Decisions, decisions

So a few posts back I was talking about my 1/4 life crisis and what I was going to do with my life. I thought that I had my plan all set: I was going to apply to grad school in CT with Quinnipiac University being my first choice, move home, and go to school full time. When asking one of the docs I work for for a recommendation he told me that I should consider asking my boss if she'll switch my employment to Boston University (let me explain that I work at a hospital affiliated with BU, some people are considered hospital employees and others are BU employees but in theory they can be interchanged). I work with Dr. S. on many things and I think he really wants to keep me around. I told him that my original plan was to take advantage of the tuition reimbursement and go to BU for a masters in public health. The only problem with this was that the reimbursement is only $2,000/year which doesn't even cover one BU class! Anyway, he thought I should try to bargain with my boss and for her to try to get me to stay change over to be a BU employee so I could do school for free. Yea right, I was thinking, anyone could do my job and my boss isn't going to bargain with me to stay.

A few days later Dr. S. emailed me with the recommendation he was going to send to Quinnipiac, and it was so nice! It really made me feel great that he thought highly of me and appreciates the work I do. He called me later in the afternoon and told me that he had been doing some investigation on how willing people would be to keep me and it seems like they are pretty willing. He brought up changing over to BU and I asked if he had talked to my boss A. about this which he said he had. Crap! Well that was my initial reaction because I hadn't yet told my boss that I was applying to school and I'd probably be leaving, I didn't want to talk to her until I was sure that I had gotten and was leaving. Well it turns out that A. would be willing to do the paperwork to change me over to BU is I wanted to stay! Wow! I was really surprised at this. Dr. S. went on to tell me that I was really good at my job (he said probably because I'm overqualified which I have to agree with) and that if I wanted to stay and go to BU he'd help arrange it. Of course I'd have to apply to the public health program and get in but its an option.

I first thought that I'd definitely take this opportunity but then thinking about it I realized that its not so simple. On one hand I could stay in Boston (a city I love), go to a great school for free, but it'd take four years to do it part time, and I don't really like my job that much. On the other hand I could go to CT to live with my parents (not an ideal situation since I've been on my own for the past year), go to school full time, be done in two years, but Quinnipiac only became my first choice after it seemed like BU was not an option. I guess I have a lot to think about now with this new information. I'll also have to look for a new apartment if I decide to stay in Boston, so hopefully I can find something cheaper than what I'm paying now. Everyone keeps telling me that whatever I decide will all work out and I'm sure that's true but its just stressful at the moment.

NOW, in knitting related news I finished my first pair of socks!!! I used Silver's Sock Class to learn and it was so much easier than I thought it was going to be. When first reading through the directions I thought there was no way that I'd ever be able to make socks but once I started doing it, everything went pretty smoothly. There are a few wonky spots but all in all I think they turned out pretty well.

I've also decided that I'm going to re-dye my yarn that I did last weekend. This weekend I'll get some more grape Kool-Aid and do it over. It took forever for me to untangle the mess, so I've tied it up much more for this time around and it should be alright. I think I'm going to use extra Kool-Aid this time so I can get a nice deep color. Maybe 4 grape, 2 black cherry? I think so.

Sorry for such a looooong post, and thanks for bearing with me through all of this. *Hugs* for all you blog readers out there (I'm not sure if there are any but just in case) :)

Dying Experience

Its official, I’ve completed my first yarn dying experience (well I think). I wanted to dye some yarn for socks for my KH secret swap partner. I was going for a deep purple/red color so I used two packets of grape and one black cherry Kool Aid. Dying yarn was so much fun. I loved watching the water turn from a deep dark purple to clear! How amazing is that?!

