Back to School :(

Two weeks from today I'll be sitting in a desk again. Yikes. Where did summer go?

I've been school shopping with my family. So far I have all of my supplies--a huge blue binder to fit all of my notebooks in--so all I need is some more clothes and I'll be set. We have this rule at my school that our shorts and skirts need to be to the knees, which, although nice, can be a pain: really, do you know how hard it is to find shorts for teens that go all the way to the KNEES?

I also bought the yarn for my Ravenclaw scarf to knit during the Olympics. My Gold Award is going along well, too. Some local knitters donated a huge stash of yarn for me to use to knit up the hats! There's this new pattern I'm using that's going super quick and doesn't use that much yarn, so the project is starting to go a little faster. Now all I have to do is update the blog/website...

Let's see, what else have I been doing? Helping at the library, reading the Kare Kano manga series, re-reading Harry Potter DH and making a fanmix for it, playing "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess" on the Wii with my sister, hanging out with my friends. Sleeping in till 9--only 14 more days of sleeping in! * cries *

Well, I'm going to scavenge in the kitchen for something to eat. Oh no--only 14 more lunches left before I have to eat the gross cafeteria food * cries again *

Why does summer have to end???? :(

"Be Realistic!"

I'm not a very realistic person, as you can tell from my last post.

When I wanted to take 9 full classes this coming year and skip my lunch in order to fit it all in? It took my dad to tell me "Becky, be realistic--do you really want to go through the whole year with no lunch?" And now I have 8 full classes plus a lunch period, thank god.

When I wanted to go to a 7 week session of camp this summer, doing the CIT 1 and CIT 2 program in one summer (which is pretty much unheard of), only having one day of rest in between the sessions, it took my mom to go "Becky, be realistic--do you want to spend 7 out of 9 weeks of your summer sleeping on a cot in a tent?" And so I did 3 weeks of camp, finishing up the CIT 1 program.

So it took my 14-year-old sister to tell me "What the heck Becky? You're going to knit a hat every single day plus a scarf? BE REALISTIC!"

Yep. I am going to be realistic and change my plans for the Ravelympics. Along with doing the Scarf Stroke, I want to do one other event--either the Sock Put or the Amiguri + Toys Toss. Since I have a billion sets of DPNS now (thank you Grandma!) I can do any of them pretty cheaply without having to go drive a half an hour away for more needles.

If I do the Toy Toss, I'm going to make an Elephant "Elefante" for...someone...I don't who yet.

If I do the Sock Put, I'll probably make some cozy house socks.

So, what will it be? No idea yet. Well, I've still got, what, 8 days? 10 days? Plenty of time left!

The Ravelympics--2008 Plans

Well, the Olympics are beginning in...*checks counter* 15 DAYS! Which means that it is time for me to pick my Ravelympic project.

At first I was planning on making this sweater in lieu of the new HP movie coming out (and it looks like a fairly simple first sweater project--all done on circs, which means no seaming) but it turns out that the supplies cost way too much. I calculated $60 for everything, which I don't really have right now.

So. I went with option 2. Scarf Stroke. I know what you're all thinking--"A scarf isn't a challenging project!" Well, it is if it's 90 in. long! I'm doing the PoA Ravenclaw HP scarf to wear to the new movie. I know this KAL is the motivation I need to get it done--it is miles and miles of boring stockinette. But, using Caron Simply Soft, I can get all the yarn for $10 or less. Now that's more in my price range!

And, besides the scarf for the KAL, I'm also going to do a mini-KAL all on my own. Those hats.

They really have to get done. I want to get a hat done for every day of the Olympics. That's 17 hats! I can get it done--I'm going to be knitting all through August, but I can do it. I have NOTHING going on in August and am prepared to tackle this Gold Award--and that scarf.

The only damper on this plan is that school is starting again on the 18th (ugh). We don't get any homework the first week, though. It's always "Okay, here is a list of my expectations for this year! Let's play a getting-to-know-you game! I want to test all of you to see where we should start in the curriculum!" Easy. I went Tuesday to register for Junior year, and my schedule is so screwed up--I'm missing French III and Advanced Piano, have two classes at once and was put in the wrong gym class. Oh, and my lunch was at 2:30 P.M. Yeah, the office really has to fix it.

So there you have it--my plans for the Ravelympics! Can I do it? Or do I not know what I'm getting myself into?

Christmas in July

I'm baaacccckkkk! It's been a while, but I'm glad nothing too drastic took place while I was up in Northern Wisconsin, sleeping in a tent and away from much civilization as we know it.

Anyway, the main reason for this knitting-related post is that my grandparents arrived from Kansas City today--yay! And my grandma brought me her ENTIRE. COLLECTION. OF. KNITTING. STUFF.

