Magrathea

Posted on May 4, 2011 by carrieoke13

Magrathea I finished another knit!

It’s Magrathea, by Martina Behm. I really really loved knitting this – the construction is super interesting, and the result is an asymmetrical shawlette/scarflette. The only issue I had was that I couldn’t quite get the points to block out the same way on both sides, but I think it still looks good.

I knitted this for a Mother’s Day swap with my lovely February 2010 Ravelry pals, or Ravelmamas, as we like to call each other. (Our group started because we were all pregnant and due around the same time.) It’s winging its way to a secret location right now!

I look sort of nuts in this picture, but I wanted to show you how long the scarf got once I blocked it. I used Araucania Ranco, which is soft and lovely and comes in beautiful colors. I actually went to the yarn store looking for a semi solid worsted weight yarn for a different pattern, but I fell in love with this yarn and decided to knit Magrathea instead. I’m glad I did. I had so much fun knitting it that I immediately cast on for another shawl – this time, for myself.

One last (kinda crappy) pic so you can see the lace a little better:

from the back.

I already received my swap package and got an absolutely beautiful Aeolian Shawl – from a mama who just had another baby, too!

Gorgeous shawl from my Ravelmama friend Jamie.

Yay for Ravelry friends and swaps!

Rhinebeck 2010

Posted on October 21, 2010 by carrieoke13

well hello! I finally got my RSS feed forwarding, so hopefully if you’ve been subscribed to this blog, you’re seeing this update in your RSS reader. O HAI.

We’ve been busy busy around here! Charlie is eight and a half months old and really wanting to stand. and play. and stand some more. and maybe use his Bumbo chair for a walker and walk around some. eek! It’s so crazy how much he’s changed from five months old – he’s totally on the go now. It’s amazing and terrifying all at the same time. ha. He’s also started saying “dada” and “mama” – I’m not sure he knows what it means, but it’s still pretty nice to hear.

hi mama and dada!

And our most recent adventure was a trip to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival, better known as Rhinebeck! It was Charlie’s first flight and our first trip together. Jacob just started an awesome new job so he couldn’t take any time off to join us (and I’m not sure I could’ve convinced him that he would have fun at a fiber festival anyways), so it was just me and C. I was a little nervous about flying to NY, renting a car and driving up to Rhinebeck with Charlie, but we did it and it was really, really great. It was way easier than I thought it would be to travel with an infant. Stroller + infant = head of the security line and pre-boarding on the plane. and he was so interested in all the new things to see!

Charlie loved to look out the plane window.

We stayed at a quirky rental house with some of the best roomies ever, and had so so much fun. We spent all day Saturday at the festival, and it was definitely a different experience that I’ve had in the past – I carried Charlie the entire day in our Ergo, and I was TIRED by the end of the day. Charlie seemed a little overwhelmed by all the activity, but I think he had a good time – there was so much to look at! I didn’t actually get to do very much shopping (I bought one skein of sock yarn and some buttons) but the real reason I went is to see friends, so that’s okay. and of course Jacob was happy about my lack of shopping, hahaha.

photo by fig and plum Jess.Charlie's hat by Stacey, and sweater by Mai!

I was really overwhelmed, in a good way, by all the help I got with C. My roommates were particularly understanding about his one big meltdown at 3am on Sunday morning. I had a couple of moments where I thought, wow, am I a bad mom for bringing my poor 8 month old son to this crazy festival? But I think it’s good to introduce Charlie to things that I love, and I lovelovelove fiber festivals and awesome friends that I never get to see. It was so much fun to see old friends, and meet old friends for the first time, and to introduce my son to everyone. yay!

Housemates, L to R: Lolly, me and C, Kate, Emily, Mai, Anne, Kelly borrowed from Anne's photostream. hee.

