Presents!

I've been bad. Last week was reading week and I got so bogged down in work that I didn't get to post about the lovely presents that found their way to my doorstep!

My Sock It To Me Twice pal sent my these lovely gifties as a Valentines Day gift. There was stationary, cute kitty kleenex, candy hearts, pens, body lotion and unpictured is yummy chocolate and another tape measure (good thing, I lose them like crazy!). It was just the perfect pick me up gift in the middle of a crazy week. Thank you!!!!
Plus I've also received word that my socks are done, eek! Thanks so much pal, can't wait to see them!

Thinking to spring

As I get bogged down in two promises of socks (though I have nothing but warm and fuzzy feelings for the recipients and do wish to finish them), I can't help but let my mind wander to the projects that I want to get accomplished once those are done. Come mid-April I will actually have real time to myself and all my knitting can get restarted in earnest again (it was confirmed unofficially Friday that I got my summer research grant so I'm secure in my day job for the summer, hooray!). Here's what's in the plans for post sock finishing:
1) Baby bunting for my supervisor's baby-to-be which I have blogged about before. I'm about 1/3 of the way done right now but not touching it again until all is out of the way.
2) Baby bibs. I found another friend having a baby and a growing stash of discloth cotton so I'll be making her some bibs and a few test bib's for Baby J who received the cabled baby blanket.
3)A Baby Surprise Jacket. Seeing all the crazy pictures of its construction I'm dying to try it out so I bought a kit for it from Blue Moon Fibre Arts. The colours are for a girl so hopefully one of the two upcoming babies will be a little girl to wear it. Isn't the yarn too cute?

4) Next socks on my list to make are some Monkeys from Yarntini in "Sangria"

5) Embossed leaves in some newly acquired Socks That Rock (You really didn't think I couldn't order from them and not get any STR did you?) in the Backstabber colourway

6) Finish the mystery stole from last summer (oops!)
7) The start of a long term mitered square blanket project
Hopefully that will be keeping me occupied for a while. I'm sure there will be many other socks and various sundry baby things thrown out but it keeps me with something to look forward to as an incentive to finish the two gift socks. Wish me luck!

Happy V-Day!

If there wasn't an odder holiday than Valentine's Day... After elementary school it falls off the radar, and then once you're old enough that you celebrate it again most people are either cynical of relationships or the commericalization of the holiday. And I'm sure not many of us have all that many memories of making Valentine's as children. So it might have been a challenge to do this week's contest for the Sock It To Me Twice Swap, share a memorable Valentine's Day memory. As far as the actual day is concerned, I have a very vague memory of being in elementary school and not remembering who I'd already given cards to which hardly counts, and since then I only remember one Valentine's Day. But it would happen to be one of the dearest memories I hold.
5 years ago I was a senior in high school. Valentine's Day was coming up in several weeks and I was tired of not being able to celebrate it. No boyfriends to speak of yet at that point so celebrating from that vantage point was a lost cause. So I decided to reclaim from the vantage point of my childhood. For several weeks leading up to the holiday I was hyping it like crazy. Reminding people about the holiday on a pretty much daily basis and cooking up schemes for a big celebration, most of which revolved around my french teacher Mr. A.
Now, you have to understand what a soft spot we had for him. I doubt there was a teacher that spent more time looking out for us than him. He was also our IB co-ordinator, grad committee advisor and fashion show advisor. We were constantly in his room. And we were a class of all girls except one guy. He was by far our favourite teacher. But he always liked to play this rough tough persona about hating holidays (every Christmas he'd hang a Santa by its neck from his cieling, I always said it wasn't really Christmas until it was up), so let's not get started about what he had to say about Valentine's Day.
A few days before the holiday a whole group of my friends and I got together and we made tons of decorations. Lots of cut out hearts, a heart mobile, everything bright pink and red. And all the hearts had ridiculous sayings like "Big IB thinks you're sexy" "Nothing says I love you like Monopoly". The night before V-Day we got a janitor to let us in to his room and we plastered it with decorations, heart confetti, candy hearts, you name it, we put it up. And the doorway into his room we hung heart garland all around it.
The next day on Valentines, I wore the brightest pink dress that you could possibly imagine and my tiara (which still holds a special spot in my heart). I brought all sorts of hershey's kisses to school. My friends all brought the kids Valentine's Day cards. We were giving them out all over the school.
But it was absolutely priceless on the way to first period walking by Mr A's room on my way to first period. Every day he stood in that hallway, perfectly straight, arms crossed on his chest. But that day he was surrounded by so much pink. I can only imagine what the students not in on it thought. Ofcourse it didn't take long for it to be pinpointed on me :) Then when we had french later that day, we walked into the room and announced to him that we were going to have a Valentine's Day party. We had drinks, baking, cd player, music, etc... and just started setting up. And I have to say that it's a true testament to the fondness that he had for our class that he didn't say a word and let us take over whatever class he had planned for us and let us have our party on what's probably his least favourite day of the year. We danced and danced to the cheesiest music. Best Valentine's Day party ever.
One of the best days I've had. The next day, I even had a different teacher pull me aside after class and thank me for what I did on Valentine's Day. We created a real celebration and different mood all throughout the school. This over commercialized, whatever holiday, took on something new that year. It was about fun and friendship and smiles.
And to this day, when I go to visit Mr A, he still has several of the hearts we made around his room, including one on his computer on his desk. I think that we perhaps gave him just as memorable of a Valentine's Day too...

