School stuff

I got a First!!! *does happy dance* Oh I am so buying three skeins of yarn now instead of two. Just sayin’. Now I need to go find the final colorway to go with my Aww-tum and Printemps.

Last night there was an earthquake. I figured that since the epicenter was in Lincolnshire, that’s why I didn’t feel it. But no. There’s a comment in the “Have your say” section from someone in Aber saying that they could feel their floorboards move. Yeah, I slept through an earthquake. Did not feel a single thing. Oliver felt it (then again he’s up in Yorkshire anyway so it must’ve been stronger over there. I guess I just sleep like a log.

Anyway, I’ve gotten lots of knitting done. My scarf is half-way done; won’t work on it until tomorrow when I get on the train. While I’m still here, I’m going to try to finish up Clue 9 of the SSS since I can’t work on that while on the train. And I need to figure out what yarns to bring with me for my Easter vacation by tonight, since I’m taking up my suitcase to Sheffield tomorrow. There’s been a slight change in plans for next weekend. I was going to spend two nights with Oliver at Blackpool during IVDC, but the Sheffield team has decided to go back already on Saturday instead of Sunday (which is what the Aber team is doing), I’m not totally sure yet what I’ll be doing. I guess I could try to find a place for just me for the second night and come back with the Aber team on Sunday, or then start Easter vacation a week early and just go back with the Sheffield team and not come back to Aber at all for that one seminar. Hmm…

Today’s going to be busy. Just had a group meeting about our portfolios, I’m going over to Dani’s house and watching videos that were taken at NUDC with other team members at three, then at eight I’ve got plans to go see an Ingrid Bergman movie with Alan and Ghislaine. And I still need to pack, do homework, edit my portfolio before sending it to my teacher…

…

There was just a really loud noise from outside. I think it was like one of those air force planes, sorta like what Mud experiences in Camp Nowhere… Didn’t see anything, but I definitely heard and felt it. I don’t know of any army bases near here though. Oddness. Maybe the pilot got lost during training. :P

Where was I? Ah yes, NUDC. It was an interesting competition. Everything went fine, except Jive. First round, Alan and I walk onto the floor, the music starts… We just look at each other with the deer-in-headlights look and ask: “What were we supposed to do again??” So yeah, we knew that we wouldn’t get a recall for Jive. :P Amazingly enough, during the “Old Time Dance” (which was called “The Cypress Swing” I think), we got a recall while Oliver & Jo didn’t. It was a fun sequence dance. ^_^

Warning: rambling about yarn shopping here. Mostly just thinking outloud right now. *sigh* I want a job. No, what I actually want is money. But that money would go to buy yarn. So technically, really, all I want is yarn. And the time to knit the yarn. I’ve been drooling over the yarns at the Loopy Ewe and I still haven’t decided if I should order from there or from Lisa Souza. I know exactly what I’d get from Lisa Souza, but the Loopy Ewe has loads of different yarns in all of these really delicious colorways and I really really want to get a start on becoming a Loopy Groupie. *le sigh* Oh the choices I have to make. Yarn I know or something new? If I go for the new stuff, then what stuff exactly? And I know that if I order from the Loopy Ewe, it would make more sense to buy more than just the two skeins that I was thinking of because of the reduced shipping thing that Sherri does that Lisa doesn’t. With Lisa, my order would be about £22 (including shipping). From the Loopy Ewe, it’d probably be nearer £30 (with shipping). And I just know that if I order from Sherri, I’ll fall off the yarn diet wagon and go BOOM. Then again, if I save my Loopy Ewe order for a bit later and have it sent to Ellu’s once it’s confirmed that I’ll be there for Christmas… Oooooh that’d be the best way to save on shipping because it’s free shipping within the US when the orders are over $75. Which it definitely will be. Yes, I’ll start saving up for that. Then I won’t feel so bad. Okay, this weekend I’ll order from Lisa. And since I know what I’ll be getting, it should be easy too. Not get distracted by other colorways since I’ve seen them all before. XD

And now it’s time to read some more of Spenser’s Faerie Queene. That text just puts me to sleep. Read one Canto last night, by the end of it my eyes were drooping. A 20 oz. Chai tea would help me stay interested, but alas, I haven’t found a place over here that makes it. Which is a good thing actually. Saves me money.

