Yosemite and Lace Cardigans

The boyfriend and I went to Yosemite for a day trip.


And I made sure to take plenty of knitting pictures. About a week ago, I also finished my Whisper. Love the yarn too - Golden Glow. It's not super soft, especially for being 100% Merino, but it's soft enough for me.

I plan on blocking it this weekend. And yup, that's about it.

America's Best-Kept Secret

Lexington, Kentucky. I loved when we went in early April, and I still long to be there over a month later. When we got on the plane from O'Hare to Lexington's airport, we got into a little regional jet. Despite all the flying and traveling I have done with my family over my life, I have never had to walk outside to get on a plane before. Ever. So of course, I anticipated Kentucky would be capital of hickville. Little did I know. As we were preparing to land in Lexington, I looked out the window and saw the most picturesque view I had ever seen in my entire life. I have been to France, and I have traveled the French countryside. I have been to Aix-en-Provence. I have been to Rothenburg, Germany. I have traveled all around Austria. I have traveled much of California and Hawaii. It's not as if I have been sitting at home all these years. Lexington was the last place I figured would capture my heart. While descending into the town, I could see little white houses with white picket fences (electronic devices weren't allowed at the time or I definitely would have taken pictures). If anywhere, the American dream lives here.

But yes, all places have faults. Lexington's one fault (and this applies for much of Kentucky, I assume) is horses, horses, and OMGHORSES. Everywhere we went, we were bombarded by horse pictures, horse paintings, horse statuettes, the works. Other than the horses though, I'm pretty sure this place is perfect.

And that's not even a fourth of the pictures I took, most of them more beautiful and charming than the posted ones. What gets me is that no one is on the streets. I envisioned one of Kentucky's largest cities to be bustling at least, but it's quiet (but not eerily quiet). It's like no one knows this little gem exists.

(And surprisingly, very few Lexingtonians have accents.)

Good Morning from Kentucky

The view is wonderful. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the Internet on an actual computer so I will upload pictures whenever I can. It's nice in kentucky, despite the local obsession with horses.

Just another update

Stitches West '10! I'm sure that's been dominating knitting blogs over here on the west coast. I picked out two items:

I wanted a bag like this at Stitches West '09 but Mom didn't let me get one. This time, I made sure I got one (plus I was with a family friend instead)

Exclusive Lorna's Laces colorway! Only available from jimmybeanswool.com. Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, colorway Peppermint Mocha.

Lately, the boyfriend has been proving how useful he is.

Love these colors! The red and off-white are Buckingham, with 80% Baby Alpaca, 20% Silk, ready to be knit into a Selbu Modern. The aubergine is Berroco's Lustra, which is 50% Peruvian Wool and 50% Tencel. I believe these were for our eight-month.


I highly recommend ProFlowers. This was sitting on my doorstep upside-down for 12 hours but they were so carefully packaged that it didn't even show. I came home to these after a hectic band trip. Needless to say, they made my day.

He made this just for me. He worked for about two hours and came back with this all done.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! I'm going to get presents later, when everything is on sale. For now, this is what I've been up to:

My friend went to Short Course Nationals for swimming, so I made these for her to congratulate her. I'm kind of into the baking thing nowadays, so I made some marshmallow fondant as an experiment and covered six cupcakes with it. As far as I'm concerned, they turned out pretty well for not having a circle and not having a proper rolling pin.

Made for my French teacher, who wrote some of my letters of recommendation. My anatomy teacher will probably get chocolate chip cookies because I don't normally knit for men I don't love.

I have plans for making an ugly Christmas sweater before next Christmas using this chart on this pattern and a bright, gaudy green torso with red sleeves. I'm pretty excited.

Happy holidays to all!

Time

Yesterday was my birthday! My parents are the best; they gave me $100 and told me to "go spend it." So what did I buy?


Love them! And of course, people gave me yarn! Two of the French V girls went shopping together and bought me these (plus smelly stuff [lotion and body mist!] but it's irrelevant):


Jiffy and Fun Fur. They're new at knitting themselves, so Jiffy and Fun Fur are the best things since sliced bread. I was thinking about making a hat out of purple with a Fun Fur pompom so they could see what their present turned out to be, but then thought that maybe I could make a yellow hat (out of the Jiffy I used for that yellow afghan) with a purple pompom. I don't think I'd have enough for a purple pompom on a yellow hat and a purple hat, but we'll see.

Oh, and I also got this little piddly gift from the boyfriend:


So I pretty much love him. :) Left to right: Lover's Leap (how perfect), Sapphire, & Hoofle Floofle

Progress on the lace shawl for my French teacher, also a knitter (and with whom I am going to Stitches West 2010), who is doing my recommendation letters for college.


Stitch marker my swap partner in Color Swap 5 gave me. I love it sooo much.

And that's about it. The only thing on my wishlist now is more time to knit.

CS5 Package

The Box.

Hmm... what color could it possibly be?

Yellow! My favorite!

Beautiful stitch markers handcrafted by my swap partner.

Here's a llama, there's a llama, and another little llama...

Goodies! I was in need of another tape measure, and I had recently run out of chapstick. When I opened it, I wondered aloud, "How did she know?" Plus I love gum, so hooray!

Mug! Perfect for photographing little amigurumi fruits peeking out over the edge.

Another "How did she know?" moment. I have been needing a headband when I go biking in the slightly nippy evenings but never got around to making one; this is perfect!

Butterflies! Too cute. Plus a pen (and I loooove pens).

Yarnyarnyarn. Lorna's Laces fingering & Frog Tree (100% alpaca!) sportweight.

Everything! So wonderful.

Taken just for fun.

Opening this felt too good to be true. It was so wonderful receiving this. Off to go post these pictures on the CS5 forum!