Where have I been??!!

Sorry it's been a few days since I've posted. There's a very good reason for that. Unfortunately, I caught my husband's nasty virus. So, I was not well enough to tend to the blog. I'm feeling much better now which is the good news.

On the knitting front, my yarn already came for the afghan. In only two days!!! That online store rocks! So, anyway, I started working with my new yarn. It's the first time that I'm working with a yarn that's mostly mohair so it's a little tricky. Plus, I've been struggling a little with the stitch pattern - I've only done about four rows - but it's taking me forever because of the tricky yarn and it's knit with two strands together..plus, there are lots of increases and decreases interspersed...why this afghan is rated as easy is beyond me. So, I may or may not decide to frog it and start over - the beautiful thing about mohair though is that it hides a lot of problems - so it may not be such an issue.

The manly sweater has been coming along too - I'm working on the color pattern for the front of the sweater...but since my friends' engagement is not too far away, it'll have to be put aside for a little while until i finish the afghan.

So, I noticed I've been tagged! How fun! Thank you, Terry! So, here are the questions:

Four jobs in your life [best to worst]
1. My current job as assistant professor is definitely the best
2. Teaching assistant/Research assistant
3. Consultant for textbook company
4. Summer intern at Merrill Lynch (my dad works in finance and thought I might like to try out finance - I did NOT enjoy it)

Four movies you could watch over and over
1. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Ok - i know this is really three movies - but it's my meme so I get to fudge the rules a little)
2. Kill Bill vols. 1 & 2 (same rule applies here)
3. Mean Girls (everything you ever want to know about adolescent behavior is in this movie)
4. Anchorman

Four places you have lived
1. NYC
2. Fairfield county, connecticut
3. London
4. Long Island, NY

Four places you have been on vacation
1. London
2. Paris
3. Italy (Rome, Venice, Florence, Milan, etc.)
4. Switzerland (Geneva, Zurich)

Four websites you visit daily
1. various email sites (gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc. - i have waaaay too many email accounts)
2. http://youknitwhat.blogspot.com
3. www.google.com
4. www.knittersreview.com or www.knitty.com

Four of your favorite foods
1. Mac n Cheese
2. Chocolate: chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cake, or just chocolate au naturale
3. Grilled cheese
4. Spinach Pie

Four places you'd rather be right now
1. Actually, I'm at home right now, and there's really no place I'd rather be - but I guess I wouldn't mind being on vacation!!

Four bloggers you are tagging
How's this - if you're reading this and you haven't been tagged yet - YOU'RE IT!!!!

Have a great night everyone!

A solution and a sickness

Well, the weekend approaches. Hooray! I'm not quite sure if I'll be able to post during the weekend. We shall see.

A bunch of knitting news to report. First, you may have noticed that I decided to join a knitalong. Specifically, it's a knitalong for people who want to make their first sock. Since I have this fantasy of knitting myself some cashmere socks one day, I thought that this might be the motivation I need to learn how to tackle socks and dpns! Unfortunately, it may be a little while before I can get going on them because there will be a number of other things occupying my attention (more on that in a bit) in the next few days.

The manly sweater is coming along well - I was able to finish about half of the bottom gray portion of the front of the sweater. My goal was to finish the gray bottom part today - but I may be prevented from doing so (more on that in a bit too).

The last bit of knitting news is that I was able to figure out what to do about my friends' engagement gift. I got a bunch of knitting books from the library (I just love that the library is so fabulous for getting all sorts of knitting books! It's a great opportunity to check them out before actually purchasing them). One of them, Gorgeous Knitted Afghans has this one afghan in particular that I have been drooling over. Here's a picture of it - it's called Autumn Twilight:

So, what do you think? It's made with Artful Yarns Portrait, and I was able to get a FANTASTIC deal on it at http://www.knit2purl2.com. They're selling the yarn for $8 a skein (when it's normally about 10.50 a skein). Since the afghan requires about 8 skeins, I think it's a good choice - both special and won't break the bank.

In non knitting news, my husband caught a terrible virus and is sick - VERY sick. So sick in fact that he had to stay home from work today which he's never done as long as I've known him (which is about 7 years). So, I may not be able to get in any knitting tonight because I'll be looking after him. It's no fun being sick!

Well, I think that's it for now. Thanks again for those of you leaving comments and reading my blog! Back to working on school stuff - lectures for the upcoming week! Fun fun!!

Knitting Guru!!!!

So, I took this online test today titled What Kind of Knitter Are You?

Here are the findings:

You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting and do it all the time. While finishing a piece is the plan, you still love the process, and can't imagine a day going by without giving some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation involves leaving ample space for the stash and supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn ends and you begin.

I think it's so funny that I got labelled a Knitting Guru considering that I haven't been knitting for that long. But, aside from the name, the description fits pretty well considering that all i want to do in my spare time is knit - and I actually just packed all of my stash on supplies when I went on vacation for a few days. So, I guess it's not completely inaccurate.

In other news, I've started working on the front of DH's sweater - it's slow going but making steady progress.

