I've been writing this blog in my head since Saturday, as Friday was the last day of classes. But more stuff kept happening and not only was there no time to write the blog, but it was getting longer and longer in my head. So sorry about the long post but I promise you if you read to the end it'll be worth it. (Also sorry about so many pictures.)
So first up, the roomie went out of town on vacation for a couple days and I was on cat entertaining duty. Apparently Dexter didn't think I was entertaining enough and decided to prove he could ride a bicycle lol. It was pretty amusing, although I was a little worried he was gonna knock over the bike and have it land on him in a mess of cat/bike parts, but he got down without injuring himself :-).
As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to participate in project Spectrum, but wasn't knitting anything in the right colour for May. I did manage to complete a green project for June though! This is Sexy Vesty in Cascade 220. I did a crochet border around the neck cuz I was running low on yarn, but I might like it better this way. I was debating whether the vest in combination with the plaid shirt was too That 70's Show. Timm voted yes, but everyone else voted no, so I wore it to my practical for school. Practical #2 to be specific, which I rocked!
The other exciting thing that happened in knitting land lately is my bird socks are FINISHED!!! (You might notice I'm wearing the outfit seen above in this picture lol). I finished them while I was at school after taking my practical. I found the perfect ribbon to go in the top at Mangelsen's, you can't tell well from this picture but it has a little ruffle on it :-). I'm pretty sure this is my biggest knitting accomplishment ever. I'm still in search of clear rainboots, if anyone finds them please send me a link or buy them in a size 9!! Unfortunately I finished them at the wrong time of year and it might be a while before they get some real wear.
Also remember how I promised a reward for reading to the end of this post . . . well these socks are in the middle ;-)
There are a TON of weddings among my classmates this summer. So Steph decided it would be awesome if we had a class bachelorette party for all our brides to be. I'm gonna say she's pretty much a genius. We decided to start out with dinner then continue onto drinking and possibly dancing. This is a picture of 8 of our 9 brides to be. All the brides wore colours and the other 20 of us wore black dresses. We created quite a spectacle in the Old Market. To the point that we had a couple families from Florida (in town for the college world series) stop us and take a picture with their sons (about a dozen middle school aged boys). It was an awesome night!
The weekend after that, Timm and I attended the wedding of our dear friends Audi & Cameron. It was pretty awesome. They had their ceremony at an old historical home. Instead of a traditional ceremony it was a tea party. We were invited to dress up and create a name for ourselves. I was Lady Emma Lindberg. Timm was Lord Buster O'Neil. We had a great time.
La
ter that evening they had their reception full of dancing, yummy food and a rainbow cake! They had a "photo booth" set up with different facial hairs, glasses, frames, and chalkboards that you could write on and strike a pose. This resulted in my by far favourite picture of Timm and me. I'm really excited to print it and put it in a frame!
The next day there was supposed to be a car show at the zoo, so Tim
m & I heade
d over to check it out. The car show ended up being a little disappointing (a few new corvette and some sweet Model A's but that was it), but the zoo itself always has something to put a smile on my face. This time I'm not sure which was better the friendly leopard or crazy Timm!
After that tiring weekend, I had my last week of school. I'm officially done with the first year of Physical Therapy school! I made it I'm now a PT2!! And most importantly I get a month and a half off to relax.
In celebration of the
end of school and my new found freedom I went to the zoo with a few of my knitting friends on Friday and their kids (4 kids under the age of 3!!). It was a great time and definitely exhausting. The kids were super cute, but also excellent birth control lol. I adore Bailey's monkey backpack. I think the picture on the right may be the only time all three of them were looking at the same thing, the Tiger.
Then I had another bachelorette party to attend. This one was much smaller than the previous one.
It's one of the same brides with a few classmates and her future sister-in-law. We had a lot of fun. Particularly with a book of "challenges" for Sarah to perform throughout the night, including kissing the first guy with a mustache and asking 3 men how "big" they are. It was pretty hilarious. We also discovered that apparently no one carries around condoms anymore (another challenge).
After an exhausting Friday, I worked Saturday and Sunday. Then headed to Timm's for a few days.
Monday we decided to have some fun. We went over and saw the '39 Ford Tudor that Timm's thinking about buying (I definitely approve) and chatted with the owners (see more on Timm's blog). Then we grabbed some burgers and headed north.
It was such a pretty day to be driving and we rocked out to some good tunes on our was to Tea, SD. There we went into a few antique stores. We found this awesome Singer sewing machine. I also scored a Smurf's sheet that may be a dress in the near future. We saw a bunch of skulls, awesome furniture, cool dishes, and much more (again more pics on Timm's blog). I also saw a fabric store next to the antique mall that I REALLY wanted to go in, but it was closed because it was Monday (so lame lol). So we continued north.
