It's been a long time...

Oh yeah, it's been a long time. Life gets in the way; life just happens and somehow, I just didn't feel like blogging much. I'm still working on my dissertation, have gone out of town three times this summer (making it 4 trips that I've taken in 2012). Research continues to progress as well.

In case you are wondering, this summer I went to Arizona (convention), Philippines (during typhoon season to visit family), and Wisconsin (presentation). So it was very busy.

And so does knitting. Some socks done (boring ones and I don't even remember which ones!) and a few more puffs, bringing my total up to over 100. Less than 120. I've also been working on a sweater too, Kimonito: 

I cannot wait for this sweater to be done. I'm working on the second sleeve at the moment--I want to see if I can get a lot done this weekend because I just want to wear this sweater! My suggestion is that it is a snug knit so if you want something more loose and tunic-like, go up one size! 

And I am doing a swap on Ravelry, so this is my handmade item. Also a very good way to stash-bust.

back from my hiatus

I took a break from this blog for a while. Not sure why, but I just felt like I had to, and in the meantime, I just focused on my life, work, school, and so forth. Actually, life was just busy enough, even without this blog and updating it. I have been knitting, but I got enticed by the siren call of the puffs. If you've not heard of the puffs, these are just addictive. It all starts with one single puff, made of leftover sock yarn. Pretty soon, the next thing I knew, I cast on for a second one. Then a third. And so forth. Now I've amassed somewhere around 80 puffs in the past three or four months, and I know it's going to take a while--but eventually all these puffs will become a quilt for ME.

And you know what? A lot of other things got neglected, like this:

And this:

And those nightingale socks that I started last time, too.



In non-knitting news, the end of the semester is almost here. Thank goodness.

New projects

In June, I finished my Aaargh!Gyle socks and felt like casting on for a new project. I have been dying to knit more fair isle projects, and I decided to knit the Nightingale socks. So far, i've gotten up to right before the heel/gusset, and because I've been lazy, I haven't progressed farther than that. Plus, I was a bit stressed out over school and my research proposal (defense for the proposal is next week). 

In June, I also went to my college reunion. Each time I have been back to the town where my undergraduate college is, i have never, ever been able to make it to the yarn store before it closed, or I would arrive on a day the store was closed. So I made a special point of making it to town to hit the yarn store. I was thrilled when I saw one skein of Opal Harry Potter sock yarn -- of course, it is Lupin (I much prefer Ron or Tonks--but this was the only choice. Better than none!) I am not quite sure how these colors represent Lupin. So this is the sock I've started knitting, just to relax.

Countdown to hot water

The past few days (since Thursday, to be exact), we've not had hot water. I don't mind washing my hands or dealing with cold water, except for the shower bit. Oh my gosh. Cold water showers really are the pits! I have come up with a solution though--heat up a dish with water in the microwave and use that in the shower. Tomorrow we get our hot water (thank goodness. I am going to take a nice hot shower tomorrow).

But in knitting news:


Star Trek Socks


Then when I was finished with the Star Trek Socks, I started the Argh!gyle socks. I'm halfway through this sock's pair. Obviously it is too warm to wear these this summer, but at least it will be ready for fall!

Argh!gyle socks

Continuation of knitting and camera projects

Today, I took a little time to play with my camera and took pictures of my current project. This is yarn that I dyed myself with kool-aid and it is striping up very subtly with red and purple stripes.

And it is very soft, which is a plus, of course.

And I got myself a present! The thing is that over break, I downloaded tons of free books from amazon.com. And it seems like there were an awful lot of romance novels available for free, with titles like "Baby Bonanza" or "Once a Cowboy, Always a Cowboy", "Speed Dating", "Heated Rush", etc....I'm not ashamed. I read these books. (Some made me want to blush. Whooooo. I think "Heated Rush" was the one that was erm...quite...yes. I think you get the idea.) Featured in the kindle above is NOT a romance novel, but rather, a mystery called "REMIX".

I think I am learning how to use that camera! Now if spring would get here, already! That way, I can go take my camera out for some nice walks and photo opportunities! (and photo practice).

Sock and a cuff, and a new camera

First off, I have been working on these socks (for me) for a while now (over a month). These are Opal socks (Kaffe Fassett collection) and I do like the way they are striping up. If you are wondering why the pictures look blurry, it is because I bought a (new to me) camera from my friend Meredith (who was selling her Canon EOS Rebel XTi, so I am still learning my way around the camera. But I am excited. Even for spring (and yes, this is a girl who does not love spring), because I am hoping that I will get to take the camera on walks in and around the campus, and around here, and experiment.

I think I need to practice more on the focusing thing. ;)

I will be skipping knitting today, because I was up since 4 AM for work at the hospital, came home for a little bit (gave me enough time to shower, eat lunch, and watch 45 minutes of Supernatural. Also took some time then to look up the pros and cons of both the Nook and the Kindle. So far, I am liking the Kindle except that the Nook would let me borrow lots of books from the library. Sigh. Who knows what I'll end up doing.

I should just say...

we're not dog people. But we had a fun experience with a dog this morning. As I was going to go outside the house to get the car ready to go to work, I saw the cutest little white dog on our porch. Tail wagging, he approached me, and honestly, I had no idea what to do!

I got my mom and we saw that he had no tag on his collar, and he nosed his way inside the house, made a beeline for our Christmas tree (yes, we still have our Christmas tree up, and it is very pretty). He sniffed at a stuffed Polar Express Santa that we have under the tree and padded toward my mom's voice (mom was in the kitchen, wondering out loud, "Do dogs drink milk?" and looking in the fridge for millk to pour into a bowl).

Mom was afraid to leave him in the house all day while we went to work, so she had the brilliant (not really) idea of putting the dog in the garage. Of course, the poor dog got so completely spooked by the garage (plus the door hit him on the side--not hard) and started backing up down the hallway, and refused to go near my mom any more. He went straight for the front door, and mom opened the front door to put the bowl of milk down on the step. He, of course, went down the walk to the driveway. I went after him, and at that time, a woman was driving down the street with her window down, and shouted at me, "Have you seen a white dog?" So this was the owner, and the dog got to go home.

I will have to say this: My mom really liked that dog. He was cute. And we would just giggle about this all day because it was just a little too funny.