Monday, March 26, 2012

Progressed

The past few days I've been trying to keep up with homework while also having a full-time job which is a little bit more difficult than I imagined, but I'm making it work. It helps that most of the due dates are consistent, so I know which days I'll be swamped and which days I'll have time to do other things like go to the grocery store or the library or hang out with friends. Tomorrow should be a pretty easy day in terms of homework, but I have like a hundred things to do around the house. Cleaning, dishes and all that, plus grocery shopping which hasn't been done for like 2 weeks now. And NS from the daycare wants to go to the library after work tomorrow. She's looking for something specific and thinks I can help her. One of those funny things about nearly living at the library is that now my friends/family think I know all there is to know about the library. Maybe NS just wants to hang out though. I do keep having to give her a rain check cause of all the homework. Either way it gives me a chance to go to the library myself and return a few things. I'm trying not to pick up any more print books until I've worked through the last 3 on my desk, but I have no such qualms about audiobooks since they can be stored on my computer until I have time to read them, so that's what I'll be looking for.
Last post I discussed my monthly goals. So far, I have done at least 2 rows a day on the dreaded Ripple Afghan (apart from today; I think I've only done about a row and a half cause I spent naptime talking to NS). Here's a progress photo:

(Sorry about the colors, this is about as good as it gets when you're not a professional photographer). I seriously did not enjoy the blue and pink in the middle there (the pink is much brighter than pictured, a Caron Simply Soft in Plum Wine I think, and the blue is like a pastel baby blue, the same yarn I used for the first Ripple Afghan), but I showed it to NS and she said it looked seriously cool. So far this blanket has eaten up a partial skein of light purple and a whole skein of off white, so it's doing pretty well as a stashbuster, and is definitely helping with the goal of getting rid of all of my worsted weight yarn.

Another of my monthly goals was to finish one and a half socks by month's end, which at the time was only about 10 days away. It's about 5 days away now and I have one sock nearly finished. I just have to knit the afterthought heel. Here's a progress photo of that:
You can see the cuff here and the sock all way down to the toe. The needles mark the spot where I pick up like 70 stitches and work the heel. Once I'm done with that it'll be quick to weave in the ends and begin another sock. I think if I work to the round where I mark the spot for the heel, I will have hit my goal for the month.

There were a few other goals I discussed in the last post, including the goal of reading 2 books by month's end. I finished Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones the night before last, then I started reading Unearthly by Cynthia Hand. Deep Secret was really good, though weird. It's the second book I've read by that author and I think the only thing that she's consistent about in her writing is that she drops you right in the middle of a story with no explanation for anything and you just sort of have to muddle through and figure it out on your own while everything's happening. It makes for an interesting story, but a more difficult read because you have to pay more attention to detail since you don't know anything about what could be important later. I'm only about 50 pages or so into Unearthly but so far it has that whole supernatural vibe going on, with the teen angst thing thrown in. Don't get me wrong, I love that sort of thing, but I also recognize that it isn't the height of literary achievement. Then again, I read for enjoyment, not because some literary professor tells me what's good. Unearthly is a quick read though, which is good because it will help me reach my goal of 2 books by month's end that much quicker. I'm realizing 5 days is a very short amount of time, especially when most of them will be spent at the daycare.

There was one goal that I've already broken, and that's the resolution about getting my homework done the night before the day it's due. I finished two assignments on their due dates this week. I'm getting better though. Both assignments were done hours early. One was done almost 9 hours early, and the other, a research paper I began on the due date, was done about 2 hours early. Like I said, I'm making progress.

I think next month I'll make a few more personal goals such as having a self-imposed bedtime and a resolution to do the dishes more often. I think knitting goals are easier for me to think about because they don't reflect poorly on my personality when I don't meet them. I can't say that I didn't do my knitting cause I'm lazy, but I can say that about doing the dishes (especially when I choose to knit instead).

Anyway, I'm gonna try and read a few pages of this book before bed and get the rest of that row done on the Ripple Afghan. Happy knitting!

2 comments:

  1. diana wynne jones's secret to success: her books have built-in re-readability.

    try howl's moving castle sometime! very short book, but i never can remember what things happen in what order and why, despite having read it repeatedly!

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    1. It's definitely on my list! I looked at some of her other audiobooks, but the ones at the library were mostly sequels to that one.

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