Aw Shucks

About one minute after I put up the last post, I had 4 comments on it. I was hoping that I was somehow such a popular blogger that people were breathlessly waiting for my every word, but sadly, it was actually just comment spam. So I turned on the word verification. (Thanks, blogger!)
An example:
"Your blog is great Collectables of interest - dog figurine I hope you enjoy dog figurine"
But maybe, just maybe...someone did really just have horrible grammar and genuinely thought they'd share with me the opportunity to enjoy dog figurine.

Vogue Knitting Fall 05 Rundown

I recently bought the Fall 2005 VK and I'm pretty happy with the contents--while there are the inevitable "Aaagh! What is that?!" moments, there are some intersting designs too. Since of course, I am procrastinating and not wanting to study glycosylation, I present--my wish-list:

My initial reaction to this was "Is she aware that a kitchen rug has jumped on and is attacking her back?!" Upon further inspection, however, this is actally an interesting take on the circle shrug idea. The "gypsy" colorwork, however, is just not for me. Perhaps if I can think of a more muted colors to make it in I could give it a shot.

This for me is probably the most wearable of the designs in here. It reminds me of a delicious chocolate bar. If only I could yarn-substitute in such a way as to avoid the $100 price tag...
I love these gloves. The opera length ensures I'd never actually wear them...but they're just adorable.

I don't know how sporty I would consider angora, but I have some Cotton-Ease in bright pink that would be PERFECT for this. The question would be, of course, whether I would feel like a small child again in a neon-pink hoodie. Cute, either way.

I correct my earlier statement that the brown shawl-collar cardi would be the most wearable--you can never have too many classic cardigans--but then again, it feels almost too boring for me to spend time knitting it!
As for the rest of the magazine--I have to say I wasn't impressed by the cabled sweaters--they looked chunky and unflattering (and this is on the model, imagine what it would look like on a "real person"), and I really have no use for cropped sweaters. I might consider this one minus the fluttery trim. The model for the vests actually looks ADORABLE in all of them but I would not. The shawls are beautiful but I don't have the patience right now (and also have 2/3rds of a crocheted shawl on the back-burner).
But really, the take-home message needs to be: I'm NOT going to start anything else, despite drooling over all of it. No. No. No. Don't have the time.
Stupid med school.

Go Fig. Hahahahahaha!

We have all these fig trees/bushes in the yard and I've been wanting to make something--so I made something horribly unhealthy but very easy!
Bacon-wrapped figs:
-cut bacon slices in half and fry until half-cooked (as browned as you can make them while still pliable)
-slice figs in half
-put a little bit of feta and an almond in center
-wrap with bacon and skewer with toothpick
-bake at 350 for 5-10 minutes, until they look done to you.
-Eat them in 1/10th of the time it took for you to make them.

p.s. if you look closely in the above photo you can tell I'm making appetizers in an attempt to avoid studying molecular bio ;)

Let's play Find-the-Mack

Can you find the Mack in this picture?



How about in this one? (Close-up of side of chair)



There he is! (Sleeping in the space between the back of the chair and the weird wall-corner. Aww...)

Update

One of the greatest drawbacks to being in medical school is that I don't have the time to knit as much as I'd like to. That being said, it's amazing how appealing an old WIP can get when you're looking to get away from apoptosis and molecular signal transduction:



I picked up one of my old Very Cherry attempts--I'd made two, both highly unsuccessful attempts--my gauge was too tight on the first one and it came out a little cropped for my taste, whereas in the next one I overcompensated to make a big blobby mess with waist shaping. Keep in mind this was my FIRST knitting project after making one garter-stitch scarf, folks.
While the second one was wearable after some of my surgical alterations (nips and tucks here, some elastic there) I realized that the bigger problem at hand was this: I'm NEVER going to wear a furry, hot, Light N' Lofty sweater that doesn't have sleeves. Not only does it make my torso look fat compared to my scrawny arms, but if it's cold enough to wear a furry acrylic sweater, it's cold enough that I need sleeves.
So I picked up some stitches in the arm opening and I'm tacking on some sleeves. So far, my big concern is bulging in the armpit area. I'll press on for a few more rows (9 stitches/4 inches, it's not wasting TOO much time) and see how it looks. If it looks like it's going to work I'm going to knit directly off of my first very cherry that I never frogged.
I have to say I'm not a huge fan of the way the Light N' Lofty feels (my fingers have gotten snobbier as I've knit more) but I still love this burgundy/wine color.




