Here It Is!!!!!

All right, here it is:

http://withpointedsticks.wordpress.com

Yay!!!!

 

The End, in Which My Blog and I Break Up

On occasion, there are things that you are forced to realize are over.

For instance, yesterday I was going for a walk and the ice cream man drove by.  I was forced to realize that he was not actually an “ice cream man,” rather a kid who barely looked old enough to drove and listened to gangsta’ rap over his Pop Goes the Weasel bell, then tried to peel out at the corner.  Therefore, my ice cream man days are over.

Another is that I have totally and completely outgrown this blog.

When I first started this blog, I was just learning how to knit.  I was excited about every new technique, every new kind of yarn.  And that’s what I blogged about.  Now, I’m not learning so much as practicing what I already know, so I’m at a loss of what to write about.  It’s not exciting to talk about the process of making a sweater when I’ve done it so many times.

I look back on my old posts, and I don’t even recognize the style they are written it.  The voice doesn’t sound like mine anymore.  Shelly keeps saying, “You’re a writer, you should be blogging.”  And she’s totally right.  But I feel so disconnected from this blog.  It’s amazing the changes that occur in the course of a year when you go to college, make new friends, start writing for real, become suddenly single, get your first big-kid job, and live in the city.  Most of the changes I’m really happy about.  Some I wish hadn’t happened like they did, but no one asked me or gave me a choice.  Either way, I’m okay with change.  People have to change.  Change is exciting.  The point is just that this blog hasn’t changed with me, and I don’t envision that happening.

I’ve known that my blog was done for a long time, I just ignored it.  I’m going to start a new blog, probably soon.  Since the majority of my traffic is from Ravelry and Facebook, I’ll update the links there once it’s up.  I’ll post the link here too for awhile, until I decide if I want to delete this blog all together or leave it for posterity’s sake.  But I’m very excited about it, and I’m going to take the time to make it’s what I want it to be before I put it up.

Thank you for reading Of Writing and Knitting, Tunes and Balloons.  I had a lot of fun.

 

He is a Liar

Knitting: Something I do a lot of.
Blogging: Something I do very little of.

I have no excuses.  I do, however, have several finished objects to show for the time I did not spend blogging.

First up:

Pattern: Adia by Norah Gaughn
Yarn: Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace

If you recall, I started this, oh, perhaps a year ago, and finished it over winter break.  At any rate, the scarf’s pretty nice, and it was a good first lace project.

I took the picture over winter break too, and then it sat in Pharmacy Pete’s camera.  And sat. I don’t even know why, other than I inexplicably hate posting pictures.  It sat for so long that we are now at the point that I don’t even really look like that anymore.  This project is much more recent:

Pattern: Springtime Bandit by Kate Gagnon
Yarn: King Tut (left over from Shelly’s Printed Silk Cardigan)

And also this one:

Pattern: Tie-Back Shell by Connie Chang Chinchio
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Prima

I love love love this sweater.  It’s the first sweater I’ve made that fits me, yet is not simultaneously fugly.  Which is nice.  The yarn was decent.  It’s a little scratchy, and a few of the balls were in pieces or had knots.  Not unusably damaged, just annoying.  I think the biggest problem I had with it is that I’ve never used Debbie Bliss before, so I had it so built up in my mind that there was no way that it was going to be as good as I thought it would be.

Plus, nothing is as good as Malabrigo.  Nothing.  I guess that’s not Debbie Bliss’s fault though.

The scarf was really fun to knit, and went quickly.  It was a great use of the leftover yarn that had pretty much just been chilling at the bottom of my stash box (the box is purple and sparkly and from my balloon-blowing, candy-department-specialist-ing, party-store-working days).

I’m on a lace kick, partly because it’s not too hot to work on during the summer (not that’s it’s been seasonable here. It’s pretty much rained for the past two months), and also because I have time to concentrate on it.  The Tour de France is going on now, which occupies much of the television-watching hours in our house, and just does not require that much of my attention.  Ideal lace conditions. 

To wrap this picture party up… Regina Spektor.

Song of the Day:
“Two birds on a wire.  One tries to fly and the other watches him close from that wire.  He says he wants to as well but he is a liar.” – Regina Spektor, “Two Birds“

 

Don’t You Tell Me to Deny It

Let’s talk for a moment about why summer vacation is not a good thing.

