Tag - Your It!

Sarah, at Mom's Knitting... Again, tagged me to play the Power of Seven so here it goes.

1. Link to your tagger and post the rules on your blog. Done.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. (Mine are below).
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. (Hope they want to play too!)
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. Going to go do that right now.

Seven things about me that you might not already know:

1. I don't often talk about my work on this blog so you might not know that I work for Lockheed Martin as a Materials Science Engineer. I work on the External Tank for the Space Shuttle program and was hired on after the Columbia accident.

2. I have a black belt in Taekwondo. Well, I don't know if it still counts since I earned it about 7 years ago. I also had a purple belt in JuJitsu. I trained for about 3.5 years in martial arts and even competed. I've often thought about getting back into it but it is a big commitment.

3. My Dad was in the Army for 20 years. I went to many, many different schools. I lived in Germany for 6 years before I was 10 and even saw the Berlin wall before it came down. I've visited France, Turkey, Korea, Canada and Mexico as well.

4. I've hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back. It was one of the best feelings in the world. I only got to spend one night at the bottom and I've often wanted to go back for a longer stay. But I had to continue onto the rest of my trip that was a 5 day whitewater rafting trip down Cataract Canyon.

5. I skipped my senior year of high school. I attended an early admittance program called Clarkson School which is part of Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY before transferring back to the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign where I graduated with a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering.

6. When I was 18 I worked for a summer on a riverboat called The Twilight on the Mississippi River. It wasn't a gambling boat but did 2 day trips up and down the river. I had to dance the can-can as part of the job.

7. I have 430 skydives. I've done 2 night jumps and I've used my reserve once.

Tag - Your It
1. CJ
2. Leslie
3. LeslieD
4. Emy
5. Nathania
6. Anna
7. Laura

Phileme? - Yes Please!

Work has been keeping me busy lately and when I'm not busy at work I'm busy trying to keep things running at home. Nothing terribly amazing or important going on, just busy. I have managed to fit in a little knitting here and there and have 2 new FO's to show you.

I finished a new hat dear hubby. The pattern is the skull hat I found while browsing around on Ravelry.com available for free on the Knit Two Together blog. I used Rowan Calmer yarn in black and purple and size 8 needles. The only changes I made to the pattern was to eliminate the ear flap that is designed to cover the stranded colorwork on the inside of the hat. I figured down here in New Orleans that it didn't really make sense to make it double thickness even if I was making it in cotton and I also changed the decreases at the top to make it a little more like skull cap as I thought the method of decrease in the pattern made the top of the hat a little squarish looking. I had plenty of yarn left over and I'm thinking of making a pair of fingerless gloves for a friend who saw the hat and loved it with the leftovers, probably not real soon though.

Then I also cast on and finished this wonderful scarf. The yarn is the alpaca yarn that I talked about in this post back in November when I got to visit Tuscancy Valley Alpacas and feed and pet the alpacas. This is the yarn I got while there. It is so very soft and lofty. The pattern is called phileme (free translated download) and is another pattern I found while browsing Ravelry.com. There is a knit along (in French) and ravelry knit along as well. I knit this on size 4 knit picks options needles. I love the combination of this yarn and this pattern. It was very quick to knit and I loved every minute of it. And the finished object is perfect. True I probably won't get a lot of use of it down here in New Orleans, but it is already my favorite scarf and I just finished it last night. I haven't taken it off all day today because it is just so cozy and soft around my neck.

I have also made a little more progress on Jeanie but it's been resting while I worked on on the scarf for the most part. All those cables don't make Jeanie a very portable project so I think I will be casting on for some socks soon as a second project. And it's been so long since I've done a pair of socks I think it's about time!

A Parade of FO's

It's Mardi Gras time here in New Orleans and there are tons of parades this weekend, some which I may even venture out to attend. But here we're going to have a little parade of FO's. See I've been sick, I think it was the flu, and spent a lot of time on the couch knitting this past week and half so I've finished up a few things and started some new things too.

First up is the never ending Chevron scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts that was started way back in June last year. It is made using Mountain Colors Barefoot in the Huckleberry and Crazy Woman colors and was knit on size 5 knit picks option needles. This scarf seemed to drag on and on and on, but now that it is finally done I've been wearing it practically every day! I also have about half of each skein left over and I think I will use that to make a pair of matching fingerless gloves using the same basic stitch and repeat pattern. Not sure when but sometime.

Next up I found a button for Mr. Greenjean's! I love the way the strips in this button mimic the strips in the rib and cable pattern.

Next is two FO's, the Child's Placket Neck Pullover and the Childern's Cotton Hat, both pattern's from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. These are gifts for a friend that is expecting a little boy very soon. Both are knit in Rowan Handknit Cotton on size 6 knit picks option needles. The sweater is the 0-6 month size and the hat was a tighter guage than given the book so it is actually the toodler number of stitches cast on but the measurement is closer to that of the infant size. Both were very quick and easy little knits and make cute little gifts.

I also started working on Jeanie in Dream in Color Smooshy in the Cocoa Kiss color. This yarn was a birthday present from my good friend CJ who knew I was wanting to work on Jeanie and waiting to find just the right yarn. She hit the nail on the head with this selection! I'm loving this pattern and the yarn. I've actually completed another repeat since this picture was taken already!

I also finished a pair of black dashing fingerless gloves as a gift for my tattoo artist that I gave to him last night when I went in for my new tattoo. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of the gloves but they were pretty basic and knit in black cascade 220. I did take a picture of the tattoo I got though! The plan is to continue the butterflies onto my shoulder and down the arm and into a full sleeve of butterflies and I'll be going back next month to continue the work on the piece. The tattoo artist is again Walt Clark at www.NOLAtattoo.com who also did my last two tattoos.