Clemson Tiger Knittin' Kitten

Tiger Homecoming

2008-11-17T21:43:00.009-05:00

We had a great time at Homecoming! We usually march in the Alumni Band... gives us the chance to play Tiger Rag again and see some friends from band. It's always fun. We also get pretty good seats in front of the band...

This is our view of "the most exciting 25 seconds in college football" - the Tigers running down the hill! Very electric.

Tiger Band doing pre-game...

The Tiger and Tiger Cub like to "direct" the band - this time they tried to do it together. I got a couple of pretty good shots!

Good shot of Clemson about to take it in for a touchdown

It's so nice to see that sea of orange

Our friend bought a purple trumpet off Ebay for $100. Not bad! Someone else had an orange trumpet, so they looked pretty cool together.

T and me having fun :-)

Uh oh... I've started something...

2008-11-02T23:21:00.002-05:00

... and I'm not sure I can deliver! T and I drove to Anderson this afternoon to visit family and I wore my newly-made socks (see prev. post). I showed them off to my fam. and now dad and Gramps want socks for Christmas!! Uh oh... I wasn't counting on this, LOL! I better get busy. The only thing - dad wants black socks... ugh. I'm thinking some fun heels and toes...

First Toe-up socks

2008-11-01T22:02:00.005-04:00

I've made socks before, but always from cuff down. I liked the idea of doing them toe-up because I could try them on as I went and also use as much of the yarn as possible without wasting any. I also wanted to try a short row heel as well because I like the way they look a lot better than a heel-flap (which just look strange to me). I used the instructions from Silver's Sock Class for socks on two circular needles (size 1 KnitPicks 16") and I LOVE this method for making socks! Thank you Kristin (aka Silver) for your great tutorial! http://www.cometosilver.com/socks.

She teaches a figure-8 cast-on, which is very easy and a non-holey short-row heel. I wanted to have a stretchy bind-off because a typical bind-off is pretty tight and makes it hard to pull on over your heel. I found instructions at http://www.woolywonder.com/classpages/sewncastoff/sewncastoff.htm which are easy and stretchy - meets my requirements!

The cables running along either side are pretty much from the sock instructions. I used 4 stitches for the first 4 cables, and then elongated the 5th cable and knitted 7 rows before adding the next cross-over.

I really like this yarn - Zitron Lifestyle. I've got a couple of other colors and have already started on another pair of socks... not sure which pattern I'll do this time, but I know I'm doing toe-up again.

More dishcloths

2008-10-17T23:13:00.003-04:00

I made these on a recent trip to North Myrtle Beach. My grandparents offered a timeshare to my inlaws, who went for the week. We drove up on Wednesday evening and stayed at the condo through Saturday. Then, we drove down to McClellenville to visit my brother and sis-in-law. It was a great trip and it was nice to get away for a few days.

Atlanta Falcons vs. Kansas City Chiefs

2008-10-17T22:56:00.004-04:00

Our friend, Marcia, and her fiance, Chris, invited us to go to a Falcon's game. They both work for the TV station that ended up buying all the extra tickets so it'd be a sold out game - this is the only way the station can broadcast it on TV. So, they passed out a bunch of free tickets to the employees of the station (oh, about $80-90 tix... EACH!) and they invited us to join them! This was my first pro football game and we had a ton of fun.

College Game Day - Clemson vs. Alabama

2008-10-17T22:48:00.004-04:00

Travis and I went with our friends, Jon and Britt (and baby Savanna), to the ESPN Gameday down at Centennial Olympic Park for the Clemson/Alabama football game. It ended up being a very sad day for Clemson, however, the consolation is that Alabama is just unexpectedly kick butt this year - makes it not quite so bad... I guess. We had a great time, living in the obliviousness of the Tiger's eventual fate of that evening.

teehee :-D

2008-07-28T18:06:00.003-04:00

Just thought this was funny

Learnin' Lithuanian

2008-07-28T16:43:00.007-04:00

Travis and I are planning on going back to Lithuania in the Summer of 2009 for a follow-up to the mission trip we took in 2007. It will be an orchestra mission trip with many others from the Atlanta area. We really enjoyed our time there, but the language is tricky. So, we have decided to try to learn as much as we possibly can before next year. I have been searching the web for some Lithuanian lessions and have found a few so far:

