Owl done...

I have been looking for an owl cookie jar, having seen them basically everywhere except in stores lately: (1) in a collection of American Bisque cookie jars in the Waverly Bakery, (2) on the show Modern Family, (3) American Bisque, again, in a patient's apartment (right there on top of her fridge). These owls have been taunting me. Vintage owl cookie jars sell on Ebay for $40-$180, and the non-freaky, non-ugly ones happen to be more expensive.

A week ago, we were in the mall, on official wedding business, when something caught my eye in Macy's. At first, I just saw a rather cute owl-shaped serving tray...then some salt & pepper shakers...then a piggy bank...then a COOKIE JAR! On top of that, there was some kind of sale starting a few days later, and they would pre-sell it to me, to be picked-up on the sale start date.

Now, if you have an owl cookie jar, what kind of cookies would you put in it? I thought so too, but owl-shaped cookie cutters are (1) generally only vaguely owl-shaped, and (2) probably only available at specialty stores and online. An exhaustive search revealed some very cute options: one person used frosting to decorate cookies that she cut out with a tulip-shaped cookie cutter, but I can't find a tulip cookie cutter either. Other options are focused on shaping the dough. As soon as I saw one of those options, I remembered my Grama making them when I was little. Seeing the picture of them took me back to my exact feelings about the cookies when I first saw them: I refused to eat them because they had one cashew, standing for the owl's beak. I was convinced that the cashew meant that the whole cookie would taste like nuts.

The cookies are actually made with vanilla and chocolate dough, rolled into a cylinder and sliced. The eyes are peanut butter chips, although I considered using light-colored M&Ms. The beak, as I mentioned, is a whole cashew.


Having finished my last exam on Saturday (hopefully, provided I pass), this is how I celebrated the end of my academic obligations and my birthday, free of exam stress.

-吴碧芙

Official Graduation

My official graduation was anti-climactic. I finished my internship and moved north. The day after the end of my internship, I received a letter that contained the results of my comprehensive exams. The letter stated that I had passed the written portion of the exams, but that I was "required to email 3 instructors for phone interviews regarding 2 topics of the exams."

So when the last instructor agreed to fill-out the paperwork saying that I passed, during the last phone interview, I suppose that around that moment I officially graduated, having completed all of my academic obligations. The department must complete some paperwork, papers must be signed, and then my diploma will appear in the mail someday soon.

And so, on the day of my official graduation, last Thursday, I had a cupcake...


-吴碧芙

3-Day, 15-Hour Hot Mess

One of those academic obligations of my symbolic graduation is comprehensive exams, which ended today. A 3-day, 15-18 total hour ordeal, in which we all try to prove that we know enough to be competent clinicians. The heat of these past days, the lack of sleep, and the stress on both mind and body have taken their toll.

Hopefully all of the studying and hours of stress have paid off...

Symbolic Commencement

...In no way signifies the successful fulfillment of my academic obligations. But it was fun to get dressed up and walk across the stage with some of my classmates and over 1,000 strangers, from every program offered at the university.


The difference between this MA commencement and my previous one was that this university uses hoods.



-吴碧芙

Self-striping

These are my first socks with the amazing self-striping variety of sock yarn. I keep buying colors I like, thinking they will stripe, and they turn out to be variegated. This yarn, however, had a repeating pattern that was easy to solve and line up when making a pair of socks.

I was determined to make socks that match, identical socks, not fraternal. My plan would have worked, too, if it wasn't for a little extra white, green, and blue on the toe. The heel and gusset match up almost perfectly, with one skinny pink line along the edge of each heel flap. As my knitting friend say, no one will notice because it's down in your shoe anyway.


-吴碧芙

Sock it Up (Part 2)

I finished my second pair of socks! I made the first pair over a year ago. I started the first sock of this pair on Jan. 16, 2011, and I finished the second sock today. The first sock took about 2 weeks to finish, and the second took 4 days. Thanks to a snow day, I had time to bust out the last few inches and the toe. The pattern has a short-row heel, which is quite nice, and check out the beautiful gusset. (click to embiggen)


I'm a little disappointed that my genius plan to make matching socks was thwarted, since it appears that this yarn has random color changes. Note how the cuffs and toes nearly match, but the rest of the socks are completely different. Now I'm back to attaching I-cord to all those felted potholders I'm making.

-吴碧芙

Sock it up!

I got the sock yarn that I had been eying for some time, called "clover colors" from Patons. I cast on with US #1 needles, made a gauge swatch in the round, and did the math to find out how many stitches to cast on for my actual sock. I finished ribbing for the cuff, but I wasn't interested in any of the sock patterns I'd found.

I was looking for something else when I saw a simple sock with one cable on each side, a pattern written by Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl McPhee. After looking a little more, I finally settled on Aquaphobia Socks from www.knitfreak.com. The designer wrote that the pattern is intended for variegated yarns to prevent color pooling, which disturbs some knitters. Luckily, the pattern is written for US #1 needles, with exactly the number of stitches I had already cast on.


There is a baby cable (repeating 6-stitch, 4-row pattern) on the sides of the sock. The front and back sections are done in a slip-knit pattern, which makes a strong, heavy, stiff cloth. So far, I'm quite pleased with myself for how far I've gotten and how the yarn looks with this pattern.

-吴碧芙