Serious Stuff

As I've just started my final year of university the time has come to start applying for jobs.  By this time next year I will no longer be a student but will (hopefully) have a full time job - scary stuff!

I've spent most of this afternoon filling in online application forms for various engineering companies and sending CVs with the knowledge that I have many more to go.  I hope it is all worth it in the end!

On a sillier note, I'm back visiting my parents this weekend because I haven't seen my Mum for a few weeks.  We got to watch the Formula One together and while Dad was out today Mum and I watched Four Christmases.  It is such a funny film!  I haven't seen it before but Mum had and we were both laughing out loud at several points in the film.

Not much to report

I'm having a quiet evening in front of the tv tonight.

This weekend I have the excitement of watching a Formula One race and I'll be getting on with my knitting projects - trying to get the scarves done, but I don't have much else planned.

Looking back

I always surprise myself when I look back over the last few years and see how much I've learnt and how my crochet skills, as well as many others, have vastly improved.

This realisation has mostly come out of the fact that when The Boy's little brother stayed with us a couple of weeks ago he pointed at a picture I had painted for The Boy and asked who had done that.  When I said it was me he was like - so you bake, crochet, knit, and paint?  Yeah I am that good!

Painting for The Boy

I remember for my 18th birthday I got my first amigurumi book and that's when my crochet interest really took off.  Before then I had only made a lacy-ish scarf and a hat.  Amigurumi was a completely new concept to me - before then crochet had been about making accessories but, once I had discovered amigurumi, I couldn't stop crocheting.  I joined Ravelry about the time of my 18th birthday too to show off my amigurumi and this opened up a new world of amazing free patterns. 

My first ever amigurumi

I've started knitting more recently and my work had noticeably improved.  Since I started knitting and crocheting back in 2009, I have finished 84 projects - and a whopping 36 in 2012!

Another skill that has been improved recently is my baking (and also cooking) ability.  When The Boy met me in our first year of uni I couldn't cook at all so he used to get me to join in with the cooking and I quickly picked up how to cook.  I still get teased that my speciality is toast but thankfully that is no longer true.

Until a couple of years ago I didn't do any baking.  I used to help Mum and Eve bake but my job was mostly getting stuff out of cupboards and now I love trying out new recipes such as the damper bread I tried a few weeks ago:

Trying something new - damper bread

I wish that I had more time to draw and paint but once my uni work is out of the way the only thing I want to do is knit or crochet.  I also wish I had more time to be musical - I couldn't bring my violin or keyboard to uni because of a lack of space but when I graduate I aim to find more time to be musical!

Do you ever take a step back to look at how much you have achieved?

Autumn Leaves

I recently saw this project idea on abeautifulmess.com :

Source: abeautifulmess.com via Smiles-A-Lot on Pinterest

I thought it was such a great idea but I don't have any felt so I am going to crochet the leaves then crochet them together using surface crochet on the leaves and chain stitch between the leaves.  I found this pattern for leaves which I think I'll use as it is nice and simple.

I just hope I manage to get this Autumn decoration done before the start of Winter but I'm sure it will be very quick to make.

A Wordless Post

A Lovely Project Bag

I've had this crochet bag in my Ravelry queue for ages.  My Mum has made it and I love how quick and easy it is to make.  I'll be using 10 different colours of wool and varying the order of them.  I have already bought the material, selected the yarn colours but I can't start making it until I finish some other projects - I shouldn't have started making these scarves!

Here is the wool I will be using:

I love the bright colours and they work well together

A Blanket for The Boy

I think I've mentioned before that I was going to make a blanket for The Boy.  I'm using the Neat Ripple Pattern by Lucy of Attic24 and it is such a simple pattern to follow.  It is about 2m wide but not very long yet although it does grow very quickly.  I'm doing double stripes of each colour initially but I may mix it up at some point and maybe do single or treble stripes.

