What I have made

It's been a long time since I've posted, and admittedly, a lot of things have been on my mind (mostly school and research related, so I took a little hiatus from this blog to try and keep sane. Plus, the thought of school was a bit depressing last fall, so I've tried to focus my energies in a more positive direction). So, in the time between the last time I posted and today, I've

• finished my Noro socks (I am wearing them at the moment and will take photos of them sometime soon)
• Finished a scarf for my SnB anniversary scarf swap
• Actually read a real book (meaning: A book that has absolutely nothing to do with research or school: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest)
• Gotten my photo taken for a billboard (it is up right now!)
• Worked a lot
• Made some progress on recruiting subjects for one study
• Started the new semester anew, and hopefully the spring semester will be much better and much happier than the fall semester

So, for tonight's anniversary swap, here are some photos of things that I made:

This is my homemade baklava, which is so yummy and sweet.

I made Saroyan, a lovely scarf with a leaf edging out of a mohair blend yarn that I've had in my stash for a while. I've looked at the yarn for a long time, thinking it would be beautiful knitted up in this pattern. Chantal wound up with this scarf that I made.

In return, I wound up with the scarf that Andrea knit. Andrea, I love the scarf that you knit, with its bright, cheery colors! I will post pictures of it in the next few days!

Ahhhh.

Anyhow, I've been up to a few things after finishing up exams...Friday night, I went to buy some yarn for myself. I wound up with some Noro Solk Garden sock yarn and some Malabrigo sock yarn (in Eggplant). 'Twas a splurge, but think I deserved it.


First thing that I did after I came home from my exams and yarn shopping was to cook. I forgot to take a picture of my chicken paprikash before I ate it all, but it was yum.

Then, I knitted a lot. I picked up my Squirrelly Mittens and started knitting the second mitten. But this is not what you'll see here! Despite the fact that I have a mitten to knit, I was just itching to get my hands into the Noro Silk Garden sock yarn, and so I started.

But, I actually had to rip it out several times, because the first time, I was dumb and didn't read instructions straight through. Second time, I ripped it out to the beginning (again) because the sock was too big, so I went down a size. Third time, the foot was still too saggy. Fourth time, I tinked back a couple rows because I missed a block. But right now it's looking good, but it's driving me nuts becuase all I've knitted so far has been purpled, blue, and grey, and I'm seeing some cool pinks and golden colors inside the ball of yarn, and I am dying to get to those...


Then, yesterday, I had a FREE DAY. And because my friend Juniper showed us all this awesome blog, Bakerella, so I bought myself some cake mix and melting chocolates, as well as some cake/candy sprinkles to decorate...


So my first attempt at making cake pops turned out to look like deformed chicks. But they were delish. With a little more experimentation, I made some bunny pops.

Now I am relaxing, sort of. I'm watching Ghosthunters (yes, at nighttime-me, the girl who gets freaked out about ghosts!) but I'm having fun doing this. Plus, my written exams are over. Yay--just have to defend them next week.

On Sunday, my parents wanted to take me out for a celebratory dinner, so we went to one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in Cleveland, we invited my boyfriend along. Anyway mom ordered this dish with beef tendons and beef veins, which I dare not eat. Anyway, prior to eating dinner, we all had gone to the chinese grocery store, where my boyfriend perused different packages of mysterious food. After finding a few packages with no english translations, he told me that it would be a good idea to try these foods and see what they were. So he bought one of the mysterious packages of food. So, at dinner, mom knew about his new food adventures, and asked if he wanted to try her food. So he tried some, and ate every single bit of the beef veins, radishes and tendons that were on his plate. About 15 minutes later he asked my mom what he ate. So my mom told him it was beef veins, and this is what it was like for the next few minutes.

Adam: Beef VEINS? What do you mean, veins?

Mom: Veins.

Fat white man at table behind us: (laughs hysterically)

Adam: I ate beef veins? Which ones were they?

Mom shows him the beef veins

Adam: ugh. (The expression on his face is priceless) What is the nutritional value of veins?

Mom: It's good for your knees.

Adam: What?

Mom: It's good for your knees. You know, it's made of the same stuff as Knox gelatin.

Adam: What?

Mom: Knox gelatin. Collagen.A

dam: Oh, you mean, like Jell-O

Man at table behind us: Jell-o! That's my favorite!

Adam: That's made of of that?

Man at table behind us: Yep, all the leftover animal parts.

Ahhhh!

