Long time

For whatever reason I've been neglecting /putting off writing in the blog for a while (I guess thats what happens when you fix your wheel). I've been preocuping myself with more knitting than spinning, I don't have a whole lot of roving or tops in my room so I've been making myself spin less because I know I'll end up using it all and then get sad because I have nothing left. Never fear though - the magnificent Fee has put a ton of roving in the mail for me (I gave her money to pick some stuff up and send it with the candy Ant brought me) so I should be getting it by mid-week.

I also finally finished Bartholomew's Tantalizing Socks this past Monday. Sadly I didn't have enough yarn to finish the toe so I used some left over Zen String

Then Tuesday morning I found the Cobblestone Pullover pattern on sale on Interweave Press' website, so I bought that along with the pattern for the Koolhaas Hat and proceeded to go to the yarn store I go to the most often here and pick up the yarn for the sweater and start that day.

Body and six or so inches of the first sleeve

This is what happens when I start something and I'm on a break from school and have no other projects....I knit like crazy. I finished the body tonight and am about six or so inches (I'm eyeballing it) into the first sleeve. After that I have the second sleeve and then the yoke and I'm done.

Ideas

Last night I finally decided that it was time to actually knit with my merino/silk blend that I spun.

Its like a yarn apple

Wound on my faux nostepinne - aka an empty vitamin tablet bottle

I also am cursing myself for only having one stitch dictionary that just happens to be on cables (its how I learned how to cable - I asked one of the owners of an LYS in NYC last year if she could recommend a book and she replied that it would serve me better to just by a book of cable patterns - she was right). I wanted to make a scarf with a fun stitch design but didn't want to come up with this myself as I just don't have the time (or at the moment, creativity) so I settled for knitting the Multi-directional Diagonal Scarf. Its a surprisingly relaxing pattern, maybe because for most of it I don't have to pay attention, to anything - I also think it would show of yarns with color changes well.

I also have a new idea. I want roving, but its fairly difficult to get roving here (compared to in the US, I really just want more options than corriedale and merino) and there is one shop in Vienna where I can buy it from and, to my knowledge, they only sell roving by the kilo (minus the merino which they sell by the half kilo which equals 500g). Now my idea is, since I can get 1 kilo of corriedale for 29 euros, why don't I just buy a kilo and spin enough to make a sweater. I realize this is in no way a new idea - but it is for me, seeing as me and sweaters don't happen very often as far as knitting is concerned. This isn't so much of a "oh how nice it would be to spin and knit my own sweater" thing for me, its more of a "how can I increase my skills" exercise. I figure, I have four regular sized bobbins, I can devote two of them to the sweater yarn and have the other two open for anything else I want (and I very well may end up buying more because Ledrum bobbins aren't that expensive).
Thoughts?

What I've Been Up To

I inadvertently decided that I was going to take a on week break from blogging - or something to that effect, but I'm back!

I've been doing a ton of spinning lately (no surprise there) and this is what I have to show of it.

The last of the nice roving

Got spun and plied to make this

I also finally got a hang of using the fast flier and I'm having a lot of fun with it. It seems like its a lot easier for me to spin even singles on the fast flier than on the regular one - which is weird.
I also really need a spinning book. For whatever reason I neglected to buy one when I bought my wheel. My mom is sending me my winter jacket soon (because its colder in Krakow than it is here) so maybe I'll ask her to pick one up for me and send it, along with some red vines (red licorice that I've only been able to find in the western part of the US) as they are my favorite candy of all time.

~115 yards of two ply lace weight

I finished sock one of Bartholomew's Tantalizing Socks this morning. It still has a life line in the toe because I'm not positive that I'll have enough for the other sock and I want the toes to match. I'm knitting it in the Tausendschön that I bought a while ago. At first I didn't think the darker colors were saturated enough for me (you can see bits of white in the dark blues and greens) but I actually really like it. Its a really nice yarn to knit with and its not very expensive for hand dyed.

The color reminds me of Neuroknitter's holiday socks :)

Oh and Avast is sitting near my stash as I avoid seaming it because I really hate seaming. It actually got blocked on Wednesday/Thursday. I think I'm going to try to finish seaming most of it today though. Still no pictures.

