Winner!

Hey Y'all!  I thought I would be in better touch over the weekend, but Christmas got in the way.  Just wanted to stop in to announce the winner of my hat giveaway.  The random number generator came up with the number 4.  The fourth comment on my blog post was:

Stephanie said...

Once upon a time I knit a scarf. It took me seven years.

Amen.  The only reason I ever get a scarf knit is because Civil Procedure is the most boring class on Earth.  I will be reaching out to Stephanie to see where I should be sending her hat.

My favorite poem was by Katie who said:

Hats don't suck out souls.
Unlike law school, they just
Keep souls (or brains) warm.

I might just have to make her a hat, too....

Happy Holidays!!

Graffiti

Reminder:  Comment on this post for a VERY good chance to win a hand-knit hat.  To clarify, you all have until Monday noon to comment, then I'm picking a winner.  Deal?

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I LOVE when knitting makes it into the mainstream media.  Graffiti is apparently a mainstream issue because earlier this year the NY Times did a piece on the "more feminine side" or graffiti.  Not so pleased that they call knitting feminine (I personally feel pretty butch in my hand-knit watchman's cap_ but whatevs.  The Torontoist did an article about "99 Problems But a Stitch Ain't One" talking about yarn bombing.  NPR did an article, too, although they call crochet a grandmas' activity.

HI've talked about yarn bombing before, but here are a few more of my favorites:

In Paris, one artist has filled sidewalk cracks with bright yarn.  More pictures here.

This one is less graffiti and more awesome:

From Living Crafts

Stairs!  I also really like the links on these metal chains.

From FlickaMag

And look at these trees!

From Knit Hacker

Can you picture these in DC?  Or how about these at the bus stops?

From

There is a fun video of subway yarn bombing:



I especially appreciate the masked yarn bombers.  This would make my MARTA experiences a little less sad.  Maybe every time my bus is late, I will spend that wasted time yarn-graffiting the bus stop.

I really need to learn how to make knitting in the shape of cracks and bus stop benches and light posts.  I am considering yarn bombing the front pillars of my apartment building.  Anyone wanna help out?

Hello There/Blog Recap

Hello IComLeavWe Folks!  Thanks for dropping by.   For all the rest of you, thanks for coming back again and again even though I know you aren't even knitters.  That's love, and I appreciate it.

Reminder:  I announced a hat give away yesterday for those of you who comment on this post.

For you newer folks, I thought it would be helpful to do a little blog recap of what's been going on:

• You can find out more about why I started this blog (and, you know, look at my beautiful picture) here.
• You can learn about what it's like to be a doula (a birth support person) here and about what I keep in my birth bag here.
• You can learn about Atlanta and law school here.
• And you can learn about knitting/wool/crafting pretty much everywhere else.  Specifically: 
• Spinning with a wheel or spindle
• Extreme Knitting and other knitting inspiration
• Dying yarn  in a kitchen sink
• Weaving and other very slow hobbies
• Sheep, sheep, and more sheep
• My latest knitting-so-I-don't-have-to-study projects
• Oh, and for info on my on-going uncomfortable relationship with squirrels, you can see here, here, here, and here.

Enjoy!

Hat Competition

I've been on a hat-making jag lately.  I've made about 10 of them this fall.  There was a blue one, a red one, a turquoise one, a green one, two gray ones, a black one, a brown one, a purple one in progress and this stripey one.

Hats are like crack with the much more pleasing side affects of warmth and fuzziness.

In honor of my hat-making obsession, I would like to offer one to you!  Leave a comment on this post saying why knitting is awesome (or why law school is lame) and I will choose one of the commentors at random to get a hand-knit hat.  If the winning entry is in poetry form (the worse the poetry, the better), they will have input on what kind of hat it is (otherwise, I get to choose, and you KNOW it will include a pom-pom).

Ok?  Go!

Truly Ambitious

I over-packed for winter break.*  And by over-packed, I mean that I put, like, five random, unmatching outfits and a sweater into my giant suitcase that was supposed to hold three weeks worth of clothing and Christmas presents. 

And then I filled the rest with yarn (can you imagine what TSA is thinking right now?  Actually, I brought two frogs on the airplane with me once when I was a kid.  And a sewing machine.  And I know for a fact that my friend Michele carries her entire Passion Party consulting kit and a collapsible pole on the airplane with her, so maybe 35 pounds of yarn isn't that big of a deal to our loyal administrators of transportation security).

Because I am a good planner.  And there are only four yarn stores in the immediate vicinity, so where would I find any yarn if there was a wool emergency?

In any case, one of the things I brought with me was the pattern and yarn for a Twenty Ten Cardigan by Veera Välimäki 

It is supposed to look like this when it is done.  Currently it looks like this:

Basically, a bunch of nothing.

I did make a swatch, but hated the fabric that the particular gauge made (first world problems....), so am trying to figure out how to make the math work with a tighter gauge.  That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen but what is holiday season without a little disaster?

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*In DC for three weeks.  I can't tell you how happy that makes me...

Prison Knitting

A couple of people sent me this article about Knitting Behind Bars, a program that teaches knitting to prison inmates.  Pretty interesting....the program attributes huge changes in behavior to knitting. 

My friend's aunt works with a group of crocheters at a Tennessee women's prison.  I just packaged up a box of yarn to send them.  Would be cool to learn about the people using my yarn (and also write a paper on the connections between knitting and the law).

V-Day (the organizers of The Vagina Monologues) did a writing project with women inmates to allow people to hear these women's stories.  They created a collection of monologue of the women's stories called "Anyone of Us."  They also created a documentary about the writing workshop called "What I Want My Word To Do To You."  Here's the trailer:



All of this is to say, I guess, that interesting things going on in prisons.

Done!

I'm done with my first semester of law school.  There was much merry-making last night.  Off to DC Friday!

The View From My Room

This is what my world looks like at the moment:

Four parts knitting : Nine parts Civil Procedure


And of course, one big part neon rainbow.

Procrastination Knitting Part II (of many, I'm sure)

I took a three and half hour exam today.  Three.  And a half.  Hours.  And it is just the first of four.

My brain is fried.  So I am making pop tarts (obviously) and continuing with my procrastination knitting.  This is what I made last night:

I'm kind of in love with it.

I started with 10 100yard balls of yarn.  It was a bit of a mess.

Most of it is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Worsted...some of it was random wool I had (probably Cascade 220) and a little bit of the white is Red Heart Pound of Love acrylic because I ran out of white wool...shhhh...you can't even tell.

I wound it all up in a big ball.

So pretty!

A really big ball.

And then knit it up on my Size 50 knitting needles.  And got this:

I quite enjoy it.  Big and squishy.   I think I would use just eight strands next time because it is pretty bulky.  But it has also inspired a new idea.  I think I might see how some fat knitting like this felts up in the washer.  Rugs, maybe?  Also going to make headbands and a matching hat.  

Soooo many options for proscrastination.

Things I Knit to Keep From Studying

D moved to Florida.  I made her a gator.  The gator's eyes are kinda cataract-y but I hope he will keep D company until I can come visit! (pattern from Anna Hrachovec's Knitting Mochimochi).

I should be putting pencil to paper doing practice contracts problems.  Instead, I knit a pencil (also from Knitting Mochimochi).  It all makes sense in my head.

My roommie wore her hat to England with her over Thanksgiving.  Yup, that would be Stone Henge in the background.

She also wore the mitts I made her to match.  My own pattern.  I stole this picture from her Facebook page.  She will probably draw a mustache on me in my sleep tonight when she finds out I used it (she does know where I live), but this picture of her communing with the ducks just cracked me up.