Here's one of the FOs I promised! =)

Pattern: Plymouth Yarn Company, Pattern C#162, size: 12 months, purchased at Yarnivore in San Antonio - a great little shop that I highly recommend

Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Company's Madrid - a wonderful yarn that, even though it's not entirely natural fiber, is really nice to work with (and machine washable - perfect for kiddos!)

Needles: Addi Naturas, size US 8 - these are great needles!  Addis are so classic, but I'm not in love with the Turbos because I find that stitches slip off too easily.  The Naturas are bamboo (my favorite needle material), and though the join is not quite as nice as the one on the Turbos, it's still not as bad as the Clovers.  Unfortunately, they are about twice as expensive as the Clovers...

Modifications: None!  It's a really nice pattern, very simple and well-written.  I really enjoyed knitting it, and probably will do so again.  I even got to learn a new skill, which I love. =)

The sweater is knit top-down, with yo increases for the Raglan sleeves.  Super easy, and I think, pretty cute:

Also, I love the eyelet collar, that you can leave alone, or thread a coordinating ribbon through:

Happy First Birthday Katherine! =)

(Ba da, ba da da da...I hope you're humming The Mamas & The Papas all day long, haha.)

Sorry for the delay in posting...the road trip to see the Harlot took a lot of time, and meant I spent the rest of the week playing catch-up, school-wise.  (It was completely worth it!)  Here are some things I'm working on:

NQS Scarf (from All Buttoned Up) for the OFA's Red Scarf Project.  (OFA = Orphan Foundation of America.  They serve young people who have aged out of the Foster system.  It's a pretty neat group.)  They've moved up the deadline for the scarves this year, so I thought I'd have more time, but it turns out I don't.  That pic makes it look like it could be long.  It's not:

I'm a bit worried, because I tend to stall out on scarves about 3/4 of the way through and have to take an extended break before I can finish them.  I just get bored of doing the same thing over and over again.  Hopefully though, since this one has a deadline, I can power through it!

I also cast on for the Pinnate Shoulder Shawl (from KarenJoSeattle), which I really like!  It's the first lace wrap I've done (exciting!) and it's a pretty simple lace pattern, which is good.  I'm making it with some BS Cotton Fleece (from the stash!  whoop!), which is a joy to work with.  Here's a an overview:

And a closeup:

It's funny because I think it looks different from hers, in large part because it's not a variegated yarn, but I still really like it.  Hopefully I can get it done soon!

Allrighty, that's it for now!  One of the secret FOs has been delivered and opened, so I'll post that shortly!  Y'all have a great week! =)

Disclaimer #1: If you are not a knitter, you might not get most of this post.  That's ok.
Disclaimer #2: If you are going to see the Harlot in person on this tour, there are some 'spoilers' here.  If you don't want any of her witty comments ruined, proceed at your own risk.

She's amazing.  A. Maze. Ing.  She's even funnier in person than on the blog or in the books.

"I knew she was a blogger because she brought her camera."  That's what she said about me. =)  So here's my Harlot blog!  First off, we swung by the bookstore to check out the setup.  Luckily, Jayme the Wonder Publicist is still sock-worthy:

After scoping out the store, we went to get some dinner.  Check this out:

That's right, Kosher Middle Eastern food.  Correction, Kosher Delicious Middle Eastern food.  (With lots of veggie options!)  So yummy.  Will have to go back.  (Will have to remember the slightly out-of-the-way location...)

Once we got back, I had to model the hat I donated (#7):

It's pretty simple, mostly because I had to finish it in four days, but has a neat pattern around the bottom, from One Skein.  (Still a great book.  If you didn't buy it the last time I recommended it, you should do so now.)  The pattern on the bottom looks like this:

Ok, on to the good part.
 
The requisite picture of the picture of the sock.

"Yarn?  What yarn?  These are my kittens..."

Signing books afterwards, and chatting with each and every knitter, because she's gracious like that.

I think this one was when I told her I was "ashpags of the comments" and she totally recognized me.  I about died.

And here she is, holding the travel-size packs of Community Coffee I gave her, so as to avoid any future early-morning fiascoes.

Some of my favorite quotes (yes, I took notes...):
"I wish that swatches weren't filthy little liars."
"It's not the new yoga.  I've done both.  Other than the pain, they have nothing in common."
"I have stash older than you."  (This was not directed at me, but it's undoubtedly true.)
"CHOKE thinks if you knit, you like boys."
"There's a soapbox there I could get on, but it gives me a nosebleed."

