She's Back

Excuse my hiatus, I'm long overdue on a blog post! There have been all these little things accumulating in my life, but nothing seemingly substantial enough to post.

So... what's new you ask? How did it become June?! May just whizzed by, and it strikes fear into my heart that the summer will follow in this fashion. I've read about 13 books (go me!), done so many knitting projects, and have been working too much (as per usual).

Totally finished with the Harris series. They were absolutely adorable, but sometimes a girl just wants a little closure! I just keep trying to figure out if S will end up with one guy or another. A little frustrating, but juicy and entertaining nonetheless. It's been beautiful outside, so it seems wrong to have the doldrums of Crime and Punishment as my reading material right now, but it does keep a nice balance. I'm almost finished with it, and it definitely is keeping me on the edge of my seat. Let's hope the following in my book list is a little more upbeat {crosses fingers}.

Knitting! I am always astounded that my knitting world can exponentially expand as it does. More ideas to knit, more yarn brilliance, etc. If I could, I would try to find a career in knitting. Wouldn't that be nice? It's so hard to think about ways to make a career out of knitting though. It's not a lucrative field, to say the least.

I'm so proud of myself, last month I completed all my classes for HPKCHC! 6 whole projects, plus I was an OWL TA. Not to mention I had finals, and had to finish my courses. I really hope I can keep up my shining record this month. The only problem is that I have set my sights much too high. All my ideas for classes are socks. Socks usually take me 2 weeks to do. Since there are only 4 weeks in June... that would be a grand total of 2 pairs. Not the 5 that I would wish to do. The good news is that I have 1.5 socks done, and it's only the 5th!

Did I mention that I'm knitting a blanket too? Oh yes, not only do I have to do all those classes... but my OWL is a blanket. A LACE blanket. I have to finish 1/2 of it by the 30th. So far I'm only 25 rows in. ::headdesk::

...and I did a test knit! (It's secret but my head is still spinning that I finished that too!)

Anyways, I am trying to focus my inner battles of self-discovery and nostalgia into my socks. That way, I might be able to finish them in time!

Cheers, Ness

Someone Saved My Life Tonight

As I sang loudly to Elton's Someone Saved My Life Tonight song that played over the radio tonight, I had no idea that the words would come true.

I work at a restaurant right? So after a quizzical odor that I can only describe as "electrical burning plastic", a co-worker noticed smoke coming out of the air vents. Needless to say, we all had to evacuate and the fire dept. came! It was quite an exciting night. We were almost done closing, so everyone else went home. I'm an OCD candidate so after the firemen left, I helped finish the floors, etc. Once I got home (an hour after I was expected...) I heard the sultry sounds of the of a firetruck moving towards work. I sure hope it wasn't going back! Otherwise... I might have to get a temp job.

So now I'm still running off adrenaline and will most likely not get any sleep tonight. With a list the length of my arm of things to do... I guess it works out. I'm working my way through Charlaine Harris's novels, along with my classical lit study. It's interesting to go back and forth between the fun vamp stories and heavy ones like Infinite Jest.

I was one of the lucky few to get a Vineyard DIS kit today at the Sunshine update! It's all in my favorite color: purple. How could I resist? I was really hoping to avoid the whole DIS kit, considering it's a very time-consuming scarf. Oh well.

Oh look... there goes April! I just can't believe how time flies in college! It must be all of the new discoveries, and the fact that all my free time is taken by reading or knitting. I was hoping to finish more of my WIPs in April, along with some socks for mum for Mother's Day, and socks for a friend's bday coming up. It looks like I just might slide by with the last two, but I can hardly begin to work on my neglected projects with a major stack of homework and reading in the way!

Right now is the "calm before the storm". (Did I mention this before?) I was hoping to be able to kick back more and steadily work on final presentations, projects, etc. But-- it looks like I'm forever delayed because of all of the "pop" things my profs have been sending my way. Love the "Oh yes, and please write a small 4 page paper on this account". I know 4 pages is "small" in comparison with my other 12 page-rs, but I'm just beat to a pulp right now and would really love a break.

Plus, netflix is also throwing a wrench in my life. Most of my top list are movies that are foreign, so that means I have to pay attention. No knitting. No writing. Ugh. It's ok though, I'm really enjoying them when I can. (Life of Brian... classic! Departures is a must see. It's just lovely.)

Ok, so there is a glance at the Life of Ness. Off I go to cross a few things off the list and pity my single-ness...

Cheers!

Spin Out

After much anticipation, my Sunshine rovings arrived today (or tonight I should say). I got everything ready, quartered the fiber... several times. I thought I was doing a pretty good job, and it took FOREVER! I literally watched an entire 2 hour movie during the process.

Then I got it onto the drop spindle, and began the twisting process. Major fail. It was way more worsted and uneven than I had expected! Plus, I really cannot get the joining/fusing process at all. This is definitely not my thing. It's way, way, way more hard to learn this than it was to learn to knit!



So yes, we'll see if I go back to it, but I'm thinking no right now. I've been trying to knock out a super secret project for a friend lately, and then after that we can go back to the regular scheduled knitting.

Ugh, I'm exhausted.
Cheers, Ness

Spring Break

It's the time of year when I get to sleep in and read my kind of books! I love spring break. I've started to go running again and it feels great! Hopefully I can shed some of this winter weight before summer comes along with all of it's swimsuit-ness.

Thank goodness March is over. Blah. Now I get to rev up the engine and work on whatever I want until May. I'm not even going to have a plan for April. Spring is the time for cleaning out all of the junk and re-ordering life. A time for opening those dusty windows and setting those goals back on their tracks.

