The model reminds me of Allyson Hannigan. This pattern is going to be a challenge, but also incredibly awesome.

I’m packing right now for my move on the 29th, but all I really want to do is cast on. I’m going to try a lace pattern for the first time that will hopefully turn into a hat for my aunt. I can’t really find any circular lace patterns so I think I’m going to have to make one up.

I’ve packed up a box of books that will go into storage because I’ve decided it’s naive to think I’ll do anything but schoolwork for the next year. I’m going to keep the standbys, of course; Fierce Invalids, Dance of the Voodoo Handbag, Mash, etc. All my cogsci-related books I’ll keep around, but I doubt I’ll have to refer to the History of Pink Floyd anytime soon.

Finished Project #5 for 2006

I had to cut into it last night and make a hole for a thumb. Yes, that’s right, I forgot the thumb hole when I was knitting the second one. I’m so embarrassed.

Snowdrift Mittens, finished April 25, 2006
Pattern: a modification of the pattern here.
Yarn: Blue and white Phentax acrylic yarn (it’s really pretty and soft, which makes up for the forced cheepnis because I couldn’t find a yarn store when I was buying it)
Needles: 4.25mm dpns
Dimensions: slightly too long, but I’ll make alterations when I can compare them to my aunt’s hands.

These LoveMeKnot socks are really cute. I like the disclaimer:

Warning: these socks are magical. If you do not finish the second one you will be cursed never to love again and the ghost of Virginia Woolf will come and haunt you. She is a long winded old cow who never shuts up and you don’t want this.

There’s also a great “pattern” for i-cord bracelets and necklaces that remind me of Kasia.

I finished ripping that sweater apart last night and this morning during the F1 race. Now I have 4 big balls of yarn (front, back, an arm and the neck) plus one slightly looser skein from the first arm that I’m going to wash first. Les keeps talking about how he wishes he had a cat so the cat could play with my yarn. Sure, they’re cute when they play with yarn, but oh my! That would be a horrible disaster.

(Then again, we never chopped the fingers off my cat so I don’t know what it’s like to see a declawed cat playing with yarn. Is it cuter? Does the yarn stay intact?)

I have decided to knit Mariella from Rowan’s Tuscan Retreat with the yarn. The colour’s pretty similar, and it and “Holiday” (the wholly too-expensive Rowan yarn they recommend) have a similar consistency and shine. (Side note: I’m really excited about this new Marie Wallin character who’s designing for them. I don’t like glimmery yarns, but her Persephone is also quite classy.)
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You can count on me to bring you all the latest news in cute things.

Tavis tipped me off to I am 8-bit, pictures of which you can see at FORT 90. There are some really cute sewn pieces in there that allows all those with too much estrogen to enjoy it as well.

Side note: For those who poo-poo estrogen, the “yoke” is on you, boys (and/or girls). Boy brains are masculine because of estradiol. Estrogen can’t cross the body-to-brain security fence but testosterone can, so it gets metabolized in the brain and makes you like trucks instead of Barbies. And now you know.

Exam procrastination time!

I just ripped this from the arm of the first sweater I bought. It was $4. The sweater, not just the arm.

This is my first try at yarn recycling, so there were a few mistakes with this skein. Still, most of it’s usable and the rest of the sweater will turn out better.

I bought two sweaters yesterday for the purposes of tearing them apart and reknitting them into something fabulous. The first was a 100% cotton sweater, but the second (based on the highly-washed tag) was 7*% c****, 2*% **********. It’s machine-washable, but that’s all I know about the fiber content. I’ve decided to do a burn test to figure out what it’s made of, but I have no idea how. I can’t really find anything simple on the internet, especially not for fiber combinations, which leads me to two conclusions:

1. I’ll have to ask around and do lots of research / experimentation myself, and
2. The internet needs a tutorial, and it’s up to me to make one.

I’ve got three exams to study for in the next 6 days, but immediately afterwards you can expect a little bit of both.

I dyed my hair yesterday! For once, it’s pretty close to the actual colour of my hair (dirty blonde, the most banal of hair colours) with a medium brown. I believe the name is Mocha Orgasm or something. I’m not going to take a picture now because I’m too lazy to change out of my pyjamas, but maybe soon.

I also bought a fancy coat and red shoes! I love red shoes. Also, I got a haircut. No wonder I’m behind on exam studying. I’ve gotten through two of 6 chapters in my Perception textbook, which is right on target, but I’m behind with Brain & Behaviour. Hopefully I’ll catch up by the end of the night, if I don’t spend too much time this afternoon at Value Village buying sweaters which I will harvest for beautiful yarn and maybe making this or this or this or this or maybe the ever-popular Ingeborg.

Lastly, here’s a cute story by a blogger who labels her blog as being about both knitting and brain theory, but I haven’t seen much brain theory. Sigh. Aw.

I’ve started making plans for the split between my regular blog and my knitlog. I’m trying to keep them as close as possible; I find it rather stupid that two blogs would require two different installations of Wordpress, so I’m going to separate out my knitting content using categories. It’ll be very simple, hopefully. Here’s my plan:

All the content I want to appear on my knitting blog will be separated by marking it with the category “Knitblog.” Regular blog posts will be marked as “Regblog” or something. There’ll still be a knitting category independent of “Knitblog,” so I can still mention knitting on my regular blog if necessary. I’ll be creating a new page and template for the knitting blog, which will be located at www.guzzlingcakes.com/knit. All this template will do is mirror my main index file, with a few alterations:

1. The feed for the “Knitblog” category will be included as a link ref.
2. The stylesheet will be different and knitblog-specific content (like FOs, current projects, links to other knitting blogs, etc.) will be marked as display:normal or whatever (whereas in the regular blog they won’t be displayed to save space).
3. The Loop will only display posts marked as a Knitblog post. I may have to play around with this a bit. The easiest way to do this might be to mirror the Knitblog category.
4. Only knitblog Asides will be displayed.

The main page will exist as normal, though I may provide an option to view only posts marked as a Regblog post. If I want a post to appear under both blogs, I can mark them under both categories, and if I want to post to only one, I can do that, too. I think it’ll work out well. As soon as exams are over I’m going to get raring on it, but for now I should probably keep studying. More on the subject as I keep thinking about it.