Pointless ramblings

Hi.  More nothing to report, here.

Most of my week last week was spent trying to hide under a rock.  But all was in vain.  I was really just depressed about state debate, I think.  Last weekend (like, the nine days ago kind of last weekend) was the state debate tournament and... well, I don't really want to brag, but my partner and I have the ability to fucking walk into that tournament and OWN BITCHES.  Except, that didn't happen.  We got knocked out in octafinals.  Jeff and I were a favorite to win state and we got knocked out at octafinals.  It was illegit.  I don't want to whine so much because it's bitchy and annoying, but sometimes I just can't stop myself.  It wasn't because we messed up that we got knocked out... I'm just in policy debate, the most complicated debate event there is, and the people in charge of the tournament decide it's a good idea to have people with NO BACKGROUND in policy judge us.  Needless to say, we won the debates (according to policy's standards), but the judges voted us down.  It was painful, sad, sickening, tearful, and depressing.  So I spent a lot of last week just wanting to stay in bed, because I care about debate quite a bit.

By the way, please read that link.  It's the absolutely hilarious and somewhat true explanation of policy debate.  I linked it directly to the solar implosion sub-section, but the rest is very entertaining.  My debate event is so crazily complicated and just plain awesome that Uncyclopedia has written about it!  I laughed so hard when I read this article... It is seriously one of the best internet findings, ever.

Ummm in other blog-worthy news, I worked for fifteen hours this weekend and went to see The Twelfth Night at VU.  Dear lord, it was hilarious.  I was a tad dubious in the beginning, because I honestly think that actors in plays try too hard... But towards the middle it became extremely entertaining, especially in the scene where Malvolio reads aloud the letter Mariah forged, and Toby and his friend are scrambling around the stage trying to hide from him... it makes me laugh just thinking about it.

You totally understood that last paragraph, didn't you?

A whole lot of nada.

So, I've been doing absolutely nothing.

I've been working on the EPS raglan, and I've been watching a whole lot of Lord of the Rings (Extended Editions, naturally).  I started the swatch for Hope's Scarf today.  I think my color knitting runs on a tighter gauge than my regular knitting, which is WONDERFUL.  But we'll see how it turns out when it's blocked... it'll probably all smooth out.  Hopefully.

I haven't even been working.  I haven't worked in about ten days.  I wish I could get some boring desk job or something, then I could do it at home and make some money.

I should be doing housework.  But, hey, who does that?  My grandmother's down in Dallas taking care of my really sick aunt, and since she's gone nobody in my house does anything remotely close to housekeeping.  Well, I went grocery shopping yesterday... does that count?  I need to clean my entire house, ha.  But I don't think I'm going to do that today because my sister/aunt is coming over tomorrow with my two nephews and they regularly trash my house, so what's the point of doing it now when I'd just have to do it again?  Exactly.

All in all, these past few days, I've just wanted to crawl under a rock and stay there.

Meh, oh meh.

I should be packing, but instead I'm cruising Ravelry looking for free sock patterns.  I'm trying to decide whether or not to start some new socks (bad Nicole!) or take along the EPS sweater.  I'm still not certain on what to do with that dropped stitch on the Monkey socks...

That's all for now.  See you on Sunday.

Moar knitting (and some mistakes)

I've been knitting for the past few days as solidly as my schedule will allow me... With school, state debate, and just plain old life in general, I can usually only knit for about an hour or two each day.  Knitting is stress relief for me, so it's kind of crucial I get it in.  Seriously.  Holding the needles and going through the familiar movements really calms me down.  People usually think the opposite when I end up swearing at my project (which happens quite frequently), but it's just more stress relief.

Here we see my most swore-at work in progress ever, the fabulous Monkey socks by Cookie A (found on Knitty).  It's really quite a simple pattern and well-written.  I would know because this is my first time ever knitting socks, and I can understand these directions pretty well.  It's not the pattern I ever curse at... usually it's my inability to knit correctly.  My latest curse-fest?  I dropped a stitch somewhere in the gusset.  Not making the gusset, but the lacework that forms the top of the sock in the gusset... It's in one of the purl triangles and I just now noticed it after making good headway into the foot.  AND I absolutely have NO idea what to do!  I'm not stressing out about it too much, but I don't think these socks can be worn by anyone when I finish them.  Which is a shame... if I wanted to create a pair of socks that were a wash, I would've been far better just knitting a pair of plain old stockinette socks.  I think that's what I'm going to do when I finish this sock.  Because I do need to finish something.

