Back in business :)

I've been away from internet for a week, as it was time for my traditional Christmas holiday movie week with my cousin. No knitting news from me, but I have been wearing my self-knitted scarf a lot this week! Now I have to get someone to take a picture of me wearing it, so I can show you... Anyway, I see a lot of changes have been made to our blog, and don't worry: I like them very much! Gracie has obviously done her best to make the whole thing look more personal and stylish, and I love the little progress bars! (Very cute!) Am beginning to miss Gracie and Pippa very much by the way, now that there is no work, theatre or writing to be done... We have to meet up soon...although I did find out my next exam is actually on 8 January instead of 1 February (whoopsadaisy), so I'll have to spend next week studying like mad :S

Have a great New Year!

Molly

P.S. I just have to include the list of films I watched with my cousin this week, just to impress you: Seven Years in Tibet, Troy, Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, The Holiday, Hoodwinked, Keizer Kuzco II: King Kronk, History of the World Part I, Kinsey, Conspiracy, Pirates of the Caribbean II: Dead Man's Chest, Girl Interrupted, Minoes, Soldaat van Oranje, and a few episodes of Friends! I might have forgotten one or two though :P

New Project... New Features... New Years

Huzzah.. Pippa, I finished your gift! :) When I see you next you will be the (hopefully) happy owner of a .... .
As you all can see, I have changed (once more) the layout of this blog, and not without reason. I really believe the flowery background image made it all look rather fuzzy, and that's probably not what we want. A clean blog is easier to read.
Another, if I may say so, interesting very classy addition to the blog are our progress bars! I had seen them on other knitting blogs, and found a very helpful site which worked perfectly for our blog.
I'm about to begin a new project. It's not the project for which I bought the Rowan yarn, but another gift actually. My yarn basket contains a few balls of Lana Grossa New Kid Nr. 35, and I've finally found a good reason to use them. A very good friend of mine has been through a tough time this past semester, and I think she could use a cheer up gift. So, my plan is to knit her a lace scarf with the above mentioned yarn. I'm still looking for a nice pattern that would go well with yarn and friend, and that is not too hard for me to figure out.
After this new project I will, I have promised myself, undertake the challange of knitting myself a cardigan... whoa!
-Gracie-

Merry Knitmas! :P

First of all, as it's Christmas Day, I'd like to wish all my knitting friends a wonderful Christmas! Also: I finished my scarf yesterday, on Christmas Eve. The only thing I stil have to do is get rid of all those loose ends of yarn that are still hanging from it, but I'll do that this evening, as we have Christmas dinner to prepare today. I'm making Clear Vegetable Soup, a nice wintery English Stew and Almond and Apricot Crumble for 27 December, when my aunt and uncle are coming over for dinner (hurray for Jane Grigson's English Food!). I'm going to make the stew and the broth for the soup today, so my scarf will not be finished before this evening. But I promise I'll take pictures of it and post them here as soon as pos. And I'll have to start thinking about a new project! Wishing you all a great day with lots of nice knitting and/or cooking and eating,

Molly ;P

p.s. Hurrah! Pippa's first post hath arrived! I'm very curious about your Soft Tweed scarf (from a fellow-scarf-knitter's point of view :P), can't wait to see some pics!

I love bamboo.

Hurrah! My dear dear computer is working again, so I can finally see our lovely blog. I do like the owl (is that Hedwig?).
In other good news: after finishing my exam I spent a very productive evening yesterday, knitting. I'm officially in love with the new bamboo knitting needles, I may make a shrine to sacrifice small animals to it :) When I get to my parents house tomorrow I'll try and nick their digital camera so that I can show you my progress: my scarf is now about as long as my upper arm. I actually got so carried away that I decided that I needed more yarn and went back to the store today to get more of the Soft Tweed.
hugs,
Pippa
ps. I'm getting really curious about my birthday present...

Near Future Project

I finally recovered the link to the Rowan Classic Line Website, huzzah! And that was needed for this post, since I wanted to write something on my near future project for which I bought the yarn yesterday. When I'm done with Pippa's gift, I will try to knit myself a vest according to the adorable Rowan Classic Garden pattern called Posy. I'm super excited about it, and really can't wait to start, but it will be a tough project since I've never done anything so big :)
- Gracie -

New Stuff

Hurray! Pippa, Gracey and I went to the yarn shop this morning, and we all bought some things for our new projects! I bought new bamboo needles, and also four balls of beau-ti-ful deep red alpaca yarn to knit my warm winter scarf with! There were lots of other great colours and kinds of yarn I liked, such as the porridge coloured chunky Scottish tweed. Pippa said I shouldn't buy it because it made her feel hungry :) I just got started on my scarf, but I really have to get used to the messy texture of the alpaca wool...it's a bit loose, and so different from regular wool. It feels very soft and cuddly though, and I am absolutely in love with the colour! The bamboo needles are very nice, but I have to get used to them as well, as I've only been knitting with metal ones until now. (And my new needles are also thicker than the old ones.) New experiences all round, but very nice ones :P I'll get knitting now.

Molly

10 useless things and more about us:

1. We knit!
2. We are all grad school students
3. We all majored in English Language and Culture in undergrad
4. Two of us own a cat.. one of us owns a dog
5. We like drinking tea.. but one of us has a very weak spot for hot chocolate
6. Two of us studied abroad in the same country, in the same year.. but never met up!
7. We are also members of the same student drama group
8. We are also members of the same student creative writing group
9. We see each other way to much :)
10. In the (near) future we plan to move to the UK to live either in a cottage, a castle, or under a bridge.. depending on taste, financial position.. and possible wishes of significant others

The Yarn Owl as a name for our blog was chosen only after a long evening of passionate debate. We first opted the name Itty Bitty Knitters, but that just didn't feel right. It sounded too invented or something. The Yarn Owl wasn't immediately our favourite, but there are three very good reasons why we named our blog The Yarn Owl... 1.) it's a word pun - and for language and literature students that's always funny.. 2.) yarn clearly defines what this blog is about.. 3.) the name has a mythological link to crafts: the owl a pet of Athena who happens to be the goddess of wisdom, weaving and crafts

Up and Running... and Knitting

After a frustrating evening of trying, trying, and more trying.. we finally managed to get this blog up and running... and yes, we're still knitting, ha!
Our plan is to keep a journal of our knitting projects, and share our ups and downs along the way with the world.
We've been admiring many knitting blogs, and hope that we can live up to the high standards used. Though we have not been regularly knitting for very long time, we hope this blog will get us in the mood of knitting more frequently, and hopefully, by the end of next year, we will be able to proudly present friends and family with self-knitted scarfs, hats, gloves, sweaters, mitts and accessories!!

Pippa Woodhouse, Molly Huggins and Gracie Hill