FO: Classy Fornicating Deer Vest

Caution: the following pictures are probably in the PG to just below PG-13 range.  You have been warned.
After charting, lots of knitting with ugly colors, late nights picking up collar stitches, and doing math to make sure the pattern ended up in the right place (and I hate math- I'm an English teacher, folks), it is done.

The Classy Fornicating Deer Vest for my brother is finished and being worn around the city of Duluth as we speak.  :)
Pattern: For the vest, I used the #276 Basic Cardigan Vest for Men by Diane Soucy and published by Knitting Pure and Simple, then incorporated the Fornicating Deer Chart by Anne Rutten.

Yarn: Good ol' Cascade 220 Worsted Weight in Navy and Burnt Orange.
Needles: Size 6 for the ribbing on the edges, size 8 for the body.
Timeframe: June 7th-November 13th, 2014.

Modifications:  So the obvious one is adding the deer chart to the vest.  I began the chart about 10" from the CO edge, though if you're planning your own vest I'd recommend a little more as my brother has a slightly shorter torso.  The vest measured 13" when I broke off for the underarms.  I flipped one of the charts for one of the front sections, so both sets of deer would be facing inward (which turned out quite nice).  I also added more trees in the chart for the back section, so the deer had a little more privacy for their business.  I think it looks like a nice little wooded area. :)  Otherwise I followed the directions for the vest pretty closely- they were well-written and worked well as a starting point for the idea.  If you would like a copy of any of my drawn charts, let me know and I'll send you a PDF!  You'll have to do the math yourself to figure out how many stitches to add on the sides, but it's really not that bad.

Worst Part: I've always hated picking up stitches for ribbing on arms.  This was no different.  There may have been one or two points where I viciously commented on how ugly and dated the colors looked (which was the whole point of those colors), but otherwise the whole thing was pretty smooth.
Best Part: Thinking of my brother's expression when he opened it up.  Then, today, getting that expression when he opened it up.  It was also awesome that he opened it up in front of about 10 of his friends, all of whom also loved it.

Yeah, I'm pretty excited with how well this one turned out. :)
Oh, on a side note- check out these buttons:

It's all about the details. ;)

Social Media Follows!

I'm finally starting to get ahold of this whole connected-through-social-networks things.  For instance, you can follow me through Bloglovin now:
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Got that one figured out this morning.  BAM.  After Google Reader kicked the bucket almost a year ago, I transferred all my blog-reading to Bloglovin.  It's a really fantastic site, and as much as I liked Google Reader, I like Bloglovin even more.
Like random pictures of cats, climbing, and knitting?
I'm on Instagram, too.  Big fan.  Not a great photographer, but I'm trying.
I'm also on Pinterest a lot.
Like, a lot.
I have the app on my phone, and it's so easy to get sucked in to when I'm waiting for something or trying to get dressed in the morning or want to get teaching, knitting, or climbing inspiration.  You can find my page here if you want to follow me, but be warned- I post a lot of climbing stuff, bad grammar cartoons, recipes, and my own weird inspiration of clothing (I follow the teacher/hobo/attempting to look like a grown-up type of fashion trends).
Going along with all that (whooooa), one of my goals for 2014 was to attempt to update this site.  It's pretty basic, and as a teacher in the 21st century, I feel like it's woefully lacking the links, pictures, and other cool stuff that I could do.  So if you see things moving around or changing, don't be alarmed.  My computer and account were not hacked- I am simply attempting to learn more about this platform (fancy tech word right there!  Scott will be proud) and how I can make it more visually appealing. For instance, my picture to the right in the "about me" is from 2007.  Uffda.
All right, I'll shut up about changes.
To make up for the horrendous self-promotion, here's a picture of Albert after he stuck his face in the kitty litter like an ostrich because I walked in on him in the bathroom and he got scared:

No Longer a Blob

The vest is finally... finally... starting to come together.

Literally. :)
I may have done some happy jumps and loud whoops the minute that I tucked the last strands from the shoulders in after attaching the front sections to the back.
And I'm super happy with how the back turned out!

I may have accidentally done a 3-needle bind-off with the wrong sides together instead of the right sides when attaching the front to the back, and there might be a bit of a ridge on the top of the front/back bind-off, but I didn't realize what was going on until I was halfway through the bind-off.  I'm not good at fixing bind-offs, so I'm banking on my brother not noticing.

After dance tonight, I plan on picking up the shoulder and hopefully getting at least one arm band started.  The end of this vest is so near, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
I also was able to find some buttons that I think fit the theme of the sweater...

and they're perfectly ridiculous enough to work.  :)

Halloween Shenanigans

No blog is complete without the obligatory Halloween post (especially since it's my favorite holiday)!  Scott was moaning and groaning that I put up decorations waaaay before the two-weeks-before-the-holiday point, but I was simply too excited. :)
We did the pumpkin carving night while watching Nightmare Before Christmas (which is our tradition!)...

and let Albert eat all the pumpkin he wanted, as this is the only time of year he gets it.
Albert's our veggie kitty.  He's happy to eat cooked zucchini, carrots, raw pumpkin, even a lettuce leaf if it's dropped on the floor.  Maeby won't touch any of that, but Albert noms like it's his job!

(Notice how Scott was inspired by my Tshirt?  Pretty awesome!)
The pumpkins looked good on our stoop, and they (surprisingly) didn't get launched and smashed by the plethora of college students that live near us.

We also participated in the obligatory couples costume that comes with being together at Halloween.  I painted logos on shirts for us to be Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl!

We looked pretty stylin'. :)
I got a lot of grading done over the weekend, which meant less climbing time, but a lot done on the checklist.  It feels like every time I hand back a big batch of papers that I've graded, 100 more come in.  It's a never-ending cycle, and not a good one like bottomless coffee.
I did, however, get the fair-isle part finished on the back of Kyle's vest!

This was one part Scott watching a movie I didn't care for, and two parts knowing that I had to post very soon after the weekend about my knitting successes.  Knowing that all of you are out there, watching, waiting, knowing that I said I would get more done to post about.  Nothing like a little bit of pressure to get 'er done.  Now it's on to the last bits!  I still need to finish the back, knit the neck/button band, sew in all the ends, knit the arm bands, sew on the buttons that I haven't bought yet, and block this monstrosity.  All this must be finished for my brother to proudly wear to our family Thanksgiving in a few short weeks.
I mean, it's a classy vest.  Who wouldn't want to wear it to a family function?
And after class today, I took a few minutes to have some pumpkin coffee and meet a friend for climbing.

It was a mid-week combination of some of my favorite things. :)