Running

Hello!

It's A. Today, my father's organization Northwestern Mutual held its 37th annual Roots and Wings Run/Walk. Northwestern Mutual is an insurance company, and it has field workers and office workers. The main office for NM is here in Milwaukee, where my dad works, while the field workers are all over the country. Once a year, the Roots and Wings Run/Walk is held to bring all of NM's workers together, pitting the "Roots" or the office workers against the "Wings" or field workers in a race. For 22 years the Wings have won, while only 13 have the Roots won, and one year it ended in a tie.

The place was packed. Thousands upon thousands of people were there. The actual race was packed itself, with about 150 people within my sight range at all times.

This was just the preparing area. The Wings always have their cool little shirts, typically matching and everything.

My dad and I were the lucky ones representing the Koenig family in this race. I wore my sunglasses for the race, and was number 3126.

The run route was all along Lake Michigan, and near that was the Milwaukee Art Museum, and its architecture is absolutely stunning. If you are ever visting downtown Milwaukee, that is totally a tourist staple.

Some of the outdoor scupltures downtown, most associated with the art museum, were simply spectacular beautiful pieces of art.

This was the beginning of the race, a lot of sitting around before the wave began to move.

The actual running was quite eventful. It was roughly 70 degrees outside, and it got hotter as it went. Along the route, there were many water stops, different audience locations, and a fireboat on the lake spraying water up at us near the end. The second mile marker was missing, which was deeply concerning for me because I was very tired to just have been on the second mile. I came in from the run with a time of 30:14. My dad came in with a time of 27:43. Hopefully we represented the Roots side well!

I knit a little bit on the way there, and I will be sitting in bed listening to Harry Potter knitting, so hopefully I'll finish another square today.

I used to beat my dad in these races. Needless to say he's been working out, and I haven't. It was very tiring for me, and in just a few weeks I'm going to be hardcore training for soccer season.

Oh brother.

-A

Family Reunions

Hello everyone!

It's A, as always. Today was a particularly exciting day. It was the yearly family reunion at Regner Park, with most of my great grandmother's descendants, which involved a few pretty awesome people.

Take Sue. (She's the lady in orange.) She is a mother of three, who apparently babysat me when I was little. Sue owns a daycare, and is a very funny person to be around. Her eldest daughter, Shelly, is in her mid-twenties and is an inside salesperson at a very succesful business in New York. Apparently I remind Sue of her daughter, and Sue actually took a picture of me to show to her daughter. Pretty cool.

The woman next to her is Sue's mother, and she rocks at Quarters, which is a variation of the game LCR where you play with quarters instead of chips.  She won all three times we played.

And I also met a new person in the family, Caleb. He's a month-old twin, and is absolutely adorable. He was born in 2014, so I decided he needed a proper...

selfie. I was kinda obsessed with holding Caleb, he was so chill all the time, so I spent most of the day holding this baby.

I think he liked me too.

Regner has a spring fed lake, which was absolutely gorgeous all day long.

Regner also had a lovely merry-go-round.

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty successful family reunion. The food was fantastic too. I got some knitting done, maybe half a square? In all the festivities, I forgot to take a picture of my knitting.

After this, I went home for about ten minutes, and then went over to Hoyt for the members night where I sadly got no pictures, but it was fun nonetheless. 

Today I was told that a fourteen-year-old boy died/was severely injured over at the common rope swing along the river. I don't know whether I know this boy, I don't know any details. All I know was that someone got hurt at the rope swing, he was our age, and he was admitted to Children's. I am praying for this boy, I hope you all are too.

Tomorrow? 6:30am wakeup for a 5K. Should be fun.

-A

I have commitment issues.

Hello again readers!