Lithuanian Language Lessons - simple but good
http://www.slic.org.au/Language/LLL_index.swf

The Lithuanians - Saturday School - has a text recommended, which I think we'll buy.
http://www.thelithuanians.com/school.html

Accompanying Yahoo Group for The Lithuanians webpage
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LithuanianLanguage/

Teach Yourself Lithuanian Course - for purchase through Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Yourself-Lithuanian-Complete-Package-Courses/dp/007147840X/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Beginner's Lithuanian - the recommended book for the lesson site mentioned above
http://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Lithuanian-Foreign-Language/dp/078180678X/ref=pd_sim_b_2

Pimsleur Lithuanian - another book/CD package to teach Lithuanian
http://www.amazon.com/Pimsleur-Lithuanian-Understand-Language-Schusters/dp/0743550641/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217271628&sr=1-4

Colloquial Lithuanian: The Complete Course for Beginners
http://www.amazon.com/Colloquial-Lithuanian-Complete-Course-Beginners/dp/0415427088/ref=pd_sbs_b_2

Wikipedia Entry on Lithuanian Language Constructs
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Lithuanian

Before You Know It - free downloadable language software (lite version) - full version costs $
http://www.byki.com/

NEW! 11/7/08 (I've known about this website/podcast for a while, but forgot to post it in my original post!) - Lithuanian Out Loud - http://lithuanian.libsyn.com/

As I find more resources, I will add them to this post for future reference

Boston

2008-07-28T15:36:00.023-04:00

Travis and I just got back from a trip to Boston for vacation. We enjoy visiting cities and doing sightseeing as much as trips to the beach. Since we had taken a trip to Myrtle already this year, we decided to do something different for our summer vacation. Somehow we decided on Boston. It was a really fun trip, but exhausting. They have a great transit system and we used it multiple times a day to go all over. Marta has nothin' on the T! Too bad...
Here are some of the many pictures we took

T and me at Fenway Park

Knitting at Fenway Park - Red Sox vs. Orioles

Whalewatching out of Gloucester, Mass. We went with some family members of mine - Shirley (Brown) Pantoliono, her husband Michael, and kids Caroline and Alex.

Lionfish at Aquarium

Fanieul Hall

Paul Revere

Duck Boat Tour

Me in Hahvahd Yahd (Harvard Yard for the rest of us)

Harvard Crest on Entryway

Travis at MIT

Knitting before Samuel Adams Brewery Tour

Tour begins at...

What we saw on the tour. That's it.

USS Constitution - it's still a commissioned naval vessel!

Traveling back to Boston proper on the public water taxi - our T cards got us on for free!

Mike's Pastries are awesome!

Fenway Park tour

Travis with Caroline, Alex, and Shirley Pantoliono - cousins in Boston area!

Fenway scoreboard

George Washington

Swan Boat going under the world's smallest suspension bridge

Ducks in the park - "Make Way For Ducklings"

Windsor Button - yarn store and more

My waterbottle cozy... and Sue

2008-07-28T15:16:00.005-04:00

I decided that my new Camelbak waterbottle needed a cozy since it created a lot of condensation on the outside of it when I filled it with ice water. I didn't want to lay it down anywhere because I was afraid of it leaving a ring. I had a bunch of Cascade Fixation yarn that I had bought intenting to make socks (which I will do, eventually, I'm sure) and decided to test it out. It is cotton with some elastic added to make it stretchy, so I figured that it would probably work pretty well on a straight sided waterbottle. The stretchy would help hold it up.

I also wanted to add a bottom to it because I was worried that it might slip off while holding it. I had a pattern for a mug cozy that I had made a while back with Fixation and it worked rather well, so I took the beginning instructions for creating the circular bottom to create the pattern for the cozy.

One other thing I wanted was a way to be able to see how much water I drank, so I added little windows in the side as I came to each ounce/milliliter marking. They line up pretty well, although, I may just do a larger opening next time, or just a long open strip with some ties indicating the markings. It's still hard to see with just those little holes, but I thought it was a novel concept at the time. Live and learn.

