A Wednesday List

Do I ever have some catching up to do! In a list:

1. I came down with the most awful cold yesterday morning, making moving interesting. I’m trying to take it easy today, in hopes that I’ll feel better before classes start tomorrow. I have no voice, so hopefully that returns quickly.

2. I’m all moved into my house at school. Our kitchen is still a mess, and you can’t find anything in the fridge, but my room is finally done!

My room!

3. I had my last ride on Domino on Monday. I’m sure going to miss her… She’s been doing so well, just as I leave!

Isn’t she adorable?

Domino and I on our last ride of the summer!

4. The needle rolls are done! Well, one of them is. My mom finished the one for the DPNs late on Monday night. She’s pretty talented with that sewing machine.

The needle roll for the DPNs

Inside…

And voila!

5. Classes start tomorrow, so my posting may be a little more sporadic until I get myself into a routine.

6. I’m almost finished one of the Hat-Heel Socks!

The Hat-Heel Sock #1

That’s all the catching up for now… I’ve got to go and organize the kitchen!

The Countdown

It’s true… The countdown is on. I’ll be done my last shift in about three hours, then it’s off to town to pick up some stuff I need for school. It’s going to be a busy few days.

Good thing I’ve got one WIP out of the way and photographed, though I’ve decided that it’s going to my mom, since I’m not really into wearing ruffled scarves.

The finished product!

There it is! I actually loved making it, I just wouldn’t wear it. It looks good tucked into a coat and all, but I am just not a ruffle person! Still, I loved making it and will definitely be making more.

A closeup

I can’t resist taking pictures of it either… The yarn is just so cool! It even has some metallic threads running through it.

With all of my running around, I’ll be throwing one of my little socks into the bag with me, in hopes that I can get one done before I move. I’ve got about 4 hours in the car tomorrow… I think I can get something done.

The sweater is on to row 14 and looking stunning so far. I can’t wait for it to all be done (although button holes and sewing things together scares me)!

Without further ado, let me introduce to you, Paton’s Shetland Chunky in “Soft Teal”…

Ta-da!

I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to post this weekend, so I’ll have to leave you with this: next time, I promise that I will have noticeable progress on one of the WIPs to report!

 

Return of the King

Okay, okay, maybe I’m not a king (or a queen for that matter) but I am the commander-in-chief of this blog, and I have returned from the land of white sand beaches and too much beer!

A much needed vacation, if I do say so myself. Even though it was only a few days long. I plastered on the sunscreen every day, so I have only the slightest hint of a tan, but I was able to sit outside ALL DAY without getting a sunburn. I’m pretty sure the sun is stronger down in Florida too.

Now it’s time for me to get back to reality. Every year, this trip marks my change in attitude regarding school; before I go, I’m not ready to think about school, and by the time I come back, I’m ready to pack it off. Or at least close to being ready. I’m actually starting to get really excited about packing up my stuff and moving back.

No knitting down there on the island, but I did find a yarn shop. I didn’t go in, but I’m hoping it will be there next year when I have more time. It’s called “A Good Yarn” and it looks fairly new. I love finding new places like that.

I returned to gray skies with a little rain, and cool weather. It always seems to be this way when I return from Florida every year… A gentle reminder that I’m no longer on the island, and fall is coming.

Since I have no knitting news, perhaps some photos? Thanks to my mother for stealing my camera and using her amazing photography skills (that I didn’t inherit, it seems) to provide these wonderful photos. I’ll also be updating the 101 list later today.

My second home

Florida has the best clouds

An evening walk on the beach

 

Less

Today I’m “less” everything. Book-less, lunch-less, knitting-less. I’m at work, and I’m focus-less.

The knitting-less thing is really starting to get to me. I have tomorrow off (finally) so I’m planning to make a dent in the weaving-in-ends pile. It’s getting a little excessive. I’m also hoping to get something on the needles as soon as possible. I’m definitely going to cast on for a couple of things; I need some vanilla-zone-out-and-nod-off-knitting as well as something a little more convoluted. I can’t wait to sit by the Olympics and knit again tonight.

Is it sad that I can’t wait to sit and watch Olympics and knit? I’m a teenager; I should be partying and having a great social life! That’s what school is for, I guess.

I’m also hoping to get some photos up tomorrow of the finished hat (once the ends are woven in of course) and my current Christmas knitting pile. I know it’s way too early for the C-word, but I need to get some focus if I’m going to seriously do some Christmas knits this year. I’m actually getting excited for the December grind, when I’m working on 5 different projects at once, and all I do is knit in every spare moment.

I’m so looking forward to some time off this weekend. I’ve been busy these past couple of weeks; when I’m not working, I’m doing something. It’ll be nice to have a little time to re-energize before my last 4 days of work then vacation! I’m learning that I really do need time to myself to just relax. It makes me happier and I’m more productive.