That last one is killer.  I plan to use it in the future.

...I promise!  So today, I left a comment on the Harlot's blog that got
me a personal response via email!  So exciting!  And then I thought,
"Hm, maybe she went to my blog" and then I realized "Crap!  I have
like, no knitting on my blog right now!"  That has a lot to do with the
fact that being a grad student doesn't leave a lot of time for
knitting.  In fact, almost all my knitting is done on the bus to and
from school.  This leads to a bit of a problem, because once projects
get too big or too complicated for the bus, they languish in a sort of
knitting limbo, somewhere between WIPs and UFOs (scroll way down for the definitions) until I can snatch some
time to finish them up, or get them back to bus compatibility.  For
example, turning a heel is not too difficult, but requires
concentration which cannot be found on a bus.  Once I can get that bit done, I can crank out a foot in
no time, and go from this:

to this:

which will be nice because a pair of socks is infinitely more wearable than just one.  Funny how that works...

In other knitting news, I found a group here, Red Stick Knits.  They
haven't been around too long, and just this semester started getting
together on Tuesday nights.  Here some of us are at The Chimes:

Please don't judge anyone based on that picture.  For some reason, we
all look dreadful.  I was working on my Clapotis...I tried to take
pictures, but they look almost as bad as we do, so I'll save that for a
later date.

Lastly, here are some FO sneak previews.  Enjoy!
 

This weekend, I experienced LSU Football for the first time.  It's like FTA (Fightin' Texas Aggie) Football, but much drunker.  The tailgating is out of control...people and cars everywhere.  I live two miles from campus, and there were cars lining the street all the way to, and past!, my apartment.  We went up to tailgate with my mom's old college roommate, whose kids now attend LSU.  They ended up having two extra tickets to the game, so we got to go to that too, yay!  Here are some pictures from the extravaganza:

 
Look at all the cars!  And horses on the street!

Do you think the limo came with the flags, or they provided their own?

No parking on shoulder.  Got it.  (Mom would say "They're not real good at following directions in South Louisiana...")

 
On the walk from our parking spot to the tailgate, we passed some pretty hibiscus plants.  If you read my photo blog, you know I love to take pictures of flowers, so of course we had to stop.

Roomie reunion!

Hey cool statue of Mike the Tiger, what's that on the ground right by you?

Yep, an empty bottle of Crown.  One of many.
(Mom: "Stop.  You have to take a picture of this.")

On the way up to our seats.

Me & Mom in the stands.  We are a little soggy because it rained while we were walking over.  It's ok, everyone needed showers anyways. =)

The Campanile (that's a bell tower, Ags) glowing at night.

And a shot of campus.

And oh yeah, there was some pretty good football too.

PS - Mad props to Rachel for her link to the South Park Studio, generator of my new profile image.  Go read her blog - she's awesome. =)

I have two recently-completed FOs, but they are both gifts, and so I don't want to post pics until I can get them mailed off.  But I do want to talk about a part of one of them.  It's a sweater for my cousin Katherine, who turns one this month, and it's a great raglan construction with very little seaming.  You do have to sew up the arms though.  Now, I've sewn seams up before, but never actually learned the details of mattress stitch.  I did a quick & dirty version, but quick & dirty wasn't good enough for little Katherine, so I broke out the books and the internet, and finally learned!  It's always a bummer to be working with knitwear and not actually knitting (I'm not the only one who thinks this...), but this is actually a pretty neat technique, because your seam ends up invisible on the public side:

You start by weaving the yarn through both sides in the proper pattern:

And then you pull the yarn taut...which is surprisingly fun...and voila!  Invisible seam:

See how the V's in the knitting line up perfectly?  Isn't that lovely?

Here's what it looks like inside:

It's pretty swell folks.  If you don't know how to do it, you should learn.  It's super easy.  You can even watch a video of it here (scroll down to Finishing).

Now, the real question is, why is it called mattress stitch?  Anyone?