Of course I tried to finish a sweater in time for the festival and totally failed. But I’m almost finished with it now! It’s a Garter Yoke Cardigan in some yummy Brooks Farm Mas Acero. I’m about a sleeve and a half away from finishing! I also have some Quince and Co. Osprey on its way to me. My housemate Emily made a beautiful Idlewood with some, and I am so copying her. hee. I’m also test-knitting a lovely shawl for Kirsten Kapur and it’s going super fast.

So hooray for old and new friends, and adventures with Charlie!

Birthday Weekend Time.

Posted on July 13, 2008 by carrieoke13

Today is my 30th birthday, and I am celebrating by doing absolutely nothing. And it feels GOOD. I’ve napped, eaten some lunch, napped some more, and eaten a little dinner. I figure it’s my birthday, so I can sleep all day if I want, right?

Bella clearly thinks so.

I did get an “early morning” (10am) phone call from my twin sis Cathy, who’s been in Europe for a couple of weeks (lucky!! she’s in PARIS for our birthday). I was super excited to hear from her – we’ve been able to email and gmail chat a bit, but it’s the first time I’ve talked to her since she’s been out of town. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAT! I miss you!
I’m a sleepy schmoo because we had a super fun party last night with friends, homemade BBQ, a fabulous champagne toast (thanks, Leslie!), cute babies, and sparklers. (The babies didn’t get near the sparklers, I promise. Or the champagne.)

This guy makes the best BBQ. EVER.

After our bellies were full of Jacob’s fantastic BBQ (smoked in the Big Green Egg for 12 hours, yummy), we discovered a HUGE bag of sparklers in the closet and decided to play with them in the backyard. And somehow, just playing with sparklers turned into let’s-spell-words-with-sparklers-and-take-lots-of-pictures-of-it:

Schmoo, indeed.

Of course we spelled schmoo. And seriously, it took us longer than you would think to organize, perhaps due to champagne. (I wonder if our neighbors looked over the fence to see a ridiculous line of people with sparklers….) SO.FUN. After the sparkler extravaganza ended, we decided to head downtown for a few birthday drinks.

Me, Leslie and Jenna. Yay old friends!

I got to see some old friends, taste a Sparks (which I can’t really recommend. TOO SWEET.), and take a slightly sketchy cab home. (I was seriously impressed by the availability of cabs late night in Athens. It’s not a big city by ANY stretch, but we had our choice of cabs at 1:45.It was my first time ever taking a cab home from downtown! wooo-hooo I’m 30!)
It was a great night – thanks to all my friends who came and helped us celebrate, and to my Jacob schmoo who made awesome BBQ, cleaned our house, and generally made my birthday fantastic.
Oh, and he also gave me this for my birthday:

iPhone!!!!

YAY! He waited in line for four hours for one of the new iPhones, and it’s so. so. nice. I was a little skeptical of the iPhone when Jacob got one, and then we spent a weekend without internet somewhere and I realized that I needed one. very badly. Hee. I got other fabulous things too, including some socks handknit by Anne Marie (and an Ann Taylor dress!), some yarn dyed by Melanie, and a bamboo plant. And lots of yummy wine to drink. I am a lucky girl!
Well, I’m going to put my sleepy self to bed now – but I’ll be posting again very soon, because I actually have a finished knit to show you! Seriously. I really do.

Just Married.

Posted on November 1, 2007 by carrieoke13

179

Hey – I got married! And it was absolutely one of the best days of my life.
May I present: the Mr. and Mrs!

(photo stolen from Vibegrrl.)

Photo by Shawn Fowler.

This will be a series of long posts because I really want to remember all the details of my wedding weekend, and this is the best way I know how. So click below if you want the whole story!

Continue reading →

And then there were two.

Posted on July 26, 2007 by carrieoke13

Two finished projects! I decided that I need to wrap up some projects, and so I had a finishing frenzy this past week. First up: Sockapalooooza Socks!

Two stripey socks, almost identical twins.

