Thanksgiving Blues

Today is one of those days where we must come back to reality. Everyone I know is in a down mood… I think it’s the lack of turkey and family. We’ve all come back to the reality that is midterms, lack of sleep, and stress.

For me, it’s not that bad. I have this weekend at home to look forward to, and only one midterm this week. I’ll have a decent amount of knitting time, and I hope to get these socks off the ground. The sweater is going to have to go on another hiatus for the time being, while the Christmas knitting consumes me.

Since I’ve exhausted my supply of television shows to watch at the present time, I’ve taken to listening to audiobooks while I knit. I’m loving it so far… It’s intellectually stimulating, and you don’t have to look at anything but your knitting while you do so. I can get these audiobooks free from my library at home online. It’s great for me, since it’s completely free and allows me to continue to utilize my library privileges while I’m here at school. I got completely sick of the library while I worked there this summer, but I’ve been away long enough that I’m craving books again.

To make matters worse, my boyfriend and I have been working our way through the Harry Potter movie series, and now all I want to do is go and read the books again. It’s actually quite difficult to choose between reading and knitting during my down time sometimes. I love the audiobooks; this way, I don’t have to choose.

Leftovers!

I’ve been staving off the Thanksgiving Blues with leftovers… Above was tonight’s meal. My mom came by yesterday to drop off some food. I love holidays that involve leftovers!

Now, time for some knitting and a cup of tea. I’ll get to that school work eventually.

Turkey Day

This weekend definitely didn’t go as planned… But it was still great! I made it to Nationals, which was a lot of fun. We went to Wonderland and Woodbine Racetrack in our spare time. The team finished second overall in Canada, and individually I came ninth. It was a lot of fun!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it home for Thanksgiving. Instead, I’ll be heading home next weekend. My mom visited today, on her way back from dropping off my older brother at school, with a full Thanksgiving dinner for me. I know what I’ll be eating for the next few days!

I also didn’t get anything done on the knitting. However, as I don’t have class until 5:30 tomorrow night, I have oodles of time to knit and relax. I’m glad that this semester is so relaxed… I feel as if it’s the calm before the storm, and I’m about to be bombarded with school work. Only time will tell I suppose.

I would love to put all of my photos from Nationals on the blog, but nearly all of them contain my teammates. I try not to post photos of others on the blog without asking them first, so I’m only able to put up photos that don’t include them. It’s too bad, since it won’t give you a feel for the overall experience, but hopefully it will give an accurate enough representation.

A horse being walked in the tack-up area before the race

The finish of the turf race

Racing!

One of the racehorses in the barn at Woodbine Racetrack. We got to go behind the scenes early in the morning in the barns and watch the exercise riders.

It was a great weekend, and maybe tomorrow I’ll have some more photos to post (hopefully of the knitting as well!). I’m so glad that I got to have this great experience of being a member of a National team, and I’m so proud of all of my teammates on our success!

These Socks Are Killing Me

I swear. This is the fourth time that I’ve ripped them out. This time, it was because I didn’t have the right size. Apparently, my father has extra-large, extra-wide feet… According to this pattern anyway.

I am beyond frustration, but these socks will be finished. They are coming with me this weekend, and I’ll finally get them going properly. No more ripping out, no more re-casting on.

I don’t know if I’ve ever done this much frogging on something so small and simple. I guess there’s a first time for everything! I’ll be glad when they are finished and I can start something else.

Now, back to packing. I thought I had everything in the two bags I brought, but it turns out that I forgot to throw in the knitting. I don’t know where I’m going to put it, but I’ll find a place. I’m sure of it.

I probably won’t be able to post until Tuesday, so until then, enjoy the weekend. For all of my Canadian readers, happy Thanksgiving!

The Smell of Flowers

Sometimes, things don’t go as planned. Like socks, for instance.

Those socks are out to get me. I swear. This morning, after finishing some of the cable section of the leg, I realized that using self-striping yarn for cabled socks isn’t too intelligent. I couldn’t see the cables at all. The sock pattern is really beautiful, and I didn’t want it to go to waste.

