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