Ysolda is in Boston.  I am not in Boston.  She is going to be spending the evening in my LYS, that I frequent on a regular basis and that keeps me in Malabrigo Lace, signing copies of her new book.  And I’m no longer in Boston.  Oh piss.  I really like Ishbel, as it seems to be fostering my new love for lace.

On a totally seperate note, I found out that the coffee scoop that came with my coffee pot is 2 tbsp, but I thought it was only one.  This means that I’ve been making my coffee twice as strong as it’s supposed to be.  Perhaps this explains why I get a headache if I don’t have caffeine?  And also why my coffee is just so damn good?

Song of the Day:
“Don’t you tell me to deny it.  I’ve done wrong and I want to suffer for my sins.  I’ve come to you cause I need guidance to be true, and I just don’t know where I can begin.” -Fiona Apple, “Criminal“

 

They’ve Got Years of Experience

Summer!  Except for not really just yet.  I did get out of school on Tuesday, though, and moved out yesterday.  So, technically, it’s summer, and it’s going to be summer for four months.

That’s a lot of months.

And somehow I have to fill those months.  I’m going back to Boston three days a week to work at the Career Services at my college, but that still leaves four days that I am determined to make productive.  I’ve compiled a list.

1. Get another job
Four days off a week is not really acceptable.  I still have college to pay for.  I’m hoping for something that I can do on weekends, like waitressing on something.  I seriously miss my balloon job.

On an semi-unrelated note, I fell in the shower the other day, just an episode of my life-long clumsiness.  Shelly questions whether or not waitressing is within my realm of doing.

2. Operation: Get Buff
While I did not gain the freshman fifteen, spending hours sitting on my butt at work or in my dorm doing homework certainly did not result in me losing weight.  Also, my dorm’s convenience store had a lot of Nantucket Nectars.  I developed quite a dependency.

So, me and Little Buddy have decided that we are going to run and play tennis together.  Little Buddy does this stuff anyway because I’m pretty sure he came from different parents than I did (he spends long periods of time talking about how he one day hopes to become rich, while I got to college that is putting me in monumental debt while preparing me for a career that is not particularly lucrative, and I spend what remains of my money of Malabrigo lace-weight).  I told me college friends this, and they laughed, remembering an episode when my roommate insisted that I go to the gym with her, where I walked on the treadmill for 40 minutes then complained that my legs hurt.  So now I have to get incredibly physically fit to prove them wrong.  Which is somewhat disappointing because if there was one thing on my list that I would be okay not accomplishing, this is the one.

3. Read
For a writing/English major, the amount of reading I have time to do for pleasure is embarrassingly little.  Over the year, I’ve been going with my friends to all of these great used book stores in different parts of Boston, and I’ve been collecting books, but never really having the chance to read them.  The goal, therefore, is to read all of the books I’ve collected, develop a list of all the books I want to or feel like I should read (shall be long), plus read a crap-load of young adult novels (seeing as that’s what I want to spend my life doing, I feel like I should try to keep up with it a little bit, especially since my school doesn’t have any specific classes about writing children’s books).

4. Send stories into magazines
In my fiction class, we had to write two stories that were workshopped by the class.  Mine went over very well, and I got good critique for how to fix it.  My professor told us that the next step is publication.  I’ve sent work in to literary magazines before, but the stories I sent sucked, and I was only 15 or 16 when I did it.  So I’m going to send these two new stories in and see how it goes.  Hopefully well, but I try not to be too expectant.

5. KNIT!
Okay, this is a big one that needs subcategories of all the things I have to finish:

a. Dr. Who scarves: They’re getting there, probably about 3 out of 12 feet done (see last post).  But they’re made of wool, and since I’m making two at once, it’s basically like working with an afghan on top of me.  In a few months, it’s going to be too warm to even thing about working on them, so I’m trying to get some of it done now.

b. Fish Hat: college-friend Casey wants one for her birthday in September.  She’s a special breed.

c. Slouchy hat for Alana

d. Granny-square afghan: I took up crocheting.  Sort of.  Technically, I hate it, but I wanted an afghan for my dorm room that matched my comforter, and I’m not about to knit one as I only have three years left of college and it would probably take me that long to finish it.  This is a good alternative.

e. Reject Beaded Cami left-over yarn: I frogged my beaded cami, as mentioned in my last post.  Now I have all of this sport-weight yarn with no home.  I’m going to have to find a pattern for it.

f. LACE!: I have a new thing for lace.  I’m working on a new scarf from Malabrigo Lace (I’d put pictures up, but I don’t know where my camera is amongst the boxes and boxes of dorm stuff that’s now in my basement), and I can’t stop thinking about small lace shawls that are small enough to be warn as scarves, but still have a unique shape to them that looks interesting against a plain t-shirt.  But I have too much stuff to finish before I can even think about that.

