I have started sewing. My blocks are quite uneven, as far as quilts are concerned. However, as I am not making an actual quilt, it does not matter.
Category: Film
Film – The King’s Speech
Huh boy! I am done with grad school. The defense was fun, I talked for about 20 minutes and then we’ve had an hour and a half of discussion. My mom and Chris say that I did well. Anyhow, I’ve made the updates, printed and handed in the thesis and now I am done.
First thing I did was revel in euphoria, then I hit an existential crisis. For eight years I described myself as a grad student, but now, what am I? Then I was Ok because I am still a relation to a whole stack of people some of which rely on my quite heavily and I am still a full time engineer which is plenty. Then I went to get my graduation gifts. I got a nice serving set and a mighty good stack of fabric:
Pretty!
Anyhow, living without the nagging feeling that I should drop everything that I am doing to finish my thesis is strange, but I can get used to it. I am getting into the projects that I have been planning for a while, but did not want to start before I was finished with school. So, you know what my next foray into learning is? Spinning! As in learn to spin and ply wool fibre on a handspindle. Useful? No, but it does not have to be! I have finished my serious education and I can do whatever I want (within reason).
Film – Nowhere Boy
I am hurling towards the end of my mat leave at breakneck speed, which is a bit funny because I find my days to pass slowly and calmly. I have been working away at my thesis and it is now mostly written though I am sure I will have a lot more to do once my adviser gives me his feedback. I now technically only have Introduction, Conclusion and Related Literature to write up along with some formatting. Can I do it in three weeks? I think I can.
To help me unwind, I have been knitting a lot. Actually, I think fall is my knitting season. I have been knitting a lot last year around this time as well.
This sock was made from some fancy shmancy yarn I got at the Fibrefest in Almonte a few weeks ago. I am on the pleased side with them though I have not worn them yet. I need to block them first and I just haven’t gotten around to it. They are on a bit of a larger size and I was going to give them to Chris, but I made one of the bands too tight so he was not able to take the sock off without help. It is too bad because the other band was just fine. I have to work on my binding off technique. They fit fine on me and I am sure that they will shrink in the wash anyway.
I made this bag on a whim as part of the Free Pattern Testers group. It took me two days and I got to use up some of my acrylic stash which has been sitting in the mud room looking at me longingly for last three years. I am quite pleased with the bag, especially since it is my first knit AND sew project. Yay for quick knits!
Nothing new for the followers of Trev’s blog, but I am mightily pleased how Trev’s Halloween costume turned out. I have not told him that I am going to take the wire laundry basket cage back yet. Do you think he will mind?
Last month I made a hat for my sister, but I already blogged about that a few weeks ago. Needless (no pun intended) to say, I am completely sold on the circular needles.
What is the next project? I don’t know! Maybe a knitted book folder to store my thesis…
Film – The Kids Are All Right
In last couple of months I noticed that I am making more food than usual and my pots are continuously spilling over and making my stove a mess. Realising that with four people to feed the little pots from the DINK-y days are just not cutting it, I started using the larger size pots for my regular meals. Then I realised that the larger size pots are great for the stuff I usually made in regular pots but are spilling over with stuff that used to fit in them. I thought about getting a stock pot, but I was not convinced until I started pickling beets and had to boil them in three shifts because they would not fit. Not only that, but I had to use my turkey pan and oven to sterilize the bottles. Yes, it was time to get a stock pot.
So now I have a 12 L stock pot. It is huuuge! I haven’t made anything in it yet but the boys have destroyed the box it came in so it is a keeper. What do you think, will I use it often?
Film – Get Low
If it seems like I’ve fallen off the edge of the Earth with respect to the blogs, I have. Since we got back from vacation, things have been super busy. I am now going to the lab full time and working on my thesis. So far I am still on schedule, but there is a lot of work and I do have a tight deadline as I have to be done before I go back to work OR ELSE.
I have stupid amount of housework to do as well. You see, I have been sweeping anything that did not require immediate attention under the rug since 2002 when I started with graduate studies. My motto was “If I have the time to do this stupid housework, I should take it and do homework instead”. Well, it is eight years later… So now I have a new motto, “Homework gets done in school, housework gets done at home”. I moved my laptop to the lab where it stays until the thesis is completed. I am not bringing it home, not even for the weekend. I am in school eight hours a day four days a week and I work. On the fifth day, I stay home and do housework. Let’s see how this goes.
Speaking of eight years later, our anniversary is next week. I think we just might go on a date. How sweet that will be!
Film – Some Romans in England Film
Film review – Romanes eunt domus – That’s it.
Anyhow. I am very sad that my vacation is over. It is however over and I can only wonder at how great it was and how much I got done.
I worked quite a bit on my thesis. At least I worked on it more than I have in a long while. I also managed to get quite a bit of knitting done which made me really happy. The interesting thing about knitting is that I do it to relax, but I noticed that I am really tense while doing it and don’t like to be disturbed. I guess it is why people like smoking so much.
I already posted pictures of a hat I made for my dad. I also made a laptop bag for my sister.
The interesting thing about the bag is that it is entirely my design though my sister had significant input. I am a bad swatcher (I made a swatch for the hat, I swear) and I actually started a swatch for this bag when my sister said that it was the exact size and that I might as well continue on to the real thing. This speediness caused me to not design the handles, but they weren’t part of the requirement spec anyway. This was the first time I did Fair Isle so I was pretty pleased.
The final piece of knitting was a pair of double mitts, designed for, and with much input by, my sister. I did not need to swatch because I am quite familiar with this yarn, but I did make a prototype in a completely different scale.
The design is actually merging of three different mitt patterns. The outside mitt (blue) is Give A Hoot .
The inside mitt is Hand Springs Fingerless Mitt . However, this pattern is wrist-up and I needed a fingers-up so I redid it based on the Zigzag Mitts instructions.
My sister is going to try these out this winter and let me know how they fared.