I only have two problems now: first I must not have tied it enough because I have a huge tangled mess!! I used Knit Picks bare yarn and just kept it tied how it came. I’m pretty sure that was a mistake because I have spent the past two nights after work trying to get the mess untangled. I’m pretty close now, probably one more night working on it and I’ll get it done. My second problem is the color. I honestly can’t decide if I really like it or totally hate it. The color didn’t come out nearly as dark as I was thinking (maybe I needed more Kool Aid?), my pal likes deep purples so that’s more what I was going for. I’m trying to decide now if after I get my mess untangles should I try dying it darker? More purple? Hmmmm, I don’t know. This picture is while it was drying so its a bit lighter than shown:

Great Surprise

On Friday my secret yarn swapper emailed me to tell me that my package had arrived at my apartment! I was so excited, it was torture to make it through the rest of the day at work. When I finally got home I ran upstairs and saw no package. So saddddd!!! I forgot that my roommate wasn't home and the post man leaves a notice to pick up packages at the post office if no one is home. So I ran down and found my notice in the box!! Yea! Naturally I couldn't wait to get to the PO so I decided that I was going to take the T down the Kenmore to get there quicker. The only problem was that it was nowhere in sight. I saw a bus coming so I hopped on it for the quick ride to the PO (which seemed like forever).

At the PO the man who got my package for me said that they (the person who sent it) could havewalked it over to me. I was so confused until I saw that the address was right near me in Boston (down the street). The post mark says it was sent from Boston so now I'm wondering if I'm actually that close to my secret swapper. Are they from Boston? Or are they just being very sneaky and trying to trick me? I really have no clue. If you're out there swapper, you're very good. I can't wait to find out who you are!

Back to the yarn, I ran home and tore open my package to find all this:

I was so excited! Look at all of this yarn! From left to right: Berger du Nord Belle 100% silk in a beautiful shimmery turquoise blue, Misti Alpaca Lace in a pretty red, SWTC bamboo, and Knit Picks Bare merino. The colors are so pretty in all of them, the pic doesn't do them justice! I can't wait to try out dying the KP yarn, I already have some ideas for it. Thanks secret pal!

I'm in love

With socks!

A few months back I decided that since everyone talks about how much they like knitting socks I would try them out. So I went out a bought a few DPNs and cast on using Silver’s Sock Class. I used Lion’s Brand Microspun since I didn’t know any better at the time. After a little practice I got the hang of the knitting in the round thing but didn’t think I’d be able to keep going from there. Well the other day I decided to pick them back up and just keep going. I knit the heel flap, turned the heel, picked up stitches, and started working on the gusset. I finally realized that this whole sock thing is a lot of fun even though I was dropping a few stitches with that slippery yarn…but I kept going (although I just got up to the gusset and decided to frog).

Last night I decided to cast on a new sock with some cheap-o acrylic for some more practice hoping that this yarn wouldn’t slip off the needles as easily. It was so much easier!! I worked all last night on my sock and I have about two inches on the gusset knitted. I can’t wait to get home this afternoon and work some more on them. I just have to knit a few more inches, decrease the toes and graft and I’m done! I’ll have my first (practice) sock!

I love how socks are so quick and are instant gratification. Now I’m looking for a nice (but not too difficult) pattern so I can knit up a pair of socks for my yarn swap pal.

Yarn Swap Package Sent Off!

I sent my package out to my secret pal for the Knitting Help Summer Yarn Swap!

I'm super excited for my pal to get it, I think they are going to like it. I tried to put a lot of thought into it and did much digging on my pal to find out what they might like. It probably won't get to my pal for at least a week since I'm shipping overseas. I was excited to have an international pal for this swap, but shipping cost me $25! Geeze, that post office really makes out on international shipping! Anyway, I really like my pal...she has been great about answering all my questions and emails, she deserves a great package.

Now I have to think about what I'm going to knit for the second part of the swap. I know that I'm going to send some knitting related items, but I also want to knit at least a little something for my pal so its more personal. I've been looking on Knitting Pattern Central, and I'm thinking I might try out some jewelry....get some thin wire and beads to knit up. I think it'd be cool to make something different for my pal since their style seems pretty original.

Ditching the acrylic

So I've been working on a basic K2, P2 scarf for my dad. I'm just using some acrylic yarn that I had gotten when I started knitting in the fall (and didn't know any better). I've decided to totally scrap the scarf; its just way to stiff and scratchy. I'm going to try to find some nice yarn to make it out of....maybe this will be a chance to try out some mmmalabrigo! Even though I haven't had too much experience with different yarns, now that I've started to try out some nicer ones, I just can't go on with this horrible scratchy acrylic. And besides, do I really want to give a present to someone made of such yucky yarn? I'm looking for a variegated yarn in blues/greens that's nice and soft. Any suggestions?

