So, after my rant about the literary world making the human population stupid, I stewed in my misery, but while i did so I was knitting something, or had already knit something to share with you.





It's yarn.


This skein, which I love, is like a sample from a company that a friend of mine is talking to. The yarn itself is uber delicious to knit with. It's light, and airy, and the actual knit fabric is very pretty and keeps with the whole lovely greyness.

So, I have only one skein of this yarn, and I was tempted to knit the tuva hat, but i wasn't sure i had enough to make the hat big enough to fit my really big head(Which is another story). So i decided to make something that was easily controllable, at least to the point were i could stop where i needed to.

So I made this.




That's a very blurry picture of the Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West.

The photo is really blurry, but hopefully I'll find the scarf again and retake pictures of it. But the pattern was amazingly simple, which made me uber happy, and the whole thing was just fun to do.

That's really it, more to come about my other projects that are worth while.

Let's Talk

So, I know that I haven't really been updating you on the specifics of life in highschool....that's because there really is no life in highschool, but that is not the point. I'm here to talk about what is really going on in my mind at this moment in time, and it is not about the latest 'Twilight' movie.
....But it is about books.

Ok, deep breath. Plunge in.

The books that are being placed upon the shelves of the local bookstores, libraries, and other literary inclined facilities leaves a lot to be desired when a person is looking for something in which they can actual read, not just skim over the pages, owwing and ahhing at what the vampire boy did this time, or if the werewolf man is sleeping with the ugly human girl....whatever happened to books that made America, as a whole, think?

What made the United States teens begin really caring who was sleeping with who, or what, or why?

When did we all stop caring about the devotion an author puts into their craft, and instead start caring about whether the two teenagers are sleeping together yet, and why they aren't using any type of protection?

What they are offering the teens of today is garbage! They expect us all to be these hormone driven sex fiends, and with what society is giving us, we might as well just start copulating like rabbits in order to fulfill their want of teenage pregnancies.

What the authors writing these books don't realize is that they are causing children to remain isolated in their safe haven of sex, drugs, and violence, instead of moving toward something that could, ultimately, enrich the lives of people in this generation and the next.

What society seems to lack is that we, as teenagers, are learning from the examples that are placed before us, and what you, the adults, are feeding us is stunting our growth as human beings. We can't function properly anymore because you've given us nothing to really work with, nothing that we can learn from. You feed us the worst that society can offer, and expect us to work with what we are given. But, we can't. We can't work with stupidity, we can't make something out of nothing. You feed us words and works that make us stupid, that make us believe that it is all right to be left behind all the other countries in the world.

That's what you are saying to us when you allow stupidity to mark the aisle of the bookstores, to choke the actual good authors from being able to say their thoughts because we are too busy trying to see past the huge cardboard cutouts of Edward, and Bella, and Jacob, to see what has been blinding us.

Stop it, you're making us stupid.

I hate it

Though there are a number of things that go on my hate list, my in-progress sweater goes to the second on my list right after a really large ignoramous that attends my school, who is loud, abnoxious, and clingy. How people tolerate him,the endless sea of my thoughts cannot wrap itself around the idea of this boy having friends. Anyway, back to more important things. The sweater is a beastly thing. It's teal. It makes me want to cry with how horrible it looks. On the back the stitches are wonky, the edges curl, the color doesn't like me and I hate it.

But I will keep at it because it is my first sweater, and I won't have it just sitting there being unwanted in a goodwill, wanting a good home who will love its ugliness.

I'm going to love it, and make it beautiful, even if it is only to me. I'm modifying the pattern and making it into a vest, hopefully that will save my sweater, from here on called The Vest.

School!!!

As the title suggests, school has started. And, of course, the smart people are rushing around to get everything together in order to beat the rush of last minute shoppers,( like me :-) ).

We also got the sister out of the state and into the big wide world we all like to call Cali. (Hey Jess!) She's going for fashion merchandising, while p.s. and I hang with the parental units, and state in the lovely hot Texas, pursuing more scholarly things.

Classes that we are taking this year are:

AP U.S. History
AP English III
Honors Anatomy and Physio (Just me)
Physics
and some other classes that I have no idea about. (It's the weekend, give me a break.)

Knitting has been in hibernation as the school year begins, so not much to show you there. It's all kind of sporadic, but I do have a lovely surprise for myself that is on my ravelry page that hasn't been updated in a very long while.

I find that as I write more on this blog my typing gets faster, and also my punctuation gets a wee bit better. It's all much easier now.

