The Studying Sock

Studying + Knitting

That’s the detritus of a university student/knitter who has a biochemistry midterm in two days…

A very learned sock

The revelation that I can knit and study at the same time has led to a lot of progress on my Dad’s socks. I dread to think what will happen when I get to the toe.

The mittens!

The mittens, on the other hand, have taken more of a backseat role. I have definitely been working on them (onto the left hand chart!) but they are nowhere near as close to completion as I had hoped. I work on them when I take my big study breaks, and they’re coming along slowly. I love the parts that I’ve done so far, but I can’t wait to start seeing the flower motif take shape!

The studying/sock knitting is going to continue until next Saturday when I have my last midterm, in genetics. Only 3 more to go… Biochem, equine science, and genetics, then I’m free of midterms! I’m just hoping that the sock knitting will last until then. Who knows, I could be done all of my Christmas knitting by next weekend!

 

 

A Breakthrough

Folks, there’s been a breakthrough.

I can knit and read at the same time. Nothing major, just plain old stockinette stitch. Still, that’s good enough for me.

I made this discovery at around 8:50 pm last night, and that’s all that got me through my studying for the rest of the evening. The needles kept me awake as I read through my biochem notes. My midterm is on Saturday, and I’ve been studying as much as I can for it.

Plain old stockinette, you ask? But of course! I have a pair of plain vanilla socks on the go for my Dad for Christmas. Perfect for studying. When I get to the toe, I’ll just have to put them aside and see if my brain is advanced enough to do some k1, p1 on my sweater. Can’t be too difficult. I feel as if I’m going to have an enormous repertoire of knitted things to blog about soon. That’s good, since I made a trip to a craft store on Saturday on my way home. I bought two new skeins of yarn that have yet to be introduced to the blog. They don’t fit in the yarn bin, so I guess I had better get going!

Added bonus? Knitting while studying actually makes me want to study.

(I’m aware that my mittens are far too complicated to work on while I’m studying. I’ve moved my expectations for finishing back a little bit… I’m not even finished the cuff yet.)

Sock Woman

It’s a bird, it’s a plane… it’s Sock Woman!

She hides in the most unlikely of places, amongst the detritus of a University student.

She only comes out in the wee hours of the night, when the roommates are asleep and reruns of the Bachelor are on.

No one knows if she is real, or if she is just a midterm-crazed student with a bad case of “just one more row” syndrome.

The doings of Sock Woman

Last night she paid a visit to the third house on the left. She left the evidence of her progress strewn among genetics assignments and grocery lists.

She finished the heel flap. Turned the heel. Most of the gusset.

Only you can guess when and where Sock Woman will strike again.

Dreaming of Mittens

Before I went to bed last night, I did a Ravelry search of stranded mitten patterns.

When I woke up this morning, I thought about stranded mittens.

When I walked to school, I thought about stranded mittens.

I may have looked up yarn to purchase to make stranded mittens.

It’s an obsession and I have to stop! I have too much other knitting to do… For starters, basically an entire sweater, as well as all of the Christmas presents that are left.

Speaking of, I’ve made some good progress on my Dad’s socks. I’m at 4.5 inches out of 7 inches for the cuff/leg. I’ll be finished in no time. Tonight may not be the night though… I have a midterm tomorrow in my Agricultural Production Systems, Health, & Industry class (I know, it’s a mouthful). I’m hoping it won’t be too bad, as its my first midterm this semester and I’m totally out of practise.

As I write this, I’m sitting in the library, about to start studying, and I’m reminded of last year. It was first year, and I mostly knitted baby hats and socks.

I haven’t knit a pair of mittens in over a year.

I think I’m going to make mittens next.

That Certain Shade of Yellow

Today was one of those perfect fall days. I was walking to school, admiring the leaves, when I realized that I needed some mittens. Not thick winter mittens, but some fussy fall mittens. I have a number of patterns picked out already, I just need yarn…

And some self-control. I have to stick with the plan on all of this Christmas knitting. I’ve been working away on my Dad’s socks, and I’ve realized that I would like to make him another pair, with plainer yarn and a little more of a fancy pattern. Just to add something else to the list… However, they are staying at the bottom, and I’m only making them if I decide that I have enough time!

So what about this post is yellow?

Well, there’s the mustard shade in my Dad’s socks…

Dad’s socks

There’s also the colour of the leaves today…

This was actually last year on campus, but it looks the same today

There’s the sunset that I can’t wait to see this weekend…

The sunset from the farm… Hopefully it won’t be too cloudy for this

There’s the colour of my cat’s eyes, in photos that I found on my computer…

I realize that this is black and white so you can’t see the colours, but you know what I mean.

And then there’s something else. Something that isn’t yellow at all. This something is purple. It’s called Rett Syndrome. My sister has it, and it Awareness month. There’s a great blog that I read called Grace for Rett about a young girl in the UK who also has it. Her mom is a photographer, and she’s amazing.

Read it. Learn.

I’m sure tomorrow will be another yellow day.

But I’m secretly hoping that it will be purple.

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.

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.