My love affair. Sorry Nicole.

Wow. I was just trying to open something that was being difficult, and I was thinking, "Wow. I sure wish I had something small, sharp, and pointy to open this."

Um. Duh.

-----

It turns out that I'm in love.

Shocked? Me too.

I love... the Clapotis scarf. I do.

I love the perfect stitches. I love the way I get so excited when I get to a drop-stitch row.

I love the color. I love the way every time I look down, it has grown a little. Oh, it is love.

Every once and a while, I will just pull it back and look at it. It's just so perfect in every way, it could be my firstborn.

I'm having my own little Clapotis love affair. And boy does it feel good. It turns out that Clapotis is the new black. I'm just saying...

I'm only 30% done with it. But it's so lovely. I could knit it all day...

-----------

And last of all, I took a better picture of the yarn I dyed. It looks a lot more true to the color in this one.

I'm (not) a real scarf!

I have chosen a project that is Not A Scarf or sock for this week. It's called Clapotis.

I like it so far. I like it a lot. However, it's taking a while. Don't look at me like that, of course I know it will take a while. But I've been all instant-gratification for the last few weeks. Socks have been my thang, and now it's clapotis. Which, when said in the American way (without frenchifying it) sounds a lot funnier.

I've spent the weekend on the couch watching the Mythbusters marathon and knitting this. I've only done 100 rows or so, but it seems like so much more!

The yarn is Dream in Color Baby, the flavor Blue Lagoon.

I dyed more yarn this weekend! I love the way this turned out. It's so lovely. Who will receive these socks? Who knows....

Game day!

It's game day here on my blog! What game, you ask?

It's "Let's see what's in my bed!" game!

There's a ryhme to the color reason. Green = Knitting-related. Red = Not

1) Cute Kathy Van Zeeland purse I got for my birthday! ( I do love my Kathy bags!)

2) Cooper the Longhorn. He has a cute little UT football jersey on!

3) Vitamin Water. Yum...

4) Impulsive Cashmere knitting. Mmm...

5) Socks waiting to be grafted.

6) Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's new book Things I Learned From Knitting, Whether I Wanted To or Not

7) Laptop

8) The world's softest blanket ever. (Ever, I say!)

9) UT sweatshirt.

10) Clapotis.

11) Wallet

12) Knitting pencil case (where all my DPNs and stuff go.)

13) Hank waiting to be balled.

14) Yarn already balled.

15) Some asthma brochure.

There yall have it! There is more stuff hiding under the blanket, but I'd say fifteen objects is enough for one bed. Isn't it nice it's only me who sleeps in my bed?

Well, except for last weekend when I managed to squeeze myself, Brandlyn and Randi into my bed. That took some coordinating.

I'm going to go to bed. I would go harass my mother (Who just got home mind you. It's definately 1am, Mother...) but I'm too tired and want to sleep.

Muggles

...So I was looking at yarn and patterns a few minutes ago, and I stumbled upon a list of acronyms that float around the Knitterly (and Crochet...ly) World. I felt like sharing some of them with you all, because frankly, they're hilarious.

frog To rip back (for the sound “rip it, rip it”) by removing the needles from the project and pulling on the loose end of the yarn; also applies to crochet
frog pond a storage place for knitted and crocheted things waiting to be frogged
muggle non-knitter (The Harry Potter fan in me loves this.)
NAYY No Affiliation, Yadda Yadda
PIGS Projects In Grocery Sacks
SEX Stash Enhancement eXperience = buying yarn
Skank funny way of saying skein of yarn
TOAD Trashed Object Abandoned in Disgust
UFO UnFinished Object (usually a WIP [work in progress] that has been abandoned or neglected)

And those were the funniest ones I could pull out for you muggles.

Perhaps I can start talking knitting lingo to yall and you would understand? (No? Can you TOAD a blog reader for not agreeing with you?)

( :) )

Awww

I was doing so well at writing my paper.

And then I had to stand up.

That was all it took to break my concentration.

Oh, and the blog helped break my concentration.

And iTunes, which is still being dumb. (Grr)

And I was hungry. So I made a smoothie.

You were right mother. Again.

Sigh.

P.S. I saw Atonement and wanted to cry at the end, even though I did know what happened. It's terribly awkward to be writing a comparison paper on the three most critical scenes in the movie and in the book when one of them happens to be the sex scene. How do I find a way to lightly phrase, "They were having sex against the wall when a thirteen year old walks in... "

Yeah, I got nuthin'.

