UCLA Orientation

The week of July 20th I had the immense pleasure of wandering through the hills of Westwood. Why you may ask? For UCLA Orientation! I got to do all the fun things freshman do: get lost trying to find Rieber Terrace when I’m right in front of it, feeling generally disoriented (probably the point of orientation), staying in a triple on the eighth floor and shaking while enrolling in classes in anticipation of the screen telling me the class was full. Luckily, the full classes never came to pass. I’m a physical science major (GO BIOCHEM!) which is unpopular for reasons unapparent to me, and therefore no one wanted my classes! I got every single class I wanted and am incredibly grateful. I know you’re curious, so the classes I’m taking next quarter are (BAHDAHDAHDUH!!!): Chem 20A (Chemical Structure), Math 31A (Differential and Integral Calculus), GE Cluster 21A (The History of Modern Thought) and a one unit honors seminar on Socialism in America: The Witty Ramblings of Aziz Nesin (or something along those lines). You may be wondering about the cluster as I know my sister is (“Valerie why the heck are you taking [assume obnoxious voice here] The History of Modern Thought? How BORING”), but rest assured there are many reasons. 1. It covers all the GE requirements my major and minor do not (besides one art class), 2. It gives me 18 units of honors credit if I get a B or higher, and 3. I think it sounds interesting. Who doesn’t like John Locke and Rene Descartes? Niesche anyone? No? Well I do and I’m the one taking the class and that is all that matters. ^-^

Pictures from my view on the eighth floor: Jealous right?





In addition to classes, which is all that really matters anyway, I listened to a bucket full of welcoming and safety(sex, drugs, violence, rape) seminars that I could have done well without, took a four hour campus tour, and ate in Hedrick Hall which is my dining facility for next year. Trust me, I won’t starve, the food was AMAZING. Thank goodness for all the hills and stairs to my classes and the two meals a day plan or else I might be watching my butt expand.

Overall I loved UCLA and am SO glad that I am going there. If they would just offer me a little more financial aid it would be ideal. Looked up medical school requirements today and just might be able to graduate undergrad study in three years with a major in Biochem and a minor in English. Maybe. Medical school, watch out because I WILL be attending. I want to be a doctor MORE THAN ANY OF THOSE OTHER STUPID FRESHMAN AT ORIENTATION. TRUST ME. I have my eye on the prize.

Until school starts, there will be more knitting/spinning/craft posts, as well as more pictures from LA and Santa Monica. (W00T for being next to the ocean!) I’m sorreh about my lack of postage, I will try harder to post more than once a month. Once a week is my goal, almost once a day when school starts. Thanks for reading my long post, bigger is better right? ;] Couldn’t help myself. ^-^

All for now….

SPINNING WHEEL!

It's a 40-year-old Ashford Traditional. That's from the company's first line of wheels! I have ordered an extra bobbin and maintainance kit to replace the drive band and fix the tension on the brake band. I can't wait until it gets here so I can put this wheel through her paces. (And yes, it's a her, I think I'm naming her Ella because I can ^-^).



In other news, I'm participating in the Tour de Fleece this year! I'm on team rookie and team spindlers. It's so much fun! Hope to win some of that gorgeous fleece. More on the stash I'm spinning and my progress tomorrow. Thanks for reading! <3

More FO's

Before I start catching up on all of my lastest projects, I'm excited to announce that I will be receiving a spinning wheel in the next couple of days! I don't know what type it is, or what it looks like but a nice lady at the guild meeting offered it to me. It's her 95 year old mother's, and she can't spin, so I get the wheel. I'm bouncing off the walls in anticipation until it gets here. ^-^

So now for the projects. ;)





I did a close up on the blanket so that the lacy-ish pattern can be seen. This blanket took me FOREVER, considering most of my projects are done in no more than a month. I think this was a UFO most of my senior year of high school, and I just finished it in early June. This will be travelling with Victoria to MIT in August. ^-^

The next is an Irish crochet pincushion that I found on the Knitting Daily website and instantly fell in love with. I love the lace doily delicate look and it works wonders for all the pins I need for my first ever quilting project. It is much easier to make than it looks.

An aside about Knitting Daily: I am incredibly frustrated with them right now. I can't watch it in my area and cannot afford to by the DVD's! They show it a mile south of my town and several miles north, but not HERE! I could literally drive to a friends house and watch it there, it shows that close to me but not on my own TV. I think I might just call PBS and give them a piece of my mind....