It’s such a pretty day today. Cold, but pretty. Still all sunshine and no wind (unlike on Thursday). I would be outside, if I knew that I’d be moving around, but all I want to do is sit and knit or read. Again, it’d be the perfect day to do that and eat strawberries on the beach, except that it’s too cold to stay still. So I’ve got the strawberries next to me, sort of a lunch/snack while I catch up on my blogs and knit a bit more of my SSS. :) And now I want some sock yarn in a strawberries and cream type colorway. I’m sure there’s something on The Loopy Ewe.. Still need to wait two weeks before I can buy yarn though. It’ll be a tough wait. But in the mean time, I’m working my way through the stash; slowly but surely it’s getting smaller. :)

Speaking of staying still, I haven’t! I’ve been trudging up the hill at least four times a week, mainly because I have dance class four times a week (I don’t always go to the Friday one) and then my English lit class on another day. I’ve been up to the Sports Center so often that they know me at the front desk by now. I don’t even need to show my membership card anymore. ^_^

My social life has begun to pick up as well. Derya came over yesterday for some knitting time, then Ruth and Gabe are coming over tonight to watch Narnia, tomorrow’s the pub quiz… It’s a wonder I can force myself to work on my essay (which is a third done) when there are so many more fun things to do. And that my sleep cycle was interrupted last night when someone, who was most likely drunk, set off the fire alarm again. Grr. I liked waking up at eight! Now it’s all messed up again because I didn’t wake up until 9:30. Which is pretty early compared to when I used to get up, but still… I had an odd dream again. This time it had Ian Somerhalder, aka Boone from Lost, in it and he had this ability to fly and we were trying to get away from this huge red robot thing… then there was some green gas that took away the black mold that was growing on everyone’s teeth and… it was just weird. Maybe I should stop watching Lost…

I know I know, been quite for about a week now. Not much has really happened though, just the same stuff. Oliver’s birthday was on Saturday. We spent it at the Sheffield competition. Got to have lunch at Nando’s; something that never happens at other competitions because we don’t know where places are in the towns they’re held in. I bought him three DVDs for his birthday, I picked one that I knew he’d like and then I had him pick out two more. And I also got myself The Last of the Mohicans on DVD since it was only £3.

Yesterday I spent dancing. An hour in the morning, then two more in the afternoon. My feet are feeling mutinous. But that’s because my shoes I use for dancing aren’t proper dancing shoes. They slide around alot on the floor (which makes it very tricky to do the jive successfully). I think I might need to buy some gel pads or something before the next competition. Speaking of, it’s next weekend! Eep?

For some strange reason I keep waking up before eight. Like the whole of the past week, it’s been before eight. No alarm (except one morning when I had to get up early). It’s like: “Oh, I think it’s time to get up now.” So I sit up, look at my watch and see that it’s eight am. It’s really weird. Then again, I have been falling asleep before eleven as well, so that might be a reason why. I have a theory that the dream I had last night was my body’s way of telling me to wake up. It wasn’t really a nightmare by “normal” standards, as in no scary-ness, no panicking, etc. What happened? Well, in the dream I was wearing my Isabella, the tank top that took me forever to knit. I took it off and there was this huge gaping hole in the side! Like a moth or something had eaten away at it. Except that it’s made out of cotton, so it wasn’t that. And no matter what I did, I couldn’t fix it and the stitches just kept dropping and unravelling and… it was bad. So yeah, I think that’s my body’s way of telling me to get up and check on my knitting. XD

I’ve finally begun writing my &%$(* essay. I so don’t want to do it. Nothing is inspiring me, I have no opinions about the texts. Well, actually, I do have an idea about one of them, but I’m going to use that one for my second essay where we have to compare a text from the first part to a text from the second part. So now, I’m just muddling along writing about death and desire and how those two elements make Romeo & Juliet a tragedy. I know, not very original. But it was one of the questions set by the teacher, so he can’t really complain at me about it.