(I'll think of something.)

Beep, leave a message.

Hi, this is Stefanie's dish.

Her blog can't come to the phone right now. Because she ran away with the spoon. My spoon! Can you believe that selfish beeyotch?! I was all set to run away with the spoon and BAM. In butts her blog. It turns out that spoons and blogs go way back. Especially her blog and my spoon. Ugh. This is so unfair. I mean, I get thousands of channels! ("No, honey, that's a satellite dish") Oh shut up, Fork, we all look the same. And stop making those faces at me! Alright, I'm sparkly clean. How could the spoon resist? I went through the rinse cycle for him. Let me tell you, the rinse cycle is always the worst. Freezing cold water. Oh, you think it's warm because when you open your dishwater and steam comes out? It's only warm because your steak knives are steaming up the place with their "Oh, I am so sexy, look at my serrated edges" talk to the butter knife! And let me tell you, the butter knife is such a sl-

To page this person, press 1 now. At the tone, please record your voice message.

Lil update

I am SO HUNGRY I CANNOT SLEEP.

Skipping dinner to knit = not a good idea. Must remember this for college...

I suppose I should go eat a yogurt or something...

(Don't know what the point of blogging this was. Perhaps I thought that if I put it down, the hunger would go away...)

Ooh, whatsthat?! Easter chocolate!

Screw the yogurt.

Night all.

I love me the spring

It makes me happy to see the signs of spring.

Let me tell you, springtime in Texas is weird. It lasts about 60 seconds. Try to get out during your lunch break to enjoy it. And it's a weird combination of fall, winter, and summer all at once.

It's one of those times of the year when the weather truly is unpredictable. Yesterday it started off sunny and 75 degrees, but by 7pm it was 62. Today it's been a steady 70. I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow was 80 at least.

The thousands of live oak trees all shed their leaves in the spring. Which means that for a good two weeks your chance of being pegged by a hard, dead leaf is upped by about 75%. This also applies to the little blue berries on the cedar trees. I can't tell you how many times I've been hit by one of those in the last week.

But even after Mother Nature's attempt at eliminating all of the lazy Second Semester Seniors who are lying down on the table at lunch (and thus offering a larger surface area at which to aim), I finally see signs of spring.

I love this tree outside my window. Not a very good escape tree (for all those wild nights, right?) but a lovely tree.

And now it's a lovely tree with little worm-noodle-things.

Easter!!

Happy Easter, guys! Here are a few laughs for you.

To dye for... Part 2

After that, I prepared my dyes and let the yarn drain for a bit. I put saran wrap on our kitchen table. And then I put more saran wrap on the table. (My mother would kill me if I dyed the table!)

And after I did that I started applying the dye. Look! It's all pretty, after its dyed.

I folded up the whole thing into a ring of saran wrap. And then I added more. And then a little bit more... And then I (finally) stuck it in the microwave to 'heat set' the dye. While it microwaved, I even cleaned the table.

See Mom? See how clean and not dyed it is? Here in the instructions, it said "let it sit for a few hours" and so I did: I went to work.

When I came home it was all cool and ready for me to rinse out! So I rinsed it out in the sink (my friends were complaining about how much it stunk, and it rather did. Vinegar and wool don't mix very well.

And I hung it up in the downstairs shower (That nobody uses. I don't know why it even exists. It's in the bathroom off of the kitchen. Why?) and let it dry over night.

And then I wound it into a ball and voila! Yarn!!

Isn't it gorgeous?!

I need to name the colors. I don't know what though. Any suggestions?

To Dye for.... Part 1

Dumb blogger won't let me post more than a certain amount of photos in one blog post. So this post will be in 2 (or three?) parts.

--------

Okay, so yesterday I didn't have school. So I decided to take the day and make it useful. So I got up around 10:30 and moseyed on downstairs to get me a glass of milk and start figuring this thing out. So here's what I started out with: a naturally colored hank of The Unique Sheep's Sushi Socks, which I absolutely love. And 3 dye colors: (a very dark) Green, Blue, and Turquoise.

So I was looking at this, and going, "Hmm... I think I want a longer hank, I can spread the yarn out a lot more that way and get more of a pattern into it."

Famous last words?

Most likely.

I stuck two chairs together and started winding.

Um... That went a little-lot awry.

