Icarus Progress.... With Photos!

Ok. So blogger doesn't want to put my photos where I want them. Anyway....
I started classes on Monday. Bright and early at 7:30 in the morning. I'm not really what people call a "morning person". I like to sleep. I like my bed. I like my eyes to be closed during the dark morning. I'm sure that I'll adjust in a few weeks, but until then, I'll be dragging.
Right now, I'm taking a break from my urinalysis studying (oh, yeah) to get these photos up.




I've been spending my breaks before and after class working on Icarus. It's taking roughly 30 minutes to do 2 rows, so I'm not getting a lot done at one time, but it is adding up. I have four more rows left to do on the third repeat. I'm using Mondial La Lana Merino Fine and size 2 Turbos.
Icarus is still small enough to take with me in a small fabric gift bag and fits nicely in my backpack. I've really been enjoying talking with the random people who stop to ask about the project. Finding new people to talk to is something I enjoy doing. As SweaterGirl and IKTI know, I'll talk to just about anybody about anything.

Other than school, I haven't been doing anything new. I'm finally getting some ripe tomatoes in my garden, although my plants were really damaged during the storms last week. I'm hoping that the huge holes in the leaves won't hurt the tomatoes, pumpkins and cucumbers too much. The weeds seem to have weathered the storms (ha, ha) just fine, but my super-tall sunflowers were broken by the wind before I had a chance to get photos taken. But, thankfully, there's always next year.

Icarus Progress

I finally finished detangling my yarn for Icarus yesterday. 1250 meters of superfine merino.
I got through the second repeat of chart 1 this evening. At this rate, I might be done by December...

On the home front, I emptied out my black hole of an office yesterday and ripped out the nasty pink carpet. I'm not sure which previous owner decided on the carpets in our house, but they obviously had no taste. I spent a few hours scraping tape that was under the tack strips, and it's still not done. I have a feeling that Mema will be upset if I don't do it right, so I'll get back at it tomorrow. But until it's all done, I have a black hole of a dining room.

Sesame Street Rocks!

If you know me, even a little bit, you know that I'm a little obsessed with Law and Order. All of them. Even the repeats on USA and TNT and every other channel that plays them.
So, imagine my delight when watching Sesame Street with H-bomb on Monday night and this clip came on. I had to turn it up and tell my family to be quiet so I could hear what was going on. SuperGeek and I were left wondering where Ice-T's character, Finn Tutuola, was though.

On the knitting front, I've finished Sister Amy's shawl. It's thinner than I thought it would be, but that will probably change with blocking and gravity.
I've started the second repeat on Icarus. I know I shouldn't be, but I'm a little concerned because it looks like a blob of yarn right now. The pattern looks much more complicated than it is, but I've found it to be a nice "watching TV" project to work on.
I've also been making baby hats, since everybody seems to be reproducing at an alarming rate right now. They're nice and easy and can be finished in a few hours.

The painted bedroom floor looks so much better. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. I think, though, that I will get the primer tinted next time to cut down on the coats needed for good coverage. I'm thinking that I could spend a few days this week working on fixing the "Black Hole", as SuperGeek calls my office. I'd love to rip out the nasty pink carpet and organize everything. I'm just not sure where I'd put the 'puter while I was working, since our house is so cozy....

One more thing.....
We had an awesome dinner party on Saturday night, and I'd like to thank everybody that was there for making it so wonderful. We're planning on putting in the dishwasher that's been hanging out in the garage before we have another one. Although, eating off the paper plates was convenient.
We were all missing the Honeymooners2006 a few minutes after they left. Come back soon! You don't need a reason to visit us!

Fabuloso

I found this cleaner at Target, and I love it. If you haven't tried it, spend the $1.49 on it. It took off who knows how much dirt from under the carpet. And it smells good, too.
Awesomeness in a bottle.

Update to Waiting

I got my grade via email yesterday afternoon....

I got an A!!!!
I was very excited about it, since I hadn't done as well on the first lecture exam as I would have liked and I was worried that I would do the same the second time around. But I only missed 8 points!!

So to reward myself, I pulled out the carpet in my bedroom. It was old and gross and stinky. Now we have the nice asbestos tiles showing. The plan is to paint them until we can afford to recover them with wood flooring. Or laminate. Or tile. I'm sure we'll figure something out....

Lolla was a blast, too. We saw Death Cab, Built to Spill, Calexico, Sonic Youth, Dresden Dolls, Flaming Lips and New Pornographers.
We were all getting tired after spending the day in the heat with sweaty, sticky people all around, so we went back to Amy 2's house for a dinner of ice cream and chips and dip. That's one of the fun things about travelling without children...

I'm almost done with the first chart of Icarus. I'll start on the first repeat in roughly three rows. I'm near the end of Amy 2's shawl, with plans of embellishment dancing in my head. I'm thinking a fringe with a bead on the end at the short edges, but she seems a bit wary of that idea. I'm going to try it and see how it turns out and if she hates it, I can change it.
I'm off to check for ripe tomatoes in my garden. We'll be using them for dinner if I can find some.

Waiting is the Hardest Part

I'm sitting here waiting for the email from my A&P instructor giving me my grade. I had my final exam this morning. I felt more prepared for this test than the first one, but I could only miss 23 points to get an A in the class. I could, however, have gotten only 17 out of 200 for a C in the class.

Later this afternoon, SuperGeek and I will be heading down to Chicago for Lollapalooza. I'm pretty excited to go, as I've never been before. We're planning to see Death Cab, Raconteurs, Gnarls Barkley and New Pornographers. And whatever other bands sound good.

On the knitting front, I've made progress on Amy's shawl, but not as much as I would like. I also cast on for Icarus last night during a study break. I've only finished 15 rows, so I'm not sure how it will look when I'm done. I also need to finish untangling the skein of yarn that I'm using. Perhaps yarn stores wouldn't go out of business if the owners were more neat with their product?
I'm not sure that I'll be able to make it to any yarn stores this weekend, but I will post about them on Monday if I do.

I hope you're all staying cool!