I sent off my MA application yesterday. Now it’s just a wait-and-see game. No idea when they’ll announce their decision. I mean, first they have to receive the transcripts and reference letters which I mailed yesterday and then they’ll probably take a month or two to decide… I also mailed my grandfather’s birthday present. Silly me forgot to take pictures before sending it so now that project is blank on Ravelry… Oh! I know what I’ll give Auri for her birthday! Not telling you all because you might blab. Plus, I think she reads this, don’t you Auri? :P

Derya, another Aber knitter, might be coming over later today. We’ve made tentative plans, but she too has an essay to write and some of her friends might be coming over to Aber today, so we’ll see. If not today, then we’ll meet up sometime next week. We were planning on knitting on the beach, but it’s gotten kinda cold again. Still really sunny, but the wind has picked up and makes it feel like it’s below freezing when it really isn’t. At least Sunday-Tuesday they’re predicting +10C and sunny skies. From Wednesday onwards it’ll be colder and more rain though…

The fire alarm woke me up at 7:30. Stupid drills they make us do. They saw all of us out there last night when it was raining! Someone obviously doesn’t know how to cook. But at least it was an actual fire that they managed to put out before the fire department got here. And how do I know all of this? The smoky smell had wafted on over to our flat and from outside I could see that the kitchen window of the neighboring flat were all steamed up. Still. People, this a Public Service Announcement: Do Not try to cook when you’re a) drunk, b) high and/or c)forgetful (or more likely Stupid) enough to leave stuff in the oven/on the stove unattended. It’s common sense.

On the brighter side of things, because I was awake at 7:30, even if it was not of my own volition, it’s not even noon yet and I’ve already done today’s quota of working on my Writing Project. Over 5,000 words now. About 500 words ago, I was thinking that there’s no way I can fluff up my story to be 6,000 words. Now I’m thinking that the remaining 1,000 won’t be enough to finish it. I just had an idea of a great twist to add to it and that’ll most likely take me over my limit (which is actually 6,600 words since we’re allowed to swing 10% either way). Ah well, I can edit it later. At least it isn’t due until mid-April.

I’ve finally begun using my blow-dryer that I got for Christmas: Awesome. Especially the little cold air button that sets the hair in place when I’m wanting a more straighter look than what it is naturally. ^_^

Well, I’ve finished Clue 5 and started Clue 6 of the SSS. I’m still wanting to buy sock yarn. Still resisting. I made a Foliage hat on Monday. Had a marathon session of Desperate Housewives and made the hat in one day. It’s so cool. I used the Rowan felted tweed yarn that I got from Anji for Christmas. Didn’t even use up one ball of it. Okay, so the pattern says worsted or bulky weight yarn, but I used sport-weight with 4mm circs following the worsted weight pattern. So lacy and so pretty. Here is a pic of the one I made. It actually kinda goes with my Branching Out scarf. I guess it’s just leaves all around. Last night I was thinking about designing my own scarf because I want to make one, but I can’t find any patterns that I like (besides the Branching Out which I’ve already made). So, I already do have an idea, now I just need to swatch a bit and figure out exactly what I’ll be doing before I knit it up.

Back in Aber and yep, I’ve showered! It’s so nice being able to just hop in the shower and wash away all the dirt whenever I want. It is admittedly an awful shower for two reasons: the water pressure/temperature combo doesn’t work well (the hotter the water, the less pressure there is) and it’s icky icky icky because it looks like no one here has cleaned it for the month that I’ve been away. Good thing I’ve got cleaning supplies just itching to be used in my laundry corner of the room. After my first shower, I just kept repeating at random intervals: “I’m clean!” in the sort of squeeing voice that Lime & Violet get when looking at yarn. Oliver thought it was funny the first few times, but then he kinda began chalking it up to me being my weird self and stopped reacting.