It's A. It has been such a long time, almost a year has passed since my last post. In my defense, 8th grade was a very time-consuming year. I was playing soccer, going to Maryland (church camp), writing on a story, keeping up a 4.0 like I did all through middle school (got a super dorky little plaque), getting fifth in Forensics state for my storytelling piece, got a narrator part in the school play, tried to sleep and attempted to keep my room straight so I wouldn't be late.
Alas, it is finally summer. Summer school sucks, especially if it's for credit. I was going to take Oral Communications and Gym during the summer so next year I could take Latin along with French and Orchestra, but I had conflictions so now I'm taking Acting first semester and a study hall the second.

All very confusing. I know.

For the past two days, I've been feverishly knitting the secret project that has been secret for a while now. I finished it, it's absolutely gorgeous.

My Chevron Scarf.

(Yarn: Knit Picks Bare Swish Worsted, colorway bare, two skeins, one hand-dyed with Kool-Aid. Go mom.)

(Needles: US 8mm, wood, Crystal Palace)

It's about 5 and a half feet long, and I used up every bit of the non-dyed yarn.

It was all very, very stressful. I actually had to go back and refinish it because I didn't have enough yarn to bind off with the extra repeat I added.

But it's okay now, because it's done, and I can go and work more on my blanket. Which is coming along quite nicely, by the way.

How Many Squares Finished Count: 15 out of 40 (but 4 are unusable due to the change in pattern, so really only 11 are done... I've got four random green squares if anyone wants them...)
How Many Green Squares Finished Count: 14 out of 10 (woohoo overachiever here)
How Many Pink Squares Finished Count: 1.5 out of 10 (I'm working on the second)

This has been the setting of my life for about three days now, constantly knitting and listening to audiobooks. Specifically, I've been listening to the Harry Potter series through the library's CD of The Sorcerer's Stone narrated by Jim Dale. He's a very talented reader, but one thing really bugs me. The way he says You-Know-Who's name is wrong to me, because he leaves out the "t" at the end. It's Voldemort not Voldemor... Just saying. But he has the most hysterical Hermionie Granger voice, and Hagrid voice that really bring the characters to life. Listening to these audiobooks instead of trying to read them has been super awesome for me, because I couldn't stand reading through the book because it was too boring for me. Dale gives it such a spark!

Alright, I'm off to go listen to the 10th Chapter of Harry, and hopefully knit another few squares.
Goodnight!
-A

Hey Guys!

Hello!
It's A, simply catching up. I've been a bit busy lately, so when I get the chance I'll truly post. The squares are starting to get boring so I'll take a break from them for a while and work on a different project.
Ta ta for now!
-A

Continental?

Hello everyone!
Since my project is so long, I have no more info on that specific project. But I did start a new project! (Not the one I have been holding back from all of you) This project is magnificent! This project is.....

my First Continetial Scarf.

(Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers, unknown colorway, it was spun when I found it in the stash)

So fun! I can't believe this way of knitting is soooo much fun! So fast too.

That's all for today! Write to ya later.
-A

Am I Done Yet???

Aloha fellow readers!
It's the lovely A, on this fine morning. Sorry it's taken me so long to put up another post, I've just been so busy it's hard to get a post up. If you noticed, or came from my old blog Knitting Forever, most of my pictures were Flickr pictures. Since the pictures were uploaded onto an online site and were hotlinked onto my old blog, I didn't really own the rights to the pictures, and Flickr deleted some of the photos. Since the only copies of the photos were on Flickr, I had lost those photos. I've been going through all of my posts and saving the pictures to the harddrive of my computer so I have copies of the photos that are left, and I finished saving all of the pictures, but I need to exchange them in the posts.
While all of that is very, very confusing, let's focus on other things, like my sea of green.

How Many Squares Count: 11 out of 40
How Many Squares of Green Finished: 11 out of 14

So close to finishing! After I finish the green, I'll be able to knit these colors instead....

(Colorway: Canary and Rouge)
But I'll knit something else soon, since I know that squares aren't very exciting. But this is!