Really, still alive

This is horrible! I haven't even posted this month. This is perhaps because I've been sucked back into the swamp vortex that is the end of the year stretch. Two months left of courses before I'm done my degrees. And the way I see it, I pretty much have to spend every remaining waking hour working if I want to get everything done that needs to be :) No pressure or anything...
There has been a bit of knitting going on. I was able to tick all that kitchenering off of my to do list since the last post. And my dad's first sock is done with the second one cast on the needles. (Though I fear the second will languish until April, oops). You can take a peek at the non woven in ends

(Julie, they almost fit the sock blocker but are a touch too big. Then again, my dad has smaller feet so that might not be the best indication)
I also got around to biting the bullet and finishing the mitt I cast on for months and months ago. It's super warm made from Blue Sky Alpaca's Melange (%100 baby alpaca). The mitt isn't too terribly nice but it's warm and soft and that's all I care about. The real question is, will I get the second one done before it's summer?

I've also gotten past the heel on my first SITMT Swap sock. This is quite the accomplishment as I had to rip the entire heel flap and heel about 3 times much to my total dismay as I was completely unable to follow the pattern. I seriously wanted to cry at the third ripping but all seems to be going well. My only fear is that I will be so tired of the ribbing by the end that I'll not want to knit these socks again for a very long time and I really want a pair for myself (I've had the yarn picked bought since the summer). Let's cross our fingers that come the end of April when I have real time again the tiring will pass.
If you worry for my sanity, please be aware that Mittens is protecting all of those intro calc students from having their papers graded when I'm delirious of angry. Good kitty!

P.S. Please be aware that Crazy Aunt Purl has put us all on notice that she's sending V.D. through the internet

Time to graft

Methinks that it's about time that I take out my darning needle and get grafting. In the last week while avoiding school work from a motivational slump, I managed to get to the end of two socks. And then promptly didn't bother to graft the toe. But that should be done soon.
The first sock to get to that point is my father's sock. Though perhaps I'm avoiding the grafting there because it'll mean that I'll have to cast on the second one which I'm not exactly dying to do. It's 70 stitches around on 2.25 needles (US 1) and the ribbing goes on forever. He really likes how they're turning out but they just aren't that fun to knit. I must tell myself that the quicker I finish, the quicker I never have to have anything to do with them again...
The second sock is one that's been hiding a bit. My Salt Water Taffy socks that I cast on for in Cuba. I'm doing these in plain stockinette and not following any sort of pattern or recipe. Just using the common sense from all the other socks I've knit. It's really nice to be at that point where I can just knit socks and not be tied to any sort of pattern. I'm also amazed at how fast the stockinette goes. The yarn has a BFL base and I don't know how I feel about it. I generally have very even stitches and they seem to being going funky all over the place on this yarn. And it's not the best feeling ever to knit with. I am hoping that blocking will even out the stitches, BUT despite all of that, the socks feel heavenly on my feet. So I will love the yarn base anyways because nothing tops that!

In the last week I've also cast on for my Sock It To Me Twice socks. These need to be done by the end of March so hopefully I will have the first one done by reading week (mid February) and I'll get most of the second one done durring reading week. The pattern is from Favorite Socks by Interweave Knits (best sock book ever!) and is mainly a 2x1 ribbing with cables going down either side. If you recall it's made out of Dream In Color Smooshy and boy is it smooshy :)

I'm now bringing my socks to my calc lab to knit on while they do their quizzes. It provides entertainment for them and an extra hour of knitting in a week. And, in the fit more knitting time in quest, it is now light enough durring the drive home to knit again (when I'm the passenger, not the driver ofcourse!). So even more knitting time. I love when it's finally somewhat light out on the return as for several months I rarely see daylight durring the week as I get to the university in the morning in the pitch black and return home late in the pitch black. Hooray for natural sunlight!
But perhaps I should stop avoiding work and get those assignments done and tests marked :( sigh. Hope you had a great weekend!

Acceptance

Tonight I was out with my community band playing a concert for Robbie Burns Day (officially tomorrow) but before that I received a happy letter in the mail :

I am officially accepted into the University of Manitoba and going to grad school in the fall, hooray! And only two weeks after putting in my application too so very little waiting. Though truth be told, I wasn't exactly concerned about getting accepted as I've had an intended supervisor and the department's been aware of the project he'd like to do with me for half a year already but still. I'm going to be a grad student! Where in the world has the time gone? There's only a few short months left of my undergrad and it's all going by so fast. I'm trying really hard to hold onto and enjoy this last little bit of time but it seems an impossible feat. I've had a wonderful time where I am and wouldn't trade it for anything but I guess life is telling me that it's time for a new adventure...
In the "in the mail" department, I finally received the change purse that I ordered. As I said, the only real problem with my new wristlet system was the money all loose about inside but all those problems have been solved and it's the perfect solution:

Ain't it cute? And bright red lining on the inside :)
In commentary on knitterly life, I sometimes wonder if the knitting makes us forgot non-knitter etiquette. For example, around knitters it's almost expected that if someone is knitting something new for people to walk up and start petting and examining it. However, it's not exactly something that's encouraged by the non-knitters. See, today after class I was having a conversation with two of my classmates in the hallway as we were getting ready to leave for the day. One of the guys was talking and gesturing with his hands when I was completely distracted by the mitts on his hands that looked hand knit. Without thinking about it, I walked right up and starting starring at his mitts, mostly to his utmost confusion and surprise. Totally derailed his train of thought :P I realized the strange behaviour and asked if they were handknit which as it turns out they were, by his mother, awww... Warms my heart. But I really have to find less socially awkward ways of examining handknits in the wild...

Cuba

I've been saving this for a day when I just can't bring myself to write something interesting to post, so after much waiting, here are some of my favourite pics from Cuba: