Random Topics

Well tomorrow I'm off to the District! There will be many posts about that in the next coming weeks! However, I have some new foodie items and recent knitting projects to show off.

First, my favorite part the food! When I went to the farmers market I had already decided that I wanted to buy eggplant. I have never been a huge fan of eggplant stemming from a bad experience as a child. The kind of eggplant that I bought was considered Asian eggplant, and supposedly has smaller seeds. So I searched the internet for panini recipes because I also wanted to use my beautiful foccacia bread. I didn't really see one I liked so I made up my own.

I pan "grilled" eggplant, sauteed onions and peppers, put tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese on the sandwich and stuck it in the toaster oven. 

I also made roasted broccoli, so yummy! I used a recipe from the Food Network. 

A few days later I also made Eggplant Parmesan, but unfortunately never got around to taking a picture of it. However I used a recipe from Weight Watchers, so including pasta I believe it equaled out to about 9 points or so. 

I also completed a first birthday gift for "A". I decided to knit her fruits and vegetables to play with. Her mom also made her a bunch of felt food, so we had some overlap in items that we made, but I think A will have a lot of fun playing with the items, and I loved making them. 

The banana was the funniest thing! She recognizes bananas and tried to eat it. She was very upset when she realized it was not a real banana. 

Celery 

Pear

Broccoli

 Apple

Pumpkin 

I'm also planning one more special item to be sent a little later, because well sometimes I'm really slow and behind at what I do. Well that's all, if you are reading this over the next few days, please pray for safe travels to D.C. and prayers of peace and direction once I'm there! 

Knitting

I've finished 3 projects in 2 days that is every unusual for me. However, most of these projects had very little left to them to finish so I finally bit the bullet and finished them. The first was was a pair of socks for my sister.
The Basic Ribbed Socks in Red Heart Heart & Sole In Razzle Dazzle. I really loved this yarn just the pattern is adorable and made the seemingly monotonous part of knitting 3 x 1 rib go by really fast.

The second project was my Roomie's Scarf. It was supposed to be her Christmas Present but I ran out of yarn and had to wait till I went home to get more. I Cast on 17 stitches and just knit in seed stitch till it was long enough. I used Paton's Shetland Chunky In the Variegated Denim color way. It's really cute and matches the hat I made her last Christmas.

Finally I finished something for myself. I bought Bernat Alpaca Natural Blend yarn a while back and have been wanting to make somthing so I decided on the Kaya Cabled Scarf. It's really cute and was super easy! I guess I'll have to wait till it's really cold to really wear it but It'll be great.

On another note the Passion: Awakening Cd comes out on Tuesday and let me tell you it's amazing! I've been listening to it on Itunes and it is so great to relive that time at Passion 2010 through the music!

Knitting and Misc

So I have started a new and fabulous project for me!!

It is the Whisper Cardigan from Interweave Spring 2009, and I am using Brown Sheep Cotton Fine in this beautiful blue color. I am totally in love with it. This is all that I have done so far.
It is coming along nicely, there are some mistakes but I'm just going to let it go for now I don't really care that much...I think. I am kind of a perfectionist when it comes to my knitting especially when I am knitting for myself but right now I'm just going to go with the flow on this one and see how it turns out.
In other news I was walking around St. Augustine the other day and happened on this lovely thing
An old Mail box!! I love it this town has so many cool little gems all over it!
Also my roommate and I decorated our door for Valentines Day, well really she did and I helped. It turned out adorable. Unfortunately we didn't win the contest but I think it's only because we won the last time. Well that's really it for now, I guess I'm back to the grind of endless school work!

