Its been a while!

Thankfully the semester is over! I have not stopped being busy this entire year, and I can finally take a break. Even though I have summer school I am doing my best to get things done!
First off, my cousins high school graduation quilt. I am currently quilting in the ditch for the bigger squares, and just about to finish that. If I still have time I will also Sew in the ditch of the smaller squares.
I am so proud of her! I taught her clarinet years ago, and she has excelled so much in the few years she has been playing. She is my prodigy student!
Its a music quilt! The black lining has composers names in gold, each square is a different instrument, piano, violin, upright bass, harp, etc. Then the fabric around the center square is filled with clarinets, drums, and other instruments! I love it!
Hopefully I can get it done by next month! I will be flying out to NJ to celebrate her high school graduation with her! yay!

This was a test crochet I did for a rav. friend. Ziggurat scarf. I really liked how easy and well written the pattern was, and I really enjoyed working with it!
Done in two different yarns!
Pooling rivulets scarf, I love how the yarn worked so well with the pattern. its so light and lofty!
I had to use this fabric! Mario party fabric purse!
With tiny cables.
This was another test knit I did for someone else on Rav, Fontana shawl. I really liked how the yarn turned out. It was an easy pattern, I learned an alternate cast on and bind off. So I felt great! The biggest lace project to date that I have taken on!
Pretty!
This was a feather and fan scarf that I did, very light. I actually wore it to a knitting class I was teaching even though I never wear scarves!
This is a mobius type scarf. Knit like feather and fan scarf in mohair. Very soft!
I had to do the branching out scarf, I just loved how it looked! So i knit it up in a bright pink. Even though I am the pink opposite girl...
And now we are getting into why I have not posted in a while! I had my junior percussion education recital at the end of this semester. I have not practiced so hard in my life! So enjoy these pictures!
Showing off my mallet bag, not all my mallets of course!
Playing my marimba solo Apparitions, I highly suggest it!
Our multi percussion piece, Mixtures. it was fun, and actually pretty simple.
My vibraphone solo, Paint Me A Sky, this was my favorite piece!
Us playing our marimba duets, I love the reflections in this recital hall!
Bowing after my marimba solo
Close up of my mallets during my marimba piece, yes I am using cross grip. It works for me!
Michelle and I bowing!
I love her! Not only is she the only other female percussionist at EIU, but she is my roomate! And she kept me going when I wanted to give up.

As our finale, I arranged Come On Eileen for percussion ensemble. I think it turned out to be a hit!

Thats all I have for now! I promise to keep up throughout the summer!

So I had this music analysis project due. Three or so weeks to do it. I dont like doing things the normal way, on a computer... or anything like that. I would rather Cross stitch it out. so I did. It took around 25 hours, but I got it done on time!

Win.

The day he assigned the project, I went out, bought some cotton fabric, and thread. and started sewing all the measure lines.

I proceeded to put the measure numbers in.

Stitched the first couple phrases,

started writing in the important information

Thats the first movement done, all including the golden mean.

All the phrasing done

Ironing out the wrinkles.

So glad its done! When I get it back I will frame it. of course. I also left a red thread attached to a needle, so he could grade it! Im hoping for an A!

uh. worth it? yes

I made carrots today.
wow... so exciting!
ha not.

but they turned out really good. I boiled some baby carrots in water with salt. While doing that I melted some butter and brown sugar in a pan. After the carrots were soft to the fork, I drained them and put them into the sauce. Let that cook a little and collect the flavor.

oih. candy carrots. delish

Adam liked it too.

Seems really easy, but Im thinking its a great dish for holidays!
Chili tomorrow.
and. sleep.

MMMMMM PANCAKES....

Well gosh it's been a while!

I got swept up in college and music and relationships that went awry...

You spend all that time and money knitting someone special something just to get tossed aside! argh, what a horrible feeling! Oh well, heres to finding someone else to knit for!

On a brighter note, I have a nice new small apartment that I am sharing with one of the nicest girls I know. Michelle so far is the best roomate that I've had, and I have been really unlucky... so its nice for a change!

But now that it's just the two of us, I have alot of time to cook, not much space, but time! And since my wrist has been killing me, to the point where I cannot bend it, knitting has been slow. But I can cook!

So along with knitting, I'm going to post some recipes that I come up with every once in a while.

I made some pretty good pancakes today, that were actually simple, and tasted fluffy and good.

Pretty simple actually, pancake mix, choco chips, and just a spoonful of peanut butter. Mix it together like normal, its a thicker batter, but it makes the batter really fluffy!

A simply awesome picture of how the batter looks. Absolutely amazing right?


I put butter on the pan while its warming up, I personally think it tastes better than Pam just because it leaves that butter taste while also creating a really crispy crust!

So I'm not too good at making perfectly round pancakes.... they have personality! And alot more then some people I know! ;)

I love how the chips get all gooey..... how could you go wrong with gooey chocolate?

And yes. I did cook these around 2 pm. It was my breakfast. almost around dinner time...

See my goal for this year is to make my own food, and if I really dont have time to cook, I want to try and eat healthy snacks and whatnot. Sundays, I want to make some sort of cassorole, or something that will last me through out the week, or at least until Wednesdays.

( I have time to cook then!)

I took some recipes from my aunt that were my gammas, and cooked some of her recipes up, which really made me smile because I miss her! She used to make the italian sausage with peppers, onions, and tomato sauce, which I cooked up a few weeks ago, and it was amazing. She also made this awesome sloppy joe recipe which was made with mushroom soup instead of tomato sauce, and also had some ketchup and mustard in it.... mmm going to make that soon!

