Needlephile - general

Busy busy busy!

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 12:36:01 -0700

Between school, work, the process of moving (yes, I found a place!), and my birthday on Tuesday, I have had NO time to do any blogging... or knitting for that matter.
I move into my new place on Oct 3rd! I found a cute little place right in University Heights, right on Park and Adams. I am very excited to move into this trendy little neighborhood, but still quite sad to leave beautiful Ocean Beach.
I also turned 31 this Tuesday, and I thought it might be hard for me, but there has been so much going on lately that i haven't even had time to think about it! Last night I met with three other Virgos to have dinner at Il Fornaio in Coronado. What a beautiful restaurant!! We were seated on the patio in front of a fireplace and looking out to the bay and the skyline of San Diego. Our friend Tricia works at the one in Del Mar, so she was able to get us 50% off the food, and we ate like queens! We had so much fun.

Thats it for now... I must get going to school, but I will post more later!

hard to believe

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 09:55:00 -0700

It is hard to believe that it was 5 years ago.
I know I will never forget.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation...

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:33:03 -0700

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!

lazy sunday morning

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 10:50:00 -0700

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

'What will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Ahh... spring

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 11:15:00 -0700

It seems that "winter" is finally over here in San Diego. Yesterday and today have been beautiful! Tomorrow is Opening Day for the Padres, and I can't wait to see the all new Red Sox play. And of course, daylight savings time is always a good marker for spring. Its such a silly concept... I can't wait until we're done with it. So, with the end of March, many of us will be finding out who our Secret Pals are. I have yet to find out, but I will share who my spoilee was: Stacey. Hope you enjoyed all your gifts! My spoiler was nice enough to send me a Elann.com gift certificate so that I can buy some yarn for the tiered skirt. How nice is that?? Apparently I still have one more package on the way... I can't wait! I think I might skip the next Secret Pal exchange, though. I've done three in a row at this point, and I feel like I need a break.

As far as knitting goes... I finally finished my lace leaf scarf!! I will take pics after I finish blocking it. And what's next you ask?? Well, I think I'll be frogging my picovoli and using the yarn to make Orangina. Although, I think I might want my Orangina to be a different color than cream... we'll see....

Need a meme? Go here.

And for all you Red sox fans out there, I found this on Postsecret:

Feeling lucky??

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 08:50:00 -0800

Happy St Patrick's Day! It's one of my favorite holidays... you can't beat a day dedicated to drinking green beer. But, like most holidays, the real history has gotten a bit lost. Luckily, I am not Catholic, so I really don't care!

Creativity

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 13:05:00 -0800

I have a very creative family, at least on my mom's side, which I guess is where I get my creative side from. My mom's mom was a knitter, and even entered projects in competetions occaisionally. She was also an amzaing quilter, which I guess is how my mom got into quilting. My grandfather loved to make things out of wood... from birdhouses to frames to a huge hopechest that he made for me. All of my mom's siblings are creative, too... she has five brothers and sisters. One of my uncles is a stone mason, making beautiful chimneys, stone walls and fireplaces out of granite and stone. Another uncle is a painter, and although he doesn't do it for a living, he probably could. He always makes us hand-painted christmas cards, and even painted a portrait of me when I was in high school. One of my aunts is very crafty and makes a lot of different crafty things. So I guess it was in the cards for me to become a knitter. My mom crocheted for a while, and dabbled in knitting and making clothes, but quilting is her thing. Right now she is working on an amazing quilt for my hometown library:

That's her in the black on the right. Isn't it amazing? I did a little quilting, but never got into it... it takes too damn long! She's been working on this quilt FOREVER it seems, so I thought I would show off her work.
I miss my family.

Whew

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 11:35:47 -0800

Wow, thanks to everyone who gave me such great compliments on my Tempting II!! I was planning on wearing it to the KnitSalon at The Grove last night, however I fell ill to the flu sometime around 3pm yesterday instead. But with the help of some acupuncture, some herbs, and some Theraflu, I feel better this morning. I felt so crappy last night that I couldn't even knit! *gasp!* But I watched the losers get eliminated from American Idol. I must tell you, I LOVE Taylor Hicks. He's so unique from anyone else who's been on the show. Another fave is Chris Daughtry. I would be suprised if he wasn't in the top 2. As far as the girls go, I really like Ayla, mostly cuz she's from Massachusetts.
Anyway, I do have something new on the needles... another lace leaf scarf from the Summer '05 VK, for myself. I'm using Rowan 4-ply in beige, which is very soft and has a little shine to it. I think it will come out nicely.

I think I have been in a bit of post-olympics haze cuz I haven't really been knitting (or blogging) very much lately. I desperately want to start on Starsky, like many other knitters out there, but I can't buy yarn for it right now cuz I am a broke-ass student. I will probably use the KnitPicks Sierra (again, cuz I am a broke-ass student) in the grey color... I love the way the natural looks, but I would worry about it getting dirty. So, if I start in May, hopefully I can get it done before the "cold" weather hits again here.
Well, I am going to go back to the couch and watch the Princess Bride... that is a guaranteed way to help me feel better when I am sick.

Seeing Red

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 09:52:19 -0800

Today is National Wear Red Day. DO IT!

So... buttons!

noreply@blogspirit.com () — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 13:00:00 -0800

In a fit of procrastination, I came up with a few new buttons! Two for my new blog, and one for the Knitting Olympics... Team California. I haven't seen one yet. So steal 'em if you like, but please leave the bandwidth ;)

I figured out that knitting Tempting II for the Olympics shouldn't be too hard... I really only have to knit 1.4 inches (in length) a day in order to finish it in time, which is definitely do-able. I wish my ayrn would get here already... I ordered it on Ebay from a seller in England. It makes me a little worried, but I think its plenty of time. If not, I have a back-up project!