Spring Break!!

Yay, we're on Spring Break!
This is the less exciting of our two weeks off: hanging around with Walker's family in Athens. I can't complain, though, since it has been a relaxing and worry-free several days. Flying down here was relatively painless. Our flight was on time, but the "tornado" weather in Atlanta prevented us from landing promptly and we had to circle around in a holding pattern for about an extra hour. I would say that it would have been a good time to work on my knitting, but I was working on a hat made from the leftovers from that last pair of socks I made for Walker and there wasn't quite enough to finish. It was really cute, though, so I think I may get more yarn and make it anyway--I can get it for cheap at knitpicks ;-). But since we've been here and hanging out in their basement, I have finished off that stripey sock yarn, making a pair for Sunmi's little feet: Aren't they cute? I don't have a picture of the pair I made for me, since I figured it would be redundant, but they're just as cute =). That yarn went really fast. I know you all aren't shocked by how fast I cranked out those socks, but I am! Anyway, Sunmi and I each have nice new pairs of Williams-y colored socks.
In between hanging out with Walker's family and visiting with his friends (this evening we went bowling and I threw my best game yet: 114!), I've started on that delicious Cleopatra wrap with the bamboo lace yarn.Pretty, huh? It's a little hard to see the definition, but the color came out clearer without the flash--that made it look much too orange, ew. Oh, I love this yarn. It's sooo soft, but it's also sooo slick and I've accidentally dropped a few stitches and made several mistakes. Hopefully the holeyness of the pattern will make them less noticable :-/. It's going to take me forever to finish this (comparatively), but it'll be so worth it. It is so full of pretty =).
In other news, I've figured a way to use up some of that lavender yarn and some leftovers from graduation gifts (which I also finished right before we left for break). I'm going to take a stab at these lovely Latvian-Inspired mittens. I don't yet know who will be receiving them--perhaps with their purple and red colors they'd appeal to Jodi ;-). One would think I would be doing well with the stash-busting, considering I'd have all the yarn in my stash planned into projects (just the wrap and mittens, plus one more lavender ball), except that when Walker's mother saw me working on the self-striping socks, she remembered that she had some stripey yarn that she'd bought a while ago and probably wasn't going to use:So now I've got two balls of that plus one ball of lavender yarn to plan out--no buying more yarn before the 4 projects I've got left. I mean it this time. Anyone have any thoughts for the remaining yarns? Want me to make you something out of them? No reason to feel guilty since neither cost me a dime.
To finish off this super-long post, I thought I'd throw in a picture of the Valentine's Day surprises that I forgot to post back in February: a little Valentine's bear! Isn't he cute? He's about 6 inches tall and has two brothers that were also distributed on Valentine's Day. No grad gift pictures, though. You have to wait for those--keep you in suspense. So have a wonderful second half of spring break! I probably won't update before we get back since we may not have internet in Florida (leaving Georgia on Saturday) plus I won't likely have anything to report--this shawl is not going very quickly. It's gorgeous, but slow, and I should be out in the sun anyway, just as the rest of you should =).

Cheers,
-Allie

Bella Paquita

...Is finished! Okay, so I finished it a while ago and am finally getting around to updating, but to be fair, it's been having problems since the moment I started it and I only resolved the last little hole on Monday, but here it is in all its glory:I am very pleased with the way it came out--a lovely sweater for the spring that can't decide if it wants to show up or not. Snow-rain-snow-rain--pick one already!

So despite the busy (read: intensely hectic) semester, I've still managed to find time for my favorite hobby (read: obsession). I've been working on some graduation goodies for the girls and have finished a couple of them, but you just have to wait to find out what they are ;-). I also made a pair of fingerless gloves for my Walker whose delicate hands get cold when he works at the computer.

A nice masculine way to keep his little fingers warm. I wasn't too crazy about the way the yarn feels, but the tweedy look is rather attractive, even if you can't really see it in this photo. Next up, if I make it to spring break unscathed is a pair of socks using the self-stripey yarn in glorious purple and yellow. Nothing to get excited about, but at least they're machine washable, which is something I cannot say about most of the socks I've made in the past. I'm going to change that in the future. Handwashing is no fun. Don't do it. And then after that, who knows? I'm open to suggestions as to how I might use up those last 3 balls of lilac yarn that Mary gave me =).

'Night all,

-Allie

Senior Spring: Not as cool as you'd think

So it's been a really long time since I've updated and I'm sorry about that, but there have been some minor crises and adjustments that took place in the last few weeks. Not the least of these crises was the LSAT a couple of weeks ago--just awful. I'm still awaiting the results, but I already know they're not going to be good. My relentless (and often invisible) optimism was the only thing that kept me from cancelling the scores, which in retrospect, I probably should have done. Too late now. I'll just have to deal with the shame and grief when it comes. The other major crisis was my computer crashing and the OIT people having to reinstall EVERYTHING, which means that I'm still missing a lot of data and many of my programs are either non-functional or not present. So rather than losing a best friend (on whom I greatly depended), I have to deal with one that suffered a severe blow to the head and now copes with acute amnesia. Awesome.

But now that I've got my drivers mostly reinstalled, I can at least upload pictures again and update my blog! I should also add that I've been neglecting my e-diary because of the rather intense reading workload this semester, much of which is in French. With fewer art history classes comes fewer pictures in the reading, which makes the reading longer and considerably more boring. I know that makes me sound like an elementary school student, but isn't my love of pictures why I'm taking art history in the first place? It makes sense to me anyway.

Anyway: knitting. As I mentioned, the increased reading load seriously cuts into my knitting time, so I don't have much to show for my near 4-week absence. But being the accomplished knitter/procrastinator that I am, I have managed to make some progress.

I finished both the pairs of socks that I'd been working on. I like the way Walker's turned out--he even wore them the other day! But the elasticity of the yarn leaves something to be desired, so not quite perfect socks. Yet another reason not to go back to that shady yarn store in Adams. I don't really like mine, though. They look nice there, but they kinda look stupid on my feet. Could be something to do with the Walmart yarn, could have something to do with the pattern. Either way, I'll probably be donating them unless someone really takes a fancy to them.I also have been working hard on the Bella Paquita sweater with the yarn that Mary gave me. I started it a few weeks ago, but didn't read the instructions clearly enough and started it from the wrong direction. So I got about halfway through the thing before I realized that it was all wrong and I had to take it apart and start over. Now I have about half a sweater worked in the correct direction and should be finished with it pretty soon, especially since the correct first half was the harder half and the rest should flow fairly easily--just some K2, P2 ribbing. All that will be left once I finish that (which I should be able to accomplish during the ridiculously long screening of Les Miserables this week) is to adjust the neckline lace to it sits right. Woohoo! I'm really excited--this one's going to be pretty.

And now to bed, so I can punish myself with more pictureless reading in the morning.

Cheers,

-Allie