Books and Knitting

Today's post will be a mishmash of both subjects.  First I wanted to talk about how I have finished another two books since I last posted.  This is a total of 18 books now and I am going to take a little bit of a break to reread some of my favorite books.  I finished The Shadow Queen and Shalador's Lady.  Both these books are by Anne Bishop and are at least a little bit connected to my favorite trilogy The Black Jewels Trilogy.  I did enjoy these books very much and will buy them whenever I get some extra money, there is one more in this little offshoot and I am waiting impatiently for the library to recieve the two copies on order so that I am able to read it.
Secondly I did indeed have a picture to show today but I took it with the wrong memory chip and this laptop doesn't like it and so I don't have a picture to show.  It was more of a joke however, since this was the surprise birthday present and I'm not showing any pictures of it quite yet, so it was going into the wash to be felted this morning and I took a picture of it all bundled up in the pillowcase.  So that project is nearly done and I even found the extras that I needed so that I can finish it off quickly enough.
I am working along diligently on my sock which means that I am nearly done the leg.  I will be very excited for these to be done and am looking at other sock projects for the future.  The sock looks exactly the same as the other one so I am not going to post a picture of that either.
I am taking a bit of a break on the sweater because I need to see the bf again to measure and make sure that I am getting all the lengths right on this one since its fairly specific.

I think that's all I've got to say about both books and projects right now.
Lady Polly

Twice in Less than a Week

We are now celebrating the fact that I have indeed posted twice in less than a full week.  This is such an improvement that if I feel good about it I might even post more often again.  We are also celebrating the fact that I am now 5 or 6 weeks ahead of schedule (I did count but now I forget whether or not I have been reading for 10 or 11 weeks).  You can feel free to double check me since sometimes my math, especially when hurried.  I started the week of April 29th (that was the date I finished my first book) and it is now July 8th,  I have read a total of 16 books, after the two that I will be discussing today.  I believe this does make me very much ahead.
Though this challenge was to read at least 52 books with a goal of about 1 a week I will be very glad and rather proud to have beat this challenge by reading more than 52 books in a year.  I am sure that I have indeed done this before.

In the last two days I have read two books.  These books were Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair by Laurie Perry and The Purity Myth by Jessica Valenti.  These books are pretty much the oppsite of each other.
Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair: is a somewhat knitting books and a rather interesting if somewhat quick reading book.  I was a little disappointed that I was able to read this entire book in under two hours.  I suppose I shouldn't be though since I have usually read books by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee in an evening for less so I guss it is kind of expected.
The Purity Myth is one of the books that I only picked up because of my degree.  In my last semester at University I took a course called Feministy Theory and it was enthralling.  Many of the books that the professor mentioned I am eager to read and this happened to be one of them.

Once again I know this isn't a post about knitting, despite the fact that I am even starting another new project that needs to be finished by January 1st.
I will be updating my current projects to reflect all the projects that need to be finished by my deadline.

Well maybe soon there'll be a good post.
Luck,
Lady Polly

Once Again...

I am writing after having read three books, rather than a single one.  So since my last post just over a week ago I have read Belladonna, Naamah's Kiss, and Julie and Julia.  I have thoroughly enjoyed all three of these books despite the fact that they are all different.  Julie and Julia is much different from the other two books, a book that I have been waiting to read for a while, especially since having watched the movie.  This is the type of book that makes you willing to take on an insane challenge, like say knitting one project a month for a year, anybody?
Belladonna is the second in the duo of Sebastian and Belladonna.  Written by Anne Bishop these are a different series than the trilogy with two add on books that are the books that I truly enjoy by the author.  I did not quite enjoy this book as I did the other one in the series, its hard to like a book where two people know they are going to fall in love but insist on fighting it for a long period of the book.
Naamah's Kiss is an offshoot from another series by Jacquline Carey.  I enjoyed the book more than I expected but also didn't enjoy it quite as much as I do the other books.

I have recently noticed that many of my blog posts are entirely on books lately.  This isn't exactly a bad thing, but I haven't exactly stopped knitting just stopped posting on it.  So hopefully tomorrow I will be able to take some pictures of my knitting and then put up a post about what I have been working on.

I am back!

And all should celebrate my return!

