Oh, Utah!

Recently, I have really started to warm up to Utah. Yes, there are crazy alcohol rules, weird religions, and not much to do, but DAMN is it beautiful! Recently, I have been enjoying the nature of Utah with the bf and dog and this has not let much time for knitting.

Last weekend we went camping and hiking to Fifth Water Springs. After a 2.5 mile hike following Sixth Water River and then Fifth Water River, we made it to a gorgeous waterfall and 5 natural hot springs. Here, we met some very interesting characters and soaked in the hot springs for 4+ hours. (Yes, we were VERY pruney by the time we went to bed.)

In the morning we woke up to a beautiful view and to a still tired puppy.

We took down the tent, packed up and went for another dip the next morning. This time, the water was beautifully clear (see first picture, actually taking the next morning) and this time we were actually alone (no naked, tattooed, pierced guy with a gun to disrupt our soak this time!).

Finally rejuvenated, we walked out of the canyon to take a leisurely drive home.

On another Utah note, I have also been enjoying some of Utah's delicacies. Now, for those of you that know me, I am quite a food snob. I love my food, and I love it to be good. Living in Brooklyn and NJ made this quite easy because NYC has some of the best food around. Delicious pizza, amazing pastries, great ethnic food (ahhh, Joe's Shanghai soup dumplings...), and pretty much anything that you could want at any time of the day or night. Utah, on the other hand, is quite different. There is limited food choice, and what we have isn't necessarily good. Yes, we have found some good things, like typical brunch at about 20 different restaurants is quite yummy, but much ethnic food (especially Chinese!) leaves much to be desired (like not feeling sick after you have eaten it....). However, Utah is known for a few "delicacies" (a word that I use very lightly): funeral potatoes and green Jello. Now, I will address them each, for they each have their own deserving qualities.

1. Funeral Potatoes. This "delicacy's" name came from the fact that this was an easy dish to make and bring to a funeral. It's comforting, warm, and usually delicious. I had the fortunate experience of first having funeral potatoes not at a funeral, but at my elementary school's holiday party. A fellow teacher had made this dish from scratch, and boy was it delicious. Typically, Funeral Potatoes are shredded potatoes cooked in a roux. Then, cheese is added to make it creamy and cheesy. Sometimes, though not this time, corn flakes (yes, the cereal) are added to the top for a crunchy surprise. Fortunately, the teacher did not add the cereal, and forgot the chopped onions. The result: deliciousness that I had 3 servings of.

Recently, I was in my favorite small-time grocery store, Emigration Market, buying some locally grown meats and vegetables, when I saw in the freezer aisle: FUNERAL POTATOES.

I just had to buy them. Unfortunately, they weren't very good. Maybe next time I will make them myself....

2. Green Jello. The official food of Utah. Reminds many people of being sick as a child. I probably haven't had green Jello since camp. Oddly enough, in Utah, they put fruit and vegetables in the thing. Gross. But I decided, when in Utah, act like a Utahan. So recently I bought the stuff. I know green Jello is supposed to be Lime flavored, but I found the green Melon Fusion flavor. I know it's not traditional, but I really couldn't pass up a picture of green Jello, and I still wanted to eat it and not feel sick.

Well, besides teaching, this is pretty much what I have been doing for the past month or so. Hopefully this spring will bring more adventure in the Beehive State. Also, hopefully there will be no more snow this spring (we had a fantastic storm two days ago, it snowed all day practically).

Good News Bad News

Good News:

I almost finished my Snowdust sweater! I have the front panels, back, and neckline finished.

I noticed when I first made the Stardust Sweater the neck was loose and didn't look so good. After some Ravelry research I found another person who had the same problem and had a solution. Unfortunately, I couldn't follow her directions for the life of me, so I knit less of the neckline and stretched it out to make it less drapey. Fortunately, she mentioned using the Kitchener stitch to sew up the two sides of the neckline seamlessly. I googled the stitch and found a great knitty.com how-to. On my first attempt I did a pretty good job (much better than just making a seam on the Stardust Sweater).

Bad News:

After sewing up the seams of the sweater and almost finishing the first sleeve, I tried on the sweater. IT WAS TOO BIG! The Stardust Sweater is too small, so I made the size larger and adjusted the gauge (because I was using different yarn). I thought I had figured it all out, but no. It is HUGE. Now I have to frog the whole thing and make it a size smaller! I frogged the first sleeve and it was a huge pain in the butt. This yarn catches on itself and makes knots. Don't even mention the fact that I have to find all of the yarn I used to sew up the seams, unknot them, unsew them, and then frog all of the pieces. PAIN IN MY BEHIND! Arg. This totally turns me off to making this sweater again, but I plan on wearing it for a wedding in September, so I plan on using my summer off to re knit this with a fresh mind. I guess I'll have to find a new knitting project.

Knit for Hire

I have taken a break from knitting my own projects recently because a fellow teacher has been having some health issues and had to stop knitting. She asked me if I could finish her shawl she had been working on. And she said she would pay me. So I have spent the last month working on a very mundane shawl.

Laure's Shawl

6 skeins of Berroco Suede in Palomino

sz 10.5 needles

Cast on 2 stitches.

At the beginning of every row add one stitch to the beginning and knit to the end.

Continue this pattern until you finish all of your yarn and have enough to bind off.
Bind off.

Overall, it was really easy and kind of boring to only knit. I also didn't really like the Suede yarn. It feels kind of like suede, but in a weird way, and it's made out of nylon. It also kind of hangs funny. But, it's not mine, so I can't complain.

Now, it's back to the Snowdust sweater and enjoying the spring weather. Or the snow. Both happened today.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I haven't blogged in a while, or really knit for that matter, because we have been having some big changes in our humble abode recently. We got a puppy! It was a long ordeal, but our landlord agreed to let us have a dog and we adopted the cutest border collie/hound mix. His name is Miles, and he's the sweetest.

Meet Miles. He is about 14-15 weeks old. He already knows how to sit, lay down, shake (not pictured), and let us know that he needs to use the bathroom (most of the time).

He is also a health nut. Notice the Superfood that he is enjoying. (No, he did not drink it. He did however steal the bottle from Mark, the intern, and decided that it was his new favorite toy.)

He also likes the snow. Craig and I are convinced that he has not known anything but snow (he is only 15 weeks old), and got visibly sad when it was 50 degrees out last week and most of the snow had melted. He would run from snow patch to snow patch trying to play with the last of it. It was super cute.

And look at those paws! The paws say he is going to be huge! However, all of the information on the internet says that you can double your dog's weight around 3-4 months and that will be his final weigt. Miles is 25 lbs exactly right now, so that puts him around 50-60 lbs when all said and done. This is not the huge that his paws and ears say he will be. Maybe the professionals will be wrong, maybe he will be pretty big. Who knows, it will be an adventure.

Basically, he has been the reason that I have not been able to knit recently. The second he sees any yarn, he goes after it. One day he found my stash and decided that some pink Lions Brand Wool Ease would be a fun toy. Luckly, I found him pretty quickly, and no damage was done. But right now I am working on my white version of the Stardust sweater, which I am affecctinoately calling the Snowdust sweater. Last night we had Craig's long-lost hiking buddy, Guiness (trail name, not real name) over and I got to knit while she distracted him by being "new and exciting." I actually got a majority of the back done and finished shaping the arm holes. Now I just need to knit some more and then shape the neck hole. I like the fact that I have knit this sweater before, because I can adjust certain things for my body. For example, being so tall, in my first Stardust the ties came to the center of my bust, which was not that attractive. So I have added an extra Stardust row before shaping the arm holes. Hopefully this will be enough to place the ties below my chest in a more appealing place. So far, the crude measurements I have taken point to having done this correctly.