Allrighty, time to get some rest.  Y'all have a great weekend!!! =)

LSU is one of the few schools left with a live big cat mascot, Mike the Tiger.  Mike's been around since 1936, and has all kinds of traditions associated with him.  (Some seem a bit silly to me, but who am I to talk?  A&M has a scoreboard for the dead Reveilles, for crying out loud!)  Back in May, Mike V passed away at the age of 17.  Despite calls from PETA to stop having a live mascot, the university decided to search for Mike VI, with pretty good reasoning.  With much fanfare, he arrived on campus just over a week ago and was kept under quarantine to see how he would adjust.  Luckily, he did well, and as of yesterday he gets to come out into the public part of his (ridiculously luxurious) habitat during the day.  Today, when Meag and I were driving around BR, we decided to stop by and see him.  We weren't the only ones:

Here he is, exploring his new home, and investigating all the crazy people gawking at him:

And here you can see him peeking out of his swimming hole:

He's beautiful, and huuuuge, and only gonna get bigger.  These will probably not be the last of the Mike pics.

PS - I promise I still knit.  Pictures to come soon!

Oh how I wish I knew what I said or did to get this picture:

I took a lot of pictures of Moose this summer.  He's a nice fella, and pretty photogenic.  This one, taken during Heritage Day at Rayado, is by far my favorite.  So much so, that I thought I'd play around with it a bit...

Here's the original.  It's not bad, but what we really want to see is his face.

After the crop, he needed a bit of sharpening, and some basic color correction.  I think the sharper image makes him look more intense...

...but I don't like the color correction.  It looks too gray.

Let's boost the saturation to bring some color back to the scene:

Much better!

But don't overdo it:

Yikes!

I like the colors, but I think this pic calls for something else:

Straight black & white.  I like.

Instead of doing sepia, I like to "warmify" the black and white:

Lastly, a fun thing called "focal black and white" to highlight Moosie's face:

I think the straight b&w is my favorite, especially compared to the starting point:
  

Which one is your fave?

/*This post inspired by The Pioneer Woman and facilitated by Google's Picasa.  Someday I will graduate to PhotoShop and do way cooler things with my photos.  Stay tuned!  And, if you want to see the pics in a larger, higher resolution form, click here.*/

As I said before, Philmont was amazing.  For the first time in five
summers, I was not ready to leave on August 21st.  This is partly
because of how well the summer was going, and partly because it was
most likely my last, at least for the foreseeable future. 

I did a lot of blacksmithing:

I spent a lot of time inside the mine:

And quite a bit outside as well.  These two guys grew up in Baldy Town - how cool is that?

I did a ton of gold panning and don't have a single picture of me
panning. One of my proudest moments this summer was when a crew stayed
down and panned with me instead of blacksmithing because they were
having so much fun.  (That never happens.  Never.)  The gold really
does exist, and it's buried under here:

I spent a lot of time hanging out with loggers.  They rock my socks off:

My perfectly planned trip to Crater ended up being not-so-perfect
timing, but we had a good time anyways.  Moose shined as a first year
CD in a tough position, as we all knew he would.  (And I got to talk on
the radio as Crater Lake.  That was pretty swell!)

Pueblano was my home-away-from-home this summer, as it often is.  Can
you remember a bad Pueblano staff?  I sure can't.

Click here to listen to some good music performed by some of this summer's loggers.

I had an incredibly awesome staff:

And even more amazing friends:

"Philmont never changes.  It is always here for you when you need it." -akd

Some promises for you:

1) I promise I am alive.  I survived the summer (loved almost every minute, actually) and have tons of photos (over 4,000 of them) and stories to share.  Hopefully they will come, slowly but surely.

(I think this might by my favorite picture of the whole summer.  I'm really drawn to it.)

2) I promise I did some knitting over the past three months.  Not a whole lot, but some.  And, I converted taught three of my coworkers.  They are all really awesome knitters already, and all of them completed more projects than I did this summer.  (Granted, they were mostly making dishcloths, but whatev.  They picked some pretty complicated patterns for "beginners".)  Sometimes it makes me feel bad when I think about how quickly the people I'm teaching pick up new skills, especially compared to how long it took me to pick them up.  Then I remind myself that I was teaching myself from books/webpages, and that's a lot harder.  It makes me feel slightly less knitting-impaired.

3) I promise that I feel really wretched for not taking any pictures of my knitting in the wilderness.  I kept intending to, and then I got busy or distracted.  These silly Boy Scouts kept coming up and wanting to see the mine or do some blacksmithing or pan for gold -- gosh!

4) I promise that I am going to finish my CD report by the end of Labor Day.  I promise.  Really.  (Don't let me forget this one!)

5) I promise that I am going to get something productive done tonight.

And on that note, adios amigos!  More to come later, I promise!