This is the yellow baby sweater I showed a few posts ago. The progress since last post was accomplished on Greyhound, and also while watching Iron Chef (the sardine battle, notably). It's shown with a fab bag I got as part of a Craftster swap--jealous?

Medical School

I just had my first exam in med school and I am happy to report that despite spending the weekend bridesmaiding at a friend's wedding and not studying, I passed!
Huzzah!
And to celebrate I've been googling and craftstering and all sorts of like-minded non-studying activities.
A funny digression: learning about D-loops in the mitochondria genome reminded me that I really really really want this book.

Bunny Slippers - Done!

Yarn: Bernat CottonTots in white and Lily Sugar n' Cream in coral colorway
Needles: #5 straights
I again adapted a Debbie Bliss patter to worsted weight yarn--in this case the pattern for Animal Slippers in her Quick Knits book. I made the rabbits in white and I think they're just about the cutest thing ever. I hope the recipient of them thinks so too. I guess I should say the mother and father of the recipient, since I imagine he or she will be more concerned with finding a nipple than silly things that are put on his/her feet.

Yellow Baby Sweater WIP

Yarn: Bernat CottonTots in Sunshine
Needles: #8 and #6 Denise
I'm sort of combining two patterns--the Baby Ensemble Sweater from my Knitting Know-How booklet, and the Cotton Jacket with Tie Bow from Debbie Bliss' Easy Knits. Essentially, I wanted to make the latter with a worsted-weight yarn. This is going to be for a new little girl and hopefully will be finished before she's born and grows too big for it! (Might be a problem with my starting medical school.)

New Laptop!

Since we got a new laptop for med school (yay!) I've been noticing that just throwing it in the big compartment of my bookbag is resulting in some surface scratching. (boo!)
I want to knit up a laptop sleeve, and while sitting in class ignoring the lecturer I thought "how cool would it be to have an intarsia sacred heart on a laptop sleeve?!" and started thinking up what yarns to do it in.
Then of course I got home and decided that a sacred heart, being...religious iconography...perhaps would not be the best choice for a technophile agnostic, (however attractive it is from a design perspective.)
I thought about it some more and decided to do a fun heart with sash and dagger. And now I'm all excited about this project (it would actually be my first attempt at intarsia!) but I still have presents for two expectant mothers to finish!

Crossed-Front Tank from Vogue

Yarn: Beige ribbon from China
Needles: #15 and #12 Denises (I think.)
I finally got off my butt and finished the ties on the ribbon tank from the summer Vogue. I like it much better in a solid-ish color rather than the rainbow ribbon. For some reason I really don't find myself attracted to most variegated colorways. My guage must have been a little off because it's sort of small, but it fits, it's cute, and definitely wearable (though maybe with a different tank top than the one I've got on in the above picture.)

Knit/Sew Swap

Yarn: Bernat's Softee Chunky in black and white
Needles: #10 Denise
I made this for my partner in Craftster's ingenious "Knit but can't sew, Sew but can't knit Swap". She wanted a striped shrug and so I made one based on Magknit's Hug. I wanted it to be snuggly and made it ribbed for a perfect fit. I like the softee chunky because even though it's acrylic (easy care, everyone) it actually feels soft. I made a little sushi pincushion since she's a seamstress and some wristcuffs because she mentioned she wanted them and they're just fun and easy to do. I'm happy that she liked them and I love making things for other people.

Knotty Shrug

Yarn: Adriafil Chic in olive green
Hook: F, done in solomon's knot
This was done in the style of the Lover's Knot Shrug from Craftster. I did blog about it earlier saying that the knots were too big, but I actually since finishing it have decided I rather like it--it's like fishnets for your upper arms and back, and it also scrunches together and works equally well as a scarf!
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