Goodbye, 2011. Helloooo, 2012.

Out with the old year, and in with the new ^_^

Unfortunately, I’m bringing in my new year with feeling rather icky with some strange stomach bug. Or something. I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s not cool.

So, I’ll be like everyone else and say how fast the year went by. It feels like it was just January. Which, obviously, it wasn’t. It was 11 months ago. Almost 12, haha.

Things happened, things changed, things were learned. Soooo many good things happened. Though, not to say that nothing bad happened to me this year. Lots of bad stuff happened, but that’s just… part of life, haha. But the good stuff does definitely out-weigh the bad stuff, which is definitely a happy fact ^_^

I met so many awesome people this year, it’s not even funny. People, that I hope to be friends with for a loooong time (“If you stumble, just make it part of the dance” :-P) I became better friends with people that I already knew. (“Poor Bob… Poor poor Bob.” *dies*)

So some of the big highlights of the year… Let me think…

Well, in February, I officially became an adult, haha. That’s…important, haha. I also became addicted to Doctor Who. Extremely addicted… as you all well know, haha :-P
April, Emily and Sam came for the ball. And that was more than extremely epicly awesome. (yessss, for LY words, haha)
May, I got my hair cut. It went from the middle of my back to being a little longer than ear length.
June, so began our world travels, where we spent… 3 weeks visiting Ireland, Scotland, London, Paris, Rome, Florence, Bath, and Oxford (yes, we went to *all* of those places. In 3 weeks. And we didn’t die)
July, this was our mini resting month. At the end of July, Joey and I headed to Manitou, Colorado for 2 weeks for Summit
August, this also includes Summit. And at the end, the Ballingers came to play for a dance practice. Woot woot, Prairie Fire! And that visit, no words. No words. It was amazing ^_^
September, I began my UFO bin workage, haha. Finished I think… 2 sweaters that had been languishing for forever. I also began my Christmas knitting
October, I took an online photography class, which was amazingly awesome. I learned a ton.
November, this was a busy month. I saw Owl City in concert. I yarn bombed for the first time. Finished a sweater in 19 days. And made my best and most favorite FO yet. Thanksgiving happened, my sister-in-law graduated PA school, Annnnd. I think that’s it, haha.
December, the Ballingers came to visit again! (eeeeee, so happy ^_^) to play for our winter ball. Which was so amazingly awesomeeee. My Christmas ballet recitals happened. It was awesome. Annnd Christmas happened.

And here we are, December 30, 2011. Haha, writing all that stuff down, I had fun remembering all of it.. looking up stuff, looking at old pictures. So happy :-P

So what do I plan to do in 2012? Well, first off.. I really hope I do what I want to do, haha. That I actually finish some things that have either gotten started recently, or have been started for a very very long time.

I plan to:
1) finish the various blankets I have going. Such as the Mitered Cross Blanket, the Granny Square Blanket, and a blanket that… was supposed to be a birthday present 2 years ago. (yes, I do know that’s a horribly sad thing to say, haha)

2) get my license. If it kills me. Which the traffic here, since it *is* insane, haha, could do.

3) finish almost everything in that UFO bin. And use up the stash yarn I’ve saved up.

4) Spin. a ton. and knit with it.

5) Have fun times with my friends. It’ll be awesome.

6) Graduate. This is important, haha.

7) and most importantly glorify God in everything that I do.

and a bunch of other stuff that either I have no idea will happen, or I do know will happen, I just don’t know.. a lot about it, haha.

Anyways, dear readers, I hope you’ve had the best 2011, and I hope that 2012 will be even better for you :-) Thanks for sticking with me through 2011!

Now, lets go knit and watch some Doctor Who ^_^

Mitered Cross Blanket, commence!

We went to the yarn store yesterday. We actually found a new one…though, no yarn store could ever replace Yarntopia, that’ll always be our favorite.

It’s called Knitting In the Loop, and it’s a total blast. It’s in this old house (which just makes me happy, haha) the selection is amazing (holy cow, they had an entire bookshelf full of Silk Garden and Kureyon… which is Noro, just btw, haha)

This was our second time going…so I had already explored their collection of Noro, and I had major droolage going on.. their colors, holy cow, they were amazing.

When we left the first time.. I already had something in mind for all that Noro ^_^ Which is bad of me, because really… I still have a lot of work left in that UFO bin. But I’m working on it. I’ll figure out some way to justify it, haha.

