Memorial Day Nail Art

Dear Blog,

I hope everybody is enjoying their Memorial Day weekend. By the time this posts, I will be working. Sadly, my first job does not let me have many days off for anything. So if any of you go to any sort of fast food place, remember to be nice to the people working there. We work really hard to make ends meet and you never know who you may find working there.

Since I will be busy working instead of hanging out with my family, I decided to do a little holiday nail art. My mom thinks that the blue and red stripes looks more like a race car than the patriotic colors of the US flag. Oh well.

This was one of my first times doing nail art and I am really proud of it. I started off with three coats of Essie Marshmallow (my favorite white) and then carefully applied China Glaze Dorothy Who and Ruby Slippers as the middle stripes. I ended up doing two coats of Dorothy Who and really should have put two coats of Ruby Slippers on to get the stand out sparkle that the blue has.

I don't have any nail art brushes so I ended up using a drink stick since I couldn't find any toothpicks. If anything, all you need is a small point so anything can work for that!

Happy Memorial Day.

Deep Autumn

The leaves are slowly changing their color from the emerald and forest greens of summer to the dusty browns, vivid orange, and sunny yellows of fall. Depending on where you live and what trees surround you, your backyard could also be coated with a thick layer of brown pine needles so plush that you can walk on them with your bare feet without getting pricked.

It is the perfect time to pick up the sweater that you have been too busy for. Or in this case, the sleeve of the sweater you have been working on for a few months and would have been done if you had not put it down for some reason that has since been lost to time and a bad case of the lazies. To imagine, the silly pattern actually wanted you to count so you could place increases in an even amount so the sleeve would actually be fitted to your arm. How dare it be so considerate. How dare you be so lazy to not want to count a measly seven rows then work a simple little increase.

The sleeve is at the simple part of knitting. The part where it is just a two-row stripe pattern on and on for a few inches. Then it will be ready for the sleeve cap, but we aren't rushing the process here. Simple, mindless, soothing knitting is ready for us and that is what we will happily take. Even if you have a pair of empty straight needles sitting beside the ball of green just waiting for you to cast on and knit the ribbing of the next sleeve. We aren't there yet and sweaters are a process project.

Just knit. Sit and knit, happily and steadily for a few more inches at least.

Unexpected Hiatus and a Sweater

Lots of things have happened since I last blogged. Most things were good things and some things were not so good but are looking more optimistic by the day. Mostly, I have been dead tired with no inspiration or determination to blog.

Then something strangely curious happened: I started knitting. Not just talking about knitting but actually doing it on a fairly regular basis. It was soothing, comfortable, complex when necessary, and somehow I now have a body of a sweater.

Unfortunately, this baby soft sweater isn't for me. It is for my mom who picked up the cuddly alpaca yarn two years ago on an anniversary trip to Maine. Her hands have been acting up on her so she hasn't been able to knit in a long time and the actual knitting of the sweater has passed down to me. The pattern is from Interweave Knits Fall 2011 and is called the Flander's Bay Pullover. It is by Kate Gangon Osborn who is one of the authors of Vintage Modern Knits. So far, the pattern is just lovely and I am so glad to be knitting it!

There is a little bit of modification so far. I made the body longer because that is how mom wants it to fit on her, but it is fitting! We tried it on again last night after I did the three needle bind off on the top of the armholes. The stranded anchors are a little tight in some places, but I am hoping that the alpaca will relax when it is blocked and will stretch out just a little bit in those spots. I want to knit the sleeves first before I block the body so I can block the sleeve caps out at the same time and have an easier time sewing them in.

Almost too Hot to Knit

It has gotten so hot here recently. My family really didn't want to do anything that required any heat for dinner last night, so we went out for parfaits instead. They were really delicious. I normally get something with caramel on all three layers, but this time I opted for strawberries and walnuts in maple syrup. It was so delicious.

My fiance and I went to see Iron Man 3 yesterday. It was really fun to watch even if the ending was a little stranger than normal. Iron Man was our very first date movie, so we have tried to see every Iron Man (and by extension, every Marvel movie) in theaters together since. It is really sweet and we have never had a disappointing time at the theaters ever.

I have been slowly working on a scarf. I swear that I started this thing when the weather was bearable, but knitting a wool scarf in the middle of this scorching summer heat is a little crazy making. The scarf started out as a striped scarf a la the Noro Striped scarf, but it has evolved to have the stripes as an accent color to the main wine color. It is nowhere near complete, but it is something simple I can pick up and knit on whenever I feel like it.

The yarn is really nice to work with too. It is Patons Wool Merino worsted weight. It has such a nice luster and it is really soft to work with. The multicolor is just Patons Wool which is less soft, but still really nice to have in your hands when you are knitting. I have a feeling that I will make either a matching pair of fingerless gloves, full gloves, or a hat to go with the scarf before I am done since I have two balls of each color. This is basically knitting from the deep stash that I still have on hand since before I went to college.

My cotton hasn't grown much since my last picture. I think it is time to feed it some weak fertilizer to make sure that they are getting enough nutrients through the soil. They should be getting their photosynthesizing leaves soon and then their first set of real leaves. Then I can transplant them to bigger pots. Hopefully it will all go well.