Needlephile

Maybe the correct title of this post should be what didn't I do on my vacation, because I was doing something the whole damn time when all I really wanted to do was nothing. But I had fun, and got to see most of my family, which isn't easy to do in a one week trip! Unfortunately, most of the time I was home it was raining... but I guess that's better than New England heat and humidity. I did manage to get a great shot of Wachusett Mtn (above) on one of the nice days, which is almost exactly like the picture on the Wachusett brewery labels (yes, I did that on purpose!).

As I mentioned previously, I also made a trip with my mom to a craft fair at the Big E in Springfield, where crafters can display their works and enter a contest against others in their craft. Man was that a big disappointment! It was $5 to park, and then $5 per person to get in to the show, and then inside there was LOTS of empty space, and hardly any knitted stuff. The most beautiful knit thing in there was a lace shawl, and that won second place! My mom was encouraging me to enter something next year, so I looked into it... it costs $30 to enter something via mail ($5 to enter if dropped off in person). Ok, so what do you get if you win? First place is $10!! So I wanna know where all this money is going to... its not toward advertising, cuz nobody was there (entrants, vendors or the viewing public), and it couldn't be toward people working the fair, cuz most of the people I saw were the actual crafters. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that it was lame.
Fortunately, I had planned on making a stop at WEBS in Northampton on the way home. I went there with the intention of getting yarn for my Knit the Classics project for September's book, The Time Traveler's Wife. After the plane ride out, I was about half way through the book already, so I had a good idea what I wanted to do. I had a pattern in mind, Misty Garden from Scarf Style, and I wanted a variegated blue/green color yarn because I noticed a lot of references to blues and greens in the novel. I thought the blue/green color would represent the waves of grass in the meadow where they meet, and the several references to water. The pattern also looks like waves or ripples in a lake or ocean, or even a grassy meadow. The yarn I found was perfect: Its Filatura Di Crosa Multicolor #5000... mostly blueish green with some bits of pink, yellow and orange... its soo pretty and I can't wait to get started!
The rest of my trip was spent visiting relatives or friends, or knitting my circular shrug (about 50% done!), and EATING... I must have gained 10 lbs! Good thing my mom bought me some new running shoes for my birthday ;) They're so cool.... they're purple!! But in the Providence airport, I just had to get one last dose of Dunkin' Donuts coffee and an egg sandwich ahh... I miss Massachusetts already!

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I finally got the good news in the mail today.... I PASSED MY YEAR END EXAMS!!!!!! I only just barely passed a couple sections, but the important thing is that I passed, and I will be an intern in the fall!! And not only that, but I also got my grades for my classes today, and I somehow managed to get all A's! (well, one was an A-, but that still counts as an A) I'm such a dork!

So, of course there always seems to be some bad to go with the good, and my beloved Red Sox continued to get pummeled by those f***in yankees... and there are two more games left in the series. God help us!

Wow, thanks to everyone who has expressed words of support for me! It really does mean a lot, and every little bit helps me right now. Sometimes I am feeling great, and other times not so much. I've been trying to keep as busy as possible to keep my mind off of Dumbass (which is what I will call him from here on out). So since I am done with school now (yay!) I've been working a lot, and of course knitting, and making sure I have my friends around me. Luckily, I only have a week until I fly home to Massachusetts for a well deserved vacation. I will be amongst all the support that my family can give me, and FAR FAR away from Dumbass.
So what have I been knitting, you ask? Well, I am still working on the VK skirt, which is taking forever on size 4's and sport weight yarn, but I like the way it is coming along. I also got a bit ambitious and thought I would try my hand at a lace shawl since I had a couple skeins of Knitpicks laceweight burning a hole in my stash. So I saw a beautiful finished Moutain Peaks shawl, and I thought, "Oh, I should make that!" So, I immediately bought the pattern and sat down to try it out. I got about half way through the first chart when my head started to hurt, and I got incredibly frustrated. This is my first attempt at such a detailed lace shawl with charts like this. I suppose it will get easier when i get the hang of it, but I also really need smaller needles. Since my size 4's are occupied my the VK skirt, I tried it on my size 6's, but it looks way too wonky with such thin yarn and it is way too difficult to work with. So that project will be on hold until I have the time and money to buy some new needles.
Then I thought I would start on something completely different, and start a shrug that I have been eyeing on Craftster for a long time. I got about an inch of the ribbing done yesterday. I'm also using some yarn from the stash for this... Caron Simply Soft in black.
Oh, and the Red Sox swept the Orioles yesterday, and the Yankees lost! That always makes me feel good ;)

James: Cheer up. Remember what the Monty Python boys say.
Helen: "Always look on the bright side of life"?
James: No, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition."

Its true, as the Monty Python boys used to say. The things we consider truly out of left field, are certainly possible, and may happen to other people, but certainly not me, right??? Well, I don't know if any of you have seen the movie Sliding Doors with Gwyneth Paltrow, but it is a great movie, and I feel like the past few days I have been Helen (Gwyneth's character).

As some of you may know, I have been studying very hard for my 2nd year end comprehensive exams (which were on Thursday and Friday), and I also got a new job recently that has been taking up any possible free time so that I can make ends meet. As it so happened, my sympathetic boss let me out of work early the other night so that I could go home and study instead (luckily, I didn't get "sacked", as in the movie). So, I come home early to find my boyfriend shagging another girl. He actually had the nerve to say something along the lines of, "its not what it looks like!"

So... yada yada yada... I'm single again, and I am really doing great. Sure, I have my moments... but I'm mostly sad about the fact that I have to leave my adorable beach cottage and find a cheaper place to live. I'm really sad about that because I had trouble sleeping early this morning and went for a jog along the cliffs, and it is sooo beautiful and calming when you can breathe the ocean air and see the sun rising on the water. I even went down to the cliffs again this evening to watch the sunset, which was also spectacular. It all reminds me that there are bigger and more important things in the world than finding my stupid ex cheating on me three days before these really important exams that I have been working so hard for (because I really needed more stress in my life right now). It puts things in perspective for me.

So... wish me luck on my exams! If all goes according to plan I passed them all and will be an intern beginning in September!

Since the gals over at You Knit What? are no longer able to amuse us with their horrible knitting finds, I figured I'd add a little fug of my own. Here we have some ofthe finest knits from the fashion geniuses at Vogue Knitting:


This would have been a nice sweater if they hadn't run out of yarn. Oh, they meant to make it that way? Silly me.

Since when is looking like a hobo considered "chic"?

The perfect socks for when I run off to join the circus!

There is nothing that a woman loves more than big fat yarn and big fat patterns around her hips!