What A Week

I feel like this week has been a blur. I didn't have to work at my internship on Monday so I basically had a day off, but since then I've just been running around busy. I am absolutely loving my internship! It is a ton of work but the work that I am doing is so amazing, I literally feel like I'm a part of history at my internship just with the changes that are happening there. I also found out that another amazing thing will be happening at school in the next few weeks but I will wait to post about that until after it has happened. Anyways I just can't believe that I am taking the classes that I am taking.
At the moment I am taking a class called Oral History and I will have the opportunity to interview people in the area who have been veterans. My goal is to interview women which should provide a very interesting paper that I am ecstatic about! I literally am giddy about a paper and it is so strange to me. However I am taking another history class called Southern Religious History and my paper topic for that is still very unclear and I am hoping that next week I can really nail down an idea which hopefully one of the people who works at my internship will be able to give me some ideas. Although I'm not swamped yet with school work (which is amazing!) I am still incredibly busy just with classes and my jobs. But so far this school year has been interesting just there have been some downs with some of my friends just being strange and stuff and I am hoping that they will just straighten out a little bit or just get over their issues a little bit. However I am determined to just have a good semester and knit because it makes me happy. I am working on a lovely Alpaca scarf and will soon be starting the Whisper Cardigan from Interweave Knitting Spring 2009. I am still waiting on my yarn to come in for that though. Sorry about the random post but this is just how my mind is working right now.

Knitting

I have finished a few projects lately that I have slowly been working on over the past semester and Christmas break.
This is the Maroma Shawl from NaturallyCaron.com I made it for my Aunt out of Patton Merino Wool in the Denim colorway. It came out really nice and I also crocheted the first border ever around any knitted item I am really glad at how it came out. Unfortunately the color is quite off but it is a really deep denim blue.

I also made this scarf as well as a Spring Beret out of the same yarn. The scarf is called the Scrunchable scarf and it was completly charming while I was knitting it. The yarn is Caron Simply soft in plum.

I made this scarf for my roommate from last year. I even knit on it while I was at the BarlowGirl concert in Tallahasse! I love this scarf I used the Feather and Fan stitch, but it was a beast to knit it just took so long! I made it out of about 1 1/2 hanks of KnitPicks Shadow Lace in Spring Green. She loves it and it looks so good on her too!At the Barlow Girl Concert!

Lately

I have officially started my summer jobs. My first one and probably my favorite is that I am interning at the local history and science museum in the collections department going through and reorganizing the Pre-Colombian collection AKA Mayan pottery and other related things. I also am responsible for the care of one of the exhibits making sure that there aren't any lights out or signs aren't knocked over. Also in the care of the exhibit I also get to clean all of the snotty and fingerprinted glass which isn't the most fun thing but I will get to spend a lot of time in there and I like it in there so it's all good. I really thing that museum work is the field I'm interested in pursuing. However, I've only been there for a week so I'm not totally convinced yet but I like the work so maybe that is what I will do once I graduate from college. I also have started working again at the craft store I worked at last year and over Christmas break. This is good because my internship doesn't pay me anything and I need to make money so that I can pay for my Europe trip next summer, which I'm very excited about!! I can't even contain my excitement sometimes. So this is basically what I have been doing for the past week working at my two summer jobs and then making dinner if I'm home at night.

I have also started several new knitting projects. One is for me, my lace shawl I mentioned in my last post, a shawl I started on around Christmas time for my aunt which is coming along, and then a pretty lace scarf for a college friend (it's going to be a surprise ). Well that's about it I hope that you have a great weekend and hopefully I'll update again soon with pictures :)

M.I.A.

So there hasn't really been that much to talk about lately. I've been updating a lot with Twitter though. I just have been crazy busy with school and haven't been able to sit down and write a blog post about well my random life :) Well school is about to be done in less than 30 days which is a relief from the school end, but makes me kinda sad and depressed because I'm going to miss everyone here at school so much especially my roomie. We've gotten a long so great this past semester and I couldn't have asked for a better roomie. I also have been very busy with school as I've alluded to but it's winding down which also means that there is about two months of work packed into one. I have about 3 papers left to write this semester but they are all huge. One paper is 15 pages and the other paper is 10 pages. I'm not looking forward to writing them. But everything has been going pretty well. I'm super excited because this weekend my little sister Amy is coming to stay a weekend at college with me and I can't wait for her to get to meet everyone down here and the added bonus that everyone is staying here this weekend and not going home makes it better so she'll get to meet everyone!

I actually haven't been knitting that much which makes me sad. I've been to busy. I am almost done with Amy's vest which she is excited about as am I since I've been working on the thing for about a year. I can't wait to see her wear it as it's really cute. I've also been working on some discloths for a friend who is getting married in May!