Almost finished!

One more day of National Blog Posting Month! I've done really well (seeing as I've blogged every day and maybe three of those posts have been memes) but am excited to have a lack of an "obligation" to blog. No worries though - I will still blog on a regular basis!

I did, however, finish dashing! It was nice and quick and I am probably going to start a sock tomorrow (well I'll bring stuff to school with me to start it, we'll see if I do). Also, no more freezing cold hands! (I hope)

This is actually a picture of the first one - I don't have a tripod or other person to take a picture of both of them on me and I'm too lazy right now to take a picture of an almost identical wrist warmer

I also decided to bite the bullet and spin 20g of the silk/merino blend that I bought in England. Low and behold its much, much easier for me to spin than the corriedale that I've been spinning for yarn that will probably be used to knit a hat.

Second skein I've spun on a wheel - so soft

The yarn is actually a bit brighter than it looks in the picture and looks totally different in sunlight (the blues become much brighter, in a good way). Its also amazingly soft, so amazingly soft. I'm not all quite sure what I'm going to do with this yarn, or the yarn that becomes of the rest of the roving I have - the idea now is that it'll become a scarf because a. I can show it off b. as much as I love hats, I want to be able to feel the softness of the yarn c. wrist warmers are great and all but you can't see them super well in full. We'll see, we'll see.

Because I pay attention in theory....

So to preface this, I wrote this entry in a word doc. while in theory today and saved it because the wireless network at my school didn't like the room I was in.
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I took a little break from Avast today to work on Dashing. It is one of the two projects that I brought to Vienna with me (the other being Lizard Ridge) and, for whatever reason, didn’t take the time to finish it. It actually makes a sheer lack of sense as to why I didn’t finish it because it is one of those instant gratification projects. It takes just a little longer than Fetching actually (which I knitted this summer).

I’m really glad that here are only two more days of the work/school week. Thursdays and Fridays are my more relaxed days because the only class that I have is German. I do have a concert on Thursday night though – it should go well. I also have a flute lesson on Friday which might not go well. In short my flute teacher doesn’t understand the concept of canceling lessons. And that when people say that they are canceling, and you agree to that, that means that the lesson isn’t happening.

Making up titles names is difficult

So among other things I did this weekend was work on Avast and this is where its at right now.


The yoke got finished on the bus ride from P&M Woolcraft (where I bought my wheel) and now I'm working on the hem of the collar. Then I have to do the bottom 2.5 inches or so and the hem of that, and then I'm done! Well not totally, it needs to be blocked and seamed (ew), and lastly the zipper needs to be sewed in.

Yesterday after meeting Milinda and Ben at Mocha Club I played video games (My Sims for Nintendo DS - the first time I had played on my DS since early Sept maybe) and spun some of the corriedale that I have.

Apparently I forgot about the front of the bobbin...

So I don't really run with the whole "beginners can only do this or that" philosophy. The skein that I took a picture thats on yesterday's post was spun at a 8:1 ratio and the stuff above is being spun 10:1. I'm going to end up plying it with a cream colored corriedale. Then I'm going to work on getting the hang of spinning on the fast flyer :) I made a little to-do list of knitting and spinning things during theory today. I also wrote five pages in my journal - this is what I do when people are giving presentations on info that I'm a. not interested in and b. don't have to be responsible for knowing. Oh and today less than half of the class was here.

Soon

Hopefully this'll be quick because I'm tired and need to go to bed so I can get up early and catch a bus to Bratislava (where I fly out of).

I'm just short of half way done with the yoke on Avast. The whole thing is going so quickly. I started it on Nov. 7th I think, and I think I could easily have it done by the end of the month (with the complication being the sewing in of the zipper because first I have to find one).