On the Science of Sleep sweaterdress front, all knitting has stopped. I had begun to cast on for the dress and realized that my drawings were not as accurate as I needed them to be and the movie had been removed from On Demand for free. I have been searching for images of the dress on the internet and copies of the movie around town for cheap, but with no luck. So, until the Science of Sleep is in the 4 for $20 bin at Hollywood Video, I will have put it to sleep.

Also on the knitting front, a co-worker (possibly the coolest, funniest teacher in my school) has commissioned me to finish a shawl for her out of a suede yarn. She had begun the shawl, but health problems had caused her to stop and not be able to finish. I have all of the materials in my classroom, but she forgot to give me the pattern (which makes it difficult to finish for her). Luckly, this doesn't seem to be a difficult pattern, and the yarn is pretty cool, so I am excited to finish it for her. She even offered to pay me for it. Even better. Pictures of the shawl will come once I bring it home.

Stardust FO and the beginnings of a dress

I finished my Stardust Sweater! I think I made it a size too small, but it is still wearable. Today I wore it to my Language Arts Professional Development and got a few compliments. I can't wait to wear it with a short sleeve tshirt or tank top once the weather gets warmer. I made a few mistakes, but luckily nothing too obvious. Most of the mistakes in the stardust pattern were made near the arm holes.

Pattern: Stardust Sweater

Yarn: 3 skeins of Karabella Gossamer in light blue/silver

Outcome: I'm happy, but it is a little small. I also think that the ties are too thick. I plan on making this sweater again in white for a wedding this fall, maybe I will make it a size larger, but with ties that are half as thick. I shall see when I get to that project.

Onto another project....

For those of you who have seen the Science of Sleep, I plan on making the sweater dress that Stephanie wears during Stephane's party to celebrate his calendar. I have drawn out plans and made a swatch, but no other progress has been made. But I do need help, the dress in the movie has these vertical stripes of some stitch that I can't tell from pausing the movie on Comcast On-Demand on my non-HD TV. So, what do you like the best? The choice is between the Double Moss (aka the Double Seed) stitch and the Daisy stitch. So far, I have two for Daisy.

News News News!

Lots of things have been happening recently. First, I won 3rd place in the Instructables Homemade Holidays contest with my Venezia Napkin Rings. Somehow, they added it to their front page, then added it to a newsletter (which got me a patch and a bunch of stickers), so lots of people looked at my instructable. I think it's pretty funny that I won a prize for a pattern I didn't make up (and didn't pretend to make up since I had a link to the pattern in the instructible). Anyway, I look forward to the presents!

Also, I am almost done with the Stardust sweater. I even got an e-mail from the author of the pattern and she was excited about mine because it reminded her of the one she made. Being unoriginal, I used exactly the same yarn and she noticed on Ravelry. I look forward to finishing it today or tomorrow. I even bought more yarn to make it again in a pretty white color for a future wedding.

Also, I may be getting a puppy! News on that as it unfolds. Just hope my landlord allows it!

Stardust Sweater

I finally got around to taking pictures of my progress on the Stardust Sweater. Surprisingly, it's coming along really quickly. I began on Tuesday, took a few days break, and took it up again yesterday. Already, I have 12 inches of the back. I was afraid that the stardust lace pattern would be difficult, but it's quite easy. I did mess up on the first part of it, but the few that I made mistakes on are near the arm holes so they won't be noticeable (hopefully) when I am actually wearing it.

I have to say I love this yarn. It is super soft and light and the little bits of glitter are great. I thought this sweater would take forever because I am using small needles and the yarn is very thin, too. Instead, it's super quick! I may even finish this sweater by the end of my weekend (albeit, it is a 4 day weekend, thank you "Human Rights Day" - aka MLK Jr. Day and a comp day).

I was disappointed by the color of this yarn. I was hoping it was more of a steely blue than a baby blue. Ah well, luckily my LYS is having their 2nd anniversary and therefore a 20% off every yarn sale. Maybe they have more of this yarn, or something similar that I can make another from. This would be a great sweater present for someone. I just have to figure out who....