school steals time

Since I last wrote, I've subleased my overpriced apartment with the evil beings of doom (school-affiliated housing... what more is there to say?) and have moved in with Alex, giving us both super-cheap rent and making it just plain easier now that I don't have my stuff in two places.



Classes started last week, and though 3 out of 4 of them will be beyond easy, at least the ones I have to go to in person seem worthwhile. I have held out to take my last two gen-ed courses (one of which is required for my major anyway) until this semester, so in December I will get my A.A.

This semester I've got:
Intro to Computer Science - online gen-ed, the biggest bullshit class ever. This class may be useful for an older generation of students who are returning to school, but teaching 18 - 22 year olds of my generation how to use Microsoft Office and their computers is about as pointless as teaching a little kid how to play in the mud. We just know, it's instinctive at this point.

Human Species - gen-ed for my major, awesome professor so it will be entertaining if not slightly repetitive after all the anthropology courses I've already had to take.

Archaeology of Caribbean Piracy - YES it counts for my major! and is with the same awesome professor as Human Species, one right after the other, so I get 3 hours of awesome professor-age and anthropology-ness. Needless to say... love these days.

Elementary Spanish - probably should have taken a higher level, but the professor is really good and is sympathetic with the strangely entertaining online component to the course.


Yeah, what can I say, I'm boring. Class is my thing. I'm one of those people who could make a career out of school and be okay with it.



My birthday was Tuesday, but as it is an age of little consequence it didn't feel very birthday-ish other than dinner out with a group of friends. I think I'm past the YAY BIRTHDAY stage of life.



And Yosemite still sits in my closet -- though it is a different closet from when I last wrote about it, oh progress! -- unphotoed and unworn until at least November.

progress... not so much

Just a silly video as I miss my puppy.


I move-in in 4 days and classes start in 9. I'm back from our road trip. I only got a few squares done on the baby blanket and nothing else even worked on, as I think I've discovered I do not like knitting in the car.

Blankets & babies

Leaving for Michigan trip in a few days, and these are 2 of the 3 projects already started for the ride:



A blanket I've decided to knit just using different blocks of stitch work from a 1970s knitting/crocheting stitch book. The construction of it is going to make no sense -- because I'm lazy and don't like connecting all the blocks afterward -- but basically I'm knitting the squares off of one another in a zig-zag.

I'm using the leftover from Yosemite (green), and then bought 2 other colors of the same yarn in blue and yellow. You can't really tell the color of the yellow in this picture.

Let's just say this is going to be one obnoxious blanket. And that I'm going to have to have a baby eventually in order to make this a useful item. Not just greyhound babies, either.




The Boheme I'm making for my roommate's niece/goddaughter. It's hard to photograph the true colors and stitch work of Homespun.

vacation extension

After getting news that my boss has decided to cut the entire payroll in order to save money (meaning I am now in the ranks of the unemployed) my 4 day stay in Orlando has turned into nearly 2 weeks. I'm still here.

I'm working on a cute baby garment called Boheme for my old roommate's sister's daughter (her niece and goddaughter to be exact) that was born about a month ago. The mother requested teal, and I though the leftover Lions Brand Homespun would look pretty with its variegation and whatnot. Making it in a 12 month size, because according to my roommate the baby is HUGE and it'll be a nice fall/winter garment for her.

Once I get back to Jax it'll only be a few days before my mother and I take off for our trip up north, so maybe I'll do some knitting then and give updates. I'd update with pictures, but I remembered the camera and forgot the camera cord. Ah well.

Firedance

Pattern: Firedance, my newest design

Yarn: Crystal Palace Yarns Merino 5 Print in colorway 9798

Needles: US size 7 DPNs

Just something I made because I only had one skein of this yarn that I bought at a yarn store in Traverse City, MI last summer during my visit-a-ton-of-LYS episode. This may occur again this year... and by occur I mean I'll visit the stores and can't promise any purchases due to financial restraints.

I wanted a design that had blank space to show off the colorway and yummy feel of the yarn, but I didn't want all stockinette. So I just started knitting, took notes as I went along... and there we are.

I'm sure the construction could have been a lot more planned on, but this was an on-the-whim hat that'll take no time at all to make.



Because we all wear tank tops with wool beanies...




