A Plethora of Pictures

First of all, I just learned how to spell the word "plethora".

Uh...so according to my camera's memory card (and the blog post pertaining to the meeting that happened 2 weeks ago), I failed to upload any pictures the last time I posted. Whattttt?

So, here we go. (Also, I acknowledge that my captions could probably be done without; however, since I am the author of this post, I get to decide what commentary goes into it, which means you're a little bit out of luck.)

Kat happily knitting away on these very long socks. Did these get finished? I have zero idea.

Um..über precious.

Happy Mary. This is lovely.

The most happy. LOVING the bow tie. So classy.

Madeline. Probably surprised by some wonderfully thought provoking comment I just made. Probably. And the reason she's not looking at me is because she's verifying the awe factor of my statement with the other members. I'm so sure.

A good pictorial indication of my mental state last week. For those of you who need a refresher, see last week's blog.

And now on to last week's pictures! I realize I failed to gain information about everyone's respective projects, so information is rather sparse here. At this point I shall again cue my own comments to make up for the lack of useful tidbits. (Speaking of tidbit, I had a waitress at Bob Evan's named Tidbit. Real life.)

Mother and daughter happily knitting up a storm. But clearly a very content storm.

Dat face. I feel like this is a little sassy. I can't remember what I did to deserve a sassy look, but here it is. Must have been good, though.

All of the concentration. Working on her Halloween costume I believe. A flapper. With leaves on her hips, if I recall, which is what she is currently beading.

Close-up of the beading. By that I mean I was playing with the zoom on my camera and needed a subject.

I don't remember Madeline wearing that shirt. But clearly she was sitting right in front of me. My eyes must have been turned off that night. If I had noticed this shirt at last week's meeting, I would have informed her that I am a fan of it.

I believe Lauren was trying to finish up an assignment so that she could spend some time knitting. Although, I regrettably had to dart away before I could see the knitting portion of her evening. Also, that is the face I give most of my technology related items.

Small update on my life: I am exponentially less stressed out than last week. And by that I'm not sure if I mean I'm just not letting myself get stressed over the mess that is my life or if I've actually got a handle on things. Sadly, it is probably not the latter..

2 more days this week and then break! Just in time, too. My sanity tank is running on E. (Sanity tank: a small portion of one's brain where one retains sanity, must be refueled regularly to avoid breakdowns, anxiety attacks, insanity, etc.) But I'm going to make it!

That being said, I should get back to studying for my accounting test tomorrow. I'm currently trying to teach myself two chapters worth of material. "Rough" doesn't even begin to cover it.

Anyway, ta ta for now!

Such is my life

Okay. So I might have been MIA for the past two weeks. I don't have much to say for that, except do note that I am making last week's blog post before this week's meeting. I think that means I'm not late yet. As for the blog from the week prior to last...well, yes. That one's just not going to be in existence.

I had been a little worried that my blog posts were going to center too much around my life instead of the happenings at the actual meeting because of how crazy my schedule has been and how little time I've been able to spend at Stitch 'n' Bitch. However, at last week's meeting the two of those became the same thing, so...there's that.

A big realization I had at last week's meeting: There are really simple solutions to my problems. Problems that, mind you, are causing me a rather unhealthy amount of stress.

The first problem I managed to acknowledge, not without a little struggle, was my texting issue. My name is Jordan and I'm addicted to texting. I check my phone so often it looks like I have a nervous tick. I so wish I was kidding about that. I've always known that it significantly decreases my ability to be productive and I've tried to have a strict no texting policy while I do homework. But that doesn't work because I feel detached from the world.

Stitch 'n' Bitch Solution: the Do Not Disturb mode on the iPhone. It's this nifty feature that silences all your notifications while it's engaged. You can set it to allow calls from certain people and such. But the idea was that I'd work for 50 minutes, with the mode engaged, not checking my phone, and then I get a 10 minute break to do whatever I want, which could potentially (and usually does) include texting. I worked on this a bit last week, but I am going to start using it more religiously because it helped a whole lot.

I complained about a few of my classes. And by "a few" I mean "all". Our professor friend Mary's (I just called her by her first name. I feel weird about this. But that's allowed, right? Right?!) advice here was to use my time better. If I'm not getting anything out of a particular class, then use it to sleep if I need to. Just...brilliant.