But we'll get around to that.  Since my last post I have finished four more books.  I have also updated the Books for the Challenge so that it now works differently.  Since my last post I have also come across a few books that I just cannot stand.  So now the books I have completed are highlighted in green with a finished date beside them and the books that have been deleted from the list, and so I do remember them and why I am not reading them are now crossed off and highlighted in red.  But anyways...
Since my last visit I have finished:
The Abstinence Teacher - the first book I have finished, which was not exactly what I expected it to be.  I think for a person who does not believe in that type of sex education nor that type of lifestyle just because of the cult like feel there is too much time spent on the male character rather than the female character.  It does take a good look at how hard it is to be in some of these religious groupings and how much a town can be influenced by these groups.  Overall it was not a satisfactory book nor a non-satisfactory book.
The Story of O - which was more along the lines of what I expected, and then again not.  I had heard about this book but only to my memory in a vague undefined way and as such I was surprised that I wasn't exactly surprised about the content but just the extent of it.  Again this book did not leave me confused and upset neither did it leave me happy and contented.  It was another average read, one that I would probably not suggest as much, just becuase of the content, as the last book.
Fight Club - I don't have much to say about this book.  I slogged my way through it and am disappointed that I did.  It's a guy book and I don't recommend it for those who don't like those types of books.
Sebastian - This is a book I probably could go on and on about but I'll try not to.  This is one of the books that has just recently been added to my challenge list and all because I picked it up on a whim.  The author has written a trilogy of books that I enjoy very much as well as two more novels that give short little stories about the same characters both before and after the happenings in the trilogy.  I hadn't read any of her other work and while I have seen this book on shelves in bookstores lately I haven't been tempted to pick it up.  I did here, since it is a library and it is free, and am glad I did.  Like all of her books she doesn't exactly explaiin the world that you get thrown into with the book, but explains as the story progresses.  I picked this book up two days ago and finished it today, but I should also say that I have done some substantial knitting in the last two days as well as having read Twilight for the 10th time.  I enjoyed the book and didn't exactly want it to end, this resulted in my going to the library today to get the other book that has been written in this world.

By my estimations this now actually has me ahead by a week, as it has been nine weeks since I have started this challenge and I have now read a total of ten books.  I will have no doubt finished one more by the end of the weekend and then will slow down, enjoy my knitting, and enjoy The Life of Pi.

The Jane Austen Book Club

So a couple days ago I finished The Jane Austen Book Club which was a good book and an easy read.  This was a relief as I was havng problems reading other books and therefore wasn't sure if I was in the mood for reading at all.  With the devouring of this book it was nice to know that I always want to read.
The book has actually made me want to read more than I usually do.  I want to read the Jane Austen books and as Northanger Abbey is the next one on my list to read it is nice that I do really want to read it.

The book in general was fairly good.  I wasn't that interested in the backgrounds of the characters, they were ok but they weren't the part of the book that I wanted to read.  I am interested to read the Austen books and then reread this book to see if I can pick out the reasons the author chose each person for each book.  I want to see if there were reasons that each person had a favorite book.

Anyways I have a gratuitous nature picture to add to the blog.

This was my back yard a couple days ago.  It was very fun and I have a half dozen picture of her grazing in my back yard.

Up Next: Northanger Abbey

Atonement

Somehow I have managed to catch up on my reading this week as it is week five of my reading oddessy and I am currently reading book six.  Anyways to get to the point today I am looking at Atonement by Ian McEwan.  I have watched the movie a couple years ago when it just came out and so I had a basic outline of what was going to happen but I didn't remember a bit of the information or pertinent bits of story plot.  So reading this was interesting, especially the fact that I was completely unable to concentrate or get into the story.  I don't know if it was just because I knew the story had a depressing ending or if it was because I just was tired of reading.  Anyways I just couldn't really get into this book and basically forced myself to finish the book on last Sunday, meaning I sat down with the book and just read to the end.
I think what I didn't like about this book was the style that it was written in.  It was written in a dreamlike state for the main character for much of it until the end, because she is writing trying to atone, and then it is still kind of dream like for the male character.  I don't know what it was about the book but I really didn't enjoy it, and this just doesn't happen to me so I am confused.

Next time will hopefully include my sock, which is done.
Lady Polly

The Colour Purple and Socks

So I know that I haven't been posting all that often, I only blame the fact that I have had a crazy last two weeks.  So today's post will be a double feature.  Starting with the review of the last book that I finished (The Colour Purple) and ending with a look at my current knitting.
So two days ago I finished the book The Colour Purple by Alice Walker and I'm not exactly sure what I have to say about it.  As you probably can tell due to the fact that I finished the book two days ago and haven't yet posted about it.  It was an interesting book that started off sad and ended happy but There were places that were very weird and hard to read.  Also the fact that it was written as if the person writing could not spell, which is true of the main character, but it got to be annoying because the word 'asked' was used a million times through out the book and was spelled as 'ast' instead of the normal way.  I haven't actually watched the movie and from what I've heard from the person that I know who has watched it it seems that the director focused on the unhappy parts of the book instead of the happier parts.
On another note I have come to find out that I am actually a week behind in my reading challenge and that it has been five weeks since I started this and I have only finished four books.  I would no doubt be done a fifth and be caught up by now except I left my next book in Abbotsford when I was visiting this weekend.  This makes me sad but it means that I get to go from the depressingness of Revolutionary Road of which I have watched the movie to the depressingness of Atonement a movie I have also watched. 

And now for the second part of this post.  The part about knitting and mainly socks.  As I may or may not have mentioned lately knitting socks has become the bane of my existence because the instructions for turning a heel are very vague in most instances which drives me a little insane.  Therefore when I decided to borrow a book on knitting socks out of the library I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this book did indeed have good instructions and I was able to follow it well.

