Still alive and kicking. . .

Don't worry, I'm still here. =) Homework and studying have taken over my life. One more semester until my undergraduate career is over. That is a very sad thought for me. What will i do without college and naps and sleeping and and and and and college!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyways, onto what I've been up to. Winter break officially begins tomorrow for me. it started today for boy. Sigh, schmuck. I have the hardest and most stressful final this semester tomorrow at 4:30pm. yay for me. I went up to Cedar Falls and picked boy up today. Mother nature decided that I needed a challenge while retrieving him. It snowed the entire time, yep snow. At first it was dusty snow and then it became wet and thick. It took me 3 something hours to get him. Usually it takes about 2 something. Ugh.

I also knit and finished a pair of house socks. The yarn came from carrie of Funky Carolina. it's part of the handspun club she offered some time ago. I LOVED IT!!! She spun me shetland into a sport weight sock yarn. I couldn't put these down. They are sooo soft!!!

Here is my new ring, which I picked out and have been wearing since it's arrival. It's not official (as in parents don't know?), but I'm planning a 2010 wedding. yeah, okay, let's move on to more fiber stuff. (band is sterling silver, stone is a .47 lilac spinel, ring was handmade on etsy by jewelscurnow) I have a thing for handmade items. =P I'm getting boy a handmade titanium ring. =)

I LEARNED HOW TO RBAID MY FIBERS!!! I know this sounds sad, but it took me for frickin ever to figure out!!!! Now, I'm content. =P

New Camera and a winter wonderland

As part of my Hannukah gifts, I received a brand new Nikon camera. I have never owned a really nice camera before and to be honest I LOVE IT!!!! Below are some photos I took today in the snow. The camera is so much fun and takes wonderful photos! It has 18x optical zoom vr, 10.1 mega-pixels, etc.
Mac entranced by a squirrel in the trees.

A cardinal at the bird feeders 20 feet from me.

Tree in the front yard at least 10 feet from where I was.

Photo of the backyard as the sun was going down.


I love snow!! I hope everyone had a wonderful week off and a great weekend. Yesterday was boy and my first year anniversary! =) He got back to Iowa in one piece, I hope everyone else did also.
And all of my projects and homework is done!!!!! Very very very happy about that one. Thanksgiving break = homework time.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's been an interesting week for me. I have gotten most of my homework and projects done, only a few left to finish. I also went to the gastroenterologist to figure out what's wrong with me. The doctor believes that it is IBS, but to make sure it's not IBD, I have to have a colonoscopy. . . yeah I shouldn't need one until I'm 50. . . I'm getting it done at the beginning of January. Tomorrow however I will be getting a lactose intolerance test done at 7am. . . joy. Gotta love this ugh. . .

I hope you guys are having a great holiday!! <3

Tis the season. . .

Okay, I am holding a contest and the prize is this beautiful skein of MacKintosh Yarns Mey Seacell in the colourway Victoria. The contest is to help me come up with a new name for my World of Warcraft mage Lyxi. Please leave your choices (up to 5) in a comment. You have until December 1st. Please tell your friends, I need as many options as possible. Thanks!


BTW all Celtic Sock Yarns are on sale for $18 from now through Black Friday.

On another note, I'm sick, I've been sick and I'm not getting better. For the past several (since March really) I've been having problems that could be IBS or could be IBD. My stomach is more sensitive and so is my bowel. My lactose intolerance has gotten worse and it's just not fun being me. Next Wednesday I will be seeing a gastroenterologist, aka a bowel specialist to see what's wrong. I hope it's not IBD, I have an uncle with it and it's a rather frightening thought.

As I was saying in the header, tis the season. . . .for cowls. . .LoL
Below is a plain stockinette cowl that I am working on for myself. The yarn is MacKintosh Yarns Iona Sport Weight in the colourway Mulled Wine. I love this yarn!!! Sooo soft!

