This post brought to you from Dayton, Ohio.

I'm sure many of you noticed a lack of actual knitting content on this blog as of late. I hate to make excuses, but I have a good one, one that takes precident over my hobbies for the time being.

Let me preface this by saying, writing this out for anyone and everyone to read is not easy for me. I rarely share very personal things here, especially things that I have been to embaressed to even share with some of my closest friends in real life. But for some reason, I just feel like getting it off my chest.

In 1999, one day before my high school graduation, I got kicked out of high school. I had issues through out the year that were health related, and my parents and I both worked with the school system to make sure that I had enough credits and days to graduate. However, despite the reassurances and constant meetings with the principal and the vice principal, when the time came for graduation, I was denied. Not just to walk for graduation mind you, that would have been sad, but not devestaing or shameful for me. I was denied my diploma.

After graduation, I enrolled in summer school to try to make up the credits, however mid term, our school system replaced the principal and vice principal and suddenly what we were told would do the trick was no longer was satisfying to the school. So even after giving up my summer and working my ass off to get that diploma, I was still denied.

After that, I just kind of let it go. I knew I should do something about it, but as time went by it was easier and easier to make excuses, and then after a few years, fear became my excuse.

I am by no means an idiot, I didn't struggle through school at all, in fact I didn't even pay attention and still excelled in all of my classes, I'm a quick learner and pretty smart if I say so myself. However, after several years had passed, I was scared that I would fail, since I haven't used most of that knowledge since high school.

I don't know what exactly changed this year that made me decide it was time to do something about it. It might just be that I feel a little stuck where I am, and getting my GED and then enrolling in college will open up doors for me and allow me to really go somewhere in life. Or maybe I'm just sick and tired of being ashamed or feeling inferior to those around me. My family, my friends, even the past two guys I dated never did anything to make me feel that way, but sometimes, standing next to them, I felt like I wasn't good enough because of this. My insecurities about myself were starting to rear their head in a very ugly way.

So I decided to just buckle down and take care of this already. I've been brushing up on things I have long forgotten about and trying to prepare the best I can. My test date is December 16th, and while I'm excited because this is the start of my life taking a new direction, I'm also a little nervous and scared all at once.

So please, bear with me for the time being and forgive my lack of knitting content. I think it's excusable given the reason.

Coffee Swap Contest Entry.

As part of the coffee swap, we've been asked to blog about our favorite places to get coffee. Living in a smallish town in South Jersey offers limited places to get a good cup of coffee. There are no real coffee shops, if you want to sit indoors and enjoy a cup, there's pretty much the local diner or Dunkin Donuts.

Most of my coffee consumption is on the fly, usually grabbing a cup from Wawa, a local 24 hour convience store, or the bagel store right down the street from my office.

But I do still enjoy a stationary cup of coffee. One of my favorite places to relax over a cup is my friend Joe's apartment. Whether we're sitting at the kitchen table, each drinking a cup, him out of his favorite Batman mug, and me out of my Billy Joel mug I leave there for just these occasions, or we're sitting on the couch for coffee and a movie, I enjoy not only the coffee, but also the company.

It's been quite a while now, but before Joe and I were just friends, back when we had first started dating, he used to swing by my house late at night, after both of us had finished hanging out with our friends, or doing whatever it is we had planned that evening, and we'd stand there in my driveway, drinking the coffee he brought with him, while just chatting about anything and everything. Those nights were some of the fondest memories I actually have of our relationship.

Besides drinking coffee with Joe, which really seemed to be all we actually did towards the end of our relationship, I also throughogly enjoy the weekends I spend at KnitXcore's apartment. Waking up Sunday morning to a steaming hot cup of coffee while him, his boyfriend Dave and I all lounge out in the living room half awake is relaxing and always entertaining.

