A lot has happened since last February! I've gotten into listening to podcasts, starting with Brenda Dayne's Cast-On. I'm lucky I started with such a good one, or else I may not have sought out others. I've been knitting quite a lot this summer. I had to put it on hold for the spring while I was writing my thesis and **graduating** from college. Ever since June I've been back at it with a vengeance. I've finished three projects, including my first non-scarf non-hat garment! It has armholes! It was very exciting. I made a lace vest for my best friend and roommate of four years, Katy, from Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in magenta. I kind of made up the pattern as I went, trying it on at various points. I also added I-cord (does the "I" really stand for idiot?) and beads! Lots of new techniques for me.

Since then, the only finished objects have been two hats, both made from a free pattern I picked up at the LYS. I discovered this second LYS mid-summer, and the first time I went in I saw a sample hat and absolutely had to make it. The hat is incredibly easy to make, but looks much more complicated. The first hat I made with the Nashua yarn (blue-green-purple variegated) that the pattern was meant for, and the second one I made with Koigu! (my first time with Koigu) in a bright orange. The first one was given to my youngest brother Michael, because I took it home to show my mom and he looked so cute when he tried it on that I had to give it to him (he's seven). I told him that he could only have it if he promised to wear it, intending to guard against its inevitable fate in the bottom of the closet. He took me seriously and slept with it on, afraid to take it off lest I reclaim it. So adorable. The second hat I shipped out to a friend who lives in Boston and hates the cold. I don't know if he has received it yet...I hope he likes it.

I have two projects currently on the needles and many more planned (especially with the holidays coming up!). I'm working on my first lace shawl - Adamas by Miriam Felton for Knitpicks, with the Knitpicks Shadow yarn in Lost Lake. I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy knitting it, after a not-so-enthusiastic attempt at sock knitting, but it turns out I love it! Of course, I'm only at about 135 stitches per row...I hope it's still this much fun when it's 300 stitches per row! The second project is an intarsia argyle hat and scarf set that I designed and started knitting last fall. I had knit about half the scarf and then frogged it this summer because I wanted to change the pattern. I started the project over with the hat first, and last night I finished the argyle band. There will definitely be a picture series on the progress of this. I have yet to fix my digital camera, and I want to buy a new one, but in the meantime I will take pictures with my film camera and get them on a CD so I can post them here.

Future projects include:
- a hat for my brother Jack for Christmas - the Maze hat from summer Knitty in Mission Falls 1824 Wool in Black and Curry (goldish)
- a striped vest (?) for my Mom for Christmas - Knitpicks wool, various colors
- a hat for my brother Grant to match the scarf I made him last year - hopefully for his birthday November 27
- my first pair of socks in gorgeous Koigu (KPPPM) in browns - still deciding on a pattern to follow

Okay, so the pirate thing was a bit random, but I can never resist a chance at a new incarnation of myself. So I'm back to the beginning of the week, which means that classes once again take over my life and the knitting is looked at longingly but not picked up. :( Oh shoot, I still haven't posted pictures. Grr. or rather, ARR!

- Miss Nik aka Mad Bess Bonney

My pirate name is:

Mad Bess Bonney

Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

I made substantial progress on my sweater last night, which means probably about 20 rows. Watching movies is always productive knitting time. :) This time my knitting was accompanied by "Monster" starring Charlize Theron. Good movie, kind of freaky, one of those movies you only watch once. Unless you are really into lesbian prostitute serial killers. I think I could handle one or maybe two of those at once, but not all three. Whoo. I love the sweater so far, it looks good despite my difficulty with moving from knit to purl. I still don't know what is going on with that - it gave me hell during the aforementioned hat. I would take a sample to the LYS but the people there are not very friendly towards me. Is this symptomatic of LYS's in general, or just mine? I think it's because I'm young, too. They think I'm knitting just as a fad and not seriously. Oh how wrong they are. I've made quite an investment in my knitting supplies, and I'm not giving it up anytime soon. Knock on wood - hopefully this first sweater won't traumatize me beyond repair. I swear I will begin posting pictures tonight. I mean it this time. Really.

