Liberation

Who's happy that it's fall break? I am!!! Well, mainly because SCUBA has eaten up my life for the past month (not to say that SCUBA is a bad thing, it's just that I do like to sleep every once in a while). So sleeping in today and yesterday was absolutely fantastic. Of course, the world can't all be happy at the same time, so life decided to give me a wicked scratchy throat to compensate for my ability to sleep in this weekend...

On the knitting front, all it well. I finally have my knitting in order. You see, I'm a very monogamous knitter, as in, I can only really work on one project at a time, and work very intensely on that project. With the House Cup on Ravelry, I am required to work on more than one project at a time, which has messed with my knitting brain. It has caused me to not really knit my awesome rainbow scarf at all during the month of September, and as that needs to be done by 29 Nov (so I can block on the 30th), I sort of went into panic mode. From the first of September to last Tuesday I knit up the first set of yarn bobbins. In the past week and half (last Tuesday until last night), I knit up the second set of bobbins. Essentially, I knit the previous month and a half's worth of work in a week and a half, so I'm now at 29" out of 72".

You can attribute this massive increase in pace to a few distinct things:
1) I ordered my knitting schedule so I'm knitting the scarf four days in a row, encompassing some of my most knit-friendly days.
2) I ditched the flexible straights thing, as they were just catching on the yarn constantly, and went for a circular needle, which has worked much better.
3) The scarf has gotten to the length where I can roll it around the yarn when I'm not knitting, greatly decreasing the tangling of the yarn while traveling.

All of this allows me to get into a knitting "groove." Aka, I doubled my knitting speed on this scarf (1"/h to 2"/h).


I also made a wonderous fish hat for the cup, and everyone loves it. I have a theory that if I wear it to a football game I'm going to get on TV...

I mean, seriously, what TV camera guy would be like, "Girl with fish hat!" (it helps that the fish also happens to be in Miami colors...)

On a sad note, the RA on my floor had to resign due to personal issues that made her feel like she wasn't being a good RA anymore. I made her a Hugo as a goodbye gift:

It was only after I gave it to her that I realize he was the color of an alien, and that our floor's theme is outer space. I'll miss our RA so much... <3

Well, I know it was a short entry, even though it's been a couple weeks. That's what happens when I have big, long term projects to work on, and not the million free knitting hours of the summer to get them done. 'Til next time!

La Mathématique

I am supposed to be studying for my linear algebra exam tomorrow at the moment. If you are reading this, you can obviously tell that I am not, in fact, studying, but writing a blog post. Much better use of my time, don't you think?

Good news for a special friend in Arizona! I finished her moomoo:

She needs it so badly, because her anxiety and depression are really getting to her. I can only hope that this adorable, turquoise moomoo cheers her up and alleviates her pain for at least a little while. I really wish I could be there with her, but it just isn't possible. I really hope she is, if slowly, getting better, because she really needs it.

You know what was extremely frustrating and sad a few days ago? Well, I was on the bus to lab at the marine campus, and was planning on finishing Kevät, my first prayer shawl for quidditch in the HPKCHC. I only had about four more pattern repeats to go (two repeats is one center diamond). So, I reach into my bag and pull out my shawl, noticing that one of the needles had "screwed off" (yay interchangeable needles...). So I pick up the point from the bottom of the bad, and to my horror, discover that it hadn't screwed off, it had broken off with the little screw part with the threads from the cable stuck inside! Not only could I not finish my shawl on the bus (or back at the dorm for that matter), but I now have to wait 4-6 weeks for the replacement cable and needle tips to come in! So Kevät is currently sitting on a looong piece of waste yarn, waiting for my shipment of replacement parts.


Luckily I was using two joined cables, so one of them was fine. The other shawls I was planning on knitting used a different size cable, so I rescued the living cable from Kevät and cast on Arrowhead. I'm only one repeat in and it is looking gorgeous. Luckily, someone from the Hufflepuff Common Room is sending me another cable, so I can hopefully finish this shawl, and others, while my points and other cable ship.


Other than that, I've made some awesome progress on my OWL:

I'm a mono-knitter (aka I can only really focus on one project at a time), so I was having trouble getting around to knit it. Yesterday I divided up the week so I have OWL knitting days and days for everything else, so hopefully now I'll get some real progress in :) I'm about 1/6 of the way into it, not including blocking and weaving in ends, and I'm still on my first bobbins. I'm going to have a ton of leftover yarn from this, but I don't mind since I'll have yarn in all the colors of the rainbow! That's all, for now. ;)

Étudier, pas Tricoter

It may seem like I haven't written in forever, and you would be right in making that assumption! My knitting pace has slowed down considerable, mainly due to the fact that I don't have endless hours to sit around, watch TV, and knit like I did during the summer (best summer ever BTW). I do have time to get projects done here and there though, mainly at work. I work at the info desk in the University Center, and there is always one day I work when it's too busy to just do my homework, yet not busy enough that I'm constantly running around. Those days I bring my knitting. I can get a few rows/rounds in, put it down, and then when I'm free again, come back to it. This means, of course, no fancy intarsia, fair isle, or lace work will be brought to work, as that requires more serious concentration (which spells trouble for my rainbow scarf, as I can't really take it out of my dorm room due to the amount of bobbins, and all my knitting time seems to be outside the dorm). Here are a few things I've accomplished though:


A single (that's right, single) cable-lace short fingerless glove (the pattern can be found here). I had knit the first one from the original pattern for Catie, but they didn't have a thumb gusset for some reason, so I didn't bother with the second. Catie, however, still like the glove (it fit her hand a little better than mine), and took it to college with her, and I promised I'd knit her a second. So I redesigned the pattern, giving it a thumb gusset and making it a little more DPN friendly, knit the second glove (which I think turned out nicer than the first), and sent it off to her. She hasn't written me yet, so I don't know if she got it. I would think she did, and people just procrastinate writing letters back (I know I do). Plus, it took at least two weeks from when I sent a package to another friend to get her thank-you letter back, and it hasn't been two weeks yet.