In Canada, this is a long weekend. I have plans on Monday, but that means I actually get two days off in a row! And tomorrow, Olympic Show Jumping is on, early in the morning. I’m feeling some breakfast-in-pajamas-knitting-early time coming on! I used to do that a lot during the winter Olympics in Torino in 2006. It seemed like every day was a snow day too, so we were home from school a lot.

Gosh, all this talk of Christmas and winter… Looks like I’m ready for fall!

Long, long ago

Long, long ago, in a land far, far away, lived a girl who didn’t have anything on her knitting needles for 4 months.

Four whole months was a long time for this girl not to knit anything. She struggled to find something else to do with her hands when she was bored.

Why go four months without doing something she loved, you ask? Because this girl was entering her first year of University. She wasn’t sure what she would have time for, and who she would meet. She wanted to make a good impression, and she didn’t want to cart extra stuff to school that she didn’t really need.

When the girl came home from school for Christmas break, she immediately picked up the needles again. She began knitting socks, and she decided right then and there that she would be bringing her needles and string back to school with her in January.

And she did just that. Her knitting became her study break. She would do a row, then study some more. It also let her relax. She hated to watch television or movies without something to knit in her hands. During second semester, she could relax properly with her knitting.

Then, when she moved home from school for the summer, she was reunited with all of her stash. The girl went crazy! She started knitting things left, right, and centre. She loved it. Then, however, the weather turned hot. She began to turn to the other things she had been deprived of while at school, like reading and riding her horses.

Her knitting began to fall by the wayside. She tried to maintain it a little bit; she had a knitting blog to write, after all. Still though, her productivity decreased markedly.

Suddenly, it dawned on the knitter that Christmas was approaching! They had entered the second half of the year! She was inspired yet again, visiting yarn stores and printing patterns. She was knitting again!

Then, after finishing multiple projects that she had on the go, the knitter bound off her final project and breathed a sigh of relief. She was caught up!

She didn’t knit anything for three days. She thought about patterns. She looked at her stash. She just couldn’t decide what to knit next. All of her yarns looked so enticing, but she couldn’t decide which one was perfect. It would take a little more thinking and a little more watching of the Olympics, then the knitter would be craving the feel of yarn in her hands. She would start something soon… She was sure of it.

One of Those Lists

I haven’t made list-post in a long time, so today I’m going to. My thoughts are far too disorganized to write something coherent, so here’s a list of what’s going on in my life.

1. Hat isn’t finished. I knitted one row last night, then got bored of the Olympics and made nachos. I’m not sure how boredom led to nachos, but it did. For the record, they were delicious.

2. I’ve been working on my 101 things list, and I’m now at 5/101. That tiny number feels laughable. Today is dedicated to 101 things. So far today I’ve sent a letter to someone in another country… Pakistan. A friend I found on the BookCrossing website.

3. I’m going to compete in one more horse show this year, at the very beginning of September. I’m super excited, so I hope that my horse isn’t a crazy psycho again!

4. You thought PMS was bad in women… Try dealing with a horse who has it. Let’s just say it’s exceptionally frustrating.

5. I’ve started writing yet another book. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I have absolutely no ability to maintain something. I think it’s because I have the attention span of a gnat.

6. Half-marathon soreness was gone after yesterday! I guess I must be in better shape than I thought…

7. Family vacation to Florida in 10 days. I can’t wait. I need a break from my job.

That’s all I can really handle at the moment. My thoughts are going every which way, so I need to corral them. I’ll update the bottom of this post as I complete items on the 101 things list!

Update: 11:22 am. Realized that I have already completed #99, window shop at a mall, in Windsor after the half marathon. 6/101!

Update: 12:o1 pm. #43, wrote a letter to myself. To be opened on February 27, 2013, my 20th birthday. 7/101!

Update: 12:25 pm. #90, create an ongoing list of things I want/need for the barn. This wasn’t too tough, and was surprisingly short. I’ll update the list regularly. 8/101

Update: 12:50 pm. #46, re-write my resume. Done, but it will need to be critiqued by someone prior to using it. Looking at you, older brother!

Update: 1:25 pm. #26, write an article about fear. Done. The article is bare bones, stream of consciousness, and in major need of editing and refining. I’m going to add another number on the list for this, then I’ll maybe work on sending it into somewhere to be published.

The Knitting Olympics

That’s right. I’ve been knitting in Olympic proportions lately. For a sports fan, it’s a great opportunity to sit on my butt for hours at a time and knit. I mean, it only happens every 4 years, right? (Every 2 if you count the winter Olympics).