A new old bag (old to my mom, new treasure to me!) from Minnesota Knitting Guild! My mom got this knitting bag at a convention in Minnesota, a long time ago. She has a better knitting bag of her own, and never uses it so she let me have it!

I also finally have a nice kit for my new bag, since I didn't have one before, and before I didn't have a bag to put it in! Love the bag :)
Must go knit the final 3 squares of green! Bye for now!
-A

Blankets and Awards

Hello readers!
It's A :) as usual... Again, sadly, no smoothie recipe for I still hath no bananas. I have no recipe just hanging in my head so sadly no smoothie recipe at all.

But for the knitters out there, there is hope! I managed to finish a square, and start another one for my Room Blanket! My goal: finish all green squares by the time school starts. Can I? Maybe. Will I? Oh yeah.

Look at the last post for more details.

Count them, 8 going on 9. (Looks like seven but the division between them is there)

Here's the yarn! I love how good of quality this yarn is! You would never, ever believe that this yarn is acrylic. Best of both worlds! Well once I finish 6 more, I will work on another project. You better be excited, because the project I'll be working on is a fan-favorite on Ravelry! Tonight I'll be feverishly knitting and watchin Teen Choice Awards.

GO GRAVITY FALLS!

-A

Finally Knitting!

Hello again everyone!
It's me, A, as usual. I'm weird, just in case you didn't see before. :P My mom is knitting up a frenzy, but sadly I'm not. I can't knit as fast as the Harlot (but honestly I don't know if anyone can...), and I knit, but not as often anymore because I don't have the time. I have piano, soccer is starting up, I'm dealing with this blog that fails to work every day at around 10pm, and I want it to keep working so I have to fix it, and on top of all of that I have MYSO (Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra) auditions in about 2 weeks. *sigh* So this post will be short, but not too short!

Sadly I have no smoothie recipe to post because I have no more bananas! (If you know anything about smoothies, it's that you can't make a smoothie without bananas or yogurt, and I ran out of yogurt too....) So sadly today I cannot make a smoothie, but I do have one recipe in my mind that I would've made today if I could've. SO HERE IS THE IMAGINARY SMOOTHIE RECIPE that I've tried in the past that is absolutely WONDERFUL <3

Strawberry Banana Smoothie: A healthy alternative to a strawberry milkshake, but tastes just as good, if not better!
1 cup of frozen strawberries (If you want them frozen for you, you can find them here)
1 frozen banana (You need to freeze them yourself)
1 1/2 cups of milk

Place all in blender (Suggestion: put fruit in before juice because as I said before.... you'll make a giant mess), and mix on high until creamy texture develops. <---- wow.... that was a very professional sounding sentence.... Short, but sweet recipe.

In other news, A decided to knit again! YAYYYY! Since I know no one will ask, I'll inform you.

(Yarn: Knit Picks Brava Worsted Peapod 6072)

(Needles: some old Boye Needles, US8, 5mm)

(Pattern: 220 Garter Blanket Recipe by Kate McLaughlin)

This is about a quarter of the actual size of one square. I've made 7 and a quater of these squares, all in this green at the moment. I have other colors, pink and yellow (rouge and canary colorways) and I need to order the orange. Eventually. For now, I'll just knit my lovely squares.

P.S. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE GO VOTE ON TEEN CHOICE AWARDS FOR GRAVITY FALLS IN THE ANIMATED SECTION.
Unless you have a different opinion. If you don't PLEASE VOTE FOR GRAVITY FALLS. (I am literally in love with the show. Please vote. I'll love you forever and ever and ever. So will my friend A... WE'RE BOTH A, A!!!!) BUT ANYWAYS PLEASE VOTE
PLEASE





please.
-A

Catching Up

Hello readers,
It's me. I have been watching my account for a while, and I've decided to come back again. Yay me! I knit a bit more recently. My LOVELY COLLEGE BLANKET THAT DOESN'T HAVE A PROJECT ON Raverly...... yet.... has been worked on! Finished 7 out of.... 40? Maybe? I'm not sure, I'll come back later knowing.... BUT ANYWAYS that's why it's called a college blanket, because maybe just maybe I'll finish it before college.