I really like the way it turned out and use it a lot. I made it in my favorite colors and I think it looks pretty good with the pink waterbottle.

Updated Pics of My Everlasting Bagstopper

2008-06-13T18:03:00.001-04:00

Stash Enhancement 101

2008-06-12T19:21:00.007-04:00

Stash Enhancement 101:
First, go to the source. Mom and Dad were vacationing in Lake Lure, NC, and I came up to visit for a few days. Beforehand, I had noted that the Peaches N Creme mill outlet was located relatively nearby and printed out directions from their vacation spot. My mom and I decided, while my dad went to play golf with a friend, to explore the area and find it. So, off to Old Fort, NC we went. After about 45 minutes, my nav. system, brought us right to the front door of cotton yarn heaven!

Second, know what you're getting into. We walk into this tiny waiting room, complete with knitting magazines for your reading and drooling pleasure. The lady at the window (I later learn is named Jamie) asks us how she can help and I reply that we were here to visit the store. We wait for a few minutes and a man comes to show us back. We walk through a couple of rooms, offices really, and come to the smallish room with a wall of sample cones, balls, and patterns. On the other wall is a big window looking out to the yarn storage area. I had heard stories about there being bins of castoff yarn, imperfects, if you will. And, yup, there they were next to the window! Three big laundry bins of yarn balls and cones just thrown in. I am a lover of outlet "stuff" and a little imperfection here and there never hurt anyone. He gives us a little orientation and told me to write down anything I want from the samples on the wall. So, for about 10 minutes, we dug through the bins and found some really nice stuff. The samples on the wall could wait.

Third, have a connection, even if it is just a name from the internet that you have seen on the Ravelry Peaches n Creme forum. All the time we're searching, I'm wondering which of the ladies in the office was Flo. Now, Flo has worked at Pisgah Yarn for 34 years and is one of the administrators of the Ravelry group. Everyone who comes to the outlet meets her. I hadn't asked for her, simply because I was a little overwhelmed at first. I was going to give myself some time to settle in and figure out what I wanted, when who walks through the door, but Flo herself, wearing this fun knitted top in a brown leatherlike material!! She asks us if we knew about everything, and I told her "sort of." She rolled her eyes a little and said, that she'd take care of that, with a big grin! I asked if she was Flo, and she exclaimed she was! Well, Flo explained EVERYTHING to us and more... I can give a great orientation to the outlet room, let me tell ya! She probably spent 45 minutes with us as we gabbed along about yarn and knitting. After a while, she left us to decide on our purchases, and we continued sorting through all the fun stuff.

Fourth, have a box. A big box. A little while later, the man who initially showed us around popped back in to see how we were doing and to see if I had a list for him of what I wanted him to pull for me. I gave him my list and he brought out a box for us to put what we had gathered from the bins so far. I had picked out a few cones and a bunch of ball remnants. Mom had gotten a few balls, but she isn't a big knitter (yet). Then, he started bringing out the yarn! Cones and balls of fun yarn! Yay! It was so much fun :-) We filled the box.

Fifth, bring your credit card. So, it was eventually time to ante up. Mom probably only spent about $4.00 because a pound of imperfect yarn (whether in ball remnants or per cone) is around this price. I'm not telling how much I spent. But it was under $100... such a good bargin for so much yarn!! Here's some of what I got :-)

These are the remnants:

I would have gotten more remnants, but I ended up just deciding on full cones of the colors I had found. No sense in getting a cone and also a bunch of imperfect remnants. Now that I look back, I would have gotten more remnants of the colors I did get. They are really pretty!

Before we left, we chatted with Flo for another 30 minutes about colors and websites. We learned that her husband created their website and that they are considering some new colors. I have some ideas so I need to post them on Ravelry! Maybe I can get my perfect color combination of yarn!! That'd be fun :-) Then, I can get more yarn!

So, that concludes my lesson on stash enhancement. Just remember the key - no stash is too large for enhancement! Next, I will teach a lesson on destashing. Maybe ;-)

*ETA* My first project was a Beach Ball dishcloth made from the Lemonade colorway. Here's a pic of my first project made from remnant Lemonade yarn:

My Everlasting Bagstopper

2008-06-12T17:25:00.008-04:00

I have so much cotton yarn that I decided to make this awesome bag from Knitty.com called the Everlasting Bagstopper.