As you can see from my twisted picture I am already on the toe and have only started these socks a couple weeks ago.  So far it has taken over 16 hours to knit this one socks however, or at least very close to that.  I have become aware of this because I managed to started and finished the audio book Eclipse in the time it has taken me to knit this much.  Of course some of it has not been listened to while knitting and has instead kept me company while I do other things.

I feel that I should add this gratuitous picture because it shows that indeed my sock does have a heel which makes me very happy indeed because that is always the hardest part for me to understand.  Very little other knitting has taken place lately except yesterday evening and this morning have added 6 rows to my shawl.  I shall show you a picture of it later since it is already 60 rows long and that means only 210 more rows to go before the edging which scares me a little to be honest.  Anyways I am off to read or knit or possibly play a video game which has become a little bit addictive which is very very bad for book reading or knitting production.

Wish me luck,

Lady Polly

Three Cups of Tea

This will be ending my blogging about books for a week because I am now officially a week ahead and can take some time to do some much needed knitting and maybe even some much needed posting about knitting (there are socks in progress, again, this is monumental).  But today's post will be about the book Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
This book I didn't read in one day, it took me several, and I finished it so that I wouldn't have to take the trip to the library by myself.  I did enjoy it but I don't think as much as one probably should.  There were too many hardships and you kept having to remind yourself that this is real life and these things really happened.  Which all came crashing back when 8 years into the book came September 11, 2001.  It's an inspirational book and should be taken as such but I prefer this quote from about the middle of the book:

The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger.  The second time you take tea, you are an honoured guest.  The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die ... you must take time to share three cups of tea.

In a time in the world when everyone wants to go faster and faster and get things done faster it needs to be said that you need to take the time for the simple things in life.  To build relationships with people and to enjoy life how it is today.  It comes back to the knitting.  Yes we all know that you can go and buy a pair of socks for a dollar (somewhere) but they aren't the same socks, they aren't something you made, and it's also the process that it took to get you those socks that is just as enjoyable as having a new pair of socks.

Anyways maybe next time I'll even have a picture of these socks,
Lady Polly

Savour the Moment

I have now finished my second book for the year.  Savour the Moment by Nora Roberts.  This is one of the very few romance novels that I will be reading for the year and I believe is the only one that could be considered a harlequin novel.  I hugely enjoyed this book even though it made me cry.  Each of the books in the quartet so far has made me cry and I doubt the last one (Happy Ever After  coming November 2010) will be any different.  The last book, now that I know it will be release in November has been added to the list of books to read.  Bumping up the amount of harlequins to 2.
Anyways the book follows the third of four friends in her search for love and romance while the friends work together in their own wedding planning mansion.  By the time you have finished the second book you are very aware of which character is going to end up with which of the four main male characters in these books but Roberts writes the books in a way that is very amusing so that you want to read and see how the female characters themselves work their way into love.  These books are wonderful to fall into, and a quick read if you read at my speed, there is no getting into the book and usually something happens right off the bat that draws you further into the story.  The author also assumes that the reader will have read the other two books before this one and does not bother with the boring introduction that many books in a series have.  Which means all of the 325 pages are something new and you don't have to skip over pages that are just reiterating details that have been established in prior books.  (This is a relief for me, who would skip this and be annoyed, and even the best books do it like Harry Potter).
The characters are wonderful because out of the four friends each person can relate to all of them, Mackensie is the messy one who is also skeptical and critical of herself.  Emmaline is the romantic one, albeit ridiculously beautiful at the same time.  Laurel is the grounded, practical, pessimistic one who nonetheless wants to live in the moment.  Parker is the one we all aspire to be, the organized one, the self-assured one, the one who always knows where things are, what she needs to get done, and how to balance it all.  It's easy to see yourself in each of these characters even if it is just your love of spreadsheets that connects you to Parker.
This being said, and completing yet another book review, I am excitedly looking forward to November for Happy Ever After though it will be sad for the story to be done.
Another post later and I might even update the other page.
Lady Polly

The Devil Wears Prada

So if you have checked already then you have noticed that I have posted a new page for the blog that contains a list of all the books I plan on reading over the next year.  I will be updating it (either with books that I plan on reading, books that are added because I am too far ahead, or books that are being taken off because they do not fit the criteria for what I am looking for in a book) as well as adding in little comments about when I finished each book so that we can keep track of when I finish books and how far along I am and if I am on track or not.  I have already finished a book if you can tell by the name of this post, as well I am already contemplating taking two books off of my list meaning that I need to find 6 more books to fill the list.
Anyways on to the reason I am blogging today.  I finished The Devil Wears Prada just after midnight this morning.  It was an enjoyable read in case you can't tell since I finished the book in less than 2 full days.  It was not as much like the movie as one could hope.  It is more like The Nanny Diaries than any other book I have read.  The book has more characters who are less serious than the movie as well.  Andy is still dating Alex (for those of you who have watched the movie) but they do not live together and Andy has a best friend who she lives with for the latter part of the book.  The book was fun to read and was more grown up than a lot of the coming-of-age books that you seen now.  Anyways that's about all I have to say about this right now, hopefully I'll get better at writing these as I write for the next year.

