The Changing Seasons

The past few days there has been a noticeable change in the weather outside. It is chilly in the early mornings when I go to my first class, and it doesn't warm up that much by noon any more. Also, the breezy wind from the north that is a constant wintertime feature here has settled in. I suppose it's eminent now: winter is coming. Sure, I know we have to technically get through fall first, but honestly, we all know that it's not possible for the weather to be perfect for longer than a day or two in a row. It will bounce back and forth over that fine line; too hot one day/week and too cold the next. And this is a key part of the changing seasons. Fall and spring are little more than the battle ground of winter and summer. I can almost picture one saying, "It's my turn now. Give it up." and the other saying in return, "No, not yet. I'm having too much fun."

Today's temperature: 65 degrees.
Next weeks' forecast: 85 degrees

Senior Year

It's strange. Today I went and got the form to declare my intent to graduate this coming spring. I am a senior. And yet, I don't feel like a senior. In high school, your class status was a solid thing that you fit into. When you were a senior in high school, you felt on top of the world. Here in college, the only class rank that was well defined was my freshman year. I was a new kid. After you become acquainted with life on campus and the phenomenon of college classes occurring only periodically throughout the day, instead of back to back all at once, time seems to run together. You count hours instead of classes, and even "semester" is nothing more than a block of time. The apparent "density" or course load of that semester is variable. And so, while most would consider a college degree to take four years, it's easy to let the actual length of time for that accomplishment trickle on longer to 4 and a half or 5 years.

No one other than yourself will really think twice about the rate of progress you're making. In college, if someone takes a lesser course load, or if it takes them 5 years to graduate instead of four, that person is not thought of as a failure. They are thought of as someone who is taking their time, who has other demands on their time and energy besides just school. In fact, the people who graduate in four years are almost seen as the overachievers, the go-getters, and the pushers. The people that take longer are seen as the people who have set a different pace for themselves, who have a family, who understand that life is not a race.

So anyway, today I realized that, yes, I am a senior, and should be graduating this coming spring, as long as I pass everything. I really don't feel like I've been here for as long as I have already, and even though I can hardly wait to start my life as a "real" adult and wife, I also feel like school could just stretch on and on and become this never-ending thing, and no one would think anything really odd about that. Where has the time gone? I just got here. Didn't I?

The World of Bugs

My entomology class went on another field trip down the road today. Among other things, I found this huge caterpillar, commonly known as the woolly bear. I've never seen one before, and I was afraid to touch it. Anyway, here is a picture of it, already in a preservation jar, so please ignore the glare.


I also found this really huge awesome beetle just outside the science building. It has rows of green spots going down its' back. You can see a few of them if you look really hard.

And here is my collection so far, minus the caterpillars:

And a close up of the big moth, because everyone seems to really like that one:

In other news, I finished as much of the pink scarf as I plan on doing for a while. I want to do the hat that will go with it, and then use any left over yarn from that to make the scarf longer. Currently it is only about 51 inches long, and it's really thick. If I had a better idea of what the finished product was going to be like before I started, I would have modified it to only one cable with a garter stitch boarder in order to make it less wide and more usable. I mean, perhaps if I lived in a place where snow was a regular occurrence in the winter, then perhaps it would fit in better. But here, snow is a once every so many years occasion. I consider weather where I can see my breath as weather that you should stay inside for. Maybe I should move to Hawaii.

Yarn Pancake

My yarn collapsed. Just died. It's been sagging for a while, but until recently it still had a little structure to it. Now it is little more than a puddle of string. I suppose this is one of the hazards of working from the center of a ball of yarn.

I've also decided that I want to incorporate a twisted rib into the hat , possibly from either this pattern, or this pattern. I'm hoping this will have the illusion of a vertical garter stitch. I'm am slightly worried about the gauge of all this, but I'm sure I can figure it out.

I'm none too pleased with my first set of scores this semester. In one class, the teacher goes through his presentation so fast you can't write everything down. In another, the book I ordered never came in and the class itself is really difficult anyway. And the last class was a bad combo of luck and timing. Ironically, I got the same score in all three classes. I have another test coming up this Friday. I want to do better, but part of me wonders about the pattern I've made. I will have to work my butt off the rest of the semester to undo this no-so-good start.

Oh, and one of my triops disappeared over the weekend. My roommate said the bigger one ate it. But that's not unusual.

A Fresh Start

After realizing that my husband was having loads of fun in Germany waiting for his flight out, I started to relax. And now that he is getting settled in at his final destination, it seems as though we will be able to talk very regularly online too. So, I'm back to my regularly scheduled ins and outs of life at school. And it feels good.

I started another scarf, even though I'm still not done with the pink cabled one. It's entrelac:


In case you haven't figured it out yet, I like a challenge. This is only my third project ever. I spent about 3 hours trying to figure out how to do the actual pattern. I got the first tier of triangles without a problem, but I was having serious issues figuring out how to attach the second tier correctly. It seems like all the patterns I've found have the instructions "ssk" which means slip slip knit. Turns out I took it too literal. I would slip slip and knit - 3 stitches total-which ended up giving me really wonky results. I couldn't figure it out. I really did try.

Then I just decided to wing it on that part, and knit 2 together-which is what it seemed like I should be doing in the first place, even though it was not what I thought the pattern said. Turns out, ssk means twist the stitches and knit them together! This instruction/abbreviation should seriously be re-examined. The p2tog instruction was clear enough and very straightforward. Why do they have to make the knit side decreases so difficult?

Anyway, now that I have it figured out (for the most part), I find that I have already memorized this pattern, whereas I didn't memorize the cable scarf pattern until several inches into my second ball of yarn.

I am currently on the lookout for hats to go with my 2 scarves in progress. Some patterns that I have my eyes on can be found here and here.

