True Blue cowl to warm in this stormy weather

Another catch up post...

so, I had 3 balls of this squishy blue Debbie Bliss Como yarn and thought it would make a nice cowl - I'm seeing more and more of this style (i.e. cowl vs scarf). Yay Ravelry - I love Ravelry.  After some searching through the pattern database I found a pattern for this mobius cowl made from the same yarn!

The stitch was an interesting one - I noticed that some knitters used a traditional seed stitch, and I almost started over to do that at one point, but I decided to stay with the pattern as written. I like that the cowl is "reversible" but not the same on both sides.  

Attempt at self portrait - I never see my family in the daylight hours during the week and on the weekend I always forget to ask Mr. Wonderful to take a pic.  But self pictures are pretty common among knitters, so I'm in good company there. 

The seaming was interesting too - a three needle bind off.  I thought about  Kitchener stitch, but again went with the pattern.  I really like the different textures of this piece with the two sides and also the rib formed by the seam.

Below is a more close look at the stitches.  I really like how it turned out, and it is so snuggly and warm. It's a bigger "profile" around my neck than I'm used to, but it works.  I knit this up while traveling to Seattle, Olympia, and Portland to visit colleges for Teen Wonder and to see some family (briefly).  It was snowing when we left but we really got out in just the knick of time last week!

Where have I been? - in which I share rambling book and film reviews, a Fall Scarf project, and bizarre anxiety dream

Well, Fall is here - sort of. The weather still can't decide. But school started and I've got a Senior this year (Teen Wonder) as well as a 2nd grader Wild Thing. So things are uber busy. What better time to go off to Berlin for a conference? kidding - it's a TERRIBLE time to go away for a week. I was at the International Papillomavirus Meeting, which is always interesting for me and I get to see a lot of colleagues from around the world that I only see once a year or less. But it is a long trip every time I go to Europe (meaning far), and jet lag gets harder and harder on my body.

I haven't had a lot of time to do anything crafty. Though I have read a couple of novels with all the plane time. I finally read "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson, and started the next one "The Girl Who Played With Fire". I am totally into these, and only the most severe exhaustion allows me to go to sleep instead of staying up to read them - which confirms my general level of energy in the last three or four weeks.  I also read "Up in the Air" last week (as I hadn't bought the second Girl book yet) - the book that inspired the movie with George Clooney. I say "inspired" because the book was quite different - and it was a little disorienting to try and get into the book with the expectation that it would resemble the movie. I loved the movie (as did most others who saw it).  The book is written entirely from an inner monologue point of view, and the character is more complex than the movie quite captures. And more depressed - think Holden Caulfield. I didn't get the satirical humor feeling in the book that I had in the movie, it made me more sad - and also perhaps because I know so many more people in real life who've been downsized since that movie came out in 2009.  Anyway, my mom enjoyed the book more than me, I think, and she didn't see the movie (yet), so there is my very scientific reasoning for how seeing a movie first is usually a bad idea if you plan to read the novel.  Though I did also watch the movie version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" on Netflix, and found it to be pretty well done.  Another movie I saw recently that was a fairly close and accurate adaptation of the book was "Winter's Bone" - this is a very depressing story if you are not in the right mindset for it. But excellent - highly recommend!

Okay, enough of the books and films I've entertained myself with recently (oh, forgot to mention Super 8 which I just watched on the plane - that was good Stephen Spielberg fun!)

The one and only project I undertook in the past 3 weeks was a quick fall scarf project. I'm not sure what I had originally intended but I had 1/4 yard each of a crushed velvet and a Anna Marie Horner voile in my project pile. Seemed like it would be a pretty straightforward project to cut them in half lengthwise, stitch together each piece and then sew them together to make a simple scarf.  But I had to rip out most of the first try at stitching together and try again because the 2 fabrics were very hard for me to feed consistently and get an even seam. I've had this problem before. This seems to be something where an experienced sewist could help me out - or I could do a google search to see what's been shared on the topic online.  Anyway, I didn't have time even to take decent photos with my new camera - these are just from my iPod camera (or maybe it was my blackberry...) So forgive the poor quality and the messy hair!

This photo is not flattering, but it is probably an accurate version of me after a long day trying to fit it a few minutes to photograph a project I whipped out in a (relative) hurry. Anyway, you can see how long it is - but I  wore it in Berlin (with a nice blouse, brushed hair, and makeup) and even had a compliment or two so it is serving it's purpose.


 The scarf turned out way longer than I would have made if I'd given it much thought.  In fact I may have meant originally to go for a short wide one, but I don't think the 42" WOF would have been long enough to wrap around sufficiently.

Mr. Wonderful says I look more rested today. But I had one of the most bizarre and unsettling anxiety dreams last night that involved blowing a Final exam in some sort of writing class (playwriting?) - I was supposed to write a short play, cast it, and perform it...but I missed half the instructions, ran out of paper and spent most of the writing time scrambling around begging for scraps of paper.  Eventually, on little scraps of paper with a stubby pencil I wrote something that turned out to be completely off-base (due to missing instructions), and I had to fake my way out of sharing with the class while I tried to rewrite something.  I totally messed up the casting since the play was so off-base (like mine was a musical comedy instead of a serious drama), and it was like Project Runway where we were competing for the best actors (models for PR) so I was completely screwed and decided I'd perform on my own (seems like about as good an idea as representing yourself in court rather than getting a lawyer!)  I'm not even sure how the story turned out after trying to get the instructor's attention unsuccessfully to beg for mercy so I'd have time to figure something out.

Because I finally, mercifully, woke up.


Linky alert! Check out some weekly Whoop Whoop projects over here!

