Stress Bunny

I'm at one of those points where there is so much to do that I would much rather curl up in a ball, go to sleep and wait until it's all over. Unfortunately that is not how things work. Instead I have a huge project due tomorrow, which I just got back from my partner and there is much to do. I have two 10 page essays and one 6 page essay due this month, along with another huge project. Then April brings the dreaded exam period with it's five exams. Five exams?! I guess scheduling finally realized that it has been treating me lightly since highschool; I never had more than 4 exams while others had seven or eight. Now it has dealt me the maximum blow. Three of them are in a period of 36 hours, the forth a week after that, and the fifth three days after that. All in all I will be done on April 23 at noon. It could be worse. I could have had an exam on April 30th at 7pm, which is the last possible time slot. I would really have screamed. In the meantime, all I want to do is go home and hang out with The Boy.

Oh, and I also lost my wallet. Which means that I have to pay cash for food instead of using my meal card. I have to use what little cash I have to buy a new student card, then get a new debit card, health card, visa card, library card, printing card, insurance, drivers license, ttc tickets ... I hate February and March.

New New New

I finished this hat and mittens a while ago, but haven't had the chance to photograph them until this morning. This is by no means the best picture of me, but it is the best of the ones I was able to take of myself. They are both out of Lamb's Pride Bulky in Fuchsia, with a 2x2 rib. I also have half a scarf that matches, I need another ball of yarn to finish it off. They are supper comfy, and perfect for the big snow dump that we are getting right now. The hat keeps my head warm without making me look like a complete tool, or making my hair do stupid things. The mittens are getting pretty fuzzy but that's what I get for making mittens out of a single ply. I think that I'll have extra, so if they are completely unwearable next year, I can make new ones. The nice thing about the super bulky yarn is that they didn't take very long to make, I think I made the hat in a few hours.

The yarn for Thermal finally arrived, so I promptly convinced my mother to drive me to Romni's to pick up the right needle so that I could cast on. My excuse was to get cable needles for her, but she wouldn't notice if I happened to pick up something for me too! This is the result of a weekend of strep throat, and watching nothing but Invader Zim on Saturday. I'm mostly better today, but I'm still taking penicillin just in case. The sweater is going along rather slowly, what with the 2.5mm needles, sock yarn, and 252 stitches per row. I did a fair amount last night while portering, but it's still slow. I have some idea of wearing this for Easter, the Lenten project, but that might put a bit too much faith in my knitting skills.
While picking up needles I also got yarn for some mittens. There is a new The Boy. His birthday is Tuesday. His hands are cold. He gets mittens. Did I mention that he also has HUGE hands? These are supposed to be fingerless mittens, and you can just see my little finger sticking out of the one finger that I have finished. Also not how big the thumb hole is around my thumb. I keep having mini-freakouts that they are going to be way too big, but I think that I have to just soldier on and hope for the best. I can always re-knit them later right?

Cuppa tea?`

I'm procrastinating again. I have an essay due on Saturday and I need to finish it today. I told myself that I would write most of it yesterday, but that didn't happen. I wrote about a third, which is better than nothing.

I really wish that my blanket was done, I really want to be able to curl up in it. My desk is infront of the window, which is very drafty, and the blanket would be perfect to throw over my shoulders while I sit at the computer. A lot of the time I over heat with a sweatshirt on, which is no good. In the mean time, I have my pashmina and tea to keep me cozy. Speaking of, I should make a cuppa.

February Crisis

I am seriously sick of February. School work is pilling up, and I just realized last night that I could potentially be in school for another 8 years, which really freaked me out, and now I'm having a what to do with my life crisis. Bloody Hell. Good thing Reading Week is this coming week, maybe I can sort some things out.

468 shall be the number of thy squares.