I made it from a colorway called Sour Green Apple. It's become one of my favorites - I also made a dishcloth from it (of course...).

This is not the most recent version of the bag, however. I added a drawstring, which is situated about a third up, which allows me to fold it up and store it in it's own little pouch. Cute. I also handstitched a thick strip of cream-colored webbing to the back of the strap b/c it was really stretchy and made it hard to carry when there was a lot of stuff in it. I split the yarn into two strands and used this to sew it on. I thought it'd look pretty cool with the same color stitching and it ended up working out!

I used it today, along with some other bags I had collected, at the grocery store and was amazed at how much this thing would hold - very stretchy! I need to remember to ask them next time, though, to put the bread at the top. It was on the side and ended up getting squished. But there was also a 2 liter and a box of Cheerios in there! I like using my own bags, but I need to bring more. Today, they filled them up so full trying to avoid using plastic bags that I could hardly carry a couple!

Not sure why I've gotten onto this recycle kick lately, but I've also been talking with Travis about getting a recycling box at our house for trash days. We have to call around because the garbage people apparently don't post the pricing information on their webpages.

I'm a blogging slacker

2008-05-14T19:16:00.008-04:00

Yeah, so I've been busy. But we did get our couch and loveseat today! Yay! So come on over and have a sit down :-)

I have knitted some dishcloths, lately. Nothing too exciting, but I have tried some new patterns. The only one I have a pic of so far is the Grandmother's Favorite in some fun green and white varigated Peaches N Cream. This is a pic of it unfinished -

You really can't see anything, but I'm planning on posting a better picture when i get a chance. Super easy to do, especially during a Clemson baseball game. This game was especially fun because the Alumni Band got to play (music, that is) in the outfield. At least until it decided to rain, then everyone bummed out and went home. T and I stayed to watch the rest of the game with our college buddy, Chris. This is the back of his head:

And one of T :-)

When it started raining we were ushered into the batting cages behind the outfield to stay dry. We really got a kick out of the signs they had posted - to think that they have to actually tell them that they can't spit tobacco and sunflower seeds in the cages is just funny.

The week before this, we went to a Braves game with my parents, who were visiting for the weekend. We had a great time - it had been a really long time since they had come to Atlanta so we splurged for some pretty good seats under the upper deck. The only thing was that it ended up being cold that day. If we had been in the sun, it probably would have been perfect. But, alas the wind was blowing, as evidenced by my hair... bummer b/c it was a pretty good picture otherwise. And yes, I know I look just like my mom.

Mardi Gras-derlac all done...

2008-04-13T22:29:00.003-04:00

This knitted up really fast - and it kept my interest. I need to cast on a lot looser next time b/c it is a little tight. Yay! Another FO!!

It looks like a party!

2008-04-12T22:56:00.014-04:00

Now that my ballband dishcloth is finished, I, obviously, need to start another! I mean, can I really have enough dishcloths??? It's getting ridiculous. Anywho, I had a pattern for an entrelac dishcloth in the bag that I took to MB w/ me (one of about 30 - remember, I absolutely must be prepared for whatever mood strikes me while on vacation - this is why I pack way too much and DH complains - jokingly)

I decided on trying the Garterlac Dishcloth by Dave at Criminy Jickets - http://criminyjickets.blogspot.com/. I found it by searching on Ravelry for dishcloths that would work well with varigated yarns since I have so much after my recent Peaches n Creme order. Did I mention that I bought 4 cones and 4 balls of the stuff??? We will ignore the fact that I already have a ton already that I bought at Wal-mart before discovering the website and their super-quick shipping...

Here's some that I balled partially from cones: Sour Green Apple (brown, green, yellow, blue), Mint & Chocolate (blue, white, brown), and Royal Verde (purple, yellow, green).