My dad has also told me to concentrate my biggest efforts on a few classes and just get by in the others. That's hard for the perfectionist in me, but that's a thought. And one of my friends called me up the other night (I think it was last night...) and just said "You're trying to do too much. You can't do everything." I get defiant when things like that are said, but he's right. I can't expect to be 100% invested in everything. I mean, by definition, that's impossible--there's only 1 of me. I have to split myself up. I don't know that there is anything I can (or would tolerate) giving up right now, but I can at least be more realistic of my own expectations for myself.

Also, I am going to go utilize the counseling services here and figure out ways to deal with my stress better. Otherwise I literally won't make it through the semester after another morning like this one. I had an anxiety attack in the middle of one of my classes. I was unbelievably restless, in a dead panic, and felt like I was going to burst into tears if anyone so much as touched me. Not again. Can't handle it.

And I'm going to start concentrating more on me. This girl is single (for the first time ever in college, mind you) and, by golly, everything is going to be about me for once. I don't have to think about anyone but me and I'm going to fully embrace that from here on out. Woo! So ready!

So I've got a plan of action for my assignments this week and hopefully I can make it to break without another bout of anxiety. Just 3 more days this week and 3 next week.

LET'S DO THIS!

Short and Sweet

This particular entry isn't going to be very long, which has something to do with the duration of my attendance last week and something else to do with the rather intimate gathering we had again. I wasn't able to stay very long at last week's meeting, but I did manage to snap a few pictures while I was there.

Here's Kat working diligently on her super long, super colorful socks. Which reminds me: I need to get back into some sock knitting. But I've already got a few projects lined up this semester, so who knows when that will happen again?

And Dr. Shapiro and Clara of course, neither of whom appear to be doing anything yarn related. Although, Dr. Shapiro was texting Madeline, who was doing something work related. That's the only detail I succeeded at gleaning from my brief interactions last week.

My head cover is at least showing some progress from the first (and only) picture I posted; however, I have yet to dignify said (slow) progress with a picture. I also need to find some more time to work on those outside of SnB because clearly an hour a week is not enough to make sufficient progress on these. My dad might not see these until next golf season. I think he might cry a little bit on the inside if that ends up being the case. So I'm going to make better efforts.

I don't know how this got in my ball of yarn, but that is not my hair.

Clearly, as one can see by the title, we had some rogue hairs at Tuesday's meeting. One of which found itself wound into Kat's yarn ball. As one of my friends would say, "I have very social hair." However, the owner of this social hair is, as of yet, unknown.

Our group was rather small and intimate this week. Madeline had either a migraine or a head cold, but either way: I hope she has long since been feeling better!

A very adorable picture of Kat working on the mate to this very long (and cute) sock:

She uses lots of bright colors and I'm a huge fan. Can't wait for that rainbow sweater to make an appearance this year!

I think at this point Clara is casting on. For a project whose identity is currently undecided. In Kat's words "Clara is a very conceptual knitter."
Also! She pulled out a small rectangular "I just had this in my bag" piece of knitted-ness and used it as a lap blanket. I was a big fan.

This picture looks like I creeped on her. And I kind of did. Although, I'm fairly certain she was aware this picture was being taken. And by fairly certain, I mean it could go either way.

[On an unrelated note, I was just deafened by a fire engine going by my apartment. I just woke up a half an hour ago and I struggle in the morning, so I'm extremely discombobulated now. Just FYI, in case I start spouting nonsense in the remainder of this blog.]

Like mother, like daughter, Dr. Shapiro came to join us later in the meeting and informed me that she is also unaware of the identity of her knitting project. It looks really soft, though. I restrained myself from going over to pet it.

She decided this picture of her, with the knitting needle in mouth, was an accurate description of her life as a knitter. I agreed.

And then Lauren graced us with her presence and I captured this very adorable picture of her. I'm rather proud. Although, my friend so wonderfully told me once, a photographer only has the opportunity to capture beauty, never create.

She is working on her very first sweater!! What an exciting undertaking. I am anxious to see how this turns out. I want to make a sweater at some point.

But that would mean I need to finish making head covers for my father. OH MY GOSH. He told me these were the last set. I don't know if he means it, but I do. Driving me crazy. I thought about taking a picture of my project, but the cover looks just about the same as it did last week....