Meanwhile, progress on EPS raglan sweater continues.  Usually I knit the socks during free time at school (Spanish, personal finance, English, and SRT... all free classes!) and save the sweater for home.  That way I can make sure that some progress is being made on both projects everyday.  The EPS sweater is easy because I can just mindlessly knit it while watching Lord of the Rings.  Man oh man, will there ever be anything more uplifting than seeing Frodo and Sam succeed in saving Middle Earth, Merry and Pippin cheering, Aragorn get crowned king and then sweeping Arwen off her feet, and Sam getting his girl?  I just want to cheer and dance around every time I see the end of the movies.  Just thinking about it now makes me enormously proud and happy.

I'm proud of hobbits.

Anywho.  I've told myself that after I finish both the sweater and the socks, I can start on my blanket.  Hope's Scarf kind of falls somewhere in between... I measured a scarf that's the size my friend wants it to be, and the base of the triangle is five feet.  I'm scared.  And I still need to swatch for it so Bree and I can chart the pattern.

New!

Blanket.  Bought the yarn for it today.  Due to my crappy camera phone, the picture doesn't really do the yarn color justice -- it's really this nice warm toffee color.  I have a pound and a half of wool / 1561 yds there, ready to be knit up.  I was going to go with six balls, but they were on clearance and something inside of me whispered, What if you run out?

So I ran back in and got the seventh ball.  'Cause, you know, I don't have enough things to knit already.

FFXIII: Hope's Scarf

So, my friend and I have this idea.  To anyone who's played Final Fantasy XIII, my friend is in love with Hope and wants his scarf.  Of course, no one is selling a remake of this scarf, so she turned to the only person she knows who can make clothing - me.

For those of you who don't know what it looks like, here it is.  Basically I'd be doing a colorwork scarf of our own design (my friend drew the design, I'll have to chart it).  It's triangular in shape.  Looks pretty badass, if I do say so myself.  Yesterday we got the yarn and managed to match the colors almost precisely.

Today, the gauge swatch will be knit.

I just need to find time to knit everything  @_@

Hooks and Needles; Un Dia sin Zapatos

So two girls at my school decided to start a knitting and crochet club called Hooks and Needles, meeting every 5:30 on Mondays.  (Even though we met today.  We decided on Mondays after today.)  Four of us came today, plus the teacher who's sponsoring the club, and two more people are supposed to come on Monday.  So that'd make seven of us and I am so excited.  Everyone's really super nice, and everyone crochets except for me!  It's so weird, being in the minority.  I know how to do the basics of crochet, and everyone crocheting there made me want to start again.  One girl had this pattern book with instructions on how to make all sorts of things out of crochet, and I really want to make these containers.  They're made out of kitchen twine, and in the end they look like baskets.  Super cool.  It really made me think about expanding my textile crafts outwards.

I also taught that same girl to knit.  Almost everyone there expresses an interest in knitting, but only Mandy had knitting needles on her, so I taught her how to cast on, knit, and purl.  She caught on a lot quicker than other people I've taught, actually, but I suspect that's because she already knows how to crochet.  It's basically the same concept, really.  Loops through loops.

I was thinking on my way home that I should really start keeping a binder of all of my projects and what I use with each project.  Like a knitting journal-scrapbook hybrid.  It's a good idea... I'd need a lot of postage tape, though.  For laminated pages and whatnot.  And glue.  But other than that, I'd just need a three-hole punch and some printer paper.  A binder would be optimal because then I could put in a table of contents and never have to worry about flipping through pages and pages to find a specific pattern or running out of space in said table of contents.

Now, on to the non-knitting section...

Today is Un Dia sin Zapatos - A Day Without Shoes.

There is a company called TOMS Shoes (TOMS is from tomorrow, ultimately deriving from Shoes for Tomorrow Project).  For every pair of shoes you buy from them, they give a pair of shoes to a child in need.  There are lots of poor children in Africa and Latin America who cannot afford to have shoes, and the complications that can arise from constantly going barefoot in questionable conditions are serious.  They're pricey, but it's because you're essentially paying for two pairs of shoes -- one for yourself, and one for a child.