Stylish Blogger award!

What a nice surprise to find in your mailbox! Cassie at domstiCass gave me the Stylish Blogger award!

I feel so honored to receive this fun award that's been circulating around lately!  Thanks so much Cassie!! Please drop by her blog and take a look around. p.s. She is having a giveaway as part of this award.!

In accepting this award, I have agreed to do a few things:
  1. To thank the blogger who nominated me and link back to her blog  (check!)
  2. Share 7 things about myself
  3. Nominate 6 newly discovered bloggers for the Stylish Award
  4. Let my nominees know so that they can share their award with others.

7 things about me
(why are these sharing things always so hard?)

1)  I love Doritos, the nacho flavor original.  I didn't always like them, and I never buy them - but whenever there's a lunch meeting at work I grab the Doritos from the chip basket before anyone else can get them.

2) I'm a science nerd. When your mom makes fun of you for being a nerd because you are reading some non-fiction nerd book while lying on a beach in Spain, then you know you really are even though you never have reached Acceptance of this fact.

3) I wish I were fluent in at least one other language. It's sort of embarrassing when you work for an international company and you can't get past phrase-book level in any foreign language. I wasn't brave enough to really practice in public even when I studied Spanish for over 3 years.

4) I'm an Episcopalian. I'm not a very good Christian, because it's tough for science nerds to accept much of the miraculous faith part of religion. I didn't go to church for a huge chunk of my life in the middle, but as I get older, I feel like I really dig who Jesus was and what he tried to teach.

5) I've had type 1 diabetes for 31 years.

6) I break rules when they make no sense and are counterproductive.

7) I've occasionally been accused of being a perfectionist - which always makes me laugh because I NEVER do anything perfect (and it drives me crazy).

The fun part! - 6 newly discovered bloggers: There are so many great bloggers - but some of my new "discoveries" have obviously been discovered already by hundreds (or even thousands) of followers.  So I tried to stick to those who have fewer than 100 followers - the fewer the newer I figure. Go follow them!! Also, some of the newer discoveries I've found have already been awarded the Stylish Blogger so I didn't hit any of those...this was a tough choice.

 - Bry at A Blond Quilts - I like the name of her blog (hehe), and she has a great sense of color. Check out one of my favorite projects - the Jam Session quilt.

 - Suzanne at Girl For All Seasons - I love how she incorporates hand embroidery into her beautiful projects, and that she made a quilt for Modern Relief Japan (raffle unfortunately closed for legal reasons), but the money was to go to Mercy Corps - one of my favorite charities.

 - Sarah from Pings and Needles - she has the most fascinating "about me" page (Me Me Me) because she's had such a fascinating life.  Right now she appears to be in Berlin and seeing the most fabulous crafty colorful things. I wish I'd seen her posts 2 weeks ago since I just went to Berlin on business. Of course I would likely not have had a chance to check out too much...but it would have given me a different set of eyes for the city.

 - Ali at a-squared(w) - You have to check out her tutorials page! I love them all and plan to make at least 2 of them this year.  Plus she's a middle school rockstar math teacher.

 - Dawn at quilted by dawn - seriously beautiful quilts! She got my attention taking on the Crazy Mom Quilts postage stamp QAL - wow! And check out her queen size Single Girl quilt.

 - Lisa at The Red Headed Mermaid - she uses so much color! Check out her Leftovers quilt - this is an inspiration for me to just dive into some fabrics without too much overplanning.

Go check out some of these blogs!

Last note - I should have realized that Berlin may be rich with crafty inspiration and sources - I snapped this photo of a clothing store that had floor to high ceiling windows wrapping around a quarter city block and lined all with antique sewing machines!  It was so awesome.

If it's Sunday, I must be packing again...

bah.
I'm off to the Mother Ship in Basel for work this week. Summer was so nice and quite travel-wise, and we had some REAL actual family vacation time this year - 2 weeks in Europe (yes, I had to work in Basel a few days in the middle, but it was a great time!), 1 week at the Lair, Tahoe swim meet, 2 different weekend camping trips. We've not been that busy having family fun trips in a few years!

So it is a bit of a shock coming back to this reality.  Last week I was in Tucson for a work meeting - we have a business there in tissue diagnostics, Ventana (now owned by the Mother Ship). Anyway, I really loved the landscape around Tucson, and our hosts were terrific. I wanted to move there and try something new after a couple of days!  Of course, we couldn't do that to Teen Wonder now that she's less than 2 years away from graduating. But it really is beautiful there. Mr. Wonderful claims we wouldn't survive a summer there. He may be right... We did a 6am hike in a local state park on Wednesday - the rain was coming and it was very humid. I just didn't expect that at all - but I've never been there before so what do I know?

a snapshot across a little creek in the park...I wish I'd gotten some good closeups of the saguaro. and next time I want to go to the Saguaro National Park which I hear is nearby and quite fantastic.  Maybe in the spring when all the wildflowers will be in bloom...

Anyway, crafty-wise it's important for me to pick out portable knitting projects for my travels. Teen Wonder's hoodie vest is no longer portable since I'm wrapping up the last panel and need to assemble to start the hood. I have another sweater project to frog and refashion, I think I have some socks somewhere that I started so I'd better find those today before I have to leave again.

I did take dear Megan's quilt top and back to the shop yesterday to commission the quilting. Although it will be 3 weeks before I get it back, I still think it's a better bet than trying to finish it myself. I'd be rushing and fitting it into small timeslots so it wouldn't be a fancy job even if I did have the skills (which I don't yet) - I'd just have to stitch straight lines in the ditch, or tack the quilt down...anyway, it's off and will be beautiful I am sure.