Anyway, the last project is a fair isle scarf I made with some frogged yarn from a failed design idea. I think the design was pretty, but another lady on ravelry beat me to the finish and her design is prettier. So I just stopped. If your curious, it is a design for the fair isle hermione scarf from the latest released movie. It's gorgeous, you should really look it up. :]

All for now, but be assured there will be a spinning post in the near future...BWHAHAHAHA! Thanks for reading!

Graduation and Summer

I am now officially graduated and am looking forward to a new experience in college. UCLA is my new school and I hope to do well there even though the registrar is giving me a bit of a headache. *sigh*

Anyway, it's summer now and I have THREE MONTHS off. No summer homework and lots of nothing really planned. Orientation and Monteray Bay Aquarium in July, moving in mid-September. So that means lots of time for hobbies!

Since the last time I posted a LOT has happened so there will be several catch-up posts in the next few days.



These are a nice pair of mittens I made for Victoria before she heads off to MIT in August. I also finished her blanket and my fair isle scarf but that is for a different day. (I have yet to take pictures ;])

There has also been some stash enhancement as I couldn't resist a nice sale from Knit Picks affordable luxury yarn.





The blue yarn is in the colorway reef and is a cotton and wood derivative yarn that I have marked for the Ladies Top pattern by Patons. The yellow yarn is in the colorway canary of CotLin and will be used for the Inamorata tank top by Knitty. The last six hankks are of the line Gloss fingering weight in deep jewel tones I couldn't resist and will be socks or scarfs or maybe something else, I have yet to find the just right pattern for them. The yarn is simply to awesome for me to find a project yet.

I also set the twist in all of my handspun yarns the other day and gave my handpainted yarns the wash and light test. I was surprised that they passed the test remarkably! There was NO bleeding of dye whatsoever and they spent at least two or three hours in direct sunlight drying without any fade in color. The last test I have to run my yarn through is the wear test before I would feel comfortable selling it. I have some of my laceweight handspun saved for the Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace Scarf Pattern, even though it isn't alpaca. I'm going to knit it and wear it around, subject it to some roughage, and see how it lasts. I'm very excited considering how well the other tests went!

As far as projects go, I'm about to start the DROPS design halter top and might whip up some circular sachets as gifts for some people that have helped me a lot. These are both crochet projects as I would like some more practice. I might be teaching a crochet or knitting class at Joann's this summer and I'm so happy! That is my dream summer job.
All of the projects I've mentioned can be found toward the bottom of my Ravelry queue or on my projects page.

Thanks for reading! This is all for now.... :)

Ami pets and Stash

As it was my friend Chelsey's birthday yesterday, I was under obligation to make her something.Her favorite animal is a monkey, her favorite color is blue, and I just so happened to have really fuzzy, soft yarn in that color. The result? An amigurimi monkey! And she really liked it. :3






A while ago I also made an ami panda for my sister. The eyelash yarn was a little difficult to start with, but eventually you get the hang of it. She LOVES pandas, and I couldn't help myself when I saw this pattern. The center picture is of the two animals hanging out on Victoria's computer, listening to music. They enjoyed it there before the monkey had to leave.



There was also a little bit of stash enhancement, totally against my new years resolution. I just learned I had an LYS so close to my home, but when I got there I learned that they were closing at the end of the month. All the yarn was 50% off. Obviously I couldn't resist the prices, and stashed a little. The orange and pink skeins are Fortissima Socka by Schoeller and Stahl. Solid colored sock yarn in bright spring colors was too good to pass up. I do believe I'm getting bored with some of the multicolored sock yarns out there. Those beautiful golden brown hanks are Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light, destined to be a mitten and hat combo. It's so incredibly soft, the thought of mittens was too good to pass up, especially if I get to go to the east coast for school.





Oh, and I just learned about artfire, a website similar to Etsy. If I'm ever going to sell my yarn, I'm pretty sure I'll make an account on there.

All for now....

Procrastinating

With so many scholarship deadlines coming up, I really should be completing them right now. Maybe I'll right one of those essays after I right this. Writing this is more fun.... :)

In the spirit of scholarship, this is the sweater I'll be submiting for my only fibery scholarship. Intricate cables, fitted sweater, nice neckline....I'm hoping it displays my knitting abilities enough to help me win.