Here is a cowl I knit for my mom. It's the birthday cowl again, but in a yarn she chose while we visited Loopy Yarns in downtown Chicago several weeks ago. The yarn is Sublime Aran Merino Silk Cashmere blend. it's sooooooooooooooooooooooooo soft!!! Light, but also warm. Love it!


I also need some ideas on what to get boy for Christmas. . . yes, we're back together. . . .okay, I'm a sucker and I love him. It's kind of hard not to love him, he has the most adorable blue eyes. . . .damn him. . .

BTW bundle up!! It's getting cold!

Ahhh, November

Sooo, it's been a bit brisk, rainy and even snowy here in the Midwest. Over this past weekend, my parents, sister and I were supposed to attend the Ohio State vs Northwestern game @ Northwester. The weather was cold, windy, snowy and rainy. Sooo, instead we just went and saw the condo my parents are buying in Lincoln Park and hung around downtown. I LOVE Chicago! Below are two pictures of the living room and the kitchen of the condo. It's basically a large apartment in Lincoln Park. The areas behind the building are gorgeous.


While we were in Lincoln Park, I found my dream house. Yep, huge and gorgeous! This house is worth around $3 million. Yeah, better start saving those pennies. Heh.

I have been doing some knitting lately. On Monday I started a lacy slouch in my Skye Sock Yarn in the colourway Lich. I finished it at 1:30 am this morning, washed it and blocked it on a plate. I worked 5 1/2 inches of the lace pattern and luckily when it blocked, it expanded. I love how it turned out! It didn't take much, I still have 72% of the skein left!



Boy and I are trying to work out winter break, etc. We'll see what happens. I just can't wait until Thanksgiving Break! I whole week off!!! Yes, I have to put up with family, but a whole week off!!!

New Website!!

MacYarns.com is now open for business! I hope you guys like the website. i tried to keep it very simple and clean. I love the green in the background.

Here is a mosaic of some of the products in the shop right now. Lots of new colourways!!

I am currently working on another Old Shale Scarf in Woodland Sock Yarn in the colourway Jasmine. The sock below is probably going to my dad, with a mate of course. The yarn is Paton's Kroy Sock. I hope I have enough yarn, these new skeins only have 166 yards, which sucks.

The leaves are all falling and the trees are becoming bare. I love autumn and winter, so the transition is gorgeous to me. The weather is also turning colder now. It's supposed to snow Saturday. Yay snow!!!

Here is a picture of a sunny (70 degree) day on the way back to my moped after my production class. Pretty eh?


Update: Boy and I are talking. You see, love was never the problem with us, an online game is, among some other things. We'll see what happens. When we're good, we're really good, when we fight, we really fight. Unfortunately he's going home for Thanksgiving, his mom jumped right on it and bought plane tickets the moment she heard we broke up. Yeah, bitch. Anyways, I still need to fix my door. Luckily the jam is perfectly fine.

It's over.

Boy and I broke up for good today.  He did something that I request he not do at all this weekend. it resulted in me breaking the jam of my computer room door. Now I have to replace the door. He won't ever admit that he's wrong and he has a sickness and unhealthy obsession with the online game of World of Warcraft. I feel and my family feels that it is more important to him than I ever was. He told me to go fuck myself several times today. I even called the police at one point. He stormed out before that and walked around for hours before coming back, gathering his possessions and telling me to go fuck myself once more and leaving.

Great day.  BTW Michigan lost to Purdue.

New Yarn Bases!

Sooo, a couple days ago I received a box from Canada. In the box were four new yarn bases for MacKintosh Yarns. One is an 80/10/10 SW Merino/Cashmere/Nylon sport weight, one is 70/30 SW Merino/Seacell fingering, new chubby sock and a new sw merino called Mey. These are gorgeous yarns that will be put up tomorrow in my shop update. I am also ordering a fingering weight version of the cashmere blend. So Soft!

