Summer's Over!

So I am back at school, getting ready to start classes tomorrow. I finished the birthday sock on time, and now just have to think of one more little cool gift-y thing by the 12th. I washed them and left them out to dry, which I will pick up this coming weekend when I have to go home to get a new retainer (ick!) The socks fit me pretty well too, so I modeled them on my feet:

I'm happy with how they turned out, but the second one was becoming interminable by the end. If it hadn't been for the deadline they'd probably still be on the needles. And the recipient already liked the first one so he should like the pair.

This semester I am taking a cell physiology class, physics, economics, writing fiction and urban geography. It's a pretty eclectic schedule, and 1.25 classes more than the average load at my school, so I'll be busy! I'm a little worried about the workload, but since two of the classes are introductory-level and there's no reading-intensive class (as far as I can tell--reading for a fiction class is all fun anyway), I think it should be alright. I go to a liberal arts school, can't you tell?

My blog posts aren't super-regular, so I don't think it'll be a huge change for anyone when they become even more sporadic. Also, do I even have any regular readers? The answer to this one could be interesting...

Anyway, the summer has been good, and I'll be doing what I can in terms of knitting and posting during the semester, so I might be back soon.

Realistically

I have lost my mind! I don't know if I'll get the second gray sock done by the time I get back to school, let alone another Pomatomus or an entire sweater! Plurk, Ravelry, BF, and family are conspiring against me, clearly...

Photo Overload!

As I mentioned in the last entry, since my summer jobs have ended, I've returned home for a few weeks of relaxing and planning before returning to campus for the fall semester. I'm trying to pack as much as possible into that time, and blogging has slightly fallen by the wayside. Not knitting, or knitting-related activities though!

I got my Starbucks & Yarn swap package yesterday from anniebananie. What a lovely package!

One skein UrbanGypZ handpainted merino sock yarn in Electric Lizard: beautiful, machine-washable, and 560 yards!?!? AMAZING.

Some beautiful fingerless mitts which I plan to wear frequently while typing or researching in the chilly college library this fall/winter.

And pair of lovely drink cozies to put around the drinks I will buy with my $15 Starbucks gift card.

All in all, a fantastic package. Thank you so much Annie!

In other recent yarn-news, I purchased some Koigu on the cheap via the Ravelry destash boards.

In the end, I realized that it was from Nicole of Stash&Burn fame! And that was only my first brush with knitting celebrity: the second occurred on plurk, a site I tried resisting for nearly a month. It's a "microblogging" site where users just post quick blurbs and then can get quick responses. It's quite fun and tempting, with the concept of "Karma" worked in there. Anyway, I posted about an item I recently made for my swap send-to-partner, and Miss Violet of Lime'n'Violet responded! I'm still new to the plurk world, and not hugely chatty so I don't get a lot of responses, so I was way excited.

I think that about covers it, in the knitting realm. With all that lovely new yarn, in addition to my old projects, I sure need to get to work!

The month of August

I am back home from my two summer jobs, and I have three weeks off until school starts back up again. It is great! I get to enjoy myself now for a little while, and hopefully will get a lot of knitting done. Which will be necessary, in order to complete all of the projects I currently have in mind:
the Pomatomus socks, the birthday Yao Ming socks, the August Lady sweater (that I truly have yet to even start...), and the sock-weight Mahayana Flying Gloves that I hope to knit in the Koigu being sent to me by Stash & Burn's Nicole.

Also planned: a trip south to pick up the Non-Husband DH so he can share in the delights of time off, a trip to a relatively-nearby amusement park, a concert with the Highly-Communicative BFF, and unpacking/repacking from the summer and for the semester. Should be an interesting three weeks.

Slightly behind schedule

I finished this first sock of the Yao Ming pair (as I'm referring to them on Ravelry) last night while watching Conan...far later than I should be awake on a work night but I'm glad to have it done. I know it's not for me, but the recipient has men's size 9 feet and I have women's size 8.5...note the bagginess at the toe and heel. Not huge but it should be enough. And I'm particularly sure of that because I had him try on the 75% completed sock last Wednesday. I will soon cast on the second one, but not until I'm out of the campus housing where I've been staying for the past eleven weeks...

But of course, that's a whole story in itself. The lovely residential life staff has decided to kick us out four days earlier than they indicated, with the consolation of allowing us to move into another dorm for the interim. So basically I'll be moving out of this room tomorrow and living out of a backpack for two nights until I'm done with work and can leave campus for good (or at least for the three weeks before school officially starts on Labor Day, another joy).