I also finished the argyle scarf that I was making for my sister. She really likes it (I think :3), and it's perfect for when she goes to MIT. Now I know her neck won't be frostbitten. :D

There has also been a spinning marathon at my house. In the attempt to make as much yarn as possible for senior project, I have made my arm incredibly sore. However, I'm really happy with the results. I'm using one of the rovings I dyed in December. It's merino wool, dyed with Wilton's Cake Paste coloring. The yarn is turning out far prettier than I imagined. After I knit it and wash it, we'll see how well the dye sticks to the wool.

By the way, did you notice the spindle? Isn't it beautiful? I made it from a toy wheel and a dowel, and then my sister (same one in the photo in the scarf) painted it. It is even more beautiful in real life. She promised to paint me a few more as well. :3 Aren't I spoiled?

Birthday party tonight....watch yourself Chelsey Blue.... ; )

All for now....

Progress and Questions

WIP UPDATE:

From the first post I made, I'm here with an update on the knitting and crocheting I've been doing. The big blue socks I finished, and gave them to my grandpa for Christmas (see photo :]). I haven't touched the blanket in a long time, I believe it can be officially classified as a UFO. As for the Hermione scarf, I really wasn't liking how it was turning out and frogged it. I now have the recycled yarn planned for three other scarves, one I'm currently working on. Sorry, no picture yet. For those on Ravelry it is a free pattern called the Simple Argyle Scarf by Tricia Keffer. It's crochet and wonderfully simple. By the way, my Ravelry name is DestinysRose. Add me if you would like. :3

Additionally, there has been some serious spinning and plying on my part in the last three days. Of my spinning career, I have only made three skeins of usable yarn. Granted I've only made three and a half skeins my whole life, the first half being my practice first time skein. It didn't take me long to get the hang of it. :]

I'm pretty sure you can click to embiggen, but in case you don't feel like it I'll tell you what they are. The two skeins on the left are two-ply, 100% corriedale wool, lace weight yarn. There is about 350 yards total and I'm planning on dyeing them autumn leaf red to make the lace scarf in the fall issue of Spin-Off. Hopefully there is enough yardage. The skein on the right is three-ply, 70% corriedale wool 30% nylon, sock weight yarn. There is 177 yards, so I need to spin up at least one more skein in order to make socks. Victoria (my twin sister) is already in love with this yarn and wants the socks made from this.

To those out there who are reading this, I have two questions. The first is about Etsy. Now I've never ordered anything from that website, but the more yarn I spin and the more roving I dye, the more curious I am about starting my own shop.If any of you have good information or tips on starting my own shop, please leave a comment. The second question is about the Sheep Shed Studio. I've been eyeing their online store for some time now, and I really want to order the brown and black rovings. They are a wonderful price, but the website description makes me a little nervous about the state of the rovings. As a relatively new spinner, I have no equipment to straighten out a slightly matted or felty roving. If you have any experience, again please let me know! Thanks everyone!

Long Catchup Post....

So, wow, I just realized I have been ignoring this blog for some time now and it's time for an update. I have so much to share!

Life is so much more calm now with applications all finished, two week break and Science Bowl and Science Olympiad Regional competitions over with. Tokay won first place in both, and I'll be headed to Washington DC for National Science Bowl and Fresno for State Science Olympiad. In addition to this traveling, I will also be visiting MIT with my sister for CPW. I think I can officially say this is the best senior year any nerd could have.

I have also been doing a lot of fibery things since the last time I posted.

This is some nice stash enhancement from paradise fibers. I really fell in love with the idea of christmas socks. The yarn is beautiful, soft and sparkly. I can't wait to work with this.

Since I'm spinning yarn for my senior project, I dyed some wool roving around christmas time. That was a learning experience all right. Never dye any roving during winter, it takes FOREVER to dry. And the doggy really likes warm sheep smell, she wanted a bite of the roving really, really bad.

I've also spun a few hanks of yarn: two just need finishing, and two are in the spinning singles stage. I plan on finishing them, plus a few more during break for my project. Pictures will be available soon.

And finally, a book review!

The Joy of Sox

This is an absolutely amazing book of sock knitting. With its cheesy but oh so hilarious sexual inuendos and beautiful socks, it really is a must have pattern book for those who love sock knitting. I was very impressed. I've never liked a clothing book as much as I enjoy this one. At some point, I'm probably going to make every one of these socks, with the exception of maybe two of the 30+ patterns. It is also a very good book if you want to substitute handspun, handpainted yarn as the patterns use largely the same thing. I highly recommend it to everyone.

All for now...