Except that I’m thinking about it a lot.  A lot.

g. Learn to play the piano: But this is only if I run out of stuff to do.  Ha!

Song of the Day:
“They’ll name a city after us, and later say it’s all our fault.  Then they’ll give us a talking to.  Then they’ll give us a talking to, because they’ve got years of experience.” -Regina Spektor, “Us“

 

City Lights Lay Out Before Us

I noticed with knitting blogs (maybe with other blogs too, but I wouldn’t know) that when the blogger is gone for a long period of time, they often come back with baby pictures, saying that they were preoccupied with birthing a child and didn’t have the time to blog.

That is not my excuse.  I have no excuse for not blogging.  I just suck.  I have been knitting, though, so that’s something.

Let me spin you a yarn of knit wear gone wrong.  (Get it?!?!?!  Spin a yarn?!?!  I’m real good with puns).

I wanted to make a beaded cami.  That’s all.  A simple pattern, made with Rowan Cotton Glace in a beautiful pink color, that would be perfect for spring days, or even worn under a cardigan.  Made of mostly stockinette stitch, it would be easy enough to work on without thinking about it too hard, because after all I am in college and really don’t have all that much knitting time on my hands.  I had such hopes for this project.

I refuse to post a picture of this atrocity, but let’s just say my tension was more than a little off.  I thought I checked it.  Really I did.  But apparently not well enough.  The end result is about a size 26, which is not Susan-sized.  I could fit probably 2 and a half Susans into it comfortably.  It will be frogged and turned into something new because I’m a little turned off from this project now.

I have pictures of my successful projects, though.  Which is kind of nice.

First up: cable gloves.

I finished the first one, and the second is halfway done, but on a hiatus for no other reason other than I lost focus and got bored.  Well, more overwhelmed than bored, I guess.  The cables are INTENSE, and there are about twelve tiny charts telling me what to do, and two different versions of the pattern because my first one had erratta, so the designer was kind enough to send me a new one, but I still use the old one too because I already started doing it the first way.  SO MUCH INTENSENESS!

I really do love the end result though, so I’ll finish the second one for next winter.  My only regret is not picking a yarn that shows off the cables better.  This one (Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light, I believe) is a little too fuzzy to really show off the cables.

Next up:

Dr. Who!

I’ve never had any real desire to knit a Dr. Who scarf.  So many people are over the moon about them, but I don’t watch the show, so I don’t really care.  But college friends Kelley and Colin watch it, and they are over the moon about it.  They were talking one day about how Dr. Who scarves sell for around $100.  I told them that was silly, and if they bought the yarn, I would make them for them.

Then I found out that the scarves are supposed to be 12 feet long, and I cried inside a little.  Luckily, they’re going reasonably quickly, and I really love the stripes.  I’m making two on the same needle so that they’ll be done at the same time, and I won’t be tempted not to make the second one!

I have pictures of Adia, which I talked about last summer, but they are on Pharmacy Pete’s camera, and he has yet to email them to me.  So that will be a later revelation.

Did I tell you I crochet now?  I do.  Somewhat.  Enough to make granny squares, which I’m making an afghan of to match the colors in my dorm.  It’s super pretty, but I don’t have pictures of that yet either.  I fail.

And, on an ending note, can it be spring now please?

Song of the Day:
“I remember we were driving, driving in your car.  The speed so fast I felt like I was drunk.  City lights lay out before us.  And your arm felt nice wrapped ’round my shoulder.” -Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car“

 

Beneath the Sheets of Paper Lies My Truth

Anyone want to talk about what a bad blogger I am?  Me neither.  So the abbreviated version of my excuse is that I’m busy with college, and my little corner of the interwebs has been neglected.  Which is too bad because I have done a crap load of knitting.  A crap load.

