It's been awhile...

...well, almost a week since my last post. Things have been pretty hectic between going back home to CT for the weekend, then starting the first round of bar review classes this week, and oh yeah, packing. In the not-busy moments I do stop and think to myself, "Wow, at the end of next week I will be a law school graduate."

While I was home I cleaned out my room to get it ready for my return on the 25th; threw away a lot of junk, organized TONS of crafting stuff: scrapbooking, pictures, and don't forget the STASH. Ravelry actually aided in my organizing the stash because I started taking pictures of it to post in my notebook there. It isn't all up yet, but most of the sock yarn is. The rest will have to wait for another day. (For those of you who are on Ravelry, I am "ndjen04" over there too if you'd like to friend me)

Dad drove me back to Boston on Sunday. He and my brother loaded up the truck with a ton of stuff from my apartment here to bring back to CT -- furniture, my bed (I am sleeping on an air mattress for the remaining weeks here), pots and pans, TV cart (but left the TV), desk. Basically if I don't need it up here and it fit in the truck, they took it. When my stuff got home, my mom put my desk and small dresser in their den. I will have my own little crafting corner in there and am soooo excited about it! Especially because I will have a space to work on my other craft: scrapbooking. I have never really had my own crafting space before. I've always spread out on the kitchen table only to have to pack it all up and lug it back upstairs when I was finished. Now I can have it all organized in plastic drawers and cubbies and have my workspace right there! Oh how wonderful!

Let's see... what else? Oh! In knitting news, I finished my first preemie hat. Take a look:



Knit with Caron Simply Soft in Soft Pink on US 6 DPN's. I adapted the pattern from Newborns in Need so that it was knit in the round as I am not a fan of seaming. Also, I added shaping on the top to make it more fitted. Basically the pattern came out something like this:

CO 40 sts; Join in the round
K1, P1 rib for 1 inch
Switch to st st for 12 rounds
Decrease for the top as follows:
Round 1: *K8, K2tog repeat from * to end of round
Round 2: K
Round 3: *K7, K2tog repeat from * to end of round
Round 4: K
Round 5: *K6, K2tog repeat from * to end of round
Round 6: K
Then I drew the yarn through the remaining stitches to close off the top.

The plan is to knit up a whole bunch and donate them to a local hospital. My aunt also told me that she had information on other local places that take preemie hats and blankets too, so I will have to get that from her next time I see her. Speaking of charitable knitting, I did a bit of an update to the Knit for a Cause post, adding in more links and places to check out. And although I was already a member of the Crafting for a Cause blogspot page, I also joined their Livejournal Community too. If you already knit or do other crafts for charity, I highly recommend joining this group. Very inspiring and encouraging group of crafters! Hi to anyone who found my blog through there!

And last, but not least, I have been playing around with my blogger template. Mostly with the colors, starting off small. To change the background colors I actually had to edit the html of the template, which was a little scary at first. I know a tiny bit of HTML and could (sort of) figure out what I was doing, but at the same time I was a bit terrified that I would accidentally erase an essential part and my site would *POOF* disappear. Don't worry, I was smart enough to back up the template before playing around with it just in case, but it was still a scary process.

And now after this long rambling post, it is time to sign off and go knit some more.

Happy Knitting!

And I'm done...

...with school that is. Handed in my last paper yesterday. What a relief. Now I'm home in CT for a few days before the first round of Bar Review classes start on the 14th up in Boston. Then Graduation on the 25th and home for good.

Hopefully over the next few days I can take pictures of my knitting and update the blog a little more. Even though I was on a bit of a blogging hiatus during the last week or so, I did tweak a few things here and there. For instance, I added a link to the side bar to the Knit for a Cause post that I will update from time to time. You may have noticed the newest addition to that list a couple days ago - Crafting for a Cause. Aimee from the Fairie Knits podcast helps run this group. Their goal is to donate 3000 handmade goods to charity this year. If you already knit things for charity, you should come on over and join to help the group reach its goal.

Let's see, what else? Oh! Many of you out there in blog land may have heard about Ravelry. It is a new community for knitters and crocheters to keep track of all their WIP's, FO's, future projects, stash, needles, as well as meet up with other fiber artists. Last week I signed up to be put on the waiting list and yesterday I received my invitation and already started adding in my projects and pictures -- it has become very addicting. I am in the process of cleaning out my closet getting ready to move back home for good, so it's been really helpful to keep track of my yarn and needles. I do have an excel spreadsheet, but I haven't updated it in awhile.