So… second time we go back. I kinda get some Noro. I kinda get a lot of Noro. Which makes me really really happy, haha. But I got enough to make a Mitered Cross Blanket, which was designed for earthquake/tsunami relief for Japan back in April. The pattern was (and still is, haha) 5.00$, and all the proceeds went to help the Mercy Crops help the Japanese. As of October 31, 2011 they had raised 18,000$. Their goal was just to reach 15,000$. It’s so cool to see how many people helped… just by buying a single pattern :-)

So I started it yesterday afternoon, and it’s sooo easy. Well, the first block was easy, then joining up and trying to get the lines to all point in the right direction, that was a bit tricky, and so my square looks really really… wonky, haha. Oh well, it adds character. Hopefully I’ll figure it out.

But I love the colors I picked out… I picked out two different colors… and actually one is a Silk Garden and one is a Kureyon.

The one that’s already knit up is the more orange-y one.. I’m so excited to see how it’ll look :-)

Noro just makes me happy, haha ^_^

The Knitting Goddess… she now spins.

Haha, it’s been awhile since I’ve written… thowwie about that. But it was nice to have a little break. I had a great time with my family, Christmas was amazing (which you’ll see why in just a minute, haha) lots of good food, it was just epicly awesome, haha.

On Christmas day, and the 2 days after, I spun 4oz per day. So that’s 16oz in two days. Now, I don’t know if that’s really fast or not, but for me… as someone who just got their wheel… that’s really amazing, haha. I’m rather proud of myself ^_^ (then I spun 6oz over the last 2 days, ish. And all that’s done)

So the result of the first three days are as follows…

This is…BFL Superwash(^^), I believe. And the color is called Salmon Crossing. Dis was my… second spinning attempt

Then theres…

Galinda The Good (that’s the color name. How amazingly awesome is that?!) which is Merino Top. This was my first spinning attempt. This one has been washed, and all that’s left is to wind it up into a cake and knit it. I think, haha.

And then, I spun up the last of my Doctor Who fiber ^_^ which is 100% BFL. This one is my favorite, I think. This was my third attempt, so by this time I had really gotten the hang of it.

Either way, I’m absolutely adoring spinning. Holy cowwww, I love it so much. Definitely one of the best Christmases ever ^_^

Also, on Christmas Eve, I got my hair highlighted. Which was cool for me, because I’ve never dyed my hair before.

It’s kinda hard to see… but it’s like a subtle chocolate brownish-redish-ness.

Oh, and also for Christmas, among such amazingly awesome things, I got some earrings…

That are… thebomb. com. Fo seriously. (you can kinda see the red in that picture, haha) Little baby owl earrings?! How can you go wrong?!

Anyways, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and you’ll have an amazing New Years :-)

Eggnog Latte Sugar Cookies.. mmmhmm

This year, it’s a little different than the past years. But only in the fact that I’ve done practically no baking… at all. Until today, when I only made 2 kinds of cookies.

Usually we make like 5+ different kinds, and we just make a huge day out of baking. We also end up crashing at around 3:00 PM, because we’ve all had so much sugar, it’s not even funny. Hahaha :-P

So today, I made something new that I hadn’t ever had, heard of, or tried. It was exciting. I made Eggnog Latte Sugar Cookies

It was also really easy, because I used left over cookie dough from when I made Jammie Dodgers, which I had frozen. Soooo, all I had to make was the icing!

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Holy cow, I think I ate about… I don’t even want to know how much I ate while I was assembling said cookies, hahaha. It was a lot.

Soooooooo amazing. Ooooh my goodness. Yeah. Yeahhh yeah. They’re really good :-P

After those were done, I did Cyclops cookies, which Katie requested. Easy peasy, done in about 20 minutes.

And now? I’m very very ready to take a break, and maybe knit a little bit.

Speaking of knitting! Last night, very very late (which I shall explain why in a moment), I finished the last .3 that was left of the Christmas knitting. Yes, it is all complete. And happy. And joyous. I still have to wrap everything. But that’s ooook, I’ll have fun wrapping.. whenever I wrap, while watching old Doctor Whos, or the Big Bang Theory (I caught up on New Girl last night. Holy cow, love that show)

So, why was I up late late last night? Well, my family and I went to go see Mission Impossible (which from the time of getting into the car to go to the movie, and leaving the movie, I had cast on, turned the heel, and started the gusset of a sock. during the movie. In the dark. I was very proud of myself)

So we went to go see this movie, and go home around 9:30 ish. We then hung out for a little bit, and then decided that we wanted to watch another movie. We settled on The Three Amigos, which is an old family favorite.

Upon watching this, I was told that when I was 5, I adored this movie. Though, I’m guessing that the only part I understood was that there was a singing bush, lots of pinatas, and it was funny. I was also told that Dusty Bottoms was my favorite. And I liked his costume the best.