My sock pal professed a deep abiding love for striped socks, so I found some stripey yarn in her colors at The Fiber Denn. In addition to being stripey, the yarn is extremely soft. Hooray! I knit these using the toe-up formula in Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy. These were my first completed socks to have short row heels (and toes). I lovelovelove the short row toe – LOVE IT – but I’m not sold yet on the heel, probably because I haven’t totally mastered it yet. I am satisfied with the heels on these particular socks, but I think I can improve my technique.

Don’t worry, sock pal, these are getting a bath in Soak tonight.

Finished in time! Hooray for Sockapalooooza! I hope she likes them.
And, Finished #2: a baby sweater!

EZ February Sweater.

I’ve been knitting this on and off for a little while, waiting for one of my pregnant friends to give birth so I could choose a recipient. (Yes, I have that many pregnant friends.) This one is going to little Ava. I used one skein of Cotton Ease and size 9s. I was hoping using bigger needles would make the sweater bigger, and honestly I’m not sure what size this sweater is. I’m going with the whole EZ philosophy that babies come in all sizes and it will fit her at some point….that works, right? This sweater is easy peasy, the pattern is easy to memorize, and it looks super cute. I want to try one of those crazy origami baby surprise sweaters next.
It’s so satisfying to actually finish some knits after four false starts with The Impossible Knitted Skirt.
So, what else? This weekend, I read Harry Potter (sniff), watched Jacob play Resident Evil on the Wii (sooooooooviolent), took my dad grocery shopping (fun!) and played with the neph a little (Big Head Schmoo!). Bella got a new toy.

Schmoo’s favorite toy.

Friday is my last day at my current job … oh how I fear change. But it’s good change. It is. Still scared, though. Guess I need to knit a whole bunch this weekend to calm my nerves…

Oops, I Did It Again.

Posted on March 26, 2007 by carrieoke13

So, I started training for my second half-marathon in January (as mentioned in this post). My training started out pretty well, and I ran at least twice a week mostly and tried to keep up with my long runs, but life got busy (wedding planning and school and other life-in-general stress) and I lost track of how much time I had before the race, and I didn’t feel ready. (Not feeling ready could also be a teensy bit of laziness on my part. Just a TEENSY bit.)
So I decided not to run the race. I would go to Atlanta, and cheer on Anne Marie and my friend Cheryl, and just be a spectator. Cathy would be a spectator too, since she is just recovering from bronchitis and really shouldn’t run 13.1 miles right now.
Yesterday was that half-marathon.
And I totally ran it!
I think I was scared to run because I knew I wouldn’t improve from my first race, and I didn’t want to feel like a failure. But my sister Cathy (that sneaky, sneaky girl) was all, “Why don’t we just run a little, and see how we feel? We won’t run the whole thing…”
Here’s me and Cat before the race:

Yeah. She tricked me.

And then it was just FUN. Beautiful day, beautiful course. We took it easy, not running too hard, pushing ourselves every now and then. It was so much fun, laughing and running with my sister, watching all the other runners and the spectators. We kept a good pace, and Cathy didn’t let me slack too much. We even got to see the lead runners because the marathon course crossed paths with the half marathon course at several points – that was AWESOME. Dude. They were kicking so much ass – it was really motivating. At mile 8, Cathy wisely decided to stop, and so she did. But she was like, “Finish the race.” And I kept going. And I finished!
Here’s my medal.