It's a Utopia Hat! Except it's knit in Red Heart Super Saver Mexicana (aka rainbow), so you can't really see the cables that well. I knit it for potions homework for the Harry Potter Knit & Crochet House Cup on ravelry, but I didn't know who I'd give it to (goodness know I have too many hats already). Fortunately, my new friend Joshua (who is very into the whole gay-rights thing :D) wanted it when he first saw me knitting the first few rows of ribbing (best part is - he knits too!). So he's happy with his rainbow hat :)


Exciting venture for me: my first pair of toe-up socks! I'm now a total toe-up convert: they fit so much better than cuff-down!, and are fairly simply to make (best part: I don't have to carry around a ruler to make heel and foot-length measurements). I was originally steered to make these because I was going to make a pair of wavy socks using a lacy pattern I found for Charms. Unfortunately, the pattern didn't work backwards, as I would have needed for cuff-down, so I learned how to knit toe-up. I'm not going to knit those socks anymore (for charms, anyway), but now I have a nice new pair of purple socks!


Last, but not least, this little guy. Yes, another Hugo. You see, Joshua's birthday was Sunday, and I'm in college, so I wasn't about to go buy him anything. Since he enjoyed the hat so much, I decided to make him a Hugo out of the scraps (I ran out of yarn just as I finished the first foot, so the second foot is green). Even better, this also doubled as DADA homework :)

As for stuff I'm working on right now, I've made some progress on my rainbow scarf (it's 16cm long, so I'm 8% done!), but that's suffering because I can't really take it anywhere due to the massive amount of bobbins. More critical than the scarf is a moo moo I'm making for Sam. She needs it badly, because she's been having some bad episodes of anxiety and depression. I've filled my queue with a bunch of moomoo-related items to send off to her in Arizona. I've also started on my quidditch prayer shawls. I've never made shawls before, and I'm wondering how I'm going to block them (and they will need blocking bad, I can already tell). We do have a carpet in the room I can block it on, though then it will be in the middle of the floor. Perhaps my bed? Then comes the problem that I don't have any pins or blocking wire (never blocked before)...

That's about it. In all: expect less frequent posts, because, as a college student, I won't have that much time to post, and I'll have less to post about. I bid you adieu! (for now)

Tout

I am so sorry I haven't written in forever, but I wanted to finish Joanna's second pair of gloves before I posted again, and of course, I finish them, and then I have to pack madly for college, drive down to the university (with a stop in South Carolina along the way), move in, go through orientation, the first few days of classes, etc. - more on that later. Anyways... here are Joanna's lovely Natalya gloves:

I must say that though these took quite a bit longer than the lace-ups, I like them much, much better. They're more practical as well. The proccess of knitting them also taught me so many things. I can now knit on the round with two circular needles (which I will not be doing again unless absolutely neccesary). I can also now cable without a cable needle, a very handy skill to have. I know a new way of binding off that is much looser than the one I was using previously. I also now know how to knit fingers on gloves. Overall, it was a very educating experience. (Sorry for the over-exposed picture BTW).

So... I'm at college :D. Not telling you where, because there are always weird stalking people out there that want to kidnap you, but here are some pics of campus:

Yes, this is a college campus. Great huh? My classes are absolutely amazing. I know this might sound mean, but I enjoy having teachers that are actually competent and know their material. Dorm life is good too. I'm good friends with at least half my floor; I'm so glad we all get along, for the most part - it's amazing. I've also made some really great friends in my marine program (I'm a marine bio major); we had this s'mores BBQ (basically you roast the marshallows over a grill) the other day, and the four of us just clicked right away. We spend the next hour and a half talking outside, then moved to Michelle's room and talked for at least another half an hour, if not another hour. It's absolutely great.

Speaking of the dorm life, I've discovered that the bowls I use to microwave my morning grits get really hot in the microwave (yay Walmart dishes), prompting me to make these:

I tried knitting a potholder using double knitting, but quickly discovered that I despise double knitting. I figured that a potholder would be something you could crochet in about two seconds, so I searched online and found this wonderful pattern. I love the things! They're so great!

More exciting (and geeky) news. So, I'm in this group on Ravelry called the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup. Term starts in a few days, and when it does, I'm going to attempt an OWL in potions. The potions OWL requires a large project with creative and complicated use of color. I'm going to knit a Persephone Scarf, except that each "rope" in the cable is going to be a different color, and the border and backgrounds are different colors. Here's my rainbow circle of yarn that I'm using for the project:

And my pattern swatch, in the lovely iris shade of Caron Simply Soft:


I simply can't wait to cast on, and for term to start. Everything is so exciting right now! :)