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The new version of WordPress has autosave!

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…not much to see here.
I have a swatch of Lorna’s Laces Worsted in Cedar:

One unfinished sock that of which the toe must still be taken out and re-knit:

And some pictures of my first cross country skiing experience from Bear Valley, CA on Saturday. Shazam! do my thighs hurt from all that “snowplowing” and hillclimbing! I guess I need to keep excercising!

Next up? Telemark skiing lessons Saturday, another first.
1. Example 1 (turn down volume if you don’t want to hear the cheesy music)
2. I’ll be lucky if I look like this: Example 2
3. Wikipedia: Telemark Skiing

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I finished a scarf for my mom! This was supposed to be a Christmas present, but I just finished it. I did complete the matching hat in time for Christmas, so I wasn’t totally delinquent.

Here is the scarf:

Multidirectional Scarf
or click here for the .pdf version
Yarn: Malabrigo 100% wool
Needles: Denise size 11
Comments: This is a great scarf if you want something easy but interesting to look at. The Malabrigo is like a cloud around your neck!

And here is the matching hat along with my dad’s alpaca hat I showed you previously:

Hat Pattern: Roll Brim Hat or this one
Yarn: the above mentioned Malabrigo
Needles: Addi Turbo size 7
Comments: Cast on 102 stitches

Alpaca Hat Pattern: Ann Norling Head Huggers Knit 3, purl 1 rib
Yarn: Classic Elite Inca Alpaca
Needles: Addi Turbo Bamboo size 4

The purple socks are getting closer to completion. I almost finished one last night, but I decided it was too short. I’m going to take out the decreases at the toe and re-knit it a bit longer.

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My mom used to chide me for using the word stupid too much. “Not everything is stupid!” she’d say. Well, that may be true, but THIS was stupid:

I did the SSK decreases wrong for about 3/4 of the entire scarf. I heard someone say that SSK (slip slip knit) is different than knit two together through the back loops, but I couldn’t figure out why. When I was slipping the stitches I kept thinking it would be the same if I just knit two together through the back loops. I finally realized that I was supposed to be slipping the stitches knit-wise instead of purl-wise. Oops. Lately I had been hearing that you should always slip stitches purl-wise unless otherwise stated, so that’s what I was doing. I thought I remembered how to do SSK, so I didn’t look it up before starting the scarf. It isn’t a huge deal, some of the diagonal lines just look a bit lumpy. I’m hoping a soak and iron after it’s completed will help the whole thing flatten out. Probably no one will notice it but me. This is why it’s good to knit projects for other people when you’re learning.. you perform your mistakes on stuff you give away, ha-ha! Hopefully by the time I knit a sweater for myself I’ll have it all worked out (wishful thinking, I know). From the blogs I read, even the experienced knitters mess up, so I try not to get too upset about it.

Click Here for multidirectional scarf pattern. If you do a google search for “multidirectional scarf” you will find a .pdf link with a pretty picture of the scarf. Or just Click Here.

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Hi. I have zero inspiration to write, so I’m just going to start writing and see what appears on the page. If that weren’t bad enough, I wrote a paragraph or so that wasn’t half-bad and then did a google search on the same page on accident. When I went back to the blog page, it was gone. *sigh* is right.

Reading other people’s knitting blogs is inspiring and exciting. Without the blogs, I would have given up knitting long ago. Well, I’ve only been knitting a little over a year, but I never would have made it through that hump. You know, that period of time when you don’t know how to fix anything, and one mistake somehow makes a non-violent person, like myself, whip their knitting across the room accompanied by a stream of curses. I’m much better now, though thinking about knotted up yarn can elicit an anxiety attack. What was my point? Oh yeah. I love all the blogs out there, but sometimes I end up reading more than knitting. You’ve never experienced this, right? If not with knitting, then just generally surfing the web instead of participating in “more productive” activities. I also find that reading the blogs pulls me in a certain direction or pulls me in too many directions. I’ve only recently gotten the inkling to knit myself a sweater. But I love reading about everyone’s great socks! Thing is, I can’t seem to finish a pair. I’m getting close, though. Right now I’m trying to figure out what *I* really want to knit. It’s helped me to get things organized a bit. I’ve gone through these stages:

1. Randomly bookmark patterns in browser
2. Create categories in browser bookmarks for patterns (socks, hats, sweaters, etc.)
3. Download .pdf patterns to desktop
4. Dump all patterns in Knitting folder in Documents
5. Create categories in Knitting folder for patterns (see below)

I also purchased some sweater patterns at the yarn store that I’ve been eyeing for awhile and started a categorized binder. I put all the paper patterns I’ve collected into the binder. It was fatter than I expected, though you can’t tell from the picture.

For Christmas, I got a circular needle organizer. My needles went from this:

to this:

Maybe someday I’ll make a prettier homemade one, but for now, I don’t sew. Now I can at least see which sizes I have without rummaging through the whole basket or relying on my own memory (bad idea). Note: Organized display of needles in this manner may cause your significant other to say “where did you get all those needles?!” It helps if you can say “I got a bunch of them from your grandma!”

…now if I could only figure out what yarn to use for a sweater…

That wasn’t bad for an un-inspired post, eh? Maybe this writing thing isn’t so intimidating.

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when someone loves their gift!

And stay tuned, my niece may win Project Runway 2027:

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If you haven’t watched the special features on the Rent bonus disc, you must. I liked the documentary even more than the movie itself. I had no idea the writer of the music and lyrics, Jonathan Larson, died just hours before the musical debuted. His story moved me. I thought today would be an appropriate day to reflect on his lyrics, the past year, and the year to come. You can get the song from iTunes (the movie version of the song is the most powerful, in my opinion). If you don’t listen to the music as you’re reading the lyrics, you’re really missing out.
How do you measure a year?

“Seasons of Love” from Rent

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure
A year in the life?

How about love?
Measure in love.

Seasons of love.

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes!
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Journeys to plan.

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life
Of a woman or a man?

In truths that she learned,
Or in times that he cried.
In bridges he burned,
Or the way that she died.

It’s time now to sing out,
Tho’ the story never ends
Let’s celebrate
Remember a year in the life of friends
Remember the love!
Seasons of love!

Oh you got to got to Remember the love! Remember the love,
You Measure in love know that love is a gift from up above Seasons of love.
Share love, give love spread love Measure measure you life in love.