Here's the rest: Seabreeze (cone), Shaded Brown, Black Cherry, Teal Ombre, Bubblegum

I love, love LOVE the Royal Verde, so this became the yarn of choice for the Garterlac Dishcloth. It's the colors of Mardi Gras, so it will be, from here on out, the Mardi Gras-derlac Dishcloth - or not - that's really bad. Here it is in the beginning stages:

Suzy likes it too:

I was so excited to show DH - he's usually pretty good at giving me encouraging words, which makes me feel like I sometimes know what I'm doing. This time, he exclaimed "It looks like a party!" It made me laugh.

So... On to the Party Like a Rockstar Mardi Gras-derlac dishcloth!

I promise I'll get back to the CPH eventually...

And another dishcloth joins the dishcloth drawer...

2008-04-12T22:49:00.004-04:00

Clemson Ballband Dishcloth - done!

Travis takes a silly picture... typical :-)

(pay no mind to the devil cat behind me)

I Love Spring Break

2008-04-10T23:44:00.011-04:00

My hubby and I went to Myrtle Beach this week for Spring Break, which has been a much needed rest for the two of us. My brother, CP, and his wife, LP, live nearby in McClellanville, which is about an hour or so south of MB, so we were able to visit them earlier in the week. This was the first time that DH and I have visited them on their own turf, so it was quite a treat. L's parents also live here and we also took some time to see her dad's new fishing boat and truck he bought. I'm telling you, both were something else. We got to go for a ride around the block in the truck. Let me just say that every guy that we passed who was driving a big truck did a double-take. L's dad says that he gets a lot of attention when he drives it around. I'm not surprised. Both vehicles are former military - the truck from the army (there was a receipt in the glovebox from Kuwait) and the boat from the navy (I think).

He's working on fixing the boat up to take it deep sea fishing. I hope that we get to go when he's finished!

McClellanville is this cute little fishing village but the bugs will almost literally carry you away. It's located right on the marshes and shrimping is huge there. But, as we were driving around we saw this just awesome, picturesque little church and we had to stop. They keep the doors open so we got to peek in and look around.

I mean, really, with the Spanish moss and all hanging around, it looked like something out of a movie. Absolutely beautiful. I'd post more pics, but I'm afraid I don't have the bandwidth.

Anyway, we stayed on the 12th floor of this pretty nice hotel with a great view:

It's been so nice to open the door while we're eating or just resting from a day out and hear the ocean.

One thing that I wanted to do while I was here was (obviously) get some knitting in. My original plan was to work on the sleeves of my CPH. I'm not sure why, but I've gotten in a bit of a lull working on it. I'm sure that the warm weather has probably been the main cause for this. Anyway, here's where I am at the moment. Not too impressive, huh?

I did, however, still have the knitting bug, so I decided to make some type of Clemson something, since I haven't ever actually made anything strictly with Clemson colors. I needed something mindless to do in the car so, I started another Ballband dishcloth.

I'm really liking the way it's turning out. I mean, how could it not, right?? Clemson, ballband, Cotton Ease... BTW, I LOVE Cotton Ease for dishcloths. If you haven't tried it yet... well, you really should. Nice and soft and drapey. Great absorbency and it doesn't fade as much as, say PNC or SNC (although I love the stripes and varigated yarns in each of these brands... just got a box of way too much PNC last week, as an aside. Man I spend way too much on yarn. My stash is getting out of control. Maybe more on that later...)

After a while, I began to get bored of the dishcloth and, because I feel like I must bring enough yarn for 20 projects when I go on trips, I decided to cast on some socks with some awesome yarn that I brought that I had been wanting to knit up. It is Zitron Lifestyle and it is really smooshy and stretchy. And I LOVE the colors! Also, I had been wanting to try my hand at toe up socks, so here's my attempt on two circulars. I’m using the tutorial from Silver’s sock class for the “One Toe-Up Socks on Two Circular Needles” at http://www.cometosilver.com/socks/2circsocks_start.htm.

I'm really thinking that this yarn is magical because the stitches look so fabulously even and consistent. Such yummy yarn.

Of course, while we've been here, I've tricked my DH to help me find a couple of LYS while we've been here. The first one that we visited was Knitting Up A Storm up in North Myrtle Beach. Really nice store with lots of different types of yarns available. She has a section of older magazines that she sells for $2.00 off the cover price - nice considering there were a couple that I had been wanting and was able to find! I saw a couple of KnitScenes that have the CPH pattern, so if you're wanting one of these, she's got them! And, what else did I find there?? More Zitron Lifestyle *grin.* Here's a pic of my purchase...