Anyways enjoy and maybe I'll even post about something else soon.
Lady Polly

The Challenge (aka Book Crazy)

So this all started with a library card. I haven't had one in years because of a mishap with my old library that involved me paying $30 for a CD I returned because they insisted I hadn't. Anyways this weekend my whole family went and got library cards. This suddenly gave me the desire to go to the library, I used to like libraries before university where they became a hellish place, but what would I read. Upon thinking of books I decided that instead of a knitting challenge I would do a reading challenge because I had more chance for success with reading rather than knitting (especially because I've only ever finished like 2 items that aren't dishcloths or scarves). Upon further thought I decided that I should try to read a book a week, this shouldn't be too difficult because I enjoy reading and I am not going to school which precludes all enjoyment in reading. The challenge would come from the fact that I would be reading all new books, ones I just haven't got around to yet or some I had never heard of, and a few of these books have been sitting on my shelf for years and I haven't gotten around to them yet (Lord of the Rings, Pride and Prejudice etc.)

The idea to blog about my adventure, other than the fact that these things don't seem to exist if you don't blog about them, came from a present I received for Christmas.

I won't lie. I can't figure out this silly blog thing and don't know how to rotate picture on it. I swear when I took this picture it was straight but apparently not now. Actually the new editor is now rotating all my pictures so that they are on their sides. Hopefully I will be able to fix this or I will be returning to the old editor on here. Anyways yes this beautiful book which is called A Book Lover's Companion was a Christmas gift from a friend and thus should be used and I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Inside there is a notepad on which each page has a space for the name of the book, the author, who recommended the book (if anyone) as well as a large space for quotes and an even larger space for thoughts on the books. If I remember to carry this with me as I am reading my books then I should

be able to fill out the pages and use the book as well as have a good source of information for each blog entry I do for the books. As you can see I even have my first two weeks worth of reading (it was going to be three but I was in a hurry and couldn't find the other book I was looking for). I have currently started The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger but will not get into the book because that will be another post. This also means that I will be posting at least once a week as I read through my 52 books.

So there you go folks. The goal is 52 books in 52 weeks, I think I'll try and break that and read at least 53 just to be even crazier. I am going to try and find out how to get a page that stays at the top of my page so that I can list all of the books that I plan on reading and will keep updating it with what I have read so far. If that does not work out then I'll just have to do another post with the list of all the books.

I'll be posting again soon,

Lady Polly

The Last Month Has...

1) been absolutely crazy
2) tested by endurance (3 essays, 2 write-ups, 1 presentation, and 2 final exams)
3) tested my patients (2 trips to Portland OR)
4) tested my emotional and physical limits (2 deaths in the family and 1 back strain due to playing with a 3 year old)
5) had some knitting (nearly done the body of the sweater, and have restarted the shawl a total of 6 times now)
6) brought some endings (to my education as such)
Finally the last month will be forgotten now that it is over and I will start my new journey to try and find a job and move.

Lady Polly

PS. possibly more tomorrow but I make no promises

Houston, We Have A Problem

No pictures today, mainly because I am lazy and don't feel like trying to take picture or making my camera work today.
Last Friday I wanted to do another post about the mysterious gift and maybe even show a picture as well as warn that I would not be posting for a while since I was going away for Easter. Well that backfired when I woke up around 7 am and the power was out. We had a massive wind storm that knocked a tree over near our house and the entire neighbourhood was out of power for nearly 12 hours. It was a very boring day but I did get a bit of knitting done, nearly all of the mysterious present which did not turn out and will need to be reknit.
This weekend I was away and therefore did not get much knitting done. I am, however, about to start on a sleeve of the massive grey sweater. I am about an inch away from the end of the body so I want a change and am going to start the sleeve that can be toted around with me since the body is becoming quite massive.
Now onto today's problem. Last night I had my last feminist theory class and was giving a presentation on my essay that is due Friday. Well last night I decided that the essay needed to be reworked. Now I know this is a good idea, even though the time could be better spent studying, but this morning I am not able to concentrate. I think I have most of the items reworked and will do some more on it tonight. But all I want to do today is knit or sit around and watch some TV. I am feeling very lazy which is not so happy.
Well hopefully tomorrow I'll have a picture of the sleeve and have a completed essay as well.

Lady Polly

Woot posting...

Hello again.