I, frustrated, left to go meet a friend for lunch.

When I came back, the Yarn Fairy hadn't come to visit and finish the job for me, so I gritted my teeth and started again. Except this time, I added another chair to the mix and that actually helped. I ended up winding the rest into a ball and then walked around the original two chairs. Sounds complicated, but in reality, it's just dizzying. I walked in circles for a good 10 minutes.

So after that, I tied the yarn together in several places and stuck it into a bowl with warm water and vinegar and turned on the TLC for half an hour.

Socks! Socks! Socks!

Hello all!!

Not much time to blog (I have to go to rehearsal in a bit) so I figured I would just let you guys have a peek at my sock progress.

The Breeze socks are finished!

Look at them. Aren't they beautiful? (Hmm.. I look deceptively tan in the picture above. I assure you, it's not true. ;) )

And lookit at what I'm doing now!

It's just a simple 3x1 ribbing pattern that is just breezing by. I've stared to work the heel, and I'll have these done in no time. Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, the flavor is Jeans. Cheap, only $11.

More soon, my lovelies!

Everything that I've been meaning to say...

Okay. So I just got out of the shower, and my mind is all organized for this new blog post. It's all the stuff that I've been meaning to say over the last week, but haven't had the time (or I forgot) to blog about.

One: Check out the new banner. I made it tonight, and it's cute. I love the green sheep! (If you're seeing this in your email, click on the title link on top and it'll take you to the web and you'll see it.)

Two: Mom's socks. Thanks for standing in first position, Mom. I know you were a [volleyball/basketball/soccer/lacrosse/erhm...yoga?] jock in high school, and I appreciate you dabbling into ballet for the sake of my blog.

Three: Check it out. No Second Sock Syndrome for me!

Four: New yarn! LOVE THIS NEW YARN...

Five: I joined Ravelry, and am attempting to catalogue my stash... This could take a while. Basically it entails photographing every ball of yarn I own and putting it on my page. This website is basically the Ultimate for Knitters and Crocheters (Or, as Brandy and I like to put it "Ho's and Hookers") where you can list current projects, desired projects, yarn stash, needles, books, join groups, buy yarn, buy patterns... Just about everything of the yarny persuasion.

Six: I bought a prom dress!!

Seven: Hey look! It's that hairbrush!

Phew. I think that just about does it.

Excuse my shock

My friend once asked to borrow my hairbrush.

"This is a Mason Pearson, Stefanie!"

"Um, yes,"

"I read that this is one of the best hairbrushes ever. I saw it in a magazine once."

"Well cool. I love it."

So several years later (ie tonight) I remembered this conversation. I don't know why, but I did. I went online to see prices for the brush.

http://www.drugstore.com/products/prod.asp?pid=56272&catid=108586&brand=17768&trx=GFI-0-MBS&trxp1=108586&trxp2=56272&trxp3=2&trxp4=2

Um...

Mom?

Dad?

I love you!

No wonder you got so pissed off at me the year I left my brush at camp.

Hop on the Bandwagon

Okay, so me being me, I'm always a little late to hop onto the bandwagon. "The Bandwagon" here can represent just about anything. I'm never first in line (although I'm never late) and I'm always wary about stuff until absolutely everyone is raving about it.

The most recent bandwagon I'm hopping on is music-related. The Nine Inch Nails.

I read a book once (oh if I had a nickle for every time I said that...) where the main character would blare Nine Inch Nails from their speakers. And I dunno, that sparked my curiosity. And then I saw a trailer for the movie 300 that had one of their songs and loved it. So I'm downloading their most recent album.

Now, I know what you're saying. You're looking at me through your little computer window and going "STEFANIE! DOWNLOADING MUSIC IS ILLEGAL! SHAME ON YOU!!"

But know what? The strangest thing occurred while I was looking at the webpage:

"Hello from Nine Inch Nails... Now that we're no longer constrained by a record label, we've decided to personally upload Ghosts I, ...to various torrent sites, because we believe BitTorrent is a revolutionary digital distribution method, and we believe in finding ways to utilize new technologies instead of fighting them. We encourage you to share the music of Ghosts I with your friends, post it on your website, play it on your podcast, use it for video projects, etc. It's licensed for all non-commercial use under Creative Commons."

Huh. I have permission to download, rip, share, and burn this for all of my friends.

Well cool.

Thanks, Nine Inch Nails. I will certainly do so.

