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.

A big day for a little sock

On Wednesday morning I had three rows of the second Jaywalker done and now look what I have!

Oh how its grown :)

The "wing" stitches (as K. Bordhi would call them) are still not all worked but its getting there and they will be worked by the time I go to bed tonight. Sadly because of this Avast has been a bit neglected but not completely. I worked on it before school this morning and am in the beginning of the fourth repeat of the bottom cable band thing, which is going amazingly slowly. After the Jaywalker sock is done then I'll be able to focus the majority of my knitting attention to Avast (and start a new sock of course).

As it turns out, Vienna falls are amazingly like Portland falls. The only difference is that its a little colder (though late next week its supposed to be getting a lot colder) and the rain is lighter. We still have those glorious cloudy wet days though - today was one of them. Its also a lot more windy here which I'm not a fan of. Even though I'm not on the top floor of my dorm, I can still hear the rain fall because of some sort of landing that is right next to my window. I love it.

I also was well enough to force myself to go to school this morning for my one class, German. Of course once class started I realized that actually, I still am sick and with in 10 minutes I had a headache (I only get them if I'm sick or really dehydrated) and was hoarse. Thankfully my teacher realized this and only "made" me talk once (though when we would go over things and say them as a group aloud I would talk - which is how my voice got so hoarse so quickly). Other than that and my general tiredness I am feeling much better physically though still an anxious mess (hence why I had to force myself to go to school). As one of my friends jokingly said - Freud would have loved me.

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.