Remember me?

I know it's been awhile, and I'm such a project slacker, but I finally finished the front of the green cable sweater I was working on.

I think the main reason why it took me so long, aside from the obvious lack of time, was the fact that I knew I wanted to modify the sleeves but I was very much not looking forward to doing the math for the modifications. Let me just say this, I'm not bad at math, in fact, I'm quite good at math, I understand the basics and I even find some of it fun, but the reason I wasn't looking forward to it was mainly because it felt more like work and less like knitting.

I have enough schoolwork on my plate right now that the thought of extra math work didn't quite appeal to me. Having said that, I did finally get around to modifing the sleeves and despite all my procrastination, I actually had fun. Shocking, no?

Nothin' but socks and hair...

So I've joined Socktoberfest. It's really not going to be a stretch for me since I'm already working on a pair of socks and I have a pair or two in mind after these are finished.

This is destined to be a Christmas present for my brother. Is it just me, or are guys socks huge??? I look at this sock and I think to myself 'that could never fit anyone, it just too big.' Then I did what all knitters do (within reason)... I tried it on. Surprisingly, once it was on, it was definitely loose on me, but not nearly as ginormous as I thought. Admit it, you try on knitted objects that are meant to be gifts too!

Anyway, these and another pair of socks are definitely going to be in progress through October, so I might as well join up.

In other news, I'm sick of my hair. Well, I was sick of my hair... It was flat, lifeless, I couldn't get to do anything nice. The length was weighing it down and it's the same style I've had since high school, just grown out. It was time for a change. (granted the change I made is not too drastic, just enough to make it look different.) What do you think?

Personally, I love it! It short enough that it doesn't get weighed down. I don't even remember the last time I had bangs... I'm thinking freshman year in college, which was, oooh, eight years ago! Let me tell you, I love them!

Don't even get me started on how much I love it in a ponytail... Very Audrey Hepburn.

In which my family goes out of their way to be wonderful.

Saturday was probably the most jam packed day I've experienced since being back in NY. First of all, there was an annual wildlife exposition at the zoo that I had to volunteer for. On top of that, I had to go from volunteering straight to work. And if that wasn't enough, my mom calls me up to tell me my sister and her family are in town for the weekend and they all wanted to drive up to see me. Wonderful, yes, I haven't seen my sister in two years, but not so wonderful because I had no time to see them.

Apparently that wasn't going to stop them. They came to visit me while I was volunteering at the zoo... Then, when I had to go to work, they went there to eat and left me a $20 tip... you just gotta love your family.

It's that time of year again...

The weather starts getting cooler, the leaves start changing color and I start feeling guilty if I'm not working on Christmas presents. Fortunately this year I got a bit of a head start. I started the frog while I was in Colorado. Only two feet remain on that and I'm confident I can finish it before Christmas. Then there's a pair of socks for my mom...

Apart from a bit of kitchener stitch for the toe, those are finished! (It's amazing how far you can get while watching an episode of House...)

Even though I'm so far on these projects, I still have many others in the back of my mind! And what throws a huge monkey wrench into all of this is school.

I had seriously forgotten how little time I have to do anything leisurely while school is going. If I'm not at school, I'm at work and vice versa. Any free time I do have is usually devoted to schoolwork. It's so frustrating because it really makes me not want to be in school anymore. I know I'll finish, I'm not much of a quitter, but it's just not as fun and I'm just not as up for the work/school thing as I was last year. I'm just ready to only have to work to worry about and my free time to really be free time. I know this all sounds so pessimistic, but it's rainy and cold outside and that just doesn't make me very cheery.

I do have a funny story though. It's getting to be fall, and the fruit flies are getting a bit bad in our apartment (even with my constant scrubbing and checking for rotten food) so I went online to see if they had any suggestions for getting rid of the little buggers that didn't involve harsh pesticides. One suggestion was to put a piece of banana into a jar and cover it with cling wrap. Make sure it's secured tightly around the lip and then pierce holes into it. It said you shouldn't use a fork or knife because that would tear the wrap, instead try using an ice pick. Honest to god, I thought for a second about the fact that I didn't have an ice pick and I wondered what I had that would be comparable...

And then it dawned on me, what an idiot I was... I am, after all, a knitter.

A little happy and a little sad

As I'm sure many of you know, Steve Irwin, the "Crocodile Hunter" died on Monday. For me, this hits close to home, only because I'm so involved in the zoo world and the conservation of animals in general. To lose someone so passionate about animals and about bringing the message of conservation to the world is a huge loss. Even if he made you laugh and shake your head at how crazy he was, he still probably taught you a thing or two about animals (even the ones no one seems to love, ie. snakes and crocs).

That's where the "little sad" part of my post title comes it. I found out about his death after I got back home from the sheep to shawl contest. This is where the "little happy" part comes in.

I had such a good time at the contest. Not only did I get to hang out with Gabe's mom, two of his sisters and my brother (did I mention my brother was a part of our team?), but I also got to spend four hours doing something I love to do! Here are a couple of pictures...

This one is relatively early on in the contest. Don't mind the look of concentration on my face. I always get that way when I spin. It's sort of like a little trance I get into. Everyone else around me was having conversations, but I kept having to ask them what they were talking about because I was in spinning mode!

Here's a good picture of Amy, Gabe's sister, weaving the shawl.

She did such an amazing job. I may be a little bit biased, but I truly think that our shawl was the best looking shawl there. Or maybe it's the one shawl I would actually consider wearing, whereas everyone else's weren't really my taste.

I suppose I should let you know how we did huh? Well, we came in third. That's mainly because we were short on the length. When it was getting down to crunch time we just weren't quick enough with the spinning/weaving. Not to mention we were spinning the finest yarn so it takes more. We also were a bit wide on our shawl so the extra width made the length harder to reach.

Here's the finished product. Absolutely gorgeous, in my humble opinion! I can't wait until next year when we get to try again. This time we'll get one of those drums to keep the pace!

Down there is a picture of the team. Gabe's two sisters, Amy and Becky, his mom, and my brother, Sean.

It's what you would call, a family team!

Back in the saddle....

School started back up on Monday. It's definitely been busy around here because of it. Not only did school start back up, but so did work. I'm back to the schedule where I don't get a single day off from either school or work or both.... at least until the next break.

I can't say I'm complaining. I've really enjoyed this first week of school. My classes are definitely going to be fun... especially a class where the first week back we got to take a field trip.... to the State Fair!

It was so much fun! I actually didn't take very many pictures only because we were there for such a short period of time. We also had an assignment while we were there. Basically we had to write down a bunch of different breed of animals (horse, cow, goat, sheep, pig, etc...) and some of the things that judges are looking for in certain animals. It was interesting and fun. We also had to go to the sea lion show and the live shark show. We'll be discussing in class how we thought they treated the animals and how educational we thought the shows were, etc.

One of the best parts about the field trip was the hour and a half bus ride to and from the fair... I definitely got a lot of knitting finished!
One down, one to go!

This weekend is the Sheep to Shawl competition. I'm really excited about it. I actually got to see the place where we'll be competing... it's actually a bit small, but I'm sure we'll manage.

For anyone who's interested it's on Sunday (I think it starts around 10am or so) It's in the Wool Center at the NY State Fair. Come and see me spin my brains out!

P.S. Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes! They were really sweet and I appreciated every one of them!