Yes, yes, you can laugh. Because I was definitely laughing my head off when I heard this.

Also, I was very good at doing my own rendition of “My Little Buttercup” (which you really should check it out. It’s…hilarious. Their version. Mine was never recorded… or at least not to my knowledge, haha)

Anyways, I shall leave you all now… I feel the need to go knit, or wrap all the presents.. that need to be wrapped.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve ^_^

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree…

If you need a little smile or a big laugh, you will definitely get both from this video.

Yep.

Merry Christmas ^_^

.7 projects left! Yesssss

So, I might not have to stay up very very late/very very early on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day after all.

At this very moment, I only have about 1.5 (and barely that..) gifts to knit left. That absolutely have to be done. And the 1, it’s a hat. And all that’s left is the decreases. So… maybe more like .7 projects left, haha :-P

Phew. Lots of knitting right there. But totally more than worth it. Most definitely. I’m going to try and do my best to get pictures.. of the objects on/with/near by the recipient.. hopefully, haha. :-P

I love Christmas knitting ^_^

Plus, after I’m done, I get to continue my work on the UFO bin… and that Stephen West shawl, Sharktooth ^_^

West Knits rocks my world

So, I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but I signed up for the West Knits Shawl Club by Stephen West and the Yarn Co… and I don’t remember when I signed up for it, haha.

It definitely caused a huge amount of excitement, like reallllly really excited ^_^

I mean, it’s Stephen West’s patterns and yarn that he picked out! (really really nice yarn too :-P) How in the world could it be bad???

So, today when we got back from doing some Christmas shopping, I went to go get the mail, and was greeted by a wonderfully happy package ^_^

The first month of the West Knits Shawl Club ^_^

It’ll go until April, I believe. How stinking amazing is that. Every month, you get to look forward to getting a package in the mail box with a skein of ammmazingly yummy and squishy yarn *AND* a brand new Stephen West pattern.

Also, on an unrelated note: I love the looks and stares I get when I knit while walking through the mall. It’s just too awesome.

Musical Monday!!

We watched this movie last night. It really is pretty awesome. I think more people should sing this song… it’s not sung enough, haha :-P

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fireeeee

last night we did half of our Christmas decorations…

the exterior illumination is out, and shall shine in it’s glory when it gets dark.

While the boys worked on the outside, my mom and I did the inside… the banisters, and such. It’s all good :-P

Tonight, the plan is to decorate the tree, which has been living in our house for the past couple of days. By now, the cats have gotten used to it. They are still a bit nervous about it, but they’re not so nervous that they act like a Ood will come climbing out of the insides (Major brownie points if you know what an Ood is! *Doctor Who jokes ftw*)

Tomorrow… we plan to clean, bake some stuff, go get my Christmas present (HOLY COW, I’M SO EXCITED!!) and then piano lessons… where I have a big theory test to do. Wheeeee!

I love Christmas time… it’s so happy ^_^

(Also, I’m totally going to, hopefully, watch the Doctor Who Christmas special on Christmas day. Hoooly cow, I CANNOT WAIT… ^_^)

FO: Leaflet!!

Ladies and Gentlemen… we have another FO. A non-Christmas-related FO.

(Though, truth be told, I finished this about 2 weeks ago, but didn’t get around to writing about it… or did I? I forget, hahaha :-P… so here it is, haha :-P)

Pattern: Leaflet by Cecily Glowik MacDonald (Direct link to the FREE pattern! Woot Knitty!!)
Yarn:: Imperial Yarn Columbia
Colorway: 66 (Coco Heather) (Dye lot: 510)
Needles: US10 and US10.5
Mods: Lengthened the sleeves

I absolutely adore it. I’m glad I lengthened the sleeves… and I bet it’d be just as cute with full length sleeves as well.

We went to the yarn store today.. to get last minute Christmas gift items… er, the items to make said last minute Christmas gifts :-P

I just need to start to accept the fact that, yes, I will be staying up rather late on Christmas Eve, watching a ton of The Big Bang Theory and New Girl trying to finish the things that really need to be finished, and should have been under the tree a week before.

Yeah, I can’t ignore it. It’s going to happen. Oh well. I really don’t mind, I actually enjoy staying up late knitting… It’s nice alone time. Just me, Bertie, my yarn, my computer.. which allows me to access tv shows such as BBT (Big Bang Theory) and New Girl. Which I adore. Holy cow.

Also, for Advent last Sunday, I got some new Toms..

I love those shoesies. ^_^