But all in all, my favorite place to have a cup of coffee is at work. There's no better way in my opinion then to start the morning off with a cup of coffee while I catch up on knitting blogs. My favorite day to do so is Monday. Since I don't check bloglines over the weekends, I'm treated to an unusually high amount of entries to catch up, giving me more time than usual to relax before actually getting to work.

Contest winner and Coffee Swap

I didn't even realize how long it's been since I posted. Time sure flies.

Remember my blog contest? The big question was, which show did I add first to my season pass list once I set up my Tivo. The answer, as most of you guessed was Battlestar Galactica. After throwing everyone's name who guessed correctly into a hat, a winner was picked. Congrats to Jody of Knit n Things. Your yarn is on it's way!

While browsing the knitting community on Livejournal today, stumbled across this scarf.


[Pattern can be found here.] Not only is it a great stashbuster, using less than one ball of lace weigvht yarn, but I love the design of it. With Icarus getting on my last nerve, and Lacevember nearly being over, I have decided to sit Icarus aside for the time being and cast on for this in hopes that I might actually be able to finish one lacey item by the end of this month.

In other knit-a-long news, I am lucky enough to be participating in the Knitter's Coffee Swap. I'm super excited as my two favorite things are knitting and coffee! Here's my questionarre for my pal!

1. Whole bean or ground? Ground.

2. Fully-loaded or decaf? Fully loaded!

3. Regular or flavored? Either or. I usually use flavored creamers with regular coffee and regular half and half with flavored coffee.

4. How do you drink your coffee? Light and sweet.

5. Favorite coffee ever? I have no idea. I rarely get to taste anything fancy, it's usually just chock-o-nuts from the supermarket.

6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do? I'm not fussy, as long as it's fresh and tastes good!

7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee? Baked goods, some chocolate once in a while.

8. Anything else about your coffee preferences? I amnot a fan of dark roasts.

9. Yarn/fiber you love? Noro. I can't get enough Noro Silk Garden at the moment.

10. Yarn/fiber you hate? Acrylics, fun fur.

11. What's on your needles? Icarus Shawl, Forbes Forest Scarf, Lady Eleanor.

12. Favorite colors? Blues and greens.

13. Allergies? None revlevant to this swap.

14. Anything you really love, really don't like, or just need to get off your chest? Nope. I'm good.

Book review: Yarn Play

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, check out the post below this for a blog contest!

I mentioned a few posts that I bought the book Yarnplay, and since I don't have any pictures yet of my knitting, I thought I'd distract you with a review of the book.


To be perfectly honest, while I thought the photography in this book was beautiful, after a quick glance through the pages, I started regretting purchasing the book. I'm not really one to knit with colorful yarns [Unless of course you count my countless Noro scarves], but on a bigger scale, I'm more into classic colors, classic designs, and neutrals simply because if I'm going to spend that much time knitting something, I want it to be something I could wear a lot.

However, after glancing through it several more times, it has grown quite a bit on me.

The patterns are basic, there are a few washclothes, a log cabin type afghan, and some simple sweaters. But what makes the patterns interesting are the yarns.

The cover sweater is stunning and isn't knit in the standard way a sweater would be knit. The bottom is actually knit sideways, and the pattern encourage you to place stripes of color anywhere you'd like. Then it is seamed into a tube, and the top is knit. I'm looking forward to seeing all the different variations of this sweater knit around blogland, as no two will be alike, even if using the same exact yarn.

Other patterns include:

Two washclothes using Allhemp 6


A bathmat using Lionbrand Cotton:


A stunning afghan:


Armwarmers using Lorna's Laces Shepard Sport:


A cute clutch, using Peace Fleece Worsted:


A few scarves:



A simple sweater, using SWTC Karaoke:


And one of my personal favorite patterns, an Asymmetrical Cardigan:



All in all, it's a great book to have, whether you're interested in incorporating color into your knitting in new ways, or whether you're like me and want simple patterns that will still look stunning in solid, neutral colors. These patterns work either way.