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And this is a knitting update. Lots of pics. You have been warned. Oh and if you don’t understand the knitting chat (don’t worry, there won’t be much of that since it’s all already on Ravelry), just ignore it and admire all of the Finished Objects (FOs). ^_^

Fawkes Socks

This is Fawkes; pattern is by the late Momma Monkey and she designed this as a part of the Harry Potter series of socks to celebrate the last book coming out. I looooooove the yarn. Lisa Souza rocks with her dye jobs. It’s the first time ever that I’ve done all of the repeats that the pattern has said and it still came out very short. Not that I mind, since socks that are longer in the leg have this annoying habit of slouching down to my ankles.

Just some proof that I actually have completed both socks and not just pretending. :P

Autumn Fruits Scarf

And this is what I’ve made with the leftovers from the socks. And I still have some yarn left. Possibly enough for a pair of baby booties.

Anyway, the pattern is from one of my current favorite knitting pattern books: Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby. The center consists of three rows of the Melon stitch (from the Melon Shawl) with two sets of faggotting separating them. Such an easy pattern to memorize once you get the hang of how to form the Melon stitch. I decided to use the knitted-on lace border from the Curved Bell Shawl instead of the border that came with the Melon Shawl on the ends.

Bloom Scarf

And this is my crocheted scarf. I think I got the flower pattern from LionBrand.com. Anyways, it’s kinda short and not actually that warm since it’s so hole-y, but it’s meant to be used in the summer anyway. I mean, that is what I made it for, to use in the summer evenings when it’s getting a bit chilly. Definitely not to be used as wind protection (mainly because it won’t provide any).

It’s surprisingly heavy too. The yarns are Mirasol Hacho in two different colorways (the names elude me right now) and some Rowan Cashwool as the center. The cool thing is that the Mirasol Hacho is a Fairtrade yarn, so I get something pretty and get to help others at the same time. ^_^

Teeny Tiny Bear

And this is what I made in a day when I wanted a project to zoom by. Ain’t it cute? (Yes, I do know it has no eyes or nose embroidered on it, but I like it as it is.)

The estate agent called about an hour ago. We got the house! We’re signing the rental agreement and getting the keys tomorrow.

*does happy dance*

:D

And now I should get back to packing.

We’ve decided on renting the house. Today I went and got the paperwork that needs to be signed (I’ll take that in on Tuesday since Monday is a bank holiday). Tomorrow Oliver and I have an appointment to go open up a joint account where the rent and bills and stuff will be paid from. So we’ll be moving in soon! Squee! :D

I’m almost done with my Autumn Fruits scarf. I’m calling it that because the color of the yarn makes the melon pattern look more like apples and berries and pumpkins. Now I just need to do the lace edging and then it’ll be done. Well, need to block it as well. But still. My next project will most likely be a Calla (I think that’s what the pattern’s called) in the same dusty rose bamboo yarn that I used for my modified Bad Penny. I feel like I need to use up my yarn since I just went and bought some more today. I only bought two skeins though. One of them was so that my Clapotis scarf could be made longer (it’s very very very short right now). The other one I got because it was pretty. And all the other knitters keep telling me that sock yarn doesn’t really count as stash.

I’m pretty sure I had more to write about (can’t think of it), but right now I really really want to start working on the lace border. So I’ll write later once I’ve remember what I wanted to chat about…

I’ve made an appointment to see a house later on today. Except I’m feeling a bit icky (as in sore throat and kinda nauseous). Nauseous + bus riding = not that good. So now I’m debating on whether to call the letting agency to ask if I can move my appointment to tomorrow. I’m pretty sure I won’t throw up, but I just don’t relish the idea of getting an even more icky feeling.

My Aww-tum Fawkes socks are done! Pics will be up soon-ish (like in a few days).

Not that much has happened in the last week or so. I left Aber and came to Sheffield on Friday. My dad was almost afraid that we wouldn’t get everything to fit in the car, but we did after a little rearranging. ;)

Then Saturday was spent looking at cars. The Ford salesman would not stop talking and that pretty much put me off of getting a car from there. So after about five hours of sitting in various cars, I decided on either a Smart or a Mercedes-Benz A-Class. A Smart would be better in the city (since it is tinier) but an A-Class feels safer on highways. And I will have to use highways to get to wherever I’m studying at next year. I have received a conditional offer from Aberystwyth (need to get a 2.1, which I’m pretty sure I will) and Nottingham Trent wants to interview me. Don’t know yet when the interview will be, but I’m hoping that they’ll tell me soon.

