My Sisterjaan and What's Knitting - A Post in Two Parts

PART I - MY SISTERJAAN

My sister Amy (aka Amyjaan), is currently living in Doha, Qatar - a middle eastern country across the gulf from Iran. She is doing post-graduate study of Arabic at Qatar University. She is there on a full scholarship from a program that is facilitated through Georgetown University. Yes, she is majnoona (Arabic for crazy girl), but in the most awesome sense of the word. She doesn't like Doha very much, her actual word for it in Qatartid, but she says that her Arabic is improving and she has been able to do a lot of traveling. Recently she got food poisoning and a kidney infection while traveling in Turkey with her American boyfriend Tom(he came to Turkey from Chicago). Hilarity ensued Amyjaan style due to her one semester of college Turkish. I only got worried when she told me that at one point they had called in a surgery consult - she assumed in was her appendix, since the Doctor had done a lot of pushing on her left side. Being that the appendix is on the right side and that my sister's Turkish is not very good, no one knows why the surgical consult was called (if anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them). Just know that she is back in Qatar and must be feeling better since she just instant messaged me, while very intoxicated. The above picture was taken sometime before Christmas. She is wearing the Abaya that she is required to wear at the University. She actually loves it. It allows her to roll out of bed - throw it on over her pajamas - and go to class. (I love her so much!) She is holding her cat Oskar, who came to my parent's house with her for Christmas and ended up staying in New York. Oskar has the loudest, most annoying meow and eats everything - really, I watched him attack and eat a roll. He was abandoned at birth so he has food issues. Feel free to leave questions or comments on the blog for Amy -she will read them and will respond.

PART II - WHAT'S KNITTING
I finished the Pea Pod Baby Set. I am really happy with how it came out. Things got a little dicey with adapting the guage - chart repeats of the lace, number of rows, increasing the arms and decreasing the hat - but no one got hurt and I think it looks great! I felt like a real knitting ninja while knitting the arms two at a time magic loop style! The problem that I always run into doing two at a time is the way the two balls of yarn wind around one another - creating crazy knots. I solved this by putting each ball in a zip lock bag and unwinding every row or two. I think the thing that I like best are the "bobble instead of buttons." Now I don't have to worry about my knitting choking a small child!

I also have done some work on my Lenten Rose socks. They are the 30th birthday present for my friend Allison. She is 6 feet tall and her foot measures 10" from heel to big toe - so it is sort of on a dare that I am knitting her socks.
The legs are on the short side - due to my absolute paranoia about having enough of the one of a kind Sundara Petals Collection sock yarn. I turned the heel on the first one and was working my way down the foot when I decided that I should start the second to avoid second sock syndrome. I love the way the lace looks on this huge sock! I knit several chart repeats on the size ones that the pattern called for - but Allison couldn't get the few rows of cuff over her heal - so I frogged and am knitting with two's. Although this does allow for faster knitting it only increased my yardage worries. However, with only a few inches of the sock to go you can see that I will have pleanty of yarn. A note about Sundara Petal's Collection: I will not be ordering the next three month installment. I was generally disappointed with the Lenten Rose yarn - mainly because it did not match the tone of the flower that inspired the yarn. As for the Bird of Paradise - there is only so much love I can give to varigated dayglow pink, yellow and green. I only got angry when I saw the Cherry Blossom yarn that she did for Sundara Yarn's one year anniversay. It is so incredibly beautiful that it made me feel as though she really cheated the people who had paid more for the Petal's Collection. Even if SOCKATION 2007 didn't last long - it made me realize that there are a lot of things I want to knit and a sock club might just not be for me. Sundara's April better wow me though, because right now I am feeling really burnt!