FO Friday: Beorn

ignore my bare feet!

It's finally done! I wove in the last of the ends last night at 10:06! We had the AC on and it was pretty cool inside, so I could actually wear it. 

The main incentive for getting it done quickly (relatively quickly- I have been working on it for nearly 4 months, on and off) was that I'm going on vacation in a few days- a week long trip to New Mexico, where it is nice and cold in the mornings and evenings so I'll be able to wear my sweater lots. There are also lots of bears around there, so if I come across one when wearing my sweater I won't have to worry about being killed. They wouldn't murder one of their own, would they? Would they?

I've already blogged about this sweater so much I don't really have anything else to say about it. So I won't ramble on, I'll just redirect you to Tami's Amis for more FO Friday posts! 

Two Bags

My best friend's birthday was on Monday, and I had to work hard (in the loosest sense of the word) to get her present done by the set time.

Can you tell what it is? You should be able to guess that it's a bag. But it's also a bag that's made to look like the 4th Doctor's scarf from Doctor Who. It's knit in Knitpicks Wool of the Andes Worsted in the colors  

Oyster Heather (cream), Jalepeno (green), Columbine (purple), Cranberry (red), and Whirlpool (blue). I used less than one ball of each. I felted it in the washing machine and added the fringe afterwards.

I believe the my friend was happy with it- she hasn't said otherwise- and though I didn't get the colors exactly right, I think it's recognizable (to die-hard Whovians, at any rate).

Onto the second bag: yesterday I took out my mom's sewing machine and played around with some material, following the instructions from a fellow Raveler. Within a couple of hours, I had a drawstring project bag which I am quite delighted with:

It is by no means mistake-free, but I'm delighted to have ventured into this area of crafting. (Not that I haven't sewn before- I did take a quilting class back in the 4th grade.) I'd like to buy a couple of fat quarters next time I'm in a fabric shop so I can make a bag whenever inspiration strikes. For the drawstrings I used some scraps of Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Dyed Cotton crocheted into a long chain. 

P.s. I finished my sweater! Pics to follow tomorrow! 

WIP Wednesday: Needles

Look how close I am to being done with my sweater! All I have left to do is seam up the sides and weave in all of the ends. Of course, that in itself is going to take hours and hours... Especially since I lost my tapestry needle yesterday. 

I have another one, of course, but it's much smaller and almost impossible to thread with super bulky wool. Which is going to make all of the ends on the bear face a complete pain to weave in! 

I've also been working on Hermione's Everyday Socks during in between moments, and they're coming along slowly but surely- I'm almost halfway done with the leg. My Beekeeper's Quilt has been suffering this month, and I've only made about five. I guess I got burned out after last month. Also, the other day I finished a bag for my friend's birthday on Monday, and I'll blog about that tomorrow (I'm keeping FO Friday free because I'm sure I'll be done with Oh My Bear! by then). 

I haven't been reading very much this week- too busy knitting! But I'm just at an exciting part of Jane Eyre, and all I have to do is pick it up and I'll be speeding along through it. 

Linking with Tami's Amis today. 

Not Another One (Star Trek)

I'm not going to say a thing about how I haven't blogged in over a week.

This evening, I watched the beginning of J.J. Abram's Star Trek for the third time, and I watched the whole thing for the first time. The first two times I attempted to watch it I somehow got bored a few minutes in. I must not have gotten all of the Spacey-Wacey references and I must not have  known that Thor was George Kirk and I must not have had the condition of watching Star Trek before I saw Into Darkness, which I only want to watch because of Sherlock.

But this time around, I sat through the entire film, and was hugely entertained by it. So entertained, in fact, that I immediately knit a yellow hexipuff and embroidered the Star Trek thing on it.

I'm not into Star Trek. My life can't take another fandom right now. But it is pretty good. (And the next one has Sherlock in it!!!)

WIPs and Books: Sockses?

I should be done with Oh My Bear! by now, but I ran out of yarn. When I was about fifty rows away from finishing both arms. Unfortunate, but nothing I can do about it but order more yarn, something I have yet to do. I should really get a move on that, since I have set the personal goal of having the sweater finished by the end of May.

Since I haven't been able to work on my sweater, I've been focusing a lot of attention on Hermione's Everyday Socks. I've now finished one sock and have started the other, though I'm only a few rounds into it.

I also picked up several J.R.R. Tolkien audio books at the library. I got these a few years ago and listened to several discs of The Fellowship of the Ring, but the discs were so badly scratched that I quickly gave up. However, I'm a ways into the first disc of The Two Towers and it's been fine so far. I also got The Hobbit (which the library must have gotten more reccently, because the discs seem in perfectly good condition) and The Return of the King. 