You know, it's so nice to finally not have to study my poor head off, write inane things about different psychological theories that I don't quite understand (but what little I knew got me an A in the class, anyway, so I am very pleased). It's nice to be done cleaning (save for some minor floor-sweeping/window polishing, etc., before a party on Sunday (surprise party for my mom's friend; her husband is borrowing our house under the guise that my brother will be visiting and wants to see my mom's friend before she leaves for a vacation)...

And since I did not have much to do...(plus, I finished off this great book, The Know-It All by A.J. Jacobs, which is hilarious and informative, and makes me want to read the entire Encyclopaedia Brittanica...so I knitted and watched TV (Home Improvement can be quite fun), as well as watching a couple DVDs (Big Lots: $2! Sadly, I think Big Lots has sold out of all the good stuff) -- Advertising Rules was funny (it had the girl who played Lena in Goodbye Lenin! and the woman who played the daughter in Rosenstrasse)...and I'm with Lucy was cute, even if not stellar. I'd like Henry Thomas, please.

At the same time...I knitted. I'm being all ambitious and am determined to knit down as much of my stash as I can during my holiday...so I've taken that turquoise blue yarn and am making Kate Gilbert's Sunrise Circle Jacket.

So far, this is what I have (I'm working on the back). Not bad for a day's work. The color is a lot better in real life.












I will admit that I am slightly terrified of the front, but I will be brave.

And for the moments when I need to pay more attention to what I'm doing (i.e., SnB knitting, or frenzied Ugly Betty watching (by the way, did any of you watch it????!!! So not fair that I have to wait till next season to find out what will happen. Great way to leave us all hanging, LOL!)











I will admit I'm not super thrilled with the way this looks, but it's okay. Maybe I'll end up giving this to my mom or something. It goes along with my goal to stash-bust as much as I can. After this (and the sweater), I'll start another sweater or vest, and finish up my red Noro scarf. And the super-secret double-knit scarf (it's a secret--i want to fiddle with it a bit more...if all goes well, there will be a pattern!)

I'll post the rest of my works in progress as the weekend (or week) goes on...I've got a few more projects that are on needles (whether or not I like them). Well, I've got another hour before I must sleep (party tomorrow, party Sunday! I am a busy girl! LOL!) so I am going to work in a few more rows on the Sunrise Circle Jacket!

Knitting. For real.

Actually, I wrote this big long post and then blogger LOST the damn thing, I guess due to some sort of "Blogger cannot connect to the server" thing. I have no idea. I'll do the best I can to actually recreate this thing. But a lot of things have happened in the past...well, however long it's been since I last posted.

• I got a new job! It's per diem, which means I'm not devoting like a million hours to work plus the million I already work at school. It's good. I'm happy. Plus it pays.
• I went to San Francisco with my parents a couple weeks ago. It was great fun--went to Fisherman's Wharf, Union Square, Ghiradelli Square, and Chinatown (of course). I did lots of shopping, but at the same time, not really. I did buy chocolates, a couple pieces of jewelry, and a cute cell phone holder.
• I went to my group's knit-in weekend at Peak n' Peek. Amy and I drove together, with Heather following us. We stopped at a bead store on the way, and had some dinner at some restaurant with lots of dead animals hanging on the walls. We were trying to find an Applebee's. Obviously it wasn't one. Anyhow, it snowed on the way up there (!!). But anyway, we all went to The Cultured Purl for their SnB group. The rest of our group from Ohio (Rae, Ann, Adrianne, Juniper, and Meg) joined us there.
• I saw this. The most amazing selection of Noro. Yum.

• Yes, I bought some.

Plus some Berocco Optik.

(Noro Aurora)

(Noro Kujaki)

(Berocco Optik)

• I left my camera at The Cultured Purl. So in fact, I have only two pictures from the whole weekend. Sigh. At least one of them has people in it. (Yes, I got it back on the way home).
• It took us quite a while to get to Peak n' Peak because of all the snow. Scary. But we made it alive. My mom said if she had known it was that snowy, she'd have been freaking out, so I suppose it's a good thing that she didn't know that it was that snowy.
• I finished my sweater! Yay! Finally. These are pictures before they were seamed up. I have it drying out now; I steam-blocked it (little too impatient to wet-block) and seamed it, and washed it. I cant' wait to wear it.

(Finally!)

• I also started a new scarf with some Noro I bought in Pittsburgh.

• On the way home, Amy and I stopped by at A.C. Moore. I bought even more yarn. I can't believe the amount of money I've spent this weekend. I am not allowed to spend more money...oh, wait, Christmas is coming up. Darn it.