Thursday, February 27, 2003
not much today. school. desktop computer has virus. annoyed with the world, worried about friends, etc etc etc. i am headed off to canada tomorrow so no photographic updates will follow until at least monday. will probably fail midterm tomorrow, no joke. don't really care either. i think the drugs have forced me into a state of pure apathy. at any rate, i hope everyone has a lovely lovely weekend. as a parting gift, here is a tiny tiny swatch of my koolaid yarn. adios amigos. xoox
9:21 PM /
Wednesday, February 26, 2003
i broke my knitting diet a bit today, and knit about an inch on the super secret lisa sock during my american lit lecture this morning. i finished reading slaughterhouse five (after an unplanned 2 plus hour nap. oops), and i started on ceremony, which is fairly boring and will be like pulling teeth to get through. and speaking of teeth! mine HURT! i felt better most of the day, but as night falls down on me, i'm hurting big time and regretting my early rejoicing at recovery- that led me into NOT calling my dentist today. stupid me, stupid me, stupid me. so that's life. anyway, i have a phone date with one of my best friends and i'm going to get to that before drugs kick in and i am again asleep. and, for your viewing pleasure- my precious little (who am i kidding? she is monster sized) jezzebelle, my 16lb, 8 year old roomate.
also important: jen is super nice.
9:15 PM /
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
i finished laura's hat during my british/irish lit class (today was tuesday schmoozeday, our teacher brought us brownies), she saw it this morning and loved it, so she'll pay me on thursday and recieve said hat on thursday and i am now officially on a self imposed knitting diet until friday. i have a midterm friday morning and i am two and a half novels behind. eep. bad rachel. also? my mouth still hurts. ah well. also, i balled up one of the skeins of sock yarn, so i have that for the collective viewing pleasure of the masses.
monday, i'm teaching a male nursing student friend of mine to crochet, as he would like to make afghans. i live to teach the craft, yo. hopefully at 11am on friday i'll be on my way to burlington, ontario. i'm looking very closely at my bank account. it says 'maybe you shoudln't', but the rest of me misses adam and wants to go. so we'll see. anyway, wish me luck on the american lit midterm. i'll be hanging out with jack kerouac, kurt vonnegut and leslie marmon silko. xoxo.
9:01 PM /
Monday, February 24, 2003
i am officially onto laura hat version #3.
and ready to kill the next purple yarn that comes my way. my mouth still hurts, which is also just so not a good thing. i did however, cook tonight. i figured that my super duper mashed potatoes would be rather painless to eat, so i made a few meals worth of potatoes and i'm set for a few days. i think that i need a vacation. this is grumpy rachel, signing off. see you in the morrow.
10:04 PM /
Sunday, February 23, 2003
well, i ended up ripping that hat because i was really unhappy with the shade of lavender- i did dye this morning- i did a mix of a blue kool-aid with black cherry, and i used a white acrylic/wool blend and it dyed the perfect shade. unfortunately- as you'll see, it looks grey in the photos (my bathroom is apparently not the best place to photograph).
so i'm waiting for it to finish drying and i'll start the hat over tomorrow night. i also dyed some sock yarn i'd purchases last time i was in canada- kroy sock in a pale offwhite colour. again, the photos came out terribly- it's a lovely blend of bright red, dark red, purple and lavender.
a lot of white spots, but it was my first time dyeing with a spoon drip method. and, i was afraid i'd run out of colour! anyway. mouth is still pretty sore- i feel like my whole inner cheek is bruised. but a new week starts tomorrow and i'm heading on into midterms. no fun, but one half semester closer to the end!
8:26 PM /
Saturday, February 22, 2003
today was a stinker of a day. while i waited for my pain prescription at the pharmacy, the novocain wore off and i was in some serious pain. i came home, tossed aside the ibuprofen800, took two vicodin (left over from foot surgery) and waited for 45 minutes until the pain subsided enough to let me sleep. i think that i've slept the worst of it off, but i am still a little woozy. anyway, my plan is to knit until i can't see straight and then i'll get back into bed. here's the purple hat so far, i'm afraid it's too dark- she wanted lighter lavender, but i had to work with what i had around.
i've decided if she's unhappy, i'll just have to up the price a few bucks to allow for the purchase of yarn. again, i hate this being broke thing so much. i wish i could just give hats away, like i used to. i did think maybe i could dye some acrylic white yarn with grape koolaid- i figured it'd rinse out to a pale lavender. but alas... no grape koolaid in the house and i'm not going out again. boo-urns.
happy saturday night.
