Blast from the Past

This weekend at home has been great so far, even though the weather has been disgusting. I’ve had lots of knitting time, and we may have stopped at another yarn store on the way home… It’s official. I’m addicted.

But since I’ve been home, I took a little break from the knitting to look through some old photos. I found some great ones so I thought I would share.

Fall is beautiful every year, including in 2004

This is where I come from

Me & my old dog Oden in the bush on a walk

Winter is also pretty

That’s probably not w you guys were hoping or expecting to see today, but I’ll have a post up tomorrow about these crazy mittens I’m making… The lady in the yarn store was right to call me brave!

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.

It’s Sweater Season!

Today was one of those chilly fall days in which a handknit sweater would have been the perfect thing to wear. Unfortunately, mine is stalled. I wanted nothing more to come home and find it finished, folded neatly in my closet, but I have no such luck.

My observation of the fall weather was only accentuated by the field trip I took today. For one of my classes, I had to visit a fish farm. During the entire drive to and from the farm, all I could see was the fall colours flashing by.

As if that wasn’t enough, I came home and made this.

Roasted vegetables

Delicious roasted vegetables. They tasted amazing, and I clearly made a ton, so I have lots of leftovers. It definitely made the house smell like fall.

I’m thinking that, despite my fall fever, the knitting progress may be a little slower in the coming weeks as midterms approach. I can’t believe that they are already (almost) here. I swear I just moved yesterday!

Alas, back to the books, before I do some knitting and turn in for the night. Wednesdays tend to tire me out, with 7 hours of class. By tomorrow I hope to have some sock or sweater progress to show for myself!

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…

Not what I planned…

Sometimes things don’t go according to plan. I’m still sick, which has only been exacerbated by going out partying twice in the last three days. I haven’t knit at all, and the bus system is horribly confusing.

I do love most of my classes though, and my room/house is great. I’m having a great time back at school and I can’t wait to settle into the semester a little more.

Things aren’t going as planned with the weather either. When school starts, I’m ready for it to be fall, right away. No more of this summer business that makes me want to stay outside all the time. That’s not how it works. If I’m in school, I want to be able to wear sweaters (not sweat profusely from walking to class).

So fall, hurry up would ya? I have plans for a sweater (and a million pairs of socks), and I need some cold weather for that. Cooperation would be most appreciated.

I’m going to regret that in February, aren’t I?

The Chunk

I have a friend who fondly refers to the months of September to December as “The Chunk”. She calls it this because it is her favourite chunk of the year. It’s the beginning of a new school year, it’s fall, it’s winter, and it’s Christmas. She loves fall, the colours, the tea-drinking… Everything really.

I think that The Chunk is one of my favourite parts of the year too. I love fall. I love cozying up in handknits. I love preparing for winter. I appreciate the nice days that much more, since I know that very few are left. I love the fuzzy coats that the horses grow.

The Chunk makes me nostalgic for chunks past. Last year, The Chunk was one of the most exciting times of my life. I was entering University, and living on my own for the first time in my life. I had new and old friends and special people in my life. There were definitely some hard times; I remember a three week span where I cried nearly every day. I lost some loved ones, and gained perspective on events past.

I got through those weeks because I had people to care for me. Some of those people have since drifted away, but some will be with me once again during this year’s Chunk. I’ll be living in a new house and starting a new year, but I’ll be away from my horse and my family. There will be new knits, but also new hardships.

I think The Chunk is when I really start to put things into perspective. I get to be busy during the Chunk, but I also have more down time, since the weather is colder. I appreciate the outdoors even more, and with Thanksgiving I think about what I’m thankful for.

We are entering The Chunk, and I can’t stress enough how happy I am about that, even though it’s going to be vastly different from last year.

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.

If socks could talk

If socks could talk… They would agree with my pets, that it is too hot to function outside, and we should really all be sleeping.

Jinx

Bond, our black lab

If socks could talk, they would be annoyed with me for ignoring them.

If socks could talk, they would urge me to sit on my patio with a cold drink, and get to finishing them.

If socks could talk, they would remind me that their patterns are in a library book, and I have now had that book for nearly nine weeks.

If socks could talk, they would remind me exactly how many projects I have finished since moving home (1).

If socks could talk, they would tell me that I was a bad knitter.

If socks could talk, they would inform me that using the name “thetravellingsock” is actually false advertising, because I never travel.

If socks could talk, they would remind me that when I do travel, I usually have to drive, hence they are left at home.

If socks could talk, they would lament the end of hockey season, and hours of uninterrupted knitting time.

If socks could talk, they would insist that I free them of their prison, the knitting bag.

If socks could talk, they would remind me that opening a store on Etsy is an awful idea, when I can’t even finish two pairs of socks.

If socks could talk, they would insist that I forget about the rest of the stash, and what I want to knit with it.

If socks could talk, they would inform me that my blog readers have yet to see a finished project on here.

If socks could talk, they would be right.

Catch up

So I’ve noticed significantly less viewers on this blog… Probably since I’m an awful blogger and I never have any good pictures for you guys!

But here I am to fix that…

As promised, weekend photos!

This sunset was on Sunday night, just after the rain stopped. You can’t tell from the trees, but if you look in the lower left corner, you can see the lake from my house (its a twenty minute drive, but we are high enough that we can see it).

There it is again… You can kind of see the rain sparkling on the corn in the field, but only sort of. Unfortunately, photos don’t do it justice.

As mentioned, there was a tractor pull. Those wristbands are worth their weight in gold… The red one cost $10, and the yellow cost $15! I thought they were totally overpriced, but I’m sure some of the money went to supporting the village, so I can’t complain too much. It the closest village to me.

Now. Onto the knitting. Here we go:

Taken with my phone as I was running out the door, so it’s not the best quality… But that is the Eye of Partridge Heel Flap! Conquered. Yes.

Both of those photos are awful, I’ll have to make sure that I use an actual camera when they’re finished and I take photos. The colour difference is shocking, but that’s all from a difference in light. In person, I think they look more like the first photo.

And here are the socks, wanting to go outside in the heat and be finished. It was 30 degrees Celsius out this morning (which is 86 degrees Fahrenheit for my American readers) at 7 am. 7 am!! It’s only going to get hotter!

My sock progress is extremely slow. These ones should be finished this weekend though… I have a long car trip ahead of me, in which I’m not driving (perfect!). Socks, you will be conquered…