My dad and I checked out a few apartments while he was here. There’s a one bedroom fully furnished brand new place that I did like for £475/pcm. It’s within walking distance of Oliver’s work and all it needs is a washing machine (which the realtor said that the landlord will probably provide if we just ask). The only downside is that there is no parking available for it. So Oliver and I are going to go take a look at it tomorrow and see what he thinks. Last night we were looking through the property paper and found a three bedroom terraced house (part-furnished) for £500/pcm in an area that’s quite nice and nearby to everywhere we want to go. It’s also very very hilly. So having an automatic transmission instead of a manual is an imperative (for me at least). ^_^

I got practice driving while my dad was here. I have my provisional licence and so we just went to buy some L-plates and then I got to drive! We first practiced parking in the parking lot. Parallel parking was a whole lot easier than I expected. After awhile we then decided to go back and I drove from Morrissons to Oliver’s. I don’t care about not learning the manual on the wrong side of the road (and they are on the wrong side over here in my opinion). As long as I get to drive without having to stress about stuff like clutches and the car stalling, I’ll be happy. So an automatic car for me it is. :) What still scare me slightly are roundabouts. O_O

I have finally finished my modified Bad Penny. Decided to make it all pink with picot edgings at the hem and sleeves and a single crochet edging on the neckline. I’ll probably wear that to my interview actually. Or then I might wear my Isabella. Haven’t quite decided yet. Then after that top, I wanted a super quick project, so I made a teeny tiny bear. It’s shorter than my hand. :D After that I started some socks because I haven’t made a pair in ages (I swear, sweater knitting to me is becoming almost as addictive as socks). I’m making Fawkes from my Aww-tum Sock! Merino yarn. It is soooooo yummy. Gorgeous stuff.

And now it’s time for breakfast. Yes, I know it’s past 11 am, but I’ve been knitting and watching Oliver play Oblivion on the XBox 360 since 9:30… Hunger is winning now. :P

Just thought I’d let you all know that since I’m leaving Aber on Friday, I’ll be busy until Monday. Not that I’ve been really active here lately, but still.

In knitting news, still working on the Bad Penny. Did the lace and then the increase sections. Tried it on and ripped it out because it didn’t look nice. Mind you, I didn’t rip out the whole thing, just to where the lace began. So it’s back to nicely mindless stockinette that I can do in the car on Friday. :D I’ve also made a Clapotis scarf from Regia Silk. I ran out of yarn just as I was about to get to the final rows, so I used up some ends that I had in my stash. I don’t really like the way that turned out, so I’ll be ripping out what I’ve dubbed the Hufflepuff tail (because the leftover colors that I used were black and yellow) and just do a different kind of bind off.

Handed in my final essay of my BA career today. In the three years that I’ve been a uni student, I have never sent myself the wrong version of an essay to be printed. Until today. *rolls eyes* First time for everything, eh? I did luckily have the sorta correct version in my e-mail as well, so I didn’t have to go back down the hill to send myself the right version.

In between all of the packing I did manage to spend over an hour on the beach this afternoon. Read a few chapters of This Sceptered Isle. And I also bought the Highway Code so that I can start studying up for the theory test. Hopefully I’ll have my licence by early September. ^_^

I’ve still got the Barn Dance stuck in my head; both the song they played for it at Manchester and the actual steps. It was one of my fave dances. And we’d be doing it at practice on Friday when I’m not here. *sniffle* I did meet a really nice guy named Chris who dances for Warwick during the first round of it. At the end of the dance we were supposed to hold on to our partners and dance a Rumba with them. It was during the same round that I danced with the guy from Our Favorite Arguing Couple (a couple from Manchester that constantly argues at competitions). He was a very good dancer, but I didn’t get the nice vibe off of him, unlike Chris. Then during the second round of the Barn Dance I wound up with some advanced guy and were supposed to dance some Salsa afterwards. I told him that I didn’t know any salsa and he was like: “We’ll do it anyway!” and started just twirling and spinning me around the dance floor, very energetically I might add, for over three minutes. Ooh, and I swear, the judge was trying to kill me when he put us through to the second round of Jive. It was tiring enough to do it once, but during the second round something went wrong with the American Spin and I almost fell flat on my face. Luckily Alan caught me in time.

I handed in my Writing Project yesterday. As a reward, I didn’t do any work on my other essay. I worked on my letter of application and spun some yarn in instead. I’m getting better at it. It’s still that lumpy thick’n’thin arty yarn stuff, but it looks good. ^_^ Now I just need to spin some more and then get Jenni to show me how to ply it together. For some reason I just can’t get it to work, even though I know the theory behind it. I’m still working on the Bad Penny. Decided to add in some lacy details instead of cables. Still haven’t decided if I want to make it a long-sleeved sweater or not. Since it is bamboo-cotton it can work as both. We’ll see.

