Knittapalooza!!!

This weekend has been a blast! Friday morning started off with a twined knitting class in which i learned that being ambidextrous would be very advantageous in knitting! Beth Brown-Reinsel is an awesome instructor. Even though there were about 20 other people in the class it was like having a personal tutoring session. She is so helpful and so amazingly talented!
Double ended knitting is really neat, it creates this dense fabric and these cool little patterns. I had read a few patterns and articles that talked about two ended knitting but I could never really understand it. The class was definitely worth it, quite inspiring.
The second half of the day was a latvian wristers class. Wow. Its two ended knitting with color and all these crazy scalloped edges and herringbone braids, holy cow! I was using more of my brain than i usually do! This is what I ended up with, my fair isle definitely needs work (its so tight and puckers so much i can't even get it over my hand!) But you can get the general gist of things from this picture.

Thankfully, tomorrow I am taking a fair isle class, maybe i'll make a new wrister after tomorrow's class :)

Lily Chin was teaching classes at Knittapalooza this weekend as well. I didn't sign up for any of her classes but it was amazing watching her knit and crochet, she is so fast! And she's quite nice, I even got a picture with her.


Today's class was by far, my favorite so far. It was an aran from the neck down class and I learned so much I can't even believe it. The class was all day and we learned all sorts of neat aran techniques. My favorite part was learning how to do double knitting to create an elasticy neck band. I finished the front and back of my mini-aran and hope to work a bit on the sleeves tomorrow. We learned how to do short rows to create a nice neck line. I can't wait to knit a sweater from the neck down!
Here is my mini-aran.


The day ended with a fashion show, dinner and giveaways. I was crossing my fingers for the $100 rowan gift certificate, but no such luck. What a day! It was amazing. I can't wait to learn fair isle tomorrow. There are so many talented knitters at knittapalooza, what a treat!
More tomorrow...

Tempted by the fruit of another...

Tempting is almost done, I am working on the sleeves now when I should be working on homework. I thought grad school would give me more time to knit, not take away knitting time! But sneaking in a few rounds here and there is more fun anyway, right?!

I wish today would just slow down already. I started laundry this morning after sleeping in until 8:30 (ahhhhh). I finished a few papers, worked on some journals, and prayed that my to-do list would end already! The laundry is still in progress, nearly 6 loads with sheets and towels and all of the dryers were full. I cannot wait until we have our own washer and dryer!

Tempting has been calling me all afternoon. Every word I type I hear my magpie saying "Esther, you are wasting your life doing homework and chores, come touch me." Its maddening. I think that's mostly because she's so close to being done. Jered promised he'd bring home the digital camera from work in the next coupla days so i should have a few very picture heavy posts. I have the baby sweater, tempting and lots of leo to show, and of course Friday Saturday and Sunday are Knittapalooza and I will be taking a ton of pictures there!

On to another completely random topic (i feel like i'm free associating), I'm making quiche tonight. I haven't made it in a while and was feeling lazy so I bought pre-made pie crust. We have mondo amounts of eggs that need to be used up, so what better way to do that than make a quiche? I already used some yesterday when I baked the ueber delicious chocolate chip cookies that Super Eggplant so kindly provided the recipe for. They are c-h-e-w-y! Yum!

So I realize now that this post is about nothing at all, really. I am stalling. I'm so sick of homework I'm hoping my cats eat my text books. Maybe if I don't feed them for a day or two....

Addendum: Never mind the not feeding the cats thing. I just looked down and Jinx is curled into the Kitty Bed I made for Floyd when he was a kitten. He is too fat now, but she can fit into it if she curls up just right. I wish I had a camera! She looks so peaceful right now. I love my cats! Okay, back to homework.