So I’ve been watching and knitting. I’ve been trying to catch as much of the equestrian stuff as possible but it’s been tough, since they don’t televise most of it. But still, I now know what to look for in a synchronized dive, and how canoe/kayak slalom works.

I have some utterly crap-tastic photos of the hat, taken with my phone as I ran out the door. I did warn you; they’re crap-tastic.

The hat, day 2

That’s after two days. It’ll be finished tonight. THREE DAYS FOR A HAT. This is a new record. Not only am I knitting something other than socks; I’m knitting it so fast I don’t know what to do with myself. What am I going to start next? I’m thinking another hat.

My issue now is this: Who does this hat go to? Initially, I had thought that I would give it to my sister. Instead, I’m now thinking I might want to keep it for myself. Since when do I fall for hats? I’m usually more prone to loving the socks… Not hats.

How could you not want this hat?

Look at the colours! (Try to ignore the blurry gross-ness that is a phone camera).

Check on the 101 things list too for more updates. Last night I sent a piece of fan mail… It was an email, but it still counts! I’ll be posting a number out of 101 that I’ve completed.

I can’t stand the rain

That’s a lie. I can stand the rain, if we ever got any. It’s been a month and a half since we’ve had a decent rain, and my grass is crunchy and brown. We’re trying to re-grow some of the horses’ pastures, and needless to say they aren’t growing. They’re just sitting there.

Today is grey and cold; not cold by winter standards, but cold compared to the crazy heat wave we’ve been having for the past two weeks. I felt a few drops of rain this morning, but nothing. It didn’t evolve into anything more. I can see it now; September is going to hit and we’re going to have a torrential downpour all the time! It’s not going to be good.

In other news, today at work I was allowed to bring my own computer! This is cause for celebration. I don’t have to wait 20 minutes for all of my writing to appear or 10 minutes for a single picture to load. As you may have deduced by now I work at the library with the computers. It’s a summer job and I tend to be really bored, but I enjoy working with my clients. I’ll be glad to go back to school in the fall and not have a job though!

I was thinking about school yesterday and I started to get excited for my classes; second year is so much more interesting than first! I’m sure I’ll have lots of stories for the blog, and I’m hoping that it will become a little more exciting than what it currently is (I woke up. I rode my horse. I went to work. I came home. I knitted and/or hung out with my boyfriend). Not to say I don’t enjoy life at the moment, it just makes for slightly dull reading.

Now, to the topic we’ve all been waiting for: Zoomobiles!

Here they are! My computer won’t let me resize that image, but there they are, looking out the window, hoping for rain. Rain means I stay inside and work on them. They’re looking great. Just the foot to go now! I’m not sure how much I’ll be getting done on them in the near future tho; I’ve got a two day horse show this weekend, so I’ll be camping with my mom and horse about 4 hours from home. It’ll be lots of fun (I can’t believe its only our second show this year) but if any of you know horses, you’ll know that knitting and horses aren’t condusive. Horses are dirty. Knitting likes to stay clean.

I’ve also got another photo for you. I’ve been meaning to put this up for a while since it makes me smile.

Here’s my dog, Bond, playing with his frisbee. It’s his favourite activity! Just say the word and he’s at the door, ready to go out. You can tell that I took these photos a while ago, the grass is still fairly green. It’s sad that that classifies as green!

Here’s another. Smile!

Finally

The heat wave has broken! I can function again!

Last night, I relaxed in the air conditioned section of my house and knitted on the Zoomobile socks while watching the Calgary Stampede. They’ve been put away for so long that I forgot why I fell in love with them in the first place.

There’s a family wedding this afternoon that involves lots of driving, so more progress will be made! I’m predicting that the first sock will be finished by the end of the weekend.

In other news, I have some photos from yesterday.

We’ve been riding all over the place. Speed is our new thing.

The corn is getting so tall!

Speedy speedy!

What a good girl!

I realize that you guys aren’t reading this to see pictures of horses, but bear with me. Both of my parents like to photograph me riding, and I like to show off my girl to the world. And this is what I’ve been doing instead of knitting.

Soon though, too soon, I’ll be moving back to school and away from my girl. Winter is coming, which means more knitting.

Speaking of, excuse me while I go look up patterns for Christmas knitting…

Melting

I’m melting. Actually.

Today is supposed to be the hottest day thus far this year, and it may be record-breaking in terms of heat. Guess where I work today? The one library in the whole county (okay there’s two) that doesn’t have air conditioning!

Kill me now.

If you never hear from me again, it was nice knowing you. Only 1.5 more hours and then I can jump into my air conditioned car and drive back to my non-airconditioned house.

That’s all I can manage for now folks. The knitting updates are going to have to wait.