Frogged

It's been waaaaaay too long since I've posted. The beginning of a new school year has been a little annoying, despite being pretty easy (gen ed courses are all retarded) and I've been in the process of moving in and unpacking all of my things (which all fit nicely into my closet). This, of course, is made all the more difficult because I can't move any furniture into my room until the floors are re-done. The wood has to be chemically sanded and re-varnished due to the damage done by the previous tenants.
I did get the opportunity to locate all of my yarn, which is a pitiful stash, let me tell you. I have a filing box full of acrylic nastyness, which is destined to become another stupid crochet chevron blanket- I really thought I had gotten rid of all of the leftover Red Heart crap, but I guess not. I don't actually mind acrylic yarn, though. Being a relatively poor person and a college student has made it difficult to be picky about my yarn, and I have a deep and abiding affection for Caron Simply Soft because of it's sheen and rich colors. In fact, that's what DM's afghan is made of. I just don't like Red Heart, I guess.
I also had a milk crate filled with WIPs, excluding DM's afghan and all of the materials for the Tardis socks, which I have re-started. In that bin, I found my Harry Potter scarf, (so close to being finished that it's laughable), and my Owl Sweater.
Thursday I spent the day working on DM's afghan and making these two lovely Christmas gifts:

They are a modified version of the Chain Loop Circle Scarf. I just chained until I got the right length using my yarn and preferred hook. They look really cool, despite being just about the simplest and quickest FO's I've ever made.
 I had classes on Friday, and I spent the evening at NB's apartment about an hour and half's drive away. I sometimes wonder if I'm a dim person (lightbulb not on and all) or if I'm just really absent-minded. I forgot my knitting, and so lost a lot of time I could have been working on it. Luckily though, I was prepared for this eventuality, since it has happened more than once. After that, I decided I needed to keep an emergency project at NB's place, so I gave her the second skein of the yarn I used for DS's birthday hat and an extra hook so that I could make another. I got about 80% of the hat done while I was there, so I guess I should remember to pack more emergency yarn to keep at her apartment.
Saturday morning I visited NS at her new apartment, which happens to be in the same city as NB's since they both attend the same school. We hung out for a bit and I headed home.  Once there, I went about doing some more organizing (I think that job has made me a bit OCD- about every 10 minutes I had to walk around and straighten chairs or clean tables or sweep or mop or clear off counters or clean up toys). When I encountered my Owl Sweater I decided it was high time to frog it. I like the yarn a lot, and I was never going to actually be able to fix the problem with the sweater. So I spent the night frogging and reskeining, and came up with this:

I think I'll be able to make a nice cardigan out of it, owing to the fact that my sweater was about 3 times too big from the collar up, and about 4 inches too long. The yarn is Cuddle by Jo Ann sensations, in Lt Green. It's DK weight and it will make a lovely cardigan one day. When Christmas knitting is over.

I did restart the Tardis socks, but DM and I don't spend too much time together, so I've mostly been working on her afghan and my homework. The first sock still looks like this:

The day before I moved, I took one last trip to the LYS and bought a second skein of this yarn so that I would be able to make another pair of Tardis socks once I finished this one.

DM's afghan is over halfway done, so as promised here's a picture:

It really looks a lot prettier than that, but there's only so much that can be done with a camera phone.  The afghan is wider than a standard twin bed, but that's good because DM likes big afghans.

Accomplished

I guess it would be appropriate, now that the Ravellenic Games are over, to review what I accomplished. I only produced 3 items:

 Yarn dyed with turmeric for the Hand Dye High Dive event

 Erin's bolero for the Sweater Triathlon and the Holiday Hurdles events

And the Manly Sunset socks for the Sock Put, Holiday Hurdles and Single Skein Sprint. 

So even though I only produced 3 items, I was awarded a total of 6 medals. I think that's not bad for my first time participating in the Ravellenic Games. I'm not super impressed by the amount of items I completed. I think I should have given myself harder goals because I definitely did everything I said I would do. I just didn't do anything more than that. I think part of it was that the WIP Wrestling event requirements weren't conducive to me finishing DM's afghan. It had to be something you hadn't worked on for at least a couple of weeks. I think if that hadn't been a requirement, I would have given myself the goal of completing the afghan instead. And I probably would have done it- I mean, there was that time I completed an afghan in under a month, and this one's already more that a third of the way through. Well, maybe I couldn't have done it, but I think it might have been more productive. On the other hand, I did get some holiday projects done. 

