happy week after Christmas!

I love working for a university ... it still feels like Christmas because I don't have to work. ALL. WEEK. which means there has been much celebrating and hanging out with old friends. and staying out late. oh, the lateness.....

But even better than the lateness is the Knitting Time!! And God knows I need it since the Super Secret Project was not finished by Christmas. (I really didn't expect it to be done, although I was harboring a tiny hope that I might whiz through a sleeve and a front in two days... HA.)

But I can show you what I did finish! May I present the Super Secret Project, Parts 1 and 2?

Isn't Jacob handsome in his sweater parts?
click to see a close up!

I was inspired to knit this sweater when I saw a certain skinny rabbit's fabulous version that she knit a while ago ... it's a Phildar raglan pattern, which means crazy decreases and increases and lots of concentrating on what I'm doing! (Special thanks go to certain friends for being my emergency Phildar question contacts...)

I did actually put the sweater parts in a bag with some tissue paper and give it to Jacob as his gift.. I also had to include the picture from the pattern so he would know what the finished product would like. (Jacob looks at me quizzically when I say it's a raglan sweater...although I guess I wouldn't know what a raglan was if I didn't knit!) I think it's going to fit him really well once it's done, AND I think he actually likes it! We'll see ... I'm a little worried about sewing the pieces together, but I think the Athens, GA Division of Phildar Experts who will hopefully help me out... (right, Jenny? right?)

So, yay for the Super Secret Project. I really want to finish it so Jacob can wear it....and so I can move on to some other knitting projects! I knitted only two other Christmas presents: click to see Mom's scarf and Cathy's mittenettes!

So, even though Jacob and I weren't supposed to really get each other presents this year, of course he still can't resist ... and check out what he got me!

it's around my neck! pretty pretty pearls...

I LOVE my necklace, and I was totally surprised...Jacob is REALLY good at surprises. Me, not so much. One day I will find a way to surprise him .... (new dog, maybe? JUST KIDDING JACOB.)

Both of our families totally spoiled us with kitchen stuff, games, and all kinds of other wonderful gifties. Knitting related gifts included a new knitting bag, a knitting-pattern-a-day calendar, a subscription to Interweave Knits (yay!) and these totally adorable magnets that my sister Cat made me: one, two, three! She made them using some of the different skins on my blog! How fun is that?

So, Christmas rocked. Totally. I know I'm going to have to come back down to the real world and actually get up early and other yucky things at the end of the week, but currently I'm in Happy Holiday Fantasy World and I think I'll stay here as long as I can, thank you very much.

Our New Year's plans are still up in the air right now, but I'm sure it will involve lots of dancing and hopefully (*fingers crossed*) karaoke. We're actually going to karaoke tonight too! Does it get any better than this?

**I am having some technical issues, so I had to repost this entry and lost all the comments to it. I'm working on getting it fixed. **

Posted by Carrieoke at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm in such a holiday mood today! It's Christmas Eve, there's No One at Work, so I can listen to music really loud and maybe knit a few rows here and there. Not that I would ever knit for long periods of time at work. No, not me.

Part of the reason that I'm full of Christmas cheer is because I spent last night wrapping Christmas presents. I *heart* wrapping presents .... Jacob and I had a little Christmas factory going : he would finish the present, give it to me, tell me the recipient, and I would wrap and label accordingly. All with the oh-so-merry Law and Order SVU on in the background. The schmoos were curled up on the couch, watching the wrapping paper fly. Whee!

Another holiday happy happy: I have gotten so many lovely things recently! When I got back from California, I had these things waiting for me at home:

1. Stitch n Bitch Nation, courtesy of the lovely and hilarious Vibegrrl (thanks chica!)

2. Yummy sock yarn that I won on Ebay..... (thanks me!)

3. These totally beautiful and comfy socks from Monica, of PassionKnit!

4. My talented friend Mary Jessica not only gave me a Christmas card that she drew herself (and is SO CUTE), but she surprised me with a lovely handknit scarf!

beautiful ribbon yarn scarf!

I mean, who wouldn't feel Christmasy with all this Christmas cheer flying around?

I would love to show a picture of the partially finished Super Secret Project, but its recipient (Jacob) has no self control and will of course click on any pictures that he is specifically told NOT TO CLICK ON. But it's almost done...although I don't think it will be completely finished by Christmas Day. Is it tacky to give someone pieces of a sweater? (Although, at this point, Jacob has seen me at my tackiest, so giving sweater pieces won't be that bad....) Once I finish this bad boy, I think it will be one of the coolest things I've knitted. We shall see....