Thats not the best picture in the world. Its really dark in my room because I need to get two new light bulbs and - clearly - the sleeves are not seamed yet (and they won't be until after it gets blocked). I did finally break down and work on it during performance workshop (basically a weekly master class that the musicians at IES have to go to) this evening though. What it finally came down to was the fact that a. my needles weren't making that much noise (and depending on who was playing even when they were making noise you couldn't hear them) b. over half of the class wasn't there and most of those who were were doing homework and c. I didn't have homework on me and didn't want to sit for over 2 hours doing nothing.

The schedule for the rest of my is as follows:
Thursday: wake up at 5 so I can catch the u-bahn at around 6 to get to a bus that leaves at 6:50
fly out at 10
get to London at 11:15
take bus from the airport to somewhere else at 12
take the Oxford tube from London to Oxford (high street) sometime right after
eat thanksgiving dinner! (or at least thats what I'm told...)
Knit, Sleep

Friday:
Get wheel!

Saturday:
Oxford tube to London
Shuttle bus from London to Stansted Airport
fly out at 6:55
get to Bratislava at 10:05 (that seems like such a long flight but its only about two hours - thank you time difference)
take the bus to Vienna at 10:50
get to Vienna at 11:20
get home at around 11:35, 11:40

Sunday:
Knit
Spin
Meet Ben maybe
Go to knitting maybe
Sleep

Early, quick, and short

So this is going to be short because apparently my dorm is having someone work on the network or something along those lines and our internet will be down at 8:25 this morning (so in an hour). Also, I wasn't organized enough to think of taking any pictures for this post last night so sadly - no pictures today.

Things I've Finished knitting in Vienna:
Monkey Socks
Spiraling Coriolis Socks
Lizard Ridge
Red Light Special (hat)
Jaywalker Socks

Things That Need to be Finished:
Dashing
Avast

To be Knitted:
Bartholomew's Tantalizing Socks
Anything else from the newest Cat Bordhi book
Anemoi Mittens
Short-Row Hat

[some what] Fast progress

This what I have so far of the sleeves of Avast - well half of what I have, the other sleeve is equally as long. I worked on them for most of today and they are about 8" (they need to be 18"). I am excited for them to get done, and hopefully they'll be done by the end of the week. Then comes the yoke which will hopefully be painless.

I went out to coffee with Milinda this morning which was nice we went to Coffee Day (which is not your typical Viennese coffee shop - its trying to be American). Her hat is coming along nicely - she hasn't made any mistakes since Friday night, yes, thats right, she is an up and coming knitting rock star :) (yes Milinda, I did just say that). Her next project (so she says) is going to be a cabled "baby scarf" - this is why I'm glad I brought my book of cable/aran patterns to Vienna with me. And no, it won't be too hard for her because, cables are only hard if you think they are :) (ok not totally true, you know what I mean)

Body - Finished!

Thats right, I finally finished the [lower] body of Avast! Sadly there are no pictures as of yet (though really, right now it looks almost the same as the pictures in the last post, just longer). So now the goal is to finish the sleeves this week - I'm going to cast them on right after I finish this post.

I also in the process of teaching my friend Milinda how to knit. Well ok, she knows how to knit, but I taught her the long-tail cast on (which she picked up really quickly) and how to purl (which she's still working out). She's making a ribbed at the moment so by the end of it she will be able to purl amazingly I'm sure. She also totally didn't have any problems with circular needles, not at all.

Also, by this time next week I a. will be in England and b. will have a wheel! A Lendrum most likely. The store that I'm buying it from emailed me back yesterday and told me that they do have them in stock and that they will be open on the 23rd. I also will be in the midsts of teaching another one of my friends how to knit, or at least thats what the plan is. We'll see how that goes as next week I will be very preocupied with the wheel.

I took pictures of the snow today but, sadly they won't be up until tomorrow because I am at Milinda's apt using her computer and haven't had a chance to upload them to flickr yet. Oh and yay for addi circs being super cheap in Europe - Portland people, you know what you're getting for Christmas!

Halfway through

We're at the halfway mark of NaBloPoMo and things, blog wise, have been going amazingly well.

Avast is also going well as can be seen in the picture below

Apparently I can take pictures when I'm somewhat tired

I only have four more inches of the [lower] body to knit which should be finished tomorrow and then 18 more inches of stockinette! Thank god I'm small and can knit the smallest size of men's sweaters.

