The living is easy

Hello avid reader(s). I've been having a lovely time back in my home province of Manitoba this summer, readying myself for university life while relaxing and visiting with my friends and family at the same time. I had three friends come out to see how we Canadians do for a few weeks, which was amazing and different, because my two worlds (European and Canadian) were merging and I was very excited to make that happen. While we weren't extremely wild (one night my mom made us go out for drinks because we had been knitting too much) we had fun and saw lots of truly Canadian things...


...like bison.

While I had my friends here, I began a project I can't really talk much about yet as it's a secret (shh). All I can say is it's a really big project and it's blue:

But, other than that I've been crafting my little heart out. I visited my cousins, which was so nice because I hadn't been able to spend much time with them this summer. While I was there, my aunt had a small project for us to do that I'd be needing it come next Thursday. She had 12 zippers ready for me when I got there, and we were to make a pencil case out of them, which was actually really successful. She had just bought a new sewing machine the week before, so it worked out perfectly. First, my cousin and I decided what order the colours should be and layed them out, then we sewed them together side-by-side with a tight, wide zig-zag stitch. The hard part was completing them in a circle, but with a little blind sewing it worked out well. Then we used a triple straight stitch to complete it by joining each end and voila: a pencil case made entirely of zippers.

It wasn't a huge project but I've got too many of those going on now, so it was refreshing to complete something in only a couple of hours. Plus, no one will have a pencil case like that at Guelph. Sorted.

In other news, the day I've been waiting for for 15 months is finally arriving on Friday!! I'm so ready to finally start university and get busy again! Wish me luck!

xoxoxox Jenna

Afghan: Complete!

Hello!!

So, that afghan that I started knitting on Christmas last year has finally been completed! It only took me to better part of five months to do, but I did it :) This is very definitely the biggest and longest project I've ever knitted, let alone succeeded in making, so I'm very proud of that. The only trouble with starting it in December and finishing in May is that now the weather is so warm that an afghan is no use to me these days...ah, well. I'll just have to wait until the cold Canadian winter sets in.

I look infinitely awkward in this picture

I don't know the exact size of it, but this photo is supposed to show how big it is (and considering I'm almost 6 feet tall, it's pretty big.) Also, this picture shows the ripple pattern quite well, which I was very pleased with. But THANK GOD it's finally done!! That means my mom will stop nagging me to finish it. I think she thought I was never going to finish it...ha HA to her! (Love you, mom)

Later, alligator xox

Grad Dress

Hello!

So this week I've been trying something I've never done much of before, which is sewing (and quite a big project at that). So it's Jon's graduation this June and I hadn't gotten a dress yet, so my bestie/Jon's sister Laura is helping me to sew a dress to wear to grad! Excittttingggg!! After having some doubts and a bit of hissy fit (me, not Laura), I was able to pick out a pattern that I really love and hopefully will look awesome on me...

I love it! This is a Vogue pattern (as if Vogue even does sewing patterns!) that we decided on after searching through all the very pretty books in the store. Laura was very eager to try a patterned fabric like in the picture, but with this being my first sewing project, I was able to coax that idea straight out of her head and we decided on a timeless navy silk fabric. It's quite thick and very sturdy so the shape of the dress will (hopefully) hold come the big event!

So far my sewing/dress making class have been going really well - with the help of Ms Yates I've finished the bodice and today I started working on the dress pockets(!). It's been a little frustrating with all the sewing terminology that I'm not familiar with and my lack of experience, but Laura's been patient with me and I'm learning the basics. I've kind of dived into the deep end here, starting with such a big project, but what an excellent way to learn everything that I have to know! And of course if I screw this up royally, I can always hit up the shopping street and get myself something pretty there.

My main concern at this time is that grad is June 4th...which means I have under 2 weeks to get this sucka done...stay tuned to see how that goes!

xox

Cupcakes & Heart Hats

Hello!

