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.

Without Yarn

So the weekend adventure with my boyfriend is about to come to a close, and I have no knitting to show for it. Why, may you ask?

Because I committed the unthinkable, and I didn’t bring any knitting with me.

One of the first things out of my boyfriend’s mouth was, “Where’s your yarn?” I could barely believe my own stupidity. Somehow, I had rationalized it before leaving… It won’t fit. I won’t have time to work on it. I need some time away from knitting. I have homework to do and I don’t want that to distract me.

Somehow, that made sense at the time. I’m not sure how I’ve survived the past three days, but I have. I haven’t had any contact with yarn (except for watching a commercial for a yarn store on television). I know I won’t be making this mistake again any time soon. Watching movies without it just isn’t the same.

Now excuse me while I go and recover from the lack of yarn.

Adventuring

I’m not sure if I’m going to have time to blog in the next few days, because I’m going on an adventure! It’s not a huge adventure… But an adventure none the less. I’m heading to my boyfriend’s house by bus tomorrow afternoon. It’s only about a 40 minute ride, so it won’t be too bad. Last year the bus ride was 3 hours when I went to visit him (he moved cities).

Still, I can’t help feeling as if this is an adventure. I’m off to a different city, and I’ll be doing who knows what. I’m excited, but I don’t know how much I’ll be blogging. Or knitting for that matter. I haven’t decided if the sticks & string are coming with me yet. I guess it depends on how much room I’ve got in my bag.

Speaking of the sticks and string… There will be no photos today because I have no progress to show for myself. Last night wasn’t conducive to knitting; I kept getting distracted. I also had to rip out the Earl Grey socks and start over, since I noticed a mistake in the ribbing. Tonight I hope to finish the ribbing and move on to the main part of the leg. This involves cables, so we’ll see how I do. I haven’t done anything with cables except a pair of mittens once about 2 years ago.

Wish me luck… These socks may turn out to be an adventure in their own right.

Milkshakes and Movies

Tonight, my boyfriend surprised me by coming over after my class. We made berry milkshakes, and will be watching movies (I assume). We’re both working on homework at the moment (well, I’m blogging, but you know).

There will be knitting.

But, tonight is not the focus of this post. I promised you that I would post photos today, and though it is nearing 9 pm, those photos will be posted!

A closeup of the finished hat heel socks

Another shot of the finished Hat Heel Socks

There they are: the Hat Heel Socks, and a gift to my mother. They now top the charts as my favourite sock pattern to date. (Pattern:Hat Heel Socks by Kathleen Sperling; Yarn:Paton’s Kroy Sock, Colour #55129 Aqua Fleck)

The Fuzzballs! They still need the ends weaving in, but I’ll get to that soon enough.

A closeup of the Fuzzballs. I love how the confetti bits ended up creating vertical lines on one of the socks.

The Fuzzballs were another great success. They were super quick, but I’m not sure if I will ever knit with that yarn again. The fuzzy bits are now all over my house and my clothing. (Pattern: my own; Yarn: Paton’s Carmen (Discontinued) in colour #07434 Rose).

My night tonight – socks, the boyfriend, and milkshakes.

My latest project: socks for my dad for Christmas. The pattern is Earl Grey by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, and the yarn is Nova Value Collection Sock Print in colour #405 Earth Tones. I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ll have enough yarn… It might be a close one.

Now, back to my milkshakes and my movies. I’ll have more progress in the morning.

The Multiple Uses of Knitting Needles

Things I have learned about knitting in the past year:

1. If you tell your boyfriend you knit, he’s going to want a pair of socks. Ensure that you explain the Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater so that he doesn’t ask for a sweater.

2. Knitting needles double as head scratchers, cat toys, and pointers.

3. Knitting while attempting to cuddle with another person is exceedingly difficult. I have become a pro.

4. Taking up the entire couch with a pattern, various needles, and balls of yarn, is unacceptable when living in a house of 5.

5. Put away all yarn bits when you have a cat.

6. Having scissors stashed in multiple locations is a good idea. You can never find them when you need them.

7. Printing multiple patterns and leaving them around the house doesn’t make the knitting go faster.

8. The bag of yarn that your mother bought 3 years ago in a fit of nostalgia is off limits. You can, however, retrieve the needles that she’s hoarding, as long as there is nothing on them yet.

9. Do not bring knitting on long car rides if you have the horse with you. Your knitting will end up smelling like horse by the end of the trip.

10. Car attendants at the airport parking service tend to leave knitting alone as long as it is well hidden. No missing needles were reported.

11. No matter how much you prod your mother to show you how to use the sewing machine, the needles rolls aren’t going to get done unless you sit there and figure it out yourself.