So yes, Oliver came with me to Aber. ^_^ We got here on Thursday evening, since they wanted him to come in to work in the morning. We had planned on taking the 8:53 a.m. train, but with the deadlines looming… we did get here eventually. :) I’ve forgotten how uncomfortable it is sleeping in a single bed with another person. Especially in this bed, which isn’t the comfiest to begin with. I guess that could be one reason why I keep waking up earlier than usual.

I’ve lost, no, misplaced one of my needles. I put it in my suitcase and now it’s not there. :( It’s okay, I’ve got two extras, but it’s still sad. Now I’ve got three dpns, instead of four. What am I going to do with just three dpns? Well, keep knitting my shawl, obviously, but what if I had wanted to make a sweater in the round with these? When one dpn of a set of four has gone AWOL, the remaining three are kinda useless… Oh, never mind, disregard that paragraph. I found the needle in the suitcase. It was hiding from me. Probably thinks it’s funny to annoy me like that. Silly 2,25 mm dpn.

I’ve only got two hours a week of classes this semester. o_O Seriously, what?? I love being a student, but this is getting kinda ridiculous. And I don’t even have any lectures. I miss them, just sitting there and listening while others talk to me and not expect me to comment on anything. For the first class, we have to have read Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. I’ve never actually had to study it, so it’s my first time reading it. I started on Friday and now I’m already into Act 4. Should be fine for Tuesday afternoon. I’ve also been thinking that since I’ve got practically nothing to do, I might as well try to get a job. I’ve seen some vacancies being advertised in shop windows, so if they’re still there today (and they’re open obviously) I’ll go in and ask about the positions. It’d be nice to get back to earning some money.

I’ve found a new podcast to listen to: Stash & Burn. I think they were advertised on L&V at some point, but only just now have I begun listening to them. I figured I needed something new since I’ve listened to all of L&V four times now and all of Cast On twice. I did try out that Australian man’s knitting podcast, but it just didn’t grab me. Haven’t actually listened to a whole podcast yet, since I’ve been hanging out with Oliver, but I will once I’ve got that ridiculous amount of free time.

Okay, so there are these ads on the sidebar of my browser. They’re kinda funny actually. The first one is about scrapbooking and other sorts of paper crafts, the second is “10 Rules Losing Belly Fat”, then pole dancing and burlesque lessons, then “Burlesquercise DVD” and finally, “Wedding 1st Dance Lessons”. Maybe someone thinks I need to lose weight and I’d do it by dancing? XP

I don’t know if I’m competing this Sunday or not. I haven’t heard anything from Alan, my partner. And seeing as it is a Sunday, not a Saturday.. wait, it doesn’t matter since I don’t have class on Monday. Oh well. So it now depends on if Alan can make it or not. We’ll see.

Didn’t go to Leicester this weekend. Mainly because everyone else who was going had already made plans to go to clubbing, and that’s not really my kind of way of spending a weekend. So instead Oliver and I went to eat at Pizza Express on Saturday and then just hung out, watching movies in his room. Speaking of pizza, on Friday, after Oliver tried to help one of his mom’s friends set up a router for her laptop (turns out she only had a router, not a router/modem thingy), we went to get pizza from Pizza Hut. While we were waiting for our order, a man with a collection tin and some roses comes out from the restaurant section. He’s collecting donations for children with leukemia (I assume it was to help them and help fund research) and for £2 you get a rose. Oliver was about to say no, but then he changed his mind and gave £2. Picked out a deep red rose and gave it to me. That’s the first time ever that he’s bought me a flower. It’s in a vase on his desk right now. :D

I’ve finished reading Suzannah Dunn’s The Sixth Wife. Now I can’t decide should I read Alison Weir’s Innocent Traitor or Lauren Weisberger’s Everyone Worth Knowing (she’s the one who wrote The Devil Wears Prada so I expect this one to be similaryly good). More historical fiction or funny fashion-y type world? Whatcha think?

