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This is the Information Technology (shout out to Dan) edition of Rebecca's Knit Blog. A bit, as we have learned, is the smallest unit of data and it is either a 1 or a 0. A byte is 8 bits grouped together, these groupings can make about 256 characters. The title of today's entry is written in binary, do you know what it says?

In the spirit of that I just want to share a few binary based knitting patterns that I have found. First is this lovely hat that says HAT in binary. The same designer also made these armwarmers that say ARMWARMERS in binary. Mildly redundant but still fun. Finally, this scarf is in binary but they encourage you to come up with your own combination of characters. This way you could say something really snarky like "Nerds can read this" though I think if you knit something in binary you're pretty nerdy yourself. Which is totally ok.

The title for today's entry says "knitting" or at least that's what this site told me it says :)

Create Like a Goddess, Command Like a Queen, Work Like a Mother

It's a good thing we had to pick a theme for these blogs or else I would be ranting about how much I dislike school because they so heavily favor the online students even though I moved to a new city and went into huge amounts of debt so I could sit in a class and be taught by teachers and how upset I am that I have to ruin my Shabbos in order to come into school to present things that took up way too much of my time for not nearly enough reward or how much I really REALLY hate school.

But

I'm not going to rant about that because this is a blog about knitting. So for your amusement I want to share with you The Knit Princess. This is a webcomic involving knitting. Yay! Knitting and webcomics is such a good combo. The Knit Princess is pretty cutesy and maybe a little flaky but eh, I like it. She seems fun, even if she's a little crazy :)

And In the Mail They Go

Kinesthetic mitts are done :) And I even managed to fix the MASSIVE GAPING HOLE in the thumb gusset by threading the extra yarn around the hole and pulling it closed (hopefully you get what I'm saying). You'd never know it had been there.

Nice, right? They're already in an envelope to be shipped off to Alphabet-Girl in the frozen tundras of Upstate New York.

Not sure if I'm going to be able to do much knitting in the coming weeks. Passover starts April 8th which means I'll be pretty much offline from the 8th to the 19th of April. I have so much to do before then because the semester is very quickly coming to an end (Hallelujah). But! Fear not my good readers! I will do my best to post some amusing/interesting knitting related stuffs.

Sir, I Believe You're Wearing A Bowl On Your Head

If you recall back in January I regaled you all with the tale of the Double-Knit Hat that I made for my boyfriend. While I was at my parents' house in Baltimore I felted the hat, which is a fun experince. It's kinda messy and wet but the end result is great (hmm.... sounds a little like....). Felting happens because wool is a scaly fiber and when it's exposed to heat and moisture (like hot water in the washing machine) the scales open up. When you agitate it, the scales get all tangled up and then when the wool is cool and dry the scales close up and lock into felt. Following instructions from Knitty I felted the hat. I then blocked it into a bowl shape. My mom was nice enough to send me some pictures of it since I left it in Baltimore.

You cant even tell it has skulls :-)

Would you like an apple?

And that would be my dad, with the bowl, on his head >_<

And this...

was pretty much all done through the 3 hours of Retrieving Information class tonight. Because I'm a Kinesthetic learner, right? ;-) These are for Alphabet-Girl and it's using the Jo-Ann's Sensations Kashmira. The thumb gusset is total crap but I'm hoping I can doctor it up enough so it's not noticeable. Perhaps if I finish them quickly enough she'll be able to wear them this year for a little bit.

Now in the Company of Lindsay Lohan, David Beckham and Zac Efron

Well, 5 hours and 3 different vehicles later I have made the trip from Pikesville to Squirrel Hill and back into serious work mode (I hope). Because HOLY CRAP PASSOVER IS IN THREE AND A HALF WEEKS AND THERE'S WAY TOO MUCH TO DO BEFORE THEN!!!!!

Ok, must stop panicking.

Finished the Felicity hat. I like it but I think that if I made it again (if I ever find the time) I would make the straight part shorter and the slouchy part wider.

Aren't I cute in my hipster chic?

Spinning, Blocking, Knitting, Blogging

Part II of the Spinning adventure: The Wench and I then went from Cloverhill Yarns to Laurel, MD where a really nice woman taught us how to spin. She told us about how different sheep produce different wool and some fibers are longer than others. And how to ply two strands of spun fiber into one yarn. She patiently sat with us while we fumbled our way through it. It was so much fun though :) Now The Wench and I have both been practicing in order to make more yarn and are both really excited to eventually use the yarn.