7:35 PM /
Friday, February 21, 2003
not too much to report today, still feeling a tad sick- and to top it all off, i get to spend my saturday at an emergency dentist appointment. painful tooth breakage today, i'm hopped up on canadian codiene and knitting away at the purple hat. i got asked to make an entire winter set, so hopefully that'll pan out well for my wallet too. i wish i could keep making things for friends for free. i did for years- but i also used to have a lot more free cash floating around. so not the case any longer. anyway. no photo today, since all i have is the ribbing edge of the hat finished. i had planned to dye some sock yarn this weekend, but i think my dye time will be spent at the dentist. alas, this is how the world works. xooxo.
6:49 PM /
Thursday, February 20, 2003
so my plan to be done kathy's scarf and hat combo by the weekend has worked! i knit my tooshie off today on the broomstick handle sized 15 straights and now i have a completed set to show for myself.
my friend bob made the judgement that the hat should have a big poof on top, so i'm making one that i'll offer kathy in the morning as an option. lisa marie loved her beanie, and will pay me on tuesday, as will my friend laura for a similar hat in light purple. which makes me 20$ richer as of tuesday, which puts me 20$ closer to visiting my snarky poohead next weekend. so yay for that. thusly, this weeked will be spent reading three novels, knitting a hat, socks, and another scarf. it'll be a hoot, for sure. really. i just can't wait. boo-urns to loneliness. anyway, happy almost weekend!
10:22 PM /
Wednesday, February 19, 2003
my darling adam gave me the stomach flu for valentine's day. that is true love. oooh yeah. so while i was awake today, i managed to finish lisa marie's grey 'snowboarding beanie'
i used some grey acrylic yarn that i got on the mega cheap at zellers in canada, and some handmedown grey boucle wool. the stripes caused a plethora of ends grouping together to mock me 'weave us! weave us rachel! you looooooooove to weave!' of course i love to weave, i just prefer to do it on a nice big floor loom.
but i digress. i also wanted to show the hat with it's stitch markers at the start of decreasing. i made a bunch of these stitch markers as a holiday gift to lisa (and of course kept a bunch for myself). it makes me feel like my work is bejeweled, with these lovely beads hanging down en masse.
hopefully this weekend i'll get the gallery up and working. in the meantime, it is on to kathy's scarf. size 15 needles, here i come!
6:24 PM /
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
my snow day ended in a big cranky mood, which led to poor sleep, which led to staying home AGAIN, because i don't feel so hot (neither does adam, who was up all night doing horrible things). during my awake hours, i managed to get a good amount done on lisa marie's hat, i'm about a 1/2" away from starting the decreases, and it's all cake from there, which means hat will be 'sold' on thursday afternoon. it looks decent though, as you'll see. nothing else exciting going on, as i really just don't feel well. early bed for me tonight.
5:32 PM /
Monday, February 17, 2003
today was/is my very first snow day ever. considering the fact that i spent 12 years living in the mountains of colorado, this is kind of pathetic! i'm twenty three! i graduate in december! and today! 10 months from graduation i get my first snow day ever. it's still going out there, though we don't have it as bad as people in washington, new york, boston, philadelphia. i feel like i should have run out and built snowmen or something, but i don't have clothes that are snowman building apropriate nor do i have anyone to play with. so i've spent a lovely lazy day at home, reading, watching the greek wedding (again), and knitting lisa marie's grey hat (see below). i'm sure, despite the snow still falling, that we'll have classes tomorrow. but oh well. a snow day. SNOW DAY! hee.
5:01 PM /
Sunday, February 16, 2003
i'm trying to figure out a better pop-up window code, which i need before i complete the gallery page- however, here is a photo of the hat i made for my friend kathy- a matching scarf to follow
(postponed thanks to both a giant slice to my left ring finger knuckle courtesy of an ikea kitchen knife, and a visit from my spectacular boyfriend). also on the needles, a grey beanie hat on a size 7 circular, to be sold to a girl in my brit lit class. photos to follow. happy snowy sunday night.
