Ew, School.
Oh, the most wonderful time of the year has begun again. Yay. My schedual is already screwed up, so that gets fixed Friday.
BUT let’s forget that, momentarily. Let us talk about the Knitting. Yes, the with a capital K Knitting. I have gotten almost jack squat done. I finished the pink sock, cast on the second pink sock, finished ribbing, put it down, cast on 3 other socks, two which were magic loop, ripped them out, and stared at my sweater sleeve with intense loathing.
Speaking of intense loathing, school. Like my segue? So my first semester schedual is grade 10 Auto (seemed like a good idea), grade 11 university biology (PIG FETUSES!), grade 11 art, and grade 11 photography. Sounds pretty sweet, yes?
Well that’s because second semester is going to turn me into a little pile of GOO. GOO CANNOT KNIT! (Not that I can either, in this state of mind) Grade 12 (TWELVE!) university math, grade 11 gifted english, grade 11 university chemistry (because as we learned last year, fun things always happen when I’m in the lab), and grade 11 introduction to sociology, anthropology, and psychology.
Goo, I tell you, goo. So I’m going to balance my schedual, right? Well, auto, art, AND photography only run first semester. That means I’m going to lose at least one course, more likely two. I’m holding on to photography kicking and screaming. And I’m pretty sure chemistry first semester is full, so I might lose that as well.
Woo freakin’ hoo. But I scared some niners AND some tens, so I’m on the right track, I think.
Sweater woes and good music
Before we start, I’d just like to point out that I have a bit of a potty mouth. It’s usually under control online, but I don’t cut it all out. Just sayin’. Continue.
So, slight issue with Mrs. Darcy, possibly-maybe. I pinned the body together today and I’m not so sure about the fit. It’s a bit baggy in the waist. It kind of eats my waist and says, “Ha! Now you are a box!” and then runs off with one of my good pens. So I’ve settled on one of two solutions. Well, one of three, but I don’t think I’m going to go with Ignore the Problem. Anyway…
- Rip out the body, or at least the back, and add shaping. Pro:Simple, and I’ve done it before. Con:Time consuming. And I have school starting on Tuesday, on top of babysitting all day tomorrow, work on Wednesday, meeting for work on Thursday, and two shifts on Sunday. Plus whatever other shifts I pick up. And I know if I put this down for too long I won’t pick it back up.
- Sewing Machine. My other lover. Pro:Fast! Con: Haven’t done it before, and really don’t want to fuck this up too badly.
So, yeah. I’m going to wait until after I put the sleeves on and block it. And speaking of sleeves, guess who had a change of gauge??? ME! Some how I managed from knitting loosely to get a gauge of 4.25 sts per 1″ to a nice random 3.75. What the hell. I hate you, Mr. Sleeve, but I’ll deal with you because you’re cute. Kind of like my last boyfriend, except he had less going for him.
MUSIC! So, I was going through my iPod today, since it was kidnapped by my friend and molested and impregnated with new, yucky music, and was deleting stuff when I found some music that I had put on ages ago, before I had cleared off my computer. So, out of curiosity, I went to iTunes* and OH MY GOD I FOUND SOME MUSIC! It was like Christmas-freakin-Day. So I threw a bunch of Rise Against on and went on my merry little way, bopping my head all the way to work (ew). Speaking of Rise Against, if they play a second show I might get to go!!! How sick is that?!
To end it all, a bit of a conversation I had earlier. Backstory: Friend A is convinced that Friend B and I are going to grow up and get married and have babies and a goldern retriever and a two car garage in the suburbs. I’ve informed him that no, this is not going to happen, because Friend B and I are not going to get married, and if we do I will not be having children and we will have a pure bred husky, a pug, and a ferret instead. And we will be living in a condo in a large city and walking/subwaying everywhere.
Amanda: Uh no, we are not. Number one, I want a husky, and a ferret, and a pug. The pug and ferret are key.
Friend A: Well, you could still have babies!
Amanda: Yes, in Anti-Reality World. Where I am blonde, perky, and a size 00. With my toy poodle in my purse. Did I mention the child’s name is FiFi?
Friend A: DUDE! Can I be the godfather?
I think he missed the point completely. I must say, a lot of my conversations have started involving anti-reality world lately.
I bow at your feet…
…all mighty sweater designers.
Oh. My. Freaking. God.
So, my knitting of the Mrs. Darcy has required some basic math. Ratios, multiplication, blah blah blah. And normally? I am all for the math. Seriously. I drive my art teacher nuts because everything has to be mathematically balanced. Photography teacher complimented me on my use of asymmetrical balance until I pointed out that it wasn’t really, because the overall size of the seven small flowers balanced the larger window, and that the whole picture was even (eight objects). This is after she saw me using a level in the dark room to make sure my print wasn’t going to be tilted.
She diagnosed me with OCD and had me get her a coffee.