Anyway, there really isn't much to talk to you all about. But I do have a new phone :-) (hey, I'm a kid,with no job, what can I say, pretty shiny new phones are my thing at the moment)

By the way, I read a book that I thoroughly hated this summer. 'The Grapes of Wrath', while a great literary work is a little on the boring side for this poor teenager. The book was generally depressing with a side of incrediblity. To read about what happened at that timeperiod, it's rather depressing. To compare a human to an animal repeatedly, it was dehumanizing and gives me all the more reason to be antisocial. (Which I am very good at.) But really the book made p.s. talk with a heavy accent the entire week after reading it. And it was so heavily enveloped with Biblical Allusions that it was hard to get everything.

But the entirety of the book was overly depressing and the style overly simplistic.

Now, a delicious read that I read my freshman year is Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale'. Now, that is a good read. It has that touch of sophistication, that makes you want to eat dark chocolate while you read, it has the drama that hooks you from the beginning, the mystery that makes your heart race at the very end, and the storyline that keeps you interested throughout the book. It is compelling and this book is gorgeously written, dark and rich, and vivid. I loved it.

But, it has a few twists in there that makes it not for the faint of heart.

Cardi Hardi

So after a few weeks of not really knitting, I've decided on a project that has been in my favorites for awhile now. I've been eyeing the Mrs. Darcy cardigan for the better part of a month, but now that I have the time, I plan on starting it. I'm using the modifications that others have found useful, well, a mix of mods anyway. I'm trying to keep it all documented and stuff, while also rewriting some of the mods as I go. Not that simple, huh?

The reason why I'm rewriting the mods, it because some to the shaping would look better on the cardigan, but the mods in my size aren't really tailored for that. So, I'm having to combine three different sources, the original pattern, me sized mods, and then the XS mods, all by different people who have a different knitty language system, and while it is hard, and a little hopeful, helps me figure out the designing process.

Anyway, on to more fun stuff! I'm working on a secret project for a fellow knitter. ;) and because she might read this blog, I'm not going to say what it is until I give it to her, ok. But the day I give it to her, will be the day you guys know, or maybe the day after. But, I can give you a hint.

S---- ----

Sorry about the lack of pictures in the post, I really don't have anything new.

Teaching Army Strong

Yesterday afternoon was spent in my house, with my older sister's boyfriend, named Army Strong. He is an army reserve, and of course one of the strangest most dorkiest, funny guy that you will every meet. Really he is a sweet guy that doesn't mind spending time with us with out the sister here to watch him.

So he was sitting in my living room with us, watching Deadly Women, a really good show if you love hearing about why women kill, and their methods, but I digress. Anyway, Army Strong was watching as me and sister, p.s.ilovewool, were knitting, and he just kept on watching us. He had asked us some questions about knitting him a cashmere onsie, which of course was laughable, but we weren't really sure what he wanted. Finally, we got tired of his questions, and asked if he would have like to learn. The evidence:

He actually took up the knit stitch quite easily, making him one of the fastest learners we had taught to date. He was a little confused when p.s.ilovewool, was teaching him, because she knits right handed when she is left handed, and it looks weird, and stuff like that. Don't tell her, but her loopy cast-on sucks, it's too loose for new knitters that don't have their tension down yet, especially the first day.

Anyway, we left him to drop off Jess at her job, and when we came back, he had a good inch or so on that little swatch of pink acryillic, it was funny.

On to more knitty knit things. I finished the first hat of the summer;

It's a Thorpe, the pattern is by Kristen Kapur, it is beautiful, and I love it! It's made with Kureyon and knit on US 9. It was really a fast knit and was really great fun. I finished it in two or so days, and decided against the ties. It's a personal preference, and all that jazz. It's also for my bro-bro, Matt, and i hope he likes it. I'm kinda hoping I can get him to take some pictures and will upload them on the blog and on Ravelry. The pattern can be found here http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/thorpe in pdf, format. It's a really nicely written pattern that I only had a little trouble understanding at the end, when it was explaining how to do the earflaps:

"Next row (RS): Slip1, ssk, knit 10(11,12), place these 12(13,14) stitches on a
holder, bind off 12(14,18), knit to 3 stitches from the end, k2tog, k1. 12 (13,
14) stitches remain on the needle."

I was confused when it came to the highlighted part, but I went back and reread that section, and realized that I was a bit of an idiot. But it is an easily understood pattern and it was great fun to knit. I would recommend it to anyone that wants to knit a hat that is sooo much fun to knit. It's quick and easy and fun. Now, go and make one!

Update

Hey,

Just me here! I haven't been here in awhile, so I decided that sense it is summer, I would update you guys on my life so far this summer. There will be some knitting and stuff that also does not involve knitting. You all know the drill.

These updates will happen the next time I blog, and junk like that.