eveglass | Entries tagged with knitting

The plan for today was simple: run some errands I need to get done before the weekend (and can't do any other time, because stores are closed tomorrow and I work business hours for the rest of the week), get home and relax, or otherwise see what interesting things are going on.

Instead, I have so far spent 5-6 hours travelling to or sitting in clinics (not for me, thankfully), having lunch, moving heavy carpeting, and driving in rush-hour traffic. And discovered that by the end of these things, my bank was closed. Boo.

On the up-side, my first knitting project, a tiny coin pouch, is finished (except for the addition of a button). It doesn't look quite like the picture, because I sewed up the seems too low so the flap hangs lower. Also, I discovered I hate "knit 2 together." Also, it's very, very small. It might be a dice bag... for two dice.

Anyway. Now I'm home, and I think my plan for the evening will involve gelato. I shouldn't, but I'm going to anyway, because I'm frustrated at how the rest of my day turned out. Blargh.

Last time I tried to knit, back in 2005 when I was at Massey, I learned two things:

1. It takes a long time to knit anything, especially when you're using small needles (which I foolishly was).
2. I somehow managed to learn it wrong, so that all my purls (or maybe my knits) were twisted. The effect on simple stocking stitch was actually quite pretty, but it made increases and decreases hellish.

Consequently, I let it lapse. I had better things to do with my time, or so I said.

But, now that I have quite a bit of free time, as well as friends who knit, I figured I'd give it another try. Last time, I think I was knitting English style. This time I'm going for Continental, just for variety's sake. After about 2 hours, I've got knitting mostly figured out, though purling is still giving me some problems. I'll get it eventually, I'm sure.

That said, do any of my knitting friends know of any easy, fast, online patterns I can try for a first project? Free as well, ideally. I'm thinking something small that uses knits, purls, and maybe some simple increases or decreases.

Also, where's the best place in Montreal for knitting supplies?

Today has been a good day. I completely finished knitting the hat to go with Isabelle's sweater, and had JUST enough yarn to put a pom-pom on top. Now I have absolutely no yarn left, so I won't be tempted to do any more projects, which is just as well. The sweater needs buttons, but that's all. I figure I'll buy them AFTER boxing day.

Also, after feeling completely sedentary for over a week, I pulled out my DDR pad today. I have vowed to myself that I will play at least 30 minutes a day, according to the game-clock (it works out to about 45 minutes total). Today went well. I broke out a sweat and feel good about that.

Latin is progressing slowly but steadily. I'm trying to do 10 new verbs a day to have the entire list in Kennedy memorized by the time school starts up again. I haven't been doing as much reading as I should, but at least I'm expanding my vocab.

Finally, tonight celebrates one of the few rituals I still have with my dad: every Christmas Eve we drive through the city, looking at the Christmas lights and listening to The Shepherd on CBC radio. Afterwards, we try to find an open Dunkin Donuts and usually wind up settling for Tim Hortons, upon which we have a Christmas donut. (Yes, today I prefer Timmy's, but it's the principle of the thing.) We've done this every year for a long time, probably since my parents divorced (over 15 years!). See, even the Jews have Christmas rituals! *grin*

That's it for now, folks. I may post again before bed, or not. We shall see.

Current Mood: doing stuff

Today's theme is "cycles."

( Spinning around my day )

I handed in my first paper today. It's not my best by a long shot, and I'm not particularly happy with sections of it, all of which is disturbing given that it's worth 75% of my final grade. But it's in, and I'm not going to worry about it anymore. What happens, happens.

In other news, you know you're with a group of graduate-school medievalists when, in watching B5, one of them realizes that Valen would have shown up around 1260, making him a contemporary of Thomas Aquinas. They then go on to theorize about Valen / Thomas Aquinas / Robert Grosseteste fanfic. I'm hanging out with ~~nerds~~ academics. For the record, we began today with War Without End and stopped at And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place. Tomorrow we finish up season 3 and hopefully get a few episodes into season 4. I'd post my favourite quotes from today (and there were many, that's what happens when you have Zathras and Marcus featured prominently), but I'm lazy and in the mood to read.

Also, I got my knitting back and have almost finished the first sleeve. That happens when you watch 5 episodes in one night.

Anyway, that's it from me. Tomorrow I will try to get my ISIC card and do ~~more~~ research for my second paper. I'd say "more research," but I haven't really done that much to start with beyond the primary text. G'night all.

Okay, first a few annoyances today:

( Stupid day. Stupid annoyances. )

That out of the way, I've been saying for a while that there are many pictures I'd like to have as livejournal icons. However, I'm not necessarily willing to shell out money for them. So instead, I've posted them to my geocities site and will put them up as pictures here, with little explanations next to each one. If anyone likes them, please let me know and I may be tempted to give LJ my money after all.