9:09 PM /
Friday, February 14, 2003
i'm half done with kathy's hat (photos later today) and before i start preparing my home for the arrival of the canadian, i thought i'd share this:
happy commercialized love day, all. xoxo.
(ps. make one here)
12:19 PM /
Thursday, February 13, 2003
so, the socks are all done. for some reason, the second sock always goes a million times faster. either way, they are done, and they will be in mom's hands on sunday. my next sock project cannot be documented, as they are going to be a gift for lisa (who sent me the best hat and wrist warmer combo), but i'll also be working on a scarf and hat for a classmate. i just want to say- for the record- that i tend to do all sorts of small projects (socks, hats, etc) instead of sweaters, blankets, etc- because i have a gigantic lack of funds. i'm taking poor college student to the best knitting levels i can, but until i come into a small sum of money- my planned sweater will probably have to wait until summer. boo-urns, i know. but i cope by making socks. and hats. etc. and for those who wish to see, here are the mom socks (on my feet):
7:48 AM /
Wednesday, February 12, 2003
i have me a turned heel! i really love wendy's toe-up pattern, but the ribbing that comes after the fun toe-heel part always gets me down. so i'm going to bust through it, and now i know, without a doubt, that i'll be done the socks soon, i'll give them to mom on sunday, and then i'll be guilt free- sockwise, anyway. and here is my sock with a heel. all that stands between me and my freedom? six and a half inches of ribbing. boo-yeah.
7:11 AM /
Tuesday, February 11, 2003
didn't get much knitting done yesterday, thanks to that very early rise. i spent my post-class hours sleeping or wishing i was asleep. i did manage, however, to get quite a few inches of the sock done during class (did i mention i'm called 'the girl who knits' in the english building on campus?), and i am only 2" away from turning the heel. when i'm done these socks, i've been commisioned, (in that she gave me yarn and asked nicely) by my pal kathy, to knit a hat and matching scarf, and i need to get cracking on the scarf i promised andrew. he is very tall, and it will be very long.
anyway, i'm going to finish my homework and watch the oscar nominations, and then head off to school.
8:39 AM /
Monday, February 10, 2003
okie, looks like yaccs decided to work, which is good.
i am up waaaaaaaaay too early. and if i go to sleep now, there is no way i'll ever be up for class.
boo-urns. sock? here i come.
4:14 AM /
Sunday, February 09, 2003
i've reached a point of total frustration with both of my current projects. the socks for my mom have become an item i don't really want to finish, thanks to a horrible weekend and fight and a series of realizations. i'm trudging along (done with sock #1 and done the toe of sock #2),
but i reaaaaaaally want to just blow them off, stuff them away and forget i was making them for her. or, at least, make them for myself. it's too bad i'm so nice. as for the debbie bliss farmer bunny- i'm stuck on the arms. the pattern, as written, has the arms coming out a million times to short, and i can't figure out why that is so, and what i'm doing wrong. so much for getting the bunny done by friday. boo-urns. it's a good thing i have a boyfriend who says things like, 'dude, you're making something for me by hand!', and i know that he won't mind a slightly late present.
7:04 PM /
okay, i think i've got it all working again. gosh, it's been ages since i've used blogger. i can't believe i left this site dormant for so long. i'd blame livejournal and it's privacy and other good things, but mostly it was me finding a grip on my life again. so here i am, back at good old jgo. it'll be a little more knitting and craft oriented than before, but since (aside from school) all i do is knit and craft, it will be a pretty good reflection on my life. i'm sure there are a few kinks to work out, but i'll figure it out as i go. so hi, i'm rachel, and welcome back to joyfulgirl.org.
xoxo
6:51 PM /
bear with me while i figure this out.
xoxoox.
5:25 PM /
i'm rachel m, i'm 26 and i live in cleveland, ohio. i knit, spin, and read. i have a steady sweetie, two chubby cats, a full time job
and a messy apartment.