When I started knitting socks, I quickly realized that I would soon have many small balls of yarn lying around that wouldn't be good for much. My feet are on the small side of average for a girl, so the extra would be too much to throw away, but not enough to do anything with. I'm fairly proud of myself for thinking of this now, instead of when I actually have an over flowing bin of yarn. The plan is to knit a patchwork blanket of 3 inch squares. So far the extra from a pair of socks will give me six squares, three for each ball. I have six from my mom's christmas socks, six from Claire's modified Jaywalkers, one blue from my Endpaper mitts, and one and a half gray squares from my grandfathers socks. This is 14.5 in total.

The perfect thing about the squares is that they are even more portable than socks. The balls of yarn are tiny, the needles are short, and since it's garter stitch they go really fast.
I finally did the math just before writing this. To make a decent sized blanket to fit a single bed, my blanket will need to be about 18 squares across and 26 long. Which means a total of 468 squares. I have a lot more squares to make.

Day Of Rawk

Saturday was my self proclaimed day of rock. It was pretty awesome, and I would show you pictures of it, except that I stupidly forgot my camera at home. Let's just say that we froze our asses off and rocked extra hard to try and warm them up. If you ever have a chance to do so, see Spiral Beach. These guys are going to be big. I went to grade school with the drummer, but I don't think that he remembers me much. Then again, I wasn't memorable for much back then. The other band we saw was the New Pornographers, who were also good. We rocked out pretty hard core for that.

Because Rocking means Socking, I brought along my Rock Socks. I only actually had time to knit on the Subway on the way down, as it was far too cold to knit while waiting outside for bands to start. It would have worked better in the summer, and since there is more rock to come, I'm not worried. This is a long term project. What I did do is knit about three rows of the heel flap, so hey, that's getting somewhere.
After the subway ride downtown they were put in my bag and forgotten about until my return home. I pulled the sock out of my bag and found this. Yep. Once again I have broken a Brittany needle. I will never ever ever spend money on their smaller needles ever again. I finally got off my ass and ordered replacements, hey they are free, I'm not complaining about free, but I will not get new ones under a size 4mm. I imagine that I would be far less likely to break anything that big.
Gah, bamboo or metal from now on, I swear.

I might sub in my bamboo needles for Friday, as Spiral Beach is playing a secret show under the name Skunt at the Horseshoe. Hope to see you there!

Hairstory

Dear Hair,Thanks for being awesome today. I know that sometimes you can get upset because I really don't do much in the way of care of you. In general you've been good to me, but I'm glad that we could come to the understanding that this whole short hair and curly thing looks really freaking cute, and I hope that we can try it out more often. I promise that I won't dye you again for a very long time, since I know that you weren't really a fan of the grungy blonde or my procrastination in fixing it. I'm sorry. I hope you like the brown.
Love,
Natalie



I have finished 10 repeats of the Hedra sock. I was only going to do 10 of the 14, but I've since decided that 12 is the magic number. I'm going to turn the heel while portering tonight, which starts in 40 minutes. These are a fantastically quick knit and I'm really liking the way that they are turning out. I might need some for me at some point. They are just so pretty!

Portering knits

I am writing this from my vantage point in the porter's booth, sitting on my high wheelie chair at 2:15 am, bored out of my skull, about to fall asleep, and in great need to go wee. But I can leave in 15 minutes, where I will run around the building and make sure that no one has passed out naked in the bathroom. Which happened once last year, no joke.
I have been sitting here for nearly four and a half hours, and have probably signed about 6 people in, maybe less. In other words, a slow night. This means lots of knitting though, so not all is lost. I knit Catarina's mitten to just past the gusset and then left the easy hand portion for my lecture tomorrow. Then I finished the square I had started in my Travel Writing tutorial this afternoon, which freed my 2.5 mm bamboo needles so that I could start on the first of the Hedra socks for my grandmother. I've finished the ribbing and 2.5 repeats. Hopefully I can at least get to the heel by the end of tomorrow. I'm thinking that these will be a very fast knit. I might even finish it tomorrow. Maybe. I'm not really thinking straight. I just want out of my glass box.Bah, 3 minutes, time to pack up. I'll post this in the morning.