Back Out of Hibernation Yet Again - and For Good This Time!

Hello again!

I'm gonna do this for real this time, I promise! My final exams end in two days and I'll only have class two days a week next semester so I really have no excuse except for laziness and that's no good.

Schoolwise, I'm almost done with my final exams. There's one in Ecology, one in Evolutionary Biology, and one in Primate Biology (lab and lecture combined). I've already finished with an A in scuba diving, an A in Ecology lab (a separate class) and a B in Vertebrate Zoology (lab and lecture combined).

Next semester, I'm taking Methods in Aquatic Ecology and lab with my Vertebrate Zoology professor who rocks, Physics I and lab online, and Microbiology and lab but I'll only be in class on Tuesdays and Thursdays! This is the first time in something like two and a half years that I won't be on campus for five days a week.

After the spring semester I have three classes left! If everything goes well and the scheduling works out that means I can graduate next December! It's been so long and I've worked so hard that I can't wait to get my fancy piece of paper and get on with the rest of my life.

At home, I turned 26 in July and Mike and I celebrated our six year anniversary! We also made two trips home to Orlando and Universal Studios to see the awesome Harry Potter areas.

Here's Gingotts Bank and the fire breathing dragon on the top. The accompanying Escape from Gringotts ride is absolutely amazing, as is all of Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley.

These self-knitting needles were in a shop window in Diagon Alley. They were really moving and clacking like metal needles!

Since you guys probably didn't come here to hear about my life and schooling, here's a quick recap of my recent knitting projects. I've been busy!

PS: click the links under the pictures for the Ravelry project pages with more pictures and pattern and yarn information.

My Shapely Alien Boyfriend Cardigan

Yup, I Made Another Ruffle Scarf

Penny Dreadful Echo Flower Shawl

Dobby Style Sockmark

Not a Demon Baby Hat

Herd Walker Zombie Toy

Road Trip Salomas Slippers

Secret Swap Rick Socks

Jaywalking in Snow

Seaside Stripes Hadley Hat

River Shannon Socks with bonus Riku cameo!

Oscillating Ungulates Hat

Fernweh Sockhead Hat
Completed just today on a study break, as evidenced by the crappy university bathroom selfie. Sorry! Fernweh is German for faraway sickness, as in the need to travel. Since the yarn is my San Diego souvenir, it definitely creates feelings of ferweh.

You know what's really bad? I knit at least 10 headbands for my mother that have no pictures or project pages and I have four projects that haven't been photographed in their completed state. Oops! They probably need finishing of some sort and then I'll take and share proper photos.

Thanks for reading!

WIP Wednesday

I've made some decent progress since my last WIP Wednesday post, but these projects are slogging along. My ADD makes project monogamy difficult, but I know that's how I ended up with 25 projects in various states of completion.

I do have a small confession though. *blush* I've been cheating on these projects with multiple others! Last week, my mother asked me to make her a few headbands that are comfortable to wear while she's growing out her hair. Of course, I've gotten carried away and made four so far with many more on the way. When I get the entire batch finished, I'll share. I'm also working on organizing the stash. If I can crawl my way out of that mess, I'll share that too!

A Dalek for Baby Tyson

Pattern: Exterminknit
Designer: Penwiper
Yarn: Knitpicks Brava Worsted in Silver and Black
Notes: Now that I've finished the body and appendage knitting, all I have left is to weave in an absurd amount of ends, attach the appendages, stuff the body and knit the base. If I buckle down I'm sure I can get this finished by the end of the week!

The Answer is 42!

Pattern: Hitchhiker
Designer: Martina Behm
Yarn: Froebe Fibers Hand-Dyed Sock Yarn in Watermelon Bombe
Notes: I'm only up to 28 teeth and this is just dragging. I flew through the first 20 or so teeth but I'm just not excited by this one anymore. That said, I'm determined to finish this. If I aim for three teeth a day, I can get this finished by Sunday!

Friday Favorite!

Hi dear readers!

I'm in a very happy mood today and I'm over-caffeinated, so I'll probably be overly generous with exclamation points in this post. Sorry! (See, there I go already sprinkling in exclamations where they don't belong.)

This post accidentally morphed into a school update, so feel free to skip this wall of text to the knitting at the bottom of the post!

Today is the first day of my spring break, which I desperately needed. In the last four days, I took four exams and my brain feels like pure mush. This ridiculously cram-packed week is why I didn't have time to write a WIP Wednesday post or photograph my existing finished object from Tease Tuesday. I know I did well on at least two of my exams, though I don't have my grades yet.

I managed to register for my fall 2014 classes and got the exact schedule I was looking for, which is a great thing! As I get closer to graduating, the availability of my advanced courses gets smaller and smaller. Most of the classes I'm now taking are only offered in one lecture and lab time per academic year with a maximum enrollment of 24 students! I'm actually very excited about my schedule that includes evolutionary biology, ecology (with lab), vertebrate zoology (with lab) and most exciting of all, primate biology (with lab)!

The primate biology is a special topics course taught by my faculty advisor, who I'm currently taking for behavioral biology. He researches the evolutionary origin of the physical ability for speech in humans by studying bonobos and chimpanzees, the effect of vocalizations on group behaviors in chimpanzees and the use of combined vocal and physical communication (Do you ever talk and gesture at the same time? So do chimpanzees and bonobos!). He's an engaging lecturer with a laid-back style and a sense of humor and his passion for the subjects he teaches is clear, so I love attending his classes.

