Day 2 (or day 1 for me)

Considering I've been stressed, dealing with the woe-is-me car trouble I've had this weekend, I forgot about Day one. So here's my Day 2!

Day Two: 29th March. Skill + 1UP

Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?

Okay so here it goes. I've known how to knit since like forever I think. I was never really good at it and the urge to do it would come in waves and then subside. I've even taught a knitting class to 10 year-olds, who, probably didn't care for it. Oh well. I got a book for knitting toys about two christmas' ago and that forever prompted me to wanna make stuff. This last year, I've attempted things that I never thought I would try just because they simply seemed to hard. Most of them I haven't finished (true to form), but I'm really glad to have started these project, motivating me to learn new skills. I started knitting a sweater (just the sleeves left) and a pair of sock (which I despise, but won't give up on). I've grown away from just making straight, boring knitted hats and opened up to the wonderful world of fingerling and lace weight yarn. I'm really excited to start a lace project and plan to get it going as soon as I can find the perfect yarn price color. I've learned to be fluent in DPNs and I've even created a few patterns and made things from what I'd like to call, thin air. I feel accomplished in my knitting development over the last year.

Crocheting is a different story. My mom always crocheted when I would knit and just looking at it used to make me on edge. I just didn't get it. One needle hook made absolutely no sense to me. My aunt was having the opposite problem and we promised to never try to teach each other, for the sake of our relationship. Last year, around this time, I was auditioning for colleges. My dad went with me to NC, but my mom bit the bullet and flew with me to Alabama. In the airport, she was crocheting, I was knitting and I don't know what happened (I think I was bored with what I was working on). I asked her to teach me how to do what she was doing. It didn't click for days. Crocheting just seemed to be the thing that was going to allude me my entire life. Until it didn't. It's a very strange thing when you just get something, without any kind of warning. Just something sparks in your brain and suddenly, what your doing makes sense, where perviously, it did not. That what happened. No learning, no tutorials, nothing. I could suddenly crochet. And I like it now. It's still not my vice of choice, knitting will always be much more relaxing to me, but there you go. Twas only about last year when I learned to crochet.

Stay tuned for day 3!

Open up

It's no secret that IRL, I'm superdupertrooper shy. It's like, absurd and kinda a damper when it comes to the whole life thing. I have problems answering the phone and blah blah blah. That's part of the reason I could never imagine becoming a musician in the performance track. I'd like to give a shout out to being in college. I feel like I've grown and become a person I would have never known in high school. 95% of the people I was friends with in highschool, if asked, would say that they thought I hated them when we first met. This always leaves me at a loss, because it's never true. I must give off a vibe (my dad always says it's about the body language). But here's the point of this post. Being the shy, apparently cold bitch that I am, I started this blog to meet people with the same interests as me, primarily knitting. This is what I've really realized as I've delved deeper into the blogging community, I have too many interests! I've got blogs bookmarked for nail polish, beauty products, food blogs and just general people I find interesting. I guess it's not the subjects I'm super interested in, it's the people. I've found that I LOVE the people who write these blog, want to meet them and become friends. (they would probably guess I hated them). Thank god for the internet. Anyways, I guess if you find any of my stuff interesting or cool or you just like me, I'd love an email (jennieatszombies@hotmail.com) or a comment. I want to connect with people! So lets go and chat over some tea in our separate worlds. : D
(Because this post is boring, word-y, and non-knitting related, here's pictures of my hair)

UGH. I wish hair color would just stay forever instead of fade away. Oh well. At least it poetic in a way that it fades out...not. 

Toodles ♥

Spring Fling!

I love giving people things that I make. I think it's the best feeling in the world, possibly better than how the person feels about the gift in general. This has by far been the best gift I've ever given.
She's so appreciative! Such a warm fuzzy feeling to make someone's day.

La Tardis IPOD Case:

A FO for Friday

Meet Griswold. Gris for short. This is his life story.
First he was born, on the needles of course. DPNs.

He grew up, but still had some loose ends

But eventually, he matured into a bundle of wonderful awesomeness.

But the life he was living, wasn't enough for poor Griswold. He wanted more from the life he was living.  So he decided to stop messing around and get down to business. So he went to college and got himself enrolled in the wonderful world of criminal justice. But just when he was about to graduate and get his degree in criminal forensics, a new calling entered his life. He knew what he wanted to do and how he needed to achieve his goals. Griswold P. Pod wanted to be a private detective. This job could only be done with one thing. A mustache, naturally. So he grew one and achieved his dreams. The end.

Some week in review

Spring break is over and it's back to school. I spent most of my time just sitting on the couch doing nothing, but in between that time, I got some crafting into the way. Life of course, got in the ways of my endeavors in crafting and I only really tried two of the ideas from the book. Lets start with the plates.
Because I'm adventurous, I decided to do a bowl while my sister and mom both did plates.

The idea is to spray paint a lace pattern onto the glass plate or substitute then spray a contrasting color to make the pattern stand out.

First step is to spray adhesive the lace to the glass.

You're suppose to you the krylon brand adhesive, but we had a different brand...that apparently wasn't suppose to be used on glass. Oops.

