Sometimes we just need a little break

Thanks so much for all of your comments regarding the Apple hat. I'm so glad that you all liked it and the leaves!!

So, at the end of last week, I finally went to get a haircut...You see, I have this affliction. The longer my hair gets, the younger I look. Now, you may think that this isn't really a problem. However, I'm already a young professor - as my hair gets longer, I start to look more and more like one of my students. It's kind of like a twilight episode. Now it's at my chin and all is good. But, I digress...

So, my favorite hairdresser happens to be about an hour away - it's well worth the drive because it's a really good haircut and the same haircut would be twice as much in the city. But, of course, I didn't go to just get a haircut. They have a Michael's in this town which allowed me to stop and get some cheap yarn. We have LYSs a-plenty over in the city - but no cheap yarn. Anyway, I picked up a few balls of Sugar 'n Cream and created a little diversion for myself.

Sometimes we all need a little diversion. I needed a little one from the booties. I made great progress last week on the booties - I just have the cuff left from one of the booties..but knitting with size 1 needles started getting a little tiresome. I needed a diversion.

So, I knit up one of the ballband dishcloths from Mason-Dixon knitting. Here it is:
After knitting this up, it has become clear to me why this dishcloth swept the knitting blogosphere several months ago (ok, so I'm a little late, but again, it's because of the lack of availability of cheap yarn). For those of you out there who haven't knit one of these babies up, the best way to describe this pattern is: delightful.

Yes, delightful. I don't say that about many patterns. But, what makes this pattern so great is that it's easily memorizable, quickly finished (only took me a few hours) instant gratification, knit on size 7s (compared to size 1 - this is a nice change), and I love the colors I chose - I even have enough yarn to do a blue dishcloth with yellow (as opposed to a yellow w/blue).

So, now after my very brief break, I feel refreshed enough to go back to those size 1s.

Apples - not oranges!

Well, it's been a crazy week. Meetings and classes and writing, oh my!! Good news at work though - one of my students just won a travel award for a conference to present our research. So, that's good news for my student and great news for me!

In knitting news, I finished the apple hat:
What do you think? I'm pretty happy with how it turned out...and it will go well with the red sweater too.

So, now I'm working on that second pair of bear booties. It's slow going - but maybe since I've done one pair already I'm hoping it'll go a touch faster than the previous pair.

Love is in the air!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope that everyone is having a fantastic day!

Since this day is supposed to be about love, I thought it be kind of fun to think about five things that I really love (hey, feel free to do this as well on your blog - think of it as a little love meme). Now of course I love my husband and the rest of my family and my cats. But, I thought I'd think about the other things in life (the ones that we may not notice, everyday kind of pleasures) that I love that make my life happy.

I love spending the entire day indoors in my pajamas especially when it's cold - just spending the whole day with my hubby and the cats, snuggling, watching bad movies and tv, and knitting.

I also love spending the entire day with my husband, walking the city, holding hands, and just talking, talking, talking. With both of our crazy schedules, this is a real treat.

I love how I feel after an incredible lecture that I've just given - the kind where the students are constantly participating, engaged in class, seeing things in a new way..there's learning and laughter and excitement.

I love when Frodo has this overwhelming need to be loved NOW - he jumps on the couch, snuggles in one of the couch nooks with me, starts purring like crazy, and gives me lovey dovey eyes. This is especially meaningful because he's the more reserved of my two cats - so when he wants love it's very special.

I love that feeling of the first day of a vacation or weekend - or the eve of that first full day of vacation. All that free time ahead of you (all that free knitting time) - from this vantage it seems almost like it'll last forever (at the same time, I also hate the last day of any vacation, I'd actually much rather deal with the first day back at work than the last day of vacation).

I also found a new pattern that I love love love!!! I recently saw the previews for the new RYC book Classic Coast. I adore this pattern:

Hartland

It has certainly stolen my hart.

I can't wait to start knitting it. That is, once I can finally finish all of those baby gifts!!!

Special day for a knitter

So, for those of you who knit and create your own patterns, you probably remember it - the very special day. That is, the first time that you became aware that someone had knit one of your patterns - and liked it.

Well, my friends, that time has come for me. Yes! At least one other person has actually knit A Knotty Hat. I kind of feel like a proud mama - you send your pattern into the world of knitting (which turns out to be a big one - ever since I submitted my pattern for Knitting Pattern Central, that site has generated a tremendous amount of traffic on my site...but not exactly the best kind...the kind that just checks out the pattern but then doesn't check out the rest of the site..but I digress) and then wait to see what happens. With all of the free hat patterns out there...and there are a lot...would anyone actually take notice of my little unassuming hat pattern?

Apparently, yes! It makes me very happy and makes me look forward to creating new patterns.

So, without further ado, check out the pictures of the first A Knotty Hat created by someone other than me!!

Just fantastic!

Twice the cuteness

Another crazy busy week at school. Lots of meetings and long long days. I didn't get much knitting done because by the time I'd get home I would just be exhausted - too exhausted to even hold a couple of knitting needles. However, I did manage to finish up the pair of bear booties!! Here they both are - double the booties, double the super cuteness!

So, what do you think? I'm really happy with how they came out. So, now one pair done - one more left. However, I'm going to make another pumpkin hat (except it'll be in red as an apple hat to match the red sweater) first - and then get back to the other pair of booties.

By the way, the hat was very well received at Purls of Hope - and I'm in the midst of starting another hat for them - I'm thinking something with cables. The crazy thing was at Purls of Hope last week I didn't spend that much time knitting - instead, I taught about 5 people how to knit at the same time. It was exhausting - but really fun! I hope that I was able to pass on that love of knitting to others!

Well, I think I'll leave you with this really hilarious picture of Frodo and Sam.

Doesn't it look like they just had a one night stand and Frodo is about to leave??!!