I was also offered the opportunity to be a peer leader in chemistry because of my high performance! Peer leading at KSU is basically being available as a tutor for credit instead of pay. I took the offer as a huge compliment, since that means a person in a leadership position thinks I actually know what I'm doing (though I do, of course, know chemistry 101 and 102 well enough to score all As in lecture and lab). It's also possible I was recommended by a wonderful professor that has been casually mentoring me for about a year. Sadly, she keeps trying to recruit me into the biochemistry major, but that's just not for me and I think my refusal causes her a bit of disappointment. I will not be taking this opportunity, since I have a 15 credit hour course load and I don't need the class. I'm also a horrible teacher so I wouldn't really be much use to those students.


Finally on to the knitting content!

Fridays will be used to highlight anything fiber related that has caught my eye, be it yarn, a pattern or designer and maybe even a specific project.

This week's favorite is Anthi by the fabulous Hilary Smith Callis.

How adorable is this sweater?! From the keyhole to the ties to the slightly puffy cap sleeves, I just adore this pattern. It's a free pattern in the 2014 Spring + Summer Knitty and my size requires less than two skeins of fingering weight yarn, making it possible to use a luxury yarn and still be economical. I'll definitely be looking for yarn to knit this at Stitches South in a couple of weeks!

Tease Tuesday

Whale buttons!

WIP Wednesday!

Hello!

I've decided that Wednesday is the perfect day to share my progress on works-in-progress. I have a dreadful amount of WIPs, so I've decided to start focusing on getting some things finished, thus I'm only really working on two objects right now.

A Dalek for Baby Tyson

Pattern: Exterminknit
Designer: Penwiper
Yarn: Knitpicks Brava Worsted in Silver and Black
Notes: My best friend is a major Whovian and a new mom as of today! Her son's nursery is beautifully decorated in a Doctor Who theme. Since they're in Florida, he won't need a lot of knitwear and I wanted to give him something he can cherish for many years to come. I chose acrylic so it would be affordable, soft and easy to clean if necessary.

This pattern is vague when it comes to yarn weight and needle size, so I went with worsted weight yarn on size US 6/4.0mm and a US 4/3.5mm for the bobbles. Boy, am I glad I'm done with those bobbles. Talk about time-consuming and fiddly! I stuck it out though, since I love the little guy and I think this will turn out to be adorable after some adjustments and a good steam-blocking. I'm hoping to finish this soon so I can also make a Tardis plush!

The Answer is 42!

Pattern: Hitchhiker
Designer: Martina Behm
Yarn: Froebe Fibers Hand-Dyed Sock Yarn in Watermelon Bombe
Notes: I received this yarn in a swap and knew it would be perfect for a Hitchhiker. I have less yardage than the pattern calls for, but I'm up to 26 teeth so far and haven't used half of the yarn yet so I'm hoping I can stretch it out to 42 teeth. The pattern also called for a US 2.5/3mm needle, but I went up to a size US 5/3.75mm for better drape.

I cast this on in August and got to 21 teeth very quickly but as the rows got longer, my patience got shorter. Now this is my backpack project, since it's easy to pick up and set down if necessary and I don't need to look at or concentrate on the pattern. It only gets a few rows per day, but that's a definite improvement on its hibernation status. Wanna take bets on how many teeth I can have done by next Wednesday?

Now onto the knitting!

Even though I've been busy in the last year, I never stopped knitting.

Here's a simple photo overview of some of my best finished knits from the last year. Click the link under each photo to go to the Ravelry project page.

Please excuse the poor quality of these shots as well as the inconsistent sizes. Most of them were taken on my phone just so I could easily share on my Plurk timeline and I'm still learning just how to use Blogger to make pretty posts. New FO photos will be much improved.

Secret Fan Socks

Inside Out Socks

Grey Gardens

Oscilloscope

Antler Hat

Wuppertal

Spice Pumpkin

Spirit Cozy

Green Arrow Cowl

Alice Cardi

Lucy Hat

Oh my gosh, it's been a year!

Hi friends and readers!

In the almost year since I last wrote here, I've missed you all. It's been a busy and exciting year, but I'm delighted to be relaunching the blog as of today! I unintentionally stopped blogging last year when my life got busy. I often thought of returning to the blog but I never found the time until now.

I'll start with an overview of the last year's major events:

School-wise, the last year has been interesting. I found out that calculus is hard and organic chemistry is even harder. Struggling with clinical depression at the same time is almost impossible. I dropped a class, passed two by the skin of my teeth and thrived in other classes. This college stuff is a challenge, but nothing that's worth doing is easy, right?

Oddly enough, this semester is my most challenging and yet I'm doing my best work in quite a long time. I'm very interested in the classes I'm taking right now (except for calculus of course yawn) and I'm drawing closer to my graduation date so my motivation to succeed is higher than ever before. Studying in my field of interest, which is zoology, has given me a glimpse of what my life can become after I graduate and begin a career so my focus has definitely been renewed.

I'm very excited for the future of my education and career!

Life-wise, nothing too major has happened. Last April brought another bout of horrid allergy-induced asthma and a month of inactivity. I barely even got any knitting done I was so out of breath! June brought a big change in my hairstyle as I cut off two feet of my hair!
Before:

After:

Last July, I turned 25, which is completely unimportant. In September I was a bridesmaid in my best friend's wedding.

Funnily enough, participating in her wedding cost more than my own wedding total, though that's mainly due to the $650 speeding ticket I received on the drive down. Whoops! October 30th brought our 5th wedding anniversary which we celebrated with a trip to San Diego, California over Christmas.

Petting a cuscus:

Sunset at La Jolla:

Most recently, DH and I ran off to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina to celebrate his birthday weekend. It was beautiful, awesome and relaxing.

Tomorrow's post will be knitting!