This is my second post in two days, which is nearly amazing for me. So today I am having startitis. This may be due to the fact that I refuse to let myself work on Cam's sweater. Because of this I have decided I absolutely hate the sweater I am making for myself and have taken it off the needles, though I haven't frogged it yet. So I spent a lot of time last night trying to figure out something to do with 525 metres of two different colours, 350 of another, and 175 of the last colour. I haven't found anything to do with the DK weight yarn so I figure eventually I will try to reknit the sweater. I have restarted the shawl again, since I screwed up the pattern as I knitted without paying attention. I am going to try and work on it some more today. I have also started a surprise gift today, trying to get it done by Saturday may be a little hard but it's fairly simple knitting and short and I should be able to do it.
I started listening to the KnitPicks podcast a couple days ago. I have recently finished the 10th podcast, I am listening in order of when they were posted. Kelley gave me the idea of doing a challenge of knitting for a year since she is starting a year long challenge following Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitters Almanac. Something either focused or following some sort of book. I am thinking of doing something like this, maybe just choosing 12 different projects, trying to do something different each month, things that are difficult or involve techniques that I haven't used before. Since I am graduating in June and am not planning on going back to school right away I should, should be the key word, have more time for knitting for the year. This would just mean that I have to finish the mysterious present, at least 1 sweater, a Christmas Stocking, plus all of my Christmas presents. I am also sure I will find something else that I really want to knit before January since I have 8 more months to finish all of these projects.

Well we will see, and I'll spend the next 8 months trawling yarn shops and the Internet for different patterns for myself to use next year.

See you soon,
Lady Polly

Well it's been a while

I know its been a while so I am doing a post about why I haven't been posting lately.

Warning: This will be a very photo laden entry.

So I am sure you remember last November when I gave you a victorious post about why I hadn't been posting and how I should be able to post more often, if you don't remember it you can find it here. So you have some sort of reference about how ridiculous my last couple weeks have been.

This gives you a little taste of what my reading list has been. The purple binder is the readings for two of my courses. One of the courses has yet to be printed off all yet, the other one has three other books with it.

The blue binder is all of my projects. The four essays and blog project that I have done. I have just this morning finished my third edit of the last essay. I have to get someone else to read it for grammar and content after this and I have another one that needs the same treatment and then I am done with the projects. I am also going to be rereading half of the purple binder so that I can be ready for my exam on the fourteenth.

This gives you another view of the annoying, much hated, binders as well as about 1/4 of the books that I have read for the last two of my essays.

Don't be worried my knitting has also progressed as well.

Here is my sweater which I haven't showed you in forever, mainly because I haven't been working on it. I really dislike the feel of the yarn as I knit it so it hasn't been on the top of my list for things to knit. It is progressing though. It is now 17 inches long and has to get to 20.5 inches before I get to start shaping for the neck and shoulders.

Here is a picture of the progress of my shawl. I have restarted it four times by this time. It is evading me because I keep dropping stitches. I then tried to knit a swatch to appease the Knitting God's but I even managed to drop stitches on that two rows before it was done. So here is the most I have managed to progress on it since Sunday.

One more picture of the shawl. A close up this time so you can see how horrible it looks right now. And I know everyone says shawls look horrible until they are blocked but I still wish it would look a little prettier as I knit it.

One last item for this post. I am suffering from knitting monogamy. This is strange for me. I am having no urge to knit anything other than the bf's sweater, even though it is plain stockinette stitch for another 5 inches. I am even going so far as to tell myself that I can only finish the skein that is attatched before Saturday when I am going to be on the ferry. I don't know why I feel so obsessed with this sweater when I have four other projects on the go as well. They hold no interest for me but since I feel like I should be knitting other objects as well I am forcing myself to go through with this. Wish me luck. I am also going to be knitting and posting more often now that I have finished my essays. The knitting I am looking forward to. We'll see how the posts go, maybe I'll actually finish something and remember to post.

Lady Polly.

P.S. Does anybody know of an internet site that shows you a good way to turn a heel? I am still being evaded by that knitting technique and therefore can't even look at the socks I have knitted so far.

Twenty Five Days

There are 25 days until I have finished school, conceivably forever. This is an exciting thought since it will mean that I have more of a chance to finish some knitting, though I have come along with that. It is also scary since it means that I have to find a job and move and start a life that has been on hold while I prolonged schoool for four more years.
I took a step towards something more complicated yesterday when I went and bought the yarn for a shawl, it will be my first attempt at lace knitting, and hopefully will work out since I plan on knitting at least two shawls for Christmas and hope to knit myself a shawl for my wedding one day. The wedding one should be awesome since I'll have plenty of time to practice until then.

Here is a picture of the yarn and needles I bought yesterday. The yarn, which I keep wanting to call wool and it isn't, is Diamond brand spun in Peru 100% baby alpaca in ecru and avocado. This is the softest yarn that I have ever worked with and it is amazing if not a little like knitting with super soft dental floss. Also this is a lot cheaper than I expected lace weight to be. I think I have this misconception that lace weight yarn will be more expensive because in each hank there is 400 metres of yarn. So in this picture there is 1200 metres of yarn, more than enough to make the shawl that I want. The shawl is called the Mt Vernon Shawl designed by Tanis Grey and will be features once I manage to get past the first couple rows. You can find the pattern here. Just so you know my obseessiveness with perfection has led me to pull it out twice now and I'm sure this is just the beginning. The first time I dropped a stitch and couldn't figure out how to ladder back up because of the infinite number of yarn overs that are features in this pattern. The second time I managed to have six extra stitches at the end and again because of the infinite number of stitches I couldn't tink back to find out what my problem was. Also along with this purchase I splurged and got a set of Addi Turbo Lace needles, size seven. The only reason that I purchased these, though I may have to again now, was because I finally spent the wonderfully useful gift card that I recieved for Christmas.

