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.

No Socktoberfest for me

As of this morning I've decided that I'm not going to cast anything before I finish Lizard Ridge. I'm actually kinda getting tired of it. I love the design, and I love it as a physical object, but after 20 squares...I'm very ready to be done.

The newest SIP (square in progress)

It also looks like I'm going to be teaching at least one person at school how to knit. One of the people I go to school with, who's name I don't know, asked me if I would teach her when we were (the instrumentalists and the singers) were switching rooms during performance workshop this evening.
I knit in between classes at school almost every day (turns out the German teachers - they love the knitting, they ask me about it all the time and are so happy to see me knitting) so everyone knows I knit. Sometimes people ask me to teach them how, but in the "wow that'd be great - but I don't want you to actually take me up on this request" sort of way. She apparently talked about wanting to learn how to knit to a number of people, who all pointed her in my direction, then she took down my name so she could look me up on Facebook. I think it'll be nice, I love knitting, I love telling people about knitting, and, as long as she's not one of those people who doesn't admit to not knowing everything, it should be nice. Also, somehow I don't have any classes with her yet we are both doing music here - thats almost unheard of.

Totally unrelated - I miss writing papers, I don't get it. However, this time next year this won't be the case.

Like Magic

I started on Saturday with this


And ended Sunday with this


Its kinda scary how much I can get accomplished in one day (that being said I should have been reading for class, just as I should be running out the door to get to school early - so I can eat something and knit before class). Three knew people showed up at the Sunday knitting group which was really great, and two of them had babies in tow (they knew each other) which was, wonderful and makes me want to knit for them. Also, it turns out that babies, like everyone else, really like Lizard Ridge, probably because of all of the colors. I brought what I have done of mine (I'm seaming it as I go as to not go crazy at the end) and with in seconds one of the babies (the one who wasn't sleeping) had quieted down and looked fascinated with it, it was cute.
Also, unrelated, looks like I have a new flute teacher who - instead of giving me her address on the phone, SMSed me her address...this should be interesting.