Speaking of which, I have one other FO to show off, as promised. Salt River socks for a friend for Christmas. Actually, these are for the wife of the friend who'll be receiving the Manly Sunset socks. I finished these last night and did the weaving in ends and picture taking this morning:

I adore these socks! The colorway is just so awesome, and I have to say, they did a really good job perfecting the colors in a salt river. I also like that it's stripey, but not too stripey. And they match. This pair, of course, didn't qualify for the Ravellenics, but getting it off the needles means that I only have one active WIP. Everything else on the needles is hibernating until such time as it decides to stop pissing me off, or I have enough time for it, or both. I will now be devoting a good chunk of my time to DM's afghan. I'll probably start another pair of Tardis socks next week so I have something to work on while DM's around, but I plan on getting at least 1 pattern repeat done between now and then.

Reviewed

Today I purchased a book at the Goodwill bookstore in town: At Knit's End by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot. I sat down and read the entire thing today, with no distractions (NS is at a friend's house and so is her sister, and her parents enjoyed a lazy day as well, reading and generally keeping the noise level to a minimum. The t.v. hasn't been turned on all day.) It's a lovely, quick read and super funny. The book is set up like a quote book. There's a quote from a famous person, book or movie, followed by some knitting-related information and some snarky comment of the Yarn Harlot's. Much of the book is dedicated to sentences that begin, "I will remember... when..." and there are plenty of funny anecdotes about knitting mistakes. It was great to spend the afternoon reading the Yarn Harlot's words, especially considering that I love her blog so much. And I was just thinking about how I should have more knitting-related books. I think I own 4 now, 3 of which were picked up at second-hand shops for like a dollar or two.

In other news, I completed my final Ravellenic Games entry, a pair of socks for a Christmas gift:

They are awesome-looking, though they don't match at all (I really did try though- the toes match up to the third stripe). I call them A Manly Sunset, but DM thinks they look more like autumn. I'm inclined to think she's right, but I've renamed them twice now.
Since DM was visiting, I didn't get much of a chance to work on her afghan, so I worked on the Salt River socks a bit. They've only got about 2 more inches left til the ribbing, and I really want another quick, gratifying project to finish before I get back into DM's afghan. Besides, her afghan is so big and I was liking carrying a smaller bag around. I should get some quality knitting done on the afghan though, because school starts the 20th of August and I'll be moving in with DM and DS on the 19th, which will severely limit my ability to work on it. I'll be trying to find a job to replace the one I have to leave here, and I'll be going to school, and I can't exactly knit DM's Christmas present in front of her.
Anyway, the next few weeks will be a bit hectic as I get settled in and start classes, and I may not be able to update the Blog often. I'll probably post some FO photos of those socks in a day or so, but I don't anticipate much knitting or blogging time in the near future. Not looking forward to that at all.

Gamed

So far, I have completed two tiny projects for the Ravellenic Games:
In the hand-dye high dive, I dyed another skein of Patons Wool with turmeric for Erin's bolero. I was so excited to have this finished before I realized the yarn colors were off. And I had run out of turmeric. And I had no intention of re-dyeing the yarn. So I left it. It's exactly one pale shade of yellow lighter than the first skein.
Here are some photos of the dye process:

I also completed Erin's bolero using both skeins of hand-dyed turmeric yarn. I absolutely love the pattern and the FO. It's super adorable and only took me 8 days (which is a lot longer than it would have taken if I hadn't been working every day. I mostly did it during naptime because by the end of the day I was too exhausted to do anything at all). The place where the two different shades of yarn are joined is just noticeable but I'm not going to worry about it:

I also started another pair of socks for the Ravellenic Games. I'm not sure whether I'll finish them in time, but I figure that if I don't, at least I'll be half a project closer to another finished Christmas present:

Once the Ravellenics are over, this channel will return to its regularly scheduled programming, beginning with at least one more pattern repeat on DM's afghan.