The Cottage

Isn't it cute? So far it's been great, although I had ants in the summer and mice in the winter, I haven't seen much of either. The mice aren't eating my food, which means normal baited traps aren't working. The sonic repellents I bought didn't work AND made a weird clicking noise, so I'll try a different brand. I've had some plumbing issues but nothing that made it unlivable.

I've had some recent issues with roommates, so it's been nice to be on my own. It does get a bit lonely, though. That's not a second unit on the side- it's just got two doors. I know I won't be here forever, though, and I already miss it!

Future Project Friday

It's a new year! So I want to think about some of the craft things I want to get done and the things that I have supplies and ideas for but have just been sitting around.

1. The Big Blue and Green Quilt. This is ongoing for a year now, and it's been in hibernation for too long. With my time off from my day job, I should start it up again.

2. Alex's T-shirt quilt. Just waiting for my bolt of interfacing from Fabric.com. Should get here soon; I've alwasy had great shipping times from them.

3. A t-shirt tunic from one of the shirts in the giant bag Alex gave me. I have good ideas for this one; I only hope it'll turn out well and be wearable.

4. Hemming my Ann Taylor pants. This will wait until I am back to work; I will take them to one of two tailors in the area to judge their service and workmanship before I take more difficult things to them.

5. Tailoring white wool skirt and the yellow wool skirt I got from Patina Vintage- either do it myself or take it to a tailor.

6. New yellow belt for yellow sundress.

7. Four hoodies: resize giant black Toroa zip up; maybe make it a crossover. Red Arcadia Football hoodie: Tunic, white trim? White Arcadia Beaver Beach hoodie: Unsure. May be my practice for the Red hoodie. La Salle hoodie: just cover up the front La Salle logo since I withdrew from the school!

8. Re-do the cuff on the Granny Smith Green socks I made, so I can actually wear them.

9. MY tshirt quilt? with lots of Arcadia shirts? it's a possibility but not a for-sure.

10. Matt's sweater-vest.

11. A bow tie.

12. The Torii tunic pattern I already bought.

13. Jackie's convertible cutoff gloves. She already knows I may take a while. I may be getting a crocheted blanket in exchange!!

14. Beaded necklaces and brooches.

Done this year:

1. Finish Jon's gloves.

2. Take in a teal green button-down. Teal is a color I'm excessively picky about, and I might still not like this shirt... but I like it a lot more now that it fits better.

Sustaining friendships through spending money

Rambling.

Us broke post-college "Millenials" seem to share the idea that people and friendships come first- before, say, work- but that “networking” can be exclusive of a day job and that we don’t need to climb the ladder TOGETHER. We’ve been told competition and jealousy is bad (I’ve read a lot of this “overcoming your jealousy” articles geared towards ladies, as a side note), but I wonder if that is getting in the way of a drive to advance yourself.

-Christine is getting married and it’s important that I stay around, even if it means adjusting my career/education goals

-being a student, I can id with other friends who are students

-working this hard, I sometimes don’t identify with friends who don’t work as hard; however, I can discuss these feelings with mutual harder-working friends.

-I have no idea how to talk to friends who, to me, aren't working at a similar level as I am, whether it be in school or jobs.

-this is good and bad: I want to be friends with people who are similar to me- driven, prioritizing, responsible, not just accepting their debt- but this also pits us against some of those who were our friends. Also I can look snobby or pretentious to those who are friends with those people (friends of friends, who don’t work, used as examples)

-Why do I work? I got a job to have money to go see each other (train tickets, gas) and do things (buy food, go to bars, see the opera) but now I'm always so busy and too busy to see each other (saving up money for a plane ticket to see Alex H means I can’t afford to go to see Alex H yet) (working meant I missed Matt’s bday entirely) (I work the weekends and evenings, which doesn't line up with a lot of my friends)

-However, not living together (dorm) means we have to make time to see each other anyways. Needing to go to the mall to buy things for work meant I actually contacted Alex T. to see if he was free and got to see him. This led to us scheduling a weekly playdate!

Generally discussing money would be see as uncouth; but when money is already an issue between friends (eg roommates paying rent) how much can other friends pass judgment? Was it ok when we thought that one friend's handling of money could hurt another friend? Money is already an issue for us eg jobs, debt, especially when we all went to the same school and therefore have some idea what it all cost us.

Ramble over.

Knits With Friends

I have been knitting!

Jon's cutoff gloves. I have been knitting these since around October, and Jon's birthday, which happens to be the same as mine, was back in September. May I admit that I was occasionally a little peeved at finishing these? It wasn't just that the main time I had to knit was waiting for the train, and because I often found gloves hard to wear why knitting, I let my fingers freeze while I knit something for someone else to stay warm. I got a stranger's approval of the gloves, which was warming.
In order to keep my sanity and my time, I gave Jon a choice of certain things I knew wouldn't be too hard to finish: non-fingered wrist warmers, mittens, socks, a hat, a variety of scarves. And what does he do? Ask for fingerless gloves. *sigh* But I couldn't be mad, because he is my friend and I adore him, and I'd rather him -like- what I made. Fingerless gloves it is. No resentment. And he loves them! That paid off. I have yet to see him wear them, though, so if I don't, Jon may find himself off of my "knit for" list.
People-who-know-knitters: You should listen to your knitters. Indulge them.

Matthew's Tychus Hat, for his birthday. This I deliberated on. I hardly ever see Matt wear knitted hats, which for most people is an indication that they DO NOT LIKE knitted hats. Matt has nice, wavy hair, but perhaps he doesn't like to cram it under close-fitting caps that squash out the nice waviness.

But Matt is good to make things for, because he will really appreciate them as he doesn't knit (or crochet) himself; or he will act like he really appreciates them and makes you feel better. :)  He's also pretty open to creative ideas. He does not, however, shop for clothing much himself, which means 1. He does not already own a knit hat, and 2. He is not actively looking for the perfect knit hat.
This is why he also received, for his birthday, a crocheted scarf in similar colors from another friend, Jackie (in close to our alma mater colors) and from his sister, an amigurimi Rainbow Dash (My biggest current claim to fame is I'm friends IRL with the Brony Prime: http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/12/nightly-roundup-201.html#more He's the "Presumably Psychic Person" and you can click to see his vlog).

I made sure to choose a soft yarn with alpaca in it, because we both just really dig alpacas.

I wanted to believe that the reason he does not have a knit hat is because he hasn't been given the perfect, soft, lovingly-hand-knit hat yet; and he assured me this is true!

While I haven't seen him wear it either, I also have seen him all of once since his birthday, which is more my fault than his.

Two more news octopi for Jenn. You can see their predecessors here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/onemoreday/news-octopi
The left one has a bit of a squid feel to it; the right one I made a little more lifelike and flat, but it also has seven legs. Hey, octopuses lose legs in real life! I left her a note with them.


All this knitting for friends means that you may get gifts like this for Christmas:

Isn't that great? "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" has been a really popular book but I haven't seen it in person much. I like a lot of the things in here. I jokingly asked if this was a "nudge nudge wink wink" book so that I would make more things for my friends! I also got that great mug from when Jenn was in Disneyland. It's crazy perfect because I've been thinking of buying a fourth mug. I'm only one person, but one of the mugs is delicate enough to hardly count, one holds a lot less liquid, and this one is dark on the inside so it won't get as tea-stained as my other three. And it has DORY from Finding Nemo on it! She's a blue Tang. It has "Find a happy place" repeated on it; my goal in life is to make my surroundings my happy place. A home, friends, family.

More knitting awaits! Still working on my First Sweater.

Claudia