Knitting Interview

From the KH forum:

1. Do you knit continental or English? English

2. How long ago did you learn to knit? Not very long ago, September 06'

3. First FO? A baby blanket for my neice. It was just stockinette with a garder stitch border and stripes of garter across it.

4. Favorite yarn? I haven't experimented with enough yarn to have a favorite. I do enjoy some of the Knit Picks yarns though.

5. Favorite pattern? I absolutly love DROPS long top but I don't have the courage to knit it yet.

6. Favorite pattern source? Knittingpatterncentral.com, you can get anything you need!

7. Favorite needles? I love my Options

8. Nicest thing you’ve ever knit? I just finished a diamond lace scarf (posted below). It was my first lace project but I thought it was really nice.

9. Most hated project? I'm not sure I have one. I am working on a K2,P2 scarf right now that's super boring though.

10. Who are you going to pass this on to? Anyone who wants to answer it!

1/4 life crisis

I had kind of a "what am I going to do with my life?" moment the other day. Actually I've been thinking a lot about lately; what I want to do and where I want to go...I felt like I was having a midlife crisis (okay, I'm only 23 so I guess that's 1/4?). A lot of the time I wished I had known what I wanted to do when I graduated college; it seemed like most of my friends had plans to either go to grad school or had jobs in a field they knew they wanted to be in. I really had no idea what to do with myself...I did know that as a Spanish major I didn't want to teach; what else is there?

Basically I moved to Boston because I always wanted to live here, so I found a job and picked up and moved. I love Boston but I've come to the realization that there is no where to go in my job and I'm stuck if I stay in it. I'm an admin assistant in a major hospital here in Boston and when I got hired they made all of these grandeur promises to me about how the job was going to be. Basically none of that has panned out and I've ended up doing a lot of answering phones and filing for the past (almost) year. I feel like I'm wasting my college education and time on this job; half the time I sit at my desk and have nothing to do so I'm on KH all the time. I know its hard to find a job out of college but I feel like looking at other people they had their plans and put them into action while I was kind of stuck.

I really want to go back to school full time for my masters, and I just don't think that can happen in Boston as much as I would like it to...its just waaay to expensive to be in school full time here and be able to pay rent and bills on a part time job. I've finally decided that I'm going to move back home for a little while and go to school in CT...I'm going to go for my MBA. I can save money this way and the schools I'm applying to are so much cheaper than some of the schools here in Boston. Since both of the schools I'm applying to are on rolling admissions I'm going to be really busy in the month or so to try to get admissions for the fall. So I'm going to let my boss know soon that I'll be leaving mid August, which I'm a little nervous about...I've never left a job before. I'm really excited to be moving on and finally deciding what I'm going to do!

Angel of Welcome

Just another small FO. Its supposed to be the angel of welcome dishcloth but I just wanted to make a 6x6 square so I used size 4 needles and DK weight yarn. It was really easy and quick to make, I worked on it two nights after work...just knit and purl for the whole thing.

Now I'm trying to pick back up the scarf I started for my dad except now that I've gotten a taste of lace its soooo boring...just K2, P2 ribbing. Must get it over with...

Notorious s-c-a-r-f

Well the time has almost come to send out my ISE4 scarf. Its finally done after learning new stitches, messing up, taking a loooong break, working like a pro, messing up yet again, and binding off. I think it came out pretty good for my first try at lace. It was also the first time I've ever blocked a FO. It worked well except it sticks out in little points where I put the pins on the sides. I think I'm just going to call it a design element, it actually looks fine.

During blocking:

The notorious scarf:

The first time I've gotten to use the labels my bro and SIL gave me:

Ready to be sent to my secret pal:

All I have to do is get a few goodies to send with the package for my pal. I think I'll try to go downtown to get her some Boston kind of things. That will give me an excuse to go to Windsor Button's and shop for yarn...for my yarn swap of course hehe!