busy bee

we had a good christmas here, even though it wasn't white. it was nice and quiet with good food, good wine and good times. we watched movies and relaxed. we ate our big dinner on christmas eve and then just relaxed on christmas day. here i am playing with patty and her george w. toy in front of the live christmas tree. the bf surprised me with this on christmas eve morning. how cool!


on the night of the 25th, we dyed some yarn. here are some pictures of the results:

i took a skein of knitpicks merino fingering weight (as pictured on the left) and dyed it seafoam green. it's hard to see the true color in the picture, but the color is slightly varied due to the dying process. i like it. we used acid dye from dharma trading company. they have great dyes and great instructions for first timers.



this next picture is of some plain cotton yarn that we dyed, again, using acid dye from dharma. you don't use vinegar to set the dye for cotton material. i had already knit these washclothes and we dropped them in the dyepot as is and they turned out great.

well, i'm almost done with the top-down raglan. i am just finishing the collar. after that i want to start projects using my christmas present yarn. i got some austermann step that i am going to make some socks out of and i got a ton of swish. i think i will either knit ariann or the sienna cardigan from the fall 2006 interweave knits.

mr. messy

i really enjoyed reading this new york times article this morning. i can relate to the messy work space, both my desk at school and my work space at home contain many piles. this article, in a way, made me feel like i could embrace my piles and that i shouldn't be so ashamed of the clutter. organization is overrated.

on another note, but surely, not too unrelated (especially after reading this post), let me introduce patty, our dog.

here she is. this photo was probably taken within the last few months. we think she is an australian cattle dog, at least, that is what the SPCA said. she certainly seems to have certain traits of the breed, including a single mask (the black patch covering her right eye... sounds like she's a pirate). she also seems to have merle markings on her fur. regardless, we love her.

the first post

after reading countless blogs, especially knitting blogs, i have finally decided to create my own.

here you will find semi-regular rants about my knitting and my life as a grad student. hopefully the rants will be funny and not just full of bitching and moaning.

here the first photo of one of my works in progress. it's a top-down raglan. i'm using this pattern. i'm also using some encore worsted weight yarn. i know that it's not a luxurious yarn, but it's easy to care for and not a big investment. it's been sitting in my stash for a while.


the other work in progress are some gloves for the bf. i found a bag of cheap synthetic yarn at a thirftstore in tucson (it was $1 for countless balls) and i'm using that. it's for biking and he lost his other pair. i'm using this pattern as my inspiration. here's a photo


that's it for now. i need to get back to school work. i know that school is out, but as a grad student school is never out.