Just a little something

owl.hat
Originally uploaded by Pairaschut

On this dark and rainy day here in Boston, I thought this would be the perfect project to share. This is the owl hat (I don't have the link right now, but it's a free pattern out there on the internet). Can you see the owls? They are cute little owls made from cables. I'm imagining the owls out it the deep dark woods trying to stay warm and dry on today.

I dressed the hat up with a little artistic moon - made by weaving some light green and off white yarns together. And finally, the self-striping yarn is Jasper by Berroco.

The yarn was given to me by Nicole, and I gifted this hat to one of my good friends Emily. Emily's working in Africa right now and was looking for a hat to keep her noggin cozy. It's one big circle of giving!

Another note about Emily - I was snow-shoeing with her in Vermont a couple of years ago when she said something to the tune of "I love the winter foliage", which made me think ~ knitted items are foliage we wear in winter. And the blog was named...

Racing Stripes

We had one jam-packed weekend. Yesterday was spent wandering {while wondering} around Boston eating, shopping, and enjoying the cool fall weather. The eating included a hearty lunch at Bouchee, a delicious French cafe that we stumbled upon on Newbury St. If you're looking for a recommendation, try the trout*


And I love the city for shots like this ~ an alley of fire escapes and beyond it just a glimpse of a church in the sun.


Today was spent in Portsmouth, NH, where C competed in the Portsmouth Criterium and won first place in his category! I love being a spectator at all of his races, it's fun to see all of the action and spend some time outside wandering {while wondering} around with my camera. Today the weather was beautiful, the races were exciting, and we got to visit a great New England town.

Here's a shot of him crossing the finish line::


The town was full of different shops, art, and cafes.




One of my professors gave a list of restaurants. Unfortunately we didn't hit up any of the recommendations, but we did stop into a cafe called Popovers for an afternoon coffee and - wait for it - popovers. The popovers were fantastic and inspired me to try making some very soon.

As I mentioned, I finished the van curtains. I covered the original curtains with a combination of two different batiked designs. We used the orange fabric for the inside of the van and the purple fabric for the outside.


I was running low on the orange fabric, so we added a racing stripe to the long curtain that covers one side of the van.{the curtains are wrinkled, but the stripe is really nice and straight!}

Between races and other fun, I started a few secret knitting projects ~ glimpses will come this week*

Lists

I saw my advisor in the hall last week, he's kind, in a tough love sort of way. Anyway, he could tell that I was stressed about my exams and said that I just have to keep doing two things to manage the stress: exercise and list making. Well, I get plenty of exercise, and lists? I write plenty of lists. Little did he know that most of my lists during my exams were about all of the things I wanted to do after the exams!

I now have my lists of christmas crafts. **If people have requests out there, now's the time to send this elf a note!

I also have lists of the fun autumn things I want to do. This lists includes lots of apples, squash, spices, and walks through the falling leaves.

I added the Writer's Almanac to my list of daily podcasts. I really love this one and usually listen to it as I drink my first cup of coffee.

I also have the lists of the great music I was listening to while studying. I listened to a lot of music through Pandora, and I can't praise it enough. If you haven't tried it out yet, just go to pandora.com type in the name of an artist or song you like and they play music they think you would like (based upon what you typed). It's very simple and provides hours of listening fun. Gillian by The Waifs is one of my new favorite songs. Here are a few lines::
Oh Gillian, you’re up with the sun
You’ve done a hundred things before half past nine
By the time most folk are up and gone
You’ll be starting on one hundred and one

There’s not enough hours in a day
To do all the things she’s just got to do
When the daylight fades and the night invades
She’s only just begun

Weary as you lay at night waiting for the sun
Planning out tomorrow now before this day is done
‘Gillian you work too hard’
But don’t you try to slow her down – she’ll tell you
‘Idleness is good for none work's how I get my fun
Idleness is good for none work's how I get things done’

The perfect song for all of the industrious, hard-working ladies I know out there.

I was up early this morning finishing the curtains for the van before a certain someone arrives for a visit. I'll post more details and pics of the curtains this weekend!

Let me be the first to say ~

It's been a while! {actually, my mom was the first to remind me that she was waiting for a new post}

Since we last met, I was crazy busy studying for and taking my comprehensive exams for my PhD. The last phase of these exams took place this morning, and I am happy to re-introduce myself as a "PhD Candidate". What's the next stage, you ask? A whole lot of research and writing of my dissertation, but we'll take that one page at a time. With these exams behind me, my crafting time just got a lot more stress free.

And while I didn't pick up the camera much while studying, there is some photographic evidence of the coffee-drinking, studying fun::

And on the knitting front ~ when I last posted, I had started my first February Baby Sweater. I love this pattern! Although, I started to worry that my first sweater was a bit small. Since I wasn't fully in love with the color, I started a second, slightly large sweater in brown::
I'm excited to find some nice cream or pink buttons to compliment the brown.

I also modified EZ's directions slightly. She suggests, in her laissez faire manner, that when you get to the sleeves you should knit them flat, then continue with the rest of the sweater and finish by seaming up the sleeves. That's fine, but it's really so easy to just get rid of the sleeve seams altogether. I put the stitches for the sleeves on hold on a piece of yarn. I then cast on the additional stitches needed and continued on with the rest of the body::When I'm done with the body, I'll go back to the sleeves, pick up all of the stitches, and knit the sleeve in the round. No seams!

In other news, I was able to make amazing progress on my Drops Cardigan.
I just have to block it and add the buttons. Anyone familiar with the original pattern will notice that I made a few modifications. I'll give you the full details soon!

Ok, now back to relaxing... with many more posts to come