In Color

K,

As I really have been working on things, a brief play by play of my life, in picture format. Well, the crafting part of my life. The other part is far too boring or exciting to take pictures of.

78% Merino, 22% Nylon.

New pot from Goodwill in back left.

Alpaca lace, mystery brand, purchased in bulk on ebay junior year.




Is it a squid?
What is it?
I appologize that all the pictures are slanty. When I told them to go on here, they were not. Perhaps at some point when I don't have a cell biology test tomorrow, I will fix this.

Or maybe not.

Do you remember when Sarah and I turned all the posters in our room upside-down to represent our inner selves? However, I really don't think I'm at that point yet. So perhaps they shall be fixed.

Love ya,
A

She knits, she purls, she fires!

A,
I see what you're saying about the decreasing. You're right, I was doing ssk, k1, k2tog. My ssk was the modified version of the ssk with a slipped knit and then a slipped purl stitch. It did not look okay, since it was pulling away from the center stitch. Dissatisfied with the way my decreases were going, I decided to pull out and try a different method. So this is my new decrease pattern which seems to be working mildly better. Although in my book it still looks pretty crappy. Here I am just using K2tog as my decreasing stitch, although the line of decreases is more prominent than I would have hoped. I was also hoping to avoid a diagonal decrease line. This is pretty frustrating. I may play around with your suggestions though. Maybe I'll catch onto something that works.


James took me to the shooting range today. I fired my first bullet--it was in the bulls-eye.


I was pretty proud of myself. I was thinking of taking my target to lab and showing it to my students as a demonstration of accuracy versus precision. Although if I was going to take a target, this wouldn't be the optimal one to demonstrate the difference between these two concepts.

K

Pink Ribbon Mittens

K

A better pic of the handspun mittens that went to the fair that was about 65 years ago relatively.


Pattern: My own
Yarn: Handspun Rambouillet Monet's Waterlillies
Yardage: ??? (About 70 grams of it)
Needles: 2.25 mm, size 1

Just finished an anatomy test. At least it didn't finish me off. Entirely.

A

Addendum

K

Just a side note, have you noticed that my English grammer has greatly decreased since I started medical school?

I think so. Maybe science people can really not do both. Too much head not working.

That'd be a great diagnosis. I'd get through with my entire work up and then:

Differential Diagnosis: Too much head not working

A

Decreasing

K,

What decreases are you using? It's hard to read with the fuzzy alpaca, but it looks to be an ssk, and then a k2tog? Am I correct? Let's break down this situation. ssk will never match k2tog, just because of the lie of stitches, and the fact that they are wonky. Look here. Do you see what I mean? Sometimes a k2tog paired with a sl 1, k1, psso works better. The site above lists some other reasons to make the ssk better. Many people enjoy slipping one stitch as if to knit, slipping one stitch as if to purl, and then knitting them through the back. A really good explanation of why there are issues with the ssk can be found here, at Sara's website. A thinker, that one is. You also might try, if the pattern allows, give room for 2 stitches instead of 1 in between your decreases. I see that the center stitch seems to be pulled in multiple directions. This could be alleviated by taking out the center stitch, which I tend to do on mittens, or having two central stitches, which I like on socks. I don't know what you're trying to do, though, or what you do do, which can be very different things if you are me sometimes, and so that perhaps would help.

A

Decreasing woes

A,

Your socks are gorgeous. Don't be afraid to wear them! Everyone else will just be jealous of your knitting/embroidery skills.

At the moment, I'm feeling rather inept at my knitting skills, so I marvel at your lovely socks.

It's a little hard to see, but here is a decrease pattern for my hat. Nice, soft alpaca, decreasing terribly. It looks gap-y and the decreases are pulling away from the rest of the hat. I tried to take it out and re-start the decreases differently, but it hasn't improved terribly.



Frustration!!!

On a less disappointing note, I now have a lovely bunny hopping around in my apartment.

Is it this bunny?


Or this bunny?



Or this one?



No, I did not get an angora rabbit. But I definitely also did not get a mini lop. My bunny dealer apparently didn't know what breed she was selling.

This is Hazel-rah, named of course after the courageous rabbit leader in Watership Down. We wanted her to aspire to live up to great feats, so we named her after a great rabbit; albeit a fictional one. You may wonder about the plunger. No, this is not a photo-shoot prop. She does enjoy spending time in the bathroom. As well as squished into the tiniest places she can get to, such as the crack between the refrigerator and the wall, and the space behind the washing machine. Oh dear.

While I'm at it, here is a picture of my new harness and climbing shoes.


The most uncomfortable and expensive shoes I've ever bought.

Although I've been promised that the shoes will stretch and I may even be able to feel my toes again, I may never be able to fully uncurl my toes in these shoes. It's to get better grip on the rocks.

There's a climbing wall near the school, so James and I have been going up on weekends to climb! Plus there are real mountains around and climbing clubs, so James is in heaven and I'm trying to catch up.

