I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack....

Look! I'm still alive. I still knit. I still skate. I haven't posted in almost a year (eek...been BUSY!). But the past year in a nutshell:

--Still at the job I mentioned starting soon in my last post. Love the company. Love commercial real estate, it's very interesting. Turns out it's the perfect field for a gal who loves shopping...except now when I go to the mall, I find myself wondering some pretty ridiculous things (like...is that restaurant over by the mall an outlot, or a ground lease? How did Chipotle and Panera get around radius restrictions to put locations in the mall when both restaurants are already right down the street? Are the CAM charges at Eaton collection high, because it's beautifully landscaped...)

--I'm finally going to law school at Cleveland Marshall College of Law (Cleveland State University). I'm in the part-time program, with class 6-9pm M-Th after work. I opted for part-time over full time because I'm getting amazing experience at my current job, and they're paying for a little more han half my tuition. Plus the thought of more student loans and leading the poor student life again was not appealing. Instead I'm just poor and needless to say, I have no life!

--The wonderful man in the last post? Been dating just over a year now and it just keeps getting more wonderful :)
(yes, I knit that shrug I'm wearing in that pic.)

--Got glasses. Things that are far away are no longer blurry.

--The awesome roommate mentioned 2 posts ago? Turned out to be crazy and a total pain (as in people over getting drunk until 2am every night, obnoxious drunk friends passing out on the couches on weekends, throwing parties when I went on vacation without having the courtesy to tell me). I got out of that and moved into my parents' house back in October. My parents didn't care, and I figured it was silly to pay rent for an apartment when I'm basically never home. Plus, I'm better off putting that money toward law school.

--My 25 yr old brother got his girlfriend knocked up...my nephew Ian (named after one of my little cousins who were killed 2.5 yrs ago) is due in late August. And I get to keep him in beautiful knitwear. I finished this cute little sweater in plenty of time for the baby shower next week. It's a simple top down raglan, I made the neck opening for his head, there are button holes (need to buy buttons). Yarn is Lion Brand Cotton Ease, which was surprisingly soft and nice and will wash easily. It took less than one skein of each color, with plenty left over for a matching hat. Didn't take me much time to finish these at all.
I'm also finally able to use the few balls of JoAnn Sensations Bellezza Dolcetto in a blue/white blend that I bought a few years ago. It's a really nice soft wool, nylon and cotton blend. I found the pattern in the Knitty archives, it's a top-up raglan hoodie in a garter rib pattern.







--This year I added two more national medals in figure skating to the collection! My synchro team won the adult division at the 2008 US Synchronized Skating National Championships in Providence, RI back in February!







I also decided to start working on freestyle again, since I won't be able to skate on my team next year due to my school schedule...when I got back from Rhode Island, I spent the next five weeks re-learning all the jumps and spins I hadn't really done much of since I quit singles skating at age 12. I then traveled to Lake Placid, New York for the 2008 Adult National Championships. Lake Placid has always been a special place to me--and one of my favorite places to skate. While most skaters' first competition is a local basic skills competition, my first was a team competition in Lake Placid. I came home from that trip with my first medal, which still hangs in my room (along with 100+ others). I didn't have my best skate at Adult Nationals, I got really nervous being out there on the ice by myself...but it was good enough to take home a silver medal! That's me on the left hand side of the podium!

While I didn't make that dress (it came from Del Arbour, my favorite skating dress company, who also did those gorgeous blue dresses my team wore and our back ones from last year), I did glue on all 1000+ rhinestones one by one...they don't show up as well in photos, but there are small black stones all over the body of the dress (front and back) and the black edging separating the sleeves from the nude mesh insert. The red/silver stone pattern on the front wraps around to the back of the dress, too. You can make out the necklace and bracelets, also all made out of stones glued to the dress (needless to say this lil baby took hours). It really sparkles out on the ice and I got tons of compliments. I also had a new ice dancing dress made (which has a longer skirt). It's a red halter, and I blinged that baby up, too. I'll have to post pics later :)


I'll have to post pics of all the things I've knit over the past year...aside from the baby gifts, there are 3 complete sweaters, 2 pair of socks, a pair of fingerless gloves, a cable knit scarf for the boyfriend (which he loves), and a few WIPs.