This post isn't about knitting though. I'm not quite sure what this post is about. Catching up mainly. I'm a teen now, have been for about three months. And teens are crazy remember that. Before we get into anything serious...... THE SMOOTHIE UPDATE!!!!

What smoothie is A drinkin' today? (I'm imagining some sort of jingle like the State Farm one, or Esurance (mainly the background music), something like that. Comment if you can come up with one, and I will for sure give you a big ol' shoutout on my next post! Plus every post a link to whatever jingle you come up with, so you'll be FOUR PEOPLE POPULAR-ER!!!)
Well, I am drinking a lovely peach bluberry mix, that is just splendid. Not as good as my other mixes, but still deserves a recipe.
Peach Blueberry Strawberry Smoothie
6 slices of frozen peach (I froze mine myself but here you can have the peaches frozen and cut for you)
1/2 a cup of frozen blueberries (I also froze my own, but here you can have them frozen for you)
6 whole frozen strawberries (I did not freeze my own, and this is the brand I used)
1 Yoplait Original Mixed Berry 6oz
A splash of orange juice (I used Trader Joe's orange juice)

Put all ingredients in blender (I suggest putting the fruit in the blender first then the yogurt, then the juice, because if you put in the juice before the fruit, well, things will get messy. Fast.), and mix on high for 2 minutes. Open blender, mix with spoon softly, then blend on high for 30 more seconds. Pour into glass (or if you really wanted to you could probably eat directly from the container.... I'm not going to say I've done it..... BUT IT'S REALLY GOOD THAT WAY), I suggest a clear one, and drink away! I also suggest a blue straw (it complements the drinks colors) and a spoon as well. You can drink through the straw but most do not recommend it for drinking through a straw, and rather eating it with a spoon. My preference is both, but either way this drink is delicious.

3 out of 5 stars on this recipe.... Not my best, I wouldn't recommend it to a friend.
For next time: I would recommend using frozen banana instead of yogurt, texture is better, and put in more natural sweet fruit, like more strawberries or pineapple. Also, put in a splash of milk as well. The smoothie needed a bit more liquid, but not orange juice.

THAT'S BEEN THE SMOOTHIE UPDATE :)

I'm now on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Google+ (look at what turning thirteen means I can do :P )

See you all tomorrow! Goodbye! -A
P.S. Just wanted to let you all know that posting this took about 3 hours total, including me having to get my blogs onto this account (a complete nightmare) and I had to delete my old account. Now I'm going to go to bed. God please let me. :P Bye! For reals this time!

Being Sick

Being sick sucks. You have to take the day off of school (okay for most of you that is a good thing, but I have always been peculiar), you miss a bunch of stuff if you are busy like me, and you just feel horrible. Your sleep gets all out of wack, and you don't want to sleep at night. You are stuck up at night, watching reruns of shows you love.

All of the shows that I grew up with.

Especially shows that are from 2005.

Yeah you know what I'm talking about. The original Suite Life of Zack and Cody.

Looks like being sick has an upside after all.
-A

Honesty

All of you knitting junkies, honestly, just cool it. I am only 12. I'll get to it when I have time.

Honesty is a hard thing to understand. Brutal honesty is what it sounds like; brutal. Not everything out of your mouth can be perfectly honest, or you will loose friends. But you can't lie either because people then won't trust you. In friendships, honesty holds it together, but can rip it apart in a blink.

Honesty is the worst thing, and the best. Honesty and secrets go hand in hand.

Today my heart got ripped away from my body in one word. One, honest, two-letter word. Honesty is good, and it is horrible.

I have a reality check now, but that doesn't mean much. My false hopes have been taken away, and it's for the best.

Just remember, anything you say anyone can remember. Until you are sure of something, keep your opinion to yourself.
-A

Mistakes

People make mistakes. Let me tell you that straight off.