As it turns out, there’s an awesome yarn store right down the street from my school, that carries yarn that my yarn lady at home doesn’t.  Like Malabrigo.  Which has spoiled me, because now I have limited interest in knitting with anything else, which is not conducive to my college student budget.

Anyway, I did a lot of Christmas knitting, and a little just-because knitting.  And since I haven’t blogged in months and months, I think I owe you pictures.

Pattern: Star-Crossed Slouchy Beret by Natalie Larson
Yarn: Cascade 220, Lion Brand Wool, Malabrigo Worsted
I made this for just about everyone for Christmas: my college friends Alex, Eve, Casey, Kelley, and Emily; Big G. Rita; my at home friends Shannon and Brittany; and then I loved it so much that I made myself one too.  It’s the fastest, greatest pattern just about ever.

Pattern: Dashing by Cheryl Niamath
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft
These were for my roommate, who doesn’t wear hats.  They’re a little big on her, but she likes them, so all is well!

Pattern: Turn a Square by Jared Flood
Yarn: Cascade 220
This was for college-friend-Colin, who very obviously would not have wanted the same hat that I made for everyone else.  I also made the same hat for Boyfriend, but he is now, after a series of unexpected events, Ex-Boyfriend.  So I gave the hat to Pharmacy Pete instead, who is very pleased with it.

Pattern: Leaf Lace Scarf by Janet D. Russell
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace
This is my favorite thing that I’ve ever made.  Ever.  In my life.  As soon as I felt the yarn in the store, I knew that I had to make something out of it.  I like to describe the yarn as feeling like being in love, because it is soft and warm, and makes me excited about the possibilites of what it will be in the future.  I told Pharmacy Pete this, and he said that he wouldn’t have sent me to a liberal arts school if he knew I was going to come back with emotions.  And the pattern is lovely.  I made it for Shelly for Christmas.  The pictures are of before, during, and after blocking, respectively.

I’m still working on my Adia scarf, I made another Le Slouch beret that I have yet to photograph, and I started a pair of beautiful gloves with cables and fingers.  I finished one, but then I tried it on and popped one of the fingers open because I was super smart and forgot to weave in the ends of yarn.  Hopefully I’ll blog about them before May!

And the song of the day is for Rossola.

Song of the Day:
“You are my sweetest downfall, I loved you first, I loved you first.  Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth.” -Regina Spektor, “Samson“

 

Ugh

more animals

Alas, so do I.  And it’s too bad to, because I have so many yarn pictures to show (I have Malabraigo!).  Maybe later in the week.  You know, once I’m done with the three papers I have to write, plus studying for midterms.  Woo!  College!

 

The Way I Should Feel

As of late, Shelly has been calling me a bad blogger, which is not something that I particularly appreciate, and therefore intend to rectify in this post.

The past couple of weeks have been crazy busy.  Last week was my orientation for Dream School.  And can I just say that I already loooooove this school?  I really feel like I made the right choice in coming here, even though other schools were cheaper, or gave me scholarships, or what have you.  I’m really happy to be here.

Plus I’m in the city, which is exciting in itself, albeit a little frightening.  Granted, it’s not a bad city, and I’m in a particularly nice area of it (let’s just say that this is the only time in my existence that I’ll be able to afford to live on this street!).  It’s just that in any city, there’s a bunch of weirdos that are hard to avoid no matter where you are.  The second day we were here, my roommate (whose code name will hereby be Roommate) and I went for a walk, just to see what was around, and I was looking at the pigeons that couldn’t care less about the people who are almost stepping on them.  These two guys on a bench were saying, “Hey!  Come here!  Come over here!”   I thought they were talking to the pigeons, which I thought was really kind of cute, but when I turned to smile at them, I realized that they were talking to us, and we walked faster from then on out.

Now we travel with two of our other new friends, who as of yet do not have code names.  Please stay tuned.

But orientation was full of stuff to do, including valuable friend making time, and therefore my blogging time suffered severely.  Now that classes have started, though, I’m all caught up on homework for the moment, so I had the time to sit down and blog a little bit.

Because…

 

Done!  The sweater from hell is done!  It was damn hard, but I finished it.

 

It’s a little tight on Shelly, so I think that I might have to block it again when I go home for Thanksgiving break.  Also, I’d like to do something about the shoulders, which are too puffy for my liking.  If I were to make this sweater again (which is a moot point, as that sooo will not be happening), I’d use a lighter weight year, as this is supposed to be a Summer sweater, and the aran weight yarn is a little much.