Just so you understand exactly how much of a splurge this purchase was. It was nearly the same price as the yarn. But they work amazingly.

Asides from my multiple attempts at starting this shawl I have grown in another way. I have begun, or tried again depending on how you look at it, to eat salad. And so far I have succeeded in eating three salads in two days, each time with home made dressing and croutons. I also made myself a semi-nutritional dinner this evening, proving that even when I am on my own I can indeed cook myself a meal that does not consist of premade food that I shove in the oven. So here is a gratuitous picture of my dinner. Just to make you jealous of course.

This consisted of a salad with a balsamic, lemon, EVOO dressing, and home made croutons of course with mixed greens, red onion, and orange peppers. I had asparagus cooked in garlic butter, and pork chops that were pan seared and then cooked in an orange juice/ginger sauce. It tasted fairly amazing though the sauce would have been better if I had actually measured everything and hadn't nearly burnt it as soon as I poured it into the frying pan.

Last but not least, do not worry that the sweater has been abandoned, it is still my favorite project for working on while I watch tv. I have six more inches to complete before I start to shape the arm holes. One more gratutious picture:

Can you believe this is eighteen inches long! It's crazy. So anyways my plans for tonight are to continue with the sweater, hopefully either working six more inches or until teh end of the skein of yarn (you can't see it but its about half a ball) continue my Harry Potter marathon and work on my last essay of the year. The Harry Potter marathon has just entered the third movie which is my least favorite so this is most likely the movie where I will do the most work on my essay and the least on my sweater, the next three will involve more work on the sweater. Wish me luck.

Lady Polly

Why hello there...

So to add to the things I have come to realize since last post (which was pretty much a week ago). I knit faster than I think possible when I actually concentrate on something. Proof of this:

Which is the sweater that needs to be ridiculously long nearly half way done the body portion which will be the most painful part of it. I have added the fourth ball of yarn about a row and a half ago.

I have also realized I have no patients for computers that are slow. Especially those that take more than 10 seconds to find my computer.

The last thing I have realized is that I have absolutely no resistance to Body Shop products when they are 50% off. Here was my haul from yesterday when there was a quick one day buy a bag and get everything else for 50% off. The bag cost $5 but $2 of it goes to charity so I don't feel so bad.

Well I would show you the swag which is awesom by the way but this is completely failing at wanting to load my picture.

Next time, more of the interminable sweater (hopefully more than half way done) and hopefully the awesome Body Shop haul.

Lady Polly

I have come to realize...

That despite what I wish I do not knit well under pressure. Needless to say I did not complete my Olympic knitting goal. Mainly this was because I don't know how to pick up stitched from the edge of a piece of knitting (you can now tell I have never attempted any pattern with the words 'entrelac' in the title and that in my mind that word causes terror). The other reason that I have not managed to make my goal was because the day after the Olympic Opening Ceremonies I became very very distracted, with an unexpected visit from the bf nonetheless.
Another thing that I have realized is that I prefer to knit things that give me nearly instant gratitude. I don't have a lot of time for knitting these days (what with three papers, none under 10 pages long, being due in a period of time that is now less than a month) and when I have to constantly go back to the same projects over and over again the loose their charm.
Also that deciding to knit a sweater that has a 2 foot length of stockinette stitch for the body with nothing to look forward to except casting off for arm holes. And then once I manage to get through that (have I mentioned that this sweater has only three pieces, the body and two arms) I have to knit two sleeves which have to measure 65 centimeters long (too lazy to convert that to imperial).
One more thing I have realized is that I do my best homework during the night. Such as tonight when I got up after having tried to sleep for half an hour only to write a three page paper that now is due tomorrow morning instead of letting myself give up for this week and try again next week. Unfortunately doing my best work at night does not help when I am confined to my bedroom late at night so as not to disturb the sleeping people.
I think that is all that I have come to realize lately. I am going to knit some more very, very boring stockinette stitch (I am just over 8 inches in) while listening to my guilty pleasure (Twilight book on tape) and then pass out, only to get up early tomorrow morning to edit my paper and make sure its well enough to turn in by noon.
Lady Polly

Socks and Olympics

Ways to Tell I am Very Serious About This Project:

1. I actually took the pattern with me to the store to make sure I got enough yarn (still doubt that I really did but that can be easily remedied)

2. I actually knit a swatch! And didn't frog it afterwards, instead I am using it and I even washed it to make sure it doesn't shrink

3. I GOT GAUGE! And I had extra needles just in case I didn't

So yes, I have finally broken down and decided to sign myself up for the Knitting Olympics associated with the Yarn Harlots blog (http://www.yarnharlot.ca/). Because I have many other things to accomplish during the Olympics I have decided to do something fairly easy, the Champs-Elysees Beret (http://www.popknits.com/index.php/patterns/page/champs-elysees_beret/) so that the only problems I am going to have are the lovely cables and picking up stitches from the brim since I have done neither before.

