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?

------
*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.