I'm choosing the colours randomly but I think it needs more bright colours to be brought in soon.

A cosy night in

Tonight, The Boy and I are having a cosy film night and watching some Pride and Prejudice (the BBC tv series with Colin Firth).  We don't really relax and watch films together too often so we've got some Ben & Jerry's ice cream,  fizzy drinks, and crisps.

The Boy has seen the 5 hours of Pride and Prejudice before and I was pleasantly surprised when he suggested we watch it tonight.  I love watching it and will quite happily sit and watch the whole thing in one go but I think we'll only watch half tonight and save the other half for tomorrow.

My Final Year Project for University

I'm studying electrical engineering and electronics at university and, like most other engineering subjects we undertake a project in the final year (or in my case final 2 years as it is a 4 year course).  One of the popular ways of showing off the projects is to make a blog and write about your progress - I had to help a friend set up a blog the other day as I am considered 'an expert'.

Last year I worked in a group to make an augmented reality phone application with the following blog:

http://arlivuni.blogspot.co.uk/

which was mostly kept up-to-date but a lot was filled in at the end of the project.

This year, however, I am working on my own and developing a radio telescope similar to NASA's Radio Jove Project which they run with schools.  The project was run last year so I am taking over from where they left off and then hopefully improving it but at the moment it seems like there is a lot to do and I will have to be very disciplined with my work.  The blog I will be taking over soon is:

http://liverpoolradioastronomy.blogspot.co.uk/

I can't wait to get started on this project!  On my 11th birthday (I think it was) I visited the radio telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory - I wanted to be an astronomer when I was growing up so getting to make a telescope is rather exciting.   Today, my supervisor asked me if I have an optical telescope - of course I do! so I'm hoping my Mum knows where our telescope is.  If I do one of the possible options for developing the project it could mean staying up all night at uni (hopefully not on my own) and observing pulsars.

Woolly Hibernation!

I've noticed recently that I've been doing a  lot more knitting than crochet.  This is quite weird for me as I've always considered knitting to be the one I am not as good at and often avoided doing if possible.  Lately, however, I've discovered how easy and versatile knitting can be and I just can't stop knitting!

It has mostly been using chunky wool so maybe this is my version of going into hibernation - by burying myself under a chunky-woollen garment.  Right now I'm sat knitting myself a cowl in a lovely burgundy colour using circular needles (knitting on circular needles always seemed so difficult).

The pattern I'm using is Simple Ribbed Cowl by Orange Flower and it is such a simple pattern but the result looks amazing.  I don't know if you can see the ribbing in the photo but it is more visible on the inside.  The colour of the yarn isn't as dark as the photo shows but it was taken on a phone rather than with my camera.

I hate having a cold!

For the last few days I have been looking after The Boy as he has had a cold.  It's just a bit of 'Freshers Flu' that always happens at the start of the new university term.

He's a bit better today (I'm assuming because I looked after him so well but Lemsip and Paracetamol probably had a lot to do with it).

I woke up this morning feeling pretty rough but The Boy has been looking after me all day - bringing me tea, making sure I'm warm enough and doing all of the cooking.

It was nice being spoilt even though I feel all sleepy and ill.

Simple Scarves

I mentioned the other day that a few of the boys at uni asked me to knit them scarves and they'd pay for the wool. I found a free pattern I really liked - Sinful Ribbed Scarf by Classic Elite Yarns.  I started making one for The Boy to see how it would be to make.  It turned out to be very simple but look complicated.

I'll be making one for another friend once this one is done.  He said there is no rush to finish it though.

Start of Blogtoberfest!

“I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
                             ― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables


This year I'm doing Blogtoberfest again.  I'm hoping to blog every day for 31 days.  I signed up late last year but managed to blog every day once I had joined.

You can sign up by clicking the image below.

I had a productive day at uni and made great progress on my final year project and tonight we're going out for a meal at Pizza Express for our friend's sister's birthday.