Or at least stick it in my car and share it with the world through my very loud speakers that way.

Oh, and in other music news, I learned that the artist Duncan Sheik and I share the same birthday. I knew there was something to that guy... ;)

An actual conversation

Meet Topher. He's a Chihuahua. He's also a tiny little ball of adorable energy. He also has a very large bark for a very small dog.

(This is a conversation (well, um, mostly one way) between myself, my chihuahua (Topher), and one of my labradors (Choco).)

11:45 pm:


Me: "Come on, Topher. It's time to go outside and go pee."

Topher: "Rrrrwooof!" scampers toward door.

Me: "Good boy, Topher. Go outside!"

Topher: scampers outside door with Choco.

Me: goes and gets ice water in kitchen. Passes past door and sees Topher giving the 'Let me back in! It's mildly cold out here and my little Chihuahua body can't handle 70 degrees fahrenheit!' Opens door and steps outside.

Topher: "Woof!"

Me: "Topher, you need to go pee. You too, Choco."

Topher: Scratches right ear.

Me: "Now is not time to scratch. It's time to pee. I'm tired and I want to go to bed."

Topher: Scratches left ear.

Me: "Oh, so now your other side itches. Go pee! Go play with Choco!"

Choco: Lumbers out to pee in the grass.

Me: "Oh look at Choco. She's being a good girl and going pee. Go over there and pee, you dumb Chihuahua."

Topher: Rolls over and shows me his belly.

Me: "No! I am not going to tickle you. Go over into the grass and do your business!"

Choco: Looks mildly interested in something out on the street and growls a bit.

Topher: "RRRWOOFWOOFYIPYIPRRRRR!" Scampers to go scare off which is likely a lizard or squirrel.

Me: "Ugh..." Retreats into house.

Spring Break! Wooo!!

So, my mom's on a business trip. And it's spring break... Not the best planning on her part. ;) (Love you, Mom!) So what do I, a legal adult of the age of 18 do? Throw a party? Go hit the black market and buy someone's kidney? Go tattoo and pierce every visible inch of my body?

Naw. I'll knit a pair of socks.

(Oh man, I am so lame. I'll add that to my list of why I am a nerd.)

Anyway, so I did knit a sock yesterday, and it is the CUTEST THING EVERRRR.

Check it out.

Ankle sock. The pattern is Breeze and the yarn is The Unique Sheep's Sushi Socks (the flavor is Morning Glory.)

I have this obscene amount of that yarn left over after making those socks for my mom (Who I will photograph later, for her absence makes it a little difficult to photograph her wearing them.)

So I decided to make myself some socks too, because the yarn is just too good to waste. So I sat down and made them in one day. Okay, so I started at 4pm and knitted until 1:30am. So sue me! It's spring break.

It's a really easy pattern to get used to and I can't wait to knit the next one. I would do that today, but I think I might be a little woozy from all of that knitting yesterday. ;)

I was curious about how much yarn that they took. So I weighed the finished sock on our kitchen scale, and it weighed 20g. Then I weighed the remaining ball of yarn. 20g! Turns out that I'm a genious. :) I just have to be very careful in how I make the second sock, else I will have a sock with no toe. ;)

That's all for me today. I need to go eat something for breakfast/lunch/dinner. I kind of slept till noon and then I read a book for two hours. It's 4pm and I haven't eaten anything yet.

Turns out it's genetic

Apparently I fall asleep in front of cameras too.

(Look at me! I'm adorable.)

I am a MACHINE.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Every time I try and post, I get distracted. Like yesterday, when one of Duncan's friends came into my room and started chatting withe me, and then all of a sudden it was 3:30 and we were both falling asleep (and still talking.)

Anyway, so when Damon (aforementioned friend of my brother) came in, he saw my bamboo hat and was like, "Can you make me a hat?"

And of course, my response was, "Pssh. Can I make you a hat. Of course I can make you a hat!"

(Why on earth do I have to say things like that? They tend to catch up with me.)

So we chose a pretty red that went with his skin tone and hair (yes, seriously. That was a factor.) and I cast on and knit about 3 inches. And then he asked something. (This is where the phrase "tend to catch up with me" comes into effect.)

"So can you have this done by the time I leave?"

"Um, when are you going to leave?"

"Monday morning, probably."

(This is happening Saturday night. By the way.)

Urrrrgh. Hell no! That's so much knitting in one day! My fingers will fall off. "Yeah, I think I'll be done then."