To raise awareness, every so often TOMS does an event called One Day Without Shoes.  The point of the day is to go the entire day, or even just a part of the day, barefoot to raise awareness about what it's like to not have the luxury of shoes.  Also, people see you and wonder, "Hey, why are you all barefoot?" and then you get to spread the word about TOMS.

So, the Interact Club from my high school did an event for the Day Without Shoes.  Apparently, it's against the health code at our school to go barefoot for the entire day, so we couldn't do that.  Instead we hosted a walk to a park about a mile away from the high school and back.  Today turned out to be a perfect choice for the day, because today is the one day that the weather was crappy, cold, and rainy!  A lot of people were complaining, but I thought that really drove home the purpose of the event.  Your feet are supposed to get snagged and hurt and sore.  That's the point.  People without shoes have to deal with this every day.  And since the conditions were crappy, it just made it worse.  There are others who have to go through so much more than we do, and the least we can do is sample a little bit of their suffering to really raise awareness.  We were pleased.  It was a good turn out.

And yes, my feet do hurt.  But I'm proud.  Help a child in need.

Jump for joy!

I am feeling like a million bucks, I tell you!

No, I didn't get any knitting done... shame.  Oh well.  It doesn't matter right now!  Today I finally got my financial aid letter in the mail from IU.  Over the past few months my grandmother has kept hinting about how there was this very real chance I might have to attend college around here and stay at home because she wouldn't be able to dredge up enough money for IUB tuition (which is ridiculously cheap).  So I've been worrying my ass off, because if I had to go to some place around here... well.  There's not a university near me that even offers my major - let's just keep it to that.  But a huge burden was relieved today, because IU's practically giving me a free ride.

I could SING!

I also worked five hours today, took an anatomy test that went well, got rained on, aaaand... yep.  I plan on eating a huge bowl of chocolate ice cream to both celebrate and make my day just a little bit better.

... have I mentioned my pile of personal finance, Japanese, and Spanish homework...?

Only Tuesday?

I don't know how it can only be Tuesday.  Seriously.  How is it not Thursday?  Then again, part of me should be very glad it's not Thursday... I already have so many things to do, and sitting here blogging instead of studying for a physiology and anatomy test tomorrow certainly isn't helping anything. 

I sat down on my bed about a half hour ago with the very relaxed notion that my window was open, lovely spring air was blowing in, the birds were singing, and I actually had some free time in order to get a few things done so my life wouldn't resemble the national debt.  This morning I had a battle with my bed, and my bed inevitably won, causing me to oversleep considerably and be late for school.  The extra sleep is nice, but there's always that little interim when I get home in which I long for a nap.  And unless I start doing something immediately, I will inevitably succumb.  Today I managed to avoid napping, and it just amazes me how much time there is in the day now!

In other news, I learned how to salsa and meringue today.  It was very, very fun.  I love dancing.

Hopefully tonight, more sock knitting will be done.  I've turned the heel successfully without fucking anything up (hooray!), and so now I just have the gusset to do.  Due to life, I haven't had much of an opportunity to knit, so very little progress has been done on my sock.  What a shame.

I have an urge to cast on so many things!  My next project is absolutely going to be a black, scoop neck vest to wear over a blouse.  Since I'm not one to buy patterns, I bet money that I will end up designing this myself.  But really.  How hard is it to design a simple, scoop neck vest?  But first, in order to figure out how the armholes work, I really need to finish the simple EPS sweater that I'm working on for my friend (and also his socks and beret...).  And, my other friend is in love with Final Fantasy XIII's Hope, and particularly with his scarf.  She's commissioned me to knit it for her, and so the project of designing it and charting the colorwork and actually knitting it will surely be interesting.  And did I mention that I am in a bargain for knitting socks for a friend, in return for kitty/dragon smut?  Bahaha.

So, things to knit:
1. Finish Monkey socks
2. Two pairs of plain old socks, one blue, one red.
3. EPS sweater
4. Two berets
5. Scoop-neck vest
6. Hope's scarf.

Ohhhhh, I can do this!!!

Happy Easter

This is what I did for about ten minutes today, which is far less time than I would have liked to be knitting:

 Happy Easter to all, even though I personally don't celebrate it.  But we had  lovely time with all the family and whatnot.  About three minutes after this was taken, I spent the majority of my time looking after my sister (2 years), my nephew (3 years), and my cousin (5 years).  Let the good times roll.

The weather was an absolute DREAM today.  It felt just like summer.