I know I moan about not being able to shower. And I know that one of Oliver’s mom’s friends has said that I can just go over to her house and shower there if I want to. But the thing is, I feel really odd doing that. I don’t really know her in the sense that I can feel okay about using her shower. Even when I was a kid, I didn’t want to shower over at my friends houses during sleepovers because it just didn’t sit well with me. I pretty much always waited until I got home to shower. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I felt that I could shower at my best friends’ places. Now, well, this showering thing has gotten a bit better. I feel fine showering over at places where I know I’ll be for awhile. But just going over to a neighbor’s place to shower? Not quite there yet. Maybe one day I will. Maybe I won’t. But hopefully, I’ll never have a non-working shower again without a spare being available.

Clue 3 of the SSShawl is done. Just finished it about an hour ago. Good thing I only have to wait until tomorrow to get Clue 4. There is a small mistake in the Bird’s Eye part where I had dropped two stitches and they’d unraveled to the next row before I caught them. I didn’t know then, and probably still don’t, how to fix it so that it’d look like the rest of the pattern, but I did make sure that they wouldn’t continue to unravel. I just wish that when people see that I’m concentrating on my knitting, especially when I’ve pointed out before that it’s a complicated lace pattern that I haven’t done before so I didn’t quite have the hang of it yet, that they wouldn’t try to draw my attention away from my counting or whatever it happens to be that I’m doing. That’s how I dropped the stitches, I was being talked to and I don’t want to be rude so I try to listen and then I mess up. And since I was getting kinda eh about working on just one project, I decided to use the Mirasol Hacho (in Peacock Ripple) yarn that I got from Anji for Christmas. At first I thought about socks, but then decided that since it is DK weight, I’d rather make something else out of it, like fingerless mitts. I didn’t find anything from the only knitting book I had available for perusal in Sheffield (Stitch’N’Bitch Nation by Debbie Stoller), so I tried to design my own using the Clover lace pattern that was used in a wrap sweater in the book. Didn’t look too good, so I went on the Net. Knitty didn’t really have any designs that I liked either. Then I remembered Magknits! Front cover of the latest issue? Yep, I’m making Evangelines. They’re so pretty! I’ve already done the left hand one and I’m halfway through the second one. I also modified the pattern just a little bit. I’m doing the long version, and while I was knitting the first one, I forgot how many repeats of the cable I was supposed to do before the thumb hole. Then when I checked the pattern, I had done one too many. Not that I mind, of course. So now I’ve got a total ten repeats instead of nine on my gloves. The second modification is the number of stitches. I added eight stitches to the underside of the glove since my yarn is thinner than the yarn the designer used. So they’re a bit snug, but that’s okay. I can’t wait to wear them when I won’t need a big poofy coat anymore. :)

I did some more writing today. Past the halfway mark now. As long as it’s quiet, maybe with a little music playing softly in the background, it comes to me really easily. Especially when I get to sit at a table or desk (but that’s only now, sometimes it’s easier if I’m sitting on the bed on leaning against the radiator in my room; it just varies). But when everyone’s home and the TV’s blaring and people are talking over the already loud TV and there’s cigarette smoke wafting about…

The power went out yesterday. First, my laptop stopped receiving power from the socket it was plugged into. I thought that maybe it had come loose so I checked all of the joins in the power lead. Then the lights in Oliver’s room went out. But the lights in the rest of the house were okay as was his computer which was plugged into a different socket. At first we thought it was because his dad is currently in the middle of redoing the bathroom and he’d done something to it. Everything else was fine upstairs though. Turns out that a fuse had blown because the washing machine, stove, oven, kettle and TV were all on and using the same fuse. Oliver’s dad fixed it so that the washing machine would use a different fuse from now on.

Going to the movies tomorrow with Oliver and Shaun to see Alien vs. Predator: Requiem. Not really my kind of movie, but they want to see it and Oliver’s willing to pay for my ticket, so I’m not gonna whine about it. A movie’s a movie. Even if it is kinda scary and it’s got weird creatures slowing killing off each other and the humans that get in the way…

The SSShawl is going swimmingly. I just completed row 80 of Clue 2. Of course, others have already completed Clue 3 which came out on Tuesday. Oh well, I’ll catch up to them eventually. The shawl is uber pretty. The alpaca sometimes gets kinda stuck on the needles, but only if I’ve been holding it in my moist hand for awhile. I say moist because they’re not really sweaty, but not so dry as to make the yarn slippy on the needles. Which is actually kinda good in the sense that at least my stitches won’t be randomly jumping off into the ether where the only rescues available come in the forms of crochet hooks and tinking. I do not frog lace. Too risky.

