Fall Hat

Wow!  Usually I do my blogging in the summer, and it's tough to get a post from me during the school year.  This time with moving, getting married, and switching jobs, it was the summer that as too busy for blogging, much less knitting or anything else!

I've had many changes in my life in the past few months, including a new name, new city new job, new house, new husband and even knew knitting group for me!  I am hoping that having a more settled lifestyle will give me more time for blogging.  

Currently I'm working on my Traveling Woman Shawl.  It's turning out so well, and it's much easier to it than I thought it would be!  It's quite addicting!  I also am continuing to work on my first sweater, which is coming along.

Today I started a hat for my goddaughter.  I was just going to cast it on (like I've been meaning to for weeks), but the rows are so short compared to my other projects that it was difficult to put it down!  It's a Tiffany Lace pattern and I'm making it using the magic loop.  I found it here on Ravelry.  I want to finish it by the end of September in time for fall weather.  I think I can get it I done sooner than that if I have a couple times when I an knit for a couple hour at a time.  It's just finding those opportunities!  See a picture of my progress from today below.

I will write soon!

Emily

Changes

Hello Everyone!

Yes, it's been a long hiatus since I last wrote.  I'm just resigning myself to the fact that I don't write much during the school year, and I write much more in the summer.  This summer may be different, though, as in the next month I will be moving out of my classroom, out of my apartment, into my parents' house, and into my fiance's house (myself to my parents', and my stuff to my fiance's), and I probably won't have much time to craft or blog!

I have started my first sweater, which I believe I posted, but I'll put up a picture again anyway.

And that is just as far as I am now.  I don't believe I've knit a stitch in a month.  With choir ending and school ending, I've been focusing on other things.

One thing I've been focusing on is my basil.  It's growing so nicely!  I have it on my windowsill at school where it gets better light.  I think it's ready to harvest a few leaves!

It smells wonderful!  I'm so excited that ti's been successful so far!  I have a few more updated photos, but they are on my camera and I am currently without my cord, so i cannot put them up for you.  I hope to make my students a pizza with some of the basil on top (very small pizza, very small pieces).  They are as excited as I am for this basil and I want them to try it before the school year is over.

Emily

My Basil Is Growing!

I took my basil to school in hopes of getting it extra sunlight.  My apartment only has windows facing east, and even then much of the sun is blocked by an overhang that is over my balcony.  The basil got about one week of sunshine before clouds, rain, and an ICE STORM!  It's April 10th and I'm writing this on my two-hour delay!  I sincerely hope that this doesn't add a day of school at the end of the year!

Here is a picture of my basil.  I'm excited because now I'm seeing four leaves instead of two on many of the shoots!

Of course, the prayers from one of my first graders at our school-wide morning prayer didn't hurt!  :)  It also gave us teachers a good chuckle yesterday morning!

I'm working on taking better pictures.  I'm learning to just physically put the camera right up next to the plant instead of using the zoom.  I don't need a fancy camera, but I want to use the one I have to it's best ability.  Here's a close-up of my basil without the flash, then with the flash.

I hope you're having a nice, stable Spring!

Emily

I finished a gift...on time!!!

I did it!  I finished the baby blanket for my fiance's niece the day before I had to give it to her!  I finished it on Saturday, washed it by hand, and it dried in time for me to wrap it up and leave the next day.

Here is the blanket before blocking:

And here it is after blocking. 

It's not much different, but blocking did allow me to tighten up some corners.  I washed it to make sure it was all clean for the baby.  I was worried it wouldn't be as soft, but once it dried all the way, it was plenty soft!  I'm very happy with how it turned out!

I started my first sweater yesterday!  I'm very excited.  It's already turning out nicely!  I'm making sure to take my time with it and do it right, instead of forging ahead doing what I THINK is right, only to have to take a bunch of it out. 

It's the Que Sera pattern from by Kirsten Kapur.  I found it on Ravelry.  I debated whether to do it in a purple like the model is wearing, but chose instead to use Knitpick's Shine in French Blue.  Here's a picture of my start!

 The details are already starting to show!!!

  
Happy Easter!

Emily

I Have a Flower!!! Well...sort of

One of my flower seeds has sprouted!  I've needed a lot of patience with these impatiens!!!

It's a pot full of seeds, but this is the brave one who has tried to grow!  I hope others will soon follow!

Here's an update on my basil.  None of the pictures were excellent.  This is the best one I have.  Does anyone have tips for taking pictures of crafts and plants?  I don't have very good lighting in my apartment.  Are there any tricks to making it better?

My fiance's brother and sister-in-law are having a "Meet the Baby Day" instead of a Baby Shower, and it's this upcoming Sunday!  The baby blanket needs to be done one week from today.  I have six pattern repeats to finish, plus the border.  Here's the current blanket, with a DVD case on top for perspective. 

I need to work hard to finish this!  I was too lazy last week and fell behind a bit.  I want this blanket done ON TIME!!!