Other than that, I really like how this sweater turned out, especially the diamond pattern on top, which got seriously prettier after blocking.  Shelly likes it too, which is nice, as she’s the one who’ll be wearing it.

I bought some lace weight yarn to work on Adia, and I have started that damn scarf at least fifteen times.  I don’t know what it is, but something about the lace knitting is just killing me.  Maybe it has to do with the bamboo needles that I’m trying out for the first time, or maybe it just requires a kind of attention that I’m currently unable to give it.  Either way, I put it aside for a little while to work on a baby sweater to give to my (former, *sob*) manager at the party store, who’s having a girl in a few months. 

If all else fails, I’ll save the lace scarf for May, once school’s over, and I’ll have the kind of attention span necessary to finishing it.  It’s so light weight that it’ll make the perfect summer knit anyway.  It’s starting to get cool enough here that pretty soon I’ll want to start working on big wool projects.

Song of the Day:
“If I could take you away, pretend I was queen, what would you say?  Would you think I’m unreal?.  ‘Cause everybody’s got their way I should feel.” – Rachel Yamagata, “Be Be Your Love“

 

I Understand it All

A few days ago I came to the sad realization that the title of this blog is now outdated.  The balloon element of “Of Writing and Knitting, Tunes and Balloons” is no longer appropriate to include, as I had to quit my fabulous party store gig in order to go to college in eight days.

And can I just say how sad it makes me?  I loved my party store job.  I loved blowing up balloons for people, and being able to tell them just where the birthday candles were located.  I loved being able to recommend patterns for plates and napkins for a toddler’s birthday party.  I loved being the candy department specialist who knows every single kind of lollipop we carry.  I will miss it a lot, and can assume that any job I get at Dream School won’t match up to it.  And that’s even with the chance that I can get a job that’s related to my major.  I don’t know how big of a chance that is…

After thinking about it for awhile, I decided to keep “balloons” in my blog title.  Because even if I’m not working with balloons, they’re a good thing to know about.  Information about helium shortages?  Priceless.  Knowing how to sculpt centerpieces out of one mylar, eight 5″ latex balloons, a gumdrop balloons weight and a piece of ribbon?  That’s invaluable information that I will cherish for years to come, when I’m making balloon centerpieces for my children’s birthday parties.

So the balloons stay.

While I’ve been pondering the fate of my blog’s name, I’ve been doing a considerable amount of knitting.  Shelly’s Printed Silk Cardigan is almost done.  I’m halfway through the second sleeve, and then all I have is the trim on the two front pieces (yeah, that’s all I have.  Sometimes the stupid trim is the longest part.).  I’m trying to finish as fast as I can so that I can hopefully block and assemble it before I go to school.  In eight days!!! 

The sleeves don’t require any chart reading, which is a welcome break.  During the pieces that required chart reading, though, I got seriously frustrated, and stopped to make a weekend instant gratification project:

 

Specs:
Name – A Slouch that’s Probably Just Going to be for Winter
Pattern – A Slouch for All Seasons by Melissa Lynn
Needles – US 5 circulars, US 8 circulars, US 8 dpns
Yarn – Cascade 220 Wool
End Result – Quick, fun, easy, pink.  Love it.

I also took a trip with Shelly to my yarn lady, where I picked up a skein of Silky Alpaca Lace from Classic Elite Yarns for this scarf, which is a free Berroco pattern.  I swear, I get more excited about Berroco’s free Friday patterns than I do when the new Knittys come out.

I haven’t started working with the yarn yet, because I want to finish Shelly’s sweater, and save the yarn for college, but I love it already.  I just want to rub my face in it, which I decided isn’t weird, just passionate.

I also bought some bamboo needles, which I’ve always wanted to try, but for some reason I always thought that they were so much more expensive that Boye or Susan Bates needles.  I noticed, though, that they were almost the same price at Michael’s, and I’m excited about finally being able to try them.

I also bought some yarn at Michael’s to make a sweater for the baby my (former) party store manager is having.  I haven’t picked out a pattern yet, so there won’t be pictures until that happens.

Song of the Day:
“She’s talking in her sleep, it’s keeping me awake, and Anna begins to toss and turn.  Every word she speaks is nonsense but I understand it all.” -Counting Crows, “Anna Begins“