It takes a village...

... to dislodge a COTA bus stuck in the snow. and even then sometimes you have to admit defeat.


the sad thing is, it was sitting at the light as we walked up and there was a pile of snow in front of it from where the tow truck had clearly gone down the cross street, and i even thought "gee that doesn't look good." sure enough, he made it about six inches into the intersection before his ass end slid sideways and he got good and stuck. there were a surprising number of people out walking around considering the sad state of the sidewalk, and everyone made a valiant effort but in the end i'm pretty sure we only made things worse.

the snow is still falling and its really pretty out. considering the amount of snow on my car though, i'm really glad that i don't have to go anywhere today.


on an unrelated note, i'm pleased to say that i finished the second bridesmaid wrap. i am now officially half done with knitting the wraps. i'm less pleased to report that, since i was blocking the wrap, i thought i would go ahead and try blocking my koolhaas. i keep reading how much the malabrigo blooms when its blocked and the blocking always helps to even out the stitches so i figured what the hell. now i remember why i never bother to block hats. if you keep up with the half-assed knitting blog, you may have seen the hatboob that ate her head. that's pretty much what happened, only unlike her I decided against chronicling my loss with a photo.

she seems like a far more accomplished knitter than i though, so that made me feel better about my rather novice boo-boo. some time in the dryer may have saved me the need to reknit it, but the ribbing has lost a bit of its stretch. once it dries we will see if its still wearable. for what its worth, the cabling does stand out quite nicely now.

new hat model

before we get to the hat pictures, i just want to say that i've never wanted to knit a snail before but now i do. i just love to see what the girls over at kathrynivy.com knit up and this is just too cute. i know its not their pattern, but they always make such perfect yarn and color choices. they make me want to knit toys.

i finished my koolhaas and i love it. in fact, i'm wearing it now. yes, i've been home from work for hours and have changed into my pj's but still haven't taken my hat off. this is the softest, squishy-est yarn ever. i LOVE it. and the yellow makes me happy. (seriously, what kind of person says yellow makes them want to vomit. sheesh)



but unfortunately there was no one around this morning to help me take pictures so i was forced to resort to nizhoni. as you can see, she was really pleased to help...

pattern: koolhaas hat by Jared Flood (IK Holiday 2007)
yarn: malabrigo worsted in pollen
mods: went down to size 5 and size 6 circs, ribbing done with twisted stiches

i will say, it fits me far better than it fits her. its just a shade longer than it probably needs to be and i didn't "block" it (in so much as you block a hat). i may do the same as i did with kens and wash it then dry it briefly to see if i can shrink it up just a bit. makes me nervous though because i will probably get distracted and forget i left it in the dryer and end up with a tiny tiny hat. i don't know how people knit this hat on size 8's without ending up with gi-normous hats.

his and hers hats

finally! some crafting pictures to update with. i was doing so well over christmas break and into the start of the quarter but i really hit a wall. and by wall i mean two rounds of midterms with a week of the flu crammed in between. our apartment is pretty much a disaster. the laundry is piled up, there are papers and crap all over the coffee and dining room tables, and i just finally swept the floor today. its like i got so far behind that now i can't figure out where to start. even all the wedding stuff that has arrived is just piled in the corner of the dining room.

i'll start with the knitting... i finally finished mr. z's koolhaas hat and he seems to be pleased with it. i held the yarn double and went down to size 5 and 6 needles to make the size work. this is a really easy pattern and it looks much more complex than it is to knit. however, if you are planning on knitting it, learn the cabling without a needle technique. just my two cents.

Pattern: Koolhaas hat by Jared Flood (IK Holiday 2007)
Yarn: Reynold's Whiskey (held double) in 504
Needles: Size 5 circs for the ribbing and size 6 for the hat

then i decided that i needed one too. and i'd seen so many beautiful versions on ravelry knit with malabrigo's worsted, that i thought i should check out the yarn. i found a lovely little shop called ewe-phoria that sold it and got a skein of a lovely mottled yellow called pollen. it reminds me more of buttered popcorn. its so soft and lovely. i'm glad i ventured out of my usual color choices and went with the yellow. its knitting up beautifully.




in terms of wedding stuff, i think i have most of the decoration stuff decided on and ordered. we have gossamer in brown and cream for swagging, tissue paper in fall-ish colors for pom-pom decorations and some beautiful wired ribbon for pew bows and other decor-y arrangements. perhaps i will try to get some pictures of all the colors and such tomorrow. oh! and mr. z printed out the invitations so i'm trying to do the leaf punch on all the corners without ruining them all.