I have some knitting ...errr ... work to do, so I need to get going. But everyone have a wonderful holiday weekend, or week, if you celebrate! I have ALL NEXT WEEK OFF, woot!

Posted by Carrieoke at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)

So, I'll give you the gist of this post right off the bat, but only if you promise to read the whole thing...

I'm not moving to San Francisco.

And, hey, you don't really have to read the whole thing if you don't want to. There was a little bit of drama with the band, and it's not really that interesting. All you need to know is that I discovered that I didn't completely trust one of my bandmates, and well, you kinda need to trust your bandmates. Just ask Lala -- she knows. And she told me IN PERSON. So, no moving across the country for something I don't feel 100% about. But was the trip awesome? TOTALLY.

Knitting on the corner while I wait for my ride.

Read all about it in the photo heavy entry below ...

The best part about my trip to the West Coast was meeting so many incredible bloggers. Seriously. If I could justify moving to San Francisco just to be around these people, I TOTALLY would. (edited to add: here's a photo album of all the rest of my pictures ... it's hosted on a separate site, so someone email me if it starts crashing)

Real quick, I'll show you what is was like in the studio:

Recording vocal tracks. Over. And. Over.

The vocal booth was SOOO quiet ... and the guys would sit on the other side of a glass window and record what I was singing, then make me do it again, and again .. here's what they looked like to me. It's hard work, but it's really fun to record in the studio, especially once we got some good vocal tracks, because then they would start mixing it to music and it's SO FUN to hear to your voice in a song. It just is.

However, the real fun began when I started meeting people. Did you know that the Bay Area apparently has the coolest bloggers EVER? And I got to meet a bunch. I had the pleasure of meeting Loody herself, and she is such an awesome person. We ate some kick ass Chinese food in Berkeley and seriously talked each other's ears off for four hours. (I love how blogs get you past all the uncomfortable first-time-meeting stuff and just get you straight to the help-me-make-life-decisions part of the conversation. It's great!) Loody has the most calming presence -- I felt better just being around her, and she's funny as shit to boot. YAY LOODY!

I also spent a bunch of time with Miss Run On Sentences Elizabeth, who became my unofficial San Francisco tour guide (although we always ended up knitting at her place...it was too fun to stop.) Wait until you see the bad-ass tea cozy she knitted ... and the socks! oh, they are fantastic. Besides being an excellent knitter, Miss Run On Sentences is wise beyond her years and helped me deal with a lot of the band drama that occurred in San Francisco. We also have so much in common that (at the risk of being totally melodramatic) I feel like she is totally my long lost (third) sister. YAY ELIZABETH!

Elizabeth being fabulous in the swanky Starbucks.

On Saturday, me and Miss Run On drove from the city to Oakland to have a little knitting party. And oh how we partied... Rachael is just as cute as you imagined from her blog. No, CUTER. If that's possible. And such a gracious host. And she just exudes happiness, and watching her and Lala together makes a person happy as well. (And maybe a little homesick for your Jacob schmoo.) And the color of her bathroom walls ... well, it's just magnificent. Such a warm, cozy, HOMEY house! And filled with warm, cozy people. Aww, just look at the pictures.

Elizabeth, me, and Joanna(J Strizzy) -- Joanna made persimmon pudding. You must eat some NOW. It is sinfully good.

Knitters DO wear handknit socks! (I think that's Rach, Janine, and J Strizzy's feet.)

Lala and her schmoos (that's Miss Idaho and Harriet, and they told me that they've been wanting to move to Athens. I'll be arranging that soon.)

Proof that I did actually meet Rachael....

Proof that knitters totally get rowdy...

What can I say? It was totally great. I don't want to get all sappy on ya, but there's nothing like making a big decision to help you realize how important great people are, both in the blogosphere, and in person. I feel totally at peace with my decision to stay in Athens. But I SO would love to live in SF. Or Oakland, bay-bee.

Later, this week I'll show you pictures of socks, and half finished sweaters, and scarves and what not. Tonight = too sleepy. I'll also post a photo album of all my pics from the trip -- you didn't even see my pictures of Too Many Scarves Stacey, or Purls Peyond Price Nathania....

Posted by Carrieoke at 1:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (26)

...be sure to wear some flowwwerrrs in your haaaiiirr.....

Well, technically I'm in Oakland. And I don't have flowers in my hair, although I passed a lot of really pretty flowers when I was walking to the coffee shop today.

Things are crazy up in this piece, so this entry will be short and sweet. I do have some pictures though! (cool things about Macs: I can plug my camera into the USB port and load up pics with no program or drivers. I heart Macs.)