Also I'm going to bring my actual camera to the rest of the meetings. I tried to convince myself my phone would take decent pictures, but I'm rather unsatisfied with them. This blog needs quality, darn it!

Hip-hop violinist is not hip-hop. Or a violinist.

Everyone. Mark this day in your calendar. This is the day I make my first Truman Stitch 'n' Bitch blog post! Cue the celebration!

I did a happy dance. I hope your celebrations were of a similar nature.

I have yet to get the hang of a focused blog. I keep a personal blog and it's more of a journal-type blog, you know, just my thoughts and stuff. Except my brain jumps all over the place, so the topics of my blog do likewise. I will try to keep it together for this particular group of readers, though.

We had our first meeting of the semester this past Tuesday night. We had to relocate ourselves because our usual meeting place was being taken over by the audience of a visiting performer (refer to title above). So our meeting conversations were punctuated with frenzies of violin (that was maybe not a violin, according to Kat's musical instrument expertise, or at least violin expertise) and bursts of applause. Never fear, we knit on!

I promise my pictures will be better in subsequent blog posts. I somehow convinced myself that taking sneaky pictures would be a good idea. Really, they are just rather unexciting. The subject matter, on the other hand, is lovely. Just so that's out there.

Dr. Shapiro (am I allowed to call her Mary? I don't know. Not going to risk it.) and Clara knitting up a storm.

It doesn't appear that Madeline is knitting at the moment of this picture snappage. Untangling yarn perhaps.

I believe at this point of the night Kat was looking up the origins of the word cahoots. We had a unexpectedly long discussion about it.

This is a picture of the project I'm reluctantly working on. Can anybody guess?

......

While all those were valiant efforts, I will just say: golf club covers.

In my defense.... Well, I don't have much to say in my defense. My father asked me to work on these over the summer, but between an obnoxiously filled schedule and a complete lack of desire to knit yet another set, they didn't get done. This is the sad progress I made on the first of four covers--over the course of a few months, mind you. He mentioned paying me for them if I finished them before I go back to school, but clearly that didn't get done. So I'm not sure if that means I'm no longer getting paid for this set or what. Updates to follow.

Tuesdays, SUB Hub, 7:00PM. BE THERE!

I hate jazz. I'm going to go.

The SUB was a hoppin' place this Wednesday night: There was an awfully loud rehearsal for lip synch going on, and then a rather large and noisy group of people waited for something for a while, before all getting up and leaving at once. The night ended rather abruptly as the Jazz Combo performance was about to begin, when Madeline announced that she didn't like jazz, and was therefore going to leave. It was still a pretty nice night though, and much yarn was knit (and crochet) by all!

Katherine was working on sleeves:

 Nope, just sleeves. Like the kind you wear with something that doesn't have sleeves. So that it does. You know.

Lauren was taking a brief but productive break from the Flounder socks to work on a new shawl (which I want to knit too! We can be buddies!). It is a pretty nice looking shawl so far- I'm a fan.

 Yeah, it is just in time for it to be warm outside...But who cares? Knitting!

Katherine was knitting a not-sweater, even though her sweater has yet to be finished.

I am impatient! But then again, really if you think about it...So is she....

Madeline was working and reworking a baby Aviatrix hat out of Malabrigo...(whoever the baby is, he or she is very lucky, and is going to be knitwear-spoiled by the time he/she can talk.)

 Plus, the colors are purple and green, which is wonderful! you can sort of see them down in the corner there. A nice mossy green, and a warm purple. Yay! Colors!

Jordan, meanwhile, has decided that a garter stitch blanket will be more exciting than a garter stitch scarf (even though the two are basically the same, except one is ten of the other.) I brought this point up to Jordan, but she did not seem discouraged. Just keep knitting, just keep knitting....

 What do we do? We knit, knit, knit! Even when you're knitting a really big blanket in the middle of summer! I smell a vacation to Alaska in her future!

Aric, meanwhile, was not knitting, but spent his time apartment hunting for grad school next year. So far, no concrete leads have been formed, but there's still time. I hope.

