Knitting Update

So I've been knitting and watching NCIS instead of writing lately (that will of course change when NaNoWriMo goes live in a couple weeks) and I've finally opened a small Etsy store in an attempt to sell some of the stuff I've been making.


Clicky!

More stuff to come as I finish it.

It's been quiet here and I don't have much to report. School has been taking up most of my energy. I feel like all I do is read and write notes, and the result is I have zero creative energy left to write. I think I scribbled about 50 words of Amelia yesterday in the theatre waiting for Warrior to start (excellent film btw, worth seeing especially if you're at all a Tom Hardy fan which, really, who isn't? The man's body of work is stunning).

I have been knitting quite vigorously as a means to relax (knitting and watching film after film after film). I'm about 80-85% finished with the cardigan I began working on back in, hm, March? I hope to finish it possibly this week, then I have to start working on a hat for the BiL's birthday. I'll post some pics when the cardi is finished. It will mark my first successful ready-to-wear garment I've finished for an adult that wasn't completely hideous and/or lopsided. /knock on wood/

The only other news to report is my crippling new Avengers obsession. Tony Stark and his emotional damage is just fascinating. Thor is out on DVD tomorrow. \o/

The Writing Bug

School is in full swing, I feel continually cramped for time, hurrying from one pile of homework assignments to the next. Even in this crazy rush I continue to try to fit in periodic bursts of creativity. Right at the moment I'm taking a break from all the sketching I did during July to stretch out my poetic muscles. 

It all started while I was digging through a few older document files on my laptop and ran across a poem a wrote back in 2008 (probably the only thing I wrote all that year that wasn't related to school) and I started revising it a little, tightening up the imagery and language and I felt inspired to hammer out a few other verses. Nothing too brilliant but I've always found poetry a good way to get frustrations and feelings and vaguely intangible ideas out on paper.

With all my school I've had to cut back my hours at work which comes just at an invonveniant time (I just purchased a $13000 Jeep Wrangler which I'm trying to pay off in 2 years @ $500/month) so I've been wracking my brain for ways to make a little extra income each month. I won't make anything with poetry or my art but at least I feel like I'm working, being semi-prolific and sharpening my craft. I think I make work up the courage to even submit a few pieces of work to some small-press publishers, just see if I get any kind of response. It's not really the economy for it but one must always try.

I've been thinking about getting a tattoo, something motto-like. I like the phrase "Audentis fortuna iuvat" from Virgil. but first I feel like I really should make it my motto in practice before I put it on my skin.

I'll post photos of my latest knitting project soon. (baby cardigan for my sister) I'm having issue with the sleeve seams, I followed the directions in the book and seriously regret not doing it my own way instead but my sister says it looks darling so I suppose it is all right so long as she's happy.

Shawl Progress

360/360 rows completed for the center panel, now I've just got to do the border. Pain and hardship though accompany that little woe. Thankfully, through careful reading and probably a lot of luck I got through the first repeat of the border with only 1 very fixable error and it turned out lovely. I swear, however, I am never going to use Boucle yarn again, it's practically impossible to visually distinguish stitches in it.

1/100ish border rows completed. It's so very very tedious though I fear it's going to take more than 5 days to finish this shawl.

Lrg Rectangular Shawl with center Diamon Pattern 01

So, here's news of my current knitting project. I found this book a few months back at my local Joanns store and was utterly dumbstruck with the stuff i found. Obviously, not everything is actually usuable but I feel in love with the idea of lace shawl making.

I'm not very handy at knitting though so it's been something of a battle to get any sort of success. But, here at last, I've spent the last two weeks steadily working my way through one of the simple rectangular shawl patters.

Currently finished 260/360 rows for the center panel. (excuse the crappy photo, it's a combination of my camera+the lighting in my house *shrugs*) It's nice and non-blurry but the pattern is mostly lost unfortunatly.

I started this with the intent to have it finished for Prom (which is the 26th of this month). I'm hopeful I'll still be able to accomplish that goal but as the time comes to do the border looms nearer I'm a bit apprehensive--I dont know how to use dpns at all, nor how to knit on any sort of border. So, keeping my fingers crossed.

In other news, I checked a recipe book out from the library the other day full of "Spanish Recipes by Region". I attempted the chiabata bread recipe last night with something less than glowing success but I'm hopeful that with more practice it will come out better in future. At the least, it tastes good, if too dense.