I did go home last weekend for my "spring blink" it was so much fun. I relaxed a little bit and hung out with some good friends. I also bought a new dress (for easter) and a super cute pair of brown wedges from payless! It was spectacular. I also got a dress in that I had ordered from Old Navy that is this really bright but pretty coral color and I can't wait to wear it!

Alrighty well I'm off to read about the Irish Gaelic Revival for my class so I can write a paper on it.

Back at School

Well winter break is over and I'm back at school for my spring semester. I have a new roommate, and she is fabulous we get along so well. My classes are pretty interesting I'm taking History since 1877, with a professor that I love; History of Ireland, with the professor who happens to be my advisor so that's kinda cool; Middle East: WWI to present, the professor is really old and it should be an interesting class we have to do role play debates which I'm not really fond of but I'm sure that it will be okay; Comparative Politics, with a very cool professor who is actually from Britain; and Cultural Anthropology, I'm thinking of picking up anthropology as a minor because I have so much free time class requirements wise. I didn't get as much knitting done over the break as I wanted to because I worked so much. However, I did start over on my sister's Bryant Slipover vest so that now it will probably fit her and I also started a new scarf for myself out of Bernat Natural Alpaca blend in a pretty charcol gray color. It's super soft and I love it. I guess that is all for now. It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day so I don't have classs which is nice I got to sleep in.

I think my Dorm Room is Making me Sick

That's right my dorm room is making me sick I'm convinced. Well really I don't truly believe that but it is crazy cold. I actually wore flannel pants and a hoodie last night and I never do that not even in the winter at home. I'm going to the store today after I'm done with classes to get some medicine. I think it's really just allergies though, or maybe a combination. I don't know but it's really cold. Classes are going well. I have my first real speech on Monday and it's on Happiness...I'm really not happy about it. I love my U.S. History class my professor is so good. I also like my other history classes but my U.S. History is the best. Oh so another political shout out I guess. I must say all of the comparison of inexperience between Palin and Obama is driving me crazy. First of all I would say that yes Obama probably has more experience than Palin on national and international issues, but Obama is running for President and Palin is not. Palin is running for Vice President. Therefore it is not a very good argument in my opinion. Besides Palin does have John McCain to I guess teach her, and I guess the same argument can be made for Biden. Anyway that is getting on my nerves when I read articles or watch the news (which I don't do that often because I don't have a TV). I guess that's it for now. I haven't really been knitting much, but I've been working on my sister's Bryant's Slipover so I'm about half way done with the waist shaping which is good. Oh and the new Knitty is out and I love it, there are some things I just have to knit from it.

School

I am now at college and I absolutely love it here!! I have 3 history classes which I'm so happy about because that is my major. I am also taking a political science class as well as speech. I'm really not to happy about speech, but I have to take it. Here are some pictures of what my mom calls my "not normal dorm room"

My bed

My desk area

My spiffy ceiling light

the view from my room (it's one of our 2 courtyards)

my fruit plate that my mom thinks is adorable

Some of these places look different now because I have been here for about 5 days now and have some more stuff like I just got some more posters yesterday plus my school books. But I'm having so much fun. I haven't really been knitting because I forgot my Bryant Slipover pattern at home. I can't decide what I want to start right now so I'm kind of waiting. Other than that things are going good and now I have to do some reading.

Update

It's way over due for a post. I only have one FO to show and that is my Ravelympics Project here is a link to it on ravelry Maroma Scarf.
This is my Maroma Wrap Scarf


And here is a close up.



I'm thinking of trying to make a hat to match it. I haven't every designed anything before but really I'm just taking the stitch pattern and adapting it. I don't know I'm still thinking about it. I have also finished my monkey socks, but I haven't taken pictures of them yet. I also have made a rug for my dorm room and it is super cute! I'll take more pictures soon and add them .
I leave for school in 5 days and I'm so super excited! I am so ready for school to start. Also as you can tell I'm slowly making changes to my blog. I'm ready for a change, it's slow going because I'm playing the the HTML codes and since I don't really know HTML I'm just kinda playing with it. So that's all that's going on lately.