So what’s a girl to do? The only thing she could in a situation like this. We had a breakup. I ripped them back, completely and utterly. I’m planning to use that pattern for some yarn that I have for my brother for Christmas.

I re-wound the yarn and did a little gauge, and I’m planning to cast on for some vanilla socks for this wonderful yarn. I hope my dad doesn’t mind. Somehow, I don’t think he’ll notice too much.

In other news, movies and sweater-knitting nights are my favourite.

The sweater!

There it is (although apparently it turned out blurry). I’ve got 9 inches done so far! I love working with the yarn… It’s my favourite kind for a reason. It’s squishy and warm. I can’t wait for this thing to be a sweater. The pattern is just mindless enough for me to get really into a movie and yet still stay awake.

I love it.

As a result, I’m totally undecided as to what to bring home this weekend in terms of knitting. It’s Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, which means a long weekend. I’m actually going to Toronto to compete at the National level with Pony Club. I’m excited, though not as excited as last year. That was my first year and we travelled to Calgary. I got to go to Spruce Meadows, and it was definitely a very cool experience. This year it’s a little closer to home, but I’m sure it will be a lot of fun. I’ll be heading home for Monday and most of Tuesday. I’m glad – I miss my family and of course my horses.

This begs the question… What to bring with me? I won’t have time to knit while I’m at Nationals, but I will have time when I’m at home. I’ve actually been thinking about it for about a week! You can tell where my priorities are…

Now. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go and do some studying for Nationals this weekend. There may be knitting. But most of all, there will be the smell of flowers.

Flowers from my boyfriend, just because. He’s the best.

Sock-tober

I’ve been seeing the title “Sock-tober” pop up in my reader a lot lately. As far as I can tell, October seems to be the month of sock knitting….

Darn, just when I went through virtually the entire month of September by knitting only socks! I’ve actually been trying to knit on my sweater as much as possible.

The reason, you see, isn’t Second Sock Syndrome (the fickle beast), but it is something almost as bad. It’s a conspiracy.

I’ve been working on the Earl Grey Socks for my dad for about a week now. And I can’t seem to make any progress. No matter how much I knit, the cuff never seems to match the desired length (2 inches for adults is my rule of thumb). I swear that it’s a conspiracy. Something is ripping back my knitting while I’m in class. I’m going to have to keep a closer eye on it.

After tonight I’ll know for sure. For the month of Sock-tober, I’m going to try to do a row on the sock every day. No promises, but that’s the goal. October is the month where it finally dawns on me that all of my Christmas knitting plans might be a little insane. I have a lot of knitting to do. Let’s consult the list:

• Socks for Dad
• Socks for boyfriend
• Socks for brother
• Sweater
• Scarf for best friend
• Mittens for sister

That doesn’t seem like much, but if you’re a full time student with midterms and finals coming up… That’s a lot.

But, with my Sock-tober plan in place, I’ll break this conspiracy and churn out a sock in no time. I hope.

A List

It’s Monday, and I’m already resorting to lists. School does that to my brain.

1. Let’s see… I made homemade hot chocolate tonight with milk, cocoa powder, vanilla, and cinnamon. It was good stuff.

2. It’s October first! That means fall!

3. My boyfriend and I had a mini Harry Potter movie marathon last night at my place, which means I was reunited with the knitting.

4. There was sweater progress. Unfortunately, it looks exactly the same as the last time I took a photo of it, just slightly longer. It’s not photo worthy yet.

5. Today was the beginning of riding lessons for the team here at my University. It was nice to be back in the saddle after a month away.

6. Though it was nice, I got put on one of the crazy horses who did everything in her power to get me off of her.

7. I still had fun. I’m like that. As long as I’m on a horse, I’m happy (no matter how scared I am inside).

8. I have a few more bits of homework to do tonight, but I can’t wait to be done so I can sit and knit.

9. I’m torn between quick progress on the socks, or progress towards a very coveted handknit sweater…

10. Eating popcorn and knitting is nearly impossible. The difficulties of a University student.