I arrived in one piece after spending ALL DAY Monday on a plane or in an airport. Thank GOD for knitting, dude, because I would've been a grumpy pants for sure if I didn't have my knitting with me. Mikael and Stuart picked me up at the Oakland airport, and just before they arrived, I had a celebrity sighing: Ty, the extremely hot carpenter from Trading Spaces. Oh yeah. I think he might have been on my plane because we were at the same baggage carousel. Our conversation went like this:

me: Hey Ty, I love your show. Do you want to get married?
Ty: Sure Carrieoke! I totally recognize you from your knitting blog, which I read every day and love. Let's get hitched!

Okay, so I didn't talk to him. Lots of other people were harassing him so I decided to be cool. But dang, he is HOT.

Okay. so me and Mikael and Stuart and fabulous studio intern Andrew went to a Mexican restaurant, where they raised my spirits and energy level with a quesadilla and some margaritas. Yum. They were preparing me for the fact that they were about to take me back to the studio and MAKE ME RECORD even though I'd just been traveling for like, 13 hours. Silly boys. See photo to see how I felt about that. But in rock star fashion, I stayed up and worked on some music. And also because it's hard to sleep in the studio when people are mixing music. Honestly, that's what most of my week so far has consisted of. Late nights in the studio, recording vocals, and freaking out a little bit because this trip is making the whole music thing VERY real.

However, I got a nice little break from the studio last night ... I got to hang out with Elizabeth!

Coffee, knitting, and blog-o-friends! Woo-hoo!

Elizabeth totally rocks, by the way. She is hilarious and fun and we had a blast hanging out, even spending a long time in a drugstore looking for a cell phone charger. I can't wait to hang out more with her this week! We actually met up at Article Pract, which is literally walking distance from the studio ... I think I'm taking that as a sign. A good sign. I think.

I have lots more to tell you, including details about our meeting with our lawyer (!) but I gotta go knit. Er, I mean work in the studio. Just so you know that I'm in good hands, here's a picture of my bandmates Stuart and Mikael. They will so kill me for posting this, but I don't think they read the blog every day. This was taken at the Smokehouse:

mmm. burgers.

I will try to post again later this week ... send me fabulous, confident vibes. I'm not done meeting producers yet.

ooh!ooh! Jacob said that I had some socks that came in the mail... I can't WAIT to see them! Also, I miss Jacob and the schmoos like the dickens.

Posted by Carrieoke at 9:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (34)

Woo-hoo! It's the weekend, and I'm squeezing in a post before I take off for San Francisco on Monday. Jacob and I went to a going away party for his friend Boyce last night so I got my coffee shop shift covered and ... I got to sleep in this morning! oh, the sweetness of sleeping in. I NEVER get to sleep in. It was delicious. Now I'm starting to think about maybe packing, and instead surfing blogs and knitting. D'oh.

First, I want to show you a fabulous treat I got in the mail:

ooh la la!

I took a picture of the only knitting project that I can reveal on this blog right now but it's so boring that I'm not even gonna show ya. (oh, well, if you really want to see, here ya go.) It's the mock baby cable scarf from Stitch and Bitch Nation, and it's oatmeal colored. CRAZY WILD KNITTING! Of course, everything else I'm working on is fascinating, but I don't trust my gift recipients to not click on pictures. (they're tricksy like that....)

So. I'm getting nervous about my trip, for a number of reasons, including my fear of flying, and fear of rejection, and fear of not completing my knitted Christmas presents while I'm out there. Here is my plan of action:

1. I will battle my fear of flying by knitting furiously the whole plane trip, with headphones on. Or drinking excessive amounts of wine. Either way, I'll be a happy camper.

2. I will battle my fear of rejection by being fabulous. No, I'm kidding. I think I just have to relax about the whole thing ... it's always a little stressful to meet new people and put yourself out there, especially putting something you do (in this case, my singing voice) out for people to see and hear. I really like meeting new people usually, but for some reason I have butterflies about this trip. It will be okay. It will be GREAT. My stage mom says so.

3. I will battle my fear of not completing knitted presents by knitting furiously while I'm on vacation. Hopefully I will see some friendly folks who understand the Christmas knitting bug and even encourage it. oh boy oh boy!

At any rate, I have seven whole days off from work, and a (tiny) bit of money to spend, yarn stores to see, a new city to explore, and fun bloggers to hang out with. Oh, and some music to record! I'd say I'm a lucky girl!

I wish Jacob and the schmoos could come with me, but Jacob is starting a new job on Monday (send good luck vibes!), and Bella and Chili have prior engagements this week with some hole digging and rawhide chewing (busy schmoos). I'm going to try to hop online this week at least to get my daily blog dose .. and may be post. Ya'll have a great week!