A certain person is mad at me, and honestly where do I start. If that certain person is reading this, take this as you will.

I am not apologizing. If I don't know what I did wrong, I can't even begin to fix it.

I really don't quite understand what is wrong here. I bugged you about your boyfriend. I understand that is a mistake now. I am not apologizing for it, because you would have done the same thing. I can guarantee it.

People make mistakes, but until you tell them what's wrong, they can't do anything about it. This will help in life. Communication is key.

One thing that you want me to change is me. I can't do that. Plenty of people like me for who I am. You are not one of them. I can change bits and pieces to improve myself, to make better friends, but whether I am A.J. 1.0 or A.J. 2.0, I am still A.J. The A.J. roots are still there.

Another thing you want me to do is go away. Get away from my friends so you can be in control.

News flash. I am not going anywhere. Better get used to it. You can fix the problem, or you can make our other friends miserable with how much we fight. Your decision. Me leaving isn't a choice.

Thank you for making me a better person. And just you wait, I will be the best friend I ever can be. Your loss.

-A
P.S. The Dells are amazing!

Water

Hello everyone. I am the mystical A.J. writing to you from far far away places. While you are all in school, I will be attending a wonderful mystic water park called Chula Vista in the Dells. Jealous? Mhm you should be. It is kind of difficult to write because I am writing off of my tablet and not the laptop, and this is the only time that Keira (a.k.a. 3 year old cousin *ahem* +Maria Kuhn we have spoken about this before....) is out and out of reach of the million (okay like 500) dollar tablet. She's coming! Got to go! -A

How (Not) to Plan Your Life

My life is ridiculously crazy. I am in pretty much everything I can be. I'm in the top-level soccer going to regionals in spring, track, I run 5K's on my own, I have a 4.0 (and am proud of it), I'm in conformation, Forensics, the play, ski club, and I play the viola, piano, violin, ukulele, and I sing.

I love everything. I really do. I have next to no social life, but something has to take second priority in my life, and that happens to.

I have three things scheduled on one night. Solo Ensemble, the play's second performance (which you need to see), and the Forensics State (which we might not even make).


My life is crazy. Honestly, crazy. And I am only in 7th grade. This will be fun.

Off to work on Forensics, then knitting, then nightly workout, then sitting in bed, then finally going to bed.

-A

Secrets

I'm not on a knitting kick, so cool it. Just chill.

Secrets. What are they? Little bits of information between two friends. Little taunts for people to say "She likes me better than you. Haha." Little ways to go from a perfect friendship to a very wrong one.

You might have noticed I said two friends, not two or more. A secret isn't for 3, or 5, 7. It is for two, otherwise, it's not a secret.

Secrets keep friends together, but too many rip them apart. It's like glue. Glue works when there are a few. Too many, and your friendship flops away.

Secrets can be good. They can be bad. They are full of surprises.

Ashley. Your surprise will be epic. That's all I can promise.

-A

A Template

Now, I know that the title of this blog is "Yarn Demoiselle", not every post will be about yarn and it's wonderful ways it can be used (which are limitless by the way). Some will about my school life, my soccer love, and drama at school. I am a tween after all. I can't stay interested on one thing for over 2 weeks.

Hunter? Aia? Come. See this post as ideas, since you two kind of need some. (*cough cough* hunter you really need it *cough cough*)

What do I do for a typical post? I
a) Come up with a hook
b) Go through my knitting accomplishments (if any)
c) I.... write

You two need some help, since you are having writer's block.

There are no rules.

Write about whatever comes to mind (okay not anything aka TRIANGLES). Write about what you want to write about. Write about how much homework sucks. How much you love your girlfriend/boyfriend. Why you hate school. A typical day. Why baseball rocks. When you end school. Typical drama. Why you love the internet.

Write about.


Anything.

-A

Technology

Why oh why does technology not work the way we want it to?

