Knitting and Horses

I have been busy with classes, western riding team, and some knitting. Classes have been going well with the occasional lack of sleep but that is life. Beowulf is interesting as I am slowly learning Old English.

My computer has decided that now is the time to start a slow slide to death. This makes doing some of my homework a little interesting as the speakers have decided that they don't always want to work.

The riding team is fun. I will post some pictures eventually.

The team, jumping off a wall.

Progress continues on the hat, I am on my second chart about half way through it. A friend let me borrow her hand cards so I am working on processing some of my raw alpaca fiber.

The hat

M was in a play called "Summer at Yasnaya Polyana" it was a student directed and created work. The play was about Tolstoy, his wife and a piano player. M was the piano player and she had a beard.

It was worth going to and seeing, I do not feel bad for skipping the other two plays as I had a free ticket due to being a student.
The weather has turned and now there is mud everywhere.
ON that note, the Doctor is coming and with him comes soufflé girl.

On a positive note Kilgharrah(my bike) now has lights, not just the reflectors. And yes that requires a dancing Ood.

Bus Rides, Broken Heating, and Maine

Yesterday I took a series of buses home. I started the bus rides at 11:50 and reached where my Dad picked me up a little after 21:00, didn't actually reach home until about 22:00. I hate riding on buses, I always end up sitting next to people, and there are never any good movies. My highlights of the trip are as follows: the first bus being late, sitting next to people, sitting next to the guy with spikes in the shoulders of his shirt, sitting next to the guy wearing suspenders and a T-shirt, having a coughing fit on a bus, having to listen to others cell phone conversation. So much fun, really not worth it.

Currently my house is a bit chilly as the heating isn't working properly, my room is down right cold at times. Also I have the internet working for me, for now at least.

First thing I do when I am at home is go to the library, I now have lots of pleasure reading books. Borrowed on spinning book and one book of tea cozy patterns. 

In good news, I have more yarn for the fish hat. Merlin came home and my cat still likes me(mostly). Did a burn test on some of my yarn in the driveway, rather fun, the results were that one yarn was wool, the other was acrylic.

Also tea is yummy, currently drinking Ginger Peach which is a nice black tea. 

Maine: land of darkness in the fall, it isn't even 16:30 as I type this and it is getting dark already. Beyond that the weather today was nice and so was sleep.

Packing For Thanksgiving break

Tuesday(Today/Tomorrow) I leave for home, for the Thanksgiving Break. Packing is complete except for the last minute things that go in later. I have started another baby blanket for the mindless knitting that it gives. It is a nice sage green color and has cotton in the yarn. 

Fall is one of the best times to take pictures at my college, the foliage is bright and the college is mostly pretty anyhow. 

One of the denizens of Lower Lake besides the beaver, has surfaced and been photographed on my phone.

The not Beaver

The Beaver with small tree

Not looking forward to the bus ride to Maine. Merlin will be traveling with me so that the rest of the family can meet my spinning wheel. 

November Day 10

Very tired, help run a successful naginata seminar/long practice today. Some video and pictures will be posted soon. Much has been learned and people have improved so much over what they had been.

I suck at updating

In the month since I last posted I have in no particular order: helped organize a small naginata seminar, driven to and from Washington DC for a naginata tournament, drove in Washington DC, watched Doctor Who, finished my mystery knitting which was my grandmother's birthday present, visited New Jersey, mostly finished Mom's xmas present, started on a present for a friend, decided on some other relatives xmas presents, spent more time on computers then is probably safe, taken lots of random pictures, grafted stitches mostly successfully, debated if I have enough time to attempt to write a book.

Naginata and related things first. On the 22 of September  I helped to lead an one day seminar/extended practice for my naginata club with a visiting sensei from our regional federation. It was fun and many people learned lots of new things. The bigger thing that happen was in October. On the weekend of October the 7th 9 members of the naginata club drove to DC to take part in a seminar, taikai, and shinsa. It took us two cars, three drivers, and ten hours to drive down. I ended up driving the entire way down in a rental vehicle due to a SNAFU situation with the transport plans. After we arrived in the early evening (yes we went on the Jersey Turnpike, no we didn't die) we went and got some food before we got to the house that we were staying at. The old captain of the team had us stay in her house and her parents were wonderful hosts. The seminar was fun and I learned lots, as did the rest of the club who went down, I hope. The taikai went well, I got third in both of the events I competed in, most of the rest of the club did really well in their events and enjoyed themselves immensely. The shinsa went pretty well, we had a range of ranks earned from 4kyu up to 2kyu. The same day as the shinsa there was also a section on bogu training, it was fun and informative. 

The HMS Toaster

The participants

After the events we went into Washington DC to go to the Smithsonian and the monuments. I went to both the Air and Space museum and the Natural history museum. Then we went to the monuments in the dark, we went to the war memorials, they were indescribable. 

On the knitting front I have gotten a fair amount done. I made a mini-Cthulhu for a gift, someone else made him a mini-naginata. I have almost finished Mom's xmas present, I just need to weave in the ends and decide if I want to put fringe on it. Also finished was my mystery knitting, aka Grandma's birthday present. It was a lace shawl in a forest green, I am pretty happy with how it turned out, even if I did spend a couple of days acting like I was crazy. Currently I am working on a gift for a friend who likes the Legend of Zelda games.

Cthulhu will get you in your sleep

Grandma and her shawl

My hat model is a lion

Apparently when I need to finish knitting something in a rush I turn to excessive watching of the Lord of the Rings movies. It's rather fun, if a little strange that I was knitting lace while watching them.

The Link hat that I made involved grafting stitches together in the band, I managed to graft them mostly correctly.

I have started to work again on the pair of gloves that I started over a year ago. Not sure why I stopped working on them at all. Wait I know why, I hate doing the fingers.

I HATE FINGERS

When I visited New Jersey it was the weekend after the naginata event, I spent most of it rushing to finish Grandma's birthday present. I did spend some time with my relatives too, just not a lot of sleep.

In Doctor Who news, I watched the last Pond episode, there was crying and funny noises involved. Baby weeping angels are terrifying, absolutely terrifying.

Also for more random things I have been taking lots of pictures of things around campus.

And the obligatory random video:

School

I got back to college last Sunday, after much packing, and moved in with my roommate. We actually live in a suite, have separate rooms with one door to the hallway. I am in the same dorm as last year, on the north side and the third floor.

My Dorm, from the hill.

Once I got everything in the room, I started to unpack, that was the easy part. The hard part was the decorating. It is mostly done, just the entry way needs to be decorated. Above my bed I strung some multi-colored christmas lights, only half the string works, and it looks so cool.

My bed with lights and posters

Other neat things found on campus include: lots of turtles, two types even, and pretty plants, also a paper mache and duct tape Kermit head.

Plants by Prospect

Turtles on a log

Baby Snapper

Kermit

In semi good news, my orchid is growing two mini orchid of course this is because the main plant is a little dead; but we're all good. My jade plant seems to be very happy on his window sill. My roommate gave me a mostly dead rose plant that I managed to finish off.

The mystery knitting is going along quite well, I have stated on the next phase of it. I crocheted myself a new soap bag after my old one was retired, it is a fairly simple pattern that takes no time to make.

Other than that I have been going to class, drinking large amounts of peppermint tea, doing homework, watching Doctor Who, and practicing getting on my bed without a running jump. I lofted my bed up high enough for my fridge to fit under the bed. That was so that I had enough room in the room as one of my closets is taken up by a wardrobe that I named Narnia.

With that I give you:

Yes, that is the tune of Little Drummer Boy