It kinda took some of the paint with it when we tried to take off the lace.

mine

my sister

moms

you live you learn when it comes to mixing different brands of spray paints. Of course, mom's did turn out the best with little botching in one area.

sister's

Mine

mom's

overall, a great idea, but didn't really work. It wasn't just the glue's fault, the paint ran and bled together so the patter was really botched on mine. Also, we worked with the right clear top coat spray and still, the plates were sticky and smelled like heavy duty chemicals on the bottom. Fail.

I also got to work on my decoupaging of one of my dad's handcut table tops. I decided harry potter themed. So we got some old paperback books and went to town.

Idea

Finished with a layer of varnish.

I really lied this idea and loved how it turned out. Again, instead of using the book recomended polyurethane, we used a lacquer based varnish, giving it an amber glaze over top of the words and pictures. I really liked the effect.

Of course, I knitted. Finished the legwarmers! and I didn't like how they looked on me : /

So I gave them to my sister

footloose and fancy free!

Till next time!

What to Expect

I would like to be doing this again please.

You'd think the week before spring break would be the easiest of my life, being that there's no orchestra rehearsals to attend and my english class is cancelled for the week, but you'd be wrong. I've spent my three last afternoon either working on homework for my core frustration classes (sight-singing/theory) or working on re-writes of this research paper that I've come to affectionately loath. I've had no time this week for any kind of knitting...yet. But I'm sure another post will follow this sometime for I am almost finished with my lovely leg-warmers. I digress. On to the main point.
Due to spring break, all the dorms on campus are closing, joy. Despite this putting a serious dent in my little practice time I have with accompanist, I'm going home and I'm excited. I've made a plan with my mom and have decided this:

For the next week that I have off, we will be crafting one craft from the big ol' book of crafts that was purchased for me and I have yet to use. I'm so excited for this project because it's my dream to decoupage something. My father has been working on a table that he's designed himself. They're pretty spiffy and I'm dying to add something wonderful to them. So starting Monday or Tuesday afternoon, expect very awesomely vividly detailed posts about the project I've picked out the night before. I'll let you know if their even worth the effort, how mine turned out (I'm not the best crafter), how my mom's turned out (she is the best crafter) and so on.

So if crafting is the big thing that your into and you've always been debating on this book, then let the reading begin! Maybe it can help you figure out if it's really worth it, or not. I've heard mix reviews. As always, I'll also be knitting (I have a lot of free time in my future). Looking forward to the hodge-podge.

Redirecting

It's been a couple days (weeks) in regards to upkeep of this blog. I'm bound and determined to keep it though, even if I scarcely update it. I swear I'm still knitting, school just got in the way. You know that time of year when you can't find anyone anywhere but on the green, lazing about? It's officially hit Tallahassee. I love this weather. It's perfect. Not to hot, not to cold and makes for a wonderful feeling when you're cramming for a midterm you have in about a week. That's right, I said midterms. Being a college girl, I still have to worry about those. Being a music major adds more to that challenging plate. I have juries and masterclasses coming up. I've seen little of this good weather during the day time. All  I see is a piano and four white walls. Sometimes with mirrors on them! Gosh I hate performance anxiety. Let's do a quick week in review.
I finished that hat I made with the pretty pink yarn I bought from my LYS. I decided to give it to my sister when I went home about two weekends back. I think she loved it, I'm not sure. It didn't really decrease as evenly as I wanted it to, but that pattern I came up with looked pretty cool. I'll have to test it again and see what I can do to make the decrease look more evenly and have the hat itself sit more naturally.

                                                 Thanks Claire for taking those pictures!
What I've mainly been working on after the completion of that is my wonderfully boring and beautifully colored sweater. It's really nice to work on when I'm waiting for a class or something because it's so easy.

I love taking my pictures in a practice room. The lights are so fluorescent that my camera can't help but smile.

The last thing I've really been working on is this cute legging pattern I found over at the wonderful ravelry. I loved this pattern right when I saw it. I knew I wanted to do something with a little lace pattern and this reminds me of tiny windows into a little house! I bought some awesome cotton yarn from a place a little farther from my dorm than the other LYS. It's Cotton Fleece, 80% cotton, 20% merino. Here's what I have so far.

I love the little windows and the color is so spring! I love the light blue with rich green undertones. I'll post pictures when I finish the first one. 

The last thing I have to show off are some purchases I made when my parents came to town. We went over to the art commune where they were having a flea market in front of the giant vintage shop they have down there. To my luck and surprise, the first booth we stopped at had yarn for sale. 460 yards of hand-dyed sock yarn to be exact. for 10 bucks! I was so excited that I couldn't stop myself from the impulse buy.

The colors look like sherbet. I don't know what to do just yet, considering I'm kinda terrified of socks now a days. Maybe I'll try my hand at a lace project. I'm just not sure yet. My mom and I also stopped at the yarn shop that's down there, Really Knit Stuff. I wish I was staying longer into the summer because their sock classes go into may : (

We went to their bargin table and I scored three 50g balls of really cool yellow Linie yarn.

It's 44% cotton and 44% acrylic wound with a multicolored thread. I'm so excited. I think this it gonna be a hat. I'm gonna look for a cool lace pattern so I have a hat to wear in the summer. 

Anyways, that's all I have for now. I'm sure I'll have a lot of FOs in the next couple of days. I just have to get through this midterm week and it'll all be peachy-keen.