I had a concert tonight - I played in two trios. They both went relatively well with the main annoyance being that the stage crew put the stands for the Berlioz way too far apart and I just couldn't hear Ann so we would get off even though we were trying to listen to each other and we were making a lot of eye contact. That being said, it was only like that for the first min or so of the piece (so the first eighth). I'm just glad its over.

Its snowing - I think I can get behind the snow here though. The city actually keeps its streets clear so it'll snow, but its not super slushy on the sidewalk and there is basically no snow on the road. I also don't find it very cold when its snowing so I can walk around (assuming that I have enough clothing on) and not be freezing. Oh and I got another package from my mom, no yarn, but candy, two new pairs of pants (and I like them!) and some clothes that I left at home.

Snow?!

I woke up this morning to rain, which quickly turned to rain mixed with snow and then snow! Normally I would be unhappy about the whole thing as I generally hate the idea of snow, but snow that stays for a short while and then melts. I can get behind that. Really its just that I hate looking at brown dirty snow and I hate walking through it. That being said, I had to walk through the falling snow to go out to coffee with Melinda this morning. It was really nice just sitting drinking coffee and eating scones watching it snow outside and chatting.

Yarn and the edge of a very tasty scone

We stayed at the coffee shop (ok it was Starbucks - we needed a break from the smoke filled coffee shops of Vienna, and it was one of the only coffee shops open at 10am on a Sunday) for about three hours and then proceeded back to our respective homes (by that time the snow had turned back to rain). Then, because you can never have too much coffee shop goodness, I went to my Sunday knitting group at...Starbucks. Again, we meet there because its the only coffee shop thats no smoking and the seats are comfy.

This is the mural that I see every time I walk up to Mariahilferstrasse on my way to Sunday knitting

I worked on Avast and finally am done with the cable band! I picked up the 177 stitches and am now on my way to 15" of mindless knitting :) Right now its small enough to fit into my bag with school stuff so I can work on it between classes. I'll take pictures of it soon.

Done!

Yay!

Finally, they're done, finally! They fit well, etc etc. I still don't really like the colorway at all. I mean it looks fine, and they look fine on me, but those of you who know me know that I like yarn thats a big more exciting than this.

Now that the Jaywalkers are finished I can spend more bonding time with Avast. I also can wind one of the skeins of sock yarn seen in this post and maybe, just maybe finish up the sibling to Dashing (the first of the pair can be seen here).

I also went out and got an electric tea kettle today! One should note that I've been used to having an electric tea kettle in my room for over a year prior to coming here when my mom got me this for Christmas a few years ago. It still remains the best gift I've ever received (well one of them). I used it at least once a day when I was at Sarah Lawrence and realized, when I was packing for Vienna, that it couldn't come with me. There's an electric tea kettle in the kitchen that I use sometimes, but I always feel bad because I don't actually know if its communal and I don't want to use someone else's appliance. All that being said - this is a very important purchase.

Short

I had (and am still having) a bad day today so this'll probably be a pretty short post.
I knitted up the gauge swatch for Avast this morning and then started working on the cabled band that is at the bottom of of it. I also worked on the Jaywalkers a bit which was amazingly boring. I want them done now!

Of course I had to take a picture of the semi sloppy stitches - thats what blocking is for right

I also took a picture of the sky from out of my window.

Here's to hoping tomorrow is a better day.

I can knit again!

I can knit again! I'm definitely not up to full speed but my hands don't hurt any more. As proof, this is what I did today.

All of that with the exception of the first three rows was knit today.

I'm also getting amazingly tired of the Regia that I'm using for these socks. Maybe its the whole no discernible color pattern thing, but it makes it more monotonous. Note that I also won't let myself start any new socks until I finish this one as a way of trying to cure myself of Second Sock Syndrome - if that is even possible. It was a great motivator when I was finishing my monkeys but apparently not so much with this one. I will finish it before I even begin to wind any of the new sock yarn into balls though!