They drained my arm today. Took my life essence. With my permission of course. But now my left arm is kinda achy at the join where they stuck the needle. Apparently, I’m a quick bleed. XD

I got permission to change my Writing Project story and I’ve already got two fifths of it written. It’s so cool to be able to write about knitting and fibre and stuff in a really odd way and then be graded on it too.

I’ve finished reading Suzannah Dunn’s The Queen of Subtleties and have started on her older book The Sixth Wife. So far, the Anne Boleyn story was more interesting, but I figure that there’ll be some juicy bits ahead if the blurb on the back is to be believed. Here’s hoping. *crosses fingers*

Went to see Will Smith’s “I Am Legend” yesterday. It was pretty good actually. The dog in it was so adorable. Reminded me of Mocca. Kinda figures since both are German Shepherds. But Mocca is way blacker than the dog in the movie. Oliver’s dad said that he can’t see us, meaning me and Oliver, not owning a pet. Well, we have been talking about getting a puppy once we’ve got the space for one, but right now, we don’t even have enough space for ourselves. It doesn’t help that the only bathroom in the house is kinda unusable at the moment. I mean, the toilet works just fine, but because they’re redoing it, they’ve taken the tiles off the walls around the bathtub so that the plumber can fit in the new bathroom set in about a week’s time. Meaning that the shower can’t be used because the water would leak into the kitchen. The tiles were taken off last Wednesday. Which means that I haven’t been able to have a proper shower in over a week now. I have managed to wash my hair bent over the tub and just washing up in the sink every morning, but that’s still not the equivalent of a shower. When I first heard that they’re redoing the bathroom I was kinda looking forward to seeing the new one. I figured I could deal with not being able to use the shower for a week. But then they switched plumbers and the fitting was pushed back by another week. And said that next Wednesday the plumber is half dismantling the toilet so instead of pushing the lever to flush it, we have to use a bucket. This is England, but not medieval England. I’m a city girl! I like nature, yes, but do you see me going camping? No, I only go on hikes because I know that I need to use modern day facilities at the end of the day. So this actually gives me something to look forward to next week when I go back to Aber on Thursday. Oliver feels the same way about the whole bucket thing, so he’s trying to get time off so that he can come to Aber with me. Another thing that’ll make me happy! Aber’s starting to look very good. A hot shower and alone time with Oliver. XD

Ooh, just remembered. We were invited to go to Leicester this weekend. So I might be able to shower at Russel’s… I hope I can. I knew immediately that the Christmas gift (two Westlife CDs) I got from Shaun & Russel was picked out by Russel. We’d had a little talk about Westlife the last time we saw each other in about October (maybe it was November?) and he remembered! ^_^

I have begun two things: working on homework (yeah, I know, me actually doing something instead of procrastinating!) and the Spring Shawl Surprice. I think I’m on Row 30 or so of the first clue on the shawl. It’s turning out pretty well. No way I’ll be able to catch up before the next clue is released (Tuesday). But hey, it’s not a race, so as long as I keep knitting a few rows every day, I should be fine. :) Also, the Herring Socks are hibernating for now. As is my Tempting. But they should come back out of the bag soon. It’s just that the shawl drains all of my knitting mojo after about five rows. Then again, those five rows equal about 700 stitches on teeny tiny needles with super thin yarn.

The homework thing? It’s the Writing Project which makes me almost want to just be done with it. Like I said earlier, I keep getting ideas for it but I just don’t feel like writing. Maybe because it’s not as fun as the other stuff I’ve written before. Hmm… I could e-mail my teacher and ask if I could change the idea just a little bit so that it’d be a sequel to one of my other stories. Then I’d really get to use my imagination because the first part had “living” dead people in it and all sorts of fun stuff. It was a really lighthearted take on the afterlife, sort of aimed at 10-14 year olds. We’ll have to see how that works out.