I have been making a lot of progress on my Faiye Twist Socks. I'm actually almost done. I just need to finish both cuffs to the height I want. Isn't the colour gorgeous? Two skeins will be put up in tomorrow's update. =)

Here is a skein of the 80/10/10 cashmere blend I dyed up the other day. This colourway is Mahogany. beautiful isn't it?

Also here is Moroccan Market wound into a hank. This is such a beautiful colourway. I can't wait to dye the new bases in this. =)

Here is lastnight's dying.  There are 15 skeins there. I'm hoping to dye up some more tonight for tomorrow's update. =)

And I will end with a picture of mac, just because it's Mac.  He's loving this cooler weather and so am I. I LOVE wearing my handknit items. Plus right now is the perfect time, except at night when I'm riding my moped and freezing. . . 

It snowed!!!

This has been a crazy weekend. I went home to study for my redo of my finance midterm exam. The weather is changing quickly. It has been very windy and brisk the past few days and tonight it snowed here in Iowa City. SNOWED!!
I got some knitting done. I finished my Old Shale Scarf yesterday. This made me happy, considering that I actually need to wear it now. The yarn used is MamaBlue Troika Sock in Little Wing. The only disappointing thing about the yarn is that there are small red specks throughout and it looks odd.
Here is it dry, it blocked out to 71 inches long and 8.5 inches wide. (the pic below, it is folded over itself)

Here it is blocking on the guest bed downstairs. Lots of pins!

I also started a pair of socks for myself. The pattern is just my twist sock pattern that I used for my high ocTang Hazel Knits socks. The yarn being used is my MacKintosh Yarns Celtic Sock Yarn in Faiye.

Below is also a new colourway I will be offering (one of many). It is called Moroccan Market.

In other news, thank you for the nice messages when I was feeling down.  Boy and I are trying to work things out and restructure our relationship. The main time we fight is when we're apart, so yeah. LoL. Have a great week!

More yarn pictures coming soon. =) 

Hanging on. . .

My sanity is hanging on by a thread. Lately I've been depressed, not wanting to get out of bed or do anything. Not a great thing when I've suffered from depression in the past and it almost ruined my life. I'm also constantly crying over things. I seriously need this horrible feeling to go away. My relationship is also hanging on by a thread. I try and try and try and I feel empty, used, and thrown out at times. Kind of like right now. This really needs to turn around or I'm going to lose my mind.
I get to retake my finance midterm next Monday, thankfully. I was gone on the day of the review due to Yom Kippur and was excused. But I didn't really receive any notes about the review until Tuesday, the day before the exam. So, my professor is allowing me to take it again.
This image from a few days ago looks how I feel right now.

I have been doing some knitting here and there. Right now I'm really working on a Old Shale Scarf in Mamablue's troika sock in Little Wing. Yes, it's kind of soft and I like it, but I think the colour is horrible for socks. I think it's better for a scarf.

Here's a close-up of the pattern.

I also have 3 new colourways to put up and one of them is below. it's all Faiye (well, new and improved Faiye that is). it's one of my old colourways and I spruced it up to my liking.


I also took 5 large bags of yarn to Crazy Girl Yarns in Coralville to destash. It was a long time coming. I feel better after that.
Have a great week! <3 <3

Week of studying

Sooo, I went home last Wednesday to study for my three midterms this week. I was actually supposed to go to Blizzcon in Anaheim, California, but because of my exams, i stayed and studied most of the weekend. I got a couple of breaks, but most of it was spent grinding entrepreneur finance into my brain. Yes, very fun. I have a midterm tonight, tomorrow and Thursday. I can't wait for the weekend to get here.
I did get some knitting done while I was home. I finished my dad's socks, finally. Here he is wearing them below. He likes them and will hopefully wear them. I did the garter rib from sensational Socks and knit them in Trekking XXL, forget the colour though, sorry.

I also finished my Corazon Mittens. These are a project for my production class, so thankfully those are done also. The yarn used is Nashua Julia. it's a great yarn and very soft. I'm quite proud of these.

