needles & vectors

Today Matt gave me an hour or so lesson in how to take better photos and how to process them in Photo Shop. Add this to my purchase the other day of a white poster board and I am a very happy camper. I borrowed his camera for two hours and shot a bunch of photos of my yarn and knitting projects. Here’s some of my favorite results. Look for a post in the next few days about the yarn I got at the fiber fest last weekend.

1. Lamb’s Pride Worsted from the swap

2. Tuscany, in the turquoise silk from ArtFibers

3. Knit Picks Gossamer in Rose Garden

4. Erin’s Clapotis (about 75 percent done!)

You’re going to have to live with a very short post today as I’m really quite tired. I got little sleep last night as I was so excited about our event today. Almost four-hundred elementary through high school girls came to campus to learn about engineering. My group learned about SolidWorks and Matlab then all did hands-on activities. My ice cream experiment was a huge hit though I felt really bad when I ran out of ice cream mixture. Eventually I may have some photos to show from that. I’m off to take a nap (no sleep + running after kids + happy hour = tired Angela).

I couldn’t think of anything to write that didn’t involve me whinning about how much my Thermo midterm sucked today but didn’t want to give up on the whole NaBloPoMo thing. No, I haven’t taken any photos of myself or my own knitting but thought you all may want to meet some of the ladies of my knit night. Okay, so it’s really just me showing you potentially embarrassing photos and telling you their names. I had meant to write down what projects they’re working on and provide pattern links but, well, that totally didn’t happen.

This is Rhonda who I cannot seem to get a good photo of.

Here’s Carole, showing off her red ruffled scarf/shawl. She only has time to knit when she’s with us so her progress is slow but always beautiful.

Gayle is a laboratory microbiologist at my school. I’ve gone to visit her lab once and I really should go again. I don’t understand even her simplified versions of her work but I’m pretty sure she likes the company.

Dao has a really fun and funky sense of style and I’m pretty sure she’s a newbie knitter like me. Her name’s actually pronounced Zow.

Jen, our fearless leader. She spends much of her time chasing after her adorable son.

Sharlene could open her own yarn and spinning wheel shop with her stash (and eight spinning wheels). She’s really enthusiastic and passionate and you can feel it ripple through the group.

This is one of the two Stephs, Steph W. She’s an artist/graphics designer by day and lover of novelty yarn, well, always.

Last but not least is Susan. She’s an enabler, big time.

Why must Mondays suck so very much? Usually you can’t pull yourself out of bed, fumble through your entire morning, and spend the evening yearning for the weekend.

I woke up just find today, was far more awake than I usually am for French class. Thermo wasn’t that exciting but I only drifted off into daydreams a few times. I got laundry and almost an entire lace repeat done on my mom’s gift. But still, it was horrible.

I cannot wait until tomorrow: later morning, Material’s class, a glorious five hour break when I can slowly do homework and knit, then Matlab which will be boring but I have James and Arlette to amuse me.

There will be photos tomorrow, even if they’re just photos of my messy desk. I simply don’t have the energy required to take photos of the progress I’ve made on my mom’s gift. It’s not even eight-thirty and already I want to climb into bed with my soft, squishy blue blanket. I don’t know whether to blame the time change or my case of the Mondays or the work-related insanity of earlier.

I feel like I’ve taken an excessive amount of photos in the last few days, though a quick photo dump from my camera only unearthed thirty photos (less than ten of which are at all decent). Yesterday was Amy’s baby shower then today I went to a fiber festival up in Torrance with the girls from my SnB. I did little work this weekend; no laundry, cleaning, or homework. Just made a few flashcards for my French quiz tomorrow. Oops. Tomorrow and Tuesday I’ll be playing catch-up for sure.

Amy’s baby shower was alright as far as showers go. They’re really not my thing but we were invited, we needed to give her the sweater (and the car seat we bought), and free food’s always good. I love Amy’s family, don’t get me wrong, but I know so few of her friends and extended family members I always feel out of place when she has big parties and events. That and there was an annoying game going on where you wore a necklace that got taken if you crossed your arms or legs. For about ten minutes I was winning but a ten year-old quickly changed that. Matt and I (yes, men were invited) just stood around talking to the few people we’d remembered meeting previously and eating. Amy really loved the baby sweater which makes me so happy. She didn’t believe me when I told her she could machine wash it. Only this one photo turned out at all decent, of Matt and Ivy’s (Amy’s daughter’s) boyfriend, Jonathan.

Fiber fests are dangerous. So much yummy yarn and associated things in one place. We started out the day with breakfast near Susan’s house the drove up to the Torrance Convention Center for the festival. Hosted by the Southern California Handweavers Guild, booths sold weaving supplies, drop spindles, yarn, roving, books, beads, and every accessory under the sun. After about three hours at the festival, we headed home and grabbed lunch at a great Teriyaki place in Long Beach. I’ll take photos later of my purchases. Here’s a quick photo of Susan learning how to use a drop spindle.

That’s all for now. I’m almost to the end of the first ball on my mom’s Christmas present and would love to start the second one before tomorrow.

November is a lot of things out in blog land. It all started with NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. Crazy people (like my friend Brittany my first year of college) write 50,000 words in a single month. For many, it’s more about actually getting the words in than writing an entire novel or writing well. With so little time, all you can do is write, write, write. No time for editing.

NaNoWriMo lead to NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month. The point of that is to write a blog entry a day (like both myself and Anastasia are attempting to do). Now we’ve also got NaKniSweMo, knitting an entire sweater in a month.

Are they any others?

We’ll just pretend I didn’t blog for a week and get to the topic at hand.

I wasn’t going to do any holiday knitting, per say. I’d keep working on projects but not necessarily intend to finish anything in time for Christmas. I was such a fool. I’m going to make something for each of my parents (and finish the quilt for my brother). They deserve something handmade. My mom, she’s easy. Not a fan of wool, but otherwise easy to knit for. My dad, ugh. Doesn’t like wearing socks, doesn’t get cold enough for sweaters or scarfs or gloves.  But I have found something to make for him and it’s going to be awesome. Note to Mom/Dad: avoid looking at the holiday knitting page that’ll appear soon or you’ll ruin the surprise.

Of course, I don’t actually have the yarn to make their gifts yet. That requires a run to both my LYS and Joann’s. Maybe I’ll run there today. We do get five-percent cash back on our credit cards this month. Plus it’s gift knitting, the yarn cost just replaces the cost of a purchased gift.