end of the semester.

I enjoy how I schedule and time my life by semester. Everything is school related. Gosh! I finished my semester with three As (Physical Science Lab, American Literature, Poetry of the Holocaust) and one B (English Literature). I am still waiting on two more classes to post their grades (American Sign Language and Physical Science) but I pretty much know what I got in those classes. I am supposed to know by tomorrow, around noon, my final grades. My GPA is still pretty high, exciting! And all those hours spent on papers and re-doing papers was well worth it!

I also applied to two four-year institutions and I am waiting to hear back from them. I sent my applications off about a week or so ago. Just waiting now. (I’m in community college for those who do not know).

On the knitting front! I finished all of my Christmas knitting. I am thinking on trying to finish one more scarf for my mom, but since I knit her the afghan, I’m not worried if I don’t finish the scarf. I might just give it to her for Valentine’s Day instead. Actually! That’s a great idea! Go me! Since I finished my Christmas knitting early, I started my own personal knitting up again. With the craziness of the semester and the Christmas knitting (started in October), I haven’t really had time to knit anything for myself. So here is my Calorimetry:

It was the best picture I could get at the time. I’ll have a better one coming soon.

It was knit out of Paton Classic Merino Wool, I forget the colorway. It only took me five hours (in one sitting, a lot of tv). I love it. I was a little worried that the color would not look good next to my hair, but I think it looks pretty good. I have made several of these for friends and family, but this was the first one I made for myself that I actually like! The last one I made was nice, but the colors matched nothing in my wardrobe. Bummer.

Now, I’m working on a floppy hat called Spin Me Right ‘Round, Baby! I saw the pattern on Ravelry (come find me, I’m “Lauren3″) and fell in love with it. I would prefer to have a different color instead of a dark gray. With my blond hair, brown would look lovely or a bright green (I am really starting to love green!) would also look nice. But I’m trying to knit through some of my stash and I had some left over Paton Classic Merino Wool from the boyfriend’s R-31 project (which I am still working on, I hate zippers and felting) that I thought would be great. I took this picture yesterday. I only knit the ribbing and the five rows of stockinette. Today, I’ve added about 2 1/2 – 3 inches of the swirl pattern. Its starting to really look good:

Kind of blurry. Sorry.

I’m knitting it on size three instead of the size four called. She used sock yarn and I’m using worsted weight. Big differences, but gauge is working mighty fine, plus, I want something warmer. I thought this would be great because it could easily hold my hair back on those chilly, windy days.

Alright, enough about me, now one to the Christmas gifts. I accidentally wrapped a couple people’s gifts before I could take the picture. But I’ll just get a picture of them wearing it, not a big deal. I’d prefer that really. Anywho, I crocheted two items for Christmas! Yay! I taught myself how to crochet. Good times.

So, my mom was bugging me to make a jacket for our dog. I refused and still think I will continue to refuse. I will not put my dog in a jacket! So, I made her a little throw which she can lay on. We have wooden floors in our front hallway, where she likes to lay. The floors can get mighty cold. This will be the solution:

Dog, on a throw, on a carpet.

It was made out of junk acrylic yarn I had in my stash since I started knitting. It looks nice and she seems to like it. It will be wrapped up for her for Christmas. Or just handed over. Probably just handed over. But I wanted to get a picture of her laying on it as soon as possible.

I also made my mother a small afghan. Very small. I didn’t measure and I have no clue how many stitches I started out in the chain (I taught myself to crochet on this, leave me be) but it looks nice. Good enough to wrap around her shoulders or lay on her lap on those chilly nights. I have been meaning to make this type of thing for the past year. I kept trying to knit it but that didn’t work out at all. I hated all the stockinette stitch and garter and I didn’t know how I was going to sew it together. So I thought, since crocheting afghans is a big deal in this family, I might as well learn:

Pretty!

For my first crochet project, I think it turned out well. I had to put a boarder around it because the edges looked horrible! And I am not quite sure how to sew in ends on double crochet. Oh well. First time crochet project since I was eight. A mighty improvement since eight. Now, its all wrapped up and ready to be given away.

And since I thought this was cute, I had to take a picture and post:

My dog seemed to feel that it was better used as a cape!

Night!

week of hell.

Hello everyone. Long time no see. I must admit, there is a reason for that. This past weekend has been hell-ish and this coming week seems like it will turn out a similar way! Gah! There is no rest for the college student who decided it was a great idea to become an English major. That research paper I did in one night? Remember? Yeah, well it was great! By far one of the best I have written. She hands it back to me last Thursday and gives me until today (Tuesday) to redo it! She doesn’t even give me a reason why it wasn’t “up to her standards”. So I tore my hair out attempting to write another research paper in less than five days!

I broke down a couple times (seriously, who wouldn’t?) but I got it finished and now I’m looking forward (not in a joyous way) to my next essay. A research paper on Gulliver’s Travels (Book Four). I chose the Yahoos and am writing a paper on the following thesis: “In Part Four of Gulliver’s Travels, the Yahoos are used as a satirical device to reflect the bad traits of mankind including behavior, intelligence and vice.” Sounds good, right? Yep. It is now just a matter of organizing my information in a manageable and logical way. Bah! I am hoping to get a chunk of it out of the way after I finish here. But we’ll see how far I get.

Last week, for Thanksgiving, the boyfriend came over with some flowers to wish me and mine a wonderful Thanksgiving. Recently, he’s been adorning me with flowers. He gave me half a dozen roses for my birthday, autumn flowers (that smelled like cinnamon) and wintery flowers this weekend because I was stressing out so much. Here are the cinnamon, autumn flowers:

Beautiful!

Then, I got some knitting done over Thanksgiving. I picked up the Ribbed Lace Bolero again after about two months of sitting at the bottom of my closet. I only had the three inches of ribbing completed when I picked it up and I am almost finished. I need about five more rows and I can start the three inches of ribbing and cast off. I hope to finish it before the end of the weekend. But we’ll see how I survive this week:

In the well lit “piano” room.

My best friend and I got together of Thanksgiving break and she gave me my birthday gift. Malabrigo kettle dyed pure merino wool in cinnabar (194) in worsted weight. I received two skeins! Beautiful! I am going to make Foliage from Knitty Fall 2007. I can’t believe it is the right yarn and everything! I think I’m going to double it up to make the chunky one. I want to make it a bit looser, like a berate. My hair is too massive to do anything else.

Malabrigo. Kettle dyed pure merino wool in cinnabar.

Lastly, I held my first Open Mic Night as the new Creative Writers Guild president last Wednesday. It went swimmingly! We had over 40 people show up (not all of them are in the picture) and we had over 22 performances! I was thrilled! I was even told it was the best open mic the school has had in a while (YAY!).

The crowd!

Okay. I think its about time I start working on my essay. My goal is to finish it tomorrow night. Or maybe I’ll work on my Christmas knitting. We’ll see.

Night!