I made this hat back in June from some wool Lion Brand Bolero. I actually saw some at The Wench's apartment when I was there for her engagement party and she was nice enough to send some back to Baltimore with her now husband for me. Anyway I made Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Unoriginal Hat with it except that I didn't wear it because it felt to small on my head. I brought it home with me on this lovely spring break and blocked it over one of my wig heads (I have two, their names are Penelope and Gloria) and it fits so nicely now! Blocking is amazing, seriously.

I did finish the fuzzy scarf for my mom, she really likes it and hopefully I'll get a picture of her in it before shipping back to Pittsburgh. Additionally I've been working a bit on the Felicity Hat which is shaping up pretty nicely.

And The Teacher gave me a skein of the Jo-Ann's Sensations Cello to make a scarf for her.

She had every intention of making it for herself but job and grad school sort of got in her way.

Finally, It was the Jewish holiday of Purim this week and here for your (or mostly my) entertainment is my mom dressed as my 15-year-old sister (I made the hat) and me in my Cleopatra on Ecstasy wig that I made.

Blogging From Baltimore

On Spring Break so I am at my parents' house in Baltimore. As I blogged about before my mom bought some yarn for me so I have started the fuzzy scarf for her. It's interesting to knit with. I feel like I'm knitting a Muppet. I think I'm going to use this lovely wool Kashmira Pattern to make a set of hand warmers for Alphabet-Girl, who is The Wench's younger sister. I also want to try and make a slouchy beret with the Kashmira though it may come out weird because the self patterning stripes might pool oddly but I'm going to give it a try anyway.

In other news, The Wench and I went for spinning lessons today. We first drove out to Cloverhill Yarns in Catonsville.

We each bought our spindles and our fiber.

I bought really nice Superwash Merino in purples and greens and The Wench bought Bluefaced Leicester in blues and grays. When we went to check out the guy working the cash register squished our yarn and was like "ooh soft!"The Wench with our fiber

More about the spinning later this week. :-) To all my fellow LIS-ers, hope you have a relaxing break!

It's Happy-Fun-Blog-Time!

Blog now, dinner and then studying my brains out for midterm tomorrow night! Yip-ee!

Anyway, I've got a bunch to blog about right now, though I'm starting to feel like this is the "Blog of things I'd like to knit....one day" *wistful sigh*. So in that category, my mom just bought me some Jo-Ann's Sensations Cello because she wants me to knit her one of those faux-fur scarves. She also picked up some Jo-Ann's Sensations Kashmira which hasn't yet been designated with a project. I'll let you know if I figure something out, maybe a beret/slouchy hat since my Ravelry queue is FULL of them (because one day when I'm married I'm going to be covering my hair and I'd love to knit myself head coverings like that). Also, I've decided that I want to make this awesome scarf for the Cowboy who thinks it is "modern, trendy" and "original" (that is a direct quote, he also said "its interesting. almost like the scarves the Israeli men wear. i like it!!!"). The Cowboy also noted that he likes reds, grays and browns, so I'll have to figure out good colors.

One of my childhood friends, whom I'll be calling The Wench (because if she had been born in a different time and place she would TOTALLY be a Wench) often gets these whims of things she wants to do, which usually pass. This time, however, she is acting on one of these whims, and bringing me along with her. While I'm home for spring break (Hallelujah!) she and I are going to get spinning lessons! That's right, we're going to learn how to turn a wad of wool into yarn to knittable yarn. We are both REALLY REALLY excited about this. Yes, I will take pictures and share them with y'alls.

And finally I finished one of the hand warmers for the friend here (except for weaving in the ends). Hopefully I'll finish the other one before I go home on Friday for spring break. I am using Caron Simply Soft for this and I just want to give my two cents about it. A lot of people who don't like acrylic yarn complain that it is too 'squeaky'. I never really experienced this until now while using bamboo needles. Yes, it's a little irritating, BUT the yarn is cheap and it is SOFT which is really important. I also like how it knit up, it's less fuzzy than the Bernat Satin that I used for the arm warmers for the teacher. (PS, the beginning of the Felicity Hat previously mentioned has been frogged, don't think I'll have enough yarn. I might do it in the leftover purple stuff though...one day.)

Yaarr!!