With Difficulty

It seems that everything I have done in the past 24 hours has been difficult. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve achieved some great things in the past day. Still though, everything seems  like it takes twice the effort it usually does. Even typing this blog post; I have to wait for ten minutes for all the words to appear, letter by letter. I really should start using my own computer instead of the ones at work.

Last night, after work, I went for a run with my boyfriend down by the beach. We ran 15 km, and it took us two hours. For those of you who run, you know that this time is awful! I’m not sure if it was the waiting in line at McDonald’s for a glass of water, or the deciding which way to run, but this is a totally ridiculous time for the distance we ran. Regardless, we did it. I think my lack of focus is what made me so slow. When I run my half marathon on July 29, I’m going to have to be a lot more focused if I want to finish it in a reasonable time. I don’t want it to take all day!

This morning I had a riding lesson. My horse wasn’t performing well for the first 45 minutes; everything was difficult. She wasn’t listening to me, and she was jumping awkwardly, hitting poles and everything. Finally, by the end of the lesson, after some hard work, she was jumping great! Still, it wasn’t without difficulty.

Next up: yarn store. I went quickly before work. I wanted to get some green yarn for socks for my boyfriend, as well as some “manly” colours for my Dad and brother. They had a few “manly” colours, but no green. The cashier even got out the catalogues to see if she could order in some dark green – they don’t manufacture it! What?? So, I walked out with nothing. NOTHING. FROM A YARN STORE.

The only thing that isn’t difficult is the actual knitting. The socks are progressing nicely. Tonight I’ll work on them some more, and hopefully be at the heel by the end of the weekend. My next project is just a little one: bookmarks. Do you remember when I blogged about Bookcrossing? If you don’t, it’s a website  who’s mantra is “the whole world is a library”. A group of “Bookcrossers” created something called SGG – Summer Gift Giving.  SGG is great; you post a wishlist of everything you want, and if you’re lucky, someone will send you something from the list. I noticed that a lot of people wanted bookmarks, so I thought  “what a good way to knit something!”. So I’m going to knit bookmarks. I have a few good ideas, but I don’t want to spoil anything yet by giving it away.

Inevitably, I won’t have the right yarn… Difficulty at its finest.

Finally!

Woohoo! I’ve finally made some progress on those Sampler Texture Socks! They aren’t finished, but still…

Last night I finished the purple yarn and switched to the pink. I can’t believe how long it lasted – I thought for sure I would have run out long ago. I only have about 25 more rows of the chart to do before I’m onto the toe decreases… Then done!

I’m excited that I’ve actually got some of my mojo back.

Now if I could just regain my readers… No views since last Sunday.

Hmm. Maybe I can lure you in with some photos on this fine Canada Day weekend. I’m going to see the fireworks down at the beach with the boyfriend tonight. It should be great, since it’s such a gorgeous day!

In other news, I’m wearing a dress today. Now, to most of you, this seems like not a big deal. But if you knew me well, you would understand that I have an aversion to anything girly. But I am at work today, in the NON-AIRCONDITIONED library. It’s like 35 degrees (Celsius) out there people. And I can’t wear shorts… Mine are all way too short to be deemed work appropriate.

Ah well. Tomorrow I’m working at the ice cream store, scooping ice cream. At least it’s airconditioned. And I can wear shorts there.

Who wears short-shorts? I wear short-shorts!

Rainy Day Sunday

Apparently I’m awful at posting on the weekends.

So this was yesterday… It threatened rain all day long, and the heavens finally opened around dinner time. The grass will grow again! Hurray!

I’ll have more photos of the weekend up tomorrow. Here it is in a list.

1. There was a tractor pull. You know you’re from the country when the closest village has a tractor pull (who can pull a certain weight the furthest, basically), with a beer tent and a band. I had a great time!

2. I have conquered the Eye of Partridge Heel Flap. And it looks perfect this time. I’m just a nob and I don’t read directions properly.

3. My dad and I have been painting jump poles… Trying to spruce up the jumps my coach brought over. They look great so far. Domino has been doing much better over her little jumps too. Even my dad noticed a difference! It’s so exciting!

4. I haven’t started training for my half marathon yet…. It’s on July 29…. Uh oh.

5. The writing just continues to flow out of me. It’s crazy. I have to stop myself from continuing to start new stories though; it’s a disease.

6. I read a great book this weekend. The author is also the author of The Pioneer Woman blog. The book that I read was called “The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels”, and for those of you who prefer not to scroll through her blog, the author’s name is Ree Drummond. The book documents her love story; how she (the city girl) fell in love with a cowboy. It was so well written and engaging that I couldn’t put it down. Read it. Seriously.

7. It makes me want to write about my own love story… Or at least use it in my own stories. I mean, its suitably dramatic.

All this love stuff has got my head in the clouds. Time to come back to earth and put in some work on that novel.

Do you have a great love story? I’d love to read about it in the comments.