So the hat was unraveled, mostly reknit minus 12 stitches per row, we got back together, the hat was finished and blocked with a new method, given, and is now being worn. Yay! It turns out we were never really not together, because the reason we "stopped dating" was because we were too busy to have a serious relationship (which sounds lame but is totally true: senior year at Princeton + writing a dissertation for a PhD = no time together). So we were still together "in spirit" and I decided that it would be less complicated if we were dating but acknowledged that we had no time to spend together - which is what we're doing now. So he gets his hat and I finally get to move on to another project.

I was working on my sweater last night and found what turned out to be a pretty serious mistake - not just a purl instead of a knit, but the yarn in one row looped and I started a new row accidentally or something strange, I'm not sure what. That's what happens when you stop in the middle of a row and don't pay attention when you start again. Unfortunately, circular knitting makes the row ends less important, so I feel comfortable stopping anywhere. I figured out a good way to keep the stitches from stretching where I stop - I slide the stitches to the connecting part of the circular, and wind the working yarn around the base of the needles to keep them together. So back to the mistake...I slid it off the needles, unwound to the mistake row, and tried on the inch and a half of knitted sweater to check the sizing. Found that it was too big, so I could move to the smaller size! This is good, because in the long run this saves me about 2000 stitches. Thank god I'm a small person. So I unraveled and began casting on again. Will hopefully work on it more this weekend. I also need to get back to my argyle scarf. I've knit the base for the matching hat, but want to finish the scarf before adding the argyle to the hat. I realized my digital camera batteries were all uncharged this morning when I attempted to take a picture of the hat before giving it to the boy. Will post some pictures once those recharge and I figure out the picture hosting stuff.

So I have this hat that I've been making / made for my guy friend / ex-boyfriend / I don't really know what our relationship is. It matches the scarf I made for him for Christmas, an absolute masterpiece if I say so myself. I'll post a picture when I have the chance to steal it back for a bit. So the hat has been giving me trouble in a couple of ways. First, I didn't really know how big to make it, or how to work the decreases. By the third try, I was satisfied with the size, but now that I've blocked it it's way too big. And the ribbing around the edge died. I think my blocking method is really bad...but that's probably a result of my first attempt at blocking. This post will be continued later...I have to finish decompressing before sleep, and the blocking, which was supposed to be achieving that goal, completely failed. I think it's time for some 1x1 rib sweater!!

Tomorrow, or rather later today, begins the last semester of my undergraduate career. It is going to be one hell of a semester: thesis, four classes, job applications, and cramming in as much quality time with my friends as possible before we scatter ourselves across the western hemisphere. On top of all this, I have several knitting projects going right now. An intarsia argyle scarf that I dreamed of for months before beginning, and its matching hat. My very first sweater, which I have been putting off way too long. I'm knitting Tempting II by Jenna Adorno from www.knitty.com. Just finished the hat that matches the scarf I made for my (now-ex) boyfriend for Christmas. He's still getting it, because I'm not a petty person, and he needs a hat. The one he's been wearing is too small and looks ridiculous.

I guess I should talk a bit about myself, since much of what I'll be posting would benefit from an introduction. I am a senior molecular biology major at Princeton University, and honestly, college for me has not been so hot. I have been dealing with major depression since first semester freshman year, and it has strongly affected my entire time here. I learned to knit about a year and a half ago, at the end of sophomore year, and this past semester it turned into a coping strategy for me. I have now just come out of the January of hell (dealing with family, final exams, breakup with boyfriend, and anti-depressant failure - known among psychiatrists as "SSRI poop-out") and I decided I needed to have some self-worth recognition time. This blog is going to celebrate my knitting history from its beginning. And hopefully keep me from consuming every last pint of Ben and Jerry's from the local Wawa.