( Onwards to icons! )

So that's it. I hope you enjoyed it. Again, if you liked any of these and would actually like to see them as LJ icons for me, let me know! G'night for now!

After a more-or-less boring day of Latin and a tiny bit of work on my papers, I went to game tonight. Because this group tends to take much longer on each character than I'm used to, and beacuse our characters haven't all met up yet, I knew I'd have a fair amount of down-time. I also know myself well enough to understand that I get really fidgity unless my hands are doing something. So I brought my knitting.

All told, my character didn't do much. Two of the other characters, however, did have Exciting Adventures (tm) involving cars with rocket launchers, people who didn't die nearly as fast as they should have, two exciting escapes from near-certain death, and a wicked gunfight. There was a line of the night, but I have forgotten it.

By the end of the night, I had finished the second panel of Isabelle's sweater. I'm actually quite pleased with it. In total, that makes both front panels finished. I would have started the sleeve except that I didn't have my smaller needles with me. Ah well. You can't have everything. On the upside, I was then able to use my now-free needles to threaten people who were talking during other people's scenes ("I have knitting needles, and I'm not afraid to stab you with them!")

And now it's late and I'm going to sleep. Tomorrow: laundry, PIMS, possibly lunch with my aunt, possibly a religious service and high tea at Massey, possibly other things as well. Almost certainly more Latin. G'night all.

First, I love my new icon. Thanks, Joane!

Next, a few people have asked me lately how things have been going. Never one to disappoint my masses of devoted fans, here's a quick update on school stuff and other stuff:

( School )

( Knitting )

( Massey and other upcoming events in my social life )

There. Now you're up to date on all the current stuff about me. Look what I do for you. :)

G'night.

I have finally, finally finished all the Social History readings. I can't believe I read 500 pages in 5 days. My brain is full of mush. But it is done. Now all I have to do is remember it until Thursday.

In other productive news, my second toque is offically 11 rows and one seam away from being finished! Yay!

Current Mood: accomplished

I spent most of this afternoon at Massey, with a brief excursion to the Toronto public library. I have determined that there are not enough books there I'm interested in to be worth getting a library card, so that was that. In pleasing news, about 30 seconds after I settled in to the Massey common room, the heavens opened and a torrential downpour started. The timing was, shall we say, perfect.

I had dinner at Massey and then spent an hour with the Knit-Wits, Massey's knitting club. My next toque is about 2 1/2" knit, which means 6 1/2" (+ 12 rows) to go. Given that I started this week, I'm quite happy with the progress.

Then one of my Massey buddies was showing the last 3 episodes of Blackadder Goes Forth, in which our protagonist Blackadder is a captain in world war one trenches. I love British comedy.

Tomorrow I have many classes and possibly dinner with a friend. G'night!

Today I went to a book launch for one of my favourite professors. He's a great guy, and the one who's been helping me A LOT with the transcription of my manuscript pages. He's also quite a funny speaker, mostly because he's so self-depreciating.

There was also free food. And, as I mentioned to many people tonight, "if grad school isn't about free food, what IS it about?" (I'm certain some people in the audience will mention things like "studying," "papers," "research," and so forth. This is obviously ridiculous.)

My new toque is currently about 1 1/2" knit... 7 1/2" (+12 rows) to go.

And now, to shower and then to sleep. For the curious, tomorrow is Trust Your Intuition Day. Consider yourselves informed. Tomorrow might also contain more free food, and this pleases me. G'night all.

I have just finished my first-ever knitting project, a toque for Lewiscraft's knit for kids program. Yes, this means I will never actually wear the toque, since it's not mine. Therefore, I snapped a few pictures of it for posterity.

( Pictures behind this cut )

That is all. (For now! Mwhahaha...)

I hereby begin the long months of waking up before sunrise. I hate waking up in the dark. Sigh.

I realize that I didn't post an update last night. BAD Julie! So here's what I did yesterday, to satisfy curious minds:

( In a nutshell: Not Pr0n eats my brain, Dougie Maclean doesn't, knitting is fun, schoolwork isn't )

And, for today, I've got:
- class at 9: Medieval Social History => life stages (birth, youth, marriage, widdowhood, death)
- studying and lunch at Massey
- class at 1: Latin => more grammar review (which I am beginning to truly loathe)
- studying and photocopying
- home in the evening waiting for Sears to deliver my bookcase
- possibly chilling at Massey afterwards, possibly not

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eveglass

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Random Ramblings

A journal dedicated to nothing and everything

Entries tagged with knitting

Let's not do that again

Trying again

Productivity, thy name is me

Cycling in place

One down...

Icons, anyone?

Things that go boom in the knit

Another day done

Productivity, thy name is me

Knitting and British comedy

Free food!

I made a toque!

Waking up in the dark