We went up to Sioux Falls and poked around at the mall (where I scored a
cute dress for $5), then headed to the theatre to see Cars 2 in 3D. It's pretty cute/funny and definitely worth the $$. After that we decided we needed some deliciousness. So we headed to the Red Lobster. My grandpa used to love Red Lobster and we would go there
when I was really little and I'd get a Shirley Temple as a nice little treat. I always thought it was the coolest thing ever, especially the cherries that come in it, so of course I had to get one! Then I got a pound of crab!! It was so yummy! Timm decided to put his 3D glasses back on during dinner and be a dork (as usual). We skipped dessert because we were both full and hit the road back home.
So Tuesday, Timm had to go to work and I went with him, hoping to hook up with one of my friends that had just moved from Omaha to Sioux City. I watched some of Timm working on a tribal arm piece, then headed to lunch with Stephanie. We had Chick-fil-A, which is so delicious and what I miss about working in the mall in Arkansas. Then we headed back to her place to hang out and knit. We chatted for a while, then I went back to the shop so Timm and I could go home. We watched the sunset on our drive and Timm said he hoped we would make it back into town before the sun went down so we could find a good place to watch it. Unfortunately the sun moved faster than us so we settled for eating the yummy dinner his mom had made. After dinner Timm suggested we go get ice cream. I said sure. We headed out the door and I grabbed Timm's hoodie cuz I thought I'd be cold walking over to the gas station. Then we got outside and Timm was getting in the car. I said we should just walk cuz it's so close. Timm said no we need to take the car. I insisted that I needed to burn some of the calories of the ice cream and Timm said we need to take the car. So I got in and we started driving. Then Timm drove past the gas station and headed north of town. He asked me to put on the Brad Paisley CD because he had a riff stuck in his head and he couldn't figure out which song it was from. Then Timm turned onto a dirt road and pulled over and asked if I would dance with him. I said yes. So he asked me to get out and tell him when the music was loud enough. He turned up the music and changed the track to "I Hope That's Me" and came over and started dancing.
Then on the third verse that says, "Somebody's gonna buy a ring,
Somebody's gonna make you cry,
Somebody's gonna lift that veil,
And get to look into your eyes,
And I hope that's me, I hope that's me."
He got down on one knee and pulled a box out of his pocket. He asked if I would marry him and I said yes. (I also at some point asked him if he was serious and he's giving me shit about it, but I said at least that means I wasn't expecting it haha). I knew from the unique box that it was one of the rings we saw together in Portland.
It's perfect, I couldn't be happier. This is my apology for the near future of this blog being about weddings.
-The future Mrs. McKenny
So first up, the roomie went out of town on vacation for a couple days and I was on cat entertaining duty. Apparently Dexter didn't think I was entertaining enough and decided to prove he could ride a bicycle lol. It was pretty amusing, although I was a little worried he was gonna knock over the bike and have it land on him in a mess of cat/bike parts, but he got down without injuring himself :-).
As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to participate in project Spectrum, but wasn't knitting anything in the right colour for May. I did manage to complete a green project for June though! This is Sexy Vesty in Cascade 220. I did a crochet border around the neck cuz I was running low on yarn, but I might like it better this way. I was debating whether the vest in combination with the plaid shirt was too That 70's Show. Timm voted yes, but everyone else voted no, so I wore it to my practical for school. Practical #2 to be specific, which I rocked!
There are a TON of weddings among my classmates this summer. So Steph decided it would be awesome if we had a class bachelorette party for all our brides to be. I'm gonna say she's pretty much a genius. We decided to start out with dinner then continue onto drinking and possibly dancing. This is a picture of 8 of our 9 brides to be. All the brides wore colours and the other 20 of us wore black dresses. We created quite a spectacle in the Old Market. To the point that we had a couple families from Florida (in town for the college world series) stop us and take a picture with their sons (about a dozen middle school aged boys). It was an awesome night!
The weekend after that, Timm and I attended the wedding of our dear friends Audi & Cameron. It was pretty awesome. They had their ceremony at an old historical home. Instead of a traditional ceremony it was a tea party. We were invited to dress up and create a name for ourselves. I was Lady Emma Lindberg. Timm was Lord Buster O'Neil. We had a great time.
ter that evening they had their reception full of dancing, yummy food and a rainbow cake! They had a "photo booth" set up with different facial hairs, glasses, frames, and chalkboards that you could write on and strike a pose. This resulted in my by far favourite picture of Timm and me. I'm really excited to print it and put it in a frame!
m & I heade
d over to check it out. The car show ended up being a little disappointing (a few new corvette and some sweet Model A's but that was it), but the zoo itself always has something to put a smile on my face. This time I'm not sure which was better the friendly leopard or crazy Timm!