I’ve also been reading a bit. Right now I’m in the middle of Suzannah Dunn’s The Queen of Subtleties. It’s told by two people in alternating chapters; one from Anne Boleyn’s point of view where time moves a lot faster and then from King Henry VIII’s sole female confectioner Lucy Cornwallis’s point of view where the narrative is more scenes of interactions with others she comes in contact with whereas Anne’s voice is basically a letter she’s writing to her daughter Elizabeth about how E’s parents met before Anne is beheaded. I thought that Suzannah wrote so well that yesterday when I met Oliver after work I bought The Sixth Wife by her as well as two other books (it was a 3 for 2 sale at the bookstore). No idea when I’ll have the time to read them all, but I assume it’ll be at Aber instead of at here where I’ve got TV shows (ha, just typed in shoes, goes to show I am a girl :P) to catch up with while I knit. Nothing too engrossing though, since it is a lace shawl I am working on. Mainly Animal Cops Detroit and Houston, Crime Central and Dr. Phil. Basically, it’s just a narrator that tells me what’s going on. XD

Guess who’s sick again. That’s right. Me. >_< At least whatever it is that I have is going away now. Yesterday was not pretty, but today I felt okay enough to go to Meadowhall with Oliver. Bought some jeans. The exact same ones that I bought about two months ago but a size smaller. Hopefully, these ones will stay up even after they stretch.

Christmas was good. I made the Christmas Day food already on the 23rd. (Thing is what I call the dishes I made. The literal translation of the word into English would be box and that’s not what the food is, so thing is what I’m designating it as.) The swede thing turned out perfectly, the potato thing was okay but not quite right and the carrot thing, well, needed more carrots. Good practice for next year when Oliver and I go to Hawaii over to Ellu’s for Christmas and New Year’s. The Christmas Eve meal was easy to make since it was mainly just setting the fish dishes onto the table. No further preparation needed. The present side of Christmas? Very nice haul indeed. Jaz had this awesome calendar made for me; it’s all pictures of me. Very narcissistic, I know. But just all of the thought that went into it, like sneaking onto my MSN Msgr account to talk to people I know in Aber and ask them for pics of me and then getting them to keep quiet about it… :D Then from Anji, Oliver’s sister, got me yarn! It’s so nice to actually get stuff I’ve asked for. And, she got me this sport weight Peruvian sock yarn in the exact colorway I’d been eyeing at the store! So yes, I was very pleased with that gift. I also got the hairdryer and curler that I’d already requested for my birthday (my parents), a bag for my camcorder and camera (from Oliver’s parents), Oliver & I got matching shirts from Jade :D, lots of chocolate (always good) and a jigsaw puzzle that I won’t attempt until I’ve got the time and space for it. It’s only 1500 pieces, which was kind of a let down at first, but then I saw the picture and it’s like whoa. It’s in the style of one of those Where’s Waldo? picture books. Everything looks so much alike. And no Waldo to find either. Since I didn’t have the time to do it at home and no space up here in Sheffield, it’ll have to wait until Oliver and I find a place of our own before I attempt to complete it. What’s another five months or so before I get to do another jigsaw puzzle? :P

On the day that I left, Mocca followed me around everywhere and looked kinda mopey. I guess she knew I was going. Dogs are smart that way.

While I was at home, we all watched Disney’s “The Fox & The Hound”. Jade had never seen it before and when we got to the part where the lady leaves Tod in the forest, all four of us watching were teary. Then Jade started crying, which got my mom crying which in turn made me shed a few tears. Jaz was at the other end of the living room shielding her gaze from us saying: “I can’t see you, I can’t see you. I am not going to cry…”

