Grades are in and cuteness..... drum roll please!

I was prepared for how this semester was going to pan out, but there are always those pieces of your grade you don't see until the end, class participation and the big one the FINAL. 

Art Appreciation- A   Not really sure how you could get anything but, I'm a good BS writer, so I kind of did that.  On one of the four essay exams I even skipped a question, on accident, and still received 100% on it.    Aren't you proud Mom :)

Intro to Astronomy- B   For real!!!  This class knocked me on my ass, with all that physics nonsense.  I continued to suck at the quizzes, there were a few good weeks but I averaged about a C-D on those.  The key to this class were the heavily weighted exams, which used the exact same questions from the quizzes, which she encouraged you to use to study.  Grades on those went 96, 94, and 98.  I also took the extra credit quizzes and didn't just get a B, but an 85%!!! 

Take away from this class... we are all stardust.  Literally stardust, and everything and everyone is that same stardust.  I've heard it before but now know the science behind it.  Oh and this fact... for every piece of matter there is a piece of anti-matter, so they cancel one another, but how are we here?  We are built from the one extra proton and/or neutron that comes after every ONE BILLION or so protons, neutrons, anti-proton and anti-neutron.

Fucking amazing.  We are the least special serendipitous fluke out there :)

Logic- C  I was worried about this one.  I knew I could have done better, but between the nonsensical schedule and the fact that Logic is almost like a giant mathematical word problem the two of us did not get along.  I did spend the entire semester dissecting political jargon I heard on npr and facebook*, which was kind of fun.

College Algebra- B  I was right on the edge of a B and C when it came time for the final.  If I made anything less than a B it was a C for the semester.  And an A was impossible.  B it is, really happy with this one.  Even happier knowing that I never have to take another math class ever again if I don't want to.  One more time folks....  I NEVER HAVE TO TAKE ANOTHER MATH CLASS AGAIN IF I DON'T WANT TO!!11!!!!1!!!

So there it is.  Two semester down and with recent news that I have less F's to make up from my original attempt at college, I will be finished at the community college by this time next year.  There are actually no more F's to make up!  The coming Fall and Spring semesters are all electives, and then of course I need to figure out what I want to do for life.  No idea how 18 year olds decide this.  Or even 20 year olds. 

*Facebook.
I'm back on that ride. 
I secretly really like it. 

And today's super cuteness brought to you by the littlest one, who despite his smallness is finally tall enough to reach the rings, and is quite proud.

FO: Annis Shawl -aka- Fastest shawl this side of the city

Pattern:  Annis from knitty.com
Yarn: Dream in Color Starry, Purple Rain
Needles: #10 and #8

Dude, fastest shawl ever.  Seriously best bang for your buck.  When I was younger I used to say "Wham, bam, thank you maam" to my Mom as a way to thank her for doing something so quickly (no clue where I heard it). I might say that about this, however my Mom kindly informed me it was inappropriate.  I just thought I was thanking her for doing things in a timely manner. 

Weeeeelllllllll..... anyway, this shawl was that fast.  Cast on Monday, bound off Saturday.  Do you know how little time during the week I have for knitting?  Between studying for finals and babysitting it was very limited this week, but still managed to crank this one out. 

Nupps, 7 stitch nupps. Which reminds me of this...

But really the nupps weren't bad.  Maybe the 360 something stitch cast on got me, especially when I ran out of yarn on like stitch 320.  Just backwards looped those last few and can't tell a difference.

I really like the way the short rows were done for the body, and like the whole thing enough to maybe make another.  I also read through a lot of the pattern notes and kept hearing the bind off edge curled, but it turns out that binding off "firmly" prevents that as well as shaping a nice curve.

What a difference blocking makes.

And of course Happy Mother's Day!

I'm finishing mine off like this: gelato, pinot noir and Firefly.

Weeks End

Whoa, fly by week.  

Finals are over (I'll know grades next week).

Started my Dad's birthday present, about halfway finished.

Discovered Firefly, more than filling the void of being finished with Lost.

Started and finished a shawl.  Annis from knitty.com.  Blocking tomorrow...

 

Finished the Groovy Shawl I started last month.  There was no reason for it to take this long.  But the rows got long and I was getting bored.  I only used 4 of the 6 balls.

Selfie says hi!

The boys spent most of the week sweet to each other like this.  Or ready to kill one another.  I'm guessing we've reached that point.

 

Speaking of boys look what I found these three up to this morning, finally... almost a year of having window boxes they filled them!  

 

And so maybe the real reason for this post is this...

selfie says woohoo!

I ran a 5k!!  And when I say ran, I mean mostly ran, well more than half ran!  I was Declan's sister's running buddy for her Girls on the Run group, thinking Marley may have to do this next year.  Incredibly proud of myself, and Declan's sister of course!  

Happy weekend!