I've been Bitten

Okay it's now time to admit it. I was kinda skeptical at first because well I don't really wear them, but I've been bitten by the sock bug. I love them! They are so fast and easier to knit than i even thought. I'm working on Monkey from Knitty. They are super easy and super cute. I'm using

Colinette Jitterbug in the colorway Fire. I'm in love. Here is a link to my Ravelry project page with more info. I wish I had pictures but alas I let my sister borrow my camera this week for camp so when she gets home on Friday I'll try and take some pictures. I'm also gearing up for the Ravelympics. I'm so excited about it. I'm doing a scarf and will post more about it later. I promise pictures in my next post.

Why am I blogging about these things?

So I have bought some new yarn. I got the Bernat Bamboo natural blends it's amazing I love the way it feels. I think I'm going to make a washcloth out of it for my new roommate at school. Oh and I bought new foundation. I haven't worn makeup in months because well I didn't really like my foundation so today I went to the store and got some Cover girl trublend whipped foundation or whatever it's called. I love the way it looks on my skin completely natural. Oh and I have started playing around with google docs and other google application stuff. I think I like the fact that I have some documents that are stored on the web so that they maybe they won't get lost or whatever. Apparently things are completely boring if these are the most exciting things that have happened to me lately.

Coolbeans

In the past couple of days I have gotten three new cds and I haven't had to pay for any of them. First, I was at Wal.Mart with my mother and I got the old Carrie Underwood cd Some Hearts which I love and I've been wanting it forever so that was cool. And then I got 2 free cds from a radio station. They sent me an email and told me to pick my top 2 out of their list I guess in case they run out of one before they get my email or something. So I was only expecting one but they sent me both of them which is really cool. So I got the new Caedmon's Call cd Overdressed and Hillsong Live Mighty to Save. So yeah it's pretty cool getting free stuff!! New music is awesome. I'm working on my sis's vest on the knitting front, and hopefully I can get it done before I leave for school but I'm not holding my breath.

WIP

Oh there are so many right now!
This is all I have done so far, just the bacFirst there is my sister's Bryant Slipover from Interweave Knits (sorry I don't remember what issue). I can't wait to see how it looks when I'm done!


I'm also working on the Bleeding Heart Stole also from Interweave Knits, but this is from Spring 2008. I'm really happy with it and very excited to see how it looks when I'm farther along. I started it on Friday and this is about all I've been doing all weekend.

I participated in a swap a while back on Ravely and I totally forgot to post what I got on here. My swap buddy was awesome!! I love everything that she sent me.
She sent me everything in a cute little bag with a Chinese print. Two sizes of index cards which I'm sure will be useful next semester at FC. A journal and pencil pouch, a case of paper clips and those little paper grippers, some tea, and an apple cozy. Which I love it's my new favorite thing. I actually showed it to some non knitter friends and they kinda looked at me like I was crazy, but I love it. I think it's the cutest!


Oh and Memorial Weekend I didn't have to work, so my family and I went down to the town where my college is at. Here are some pictures from the school.

This is the main courtyard area that leads to the lobby.



The ceiling of the lobby.



Part of the Campus.

It's gorgeous down there and I can't wait until September so I can move there. Anyway so that's about all. I have been thinking about trying my hand at spinning. Any thoughts? My mom already bought a drop spindle, I did buy some wool but I don't think it's going to work right. I might need to go and buy something else from my lys or maybe online.

Long Time No See

So I haven't really had much to talk about lately, hence the no blogging. Well college is going pretty good right now, and I'm on Spring Break this week so very excited about that. Since the last post I now am employed at a local craft store which is very exciting so I now have a steady stream of income and I get yarn at a discount so thats very exciting!!!! I am working on several new projects and after a trip to my lys I now have some great new yarn. This is what I bought when I went to my lys last week

if your on ravelry you can see them individually (my screen name is luvbg89). The yarn in the center is Jitterbug colorway fire I love it dearly I think it is the beginning of my stash as I have no plans to knit it anytime soon its just to pretty. I have started a couple new projects the first is the Bryant's Slipover from Interweave. Its for my sister and I'm about half way done with the back right now.