So pretty - I'm really loving the whole brown, blue color combination these days. Yeah, I love this yarn. The only thing that stinks is that I noticed, after we got back to the hotel, that I paid $2.00 more for this new yarn than the Zitron I was currently knitting with. Grumble... Oh, well.

The other store I wanted to find was a very new store called Knit N Purl. This was in a little shopping center off of Carolina Forest Blvd. Thankfully, we have a navigation system which helped us find both. 1-800-Free-411 was also a big help.

This was a cute, little store with a pretty small selection, but you could tell that it would soon grow to become a well-loved store. The owner's husband was manning the shop at the time and we had to call him a couple of times to find the place. When we showed up, he greeted us and gave me a little Boye needle sizer as a welcome gift for coming to their new store. So sweet :-) even though I know they will give them to everyone who comes in new. We chatted while I shopped and I ended up buying, oh yeah, more yarn. Again, more sock yarn. If I spent the amount of money on just plain old Wal-mart socks that I have spent on yarn for knitted socks, we would have a house full of socks. I gotta stop. Anyway, here's my takeaway:

2 Skeins of handpainted Wildfoote by Brown Sheep (in brown, blue, and white), 2 balls of Cascade Fixation in brown, and a ball of some Berocco Comfort Sock in grays, blues, browns, greens, etc. Again, I'm seeing a color pattern here. Come to think of it, the MB T shirt I bought today is brown with mainly a blue (and some yellow) design. I go through these color spells. Wonder what it'll be next?

So, if I'm able to go to the other shop, Island Knits, which is in Pawley's Island, I'll give an update later on.

ETA: tags, link to toe-up pattern

Blocking my CPH!!

2008-03-30T01:25:00.003-04:00

Yay! I am blocking my CPH! Sort of, anyway. I haven't steamed it yet, just pinned it out. It appears that the sizing will be ok after all. It's so exciting to see how everything is coming together. I'm planning on starting the sleeves tomorrow.

Well, it's time for Clemson Baseball...

2008-03-22T00:51:00.003-04:00

*Sniff* My tigers lost their first game in the NCAA tourny to Villanova. Nothing would sink for them the second half... The frustrating part was that we were up 18 points at one point.

On a totally different note, our Easter performance was really good tonight! Charles Billingsly has an awesome set of pipes! Wow. If you ever get a chance to see/hear him, take it - it's definitely worth it. What a really neat and personable guy.

I'm really sleepy, so I'm going to bed. G'night!

Am I Missing Something Here??

2008-03-19T23:56:00.003-04:00

I play trumpet for my church orchestra and we are performing an Easter presentation tomorrow and Friday at the new Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center (which is very neat, btw, in case you were wondering) called "The Story... With You in Mind." We are featuring an artist named Charles Billingsly, who previously sang with Newsong, a pretty famous Contemporary Christian artist. He's won some awards and stuff. Hey, after this is over, I'll be able to say that I've performed for something that you can purchase tickets to from Ticketmaster! Anyway (yeah, I love chasing that rabbit...), we have been practicing the past two nights and I'm tired. However, tonight, I got smart and brought the right side of my CPH with me and got to knit some in between songs. One of my (precious few) knitting buddies who plays flute came over excited to tell me that she had brought her knitting also. She is working on a cute little baby sweater for a friend. We discovered that we were both knitters on a mission trip this past summer to Lithuania and hunted down a yarn store. (Tangent(or rabbit, if you prefer)): if you're ever in Lithuania, plan on buying lots of yarn - at least until they begin using the Euro, which I think will begin in 2009 - the lita is .40 to the dollar - makes for very fun shopping!! And they love their knitting. I probably overdid it and would have done more damage if I had come prepared for buying yarn for specific projects... More on Lithuania in another post.)

