Spinning, Knitting, and Artwork! oh My!

I couldn't think of a title...

Besides that though, school is in full swing here. I am FINALLY getting back into it (it only took a week and a half!) and I think it's going to be a very successful year, art wise. I feel like my work right now, not even finished, is better than anything I've done before. Although I may have just jinxed it!

Anyways, I wanted to post some pictures of my current spinning project. The purple isn't done, just taking a break because I wanted to experiment with different fibers. This fiber below is merino and nylon from Knitpicks, curtisy my awesome pen pal! I wanted it to be blue, but it's red, only because I can't read and thought the blue fruit punch packet would yield blue color, my bad!

This roving is very interesting to work with. I leaves fuzzies behind everywhere and pulls apart really easily if I'm not careful. I can't seem to make even strands like I could with my purple, so I think I prefer the purple over this.

Moving on, I finally finished a pair of socks I started last December. For some reason the 2nd one is smaller, even though I used the same needles and pattern. You can't really see the pattern well on this yarn, which is sad, because it's pretty. But I love the yarn anyways, the color is amazing. I will never knit with size 1 needles again, and I'll probably keep to 2-at-a-time socks now that I know how. I can't wait to see how these wash up!

For more info and a link to the pattern, click here :)

So like I said, school is started here. I don't see myself having much time to knit or spin in the future because of it, however I do still plan on attending yarn shop knit nights, so atleast I'll get one day a week to do it! I still can't believe I'm a JUNIOR!

Peace out!
~Lisa

Too much of a good thing?

Everyone's heard of too much of a good thing. Too much ice cream, too much time with someone, too much whatever. Well I'm starting to wonder if I'm getting too much of a good thing with my Disney obsession, and not just Disney, but TANGLED in particular.

Exhibit A: All of my Tangled illustration drawings. I will admit, this movie made me realize how much I wanted to do illustration. I discovered the 'art' of colored pencil on pastel and construction paper way back in December, and did all the brown paper drawings then, and I recently did the blue one. I love the way the colored pencils look, but maybe I'm doing too many of these drawings? I really want to do a water color painting too, but school starts in 2 days so that's probably not an option.

Exhibit B: Tangled Ever After. They are making a new Tangled "short film" for Disney Channel next year, Tangled Ever After, about the wedding. I completely freaked when I found this poster, even though I already knew about the film before hand. I'm not a fan of the name (too Shrek-ish) and the poster is cheesy looking too, but I'm excited to see if they do it justice or make me hate my favorite movie.

Exhibit C: Disney Princesses are not just for kids! Rapunzel 'officially' becomes a Disney Princess this October, complete with her own line of products and her face on all the princess stuff! I'm already seeing it around a few places. Is it bad I got excited when I found out? I really hope they make some good products for her, I'd love a set of bed sheets! The only downfall is that they had to make her 2D to go with the others, and she doesn't look very good in 2D (despite my love of handrawn Disney!). See for yourself:

Exhibit D: Halloween. I got an email from the Disney Store about free shipping on Halloween costumes, so naturally I looked this up. They have a Rapunzel adult costume! But it's $79, so that is NOT happening, as much as I'd like it too. My fingers are crossed that the costume store here will have something, because how fun would it be to do that for Halloween? It's about time they made a blonde princess I actually liked!

And finally, Exhibit E: I don't know how many times I've seen the movie, I stopped counting around 10. I actually bought the 4 disc 3D/Bluray/DVD/Digital Copy when it came out, even though I don't have bluray or 3d, just because I could get it for $20. Talk about a deal!

Ok, so you be the judge. Is there such a thing as too much of a good thing? I'm starting to think so, but I'm not giving up. Tangled is, and will be for awhile, my favorite Disney Movie!

~Lisa

PS: School starts Monday! Poo....

Proof that summer is coming to an end.

School starts up the 22nd. Wow. I can't believe it at all. Where did the summer go? I don't know, but I didn't realize it was this soon until I FINALLY finished my summer mega project. The Make Up Your Mind Tanktop. I didn't think I could do it, but I did. And I took pictures along the way. No need for explanations here.

The yarn was Classic Elites Yarns Premiere, and it took 4.5 skeins (I still have 1.5 left...). Knitted on size 5 knit picks circular needles over the course of about 2.5 months.

Step 1: Cast-on.

Step 2: Ribbing along the bottom followed by cellular stitch band.