The weather here is wonderful. Sunny and warmish. Maybe I can convince Gabe to come sit on the beach with me today when we’re supposed to meet for a cup of tea. For some reason it’s been really hard to find a time in our schedules when we’re both free. But we did settle on today at 4pm.

This morning has been… well a bit annoying, but mostly okay. I sent off for my provisional driver’s licence. I took the bad pictures that always come out of those automatic machines. It cost £4.20 and I only had four pounds on me, so the guy that was fixing it gave me the 20p I needed. Such a nice old man. ^_^ But the man behind the counter at the post office was just… gah. I needed a postal order to send with my application so he printed out one for me. I get all of the special delivery envelopes so that they can send me my passport back securely and when it’s time to pay? The wrong amount comes up on the machine. Then he tells me that I need to pay for the postal order with cash. Like I have any, everywhere I go I pay with a card. So he sets things aside and I run across the street to the cash machine and get the £50 I needed. I come back and he’s like: “You do know that there’s a fee with this, right?” I nodded my okay and again, I was about to pay with my card. Nope, he asks if I have any more cash on me. *rolls eyes* Something wrong with the machine that takes cards. I need to run across the street again to get more cash. Geez, he could’ve told me all of this sooner! And because he got me running around, I forgot to write my name on the back of the postal order and get the special delivery number of the return envelope. Hrmph. Although I have had pretty good experiences with the special delivery system of the Royal Mail so I’m not too worried. It’s just the regular letters that get lost into the ether. Could be either Royal Mail’s fault or the USPS. Oh well. But yay, that’s done. I should have my provisional licence in a few weeks! o/

My Writing Project is done. I’ve had people read it, point out the missing words (which is something that happens no matter what medium I’m using to convey my writing, seriously). And all of the typos too. I’ve got the folders for it and now all it needs is to be printed. Which I will do on Monday. I only have one more class next week and then I’m done with all of those too. One 3000 word essay to write, well, now only 1500 words left and once that’s been handed in, I can leave Aber any time I feel like. ^_^ I know I whine about writing these essays, but last night while I was struggling to write about Donne’s poetry, I realized that I actually do enjoy it. It’s fun to learn of various perspectives on things. But it’s also annoying to be “forced” to do it. Then again, if I didn’t have these deadlines to write the essays, then I probably wouldn’t do them at all.

I’m still knitting my modified version of Bad Penny. I added in shaping and some cables because let’s face it, plain stockinnette for a whole sweater gets very boring very quickly. But because of my modifications getting the right stitch count is driving me batty.

Ooh! Yesterday after dance practice I was chatting with Alan about my knitting and he was just wondering at the complexity of my scarf (really, it’s not that hard once you know what to do). So I offered to teach him how to knit. And he said okay. Tomorrow at our final dance competition of the year, I’ll be teaching him how to knit in between dancing. Speaking of, at this one we’re participating in more dances than before. We usually do Waltz, Quickstep, Cha and Jive. Occasionally Rumba. This time we’re doing all of the above and Tango. I’m also doing Samba with Jenni. I am so bad at leading (since I am the taller one of us), but at least it’ll be fun. :) Another thing! Alan and I have been moved from B Team Quickstep to A Team Waltz. Squee! :D

Okay, going to go have lunch and get some more reading done for my essay now. Some of that stuff that I need to wade through is so mind-numbingly dry that it kinda makes me want to not do the essay. But occasionally I do find good quotes to use. ^_^

Okay, now that I’ve gotten back into the swing of things, i.e. having to churn out writing on a regular basis and actually using my brain for something other than deciphering knitting patterns and watching the History Channel and Grey’s Anatomy, I thought it would also be a good time to write in here for a change. So yes, I’ve been gone for about five weeks. Not from the net, just from updating. So what have I been doing that’s been so enthralling that I haven’t even bothered to yammer on about on here?

1. I went to Blackpool for the InterVarsity Dance Competition where all of the universities go. It was pretty fun. Waltz was mine & Alan’s best dance, got to dance four rounds of that. Then came a tie between the Quickstep and Cha with three rounds. And last, as usual, came the Jive with just the first round that everyone gets to dance. For some reason lately we just freeze up when it’s time to do the Jive and well… let’s just say that it was entertaining for the audience. Seriously, we knew half way through our attempts at our routine that we weren’t going to get through. Still, even though our Jive bombed, we were still the beginner couple that did the best from our team. Yay us. ^_^

I was over at Oliver’s for three weeks after Blackpool. I watched a lot of History Channel (there was this thing about Henry VIII’s wives) and knit. I also edited my Writing Project and now it’s ready to be handed in. I just still need to re-read my commentary and then it’s all completely done. And I’ve got a week to spare too. Oliver also bought an XBox 360 while I was there so we played a lot of Star Wars Lego. I’m not that big of a gamer, but there are some games that I quite enjoy. Like pretty much all of the Mario Bros. stuff and this Lego thing. Oliver also bought me the game Lost so I’ll be playing that once I go over there again. :)

The last week of Easter vacation I went back to Belgium for a few days with a few days spent in Finland in the middle (I, ahem, enhanced my stash a bit while I was there). At home I watched a lot of Grey’s Anatomy. I was aiming to see all of seasons two and three while I was there, but I still have three discs left of season three. At least now I know what I’ll be doing again while I’m over there.