That's all for me today- I'm off to listen to Lord of the Rings and knit my socks! Check out Tami's Amis for more WIP Wednesday posts! 

I Feel Loved

A couple of weeks ago, Renee over at A Lazy Beauty nominated me for a Liebster Blog Award. Cool, right? Somebody actually likes my blog enough to nominate it for an award. Except, I have no chance of actually winning an award, obecause there is no award. The Liebster Blog Award seems to just be a thing that goes from one blog to the next; your unpopular blog gets nominated, and you in turn nominate a bunch of other unpopular blogs. Getting nominated is as far as it goes- so getting nominated is like winning. 

So, thank you, Renee, thank you very much for nominating me for this non-award. xoxo. (I really am being sincere, even if it seems as though I'm not.)

Also, I apologize for taking so long to actually write this post. I'm very bad at doing as I'm told. But in gratitude towards you, Renee, I'm going to finish up this post and nominate a few bloggers myself. 

Okay, now I'm supposed to abide by the following rules:

1. Thank and link back to the blogger who presented you with the award

2. List 11 random facts about yourself

3. Answer 11 random questions

4. Create 11 random questions for your nominees 

5. Present/nominate a Liebster Blog Award to more newbie bloggers 

I've already knocked off the first rule, so onto the second. 11 random facts about myself. Didn't I do this exact same thing like a week ago? But, here goes. 11 more random facts about me. sigh.


1. My four favorite TV shows are all British: Doctor Who, Merlin, Sherlock, and Robin Hood

2. My 5th favorite TV show is Spongebob Squarepants

3. I love chocolate more than almost anything in the world

4. I've read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at least eight times

5. I'm the youngest of 9 kids

6. My first knitting project was a handkerchief for my doll. It was about 2x2 inches square, and it took me at least a week  to knit

7. I didn't learn to purl until about five years after I learned to knit. 
8. I've never been out of America, or the US for that matter
9. There are only about 8 episodes of Doctor Who that I haven't seen twice

10. I was once tempted to get a pet snake. Oh, the horror!

11. I got nothing. 

Now I have to answer eleven questions...

1. What is your favorite food and where did you first eat it? Chocolate! I can't remember the first time I ate it- years and years ago.
2. What is the one thing you want to do before you die? Get rescued by a giant eagle from Middle Earth. How awesome would that be?
3. What song has a emotional value for you and why? It has to be a playlist of 3 songs that my sisters and I played constantly a couple of summers ago: Viva la Vida (Coldplay), Human (The Killers) and I'm Yours (Jason Mraz).
4. If you could talk to yourself when you were 15 what would you tell yourself? Oh, this is a good one. You see, I'm only 14, so I can't honestly answer that. But if I could see myself when I was (will be?) fifteen, I would walk up, shake my hand, and say, "It's an honor to be you."
5. What is currently the closest object to you on your right? My cat. His name is Algernon and he's completely black, except  for a little locket on his chest, and his eyes, which are yellow. 
6. The zombie apocalypse breaks out. What do you do? Scream.
7. If you could turn into an animal which one would that be and why? A cat. Probably a black cat, just cos they're cool. Or maybe a squirrel.. squirrels are pretty neat... 
8. If you could not have been named what you are named now, what would you have liked to be called? Holly. Holly is one of my favorite names ever. 
9. What do you like to do in your spare time? I usually do my school in my spare time. 
10. Do you have any weird traits? Well, I like to think that I'm the only person in the world who can write, but apart from that, no. 
11. Paper or digital? I'd love to be able to scrawl out my novels on paper, but I gotta say, I'd never get more than ten pages in. That being said, I prefer to read on paper. Both have their merits, I suppose. 

Now I have to list questions for my nominees:

1. What is your least favorite shade of pink?

2. If you could go anywhere in Time and Space, where would it be?
3. Would you rather fight a lion, tiger, or bear?

4. Sunshine or rain?

5. What's the last book you read?
6. What is your favorite Beatles song?
7. If you lived till you were 300, would you be happy or sad?
8. If you could be instantly fluent in any language other than your first, what would it be?
9. What was your favorite picture book as a child?
10. Would you rather live in a Hobbit Hole or Rivendell?
11. Are you an introvert of extrovert? 

And now for my nominees!

The Knitlit Twit- this blog makes me laugh and makes me smile with every post. It's not exactly new, but it's stilll deserving of this award. 
Teapot Musings- This blog belongs to a fellow writer, and each of her posts are entertaining, well written, and provide tons of interesting facts. 
Crafts by Sinjah- I was brought to this blog by the pattern V-stitch Fingerless Gloves, and since I started following it I looked forward eagerly to her posts. 