I'm really enjoying the yarn I bought for the entrelac scarf. It's called "I love this yarn!" and it's really cheap, but really soft. Its only about $2.80 for a big ball of yarn, about 350 yards or so. I have a feeling that it might bleed a little bit though, because the tips of my needles are becoming ever so slightly tinted. I actually find that after I've been knitting on my new project for a while, the yarn I use for my pink scarf feels so stiff. It's beginning to make my left hand hurt a little from having to constantly manipulate the stitches into cables. That part gets on my nerves. I'm trying to tell myself that the sooner I finish it the sooner I can really focus on my entrelac. And please don't even mention the ends. I'm thinking that there has to be a better way.

Till next time!

D-day

D is for deployment. Even though I physically said goodbye to you more than a month ago, this day was still looming over my head like a bad dream. I went though four phone cards to find one that still had some unused time on it. And when I found one that still had 2 minutes on it, the feeling of relief that washed over me was unreal. It had been only a few days since I had been able to tell you that I loved you, and even longer than that since I had been able to hear your voice. Those 2 minutes seemed like a godsend. And yet, when the voice let me know that I "only have one minute of call time remaining" I wondered who could be so cruel as to give a phone call between two people in love who are separated by an ocean a time limit to say their goodbyes.

I'll admit it. I needed a drink in order to fall asleep last night. I really don't like the taste of alcohol. I avoid it in a way most people don't understand. But last night, it tasted like medicine, and I drank it down so that I could stop crying and go to sleep. I had to get up for my 8am entomology test in the morning.

Today, there was a choir singing out by the water feature. And I thought of you and how you used to sing in high school. You had the sexiest voice. I still think about how unfortunate it is that you were unable to sing here in college because of scheduling issues. I wonder if there is a place you can sing on base somewhere, and if you would do it if you could. I miss hearing you sing.

Can't sleep

I can't sleep tonight. I laid in bed for about an hour, watching the smoke alarm blink and listening to the people above us scoot their chairs annoyingly back and forth across the floor, and the people next to us laugh and laugh and laugh. And I can't help but think that when I was in Italy I didn't kiss you enough, didn't look into your eyes enough, didn't hug you enough. And now I'm here, away from you and can't even begin to describe what I would be willing to give in order to be able to rest my head on your shoulder at this moment.

I pray that God keeps you safe in Kuwait so that I can hug you some day in the future, and that I won't regret for the rest of my life spending all this time at school instead of with you. That I won't regret wasting time on an education that could have waited. That I wont forever feel like I was so selfish as to put you second. I hope you know how much I love you. Good night baby.

Hurricane Hanna

When I went to bed last night, it was raining, and there was a little bit of thunder. This was of course due to that pesky little hurricane that was passing through. When I woke up this morning, the sun was out, and it seemed as though the hype for this storm was overblown as usual. Well, that was only half accurate. For when I went out to get myself some food from the campus cafeteria, this is what I found:

Fortunately, there was a way around, so I could go feed my face without having to swim for it.

Dude!

I hereby proclaim myself a convert to the center-pull ball of yarn! Never again shall I ever use the outside end to knit with! Whoever invented the center pull ball of yarn is a genius! It's as simple as that!

And that is all.

Knitting again

So, I'm in the mood to knit again, after taking several days off because I knit myself out last weekend. I had to fix a mistake I found in a cable, but I've already had to do that once before on this scarf, so I've had some practice with that technique. I also added a new ball of yarn because I had used up all of the first ball. I had to pull out the innards of the commercial ball of yarn in order to find the other end, and so out of necessity, I made my first center pull ball by wrapping it loosely around one of my knitting needles. So, here is my progress picture:

I'm still debating whether or not I should block this when I'm done. I really really want to, because the widths are so different in various places, but it is acrylic, and I've heard some mixed reviews on blocking acrylic. I'm not sure if "killing the fabric" will work with cables very well. When it comes time, I'm afraid I might have to knit a swatch to practice on. When I started this project, I started on the suggested size 11 needles. I only got about an inch done when I realized that was not going to work at all. It was waaaay too holey. So I tried again, and again, with smaller needles every time, knitting about an inch or two or three until I was sure I liked how it was coming out. And that is why I do not have a swatch. In a way, this is my swatch... upgraded to the real thing.

I also did a little research on the snake that scared me half to death in the mountains over Labor Day weekend, and found out that it is a ring necked snake. It is completely harmless, and eats things like earthworms and slugs. They are supposed to be secretive, but that one sure wasn't shy!

And look how my little triops have grown!



Arn't they cute!?!?!

Labor Day Weekend

I hope everyone had a good Labor Day Weekend. I know mine was certainly interesting. My aunt came down for the weekend, and her, my mom, and I all went up to Gatlinburg, TN. The drive was a gruesome 6 hours or so. Fortunately, I was not the one doing the driving.

So what did I do? We walked along a 2.7 mile long trail in the National Park/Forest, but only for an hour. We didn't even get to the half way point before we decided to turn around. Our goal was the Rainbow Waterfall, and everyone said it was worth the trek, but we only had one full day in the mountains, and it was time for us to move on. It was my joke of the day that we saw more wildlife in the parking lot than on the trail. For example, this small snake nearly slithered over my foot as I passed a large SUV on my way to the official trail starting place:



And upon our return, we were greeted by this medium sized black bear:

I'm not saying that this is all that nature had to offer that day, but these were definitely the highlights.



We also went swimming and ate dinner at Olive Garden. And, thanks to the long trip there and back, I finished the first ball of yarn on my pink cabled scarf. It is now 27 inches long and has 23 repeats. I got so sick of working on it during the endless hours in the car, but there was nothing else to do. I think I need to take a few days off from knitting.