In celebration of the 
end of school and my new found freedom I went to the zoo with a few of my knitting friends on Friday and their kids (4 kids under the age of 3!!). It was a great time and definitely exhausting. The kids were super cute, but also excellent birth control lol. I adore Bailey's monkey backpack. I think the picture on the right may be the only time all three of them were looking at the same thing, the Tiger.
Then I had another bachelorette party to attend. This one was much smaller than the previous one.
It was such a pretty day to be driving and we rocked out to some good tunes on our was to Tea, SD. There we went into a few antique stores. We found this awesome Singer sewing machine. I also scored a Smurf's sheet that may be a dress in the near future. We saw a bunch of skulls, awesome furniture, cool dishes, and much more (again more pics on Timm's blog). I also saw a fabric store next to the antique mall that I REALLY wanted to go in, but it was closed because it was Monday (so lame lol). So we continued north.
We went up to Sioux Falls and poked around at the mall (where I scored a 
cute dress for $5), then headed to the theatre to see Cars 2 in 3D. It's pretty cute/funny and definitely worth the $$. After that we decided we needed some deliciousness. So we headed to the Red Lobster. My grandpa used to love Red Lobster and we would go there 
when I was really little and I'd get a Shirley Temple as a nice little treat. I always thought it was the coolest thing ever, especially the cherries that come in it, so of course I had to get one! Then I got a pound of crab!! It was so yummy! Timm decided to put his 3D glasses back on during dinner and be a dork (as usual). We skipped dessert because we were both full and hit the road back home.
issed the ceremony because of work). I got to see a lot of Timm's family (including his adorable niece) and generally have a good time. We then traveled back to Timm's house. We tried to make dry ice bombs, but they didn't work so instead we put the dry ice in the 
birdbath with water - Timm and I decided that all birdbaths should look like this.
with the idea of pretzel sticks filled with cheese similar to the stuffed crust on pizza. So we experimented! They worked and were delicious!! We also made normal pretzels, which were also good but not as good as cheesiness. I'll have to perfect them a bit then post the recipe on here :-).
my first bird sock while in Portland for spring break, but I'm still at work on the second one. I'll share this picture even though it's old because it's very exciting ;-). I pretty much had e
verything other than the second bird sock off the needles so I was looking for a new project. I bought a Crazy Zauberball to make the Helix Scarf, but when I started it I wasn't overly impressed.
Eventually, I made it to Whole Foods for knit night. Meg showed me her awesome shirt. She found this shirt as an XXL at Goodwill but couldn't pass it up because of the colours. So what did she do? Sewed zippers in the back of it! Love it! It's surprising that Whole Foods doesn't explode with all the genius-ness of knit night people in the same spot. I finally wove in the ends on my socks so we could ring the cowbell and show them off. I stood on a chair with my foot on the table (Captain Morgan-esque). We took a picture, but it was blurry. Instead you'll have to live with these pics. I'm gonna make Timm take better ones next week when I'm up there.
Pattern: Arch-Shaped Stockings by Meg Swansen
you got to different areas of the sock (such as the heel) and the toe shaping instructions were awful. I found myself looking at other people's project pages and pictures on Ravelry often to have an idea what it should look like. The first toe I got was ugly and square (see pics from earlier posts). I didn't like it and I didn't think it would fit in shoes well. I decided to do my typical toe decreases and see how it looked. I decreased every other row for half the toe and then every row for the second half. It turned out nicely, there was a little weirdness because of previous shaping, but I think I'm the only one that will notice it and it made a nice rounded toe. I ripped back to make the first one match and feel much better about them now. They really do have an arch-shape that makes them fit snugly. The only other issue I have is with the side of the heel flaps where I picked up stitches is very loose and a little holey. I picked them up the same way I always do, so I think it might just be the looser gauge?
Soooooo close to finishing. I still don't like the square toe so I may be figuring out how to change it to something more appealing. I'm also on a quest to find clear rain-boots to rock these socks with but no luck. If you know anywhere I can find some please let me know!
of course suffering from second sock syndrome (SSS) and broke my number one rule for preventing SSS by not immediately casting on the second sock after finishing the first. The toe ended up very square which I'm not thrilled about but the pattern was not spectacularly clear and I don't feel like ripping back to try and change it, so it will stay square. I also feel like these socks (because they are made with sport weight yarn) will be boot socks not shoe socks, so I won't have to worry about trying to shove the extra bulk into the toe of a shoe.
welry making supplies
finished Hyrna Herborgar!!! There's not much I can say about it, that isn't expressed in how beautiful it is, so just admire it and then try to resist spending the $65 on the book. Hard isn't it? Granted the picture is kinda crappy but that's what happens when you take it off the blocking boards at 11:30pm. Hopefully I can get some cool outdoors pictures or something soon. I told Timm he needs to come down and go to a fancy restaurant with me so I have an excuse to wear it, although I'm considering just wearing it to classes tomorrow, just gotta figure out what I can wear it with that will do it justice.