I also did get out of the house today which is good. I didn't go to class or knitting as I wanted to get better (I am going to class tomorrow though) but I did have to go in to get my lesson reimbursement. IES (my school) makes all of the music students pay for their lessons up front and then they give us up to 400 euro in reimbursement per semester (which may just barely cover mine - barely). Each month there is a day that we all have to show up with our sheets that say how many lessons we have and thus how much money IES owes us - today was that day - so that was a rather strong motivator to get out of the house.

I also decided that since I was out, and there are two yarn shops with in 10 minutes of my school, I would go out in search of the five million (four) needles for Avast. Apparently the designer of Avast wants the knitter to have 1 US 7 circ 29" or longer, 1 US 5 circ 29" or longer, and two other circs both US 7 or smaller one of which needs to be at least 29". So on my little quest I stopped by the LYS closest to my school (two blocks away) and got one of the needles. They didn't have the others I needed so I decided that it would be better to go to what is now, my regular LYS in Vienna, Zwei Glatt Zwei Verkehrt. They had what I needed and they had this:

Stash? What stash?

Its 100% Shetland wool that looks like it may be hand dyed for/by the owner of the store. Both are 100g skeins and are about 450 meters. I think I may knit mittens out of them but we'll see. I'm also going to try to swatch for Avast tonight but again, we'll see.

Half way through

Jaywalker number one is finished! All and all I think I'm happy with this pattern and am amused at my major modification to it.

This is what my darling little heel looks like. See that little point, that's the center of the heel (that actually lines up directly with one of the lines going down the back)

The entire time I was knitting after I had completed the heel I was thinking about just how elf like this sock looked like. That being said, its totally functional and fits really well (actually its a bit tight, but thats on purpose because I never take in account that socks ease and then end up with socks that are slightly too large). I also had enough yarn that I didn't have to substitute anything for the toe which was a relief.
My original goal with these was to get the pair of them finished before Monday when I should be getting my three skeins of Tausendschön (for everyone who doesn't speak German, click on "online-shop" and she has the majority of it translated into English). Thats not going to happen. Also, I need to ask for a pair of sock blockers for Christmas because taking pictures of completed socks - not fun.

Per request I'm going to talk about food, because well I love food and Neuroknitter asked me to. I suppose a little back ground is needed - when I was little among the things I wanted to be when I grew up was a chef because I loved (and still love) cooking. I later, after giving up that dream, realized just how much pressure professional chefs are put under and am glad that I didn't choose to go to culinary school. I also grew up cooking a lot of stuff by myself (I learned at a very young age not to touch hot burners) so in middle school my after school routine consisted of, walk/take the bus home, make some sort of snack (normally an omelette or just warmed up left overs) then watch Great Chefs of the World, Epicurious (which they still show early in the morning on HGTV I think), and lastly The Christopher Lowell Show (funny because I hate watching anything related to interior design now, unless it involves kitchens).
All of this is to say - I love cooking, talking about cooking, reading about cooking, etc - Oh and eating. Sadly here in Vienna I haven't actually been doing much cooking. I live in a dorm, and though there are kitchens on each floor (that are amazingly clean), we have tiny little locked cubbies in the refrigerator and slightly bigger locked cabinets. I also just don't have the time or energy to cook as much as I do at home or at Sarah Lawrence (not that I had time to cook at Sarah Lawrence either...). So here my diet has consisted of a lot of apples, a lot of pasta (with a wide variety of sauces though none home made - I also don't have a whole lot of cookware here), chicken, and a lot of kabab sandwiches. Its pathetic, I do treat myself to lunch at Cafe Wolfbauer at least once a week though and stop in nearly every morning for a pastry. They also have really good soup - next time I'm there I'll try to remember to take a picture.

[I just cut out a very long rant about grocery shopping. Comment if you want me to post it because I do have it saved to my hard drive - It kind of reminds me of the rants David Sedaris writes about France but is probably not written nearly as well]

Sock day!

So because I also had today off I knitted the Jaywalker socks....all day.

This was at 11:10am

And it turned into this by 10:40ish pm!