I also finished Yosemite today, buttons, sleeves and all. Don't have the time/energy to take pictures tonight, I've got work all day tomorrow, and will be helping my mother coordinate National Sundae Sunday in the morning then driving to Orlando right after to see my baby... oh, and my boyfriend.

So pictures shall come next week.

Talia Vest

Pattern:Talia Vest by SweaterBabe

Yarn: 1.5 skeins of Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn! in colorway #60 Aubergine


Needles: Used a US size 6 needle instead of 8... 8 would've been huge, even though I swear I checked gauge twice before I started (and bothering to check it at all is quite worth bragging about for me).

It might be a little snug -- maybe I should have used 7s -- but it still fits fine other than a little bit of curving of the button band. And because the bottom hemline is scalloped due to the lace, the curving button band kind of almost fits with it.

Overall, I'm pleased. I think I'll actually wear this, imagine that.



No, you don't see the edge of a doorknob in this picture. You just see how the body is shaped and the overall look of it.



I adore these buttons. I just got them at Joann's, 90 cents for two. I think they work well with the vest, but have enough detail to be more than just plain buttons.

knitting hiatus

I started working on a simple hat design last week... and started is as far as I got. I can't manage to go buy buttons for Talia or Yosemite, or finish Yosemite's sleeve even though it sits on the floor in the living room and would be oh-so-convenient to do while watching TV or a movie.

What's funny is that in my mind I really want to knit, but I just don't bother picking up the pieces.

BUT! Tomorrow I have to get out of the house early for an appointment, and afterward I swear I will pick out buttons and possibly some yarn to make another beanie that I started in wool, but in Florida that's never a good idea.

So before I go to work Friday and Saturday and leave for Orlando Sunday (it seems every entry here mentions me leaving... I promise there are plenty of weeks where I'm stuck at home) I will have something to show to the knitting world.

This and that

Been a bit busy lately. Finished Cultural Anthropology for Summer A, this week started Magic, Ritual & Belief for Summer B. It looks to be a much better -- and possibly more challenging simply because it's actually involved -- class than Cultural Anthropology was.

Blocked Talia and it grew enough to my liking. Still need buttons for it.

Yosemite needs a sleeve and buttons to be finished.

Visited Orlando for a few days and got to see Alex and my baby.

Just so you know my puppy isn't always a dopey couch potato:






Been on a strange Harry Potter kick lately. Re-read the sixth book, am a few chapters away from finishing the seventh. The only two that I haven't read upwards of a dozen times.

Hopefully this coming week I will be a bit more knitty and a bit less busy otherwise.

One skein down

I bought two skeins (446 yards a piece) of the Snuggly Wuggly for Yosemite, knowing that I always have a tendency of finishing pieces with significantly less yardage than listed.

Still, I felt that 70 yards short of the minimum required plus the fact that I was considering 3/4 sleeves might require a third skein.

I was prepared to return to Michael's to buy the third. I even held onto my 50% of coupon and planned to go back before it expires this Saturday.

But I did not know that I would make it this far with only one skein:



Note that there is even a small mess of yarn left from that one skein after working the entire body and the left front. It may, in fact, be enough to knit the right front.

Which I guess means with the second skein, even after I finish I can make some sort of hat. And save $2 and gas money.

Back on track

Last night I decided I was going to finish the projects I had on the needles. Finished the neckline edging of Talia, going to block in a bit. Not really sure how to block acrylic, but I suppose I'll give it a google.

Went to Michael's with my mother today and glanced down the yarn aisle. Found exactly what I wanted for Yosemite. After searching several LYS and online, I found it in Michael's.

Loops & Threads Snuggly Wuggly is only $3.99 for a skein of 446 yards. And because it's a baby sport yarn, it's soft and manages to almost perfectly catch the extremely complicated gauge of Yosemite. You have no idea how many yarns I've pulled out of the stash to try to gauge this thing.

I got this pretty green, kind of an understated version of the color as the pattern is more of a everyday type feel to it rather than HEY LOOK I'M KNITTED AND BRIGHT.



I like the stitch definition this yarn gives. It's halfway between subtle and firm.



For those of you keeping track of my life on the financial front, thanks for commenting and showing that you care. It means the world to me. Alex and I will be fine, we're both out scrounging for jobs and he's filing for financial aid and looking around for scholarships and grants and loans to go back to school for nursing.

Hope all you guys are doing okay on the financial front. This whole ordeal has definitely made me look at the broader picture of just how many people are unemployed and in trouble at any given point.