Thanks again, Renee! 

FO Friday: Yeah, right

I think that my Hermione's Everyday Socks are my first project to feature on two FO Friday posts without actually being anywhere near finished. (Would you like to see the other post? It mentions Robin Hood!) I'm still knitting away at them, and while they do actually look like socks now, they're still miles away from being done.

Because when I'm finished with this sock, I have to knit another one.

I'm really, really hoping and praying that I don't end up with a severe case of Second Sock Sydrome (SSS is when somebody knits one sock but then gets so bored that they fail to knit its mate). But if I do, this will be the only pair to suffer the consequences because after this, I am going to knit all of my socks Two at a Time. I'm already dreading knitting the other sock- not because it's going to be miserable knitting it, but because I've been working on this one for a month and a half and I'm only two thirds of the way done. With any luck, I'll have finished this pair of socks by August, at which point it will be too hot to wear them.

But apart from my completely rational fears of Second Sock Syndrome, I'm enjoying knitting these socks. The yarn is pretty (but next time I'm going for something brighter! they are socks, after all), and I rather like that the needles perfectly match the color.

I'll try and refrain from posting about these socks again before they're finished- I'm sure that otherwise, none of you would 'ooh' and 'ah' when I actually finished them.

WIPs and Books: IT'S GETTING THERE!

blame the bad picture on the time of day!

I just finished the hood of Oh My Bear!. Literally, I finished it about ten minutes ago. Do you guys know what this means? It means that I only have the arms left! (and the seams, and a million and one ends to weave in...)

When I finished the hood and tried the sweater on, I was the happiest person in the Universe. It just looked so awesome. Not that it's that great a  sweater- considering it's my first, it would be almost sinful for it to turn out perfectly. But it actually looked like a garment! With an actualy hood! I just felt so incredibly talented.

Of course, I except this euphoria won't last long- but I'm hoping it'll last long enough to carry me through a good portion of the arms tomorrow afternoon.

On the topic of books, I've been reading Across the Universe by Beth Revis. It's Young Adult Fiction, which I've decided really isn't my thing. I'm almost done with the book, and very few parts of it have impressed me. I'll do a full book review on it when I'm done- but don't expect me to say many good things about it.

I'm linking with Tami's Amis today.

Congratulations!!

"GAAAAAA!" screamed Dimitri suddenly. "I HATE THIS STORY WHY DID I EVEN GO ALONG WITH CASEY'S IDIOTIC PLAN?" 

um... delete that bit. 

That is an excerpt from  my book, The Pandora. The book that I finished last night at about 12:30 am. That is one of the parts that I wrote when I was particularly angry with the book and did not feel like writing it. Sometimes having your characters rant about things you are unhappy about is the best way to get over writer's block.

The book is exactly 45,360 words long- about 170 pages, in non-writer terms. Hardly more than a novella, but I don't think I'll have any problem adding another thirty or forty thousand words to it during the editing process- reading through it today, I've realized that there's a lot of information missing.

I'm proud to have finished my fourth (!) novel, even if they are all only rough drafts. And I'm not going to start any new novels until The Pandora is completely edited. Which means no Nanowrimo this November, of course...


Also, I managed to skip the last two days of KCBW- understandable, considering I was struggling to finish The Pandora- so I apologize, if you were looking forward to those posts. They'll be there next year (probably).

Excuses ( 4KCBWDAY4 )

This post is two days late. And I have an excellent excuse: Thursday was a really busy day for me. I accidently slept in late, had to rush to get ready for my class, went to class, came home, made a cake, remembered fifteen minutes too late that I was supposed to be babysitting the neighbors (thankfully Mrs Neighbor hadn't left yet), babysat for two hours (I say babysat, but mostly I just read and knit), came home, ate dinner, had my friend over to eat the aforementioned cake, and then we watched Penelope. Which is an amazing movie, by the way.

But the cake was really, really good.

So, today (or rather, Thursday) I am (or was) supposed to write about colors. What colors do I use in my knitting? What are my favorite colors?

When looking at a rainbow, all I see is color- I don't see one color that I favor.  When I think about it, I can't think of any colors that I like or dislike, except that hideous greenish-yellow color that everybody should hate.

And in my projects? I use a lot of blue, but that doesn't mean I prefer it. The only color you won't see in my projects is yellow, and that's only because I don't have any yellow yarn- I love the color yellow.

I love color, and playing with color, and creating color combinations. I love neutrals- gray in particular.

And I don't have a favorite color.