Here is the lovely yarn that I chose to make my beret out of. I wasn't entirely pleased with the selection that they have at Michaels but going all the way downtown to buy some yarn was far too much of a trip for me today.

On another note. My socks are coming along nicely now that I'm doing them properly. I will be working on them tonight and tomorrow morning, up until 6pm that is. So I will post a picture of how far I get tomorrow since after that I will be working on nothing but the beret for 17 days. Wish me luck that I actually can finish this project!

Sock, School, and Studying Struggles

Once again blogging when I'm really supposed to be doing something else. This time it is studying for my businss mid-term that starts at 2:30 this afternoon, I know I should at least go over my notes once, but I find it very hard to study for midterms when they are open book. It is more or less kills any will I have to study, since I never have much of it to begin with, when I am told that it is going to be an open book midterm. Especially this midterm where we've already done a mock last class and we are changing rooms to be able to spread out more which is awesome, I've had too many midterms where you can have all your books out at once.

On another note, I am crazy busy today after school that is. I have an hour between school being over and when I'm going to a Poli Sci Career Night, which I just learned is in some crazy building on the other side of campus from where I'm headed next. And then I'm going to a movie with Kat. It's one of those movies nobody has heard about but has A-List actors, so it will be interesting to see.

In other news, since Sunday I have read 4, count 'em FOUR, books. This is pretty intense, even for me. Luckily two of them were short little books, and these were even knitting books. The other two were longer novels but seemed to be the type that you just can't put down. So I have done no school work and gotten no sleep but I have read four books lately.

Reading the knitting books made me feel more content with knitting but also that I should do what I have been dreading for the past half a month. That is pull out the mistake I made in my sock. I even have pictures of how dreadful it was.

Here is my pretty littlle sock just as I started to unravel it. After painstakingly moving the stitches to the right spot and everything I started knitting the instep stitches instead of the heel because of a misread in the pattern. In my defense I think I started to divide this at like really really late at night when my brain stopped functioning etc.

And here is a picture of my sock once I had finished frogging. I am so upset, I was even going to start turning the heel and everything. Now I have to start again which is harder than I thought. Especially because *gasp* I don't feel like knitting right now. And by now I mean since like Sunday evening I haven't felt like knitting, I haven't touched any yarn or gone through any knitting books since then. (Ok... one knitting book but just because I was mentioning it to someone) And all plans of any Olympic knitting has been put on hold, lack of funds and lack of inspiration has been my problem.

Hopefully this dry spell won't last for long and I'll have some finished product to show you (ya right). But enjoy the Olympics that are happening just across the water from me while I have a lovely visit from the bf and do waaay too much homework on my week off.

Gimme a Break

Do you remember that song from elementary school? All about Kit Kat Bars, it had a whole clapping sequence that went with it. I almost feel like it really need to play that song again and again today. I have been way to productive today. Getting what is usually 4 days of homework done in one single one. Especially since I'm running on less than 6 full hours of sleep. For some reason, probably because I'm paranoid, I couldn't sleep last night, finally trying to go to sleep at midnight and then tossing and turning until 2 am before finally moving to a more comfortable position and then falling alseep a little while later. I had set my alarm to be a studious person for 8:30 am but the whole not going to bed til after 2 am meant that I decided not to get up then, but I just tossed and turned for the next half hour before dragging myself out of bed.
Once I got up however I was entirely too productive. I managed to finish my paper proposal, do all but one reading for one of my classes and do a basic outline of a group project that I'm trying to get done by the end of the week.
Right now I am soaking up some more waaaay to strong coffee in hopes that I can get the energy to finish off the readings for my EU seminar class and do the only other reading I have for the week which is for my Political Economy of Canada class.

On other topics, yesterday Kat and I got our "Glamour Me" photo shoot done which was very very fun. My hair was awesome even though it took twice as long as Kat's did but it has lasted and I still have it up right now and it doesn't look half bad even though I've slept on it. After that Kat and I had nearly two hours to waste until she had to go to ballet so we went to Chapters. I bought three books and then realized that they had all been made into movies. I then went to Mayfair all by myself, looking waaay to formal to be shopping, and tried on jeans since I need a couple new pairs, I found two lovely pairs but only realized afterwards that they weren't on sale and would have cost me well over $100 to buy both pairs.

Also this week at Michael's the lovely bamboo yarn that I have wanted forever is on for $2 off each skein so now my question is: Do I go buy the 14 skeins I need for the sweater that I want or do I just forget it and ignore the fact that it will only be a $45 sweater than a $70 sweater?

Let me know, as it is I think I've ahd enough coffee to get back to readings while watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Now presenting....