But anyway, math. I knew I was going to have to do some work to make this pattern fit me in a way I deemed acceptable, but I did not foresee the pure evil that is a sleeve cap. I had knit the armscythe the same way, with only a couple of minor adjustments, but I knew with my wonky gauge and stitch count, and the addition of my randomness to the armscythe that the previously written instructions were going to work. I remembered that Knitty had published an article about such a thing, so I went and looked it up.
Now let me remind you, I like math. I spent almost my whole summer in summer school taking a university level math course because I figured I’d have nothing better to do and I’d have to take it anyway.
So I pull up the article and see the word ‘trig’ and my little heart begins to flutter. I love trig. I informed my math teacher that I was going to marry trig and we were going to run away to live in British Columbia and everyone was going to have to right essays instead of doing math because I was not sharing. So that was cool, I got all my measurements and such and everything was good.
And then calculus came up. I have not yet done calculus, minus the little “And this is what you get to look forward to!”‘s of my teachers. Dear god I am now very, very afraid. I dragged my sorry carcass through and ended up with the lazy sleeve cap, and I am damn proud of it.
In other news, I start my junior year of highschool on Tuesday. Yay,
Let’s hope I don’t burn myself out…
My god I’ve been productive today!
- FOUR loads of laundry done
- More than halfway through the second front of my Mrs. Darcy
- Much of my room has been excavated
- Found my lock for school
Also, I stalked a few bloggers. I like stalking (in a non-creepy way, mind you).
Also, I’ve decided that I want my new thing to be soap making. I figure I’m already ahead of the game, since I already had my lye accident in the chemistry lab last year, when the evaporating dish shattered and threw it’s contents all the way from my friends’ station to mine. I miss that shirt.
Anyway, I want to do cold process soap, but I’m going to wait until after my next couple of paychecks OR until after I find a new job, since this one tries to kill me on a regular basis. I’m working tomorrow night, and I think Demon Spawn is working . Wish me luck!
And now it is time to toddle off and enjoy my Tim Horton’s french vanilla. Mmm, artificial flavouring!
Starting out strong?
I figured I’d start a blog for two reasons. One, I’m insane and need to write things down and this could possibly be amusing to anyone who finds this and two, I have startitis.
To anyone that doesn’t knit, this sounds like some weird STD/STI, which I assure you, as a model 16 year old member of society (which isn’t saying much) I do not have. But I do have five (soon to be six, since I’m pretty sure I get paid this Friday) projects cast on. Two of which are full-sized sweaters. If I get my way, the sixth will be as well. Here’s a run down:
Here we have the Pink Sock of Doom. It is -of Doom because I cannot, like many knitters, finish a second sock. I chock it up to teenage induced ADD. Or candy. I like candy. This is actually a lot further along than this photo suggests, which makes me very happy. I want them to wear with the Burkenstocks that I’m planning on getting as a Christmas gift to myself. These are made out of some Sweet Sheep yarn, in the colourway Fire Starters. I heart it very much. I think that I’m using size 2.5′s, with one 3 because I can’t keep my needles straight.
The humble beginnings of Mrs. Darcy. She is my GIRL SWEATER. Yes, all capitalized. I fell in love with the sweater a while back, but I was a bit apprehensive about having to resize it to fit me (the chesticles are NOT fitting into a 34″ bust any time soon) and because it involves SEAMING.
Seaming is the devil incarnate, I hope you all know.
BUT, in my random decision to be more girly (most likely prompted by my friend Sarah yelling at me every time we went shopping because OH MY GOD WHY DO YOU ONLY WEAR WIFE BEATERS IN NEUTRALS) I bought some purple-pink Cascade 220 (colour is very inaccurate for osme reason) and cast on. I’m done the back and right front at this point (photo is of the back). Working it up on size 10′s.
And this little baby is my modified One Skein Wonder out of my freakin’ FAVOURITE yarn, Malabrigo in Velvet Grapes. I extended the ribbing and I’m adding 3/4 length sleeves to it. It is my “I’m pissed off and I’m knitting so I don’t kill you right away but if I need to, so help you I have pointy wooden needles BACK OFF” project. It’s nice. Also on size 10′s.
Projects Four and Five are not yet photographed, but Four is a black Wicked out of a wool/acrylic blend (I know, I know, shame on me. I’m cheap, okay? I have to save for the Malabrigo) and will probably get ripped at this point and turned into a modified Thermal. I’ll have to do some math, but I know there is no way I’m doing a full sweater on size 2′s. Socks on size 2′s drive me insane, let alone a full sweater.
Project Five is my Denial Hat, a Foliage out of Malabrigo in the Little Lovely colourway. Denial because I am denying the following:
- I don’t like pink.
- I should be cleaning my room.
- I should be picking up extra shifts at work (HA! Like that’s ever going to happen).
- I should be prepping for school, with starts Tuesday.
- I have four other projects and a life that all need working on.
However, I am residing happily in Denialville, knitting up a hat on size 10 dpns.
Speaking of which, I’ve forced myself to clean by deciding I can’t work on my GIRL SWEATER until I get three loads of laundry done and can see a 2′x2′ square of carpet, and NOT by shoving everything else out of the way. I’ll go do that now.
Promise to update!