New Year’s Eve wasn’t that interesting really. Oliver and I spent it in London with Anji&Steve and Dave (Steve’s older brother). Went to the Roses (a pub) and we missed the actual minute Big Ben struck midnight by a few minutes! It was… odd. The whole evening was kinda boring in the sense that I didn’t really know anyone there besides the people I went there with. I did get to meet the man who made the jewelry Oliver got me as a Christmas present last year. :) Some people are really funny when they’re drunk. Oliver and I were sitting side by side on the bench holding hands. Someone had just told a joke or something so we were both smiling. This drunk girl walks past us, randomly says Happy New Year to one person who’s in our group, takes a look at us and really giddly says: “You two look so happy! Are you getting married??” I just grinned back and held up my empty left hand and said: “Uh, no?” :D

I’ve been working on the multicolor/multiyarn Clessidras. They’re getting to be a pain actually. I discovered that I had made a mistake when translating a part of the pattern (I do it in sections as I need them) into a toe-up only until I had already done the heels on both socks. I thought: “Oh well. Not ripping back all the way to the toe.” So I flubbed it and now the cables are sort of where they’re supposed to be, except they’re twisting in opposite directions than in the original pattern. Another “Oh well” moment there when I realized that. I’ve done the ankle increases on one of the socks, but it was so annoying, that I’ve put them aside for a bit. Besides, I need more leftover yarn to complete them with. Which is why I’ll be making some Red herring (or in my case purple and oatmeal) socks so that I’ll have more to use in Clessidra. I also tried swatching for the Spring Shawl Surprice, but my needles are too blunt for the yarn and pattern. Also, since I knit continental but purl eastern, patterning on both sides is a bee-eye-tee-see-aitch. Trust me. Still, I’m not giving up. I’ll keep downloading the clues as they come out and hopefully I’ll get the motivation to try it again a bit later. In the mean time, I’ve got Jeanie to keep me entertained. It’s like Miss V put it: it’s the Clapotis on crack. And I love it. So what did I do so that I could make this wonderful wrap? I want yarn shopping of course. I didn’t plan on buying anything for myself when I went in to the store in Belgium. I had promised my mom that I’d translate the Hedera sock pattern into Finnish for her and she wanted some yarn and needles. So into the shop we went. Bear in mind that this particular store sells little trinket jewelry and lingerie and stuff at the front and on the back wall they’ve got yarn with a few shelves that hold needles and buttons and zippers and ribbons. Guess what I found. Regia sock yarn for 3.95€ per skein!! In Sheffield, that stuff costs at least £3.70 (4,95€ and $7,31 according to Google). What did I do? What any self-respecting sale and/or yarn shopper does: I bought eight skeins of a blue-white colorway thinking that it was the 3.95€. At the till, I find out that it’s actually 3.25€ a skein! I was on such a high that day. ^_^ Also, on the day that I left, my mom started making the Hederas. She started a bit before noon and every so often she’d say: “I’d forgotten how much fun this is.” By the time I was in the waiting area at the train station in Brussles that night, she called me to ask exactly what I meant when I written out the heel instructions. Yep, I’ve gotten her hooked, so to speak. Maybe now that both she and Jade have tried knitting, they’ll keep each other interested in it instead of putting away the needles again. A cool thing that I discovered tonight: I can knit in the dark. Oliver and I were watching an episode of House and he turned off the light. At first I was like: “But I need it…” then I tried a few stitches. Voila! Being able to work on my Tempting while watching TV is very good. Because otherwise it’ll just bore me to death. Seriously. I have another two inches of 2x2 rib to do and I want to poke my eye out just to get rid of the monotony. Even Oliver knows this. When he saw it, he was like: “That’s a very uninteresting pattern for you…” I need something that occupies my brain! Like the Jeanie that I’ll start working on soon-ish.

Oliver’s been working on the language program thing a lot tonight. I keep hearing my own voice. I’m getting used to it, but it still manages to make me cringe once in a while. Do I seriously sound like that??

I think this is enough babble for one night. But it should make up for the over three week silence. Either life is too busy for me to write about it or then nothing happens and there’s no point in blogging about it. Either way, I don’t seem to write a lot lately. Hmm, I guess I should get cracking on my Writing Project piece, huh… it’s due in April. I know it seems far away, but with the ideas I have for it so far, it’ll take a lot of rewriting the 2000 words or so that I already have and then I need to add another 4000 or so + commentary. That’s a lot of work.. o_O