GLASSES THROUGH THE AGES

My good deed for the day has been procuring 6 pairs of glasses for Kat for her trip with GMB to Honduras that she leaves for in just over a week. (Can you tell my family is very very blind) Also here is a good reason that you don't want to join the navy if you are blind the glasses on the very left of the picture are my dads from when he was in the navy, and he is quite blind (-16 in each eye for contacts, of course only those people who wear contacts understand what that means) and he has always worn coke-bottle glasses as you can see until last year when he finally bought his own.

Also I have been doing a bit of knitting here and there. The sweater that will not die was calling to me yesterday and came to school with me and was petted for a while but wasn't worked on much. Then last night I decided I should learn how to knit continental style because it looks faster, at least when Kat does it and can get twice as much done as I can in the same amount of time.

So currently I have been sitting at my computer with the sweater that will not die and The Knit Stitch help videos learning how to do this. Hopefully another post will show much more lenght on the sweater, and some work on my own sweater from November, that I now hate the fiber because it is fake.

So current question is: should I continue with the plain blue sweater (only the front is done) even though I will probably never wear it and I really hate the gross cheap fiber and such, or should I give up and focus on my other sweaters to finish them.

P.S. This weekend with a gift card I got months ago I'm finally getting a new couple books. My first of which is a book on knitting Harry Potter themed clothes called Charmed Knits. I am super excited for this as you should, as is the boyfriend because he's been asking for a Gryffindor scarf for a couple months now.

Best Laid Plans

So of course as soon as I made my next New Years resolution I promptly disregarded it. Since that post (which was only 2 days ago but seems like forever to me) I have done absolutely NO knitting whatsoever at all period. Things seem to keep getting in the way life, books, sleep, school, depression, you know the things that kinda take over your life sometimes. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to get some hard core knitting done since Kat is coming over (I think this plan is still on) after we do our glamour spa thing at the salon in the afternoon and though we are doing homework for part of that day we will no doubt devolve into knitting and movies at some point during the night, especially since we can use the new 46" TV for all hours of the night.

(Here is a gratuitous picture of the sweater that will not die, though if I'm being honest I just put that blue stripe in on a ferry ride at the very end of December)

Other plans that have recently gone awry was my plan for this morning to do a lot of readings and possibly get some of the work done on the two projects I have coming up. Instead I ended up watching a ridiculous amount of CSI Miami. Just another reason why owning multiple series on DVD is a bad idea. Then I planned on going to the library to get some resources for two of my papers that are coming due and that got pushed back in favour of a good dinner and *gasp* trying to hurriedly finish a reading for my class this evening. And now I was going to work on some of my projects after getting homeand instead I am typing in this blog because it is a much easier thing to do that do real work today.

(And yet another gratuitous picture, mainly because I have no good pictures to show right now. This one is of the painting that I won at the silent auction during Black and White Casino Night for the Global Medical Brigades. It has finally been hung up and isn't it purty)

On one last note I feel horrible and I think I might be coming down with a sinus cold. Unfortunately those keep me bedridden for a good week and I can't afford to be that ill for that long especially at this time of the year and at this time of my life. Hopefully just destressing will make it go away, and by destressing I mean going and sitting on my bed with a multitude of readings that I need to do for my school work and hope that they don't drown me.

I hope you knitting is going much better than any of my non-existent knitting is right now.

Knitting Resolutions

And as I am very remiss in posting I am also very remiss in making New Years Resolutions on New Years. So now this year I am planning on trying to knit for at least 15 to 30 minutes a night. Hopefully this will be a good way to get a lot of projects further along as well as allow me to calm down and my brain to shut down before going to bed each night.
On some completely unrelated to knitting notes, wish my bf a Happy 22nd Birthday since I went to Abbotsford this last weekend to celebrate with him. Neither of us paid for a single drink on his birthday and that sad fact is that he had 2 or 3 times the amount of alcohol as me and by the end of the night (about 4 hours of time) we were equally sober.
I also got to spend the weekend with the puppies (Cindy is 3 and Hank is about a year and a half). They are much more active than Tucker is and much more fun to play with.
Well enjoy your knitting and I will be hopefully gaining ground on my own knitting soon.

Welcoming 2010 ... just a little late

So I keep getting distracted when I want to actually post this year. So far it has been an interesting year wit new classes and not as much knitting as I wish. Nevertheless I have made a New Years resolution about knitting this year. The resolution is that I am not allowed to start or buy any new projects until I have completed something. So far this has been working out well, except for the fact that I haven't been getting anywhere with my knitting at all. I am working however on the bf's sweatshirt which is about 5 inches long, maybe. My own two sweaters have been put on hold because one is too simple and I'm too lazy to cast on for the front, the second one I'm not very happy with how it looks but it's too late to turn back now. I have started a pair of socks but I screwed up the heel flap and it looks silly.
On non-knitting related topics last Friday I went to Black and White Casino Night that was to raise money for the GMB (I can't remember what the acronym stands for now) of which one of my friends belongs and she is going to Honduras in February. But on that note I am now the proud owner of my first piece of art. It was pretty cool and I was hoping to start people actually bidding on it if I wrote my name down but no such luck. I shall be recieving it on Saturday I believe and will post a picture of it later.
Anyways off to class again.