Second Year of Projects Week 41 and 42

I actually have another finish this week, my Honka scarf.

Please excuse the facial expression, I had the sun in my eyes, and it was very windy! The scarf is 70 inches long, so just less than 6 foot, and very warm, which is just what I need since it looks like spring has finally come to the UK! It's been pretty warm here, and we've actually had sun!

I've also been working on my socks.

They don't look very different from last time you saw them, because I seem to have lost my knitting mojo. I've been working hard towards my exams, which are in 4 weeks, and when I'm not working I somehow don't feel like knitting, which is really rare for me. I don't know what's been happening!

I also haven't had much knitting time because I went on holiday! I went to Ireland with my club for the Irish Students Trampoline Open, a four day competition of bouncing, partying and generally being silly. I did alright in the actual competition, but it was so much fun to just go on holiday with my friends and spend some time with them. But since we were restricted to hand luggage only, I couldn't take any knitting with me!

My team, if you look closely, that spells out ISTO 2013 (I'm the one holding a hula hoop for an O since we were one person short to do the whole thing). There were full days of bouncing and also helping out with the competition, which is student run, so everybody has to get involved in helping out, and then dressing up and dancing all night. There were also silly challenges, like getting into a fountain (which, yes, I did do), and a full inflatable obstacle course on the last day.

As a club, we only won one medal, but since there were well over 1000 people competing, I think we did pretty well!

Second Year of Projects Weeks 35 and 36

I don't feel like I've been on here in ages, so sorry for the missing update. There are a lot of reasons, but partly that I have no laptop and partly that I have been staying in a place without internet for the entire of last week and last weekend, and I'm back there tomorrow.

But knitting, that's what you're here for.

I finished my Watermelon socks, and they look and fit great

They aren't perfectly identical, but they're close enough, which I'm pretty proud of. And I can't recommend this yarn enough, it's so soft and cozy, and it knits up really well! I substituted a wrap and turn short row heel for the suggested flap heel, so that I didn't break the striping, and I managed to use on entire stripe repeat on the heel, so that the stripes down the front of the sock stayed continuous.

I've also cast on my next pair of socks, which are a birthday present for my Mum. They actually weren't on the list, but I did have socks for her on the list, so I've just swapped to these.

The pattern is Jera, and I was gifted it at Christmas. It's knitting up quite small, though it does go over my heel, so it should fit, as my Mum has smaller feet than I do. They are taking a very long time though, as there are lots of very intricate cables.

In terms of what is going on in my life, I’m currently on placement at Rampton Hospital, which is a high security forensic psychiatric hospital. I've been working with patients with serious personality disorders, who have committed horrendous crimes, which has been difficult but really interesting. I’m on a pre-discharge ward mostly, and those patients are usually very willing to tell their story. I also got the opportunity to go into the prison and see mental health care there.

It’s actually a bit of a break for me, because it’s a not formally assessed, attendance only, optional module. The only problem is, as we’re in the middle of nowhere, we’re in hospital accommodation, and there is no TV, no internet and not even a sitting room. Along with my broken laptop, my plan to spend the evenings working towards my exams went out the window, since I can’t even access phone internet. There has been a lot of DVD watching on the other student's laptop.

Also, poor Tomcat is ill!

He has the biggest ulcer on his tongue, and his mouth is really swollen. We rushed him to the vet, and had a very worried period when he was having a blood test, because the vet had worried that he'd eaten anti-freeze. Anyway, he's now doped up and looking very derpy.

My other news is that we had the biggest trampoline competition of the year last weekend. It's two days of an inter uni competition, and I missed out on the finals by one place, and 0.1 score difference! I was so gutted, but we did really well as a club, getting about half of our numbers into the finals, and taking a 1st place and a 3rd place.

So yeh, very busy life at the moment, I should really update this blog more often!

Second Year of Projects Week 19

Sorry this post is late, but I was at a Trampolining competition all day Sunday (which went amazing). My only aim was to not land on my arse, and I managed it in both routines. You want to see? Well, I'm sure I can be persuaded:

Yes there is video evidence =P My only aim was to successfully complete both routines, which I did for the first time ever, and I came 48th out of 76, but since I never aimed to win, I'm very happy with that.

Then last night I went to see Evanescence, since there's nothing like some cheesy goth pop to cheer you up.

Obligatory grainy mobile phone picture. The gig was amazing, Amy Lee can really sing live; I was a bit worried, given the vocal ranges in her songs, that they wouldn't come across as well on stage, but she had no problems belting them out. The gig was surprisingly empty though, only about half full, but it meant we got to get really close to the stage, so I was happy.

But anyway, you're here to read about knitting.

I've finished the first of my confetti socks and started on the second. I'm really hoping this socks fits, as I'm working off a shoe size, and even more unhelpfully, when I asked what size my friends feet were, her response was "depends which foot you ask." They're just over a centimetre longer than my foot, and apparently UK shoe sizes go up by about a centimetre each time, so I'm hoping that will be ok. I'm not sure about the seaming for the cuff, it looks a little odd to me, but I like the cuff itself, so I'm not sure that it's that important

I really love this pattern with the yarn, it reminds me a bit of fish scales, which is perfect, as my friend just got a degree in zoology, and has a love of marine mammals. Just need to finish them before her birthday!