Emily

Airplane Knitting

I know it's months away, but I am already thinking about our Honeymoon this summer and what I should take to knit on the plane.  I've never knit on a plane anymore.  Any suggestions?  Vote on the poll I have on the sidebar, and give me an idea of what type of project I should take!

Grow Basil, Grow!

I had some trouble at first, but my basil is coming up!!!  My impatiens are not, but the basil is what I want more.  Here are my cute little sprouts!

I know the flash makes it a little difficult to see, but the photos without the flash were even more difficult to see.  I put the toothpicks in so I could remember where I put the seeds.  It appears that didn't matter much.  I put in more dirt of a different type in after planting, and tried some re-planting, and I think some of the older seeds are coming up, too.  That's fine with me!  The more the merrier!  Also, the better chance that one will survive!

My fiance's new niece was born this past weekend, so I need to finish her blanket!  I have 16 repeats done on the pattern, and I am hoping to have at least 26 total.  Maybe more like 30.  I have some work to do!  We are going to try to see her this weekend, but I may wait to give her the blanket until later this month when they have the "Meet the Baby" day.  We'll see.  I have all evening tomorrow to knit, as well as a little each night, so maybe I'll finish it by this weekend!  That would be fantastic!

Snow Day!

Yay!  We had a snow day on Friday, and I took the opportunity to FINISH my goddaughter's dress.  Sad to say that it was a Christmas present, so it is two months late.  I'm so happy it's done, though!  It turned out to be quite cute.  Here are pictures from before and after blocking.

Before Blocking

After Blocking

Here's another picture that shows the stitch detail much better.

I also had a chance to get some good work done on the blanket for my fiance's future niece or nephew!  The baby is due in a couple of weeks, so I need to get it done soon!  I have a long ways to go yet, but now that all my other knitting gifts are done for now, I can focus on this project.  I've also got a renewed energy for working on it, so I'm excited to get it done!  I probably won't see the baby until the end of March, so that also buys me a few more weeks of knitting time.

 

I have thirteen repeats of the pattern completed.  I estimate needing about thirteen or fourteen more.  Thankfully, this baby blanket has much smaller rows than the last blanket I did with this pattern, so rows don't take me twenty minutes to knit.  I am really enjoying using this yarn.  It's so soft and snuggly!  I'll want to make one for my own baby someday!

Injured Reserve

So my last batch of bread has put me on the injured reserve list!

Two weekends ago my fiance took me cross-country skiing for the first time.  It was great!  I have an old shoulder injury from high school softball that still acts up once in a while (tendinitis), and this made it stiff.  Nothing that surprised me.

A week later I decided to bake bread.  It's quite yummy.  I was proud of myself for kneading it so well to just the right consistency and I was thinking of the great workout I was getting...then I woke up the next day to find that my right arm hurt very badly and was very weak!  I had to ask my students to open and close my dry-erase markers for me!

It's improving, but directing choir tonight wasn't a treat.  I'm still in some pain.  Hopefully some stretches, rest, and exercises will keep this from happening again.

That didn't keep me from knitting at my fiance's volleyball game last night, though.  That baby's due in two weeks...I need to get the blanket done!  I listened to my arm, though, and put it down when my wrist was tired.  It was still worth it.  I still got a bunch done!

Hopefully more soon...with pictures!

Emily

Has My Thumb Turned Greener?

With the last post being entitled "It's Been Far Too Long", I had no clue what to name this one!  Maybe "No, I'm Not Dead Yet"?  Anyway, I haven't given up on the blog.  I just need to make a better effort to keep it up.  Maybe no one's reading, but I'll never learn if I don't keep trying!  :)
 
Maybe I'm just being silly, but I've decided to give growing another try.  Last year didn't turn out well.  I had a seedling or two kind of peek it's head above the dirt, but other than that, I didn't really have anything.  The flowers we bought me also died quite quickly. 

I'm trying impatiens and basil right now.  I've been told that impatiens are easy to grow, and they work well in shade, which is just about all I have in my apartment.  I intend to keep them close to my balcony doors for the sunlight that comes in in the morning, but not too close that they get the cold air.  It's Wisconsin.  We could have cold temperatures for a long time yet!

Basil I'm just giving a try.  I want to have fresh basil so badly, so I though I'd give it a go. 

I may end up taking these plants to my fiance's house if they aren't working at all here.  He has four sides of a house with windows, whereas I have one side of an apartment :(  If they start here well, I may also just take them there later since they'll end up there at some point this summer!

I want to keep the impatiens as an inside plant, and I want the basil to be a kitchen plant.  How nice the kitchen will smell with fresh basil growing!

Here's a picture of my "progress" so far.  I have managed to fill the pots and put the seeds in.  Yes, I watered them as well!  The clay-colored is the impatiens and the green is the basil.  

Wish me luck!  I'll need it!

Emily