New logo, new format, and 5

In the midst of school I've been doing a bit more designing, specifically for classes at Knit and Caboodle, but designing nonetheless.  As well as designing I've been trying to figure out if knitarielknit as a brand or something like that would work.  I go back and forth on the amount of work I want and can give to this blog and business type knitting in general, and seriously it's not much right now.  So we'll take baby steps for the time being and the first of those baby steps is a knitarielknit logo.  I had been using my name for designing, but decided since I am knitarielknit on Ravelry and that's my blog, that we would go with that.  And whenever I hear knitarielknit in my head it is me telling myself "KNIT FASTER!"  So yeah, that works.

I have a close friend (Nicole) who is currently staying home from her graphic artist career to care for her sweet babe.  And since I'm all for bartering skills I asked her for some design help and now I have my very own logo!!!  It goes on my patterns!! 

I am slightly embarrassed about the number of emails back and forth with her asking for the subtlest change, but she assured me she was keeping track of the time so we stayed even on what one another owed. 

I love it.  Like really, really love it. 

I love seeing it on my patterns.  And patterns, I've re-done those too.  Well kind off.  I've designed a new template and using that for all my new patterns and eventually I will go back and reformat my old ones.  Baby steps.

Here is the new pattern format,

Right now I am supposed to be writing the rest of my Art History final, but I got a little excited about this.  Better get back to work, but I promise next week I will post my new patterns, one is what you see above and the other is a market bag.  But first I will leave you with a picture of the coolest five year old I know.  A five year old that is now the proud owner of an eel.  Yep, an eel.

Remember this?

In recovery, day 1

It was a long day.  No one in this house napped and everyone needed one.  In an act of defiance and frustration I deactivated my facebook account.

Gasp!!!??!??

In the time between then and now I've thought of half a dozen semi witty status updates.  You know things involving my cat attacking the windows, Abe's new imaginary friend Toad, the fact that no one napped today.

Or there is the fact that I had just commented on someone's post and I really want to see what they say in return. 

OR... I want to find out what so and so named their baby!

OOORRR.... I want to see how big so and so gets while pregnant.

You know, legit reasons.

But really I was tired of it.  Today's frustrations happened to be exactly what I needed to cut ties.  I was tired of the inspirational quotes, the "like this page and my dad is going to buy me a unicorn" posts, the status updates when dishes were washed/baby fed/finished working for the day (people don't care about this shit!), and espicially the advertising. I flagged it all as spam, but it never went away.  I don't give a crap that five of my friends like Walmart!  I actually like them a little bit less knowing  they took time out of their day to "like" Walmart on facebook.

I have no intentions of this being some esoteric search for myself or true friends like I hear so many talk about.  Knowing that when they go back it's going to be some grand entrance showing that while they are gone they wanted everyone to know they were okay with out facebook.  But really they were just hoping that when they got back on, and told everyone they never missed it, that in fact more than anything they wanted to hear that they were missed.  It's not going to be like that*.

.... But wait I never said good bye.  Never told anyone how to reach me when their baby finally slept for longer than 2 hours or where to forward their latest political rant. 

And I'm also pretty sure I'm never going to remember another birthday, be invited to another party (speaking of parties did you know people are sending out wedding invites through facebook, wtf?), or know when the next trivia night is!  Oh, noes.

You all know I've never been guilty of any of the painful things I've listed above.  Never.

So that's where we're at.

*if you have removed yourself from facebook I am not talking about you personally.

This month's list

This week and next, well and the following for that matter are loaded, maxed out, can't wrap my brain around everything that needs to be accomplished to get through the middle of May unscathed.  Every night for almost a week now I've been telling myself to just make a list, cross one thing out at a time, prioritize, highlight, you know the business.

I can't thought, can't make that damned list.  So every night for almost a week I tell myself that I'll do it tomorrow.  And you know what that list is still there needing to be written down. 

I hadn't intended on making this list here but here it goes.

-Figure out cake and dinner for Abe's birthday (Friday)
-Get birthday snacks for preschool.
-Study for math test tomorrow.
-Finals next week (math, astronomy, logic)
-Write the rest of my final art history paper.
-Figure out and make/buy birthday gifts for MIL, Dad, and SIL.
-Finish writing market bag pattern for the KAL this Thursday.
-Work on class documents and samples for the sock class starting next weekend.
-Print summer camp forms and register.
-Financial aid documents for my summer classes.
-Meet with adviser for fall classes.
-Register Robin for preschool.
-Register Abe for Kindergarten.
-Abe's 5 year check up.
-Respond to wedding invites in a timely manner.

And suddenly the fog cleared and she got everything accomplished.

THE END.

The start of Saroyan and Happy Street

Knitting with handpsun yarn is probably the most difficult thing for me.  I just want to stare at it for a bit. 

Maybe squish it a bit.

I forced myself to quickly find something to make with the spindle spun stuff I just finished and actually found a pattern much quicker than expected.  It's Saroyan on Ravelry.  Large-ish needles, enjoyable knit.

 And in a moment of weakness, fueled by yarn store credit and the discount by working at said yarn store I picked up three skeins Malabrigo Sock to start the Happy Street Shawl.  Squee!

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