cherry and other birthday silliness

8.26.2008 @ 2:44 PM

i turned 27 last wednesday.  eek!  here i am enjoying a birthday coke slurpee with mom.

i sewed on the buttons for cherry on the way into the city and tried it on once i arrived at pouy’s.  note the fact that i am wearing spandex, as we were just about to go for a run! (photo stolen from pouy!)

pretty snazzy-looking, no?

and of course, a post-run beer (or two).  as usual, i’m drinking straight out of the pitcher!

refreshing!

trying on the most ridiculous glasses ever while watching the women’s beach volleyball finals.

this is a typical pouy pose.

the only normal shot of the bunch!

i look ridiculous.

i realize that these the worst ever FO photos, but at least i had fun taking them!

overall, i’m really pleased with the way the sweater turned out.  i still maintain that a bit more length would make it absolutely perfect, but i still think it’s pretty awesome!  it cost only $13.64 to make and took me less than 12 days to complete!  go me!

project: cherry
pattern: cherry by anna bell of my fashionable life
size: XS - 32″
yarn: elann sonata in blue (i don’t know the color off the top of my head), less than 6 balls
total cost: about $1.44 per ball of yarn (i bought it in a destash), about $5 for the buttons, for a total of $13.64!
needle size: US 3 to cast on and for ribbing, US 6 everywhere else
gauge: i actually did swatch this time, but i don’t remember what the gauge was!
date started: 8.12.2008, at 7:30 pm
date completed: 8.20.2008, around 5 pm on my 27th birthday!
recipient: me!
notes: i did two extra waist decreases and omitted the waist detail so that there is no belt. i also knit until the body was only 12″ long before starting the armholes.

ten things i didn’t like about school

8.26.2008 @ 1:27 PM

i finally found another ‘ten on tuesday’ theme that i actually don’t mind doing. i’ve always enjoyed school (i am a true nerd), so it wasn’t easy for me to come up with ten things. every time i finish school i want to go back for more!

so here are six things i didn’t like…

  1. homework. well, that’s not entirely true. for example, i actually did enjoy doing math problems and writing computer science programs! i told you i’m a nerd.
  2. having to study and do work on weekends. the one great thing about a full-time job is that i always know i have weekends off.
  3. 10+ page research papers
  4. cramming for exams
  5. 8 am classes. it’s not difficult for me to get up for work now, but 8 am classes used to be the worst thing in the world for me!
  6. student loans

and four things i did!

  1. june
  2. july
  3. august
  4. learning is always fun!

i’m so close!

8.20.2008 @ 1:54 AM

i can almost taste it! here’s a look at cherry earlier today. ends clearly not woven in and no buttons.

and just a couple of hours later, it’s almost done!  i wove in all of the ends (my least favorite part) and sewed in snaps that go between the buttons to prevent gaps.

i like the subtly puffy sleeves and i think it fits well.  the waist ended up hitting at the perfect spot and i like it without the detailing.

this is definitely a sweater i wouldn’t mind making again.  i would, however, do a couple of things differently.  the sleeves are comfortable and not too snug, but i would probably do a tubular cast on for the sleeves because there isn’t much give in that area.  second, i must have a skewed perception of my body and its proportions, because the body is just a wee bit too short.  i don’t feel uncomfortable in it and i’ll definitely still wear it, but i would love it a lot more if it was about 2″ longer.

here’s a closer look at the snaps with loose threads still hanging.  the edge of the neckline isn’t perfect, but hopefully a steam or soak will fix that.

you can see in this photo that the body looks a little bit too short and almost out of proportion.  doesn’t it look a little bit boxy?

i hope i can find time tomorrow to buy some buttons so i can finish it before i leave for oregon thursday morning. i think a 197-mile relay race is a great way to celebrate my 27th birthday. don’t you?

and now i’ll leave you with some photos of the pups.

i was lucky to catch this shot of duncan sleeping because he usually wakes up immediately when he hears the camera turn on!

wish me lots of luck in the race (i’ll need it)! unless i pass out on mount hood, i should be back monday morning with plenty of photos to share.

the olympics ruined my social life

8.16.2008 @ 4:39 PM

it’s been a week since the olympics began, and i’m still making great progress. i’ve finished knitting the back, both fronts, and both sleeves of cherry, and now they are all drying after a soak.

hopefully the pieces will be dry by tomorrow so i can start on the button band and buttonhole band. since i didn’t do the waist detail and there won’t be a belt, i think that six buttons will be better than just five. cross your fingers that it fits!

i’ve also been working on the barn raising quilt squares. square #1 is complete after my second attempt at a loose bind-off.

square #2 is almost there as well, and i will try to get a third square out of this skein of yarn after it’s done.

i think i’ve been getting so much knitting done because i’m so obsessed with watching the olympics. has anybody else found that their social life has sufferred since the games began??

what color underwear am I wearing?

8.12.2008 @ 11:37 PM

i went downtown last night to watch my first ever screen on the green movie, and if you’ve ever seen the original superman then you know the answer to my question is pink! it’s sad that i’ve lived here my whole life and i’ve never seen another screen on the green flick, but i’m so glad i went last night. the most enjoyable part was hanging out before the movie started. we brought food, drinks, and my knitting, although i didn’t knit a single stitch!

i’ve also been watching the olympics religiously. i especially enjoy watching swimming and gymnastics, so i got a lot of knitting done this past weekend sitting on my butt while watching the games! i wasn’t planning on joining the ravelympics because i don’t particularly enjoy deadline knitting, but at the last minute i decided to cast on for a sweater on friday.

i’m making cherry with elann sonata that i purchased from a destash. i cast on friday at 7:30pm and took this photo saturday morning.

by sunday evening i had finished the back and left front, and cast on for the right front. if i continue at this pace, i’ll be done in no time, but i really don’t want to jinx myself! i am finding the yarn to be a bit rough on my hands, so i hope it will soften up after a soak.

i did have to make some minor modifications. the cable pattern wasn’t centered so i had to rip back saturday morning. the cable pattern is a 14 stitch repeat, but the only size with a total number of stitches divisible by 14 is the 34″ size, so i had to rework the chart for the 32″ size. i also did two extra decreases to emphasize the waist because i wanted to omit the waist detail. while i think the belt looks really cute, i don’t think it’s very practical and i think it’d be really annoying to have to untie and retie it constantly. i also knit the body 3″ shorter because i have a short torso.

i’ve also been working on the barn raising quilt squares for stacey. unfortunately, my first try didn’t go so well because i didn’t swatch (suprise, surprise). i was knitting with size 1 DPNs, and the square ended up being too small.

i borrowed size 2 DPNs from katie and cast on again today. let’s hope square #2 turns out better than square #1.

and finally, the iPhone sock i made for pouy, which is pretty much the same as the iTouch sock i made for my friend brandy. nothing terribly exciting to report. i cast on 40 stitches with size 3 needles, did 1×1 ribbing for 10 rows with size 1s, and knit until the body was 4.5″ long.

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