Pedestrians, Beware

I ride a bike.

No, more like, I fly a bike.

I realize that in my haste to get to class, I might scare a few of my sidewalk cohabitants. After several months of this, I got my comeuppance today at about 1:30 when the sidewalk decided to come uppance at my face.
WEAR A HELMET.


















In knitting news, Halloween has come and gone, and was very successful. I knit a cat costume. A campus cat, to be specific. If you're not familiar with UNL, we have a legendary flock of feral cats, which were originally brought to the campus to reduce the rabbit population. We now have inbred, diseaseful kitties. Good job, Nebraska. It's all knit out of grossie Lion Brand Yarns, which have found their true calling: durable, plasticy costumes for rowdy college parties.

The bane of my existence as a music student, the semesterly opera, is upon us. To cope with the pain of playing Mozart for four hours everyday in a dark, cramped orchestra pit, I'm knitting a cabled mini sweater out of gorgeous lime green-vari Araucania Nature Wool. It makes me feel a whole lot better about my shitty day of eating sidewalk and subsequently having to go to the *#^&$*%$^% Health Center to see FOUR people before someone finally confirmed that I do not have a concussion, to know that I can go hole up with my awesome yarn and bamboo needles. Big thanks to my mother for buying this broke co-ed some quality yarn.

What else is on the needles? Two words:

UGLY BLANKET.

If you're on ravelry, go look at the list of yarns that are in this thing. I'll have pictures soon. It's REALLY ugly, and yet, replete with amazingness. Scraps from almost every project I have used decent yarn for. Keep in mind, for the first three to four years of my knitterly existence, I used a helluvalot of c-h-e-a-p yarn. If I had sequenced the yarns in chronological order it would go something like: Red Heart, miles of Lion Brand esp. Fun Fur, random novelty yarns of all sorts, wools, elasticized cotton, and alpaca forever and ever amen.

There is a set of coral and lime bikini bottoms in hibernation until I do my Christmas/winter knitting. I would like to finish this green sweater before I go to New York in January... we'll see. I'm knitting a little something for my mother's Christmas present, and she probably will never read this, but just in case, I'ma keepin it a secret except to say that it's from Knitty.com

The public library back home in Manhattan, Kansas has a "Mitten tree," every year around Christmas (who says that agnostics can't enjoy the holidays?!), so I'm going to cast on a little hat this weekend to donate, an maybe a matching scarf. I also have a little set of baby socks lying around that I made years ago just to learn how to make socks, so I think it would be appropriate to donate them, since I don't really know any babies...
Since it is getting close to that time of year, I strongly encourage knitters and non-knitters alike to donate, help out, do your part any way you can. Make a hat. Serve some soup. Give away the part of your stash you'll never use. Teach someone to knit!

Speaking of teaching, I just taught my roommate how to knit about a month ago - she is a freaking prodigy! Her first project was a scarf. Not just your standard beginner-garter-stitch-mess scarf, oh no, there is ribbing and patterniness galore, and her stitches are even. [I know - whuuuuuuuuut?] Her second project (in progress), is Elisa's Nest Tote from Purl Soho. IT'S LACE. SECOND PROJECT. EVER. We are going to launch an empire of knitting, blogging and podcasty goodness.

Be safe. Don't smash your lovely faces,
--Stricken