Welp... time to get some rest!

Class has been taking it out of me!

Yours truely

Nessa Rae

Update!

Well another year goes by, and i've been keeping up with my knitting, and crochet, and started up on making jewlery again, and finishing up my first quilt.
So it's been pretty busy.
We also had the second annual KKPSI craft sale, which turned out better profit than last year, and this year we actually had more then just two members knitting for it. There was a good uhh 6 people or so actually contributing. I think my count was about 76 projects set on the table through out the week. and we sold $463 worth.
The cool thing is we actually upped the prices, so while we sold less we made more. I just don't want to go back down to the prices we had last year... $8 for a hat and $10 for a scarf.... it just stung me too much to sell all the work we all do for so cheap. If the customers dont understand it... too bad. Then they probably don't deserve someones hours of a scarf or hat.
Were actually planning on having another sale in the next few weeks, in Coleman Hall down at EIU, so if your interested, stop by! This scarf was made as a matching hat and scarf set, I still have it, so its still for sale!

Just a plain Charcoal gray hat. We had alot of guys coming to the table saying there were no guy hats or scarves, or else they would have bought it. Soooo no more excuses men!

I had alot of scrap yarn leftover so I whipped this up in a couple hours. I love chunky yarn

Another hat done because I had the yarn and wanted to make a green hat. Whats it to ya?

Mom already snatched this from me. After asking me for a week straight if it was done yet, I finally binded off and sewed in the ends. I'm glad she liked it.

Made on the plane ride to Texas during thanksgiving, and sold at the fundraiser

Male scarf for the next fundraiser! NO EXCUSES!!!

Another scarf made out of chunky yarn. The balls of yarn only have enough for half a scarf, so I like mixing the colors.

Chunky cable hat that was sold during the fundraiser

Shhhhhh.... don't tell anyone. He might kill me

I'm getting the beggining signs of carpol tunnel, so sometimes my fingers tingle and my wrist hurts and knitting is just miserable. Pat has been watching me knit so much that he took the needles away from me when he noticed I was wincing, and knit a couple rows. I did have to take it back to purl the wrong side, but he did a really good job for using such small needles and yarn.

Only real men knit BTW.

So Its been a while

But that doesn't mean I've stopped with the knitting and crocheting.


We just had our second annual scarf/hat/blanket sale for KKPSI.

We upped the prices a bit because 8 dollars for a hat, that took at least 3 dollars to buy the materials and 3 hours to make it, just didnt seem like enough.
Last year we made $422, and this year, while we sold less, we broke even and made 4o more than last year!
So it was a pretty good sale, we even made it into the newspaper at school!

I also was elected to be treasurer for KKPSI so I brought up the idea of having another sale right after Christmas vacation in a different building on campus, instead of Doudna, (Fine Arts Building) just because we don't get different varieties of people coming through the fine arts building


But now for an update on some of the new scarves, hats, etc.

A hat I made for Pats sister, Colleen. Well for her to give to a friend who had a baby.
The blanket I made to go along with it, well this is what she asked me to make for her friend and I added the hat. Confused yet?
It's a log cabin baby blanket, the colors are a little off, more almost easter looking than this is showing, but its soft and didnt take too long to make.

Matching scarf and hat made with a type of mohair that I can't remember for the life of me.

The matching hat!

matching hat and scarf, with a horizontal ribbing, Took forever to finish though, because I was using my new bloodwood 10.5 knitting needles, and I didn't want to break them, so it wasn't a project i carried around with me. The hat that matches!

Sharon called dibs on this hat as soon as I finished it! Seed stitch at the bottem, really simple.

I jsut finished this vest a couple weeks ago, no pattern or anything, but I don't like how thick the neckline is... so I might go back and rip it out and fix it up... not sure yet because I don't have alot of time to do it...

And these are only a few of the projects I've been kicking out recently!

Crafts during the summer

Toeless socks, I guess girls could wear them with flip flops, and I heard their great for getting manicures!

Blue ribbed scarf, its warm and stretchy!
Purple and white rolled side scarf, warm and thick.
Gator gloves! I saw the pattern in a stitch and bitch book and decided it was time to make something interesting. thus the adorable result! Their child size, and if I put my hands in them the ribbing on the bottem goes over the wide part of my hands, but it still fits!

I love them!

little diddy

This was a pretty cool pattern that I discovered online. Its a thick braided scarf with two strands of yarn. Its comfy and cushie and I really just loved how fast it knit up.

























My first double knit anything! i love it, and it was fun. Took a long time and i realized that unless you do something on the sides, it will just be two fabrics with some stiches connecting.



















one side of the heart












and the other side. It was a pretty cool project and I'm glad Pat left me alone long enough to actually figure out how to work it! lol

Expanding my smartness.... lol

I recently grew tired of the quick three hour hats done on size 10.5 needles... I'm not quite sure why and I'm sure I'll regret it. I went onto knitpicks.com and purchased a good amount of yarn... a really good amount... there on starting my yarn buying spree....

but heres a few things that I upped my previous knowledge on...

This is the hat I made for Pat when he asked me to make him something to match his scarf.

The thing that makes me happy is he actually

wears it... makes a girl proud!

And this is a hat that I bought ungodly expensive yarn on...

I love the yarn and the pattern... who wouldnt???

I worked it on size 5 needles, and got it done within a week or two. It was exciting to see the colors change... I know I'm a nerd!

And while most knitters have seen this youtube clip.... I just rediscovered it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ZjMWLqJvM