I was working on a sweater, while convincing myself more and more of the fact that I am going to run out of yarn. The sweater is now mostly done, and I have become certain that this yarn shortage is imminent. I think I'll be okay, though, because the dye lot difference won't be too noticeable since the only thing left is the edging. It can just be purposeful. I hope. I am a pretty big fan of it so far- it has short sleeves! It's for layering- and to show off the awesome yarn.

Next week at Stitch n' Bitch- Madeline will be attending a showing of Zombieland, in the Baldwin Hall little theater, and she invites all of you as well! I'm not sure if I'll be there or not, but let's keep in mind that one could potentially knit during this movie...so really, it'll be basically the same thing, except with less talking. Does that mean more knitting?

in which there is an ivory tower, and Sgt. Pepper's namesake group returns

I was excited to come to Stitch n' Bitch this week, because I was unable to go last week, due to the nature professors seem to have to make everything due in all classes on the same day (this has occurred twice this semester. I believe it is slated to occur once more. Maybe I can prevent it by working harder now...)
Imagine my surprise when I was the first one there, 10 minutes late! Lauren came, after 15 minutes or so, and Katherine came 15 minutes or so after that, for half an hour. We were Sargent Pepper's lonely knitters club, once again. I do suppose everyone's stressed and busy, like I was last week. Madeline was sick, with an unusually unforgiving case of strep throat, and Mary had a migraine (I bet you could make a really morbid children's rhyme out of that... except the syllables aren't quite right).

I took the time to work on some beaded shank buttons for the communion purses I made for my cousin's kids:

Rose pink seemed like an appropriate color, but I really have no idea, it just matched nicely. I got 1.5 buttons done during our unusually quiet Stitch n' Bitch!

Lauren is making pretty wonderful progress on the Flounder socks:

Check it! That's a second sock with opposite-colored toe! How cool! It's like, the same- but different!

Sorry. I get excited about socks.

Katherine was there too, I promise- I was just a little engrossed in my button while she was working on her pokemon critter, and I...forgot.... to take a picture. But she was there! The critter looked excellent, as usual.

A few days later, I ran in to Madeline, who was feeling much better- and she had a surprise for me! An article in a scholarly magazine about- what else? Knitting! It's called "Ivory Tower Fiber Freak Comes Clean" (Jennifer Burek Pierce)- it chronicles the thoughts and events that led her to end up researching the history of knitting (gasp!), the way it has changed to accommodate electronic media (whee!), and the way knitters 'now' are different than knitters 'then' (whoot!). It's pretty cool. I bet she's even cooler in person. Wouldn't it be fun to do graduate level research in knitting? She is a professor at the University of Iowa, for any interested parties. That's the sort of thing I love about all this, the social history of our art form, and how we adapt it to suit the needs of our changing world. It's all just so darn cool!

Also, I finished some things:

Whoot! bamboo, purple, and big enough that it doesn't fall off my shoulders!

thickest socks known to man. My feet would be sweating in subzero temperatures. Not going to wear them until next winter... But still awesome socks, from my first handspun yarn!

...We're Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, we hope that you enjoyed the show!...

in which there is a photoshoot

It's getting to be that point in the semester when everyone's stressed, and it seems like the world is crashing down around you. Projects and papers and tests seem to all clump together on similar dates, and if you look into the deepest darkest corners of the library, students can be seen sitting on the floor with their knees to their chest, rocking back and forth with wild eyes and wilder hair.

I have a project, a paper, and a test tomorrow. This exact thing happened to me a few weeks ago, on the other day this semester that I didn't attend Stitch n' Bitch. Depending on how much I get done today, I may be able to come for a little while. Here's hoping! Meanwhile, last week!

Jordan was busy making epic progress on her new crochet granny square bag (which I have heard is finished, and will be displayed tonight. Due to a lack of desire to follow gauge, the bag is smaller then anticipated, but Jordan is still very excited about it, and it is now her new project bag!

Madeline was looking pensive while Jordan regaled her with tales of buying stamps from actual people- this is probably the build up to Madeline telling Jordan that there is such a thing as a 'Stamp Machine' where one may buy stamps without ever interacting with another human being. Technology!

Meghan was working on a soon-to-be-felted pokeball, the white yarn for which was left behind last week, but has since been reunited with its owner:

The lonely yarn sat and mingled with us for a while, and after a long journey, it has made its way back to be turned into said pokeball!