Anyway, she told me that she has a knitting group that she goes to - I'm going to have to ask her more about this. I think, though, that she's said in the past that it consists of many of her fellow elementary teacher colleagues and I think it may be far away - not sure if I could join in or not. But, I think I've decided that I need to get in a knitting group at some point. I taught myself everything I know about knitting and I'm a pretty strong introvert - two pretty good reasons why I haven't felt the need to be a social knitter. BUT, now that I've gotten on Ravelry, I think that it would be a lot of fun and I can see that I'm missing out. The only problem is that I'm not sure if I'd have much time to devote to it on a consistant basis. There is a neat yarn store not far from my place of work - only about 5 minutes, in fact. They have knitting nights, so I may swing by there sometime and see what that's all about.

On another note and on a completely different subject, I have filled out my brackets for the NCAA tournament. I don't have Clemson going all the way (hey, there are prizes for the most accurate!), but I think that the'll beat at least Villanova and Vanderbilt (optimism). Not too sure about Kansas. I guess we'll have to see how it turns out!

GO TIGERS!

2008-03-15T18:16:00.003-04:00

For anyone who knows me, I LOVE Clemson - football, basketball, baseball, track, crew, underwater basketweaving... whatever!

I just have to say - GO TIGERS!!! They just beat Duke in the ACC Tournament which puts them in the finals with UNC. It's been 22 years since we've beaten Duke and we've never won the ACC Tournament. We've played UNC two VERY good games this year so far (overtimes in both, one in which we dominated rather handedly until the end), so we've got a good chance to win. Ahhh.... this is nice.

Thinking about it and...

2008-03-09T15:11:00.004-04:00

... I think that blocking may just fix my issue. Hoping so anyway. Since this is my first thing I've really tried where gauge is really an issue (other than my tiny and huge sweaters where I apparently could have cared less at the time), I'm not sure what to expect. First time with this yarn, too. I didn't wash and block my swatch because I'm slightly worried that I may run out of yarn and may need to frog it to get the extra yarn. I don't want to do something that might mess it up. Is it realistic to think that it's ok to stretch my pieces out 1.5 inches from the way they lay naturally when blocking? I'm sure other knitters who are way more experienced than me would know right away, but I'm just going to take it as a learning experience and not let it get to me. I've frogged big things before and can do it again, if needed.

Anyway, I've finished the left front and am starting the right front. We'll see if I can get them to match.

Getting nervous

2008-03-08T21:44:00.005-05:00

So as I'm going along nice and swimmingly with knitting the left front of my CPH, I am noticing that it is rather narrow - it looks way too narrow to be the front of a cardigan. this seems strange to me because I think that the back is fine. How could the back be the correct width, using the same needles, and the front part be too narrow? I measured it just laying out as flat as I could get it b/c of the curling edges and it looks like it is about 1.5 inches too narrow. Is this something to be afraid of, I'm wondering? I keep thinking I have issues with my gauge and this is another confirmation of this - I may just be one of those very inconsistent knitters. Some days I knit tightly and some days I knit too loosley. If that's the case, then I'm going to be a very frustrated knitter. So I'm trying to decide whether I should rip it out and start again, or just keep plugging along and see what happens. I'm actually right at the end, so maybe I'll go ahead and knit the right front and see if I have the same issue.

First post

2008-03-04T17:03:00.003-05:00

Well, here is my first non-work related blog - maybe it'll be updated more frequently! I realized that, after joining Ravelry, that I did not have a good place to give updates to my knitting and stitch marker projects. I could pics, but didn't have a good way to journal about them. So, now I have a blog. Here it is!

I am currently working on the "now cliche" Central Park Hoodie - although I totally see why everyone loves it so much...

I am using Alpaca with a Twist in a burnt orange color - and I must say that I think that it is turning out to be rather awesome! This will be my first completed sweater. My first attempt at a sweater was WAY to small (imagine a sweater for a 10 year old) and the second was the same sweater that was WAY too huge - linebacker huge. I never finished either because I got discouraged. I think I've learned a very important lesson on making sweaters based on gauge and using proper measurements... although I don't know yet if I trust even my swatch, so we'll see what happens when I'm getting closer to finishing my CPH.

Anyway, here is a picture of what I have done so far...

I haven't had much time to work on it lately, but I hope to finish it before it gets too warm. But I may be too late - it was in the 70's the other day.