My Sundara sock club shipment arrived today. While I like the name, I'm not fond of the colour. I'm not a huge purple fan, if you hadn't noticed. I'm willing to part with this one heh. I'll sell it for the normal price of Sundara sock yarn $23 plus shipping.

Last week Mac and I also had a photoshoot while he was laying on his bed outside. This was one of the cuter ones.

I am also in the process of destashing some yarns. These will included some Wollmeise, Hazel Knits, Plucky Knitter, etc. The images will be posted in my next post if you're interested.

Knitting and shop update soon. . .

Here are two new colourways that will be in the update on the 19th. We have Lich and Crystal Flowers. These are both in the woodland base and each has 1 knot in them so they will be placed in the sale category.

I also dyed some roving a while back and will be putting it up also on the 19th. We have Pop Rock, Autumn in Door County, Blue Jay, Sacred Grove (Shetland) and Eire.

I have been working on holiday knits. I have a little more of the month to finish them. Yay. . . This hat is for my brother's girlfriend Alicia. The yarn is Cloud 9, a merino/angora blend.

These mittens are for my mom. They are Ohio State colours and will say OSU and the year she graduated.

This may sound odd for a lot of people, but this is a great source of fiber. . . my dog. Yes, this is Mac fiber. It is as soft as cashmere and I am trying to "harvest" enough for some handspun yarn. This way I will have him with me forever. This is quite a bit of fiber and it's only .65 oz!! Yeah, it's gonna take quite a bit.

Also, just to show you guys how part of my apartment looked before it was cleaned. This is my computer room and this was midway through cleaning. . . .yeah pitiful. Gotta love Mac's look there. . .it's clean now though. boy has also challenged me into keeping my apartment clean. . . oh this should be fun. . .!

Shut up shut up shut up!

Yes, the apartment is clean!!!!!!!!!!! I spent most of the day today finishing up. I even screwed up my knee in the process. I have no idea what I did, but I'm going to try pain killers and a heating pad tonight. It hurts!! Mac came to me when I hurt it and kissed me and hugged me to make me feel better. He's such a sweetheart.

This was it earlier today, that was actually a lot cleaner than it was, yes very sad. So the question is: why did you clean it? Three reasons:
1.Sanitation
2. Boy is allergic to mac, so it helps with his allergies
3. Inspection tomorrow

To be honest, mainly 3 as sad as that sounds. =/ sorry boy. . .

I also knit something! Yesterday I started the birthday cowl in some Malabrigo that had been sitting in my stash for about 2 years, yeah. . .I finished sewing the edge this morning, gave it a nice hot bath and laid it out on my CLEAN table to dry. Key word there: CLEAN.

Tuesday Mac and I went up to see Boy in Cedar Falls to return some stuff he left over the weekend. he always leaves something, while cleaning I kept finding his socks everywhere. . . *cough* yeah. It was also Rosh Hashanah and I took the day off, not that I'm religious or anything. Ha Ha! Before we left, I forced Boy to go get his handknit socks and model them for me. He politely lifted his jeans up without even being asked and stood there freezing as I snapped the picture. He is definitely being well trained. =)

I am also working on another pair of dummy socks. These are Silkie Socks That Rock in Scottish Highlands. Gotta love the picture of my hot spiced milk with chocolate syrup in it while outside Java House. I LOVE hot spiced milk, unfortunately they took it off the menu and you have to special order it. *sigh* I'm also loving this cooler weather. It's wonderful to wear a hoodie outside and feel the crisp air on your face. Yes, I love fall, leave me alone!

Ok, off to put the heating pad on my knee and work on my mittens. I have also taken my dad's socks out of hibernation, well they're in my backpack right now, but I drag them to class! That counts right?
Also, applauding Sarah Palin tonight, she kicked ass! Yes, I'm a Republican, not a crime. . .I also hate the Cubs. . . not a crime to be a White Sox fan. . . =P