The graduate coordinator told me when I came to visit that I would not have time to knit as a graduate student. Oh! So wrong. If I have time to commute for three hours a day, I totally have time to knit. And climb. Occasionally. And pet the bunny.

Or do the laundry, which I will leave you now to finish.

Take care! Wear those socks!

Karen

Judge not least ye be

K,

Do you remember when I first met you and thought you were crazy because you had pasta on your head? And then you did turn out to be crazy, but not in the way I thought?

You'd think I would have learned my lesson. Today on the bus I was knitting on a sock, and I see skull punk chick standing outside, about to get on. I kept knitting, but snuck glances in that general direction. This girl is pretty with a harsh, large nose ring, and I mean the kind that looks like a bull's semicircle through the nostrils. Yesterday she hopped on the bus carrying what looked to be a yellow teapot, a rather large yellow teapot. Today, she entered wearing punk pants (I don't know how to describe them other than that they don't look like normal pants) and arm warmers with skulls on them. She might also sport several skull tattoos on her arms, but I might be confusing her with a gentleman who sat in the exact same spot and had tattoos. We'll see.

Well, I was all set to have my own beliefs about her, think that she's just some punk chick who's into skulls in a different way than I am, when she just did it. She whipped out her knitting.

Karen, I was shocked. And then I admonished myself. Knitters are everywhere. Don't judge a muggle until you really know.

A

Embroidered Black Stockings

K,

I know we're supposed to wear our beautiful handknits, but I'm almost intimidated to wear these.

It really did take forever.

I think with a lovely black skirt it would really work.

I'm buying shoes to go with it right now.


My favorite.

These make me think of a secret part of myself that I don't usually show. They combine all the good things I like: softness, brilliant color, bold beauty, a classic fashion, and warmth.

Pattern: My own stocking pattern
Sock design/embroidery copied from Over-the-knee stockings by Joan
McGowan-Michael, Vogue Knitting Fall 2006
I didn't want to make these in cotton, and thus, the entire pattern didn't work, as it
used an elastic cotton. Thus, they are heavily inspired.
Yarn: Knitpicks Gloss, Coal
Thread: Silk Thread, 8 strands together, hand dyed
Yardage: 4 balls
Needles: 2.0 mm, size 0
Gauge: 9.5 sts/inch over stockinette
Modifications: Well, it's my own pattern! So everything! It was heavily inspired, as I loved the look, but I really didn't want to make a pair of cotton stockings. The silk and wool blend was so gorgeous for these especially, as I don't plan for them to be exactly hard-wearing, stocky stockings. I'm thinking chilly fall days in skirts stockings. Though right now it's 84 F outside, it has been cooling down lately.

Medical School is kicking my butt. I've taken up sock knitting as a coping mechanism. Other medical students are fascinated by this. Especially by cables. I try to explain that cables are similar to the embryological formation of the aorta and the pulmonary artery. Kinda. Okay, not really. Maybe it's more like the formation of the colon. I don't know. The test isn't until Friday.

A

Yakety Yak

K,

Mmmmmmmmm. I shouldn't be doing this.


Yak. Oh yeah. Because I shouldn't be studying for my biochemistry test or embryology or writing my case report or studying genetically malformed babies. Not at all. I should be spinning yak.

A

Trix models for you

Dear Amy,

Here in this picture, Trix is showing you the can of Bar Harbor lobster chowder that he found at the local Wild Oats. I found it to be relatively exciting, since I lived in Bar Harbor when I was a wee baby.

Here, Trix is modeling the pink thrummed mittens that I just finished. I think they're a little big for him, but hopefully they will fit a human nicely.

Here are the fuzzy insides of the mitten. It's like little pods of wool all over.

And here is Trix modeling one last time with the paper that I did not read for my biochemistry class. I am finding it rather strange that I have absolutely no motivation to excel in this course. In fact, during class I mostly sit through the lecture and think to myself, I wish he would stop talking.

That's all that Trix and I have to show you today. Hopefully by the next time I write I will have a new bunny- a mini lop. Our rabbit transaction is scheduled to happen this Friday afternoon. If you don't hear back from me, it's because the crazy rabbit lady kidnapped me.

Karen

bunny bunny bunny

A,
I am getting a bunny!! Hopefully tomorrow. Although I am quite certain that the woman who is selling me the rabbit (off of craigslist) is terribly insane. We have been in communication through email, and at first she sounded, well, energetic. I attributed her use of many exclamation points to be an extension of her bunny passion. But now I'm beginning to think that she may be a little psycho. So my plan is for this deal to go down like a drug deal. Discretely pass her the money, grab the bunny and run.

I also wanted to mention, I was only able to view your black socks with the red/pink embroidery when I enlarged the picture and then I only knew they were yours because I recognized the project. You should get a better picture up so that our large readership will be able to see your most excellent work. Great job on the ribbons! You are awesome.

K