 I thought about ransoming it, but decided that would not have gone well. Jordan also suggested a dead drop, followed by a series of mysterious text messages (maybe containing clues to its location?) but it's been a long week and I had homework. Such a lame excuse, too....

Clara, meanwhile, was patiently chugging away at yet another unidentified thing- this time with stripes!- while Mary worked on organizing the students in one of her classes into research groups, instead of knitting. I wonder where she is on Fred's handknit chess set?

 Katherine, clad in matching blue warm things, has finished all the yellow squares for her blanket, and has moved on to new colors to continue the process. She had better hurry up, or the weather will be too warm for that blanket!

And then there was me, photos courtesy of Madeline:

I am currently (if by currently you understand that I mean in this picture, as  I also have approximately five other projects going on right now...) working on a Malabrigo short-sleeved sweater, which I will hopefully happily wear all the time, and will definitely be a very good garment to have for spring. I'm about 2/3 done with the body part (there's an edging as well) and am contemplating two things: 1.) There is the distinct possibility that I will run out of yarn, and 2.) the colors are pooling in a very unusual way- the blues, greens, and purples are striping consistently, and the golds and purples are striping between them. I've never seen that occur, so I am currently figuring out a way to stop it from happening. Meanwhile, there are other projects.

 There! So many pictures of me (also my awesome hat that I finished a week or so ago, minus the pom pom that is going to happen hopefully maybe this weekend?)

In which there is a 'learning face'

It's been so long since our last meeting, but do not lament, there's one tomorrow!

Seriously. You should be there.

Last time, some pretty epic things went down, including, for starters, my tendency to take pictures at weird angles that makes them look sort of unusual no matter which way you rotate them...

Clara, once again, does not know what she is working on, and we have come to expect nothing less.

Lauren is working on Emma's socks:

Flounder socks! Look at that heel-in-progress! Well, you can't see it...but it's there! I promise! It was done by the end of the night!

This is Jordan's 'stop making fun of me' face- and also the very first time in the history of this semester at Stitch n' Bitch that we have captured Jordan in a non-smiling state. It will most likely also be the last, as upon closer inspection it becomes evident that Jordan is in fact, still slightly smiling in this picture. She's working on her daffodil bag, but we'll get to that again later.

Madeline, wearing a very warm and wonderful looking shawl-shawlette-triangular scarf- thing (I love them all, but I never know what to call them....) was making some pretty epic progress on a sock with a slip stitch pattern, using Knit Picks' Stroll (I think the color is kindling?) It's such a pretty color- I have some and am going to pair it with blue to make a truly epic pair of colorwork socks. Eventually. The slip stitch pattern is really cool looking- I like the texture when combined with the tonal yarn!

Katherine was working on a yellow blanket, following her usual trends of using exciting, brightly colored yarn! I'm not sure, but it looks like all that's left here is sewing the squares together! That's pretty exciting, given the current temperature trends.

Katharine is SO CLOSE to being done with the second sleeve of her cardigan- in fact, she might have been so close to done with the second sleeve at the end of our last meeting, that it is highly possible that progress will have been made on the yoke portion of the sweater by now! I can't wait to see it done! I'm also curious to see how the construction goes.

Here's me- with one finished Six Sheep Sampler Sock, and the toe of the second one started. The sock is super-thick, really warm, and not quite all the way knee high, but high enough to stay up. I'm pretty pleased with how my handspun is knitting up! Progress has since been made on the second sock: I'm a few inches past the ankle, about to start the calf increases. Since our last meeting, I have also started and completed (minus the pom-pom) the most wildly colored hat I will probably ever wear. That makes it officially my first handspun project seen through to completion! The socks are still the first yarn I've ever spun (on the wheel, at least...)

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for!

I really hope this works: I hope it's not all grainy and weird. Sorry if it is. Also, sorry for the ambient noise in the background- it seems as though my camera has a pretty non-directional built in microphone. However, it looks like there's a microphone plug in my camera- so if Jordan wants to make a habit of reading her patterns aloud to us, I could probably obtain a microphone from somewhere.

For the record, my favorite part is 'Look at that learning face you just made!'- if the blog title this week wasn't a dead giveaway on that....