Other than that, I taught my other two classes today. One of them is an advanced seminar - and I managed to frighten a bunch of them away with the workload..but that was kind of the intention considering that way too many students registered for an advanced seminar. But, both of my classes were a lot of fun - and I'm looking forward to a new crop of students - even if I'm going to be bogged down in work!

Well, back to my knitting!

Didn't I promise?

Here it is:

As promised, here's the completed back of the sweater for my DH. In case you're wondering, it's made with Lamb's Pride yarn from Brown Sheep in charcoal heather, onyx, and medieval red. The original pattern from the Stitch n Bitch book used the Brown Sheep "raspberry" color instead - but that other color seemed a little too bright for my and my hubby's taste. The medieval red color is really working out - I definitely like it better.

So, I tried very hard to smooth out the edges so that you could see the shaping - but since it's done in stockinette stitch, I don't think I need to tell you that the edges have a tendency to curl.

I nearly had a catastrophe when it came to working the shoulders - because I had trouble understanding the instructions - so the right shoulder side is a little wonky - but I figured it out for the left shoulder - and I'm hoping with blocking that it'll rectify itself.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, those legs at the top of the picture belong to one of my cats. It was very difficult to keep them away from it - they were sitting on it, trying to play with the yarn that needs to be weaved in, etc. But, that's to be expected with cats.

So, tonight I'll be casting on for the front of the sweater and working that. I'm hoping that it will go a little smoother the second time around!


In other news, the spring semester started today. I only taught one of my classes though - tomorrow I have the other two. I nearly had a fit this morning though - because they posted the classrooms and they ended up putting me in a classroom without multimedia which I need. But, as I was setting up and seething, an administrator came and moved me to a new room. Not only was it a new room - but it was actually an auditorium. Quite an upgrade!! It seemed a little silly given that it's a small class (with only 20 students) but I still got a kick out of it. Beyond that, it was great seeing my students again (even those that are not in any of my classes this semester) - they were all very happy to see me. It just gave me that warm and fuzzy feeling!

Thanks to those of you who are reading my blog and actually making comments!!! I get a really kick out of knowing that other people might be interested in reading about my daily escapades.

Semester approaches

Well, I didn't think it could happen but the spring semester starts tomorrow. I feel very ambivalent about it. I mean - I'm looking forward to seeing my students, but I had such a short break - I really could have used at least another week. The thing is - I don't even need the break to relax - I would just like some more time to prepare.

Enough complaining! Well, I've been easing my anxieties about the upcoming semester by...you guessed it...getting some knitting done (along with more progress on some school work - lectures and such). The good news is that I've made a lot of progress. My goal tonight is to finish the back of the Manly Sweater. With that, I plan on posting a picture tomorrow of the completed back - a lofty goal but I think I'm up for it.

In other news, friends of ours are about to get engaged. My friend, the bride to be, doesn't know yet - but my husband found out from his friend, the groom to be, that he's planning to propose and soon! Soon as in, a few weeks!

So, here comes the dilemma...how to mark the occassion? I'd really like to make them a beautiful knitted gift - but I haven't been happy with anything that I've seen. Yes, I know about the Lovers' Mittens - although it's a cute idea, I just don't think it's special enough. So, I'm contemplating a beautiful afghan or maybe a tablecloth. There's this afghan that I'd love to make from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It's the "Ombre Alpaca Blanket" - see picture below. Gorgeous, right? But, the afghan requires something like 44 skeins! Even if I decide to use Knitpicks, the afghan would be about $140 which is just too much. I thought about maybe making the afghan using a yarn with a different gauge so that I could use less - but I'm not sure how to go about doing that. So, I reach out to you, any ideas? I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have about a special gift or pattern, etc.




Any suggestions?

Success!!

Well, after a lot of difficulty, I was able to figure out how to post pictures in the sidebar. So, now you can see my FOs rather than just hearing me describe them. The colors on the pictures aren't so hot - we need a new (well..actually, any) digital camera badly - these pictures were taken with my little webcam.

I made a little progress on hubby's sweater. For those of you who are interested, it's the "manly sweater" in the Stich n Bitch book. I figured it would be a good sweater to start with. I would have made more progress on the sweater yesterday but DH and I ended up having an Aqua Teen Hunger Force marathon yesterday with some friends. Well, it wasn't so much of a marathon because we watched only a handful of shows...but nonetheless. So, I'm hoping to get in some more work on the sweater this evening.

Today, I will be working a lot on my lectures for this coming semester. The semester starts again on Wednesday - so I'm trying to cram in as much as possible in the next (gulp) two days!!

P.S. - for those of you who were wondering, I'm definitely a meatwad.

First post!

Hi there!

This is my first post to my knitting blog. I thought I'd give you a little bit of information about me. I am a pretty new knitter. I took a small class a few months ago which just taught me the basics - and since then I haven't stopped!! Aside from the washcloth I made to learn knit and purl, I've made a scarf, a bag, and ipod holder - and I'm currently working on a sweater for my hubby. As a new professor, I love how knitting provides me with an outlet to destress after a long day of teaching, advising, and doing research.

More info. to come!