I love this pattern and I can't wait to see if on my sister when it's finished. I have also started a gift for my swap buddy for the College Knitters Swap. I have to get that done this week during by spring break so that I can send it to her in mid April. This is my first swap and I'm really excited about it. Oh and the Spring Shawl has been put on hold for now. Maybe I'll have more time to concentrate on it in the summer. Those who have finished it have really inspired me to take up work on it again it's so pretty. But alas I have so much going on right now that I really can't get it all done. So for now my shawl is on the back burner but I am determined to finish it soon. Again back to school I was accepted into my dream school last week. I'm so so so happy and excited. Also a little bit worried because well its really expensive. It's a private college and it's pretty cheap as far as private colleges go but still it's expensive. Student Loans here I come. Well thats about it for now, hopefully I'll have more to post at the end of the week.

FO post

Finally, some new FOs to see. First up is the Debbie Bliss Shawl Collared Jacket (baby)
I think it turned out really cute. I haven't given it to the recipient yet because well I haven't see her fortunately the size is for a 12-18 month baby and the baby is only about 1 month old so I have a while.
Secondly, the Santa Cruz hat. I ended up giving this hat to my grandmother for Christmas. She actually liked, now whether she has or ever will wear it who knows but at least it was fun to knit. I might have to make myself one.



Finally, this is the yarn that I got for Christmas, it is for the Spring Shawl Surprise by Lul. I'm actually very sad right now because I have had to take a mini break from it so that I can get some school work done.


I really do like this yarn though. Its Jagerspun Zephr in the color Cassis. I am also working on a sweater for my sister. I'm sort of designing it myself so I decided to use a bunch of yucky acrylic yarn as a "test" sweater and then going and getting nice yarn later since the budget it pretty low right not. Well thats all for now I must study for Anatomy and then go to bed.

I Lied

So I was totally planning on taking more FO pics and posting them but of course I didn't. For one thing I don't know where my camera cord is...I remember seeing it I just don't know where. So eventually they will be added. On another note college has started and its pretty fun so far. I have a lovely Anatomy test on Wednesday that I haven't studied for at all. Everything else is so easy right now. History of Florida and Human Growth and Development are probably my favorite classes right now. And then we come to Precalculus. The teacher is nice and has been easy but she doesn't teach and the homework she gives is online and has at least 30 problems if not more. I wouldn't mind the homework if it didn't take on average 3 hours to complete one assignment. Oh well I'll just have to endure it.

Why Am I Hat Knitting in Florida?

Yes I have knit 2 hats since my last post and I am working on a third. I don't really understand the need to knit hats since A. I don't really wear them; and B. its Florida its not even cold enough to wear a hat except for like 2 days out of the year. Whatever they are easy and fun who knows maybe I should send some to people who live in colder climates. So I am finally caught up with my school work enough to knit as is obvious by the recent hat knitting. However, now the serious hunt for a job must begin :( , but i really need gas money so oh well. I am so glad that the semester is almost done. I have 2 classes that end in two weeks YAY!! And then my other two classes end in December. Next semester should be fun!!! Uh how about not. I have 3 classes on Tues. and Thurs. and it starts at 8am and my last class ends after 1pm ugg I hate being there that long. On the bright side I only have 1 class on Mon. I have to start waking up early so I will be prepared for my early classes-won't that be fun. Oh and I will post pictures of my hats soon :)

Santa Cruz Hat

I started the Santa Cruz Hat from Magknits on Saturday. I really like it. From what I have read on Ravelry though it comes out small. So I'm doing the Worsted version and I cast on the amount of stitches for the Sport hat. I guess I'll find out if it is to big, but I'm making if for my grandmother and so I think it will be fine. I really like the pattern though. I've been on the look out for lace style hats since I finished Foliage. My next project, I want to make a lace shawl type pattern. I think it will be fun. I'm becoming more adventures in my knitting though I'm really excited. Oh I went to my first LYS the other day and I got some Misti International Cotton. Its a cotton silk blend, and it is so soft I love it. I found out that the LYS isn't as far away as I thought and they yarn isn't really more expensive then lovely Joanns. Besides when I start venturing into sweaters I want to have really nice yarn. So that was fun.
And I guess I should mention that I did get on Ravelry last Friday. It is so much fun! My name is luvbg89. I love looking at other people's patterns and all the different yarn. Well I guess I'm all caught up. Now its back to the books, I'm still really behind and it just never ends :(