I might have more pics of the race eventually, but I didn’t bring my camera — I assumed I would have access to it later since I wouldn’t be finishing the race. Ha. Next time, I’m going to be more serious about my training, but it was nice to do a race in a very stress-free sort of way.
[Note: since I'd done a half before, I felt okay running it even though I didn't feel completely ready. I am in NO WAY advocating just waking up the morning of a half-marathon and deciding to try and run it. You gotta train, baby. I guess the point is: I wasn't motivated to run it, even though I physically was ABLE. And my sister and Cheryl and AM helped me get motivated -- that morning!]
In general, that’s the kind of runner I am. I don’t like to get caught up in my time because I’m a slow schmoo, and if I’m not enjoying something, I’m just not gonna do it. So, I try to keep running fun and light and not a competitive thing. (Now, that’s just me. My friends (coughcough Cheryl and AM and Cathy coughcough) who are fast schmoos do things differently, and I like that. Cheryl rocked the half, and AM rocked the FULL, and I’m so proud of them. Cheryl finished almost an hour before me and when I was coming around that last bend, I saw her waiting, and she ran me into the finish line, which totally rocked. She even cheered me past a couple of runners.
Woo-hoo! Team Schmoo rocks.
In other news – knitting news – I’ve been knitting a little opera scarf with my Noro Silk Garden Lite, and I ripped it out. It just wasn’t working for me. (Although, I will say that I love that pattern, and I’m going to knit it again, but with a swingier, drapier yarn.)
Here’s the farewell photo:

Farewell, opera scarf.

Instead, I decided to copy Molly! and make a mini clapotis with it.

Yum. I love this yarn.

And the Forecast? She is literally 20 sleeve rounds away from being done. I’m predicting a finished post by next week. No promises, though.

When you get caught between the moon and New York City…

Posted on March 20, 2007 by carrieoke13

… Arthur’s Theme is totally one of my favorite songs.
NEW YORK!
What a freakin’ trip. It was super fun and totally exhausting and I would do it again next weekend if I had the money and another pair of boots (since mine now have holes in them from all the walking. NOT CITY SHOES.) First of all, I have to give a shout out to my girl Carolyn, who sent me her recommendations for restaurants, and not one of them disappointed. I tried so many kinds of food I’d never had before: Vietnamese, Malaysian, Brazilian, crazy Tex-Mex-Asian-fusion. yumyumyum. The food was my second favorite part of the trip.
My first favorite part was, of course, the people. And the yarn. Ohhhhh, the yarn.

At the subway stop in Queens.

The extremely long and photo heavy play-by-play is in the extended entry. You have been warned about the length. And the photo heaviness…

Continue reading →

Schmoos

Posted on February 23, 2007 by carrieoke13

Friday Friday Friday. Hooray! It’s been a busy week in the school and work arenas, and I am so glad it’s Friday. And I’ve got PLANS this weekend: birthday celebrations tonight for my friend Leslie, birthday celebrations tomorrow for my sister Michelle, a hair appointment (color), possibly a trip to Ikea, and lots of Wii time.
(Now that my nephew is almost 10 months old, it’s time for him to play the Wii.)
(Kidding.)
And the Oscars on Sunday! Woo-hoo! In other news:
1. I brought my almost finished Forecast to work today, because I’m planning to go to the bead store at lunch and see if I can find buttons. Hopefully I won’t be tempted to buy beading supplies. Ha.
2. I started the second Anemoi mitten, and all of my love for colorwork came rushing back. I think this one looks much better than the first one – I’m more comfortable working with two colors, and my gauge is a little looser. I hope it doesn’t look vastly different than Anemoi #1…

Swirly goodness.

I’m using my Knitpicks chart holder from the start this time, and it’s going so quickly. I can’t wait to start working on some Zimmerman Norwegian mittens…
(God, now that I’m looking, there is a glaring mistake in that mitten. I’ll need to fix it! But no ripping. I’ll deal with it later.)
3. As I knit and watched Grey’s Anatomy last night, two of my favorite schmoos dozed on the couch next to me. How cute is that?

Shleepy schmoos.

4. Here’s my other favorite schmoo in her favorite spot:

Chili guards the house from here.

She’s a good girl.
I think the Anemoi could be finished by this weekend if it keeps going so quickly. It’s destined for someone who lives in a colder place than me, so the sooner I finish, the better. Although since we’re starting to have 65-70 degree days here, I imagine that’s happening in other places too. (Probably not, right?)
Okay. Back to work. Y’all have a good weekend!