Second Year of Projects Week 6

My Ravellenic Games project is going really well, after a setback earlier this week.

It's now at a point where I can nearly start the ribbing for the base, so I'm really pleased with timing and should get it finished before the end of the games.

The setback was simply that after I split for the body and arms, i realised that the jumper was coming out to a size that was far too big even for me, and my Mum is a lot more petite than I am (4 foot 11.5, the half an inch is very important apparently!) and the jumper was coming out 38 inches round. I can't understand why, since I was still getting the same gauge, but maybe the designer's idea of "comfortable" is a lot different to mine! I ended up ripping back about 4 inches, so about 12 increase rows and about 10 rows after I split the stitches, which was about 2 days worth of knitting.

I did spend a lot of time knitting on it whilst watching the trampolining,which I really enjoyed. I was annoyed for Kat Driscoll of the UK, since we missed out on the final by 0.01! But it was really incredible to watch, and I just wish I was that good and could do those moves. It really was inspiring.

I'm also feeling quite comfortable about the amount of yarn I need now, since I've only just finished the second ball out of five, and I'm about to move on to the sleeves. So looks like it's all going well!

In terms of my course, I should be writing an essay right now, but I have no idea what to write about, so I need some prodding. I've had some very interesting times in Children's Emergency Department, and seen some really lovely,and some really sad cases. I did a nursing shift one day last week, and spent the entire time cuddling, feeding, changing, bathing and generally playing with the babies on the ward, which was wonderful, I really enjoyed it. The shift was a bit spoilt by needing to set off at 6am and discovering my car wouldn't start, I had a really enjoyable time getting the bus, which took a very long time and made me 45 minutes late. At least the nurses were understanding and just laughed at me. Then I got home and found out my computer had also broken, so it was a lovely evening of fixing things (or paying for things to be fixed...). But I suppose it can't be helped!

Parcels and Dancing

So I had a very stressful night on Tuesday... I ended up in A&E (the ER to all you Americans), thanks to Connor. I came home from training to find that he’d fallen over his air compressor, which he’d left at the top of the stairs, knocked himself out and managed to stab himself in the leg with a cheese knife. In the process, he’d smashed his laptop with the only copy of his dissertation on, which was due in today.

He’s fine, no lasting damage, though with a bump the size of an egg, minor concussion and an interesting story to tell his tutor. We got home at 2am, though luckily he did managed to get an extension to his deadline and found an old copy of the dissertation on a memory stick, he has a lot of work to redo, and it was very stressful!

So I was very happy to get this in the post the next day.

 

I took part in an LSG swap on Ravelry, and this was the parcel I got! It's very silly, with a "look and feel like a Canadian" breath spray, and a pack of "have a smaller penis" gum. There was also some local handmade soap, a locally made notebook and some Hello Kitty sweeties. The best bit, though, has to be the yarn.

It's gorgeous! It's Fleece Artist River which is a Canadian yarn, and it's so soft and squishy. It's 40% Alpaca, 30% Merino and 30% Silk so it's absolutely luscious. Tomcat loves it, as his favourite yarn type is Merino.

I also had a lovely night last night. I was our Athletics Union ball, and a fair few from my club went. It was a really fun night, with a delicious meal and although we didn't win any awards, we had a great time. The free wine helped too. =P

Trampoline competition!

Don't forget the Giveaway!
Today was the biggest trampolining competition of the year, and we were the club that won the right to host it. There were major setbacks, but it turned out great in the end. I've been running round for weeks trying to organise this, and the last few days have been really hectic. It's also the first time in about 5 years that I have majorly lost my temper with someone. My co-host missed two alarms and 14 phone calls this morning, and arrived 2 and a half hours after the competition started, and it did not make me a happy bunny! Then the wireless network we were using to enter results went down, and it's a wonder I got on the trampoline at all. But I did:

 I was coming ninth after this round, but then this happened:

But I was happy I attempted the somersault, so that's all that counts. As a club we did really well, with 3 people (out of 10) qualifying for finals, in addition to the two who automatically qualify. And one of our member came first in her category.

In the end, the competition ran to time, all the problems were fixed and no one got hurt. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. Plus, my committee bought me a nice bottle of wine to say thank you for all the work I did, so everyone left happy.

Squee Sunday - Success!

We had our first trampolining competition of the year today and it was a roaring success!

I was so proud of myself, as I came 9th out of 51, whereas in ever other competition I've struggled to be in the top half. I've worked really hard for it and was aiming for top third, so I totally surprised myself.

Here's my amazing team, from left to right they placed 9th, 5th, 11th, 9th (me), 3rd, 26th (she fell over, but still did really well despite that) and 11th in their respective catagories. We did really well as a team and E was thrilled to get her first ever trophy for 3rd place.

And a very silly picture of me being eaten by a trampoline...

I did find out today that my dog has ripped 80% of the ligaments in her leg, and has to be in a cast for 2-3 months, and my gran has to have minor surgery on her foot and will also be in a cast, so good wishes sent their way will be very appreciated.

For more squees click here