Wow, it's been a while

So since I last blogged, I have completed a number of projects, with pictures to follow. I had a whole semester of college and a new semester just began last week. I'm taking a whole load of stupid classes, but they're all gen ed or required for my major. Mostly I chose the stupid ones because I had to take my classes online (long story) and the only ones available are ridiculous. I'm taking Communications, Theatre Survey, American Government and Intro to Tech for Teachers. Though they are all classes that would require very little effort at college, online they require about 8 times more work, albeit busy work. Aside from all of that, I am on my way to a Rise Against/ A Day to Remember concert tomorrow with a friend and I'm really excited for that, though I have to brush up on my ADTR because I only know a few of their songs. I had a pretty uneventful Christmas, and my birthday was around the same time, also uneventfully.

I started watching Dr. Who with a friend and have been getting very involved in it. I've only gotten about midway through the 4th season and I've been avoiding spoilers like the plague. I absolutely adore it though. In addition, my other friend was jealous that I was watching Dr. Who with someone else, so she decided we would watch the spin-off series, Torchwood, together, and we've been doing that off and on. I think the next episode we'll watch is the first episode of season 2. Really, the way it works with these two is that whenever we have time we hang out, so I generally end up watching maybe one or two episodes a week.

In books, I've been listening to the new Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Prince, on audiobook. I love the character of Jem. I'm also trying to reread Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld because he just put out a new one in that series and I don't remember what happens. I'm rediscovering though that it's a little bit childishly written. I read the new Inheritance book by Christopher Paolini and I hated the ending. I won't spoik it any more than that. I gave up on Atlas Shrugged because it got really boring. I finished the first of three parts, and it seemed like the book could pretty much end there. I listened to the Charlie Fletcher Stoneheart series on audiobook. That was also a little juvenile but with a good plot. I'm eagerly awaiting Crossed by Allie Condie. I requested it at the library over a month ago, but I'm still on the waiting list. I'm also excited for the Hunger Games movie, though the ending of the last book did sort of make me want to die a little.

On to yarn crafting. I created a whole series of berets with leftover yarn for myself. They're all in bright colors. I also made I think 2 scarves for myself. I also recently completed a pair of my very own socks. For Christmas gifts I gave a bright green beanie, a dark green scarf, a black scarf, a red beanie, a blue beanie, a beautiful red cable scarf, a bright orange beanie with purl heart, a multicolored lace eyelet beret, a yellow and black steelers beret and a knitted sock monkey which took forever and made me want to stab its eyes out. Right now I'm working on a gray beanie with cabled owls at the brim for my friend and a light green sweater with cabled owls at the hems for myself. I've never made a sweater so it's kind of an adventure for me. I've made nearly anything else one could think of so finding a new project is rare for me. I've also just gotten a hank of laceweight yarn to make a lace shawl. I'm still working on my harry potter scarf, but I only pick it up every once in a while. I'll post pictures in a few days I think. As soon as I figure out my sister's camera and I get her to let me borrow it.

Edit: I forgot to add a few other projects. I did the Knitty Fish Hat a couple of months ago, in pinks and purples. I also bought some gold crochet thread to do the lace shawl in another color with bigger needles. As promised, here are the pictures of all this:

Afterthought Heel socks from Kathleen Taylor's book, The Big Book of Socks

Self- designed berets. There were the only three I could find today, but there's also a bright blue and bright green and maybe one more.

These two are self-designed scarves. The first is just a double crochet pattern with a Q hook. The second is a design based on a granny square, only it is done in rows, rather than rounds

These two are the Knitty Fish Hat by Thelma Egberts.

These next two are the same shawl done in two different yarn weights and needle sizes. The first is gold crochet thread and size 6 needles and the second is an alpaca blend laceweight yarn that A from the library traded me (I gave her some leftover sock yarn for it). It's done with size 2 circular needles.

This is the multicolored eyelet beret I made for my DS for Christmas.

These are all parts of the sweater I'm working on. A close-up of the owl cables on the torso, the full torso, the full sleeve and a close-up of the owl cables on the sleeve. The last picture is a close-up of the original swatch I made before I started the sweater.

This is my Harry Potter scarf, done in a K2, P2 pattern with size 3 needles and worsted weight yarn, which makes it super thick. The other picture is the Gryffindor patch that will be ironed on to the scarf at the end. I think that's about it for now. All of the other projects I mentioned were given as Christmas gifts, so I don't have any pictures of them. Sorry about the fish background to the pictures- that was about the best lighting in the house, and the most plain background I could find.