So I just completed my first week of non-work in 9 months, during which I baked some goodies, knit a hat, practiced guitar, and slept...all good things! Last week I found an icing pipe after searching all over Basel for one, and I was an eager beaver so the next day I made some delicious cupcakes. Actually, they weren't that delicious but the point of them were to get some practice with the icing pipe, so at least I got that much. To be honest though, they look pretty awesome in this picture...I'm just going to try some other recipes until I find ones that I really like and work well with the icing pipe. I made a butter cream icing, which was a little too oily for me but it took the shape well and hardened up after a while, so I can't complain too much.

Another exciting thing that happened to me came in the post on Thursday...I received my order from 8Season which contained about 40 different sized knitting needles, 10ish crochet needles (so now I have no reason not to learn to crochet), stitch markers, yarn scissors and a lovely silk case. It took me about an hour to unpack everything because all of the needles were packed separately, but it was so worth it! All in all it cost me about US$80, which is a friggen steal of a deal, so thanks Bailey for showing me that :) In any case, getting mail is always the best part of any day!

I decided that I had no more excuses not to make this hat that I've loved since I first laid eyes on it...so I did. And it was super fast, I was so pleased! I started on Friday evening and knitted my heart out (ba-dum-CH), and finished today (Sunday) morning.

I'm pretty pleased with it because it was my first time even trying fair isle, and I think that it went quite well as the hearts actually look like hearts. The only changes I made to Pickles' pattern were that I used size US5.5 instead of US6.0 because I was using quite thin wool and I didn't the weave to be too loose, but I think I had to pay the price of having a slightly tighter hat...so I might have to give it to one of my smaller-headed friends. I also mucked up the decreasing at the end because I got too caught up in Private Practice and forgot to keep count, but that was no big deal, so I just winged (wung?) it. Lovely.

Besos xo

Afghan!

Hello readers (Bailey).

In my first real post on this blog thing, I'll talk about the only project I currently have underway: The Ripple Afghan. My brotha Murray gave me an afghan knitting kit for Christmas 2009 (really, I'm pretty sure my mom is the one who ordered it and paid for it but it was Murray's name on the tag). Included in this kit was the pattern, the freaking huge circular needles and about 8 balls of yarn, so it was a pretty sweet deal considering I'm too lazy/cheap to gather all those things for myself. It's currently April and I've almost got that sucker done, which is an impressive feat for me (someone who never finishes anything that they've started).

The colour is amethyst, as you can see from the picture. It currently measures 105cmx80cm, and I have 1.5 more balls of yarn to use up. The pattern is really quite easy if not a bit tedious, however I find it to be the best project to keep on the coffee table so I can knit while watching Grey's. Possibly my favourite thing about it is that it even works as an afghan before I've even completed it: I can drape it on my legs while knitting it so as to keep me warm in this horrendous spring we've been having. What a perfect situation!

I still have a couple more weeks of effort to put into it, but I think it will be well worth it. However, Bailey, I have a question for you: to tassel or not to tassel? I'm thinking the tassels would give it a more blanket-y vibe instead of just being a large knit rectangle, however, as my mom pointed out, tassels went out of style around 1976...thoughts?

Laterz! xox

Hello.

I suppose you're already my friend if you're reading this, but on the off chance that you stumbled upon this I'll let you know a little about myself.

My name is Jenna and I'm a soon-to-be university student, which is very exciting. I'm on my gap year now and have been playing the role of an entomologist for the past 9 months, which isn't really close to what I want to do for the rest of my life at all. Most of my free time is dedicated to scrapbooking, knitting, cooking or some other form of crafty things to help keep me sane. I'm not excellent at any of these things, but hey. It's fun. Other than that I like music a lot (who doesn't say that?) - more specifically good and tacky music. I'm basically fluent in Spanish (ask anyone) and I'm ready to move out but I'm still not ready to leave.

My idea for this "blog" came from a certain Bailey, one of my besties, and she's really been doing quite well on her little website there. I suggest you check it out!

¡Hasta luego!