I couldn't access this blog through the profile to add new posts. I'll save you the agony of trying to explain it all, but man. Now it is sort of fixed, at least I can access it and post (yay!) but it is very complicated to get in. But hey. I'll try it anyways. :D

It is fixed now, and all is well. I can post (that is an improvement), add pictures, show you all of my different social media profiles, and everything! (hey I'm a tween-very-close-to-teen-aged girl. I am allowed to have millions of friends.....)

Thanks guys! I missed you! My two followers (whom one is my mother)!

-A

Argh...

A Before Note: (A Post-Note? That's after.... And I thought I excelled in English. Oh dear does summer have a toll on me.) I attempted to post this yesterday, but Google+ suddenly crashed...

I don't understand Mother Nature, and her relationship with the Goddess of Knitting, but whatever it is, they are out to get me. Horribly. Mother Nature decided to wreck my wrist at tennis. Now, I understand I am new at tennis. I know, it will hurt. That is "developing my strength" yada, yada, yada, etc. I get it. But man, does a horrible wrist wreck your knitting time. Mom said, after I said my wrist hurt, to stop knitting. Seriously, those were the first words out of her mouth. Not, "Go take an ibuprofen." like a normal mom would say, but stop knitting. I can't knit until 9:00pm tonight. Twelve hours with no knitting, and I am in my knitting phase! :( Horrible time will be lost.
So I have done my best to work everything else I do into knitting-related activities. Like my persona is knitting, Yarn Harlot's previous posts are my new BFF, etc. It's so hard though. :(

Anyways, onto happy knitting-finished related news, I finished the blue Sophie bag yesterday! Yay!
I wish I had the happiness to take pics, but I am afraid if I take pictures, I will begin to knit...

I began a teal bag today, since I am preparing for the Ravelympics (I never understood how that debate turned out.), all interesting knitting is being put on hold until the Opening Ceremony.

Thank you for all of the blog looks today! Thank you thank you thank you!
Only 11.4 more hours....
What am I going to do today?

My Heat Theory (Plus Some Yummy Knitting)

Blog,
My goodness is it hot this year. Hot and dry. Wisconsin? DRY? Well, hasn't something taken it's toll. And because of that, two things have occurred. I am calling these my "heat theories".
1) Heat = Laziness
2) Laziness makes for horrible knitting and cruddy thinking.

I was knitting a cute bag, the Sophie Bag if you are wondering, and I have already made a few. In fact I gifted the bag I was working on (striped cotton candy like and everything) to one of my friends for her birthday and she loved it. I was making another, this time solid.
Picture One
(It was in a cute navy blue. Wear with any jeans, instant cute factor!)
Working along happily, I continued. No panic was risen.
Then I hit the fifteenth row. I began to panic.
Picture Two
It was way to small. The bag next to it is a finished product of the CORRECT OUTPUT.
Picture Three
Here's another pic. The one on the very right is it finished with felting finished as well.
Picture Four
And then I looked and said, "I'll just change the pattern a bit, since my gauge is off."
I looked outside and said, "No way. It's too hot."
And then I realized I made the whole thing up. My gauge is fine. I changed the yarn to a different version ( Not Cascade 220, like the pattern calls for, but Cascade 220 Heathers).
I am truly going crazy. And in my head, my knitting is paying for it. Only in my head, keep in mind.
And I'm going into 7th grade.
Great.

P.S. Sorry about the pictures, since flickr decided to be all weird on me with inserting pictures. I guess we'll find out whether I can fix them or not.

Thinking

I am not in the mood to knit, for now. I kinda am, but kinda not. What do I do? Do I knit? Or not? I probably will end up knitting, so it isn't much of a choice. Send me an email at knittingajATgmailDOTcom for ideas on what to knit! I need a bigger stash of UFO's people! This is not normal. Please! You may be saving a knitter's life. I will probably have a later post, for my knitting...

Yarn Demoiselle