Long Time Coming

Posted on February 14, 2007 by carrieoke13

A long, long time ago, some other knitters around here and I decided to make a pirate themed baby blanket for our dear friend Mary Jessica. Many, many months later, we finally finished it and gave it to her. Here’s the blanket:

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I knit several squares, including the pirate ship, the anchor, and various stripeys and solids. It was my first real attempt at intarsia, so it ain’t perfect, but it works from far away! And here’s MJ getting the blanket:

Notice her cute pink handknit.

And here’s what Tommy thinks of the whole shebang:

My blanket RAWKS.

We had so much fun catching up and making Tommy laugh. He is the happiest, bounciest baby ever.

Tommy wants to drool on it. NOW.

A good time was had by all.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, I leave with my favorite Valentines ever, Brandon Bird’s SVUtines. In the criminal justice system, you’re considered especially gorgeous.
Have a great day!

Funny!

Posted on December 12, 2006 by carrieoke13

I have gotten early morning phone calls from the Pants on several occasions when he’s accidentally locked his keys in his car. It happens fairly often. I grumble … but I always bring him his keys. What else can you do?
Today, he gets to return the favor. I have locked my keys in my car. I THINK. If they aren’t in my car, I have no idea where they are and I am a sad, sad schmoo. Keys, if you’re listening: pleasepleaseplease be in my car.
Anyways, this unexpected break in the middle of the day + having my laptop + wireless cloud in downtown Athens = blog post. And there are things to talk about, actually. For example: High Energy Jenny had a BABY!!!! I can’t believe it! I’m so happy for the High Energys and their new TinyHeadSchmoo. Go on and give her some love! Dude, that kid is lucky – he has pretty kickass parents. I can’t wait to give him a squeeze.
In non baby-related news, I’ve been knitting several different things. I started a Headline News cabled newsboy cap, and it turned out a little large:

Trust me, it was too big.

(Look at that yarn, by the way. HEJ gave that to me last Christmas – she recycled and dyed it herself. It’s a beautiful angora wool blend and it’s lovely to knit with. She’s multitalented, that one.)
So, seeing as how it was too big, I ripped that, and started just a plain rollbrim hat using some Manos I recently added to the stash. Here’s a look…

Basic Rollbrim Hat.

That one is actually done now, and I’ve worn it a couple of times. It could be longer, but it works. I just needed some plain old circular stockinette to keep my hands busy.
Now, I’m back to my pretty HEJ yarn, and I’m making a little mini Clapotis. It might be for a present…I’ll never tell…

Do you like my grainy coffeeshop picture?
It’s the best I can do right now.

And how does one make a mini Clapotis? Well, I googled “mini clapotis” and got this handy little recipe : [ mini clapotis ] Thanks, kpixie! It seems to be working perfectly for this yarn.
No matter how many times I knit a Clapotis, I just can’t memorize the pattern. I always try, and I always end up screwing something up. I will be a good girl and bring my pattern with me every where I go this time around.
Other news? Eh, not much, really. I’m in a Christmas musical extravaganza called “Deck the Halls” — I couldn’t resist volunteering for it — and I’m singing the lead on two Christmas songs. Are you ready? It’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”, and “Last Christmas”. Yes, the one by Wham! I was going to resist inviting anyone because it’s going to be super cheesy, but then I thought: when else will they get to see their friend perform a Wham! song for an audience? MAYBE NEVER. So I invited my friends. And you, if you’re in Athens. It’s through Athens Creative Theatre – the website has ticket info.
And that’s my story right now. I decided to make some creative Christmas presents, so I’ve been working on those – not knitting – and just relaxing by the fire when I can. I’m readyreadyready for Christmas break. And also ready for my car keys. Hopefully, by the time this is posted, I’m in my car, driving back to the office. We shall see…

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