I freaked out. I am now the proud owner of more sewing needles than I can count, a huge binder of patterns from the '60s through the '80s, and LOTS AND LOTS OF NEEDLES! I would write more, but I'm off to talk to my grandparents. Stay tuned!

3-Week Hiatus

Hello world. I just got back Wednesday from Business World Camp--basically, a business/economics camp for teens (nerd camp, woot!) held at St. Norbert's College in Wisconsin. It was four-days long and was a great way to get to know what college life will be like. We got to eat in the union cafeteria, find our way around the campus and stay in the dorms with random roommates (mine was lousy...I won't get into details, but she didn't go to any of the classes on the third day and almost got kicked out because she spent the night in the boy's dorm building. Okay, then.) In four-days, I don't think I missed much back at home.

I do know that my 14-yr-old sis logged on my HSKS5 swap account and posted a completely bizarre, random entry on my Daisy Finnigan account that I deleted--seriously, don't know why she would even think about logging onto my account. We have the same passwords for every website we belong to, so it obviously wasn't hard for her to get on it--but, dude! WHY?

Which brings me to the topic of this post. I'm leaving to be a CIT at camp on Sunday. A 3-week camp. I WILL GET INTERNET ACCESS every few days or so using the camp computers, so I can keep up with the swap I'm in and still post to my HSKS5 blog. I'm also coming home on the weekends. But I won't have time for Ravelry, Facebook or this blog--sniff!

Don't worry, I'll have all sorts of knitting goodies to show you when I get back. Stay tuned--see you July 21st!

(and, random, but I get back from camp on the same day that HP and the Deathly Hallows came out ONE YEAR AGO--isn't that crazy?!?!?! It's been one year already, dudes! At least there's Twilight to look forward to. Breaking Dawn will be coming out a week or so after I get back--YAY!)

Another Summer Update

Ack, who came up with the bright idea to assign us an essay over the SUMMER? My brain is in summer mode, not school mode. I can't write an essay with my brain in summer mode. The worst part is that it's due not the day we return to school, but in the middle of the summer. We have to drive over to school, drop off the assignment by my new English teacher's door, and leave. Sigh.

The real reason I'm posting is because I finally can show you the hats!

See? That's what I've been doing all these days! Making those acrylic, easy hats for my Gold Award! I have 14 now (not all of them are in the pic) so...a lot more to go. I'm getting help from community knitters, friends, family and church though, so I won't have to make all of them myself. It's still a lot, though. I doubt I'll knit another hat in my life once this project is done.

I also won't be able to post again until next Thursday or so. I'm going to a 4-day camp up near Green Bay, WI at St. Norbert's College. It's a "business camp"--me and other Wisconsin teens are coming up to learn about how to run your own business. We're competing for college scholarships. I'm pretty nervous. I leave on Sunday, gulp, and don't know anyone! Not even my roommate. I mean, that's going to be awkward, rooming with a random person for three nights that I've never met before in my life and never will meet again. Curse my friends for all being out of town...I miss them...

Oh, well. I can do this. Maybe I'll bring a hat to knit. I might look like World's Biggest Dork, but, hey, I'm never going to see these people again, why not?

Lazy, Crazy Days of Summer...

Okay, 12 hats done...lots more to go.

People are laughing at me out in cyberspace. I can hear them--"Becky, you can't knit all of those hats! You'll go crazy!"

I know. Which is why I'm not knitting all of them. I'm getting some help from family and friends, and already people in the neighborhood have stepped up. I really have to get working on the blog/webpage to direct them to...

I've been trying to get a picture of my beautiful hats up for the past hour or so, but the camera isn't working (big surprise...this happens at least once a week, doesn't it?) so it'll have to wait. Again.

What else have I been doing this week? Well...

• My spoilee for HSKS5 recieved the package I sent! She also chose me for a Random Act of Kindness, which involves TWILIGHT! I'll explain more on my character blog once I get to it.
• I finished all the required summer reading books for next year's honor English class. Now to move on to the essays I have to write and AP Euro...
• My little sister is done with school! Since we go to different schools, she got out a full two weeks later than me, but now she's done! She's had her "8th grade graduation" (oooh, the drama) and went to a waterpark for a last-day of school fieldtrip. If only we did that in high school. So now she's home with me and I get to watch her during the day, even though she's more than capable of watching herself at that age.
• I'm trying to transulate the Avatar 4-Nation crochet charts to knitting, and will hopefully start on a blanket that mimics the awesome-ness that is this. Although that might take a long time...I might have to start teaching myself crochet and just follow the pattern. It would go a lot quicker.

Yes, it doesn't seem like much, but it's summer! What do you expect? I slept until 11:00 this morning--I don't think I've ever slept in that late! But it felt so good. It feels so good just to relax.