Oh coming back from Belgium was not my ideal journey. Firstly, there was traffic and I was afraid that I wouldn’t make it to my train on time. Then we get to the Channel Tunnel and there’s a power outage. The conductor decides to go in anyway and try to get through it slowly. We get to about the middle and discover that there’s a train in front of us that has, and I quote, failed (I just love it when foreigners come up with inventive ways of describing situations). Failed how? I don’t know. Maybe it had just failed in its attempts at achieving train-ness. :P Anyway, I get to St. Pancras three hours late and guess what? There’s a “reported emergancy” so they’re evacuating everyone. When I got to Aber I learned that there had been a suspect package, this is according to the Eurostar website anyway. But! I race all the way to Euston with my very large and heavy suitcase. I have to buy a new ticket since my old one isn’t valid anymore and then I wait for the next train to Birmingham. I picked the train that had fewer stops and crossed my fingers that I might make it in time for the 2:33 train. Nope, I get there five minutes too late. The right platform, but five minutes too late so I have to wait two hours for the next one. *rolls eyes*

And now that I’m back in Aber I’ve been doing what I pretty much have done before. I watch DVDs, climb the hill quite a bit, dance and just now I began writing my final essay of my BA career. Already have my introduction written. The hardest part was deciding what to write about. Oh and another thing that I have to write is my PhD application letter thingy. I’m still waiting to hear from my tutor about specific questions about doing a PhD here in Aber, mainly if it’s possible to do it without having to live in Aber since I want to live in Sheffield with Oliver, and then I’ll hand that in as well.

Knitting-wise? I found a wonderful yarn shop in Sheffield called The Wool Baa during Easter. I went there and bought a hank of Lane Borgosesia Cashwool and a hank of Araucania Ranco Multi. I’ve already made a pair of Freya socks from the Araucania yarn. Then last night I began knitting Bad Penny with the bamboo/cotton yarn I got from Finland. The ballband doesn’t give the color a name, but it looks like an old dusty rose. Very pretty. I’ve also designed a pair of fingerless mitts. I’ve knit one and I figure that when I get bored with the Bad Penny I’ll just make the other one because right now, I’m loving the ease of just stockinette stitch compared to the colorwork I’d have to do on the mitten. Plus, it makes it easier to watch DVDs when I don’t actually have to look at what I’m doing. ;)

Oh oh oh! The shower’s fixed! On Monday when I got back I went to take a shower and it wasn’t working (as in no hot water), so I went downstairs and told the porters and then on Tuesday morning a guy came to fix it. It’s so nice to have a hot shower again. And it doesn’t feel like a certain someone has been fiddling with it since, so double yay. ^_^

Going to Blackpool today. The bus won’t be leaving until 3pm, but I’m gonna have to leave my room by 2:15 if I want to get up the hill with my four bags and not be a big puddle of sweat. I’d be fine if the bus would go to the usual pick up places that we have when we go to competitions; mine is down in town, so it’s all flat to get there. It’s the whole walking up the hill that I don’t like to do when I already feel like a mule. :P

I was supposed to meet Becky yesterday for lunch, but she was mugged Wednesday night. She posted about this on her blog, so I don’t feel like I’m talking about something private when it’s not really my news to tell. Anyway, we decided to meet up today instead so that she could just stay in and mellow out yesterday. Plans change and so we didn’t meet up today either; but she did explain why and that’s good enough for me. :) So I went to Subway by myself. That was such a good sandwich. Way better than what they serve at Spartakus. And if you get the Sub of the Day, it’s only £1.99. Yummy yummy.

I finished reading The Other Boleyn Girl. It’s like I couldn’t put it down. It was that good. Now I can’t wait until Thursday to go see it. ^_^

I cleaned the kitchen yesterday. And the hallway. And one of the bathrooms. It was all nice and clean and tidy. I go in the kitchen this morning? It’s all a mess again. Grrr. But Hannah does know that I’m not coming back from Blackpool with Aber team, so she said that she’ll try to get the flat into an okay shape for the upcoming inspection.