Becky

Franklin Habit came to visit Austin today as part of his 1,000 Knitters Project.  My goal was to finish Isabella so I could wear it for my picture.  I didn’t make it :-( 

I didn’t realize that I would have basically no time for knitting once finals were over.  In fact, silly me, I thought just the opposite.  I can’t complain because life as a summer associate is pretty swanky with lots of good food, fun events, and nice people, but I am always amazed at how exhausting near-constant social time is. 

As you can see, I did make excellent progress on Isabella.  The back is done, and I am currently doing short-row bust shaping on the front.  I would still like to get it finished this summer as I have a suit this would look excellent underneath, which is what I originally picked the yarn out for.  We’ll see how quickly I finish it, though, because I am sooo in the mood to knit some lace and cables now that school is done. 

Franklin’s visit was really fun.  Unfortunately I didn’t get to stay too long because I had a handbell concert to get to.  The Knitting Nest was pleasantly full with lots of people shopping and knitting while awaiting their turn, but it wasn’t overly crowded.  Here’s me with Franklin.

Check out how long the scarf that everyone is working on while getting their picture taken is.

Here’s my friend Lisa who is my handbell/knitting buddy.

And here’s Rita and Lydia from LSSK.

I was also pleasantly surprised to run into Ana who makes Entrelac stitch markers.  I purchased some of these back in April when she had her collection at The Knitting Nest Ravelry get together.  I LOVE THEM!  They are small, so they don’t interfere with my knitting when I’m using small needles.  But they’re much prettier than the small plastic ones I’ve been able to find.  I was planning to email her about ordering some, so I was thrilled when she said she had some with her.  I got two different colors of little tiny ones and one slightly larger one that I like for marking the beginning of the row in circular knitting.  I needed some more because all the ones I bought my first time around are in use already.  I highly recommend her products if you tend to knit with smaller needles or just don’t like dangly stitch markers, but still want them to be pretty.

I also picked up 2 skeins of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Pink Blossom.  These are for test knitting socks for another LSSK friend - Birdy.  She’s finishing up her heart socks pattern, and I offered to test it out for her.  Should be fun - I’m thinking my sister loves pink and the hearts would be cute girly socks for her.  Of course, I also think they’d be really cute for me. 

And check out these cute tape measures that Stacy just got in and was giving away with purchases.  Glad I bought something

I turned in my final paper of 2L year last Wednesday.  I had to write at least 25 pages as my portion of a joint research project.  I ended up writing 40 of the 65 pages we turned in (ok b/c I was doing it for more credits), and I easily could have written more.  We’d like to publish the paper, but that would require me going back in and adding the stuff I left out and some major editing, so I don’t know if it will happen. 

I also started work last Monday, so the overlap those first few days when I was staying up late to write the paper and getting up early for work was pretty rough.  Now I’m living the life of a summer associate - big lunches and lots of activities paid for by the firm - the hardest part is trying to squeeze in actual work.  I’m really enjoying myself so far, even the work part! 

On the knitting front, the back of Isabella is done and I’m about 4 inches into the front.  I would show a picture, but it really just looks like a purple blob right now.  I got kinda tired of it and did a bunch on the second Crown Mtn sock while finishing my paper, so I’m not as far along as I’d like to be.  I’m going to have to do some major knitting this weekend to get it finished in time for Franklin’s visit.  I’m struggling though because now that I’m done with finals, I really want to work on lace and cables and all those awesome projects I didn’t get to work on while school was in session.  If I could get a little farther Isabella has lace - I wonder if I can force myself through it or whether I don’t care that much.  We’ll see.

Also, as a heads up, Season 2 of Vickie Howell’s podcast will be starting soon.  I think the episode with the founder of Etsy is the one I am most looking forward to.

I owe you a recap of my yarn crawl through Minneapolis and St. Paul yarn stores.  Lots of goodies were purchased, and I want to take some good pics so look for that soon. 

And because I hate a post without pictures, here’s Major helping me write my paper.  These pictures have not been rotated.  He curled up between my legs, and then rotated himself.  So cute!

Only a few more weeks until finals, which means I am studying hard (and procrastinating by blogging).  I am officially done with my internship at the Supreme Court and the class that goes with it.  I still have to write a 25-30 page paper, co-write a buy-sell agreement for a closely-held corporation, and outline for, study for, and take a Securities Regulation final.  I am hoping to be done all of this by April 30, but I have a little bit of extra time to work on the paper if necessary.  As usual when I get into finals mode, I have been doing lots of knitting, but not a whole lot of blogging.  So here’s the latest status report:

• the Scandanavia Mittens are done and gifted to my mom, but are back in my possession for blocking and picture taking.  I probably won’t get around to this anytime soon, but once I do these gorgeous mittens will get their own post
• the Unoriginal Scarf is finished and also in need of blocking and FO pics
• the Conwy socks for Daniel have been cast on, and while I don’t (and can’t because they are a surprise) work on them very often, I like the way they are coming out
• the first Monkey sock is complete and very cute.  I haven’t cast on for the second one yet because …
• I am about to complete the fastest sock I have ever knit, as explained below.