I surprised myself and finished both my Cardigan and Dragon Scarf on time! Phew! Now I get to work on the little stuff and don't have any swaps or HP classes for a while. Awesome? Yes.

So what is (or was) the best part of my spring break? No homework. Yep- that's right! All of my big projects/papers were due before the break, so I got to relax ALL week! Side note: I've had to read the Aeneid, but that hasn't been so much of a burden. I've made several trips to B&N and as if my library stacks weren't high enough, I got a few more books for the shelf! I'm crossing my fingers that summer will come soon so that I can really dig into all of them! I just finished some wonderful Baudelaire poems and got a few chapters into Candide, Invisible Man, and Dead Until Dark. Wow- talk about variety!

Ok, so I know that I said no to 'knitting plans'... but I'm going to call this my 'list of what's going on'- just so that I can see it. (I know.. but I'm such a list maniac that it's weird to not make one!)
- Burnin' Rubber
- DtRH Socks
- Meadow Scarf (need to cast on..)

To be true to my spring goals, I also really need to tackle: cleaning the closet, ironing pile, and vacuuming the car.
Ready... Set... Go!

Cheers, Ness

So Little Time

I think I will be forever impaled by sickness. Feeling crummy again today- I slept from 2pm until 10pm after work, and I know I'm going to sleep for another 6 hours yet tonight.

Washcloths were just about done- I did 5/7 so I'm glad for that! I also get to send them to their homes tomorrow, which will be a nice surprise!

Below is what will be in actuality to get done. Unfortunately.

HP March Classes:
- Charms: WIP
- Potions: Dragon Scarf
- DADA: Cornflower Cardigan

Round 2 of my library books came this week. Once again I found myself with a large armful of books! Spring break is next week, so I will certainly be a busy girl! Already finished Ethan Frome, and currently working on Memoirs of a Geisha and "Le Deuxieme Sexe" aka The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoire- a very large book with some great insights on women.

TTFN! - Ness

Ps: sorry if my title makes you think about the Olson Twins. It did for me after I thought about it!

Kiss Me I'm Irish!

Happy St. Paddy's Day to you all! Alas, I wish I could be out drinking green apple juice (blast being 20!) or celebrating heartily.. but I will be stuck in class this evening knitting away on green things instead. Other life things are coming along much better. Puppy scare is over (again), and I've been able to hang out with Mum more! My Cardigan is almost finished- I just have to tackle the darn last sleeve and do finishing touches! Sigh, it makes me so happy to finish! :)

Can you believe that March is swooping to a close? Pretty soon classes will be over too! I have to finish my 7 washcloths for the HP Square Chasers (... how could I have forgotten that I signed up for this?)- ahem... finish them by Friday, then work on my scarf hard-core! I just need a few focused days to finish it and then pack up the entire swap box for my spoilee- then I'm done! I'm so glad that it will be the last of my swapping (at least for now). I sent out my 20s swap last week, along with receiving my HP spoiler box! My spoiler did such an amazing job and made my day! We share the same love of Abba Zaba's, and I finally own a Harry Potter Scarf (!) along with a HP shirt and some other goodies!

My room is unbelievably messy. I blame it on the knitting. and reading.

Speaking of which, one night last week (in a moment of insanity) I queued all the books I wanted to read at the library. Round 1 came in, and me- unrealizing the extent of damage I had done.... left with two large armfuls of books! I will certainly be busy for spring break! I got tons of the classics, and a few on audiobook so that I can knit & listen. I had several people come up and ask if I needed help carrying them to the car. It was that bad! Not looking forward to "Dune" and "I, Claudius"... but I know I will feel better to read them once I do. I've already started "Ethan Frome" and the "Aenid", which have surprisingly been wonderful!

Ok, here's the knitting breakdown of what I can maybe accomplish by the end of March-- (including 5 more washcloths!)

HP March Classes:
- History of Magic: Nutkin Socks
- Charms: WIP
- Potions: Dragon Scarf
- DADA: Cornflower Cardigan

I hope you have a wonderful day filled with green-ness and shamrocks!
CHEERS! -Ness

Back In the Saddle Again

Phew! I can breathe again! Pneumonia is just about gone (it took long enough..) and I'm back at it!

The downside of this is that now I have to catch up on everything! It's not the best time for that though! I have tests in all of my classes either tomorrow or Thursday, so I therefore have to study for the tests first, then do the missed homework second. The bad part is that the homework needs to be done since it is part of studying and it's just a bad cycle. Not to mention that I realized that I needed a certain book today for a class- but the bookstore is sold out. I had to overnight it from amazon. Thank god for amazon!

Ok- knitting update!
Ravelympics is going ok... it's not as great as I would want it to be... but I'm hoping that I can 'catch up' there too!
- Chill hat- done!
- Kiss Cowl- in progress
- Twiscarfy- almost done
- Forks Socks- not even started

With 4 days left to go... things could go either way! I'll get one more thing done for sure!
March, however... leaves me with some eye-opening realizations.
I need to complete the following by the 15th of March. Got that? All of the below in two weeks:
- Cornflower Cardigan :0
- Sock #2 of Duckula
- Alice's Porshe Socks
- scarf for HP swap :0
- possibly Vampanties

Deep breaths.

I wish I could knit faster...
Ah yes, but I did finish little Henry the Monster for HPKCHC! And there is one sock of Duckula done as well! Yay!

So, that is it for tonight. I really should be off studying and/or knitting!
Cheers, Ness