Step 3: Checkerboard band.

Step 4: (Crappy phone picture): Linen rib stitch.

Step 5: Hindu Pillar Stitch Band followed by Lace Rib band

Step 6: Bind off for arm holes and continue in Lace Rib.

Step 7: Continue, bind off for front and back and finish!

The end result after steam blocking. I really love how it turned out. Yes, I look a bit pudgy in this picture, but that's not the point. There are some mistakes, but who cares, it was a great learning experience and I'm so glad I got to spend my summer knitting this fabulous work of art! I can't wait to tackle my next top!

I hope everyone had a great summer like I did! One more week.

~Lisa

Yet another distraction from my school work

Well what can I say, between summer school, work, preparing to move, and knitting, I've been pretty busy. So why take up a new hobby? I don't know. But I went to Wicked Stitch this last weekend and purchased my first real drop spindle and now it's all I can think about. The picture below is the 'before'. It's purple and black roving I purchased back in April when I first learned on my CD and dowel rod.

And here is my spindle, my baby, my new found obsession. I'm so excited about this because I am achieving such thin strands (What I want) and it looks SO pretty!

And here's a close up of my work in progress. Once I spin a lot more I'll spin 2 strands together to make real yarn.


And here's my first batch on my new spindle, that I wound off the spindle to make more room. This is a little bit thicker than the above, but it was also my first.

I really don't know why I keep giving myself more to do, I mean school starts in four ish weeks and then I'll be crazy busy, without getting my knitting/spinning obsession involved. Put them in the mix, and it means no life for me! At least I'll be with my friends in our apartment so I'll see them.

I think that's all for now! Time to do some homework and then tackle some more spinning.

~Lisa

Thank you Harry

Last night was practically a defining moment in my life. Yes, it was just a movie, but at the same time is was so much more than that; it was the ending of an era, something millions of people will agree on.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2

First, I would like to begin by saying that, yes I knew what was going to happen, because the book has been out for almost 3 years. That's not the point though, because to me, the movies and books are their own separate entities, each having their good and bad points. However, of all the movies they've made, I would like to say that besides the first 2, this was definitely the truest to the book. They had to change some things to match what they changed in others, but in the end it all worked out.

Harry Potter. I wasn't into it the way a lot of other people my age were: I didn't even get into the books until around the time the 4th was released. I was never upset if I could catch it at midnight, and I was never a complete nerd about it. But at the end of this movie, when yes, I cried, I realized that this is the end of something big. So many people have grown up with these books. learning life lessons big and small.

• The difference between good and evil
• What true friendship really is.
• Never give up
• Learning to let go of things
• So many more that I can not even think of right now

Harry Potter will forever live on, and even though there are so many other 'magic' books and series, Harry Potter trumps them all. J.K. Rowling is a literary genius and her stories will never be forgotten.

For me, the best part of this movie is of course when we finally learn Snape's motives. That chapter of the book has been my favorite since the book came out, and when it came up in the movie, I prayed they wouldn't mess it up-- it reveals so much and cutting that down would be a bad idea. I would like to say, happily, that they weren't messing around, they did it justice and then some.

In fact they did the whole book justice. Every scene was filmed so well, even the cheesy epilogue. In the end, it leaves the viewer with a sense of knowing that Harry's adventures have come to an end and although millions of fans everywhere were left crying and sad that their favorite boy wizard has finally grown up they were also left with a sense of closure and happiness knowing that the movie did it right and Harry will live on forever.

Thank you Harry Potter

~Lisa

Guess who's back?

Hey world! I'm back in the states!

So the flights went completely smoothly, thank god. I got home today and did some shopping and then went bowling with my friends! It's good to be back.

Back to classes and work tomorrow :(

A lot of you are probably wondering what will become of this blog now. I still plan to update with my knitting and art projects, so if you're interested, keep watching!

~Lisa

Skittles and Shopping

Packing stinks. The end.

Ok so not, but still, this is no fun.

Today I got up and did last minute shopping. Bought more cute clothes and souvenirs.

After I got back we walked to Edinburgh's Oldest Pub, The Sheeps Heid, and rented their super old bowling lane, or as they called it, skittles lane. The balls don't have holes and you have to reset the pins by hand, but it was fun! I really enjoyed myself. I also had my last legal drink, cider again. We then walked back and now I'm here packing! Fun fun fun!

I'll post when I'm back in the states.

~Lisa