Back in February Grumperina posted some socks that I fell in love with.  The yarn is Sock Hop from Crown Mountain Farms, and I knew I wanted to get some, but it is pricey as you need two skeins to make a pair of socks.  Plus, it only goes on sale for one day a few times a year, so I had to wait until April.  Come April I had recently finished a few projects and hadn’t bought too much yarn recently, plus I wanted to celebrate getting EIC, so I decided I deserved a bit of a treat.  Unfortunately they don’t have the colorway Grumperina used anymore.  I couldn’t decide which color to get, so I ended up getting two - San Francisco (blue and brown - something I don’t normally pick) and Layla (purply pink - very me).  It arrived on Monday, and look how awesome it is! 

The reason the yarn is so expensive is that it is handspun, but it is so worth it!  I needed a new, mindless stockinette project, so as I finished up the first Monkey sock, I cast-on on Tuesday with the San Francisco colorway.  I went with my size 1 (2.25mm) Knit Picks dpns, which I think was a good idea because the yarn sometimes gets very thin due to being handspun (there are also some thicker parts).  Between having a few meetings where I was able to knit, and needing some mindless knitting while studying, and this yarn being sooo addicting, I have already reached the ribbing on the first sock!  Here’s the progress:

Here’s the socks in progress while I’m studying and Major is passed out on top of me - aww!

I’m now up to the ribbing and will take more pics once I cast-off the first sock.  I don’t know if I’ll immediately cast-on for the second sock- I seem to have a single sock thing going on right now.  But it does work really well for mindless stockinette.  Here’s the other single socks:

The beginnings of the Conwy.

And the first Monkey sock.

Normally I get a bunch of knitting done during the finals crunch, and I will get some done doing research for my paper, but unfortunately the paper writing, contract editing, and outline creating all require a lot of typing which is not conducive to knitting, so we’ll see how much I get done this time around.  I cast-on for the Baby Lord jacket I have been planning and purchased yarn for, but it requires too much counting and concentration, so is on hold until I get to start my summer knitting.  I could do Mermaid or Sahara knitting as my finals knitting, but both of those require figuring out where I am on the pattern, so I will probably stick to sock knitting until school is over.

Note: the majority of this post was written back in January, but I never formatted the pictures to upload them and post the entry.  Writing about the Dale dress yesterday, I realized I never showed my first FO of 2008, so I’m finally getting around to posting this. 

So you know how when you go to a baby or bridal shower, you always feel sort of nervous when your gift is being opened.  Did you spend enough money?  Will she like it?  Did 2 other people get the same gift?  Is it cute enough?  Does it have the aww factor?  Well I finally had an experience this past weekend where I didn’t have those worries.  My friend Leslie is getting married, and her bridesmaids threw her an Ornament Shower where everyone brought ornaments for them to hang on their Christmas tree.  For the first time, I knew going in that my friend was going to love her present, and everyone else was going to be impressed.  The present:

Mini-Weasley Sweater Christmas Ornaments with the couple’s initials on them in Texas Longhorn colors.  I love them, and they would be great presents to make for others for next year.  Just need to start early! 

Project Specs:

Pattern: Mini Weasley Sweater Ornaments from Charmed Knits
Yarn: Sirdar Snuggly DK in burnt orange and cream
Needle: US 4 Bryspun dpns
For: Leslie & Kevin
Started: January 2008
Finished: January 2008 

Ravelry Details

Thoughts: the seaming was a little annoying - next time I might try knitting them in the round.  The duplicate stitching was much easier than I thought.  DO NOT do a loose cast-on - otherwise the roll looks a little goofy like on the K sweater.  I bought craft wire at Hobby Lobby to make the hangers.  I’d love to make a set of these for my friends Matt and Nancy who are engaged.  One is a Longhorn and one is a Sooner so it would be cute to do each in their school’s colors.  Really, it would be fun to start a tradition of doing a set for all of my friends when they get married, but no promises since I would have to actually plan ahead to pull that off.   

I leave you with a picture of Major being goofy.  He is trying to hide from one of our friend’s dogs who was visiting. 

I received some big news last night - I was selected as Editor-in-Chief of my law school journal - the Texas Journal of Oil, Gas & Energy Law.  This basically means I get to run the show next year, so that’s pretty exciting.  I’m really looking forward to it - it’ll mean a lot of work, but it’s a great opportunity.

In other big news that those reading this blog will probably be more interested in, I finished the Dale Baby Roses Dress!  There hasn’t been a FO in these parts in quite some time , so I am pleased to present to you the first big FO of 2008.

Pattern: Dale Baby Roses Dress (#13502) from Book #135 in 6 mo size
Yarn: Dale of Norway Baby Ull, <3 balls of cream, <1 of both pinks, and just about 1 ball of green
Needle: US 1 addi turbos
For: baby Georgia
Started: September 2007
Finished: March 2008 

Ravelry details

What’s that, you want to see a picture of it being modeled?  Ok! 

It’s a little big right now, but that’s great so hopefully she can get some good wear out of before she grows too much.

I actually finished it (except for weaving in all the ends) on our anniversary which was last week.  Daniel and I celebrated by checking out the new Four Seasons Restaurant Trio.

Since our anniversary falls during spring break, we both had the day off so we went golfing.  Here’s what my car said when we got back in - in the middle of March!!

Daniel loves to drink port, so I bought our present this year - a set of 4 Waterford cystal port glasses!  Turns out the 3rd anniversary gift is crystal, so I even followed the rules