I was a bit skeptical of this pattern at first because of all of the complaints I heard about it not fitting right (it being too small/people not being able to fit it over their heels) and I'm not a fan of Regia (which I think I've mentioned before) but, I think I'm a fan of this pattern. It also has the ability to show of some of the Regia colorways really well (not this one, but I just about died when I saw a picture of one on Ravlery). I like it because its totally mindless knitting but with more excitement than a plain stockinette stitch sock. Anything with a pattern that I can memorize in with in four rounds and requires almost no counting on my part makes perfect conversation knitting when I'm knitting and chatting with my non knitting friends.

You also might be able to notice in the second picture that I did a different heel than what the pattern calls for (the cuff is also p1, K1tbl but that isn't nearly as interesting to talk about). So I really don't like heel flaps because I find the heel flap portion amazingly boring (I love the actual turning of the heel bit though) and I hate picking up and knitting gusset stitches. They always look to messy to me and then my inner perfectionist comes out and frustration results. Sooo, instead of going the heel flap route I decided that I'd do the short row heel thing that is in Cat Bhordi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters book. Of course - I haven't knit any of the cuff down socks in there which made this adventure a little more parlous. What I ended up doing was putting the arch expansion in the back of the leg, turning the heel the way that the Jaywalker pattern advised me to (I didn't have the energy to do the exact one in the Bordhi book but I really wanted to - next time...), and then worked the "wing stitches" (which translates into the stitches that were used to expand for the instep) the same way that Bordhi writes how to in her book. It made for a much, much cleaner heel in my opinion, though a bit too triangular for my taste (which you can't really tell in the picture). The only other problem I'm running into is that I may run out of yarn for this project....Its not a big deal because I don't think the dye lot is too important with this yarn (I see no discernible pattern color wise) but we'll see, I have about three inches left until the toe which I will put a life line into. And, if need be, I'll just buy another skein (well its not actually a skein its a center-pull ball) of the Regia as the only other sock yarn I have here that I'd be willing to substitute for the toe is blue...they don't go together.

In non sock news - I know i've said it before, but this is the last time I'll say it (hopefully) I am Lizard Ridge is done! I know its not totally done the border is non-existent and its final blocking won't happen until this summer when I'm back in Portland, but It is still amazing and does a good job at helping to keep me warm at night. I'm going to bring it to Wednesday knitting and to school on Wednesday as I'll actually have room in my bag (two of my classes are canceled all of next week - its exciting) and I know some of the people at knitting want to see it and at at least 10 people at school want to see it.

So ya know how I said I was going to see Pique Dame yesterday - that didn't happen. Melinda and I got to the Staatsoper for standing room tickets three and a half hours before it started and there were already 30-40 people there, and the amazing part (not that the huge line wasn't astonishing enough) was that almost all of them were residence of Vienna! Normally when I go to the opera to get standing room tickets I see a bunch of tourists who are dressed in plain clothes etc, etc. not this time. It was crazy. Then Melinda noticed that one of the standing room areas was closed so we were were just like "fuck it - we can see it later" as its being preformed at least three more times this month I think and yesterday was the second night.

Lastly, so from the looks of this I'm going to be posting everyday this month, and while I'd love to post about knitting every single day - I don't know if thats possible (well it is, but it wouldn't be enjoyable) so what do you guys want to read about?

(P.S. Neuroknitter - you rock!)

Done! (well kinda)

Look! Its almost done! I'm actually struggling with whether or not to say that it is already done but all it needs is a border and then it shall be totally finished! I hopefully the yarn stores will be open tomorrow (today is a All Saints Day and I'm pretty sure most places are closed, tomorrow all of the universities are closed) so I can get the yarn for the border. I think I'm going to use Lopi (it cheap and while somewhat scratchy, look at the rest of the blanket - it has softed with blocking/wear) but we'll see. It's also making me actually make my bed in the morning (yes, I'm one of those horrible people who hate making his bed) because then I get the treat of seeing Lizard Ridge in all her glory.

