Absent

Hello from the middle of midterms. I know it’s been 4 days since I’ve posted, and it may end up being 4 more. I’ve been completely swamped with midterms. I’ve had time to do lots of knitting, but I have two more midterms to go, and they’re going to be pretty tough.

I’ve finished one of my Dad’s socks and I’m on to the next. Those socks came back around to kick me in the butt again… I had to rip back all of the toe decreases because it was an inch too short!

I’m back to the books for now… I’ll post some photos when I’m able. Back to the midterm grind!

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!

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

Photo-a-Day: The Life of a University Student

Wellingtons

Today is a cold and rainy day, in which I have already done a number of things wrong. It was spitting when I left my house, so I didn’t think to put on my rubber boots (aka wellingtons, hence the title). Instead, I wore my moccasins, which are now thoroughly soaked through. I also grabbed one of my rain jackets out of the closet before running out the door, and it didn’t occur to me until I was standing at the bus stop that none of my rain jackets have hoods. Who makes a rain jacket without a hood?

Of course, it started to pour as I walked to the bus stop.

In other news, I love my Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I have the best classes.

I have done a number of good things regarding the knitting as of late, however. The sweater continues to progress, though it’s monotonous and boring. I can’t wait to start a sleeve, because I think that means that I get to use straight needles instead of those pesky circulars. The things that I get excited about…

But I digress. The entire point of this post was to talk about the Fuzzballs. They have taken a bit of a back seat lately, and it’s not because I don’t love them (though I can’t post a photo, since I’m at the library at the moment). I’m merely just concerned about the amount of yarn I have left versus the length that they need to be. My brain is convinced that if I don’t work on them, the amount of yarn will increase. It’s magic.

So, last night, after a few too many beers and a lot of dancing at the local country bar, an idea came to me. I’ve actually been thinking about it for a while, but hadn’t come to a concrete decision. I’m going to be frogging them. I’ll rip them back, then start over with larger needles. This means I’ll have to do gauge again, which is unfortunate, but it’s worth it. The knitted fabric is also a little too dense for what I was envisioning anyway, so it will work out perfectly.

I don’t know why I had to be intoxicated to come to a decision about this, but I did. My only worry is that the yarn won’t frog well, since it has a lot of fibres/fuzzies coming off of it that tend to stick to one another. If worst comes to worst and I can’t frog it, those socks are going to turn into something else.

I’m heading back home to the farm for the weekend, so hopefully I’ll be able to get some knitting done there (as well as some amino acid memorizing!). It doesn’t feel like I’ve been gone for very long, but in reality its been 2 weeks! I feel as if this semester is going to fly by and I won’t have a chance to finish all of that knitting I’ve got planned…

Wednesdays are for lists

1. Wednesdays are my favourite class days, because I have my favourite classes: Molecular Biology & Genetics, Horse Management Science, and Animal Production Systems, Health & Industry. (I know that last one is a bit of a mouthful).

2. On Wednesdays I also have a lab for my Animal Production Systems, Health & Industry class.

3. Today we visited a dairy barn. It was amusing to see all of the reactions of the city kids to the cows, amazing to see the size of the facility, but most of all, just nice to be outside in a farm environment.

4. I am becoming a chef, I swear! Tonight I made broccoli, rice, and cheddar casserole. I could have put more cheese in it, but I can’t justify putting $4 worth of cheese into a tiny casserole that’s only big enough to fill a loaf pan. (Even if it will feed me for 3 days).

Taken with my phone & half-eaten… But this is my creation of the evening!

5. I am within three rows of finishing the heel for the hat-heel socks. Yes, that means I studied a lot.

6. I’m not even close to being ready for my quiz next week.

7. I go from my favourite day of the week to my least favourite… Tomorrow I have my first of 5 physics labs, which are something I hate above all other school related things (except chemistry exams… They are the worst). This time tomorrow, I’ll just be finishing Biochemistry class, with 1/5 physics labs under my belt.

How to memorize amino acids

School work has officially hit. I have my first Biochemistry quiz on September 18th, worth 10% of my grade. Last year, in both of my first year chemistry classes, I did very poorly, which has me nervous for this class. So, I’ve been studying. I have to memorize 20 amino acids, their chemical structures, and their specifics. Our professor is very kind and made them into a deck of cards which I have been studying like crazy.

This feels like a midterm, and I’m already using my midterm-studying-coping-strategies. In other words, knitting. I study for a while, then knit a few rows.

The second Hat-Heel Sock has been started. It’s little more than a nub at the moment, but it’s a great thing to have as a study buddy – the rows are short and don’t take very long, but are still enough to create a break.

How to memorize your amino acids – knitting rewards

At this rate, I’ll be done the heel and the gussets by tomorrow morning… Unless my will to study dies out, which it might.

My bigger study break is the sweater. I tend to work on it before I go to bed, to wind down and enjoy some trashy television. I’ve made quite a bit of progress… I think I already have 7 inches done of 17.5! Doesn’t seem like much if you look at it that way, but to me it’s tons.

The big study break – the sweater

In other news, the 101 things list has a growing list of done items. Last night I also cooked meat for the first time… Chicken! It was so easy that I feel silly for thinking it was so hard. I’ve also successfully made Indian dahl (a spicy lentil dish) and I would have to say that this cooking thing really isn’t too hard. My only issue is ingredients… They cost way too much and cut into my yarn budget!

Now I’m back to my amino acids…