And last but not least, I have a finished object! Or I guess you could say half of an FO -- Yesterday on the train I finished the first May Day Sock for the Sockamania Club KAL. I really love this pattern -- very easy to follow and quick to knit up. I used Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Blues/Greens. I'm really pleased with how the striping in the yarn came out -- no pooling anywhere. :-) Take a look:

Another secret revealed

It is time once again to reveal a "surprise" project that has been on my needles the past few weeks. This particular project was a gift for a very dear friend of mine for her birthday. Before I post the picture, I must say that this project has been one of the most fun, most challenging, and most satisfying projects I have knit to date. It may even surpass socks in terms of how great my love is for this project. What could possibly take the place of socks you ask? This cute teddy bear:



And I could not be happier that he has a loving home in which to live and his new mommy will love him just as much, if not more, than I do! :-) (although I must admit, I felt a bit like a mother bird watching her baby bird fly away from home, in a sad, but happy and proud way)

Specs: He was knit from the "Thomas" body pattern in The Knitted Teddy Bear with Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4-ply and US 2 needles. He has a yellow T-shirt that is not quite finished because I had a few counting/sizing issues, but all that is left to do is sew up the seams.

Secret.. Revealed

Well, now that it is finished and presented to the recipients, I can stop being so secretive about the gift I have been working on for the past few months -- It was an afghan for my parents for their wedding anniversary. In the off chance that they read my blog, I did not want to spoil the surprise. I do not have a picture of the finished project, but here it is with 3 of the 5 panels assembled.



I knit the afghan with Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick in "Green Heather". The pattern was also from the Lion Brand site -- Cable Comfort Throw. (note - if you are new to the LB site, you may have to register to view their free patterns). This was my first large-scale knitted project, and I really enjoyed working on it. Of course switching between this project on US13 needles with thick yarn and socks on US1 or 2 with thin yarn took some getting used to -- Two completely different experiences!

In other knitting news, this weekend in addition to my KAL socks, I also started the Corner-to-Corner blanket from the Baby Afghans book. When I finish, I will donate it to Project Linus. The pattern is fairly simple, and so far it is knitting up quickly and quite nicely.

And we have a picture!

Here is the completed pair!



EDIT: Knit with Plymouth Sockotta on US2 DPN's; K3 P1 ribbing for the leg and instep, Stockinette for the heel and sole. I did not use an actual pattern for this sock - I merely adapted a basic stockinette sock pattern to have the ribbing and adjusted accordingly to fit my foot. However in recent searches for sock patterns, I found there is a similar pattern here that uses the same ribbing pattern.

And we have FO's!!!

Not one, but TWO FO's for today! First, I apologize that there will be a delay in any new pictures as the batteries have died for my digital camera... *sniffle* Perfect timing. The charger is back home in CT, but tomorrow I will try to pick up some AA's so I can post new pictures.

The WONDERFUL news is that I have COMPLETED a pair of socks!! I love them :-) There is a picture below of the first sock of the pair, and here is another one:





The other FO's are the bright orange and blue mittens, the first of which is also below in a previous post.

I am so tempted to cast on my next pair of socks (Jaywalkers in CTH brights (orange/red)), but I really should finish up the last two projects I have OTN's here before going back to CT in 11 days.

Finally organized my stash

Some of my stash
Originally uploaded by ndjen04.

A few weeks ago while cleaning my closet, I found this great sweater storage/hanging shelf contraption that I had used while in college and it is perfect for storing my current stash of yarn. And it makes Mom happy because it is now organized and in one spot - beats having plastic bags all over the place. I also created an Excel sheet to keep track of what yarn I have, how much, and what it is currently being used for. I've found that I often will be in the store, find yarn that I like, think that I have something similar at home and then realize that what I have will not be enough or isn't right for the project I had in mind. Or the opposite happens - - I think that I don't have it, buy it, and then I have too much (although, is there ever a such thing as too much yarn?).






In other news, I finished my first sock!!! This picture is a little fuzzy, but tomorrow when I have more energy, I'll take a new one. And then of course I will cast on the mate for this one. I really want to start another pair to work on, but my goal for this week is to finish the few projects I already have started before starting anything new. So far I have been doing well, but we shall see how long it lasts.

For now it is bedtime.

EDIT: I re-took the picture this morning under better lighting conditions. Now you can see the texture of the ribbing and it's just a better picture than the one I had up last night.