Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Meme

48 Things You Could Care Less About
1. FIRST NAME? Gloria
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Nope. I think my mom got my name out of a "here's how to name your baby" type book.
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? When I saw my new problem set this morning. I didn't actually have tears, but it was close.
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? It's okay. I can read it, so that's fine with me.
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? Ham. Very un-Kosher.
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I hope so, but I do make fun of people a lot, which could probably become annoying.
7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? Just this blog. I have never been good at keeping a handwritten one.
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes.
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? No way. I'm afraid of heights.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Raisen Bran
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Nope. I wear holes in the heels of my sneakers because I'm too lazy to untie them.
12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Strong enough to deal with things, but I could be stronger both physically and emotionally.
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Chocolate. I am so boring.
14. SHOE SIZE? 10. Actually one of my feet is 10.5 and the other is 9.5 . I don't know how that happened.
RED OR PINK? Red.
16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? The way I can go from being happy to freaked out in one minute.
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My sister.
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Why not?
19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Blue jeans, black turtleneck, grey sneakers.
20. LAST THING YOU ATE? Tostitos.
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? The new Killers album, which is a bit unsatisfying.
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Blue? Maybe?
23. FAVORITE SMELL? My parent's dog.
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Mike.
25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? Color of hair.
26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON you stole THIS from? I've never personally met Elizabeth, but she sounds like my kind of person based on her blog.
27. FAVORITE DRINK? Ginger ale.
28. FAVORITE SPORT? Horseback riding (English hunter/jumpers)
29. EYE COLOR? Dark brown.
30. HAT SIZE? 23". Enormous.
31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Glasses.
FAVORITE FOOD? Cheez-Its. Somehow I can eat those whenever.
33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy endings. I am too easily scared. I'll get nightmares for days if I watch a scary movie.
35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Whichever isn't now.
36. HUGS OR KISSES? Depends on who's doing the hugging and the kissing.
37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Ice cream.
38. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? My sister Jessie?
39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? The Hanover Square Affair by Ashley Gardner
41. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE Pad? It's plain grey.
42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? I was at a meeting, so nothing, but I avidly watch ER, Gilmore Girls, Studio 60, Heroes, and Without a Trace.
43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Couldn't really say.
44. ROLLING STONE OR BEATLES? Beatles, but I have little exposure to the Stones except for in passing.
45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? China.
46. WHAT'S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? uh, studying a lot?
47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Baltimore
48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? nicked it off of A Mingled Yarn (Elizabeth).

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Regency Dress


Here's my regency dress that I'm planning on wearing to Amy's halloween party on Saturday. It's far from perfect, but I'm proud that I was able to sew something like this at all. It took me about a week to finish, working in the evenings. I want to try to make another, and see if my skills can improve. It's tough, because I find that sewing takes too big chunks of time compared to knitting. Although I spend more time per project on knitting, it's easier to just pick up and put down. So I can knit in between doing other things. With sewing, I have to sit down and devote a lot of time to it, or else things get messy really fast. But I want to try more sewing projects.

In other news, shawl #1 is going well. I'm on the fourth (of six) repeat of the chart for the body of the shawl, but then I have, as mentioned before, the giant knitted-on borders. We shall see how those go.

Friday, October 13, 2006

New Project!


As some of you may know, I've been engaged for a while now, and Mike and I have decided to get married in the summer of 2008. My current project is to make shawls for some of the women in the wedding party. I'm not sure if I'm going to be sucessful, as this means I have to knit A LOT, but I'm giving it a go. Plus, Michelle has graciously offered to knit a couple for me too (thank you, Michelle!!!).

So, I ordered three cones of Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport from Paradise Fibers, and now I am knitting away. I chose the Highland Triangle pattern from Folk Shawls. I cast on for the first one a week ago, and now you can really see the pattern coming together. But I still have a long way to go, as this shawl has giant knitted on borders. I chose black (not a wedding color, I know!) because I know it will match well with the colors both Michelle and my sister wear a lot. Wish me luck!

Friday, October 06, 2006

Halloween Costume


Still not much to report on the knitting front. I am still waiting for an order of yarn to come in the mail.

However, I have been sewing! I have been working on my Halloween costume, a regency style day dress from Simplicity 4055, which was designed by Sense and Sensibility Patterns. Considering that I haven't sewn clothes in ages, it's going pretty well. This is a pic of the finished bodice. I've attached the skirt now, but I need to put on the buttons and give the dress a good ironing. The fabric (of which I have a decent amount left over) and notions for this cost less than $20, plus $10 for the pattern. And I think I'll use the pattern again, as it's working quite nicely (though I had trouble understanding the directions Simplicity included. I ended up following the "Sewing tips" section on the Sense and Sensibility site).