I need to write here more. For as much stuff as I'm working on, I should at least keep track of it all, both here and on Ravelry.

I saw this layout and I knew I had to have it for this journal because I'm over half done with my Ravenclaw scarf! ^_^ It's almost as tall as I am, lol. I have 6 more sets of trapped bars left on mine and Josiah, Matt, and Travis convinced me to knit some for them, so I guess I'm going to be knitting scarves for a while, lol. I'm going to be sick of them by the time I'm done.

I figured out that there are over 47,000 stitches on each scarf, too. That's a lot of knitting! ^_^

In other news, I finished the fourth and final Jayne hat and I need to figure out what I'm doing with the rest, because there isn't enough for a fifth. My old roomie Kylia decided she wanted a hat with the red and some sparkly yarn that my mom gave me (both acrylic, ugh) so I'm trying to motivate myself to finish it.

I haven't been working with the Penobscot scarf at all, I think it'll just have to wait.

My steering wheel cover is done! I just have to put it on my steering wheel because I already took the other one off. It needed to go anyway.

I think that's it...I need to take pictures of everything so I can post them up here.

ETA: The text runs out of the box because of the humungo picture of Be Speckled below. Highlight it and you'll be fine. ^_^

So I went out to East Grand Rapids on Saturday to participate in the World Wide Knit in Public Day. It was an amazing day and even though I didn't get much done, it was nice to sit there, knit, and listen to people talking around me.

I hope one of these days I'll find the nerve to actually talk to someone. That sounds so pathetic, doesn't it?

The hat's almost done. Just a couple more rounds and I can start on the decreases. I still have a bit to go on the steering wheel cover, then after that, I can work on the scarf. Scarf you say? Yeah. I figured out what I want to do with the two ancient skeins of bright red cotton sportweight that my mom gave me. So I'm going to give this Penobscot scarf a try. I know it calls for silk, but it's not like I'm going to use it for skiing or anything so hopefully it won't make that much of a difference.

And then after that...well...I don't know. I don't have any extra money for more yarn so...I don't know...we'll see.

Stay tuned for pictures! ^_^

~Andrea

I've been working on the hat and the steering wheel cover on and off for a few weeks now. The hat's almost done...and I've barely done a single repeat in the steering wheel cover. *sigh* I'm getting bored with my life. It's all cleaning, knitting, and computer. I should step up the cleaning, now that I know that I'm going to be moving out in a couple weeks.

Yeah. I think I'll do that. And I'll get something done soon so I can start on something else.

Do I even have to tell you to get your mind out of the gutter? *giggle*

So a couple days ago, I walked to the Clever Ewe in Ada. I looked at a rough estimate of the route that I was going to be taking online first and I thought to myself...hmm...four or five miles...that isn't so bad.

I forgot a couple things. First, I forgot that not only to I have to walk there, but I have to walk back. D'oh! I forgot that since the sun was out, that my hair tends to collect the heat and make the rest of my body really really sweaty (not the best thing to be when you're browsing in a yarn store), and I forgot that carrying a handbag on your shoulder isn't exactly the best carrying device to use when you're walking for miles at a time. Hm. But I brought the iPod so I could catch up on podcasts (I'm halfway there from the hundred or so I had queued up from my little road trip), I wore actual exercise-type shoes (as opposed to the flip-flops I usually wear and was actually contemplating to wear for this excursion. My feet hurt just typing that.) and I brought the Nalgene water bottle Annie gave me for rehydration purposes. And of course lots of sunscreen, because nothing makes me madder than finding out I acquired a tan.

I started out at about 3:10. And I walked.

And I walked.

And I walked some more.

By the time I got out to Cascade in front of one of those strip malls that has a clock on the front, it had suddenly become 3:40. Huh. Well. Nothing to do but keep going, I guess.

Still walking.

Still walking. (When should I cross Cascade, I wonder?)

Walking some more.

I reached Spaulding and ran out of sidewalk, so I ran across Cascade towards Spaulding. I think this was the leg of the route that was most fraught with peril for me because this past winter, Spaulding really took a beating pothole wise. As in, the Kent County road commission actually gave up and decided to just let that section of the road go back to being gravel. Yep. Cars throwing gravel up at me. Luckily nothing hit me, so I just continued on. Took Spaulding down to Ada Drive, where I knew the biking trail was.

Now comes the long part. Passing subdivision after subdivision. Oh yeah, I forgot there was a farm school here. Heh. Forgot about passing Central Middle School. And Ada Christian. And Ada Vista. Was Ada Elementary really that big before? Huh. It never seemed like it was this far when I drove through Ada before...

I was about to cross the street so I could walk under the railway bridge into Ada when I saw this tennis court in the middle of the woods. Out of all the times I had passed that way to and from work, I had never seen this before. Interesting.

I finally got to the Clever Ewe and realized I was sweaty. I probably reeked. I walked around a little bit, asked for the Cascade Fixation I had come to purchase, walked around some more (it's pretty big for a yarn store), bought my new yarn, filled up my water bottle, and trotted out the door.

Immediately I could feel it. I had remained relatively sedentary for too long and my muscles were rebelling. Nothing to do but just suck it up and walk all the way back. I made it to my backyard when my mom called me wondering where I was. When I told her I was just in the backyard, we giggled for a few seconds and hung up so I could unlock the garage door and go back inside. It was 7:10 on the nose.

I looked up my walking route later. It turns out that I walked about 4.58 miles there and 4.72 miles back. Not too shabby.

I think next time I go though, I'll leave around ten.

~Andrea

So I guess since I set my regular journal to Friends Only and this is my so called "creative journal," this is where I'm going to be putting my knitting related stuff. I don't really know what else to say, so I think I shall just dive right in.

Since I started knitting, I've made two cat toys, three Jayne hats (I'm pretty sure I have enough yarn for one more if anyone's interested), a Calorimetry, and I just completed...



my first fingerless gloves! Yay! I think I'm going to try doing some cabling next. I was experimenting with lace but I don't have the right needles for it (I only have my mom's old aluminum needles and I tend to agree with everything I've ever read about lace, which states that wooden/bamboo is the way to go because otherwise it tends to slide off) and well...I'm poor. So we'll see.

Ah, the rain...I honestly don't mind the rain. I could easily move to Washington (the state) or England and be perfectly at home in the millions (billions? trillions?) multitudes of falling droplets.

I don't understand why people are depressed by the rain. Yes, it inspires melancholy...it's like the sky is crying. But does that mean we must cry as well? Why not rejoice in the life that the rain brings to us? Without the rain, we would not exist, is that not something to incite awe?

But no. People in the rain either run through it to get to where they're going as quickly as possible, or shuffle along, heads down, sometimes with a water repelling device sometimes not...and don't enjoy the rain.

It's just a little water, it won't hurt you.

I promise.

I feel that at this moment in time I am holding in my hand a flower: an extremely rare and exquisitely beautiful flower, a variety of orchid or lily perhaps. At the slightest erroneous motion of even my finger, the flower will fall apart and be destroyed, never to be seen again.

May this flower have a long, fulfilling life.