So Damon came back into my room around 11 or so tonight and was like, "I'll sit with you while you knit my hat!" And so I started knitting. And knitting. And knitting. And 2 hours later, he became the proud owner of a pretty (slightly too big) hat.

Did I mention that I was a machine? 'Cause I am. A rocking, wonderful, super knitting MACHINE.

SNOWWWW!!!

Today will be posted in two parts.

Literally posted in two parts.

Part 1: SNOWWWW!!!!!

Last night (almost immediately after posting the picture of mom being asleep, -snicker- we left the hotel to go eat at Carino's and to my delight, it was SNOWING!! So, because pictures totally suck to portray the pure awesomeness that snow brings into my Texas-heated life, another video seems in order.

Oh, and as an update

Mom fell asleep again while we watched TV.

Yesterday I mentioned that I took a picture while she was asleep and she scowled at me. So now I have to take another picture of her sleeping.

You brought this upon yourself, mother. ;)

(But I love you.)

CRT, Texas Style : Day Two

It's March 2nd. It should be summer now! Except that today, this is not true.

Today was SO COLD. Yesterday I was fine in a tshirt, and on occasion (mostly while I was somewhere with air conditioning) a hoodie sweater. It was a balmy 75 degrees, as it should be in March. Today, however, they were forecasting SNOW.

SNOW.

(Well, "snow" because basically anything that isn't rain is classified as such here in Texas. It could be sleet, but to us, it's snow.)

Anyway, so we visited Texas Christian University today. I have to say, I am a very confused girl. Because now I have two really good schools (both of which I have already been offered admission to) and now I have to figure out which one will work better for me. And tomorrow I'm visiting another really good school that I have a feeling will be just as wonderful. And what do I, a very confused senior gal do?

I don't know yet. Maybe cry. Probably fret a bit. Maybe run around like a headless chicken. It depends on what strikes my fancy at the time.

Overall, TCU is a great school. I would fit in perfectly and seamlessly into their curriculum, into their culture, and into their lovely purple school color. I look good in purple. ;)

Here are some pictures of the campus that I took. It's beautiful. However, the Texas weather is not as beautiful.
(That's a lovely dorm. Suite style, too.)
(Look, a football stadium!)
(Everywhere there is this lovely colored brick. EVERYWHERE.) (Look! Mom carrying all of our crap! And Duncan's back.)
(The Horned Frog, the mascot. Apparently students rub the nose for good luck.)

So after we left TCU we drove for about an hour and a half to Sherman, Texas. On the way, we passed Dallas and Duncan and I had a fun time figuring out what "HOV" stood for in the HOV Lane.

Here are some of the better ones:

"Hos on Vheels" (Think German accent.)

"Hotties only vehicle."

"Hobbits only vehicle."

And it went on and on. (Turns out that it's "High occupancy vehical." Whoda thunk?)

So we drive and drive and drive a bit more until we finally come to our hotel. And guess what is standing right outside of our hotel.

Why an oil well pump-y thing. (I took a video of it for yall.)

If you can't understand me because of the wind (I don't blame you. It was DAMN windy. And FREEZING.) here's what I said: "I don't understand why this is so cool, but it is. ...Up and down, and up and down... Only here would there be a hotel and an oil well."

So yeah. That's my day. I'll take more pictures for yall tomorrow and let you know how that goes.

College Road Trip... Texas Style

Tomorrow and tuesday I'm going to do some college visits. This is fabulous, because it gives me plenty of time to knit on the road.

As evidenced by this sock: (Do you see the pretty heel I turned in the car?)


So we drove a long time today. I think we left home at 10:40am and then we got to Waco (where we toured the Dr. Pepper museum!! Duncan was in heaven.) around 12:30. We left the museum at 2:00 and got to our hotel in Fort Worth around 4:00 or so. And we've just been chilling in our room.

Duncan is crazy, and brought his desktop computer with him. He is happily playing games right now.

Mom promptly turned on the TV, (A badass HDTV.)


And then promptly fell asleep.


And I knitted a bit more and decided to blog. Tonight we're going to go see a movie. I'll let you know how that goes. Tomorrow we start our college trip with Texas Christian University. I'll take pictures and let you know about that tomorrow. I hope I have internet in the hotel tomorrow...

Here are two more pictures of our really nice room. Everything is very modern, and I like it.