Thursday, September 30, 2010

WIP: The NOT Boyfriend Scarf

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful maiden named Lulu.  She had many loves in life, the two biggest loves being knitting and her friends, and when she could combine these two loves was the best feeling in the world.

The NOT Boyfriend Scarf
While Lulu was in college, one of her friends became more than just a friend, he became her boyfriend, and she decided to knit him a gorgeous and lovely scarf for Christmas.  She lovingly selected the nicest merino wool in her stash: two skeins of semi-solid purple Malabrigo.  Next, she scoured the Internet for the perfect pattern and decided upon the Seeded Rib Scarf for it would show off the yarn's beautiful color and softness while still being a unisex design. Then she began knitting the scarf, tenderly knitting each knit stitch and purling each purl.

The scarf grew as she continued to knit, but troubled brewed.  The boyfriend she thought was so special wasn't as truly wonderful as she once believed.  It came time for Lulu to leave college and she left her not-so wonderful boyfriend behind, but she was stuck with an almost finished scarf that felt like silky butter in her hands whenever she would touch it.  What to do with the scarf bothered Lulu periodically.  Should she continue to knit the scarf to give to another, more deserving person?  Should she frog it and use the yarn for something else?  Or should she just continue to ignore the almost finished scarf as she had for many months?

Then the day came when Lulu made a decision about the "Boyfriend Scarf".  Instead of frogging the almost-finished scarf, she decided to keep knitting it until she finished it, but she would keep it for herself.  She works very hard with school and everything else in her life and thought she completely deserves what could quite possibly be the nicest scarf ever knit.  Thus, the boyfriend scarf became the NOT boyfriend scarf.

NOT the end.

love and coffee,
Lulu

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

A Day at the Park

We are very lucky in my town to not only have a nice city park completely with a zoo, little kid rides, a playground, a lake with ducks and geese, and just lots of nice places to hang out and enjoy nature, but there is also now a dog park!  I've gone once before with Zoey and we had such a good time.

On Sunday, my boyfriend and I took my two dogs to the dog park.  The little black poodle is Daisy, who we've had for 11 years now. The big brown and white dog is my pitbull Zoey, who had belonged to Tony before he died.  She's part of our family now and fits in with the weirdness just fine.  Sadly, this pictures basically sums up our whole visit to the park: instead of running around like crazy, playing with other puppies, my dogs just sat in the shade with us.  Lame!

The other cute picture I took was this one of me and my wonderful boyfriend.  I know it's probably really chesey of me to be writing about him in my blog, but I think he's just that awesome.  :-D


And just to tie everything into knitting, the hat I'm wearing is from the Estes Park Wool Market!

Love and coffee,
Lulu

Saturday, September 18, 2010

WIP: Blue Edition

I'm knitting quite a lot of stuff right now, but I realized the other day at knit nite that everything I'm working on right now is BLUE!

Blue Man Scarf
Of course, I'm pretty much knitting stuff to give as Christmas presents, with the exception of the Hudson River Triangle I've been working on since April (which you can kind of see in the background of this shot!).

This scarf is knit on US 10 needles with Chunky Encore yarn.  For being an acrylic blend, I really love this yarn.  It doesn't feel fake or make those annoying squeaky sounds that something like Red Heart does.

I can't say anything about who is getting what yet, since I think some of my friends actually read my blog and I don't want to ruin the surprise!

This is my second attempt at knitting "Dashing" from Knitty.  I love the yarn-Cascade 220 of course.  I'm knitting with bamboo US 7 double-points.

These are also going to be a Christmas present for a dear friend, and that's all I can say!

Tonight, I'm going to a college football game and maybe I will get some more blue knitting done there!

love and coffee,
Lulu

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Getting a Jump Start on Christmas

Yes, it's only September, but there are only 100 days until Christmas!  I've already started on my Christmas knitting.  My goal this year is to only give handmade gifts, either ones I made myself or homemade by somebody else.  I'm knitting fingerless gloves for a few people, and at least a couple scarves.  I'm also thinking about making some mittens, which I've never done before but there's a first time for everything.

Tonight I am taking my friend Jennifer to the open knit night at my LYS.  I taught her how to knit earlier this summer, and she got pretty hooked but will probably need a refresher course tonight.  We might even try to conquer purling.

In other news, things are going wonderfully with the new boyfriend.  He puts up with my knitting while we watch movies together.  It's perfect. =)

Are you planning to knit anything for Christmas?

love & coffee,
Lulu

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Happy Birthday Daddy!

My dad's birthday was on Sunday.  He is now 68 years old, which, let's face it, is kind of getting up there.  For being an older dad, he's still super awesome.  We spent the day in Denver together, just the two of us (since mom was home making apple pie with the twins).  While in Denver, we went to the Italian festival in Lakewood with an old family friend, and I think we both had lots of fun!  It took a couple tries to finally get a decent picture of us together, and it was funny trying to explain to him that I was going to turn the camera around and take the picture myself.  I'm so happy with the results I think I'm going to frame it!  I also think I look a lot like my dad in this picture.

So Daddy, if you're reading this, happy birthday!  I'm so lucky to have you as my father, and even though we butt heads a lot, you are my hero.  I love you bunches and can't wait to have more daddy-daughter dates.

On the crafty side of things, my dad did ask me to knit him a bib now that he is so old...  Hmmm....

love and coffee,
Lulu

Sunday, September 5, 2010

I Love My Crazy Life

This post is really not craft related in the slightest, but I'm just happy and thought I should share the happiness.


I have successfully completed my second week of nursing school, and I'm ecstatic.  Even though I have my first class at 7:30 in the morning, I look forward to going to school every day.  I'm incredibly intrigued by what I'm learning.  It's crazy how much knowledge I've gained in just two weeks too.  My clinical rotations start at the end of the month, and I'm honestly kind of nervous about it all.  I guess we'll just have to see how I feel then.


I've also been seeing somebody for a little over a month now.  We were set up by a couple of mutual friends he works with, and he makes me laugh!  His family loves me, and hopefully he'll have dinner with my folks soon.  I like him so much I might actually knit for him...


Have a great Labor Day weekend everybody!