me I can actually wash my stomach because the scab on my belly button is really gross looking. The nurse who was with me in pre-op said I was being whiny (although I clarified that I wasn't really being whiny just picky). I was very specific about where I wanted my IV put in but I didn't want a bruise or soreness that would interfere with my knitting abilities. I remember when I was waking up in recovery I kept signing to the nurses, but surprisingly they understood my ASL for the most part. I appropriately wore my "It sucks to be me" shirt to the hospital. This picture was taken after Timm had gotten me home and settled in bed. I'm going to credit the facial expression to pain meds. I took in fun bandaids for where the
y were gonna stick me with needles. Batman for the blood draw and Superman for the IV. We also got a picture of all the band-aids they put on my incisions, which I didn't even think to take fun band-aids for, but considering I was unconscious when they put them on who knows if they would have used my fun bandaids anyway. Timm & I are trying to decide what I can get tattooed over the scars, but I'm sure I have plenty of time to decide.
And Timm's brother, sister-in-law, and new baby niece, Cameryn, came into town. I got to meet them
all for the first time and give them the adorable baby knits (Patterns: Little Sister's Dress and Seamless Saartje's Booties). Everyone has 
decided Cameryn is the most adorable thing ever (Timm's mom was calling her "Little Princess"). Her parents have promised me pictures of her wearing the adorable knits when she fits them (hopefully between 6-9 months, which are the cold ones in Colorado so that should be good). All in all it was awesome to be up there. I hadn't seen Timm's parents in too long and I loved holding the new baby (only 8 lbs. so not over my lifting restriction!). I told Timm I wanted babies and he looked as though he might kill me, but really gotta get through PT school before I even think about it.
p?! Yes the same Hanson, but really how much have you changed since 1998? I have listened to Hanson since Mmmbop, granted there has been plenty of time when I would deny this in public, but they really are one of the greatest groups out there. They write all their own stuff. They play their instruments. And they refuse to be known only as the guys that looked like girls and sang a song called Mmmbop. They do still perform Mmmbop at their concerts, but it sounds less cheesy when they don't sound like girls. If you haven't listened to Hanson since Mmmbop, go check out their latest single and awesome Blue Brothersesque video here. Timm, who says on his blog that he went to the concert so I'd love him forever, really enjoyed himself and is a closeted Hanson nerd, which really does make me love him forever but also amuses me. Timm scolded me a little that I wouldn't stop moving at the concert and I was gonna make my incisions not heal well. But I sat in a chair in the balcony so I wouldn't be in a mob of people that could bump my stomach, so I think that was sacrifice enough. I did get to see something by sitting in the balcony that the people on the floor probably didn't: Hanson wives and babies sat in a special part of the balcony for part of the show! They had the giant ear protector things on both the kids and that made them super adorable. I couldn't tell for sure which wives and kids it was, but I think it might have been Tay's daughter and one of Ike's sons (yeah, if you haven't heard anything about them since Mmmbop all of them are married and they have 7, soon to be 8, kids between the three of them). They also did my favourite song (A Song to Sing) at the concert. As much as I love it, I had little expectation of it being performed, because it's a slow acoustic song. I have a feeling I turned into a middle schooler at that point, but Timm didn't even try to push me off the balcony.
colourwork (which is not something I do too often) and socks, they are flying off the needles. I got this far on the first one in less than a week. I'm almost to the toe-shaping. The pattern was super easy to memorize and they made a good project to take to work with me. The socks were originally knit by Elizabeth Zimmerman (who's 100 birthday would have been yesterday). But no pattern was found, so her daughter Meg Swansen created a pattern by looking at the original socks. There's a few spots in the pattern that aren't as clear as I would like. For example, when you start the heel turn it doesn't tell you what you're supposed to do with the colour pattern. But they are awesome socks and I'm happy that I had yarn in my stash that went together so well in the right gauge and was completely free to begin with! My shawl pattern book finally arrived on Saturday, the 31st. I wanted to read through all the history and the pattern before I started. So I didn't start the shawl until Monday while I was at the laundry mat. I then ha
d to keep a small child from trying to steal it out of my purse and destroying it, don't even get me started on why her parents weren't bothering to pay attention to what she was doing. I worked on the shawl most of the time I was at Timm's and have already gotten to the second stitch pattern, which means I'm over halfway on row count (but as the stitches increase every row, I'm sure the second half will not go nearly as fast as the first). The picture is crappy (but everyone knows lace doesn't look great until it's blocked) and the colour is off, it's closer to a burgundy than it looks in the picture. So hopefully, I can make some good progress on both of them soon.