Posted by Carrieoke at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)

Grumble, grumble. It feels like Monday.

This weekend was fun, though. I spent the entire weekend with Jacob, Anne Marie, Drew and JoAnna (ya know, for a change...), oh, and a little time with Ranger too. Our main activity was Nintendo. Watching other people play Nintendo (and yes, I'm talking about NES) is a really good activity because everyone thinks I'm hanging out (And I am!) but also I can knit NON STOP. (By the way, Marble Madness is a total rip-off. There are only, like, five boards. Boo.)

What did I knit? Well, JoAnna was wearing these kick ass hand knit gloves that were a little torn up ....

Exhibit A

And the holes made me sad, so I offered to patch them up with some yarn and DPNs. JoAnna requested some bright yarn to patch the holes, and.... VOILA!

Exhibit B

Yay! Aren't they cute? Yay for hand knit stuff that can be repaired.

I also worked on Large Secret Project Number One (and Jacob knows it's for him, damn it, because he persists in snooping. Snooper. But I'm really going to try to hide what it looks like or what it is until Christmas). And I worked on another pair of the coolest mittenettes around, (thank you again Midnight Knitter!) and a scarf from the new Stitch and Bitch Nation (how CUTE is that book!!). I was a little fickle with my knitting this weekend...I kept jumping around from project to project. I really want to be working on Large Secret Project Number One all the time but I can't while the boy is around.

Other important projects included The Great Hair Dye Job of 2004 :

I know we look tired, but isn't our hair fab?

I got a box of that L'Oreal Couleur Experte stuff where you dye your whole head, and then use a little mascara wand to highlight it. FUN. And I used an expired coupon so I got $7 off! Anyways, Anne Marie and JoAnna did mine and it looks great, and then we used the extra highlighting stuff to do Anne Marie's. FUN TIMES.

I'm getting ready to send the socks away to their new home, and I'm also getting ready for my trip to San Francisco. I'm so excited, and also a little nervous. If I haven't already said this, my trip is for fun and relaxation, but also to work a little. I'm planning to record some tracks with my band from Athens who are now in SF, and check out the area....I already have a rough demo of one of the songs so I'm learning it and working on it actually as I'm typing. ....Trying not to be anxious about sounding like dying cat and disappointing everyone....

Okay! on that cheery note, I have to go to a phone meeting. Knitting night tonight with my new neighbor, High Energy Jenny! WooHoo! Maybe a little knitting ... and wine...will cheer me up.

Posted by Carrieoke at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)

I am the proud owner of my first completed pair of socks.

Blue Stripey Socks, meet the world!

Hooray! Aren't they adorable? I'm full of sock pride today, so pardon me if I'm bragging. But my socks are so cute. I'm a little sad about sending them to their recipient, because that means I will have to part with them, but it also means that I have a pair of lovely handknitted socks coming my way! Yahoo! I used a combination of Bonne Marie's Sock Love Pattern (found here) and this sock pattern for Regia sock yarn. (Regia Sock Yarn provided by Miss Fabulous High Energy Knits Jenny (thanks!)

When I finished Sock #2, I liked the toe so much that I ripped out finished Sock #1 to make the toes match more closely. I am SO glad I did. And I have a confession to make: today, when the fire alarm went off at work, the first thing I picked up to evacuate the building with were my PRETTY KNITTED SOCKS. D'oh.

So now what? Well, I have a load of Christmas knitting to do...I have one big project in the works, and several little things that I'm going to make for friends. Oh, and maybe some socks. I can't show you many pictures of the projects, partly some of the recipients read this blog, but mostly because I haven't started ANY of them yet.

San Francisco trip plans are coming together, and it seems like there a lot of knitbloggers who live on the other side of the country. YAY! And the yarn stores... oh, the yarn stores. I just have to keep focused on why I'm visiting (do some recording, check out the city, etc) and not spend too much money. And, when I get back, decisions will have to be made.

Luckily, when I get back, I will only have three days of work before my Christmas holiday (the best perk of being University staff! Long holiday breaks!) That means more relaxing, and lots of time to think things over.

In completely unrelated news, Bella has seemed really down the past couple of days. **12/3/04 - Edited to add: Bella sends love to all of her sweet caring friends out there in Blog Land. She is feeling much better and wants to give you all a sloppy wet schmoo kiss. MWAH!!** And she feels hot. Do dogs get fevers? Or am I an insane doggy mommy? Here's what she's looked like for three days:

I'm a sickly little schmoo.

So send Bella some healthy doggy vibes. And send me the financially responsible vibes.

Did I mention how cute my socks are?

Posted by Carrieoke at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (41)