didn't really do much for me. Cranberry sauce out of a can. Chinese sticky rice. That is a tradition my mom started way back when...instead of stuffing, we had sticky rice. There were also some green beans.

Pictures of everything can be found here.

Philadelphia Half Marathon

It was supposed to be a full but illness hampered my training and I only did the half. It was cold and it was rainy and it was cold. COLD! Even with my lack of training in the last month, I still managed to finish in under 3 hours. 2:51 and change. Which isn't bad considering this was right around my time from a couple of years ago when I did the Philly Distance Run, also a half marathon and I had actually just done the VA Rock N Roll Half Marathon 2 weeks prior to that and taken 10 minutes off. Ah...the joys of not training.

African Violets

Or, my interpretation of them:







December 16, 2007 at Bead Obsessions. It's a beginner level project.