The Jaywalker socks are going well thus far. I only have about two and a half inches of it worked but - I'm going to see Pique Dame with my friend Melinda today. For whatever reason it starts at 4 (as opposed to 6:30 or 7) which means that we have to be in line for standing room at 1:30 (its the second "night"), this equates to at least two hours of knitting time.

Lastly - I'm doing national blog posting month this year so hopefully I will actually update this every day....hopefully.

Done! - well almost

The last square of Lizard Ridge is knit and blocked! I finished it Saturday after my German mid-term (yes - I had a mid-term on a Saturday, because my school hates us). I don't remember what the colorway is but it is the same color way as the block that I knit for Twisted. Actually, I like the block I knit for them more than this one...

A close up of it unblocked

These are the last four blocks two of which are seamed already

Now all I have left is two seam two more blocks to the strip and then seam the strip of blocks to the blanket, then after that the border which I don't even want to think about. That being said I'm very glad that I've been seaming as I go because the extra warmth of the blanket on top of the one that I sleep under has been nice for the cold nights here. Now of course, because I hate doing all of the aforementioned things - other than sleeping - (though apparently I have wonderful seams despite the fact that I would pay someone t do it for me), I cast on a Jaywalkers and the Dove Socks from the new Kat Bordhi book. I'm knitting both of them out of Regia which makes things even harder because sock yarn snob tendencies.

That being said, I ordered three skeins of sock yarn from Tausendschön in der Specht (woodpecker), indische Gewuerze (Indian spices) and Seestern (starfish). So pretty, so very pretty. We emailed back and forth (because she was confused as to why I used paypal because she didn't realize that I didn't have an Austrian bank account) and she sending them out today so I should get them, hopefully, by the end of the week. Which should be around the time that my package of Cascade 220 for Avast gets here. I'm also supposed to be getting a package from a friend of mine full of goodies that she bought at Rheinbeck at some point (when she makes her way to the post office, in between writing papers/procrastinating - Liz, I love you, you're great) which means I need to pick up chocolate and yarn to send her as to make it a somewhat fair trade.

In non knitting news, its mid-term week. I had a aforementioned German mid-term on Saturday (which was better than I thought it'd be), my Mahler and theory mid-terms yesterday (the Mahler one went really well, the theory one...well I suck at theory but I did my best), and my music survey mid-term tomorrow afternoon which will probably be hellish. We had the listening test (which consisted of knowing the name, composer, and genre of 11 out of....at least 40 pieces, it was over 2 hours of music that we had to be accountable for) last Wednesday and I did amazingly badly on that. I also have a flute lesson tomorrow morning (which means I probably have to miss Wednesday knitting group - sorry guys!) which should go well. I bought the Reinecke flute sonata between Mahler and theory and am thinking about getting the his flute concerto and also the Widor flute sonata (despite the fact that another flute player in my program is playing it - I don't care, I love the piece).

Oh also, in more exciting news, I'm getting a wheel in late November (around Thanksgiving)! I'll be in England visiting a friend at Oxford so I'm going to try out the Ashford Joy (which I don't really want but I should try it), the Lendrum folding wheel, and the Louet Victoria (see an amazing review here). I'm leaning towards the Lendrum because of its sheer versatility, but the damn Louet is so tiny and portable (which is really important to me as I travel for school a lot and intend to take the wheel with me) - its 11 lb when in its case with all of the bobbins and such! (and 6lb by itself). I also keep telling myself that if I get the Louet I can always get another wheel later (though if I can get my hands on the fast flyer that they make for the Victoria, which apparently is is out there, I may be sold). We'll see I have a bit of time and testing to do.

Almost done!

Lizard ridge is almost done!

Its amazingly difficult to take pictures of the entire afghan in my room but thats about half of it.

I am (slowly) working on the second to last square and, frankly, am relieved that its almost done. I'm also very glad I didn't save all of the seaming and weaving in of ends until the end because that would have drove me insane. I also still don't know what border I'm going to put on it - crochet is out (because I don't like the look of it) maybe some sort of I-cord or seed stitch thing, though I really have no desire to work that much seed stitch. I love the texture of it, but it's a big afghan, and thats a lot of seed stitch.