Graduation

In my last post I said that I was about to graduate from university.  My graduation ceremony was lovely - mostly just getting to see all of my friends and knowing that all the effort we put into our degree over the years has now paid off.

We had to wear full robes all day even though the weather was so hot.  The colour of the hoods of our robes signifies the type of degree - in the case of our uni orange is for engineering.

Outside my department before the ceremony

On the stage accepting my degree

Rob was also graduating at the same time as me

Me and Rob both in our graduation gowns

Now that university is officially out of the way I can get on with thinking about work and my new flat - too exciting!

Today I ordered a sofa, armchair and a futon to be delivered to my flat in September.

I had already decided on what colour furniture I wanted so when I was in town last week I bought a cushion in John Lewis because it was nice and bright (and reduced).

Anyway this then inspired me to crochet a cushion-cover to match/complement it and got making it straight away.

I'm using the join-as-you-go method to crochet the squares together.  The cushion will be 25 granny squares on one side and one big granny square on the other side.

I've also finally cast-on the first sleeve for Rob's jumper but then the weather turned warm again so I've not got much of that done.

The friendship blanket I'm constructing from squares swapped with other crafters on Ravelry is making progress though:

It is looking good so far and I'm meeting lots of new people by taking part in the swap

I'm back!!!!

Hello again!  My university exams are all over now so I have officially finished university - can't believe that after 18 years of being a student it is over!

As I'm sure you can imagine, I haven't had much time to craft recently but I fully intend to make up for it with a nice, relaxing, crafty, summer.

This morning I have finished making Rob's name banner that I started a very long time ago (the time gap meant I struggled to get the gauge right at first).  Now I just need to sew in the ends and make the chain.  I also have finished crocheting my Christmas stocking garland and just need to sew on the numbers.

Because I have been banned from starting new projects my queue has built up a bit so I am excited to be able to start new projects.  My friend asked me to make a little present for her boyfriend so I will be busy.

I did complete one project recently, a knitted cosy for my new hard camera case.  The screen of my camera recently got damaged in my bag so I replaced the screen because it was cheaper than buying a new camera. After that I was determined that the camera should not be broken again so I bought a hard case for it.  The problem is that the case was boring and black and white so I decided to knit a cosy for it.

Prepare for a lot of geekiness about the design.  It looks like stripes but it is actually binary (ASCII) code for the word 'SMILE' where the 1s are purple and the 0s are grey.  I used this website to get the codes for each letter.

The cosy is worked in the round top down, starting with 5 rows of ribbing, then I knitted 47ish rows of the pattern, then I ended it with a very neat (if I do say so myself) 3-needle bind-off which I learnt from this Knitty.com page.  Also the colour changes are pretty neat (below)

Catching-up

I feel like a lot has happened since I last posted so we'll have a quick catch-up.

As you may know, I graduate from university in July so have been searching for graduate jobs for several months.  I have been to a couple of assessment centres including one adventure to Leeds.  I got a job offer after the interview in Leeds!!!  I have accepted the offer to work in the company's Sheffield office starting in September.  I've never been to Sheffield but I have friends who went to university there and loved the city.

I'm the first out of my uni group to have a job offer which is exciting but I was one of the first to start applying and the company was unusually quick in offering the job - some companies make you wait a month before letting you know whether or not you were successful.

Another fun event was Rob's birthday (which happens to be Valentine's Day).  His mum and brother came to visit and took us out for a meal - it's amusing seeing people's reactions when you say that you and your boyfriend are being taken out by your boyfriend's mum for Valentine's Day.  

I made Rob a card using an idea I saw on Pinterest:

I also used the fact it was Valentine's Day to include some heart-related gifts:

I used an old jam jar and filled it with hearts

The hearts are made using this pattern - I will include full details as part of tomorrow's FO Friday post

I also decided to make shortbread as I didn't have the right ingredients for any other cookies

These are a couple of the projects I'm working on now that I thought I'd keep you up-to-date with

My granny striped bag

I have now sewn the lining to the crocheted granny square so now I'm about to start crocheting the sides to make it more bag-like.  I'll be using this tutorial for how to do the sides of the bag

Converse Baby Booties

A friend is expecting a baby in March so I'm making some little booties for the baby. 

 The booties shown above use this pattern.  They are really quick to make and so cute!

Personal Improvements

Today I saw this post on Heart Handmade UK about improving your handwriting.  My handwriting has always been a scrawl so I was interested to get tips from it.

It's not that I can't write neatly, it's just that normally I'm writing too fast to care about how it looks (until later when I can't read my notes).

I was sat making notes on lecture slides today and I decided to practice writing neatly and to keep it up throughout the whole of the notes.  It felt weird as I could feel the movements in my shoulder rather than my wrist but I managed to write neatly.

My normal writing

A page of neat notes

My neater writing

Hopefully I can keep up the neat writing so I have lovely legible notes when I come to revise.

After a long day...

...You definitely need a way to relax.  We had a long lab at uni which is for some programming coursework and it is pretty tricky.  I had a demonstrator trying to help me for almost an hour before he gave up and told me to look at how my friend had solved the problem.

Afterwards, we were all pretty tired so 4 of us went down to the pub for a drink and a few games of pool.  I didn't play though as I think I'd be pretty rusty.

The Boy and I are playing badminton tomorrow morning after my lecture which will be good fun - although I think he'll be able to beat me easily as I'm out of practice.

Knitting while working

Today at uni I was sat doing project work, well, mostly just listening to the radio signal as it was being measured and watching it on the computer screen.

Some exciting-looking radio activity

More radio activity

Anyway it didn't involve much input from me other than to sit and watch it and tune it so it was set correctly so I was sat knitting while I did it.  I did have to keep stopping to make adjustments but I still managed to make progress on my winter cowl.

I'm restricted in what I can knit at uni as I can't take more than one or two balls of wool in by uni bag and also the friends who I am knitting scarves for don't want to see the scarves before they are finished.

The winter cowl is making slow progress but you don't realise it is growing as it is knit on circular needles so you don't think about each row separately, just as one big spiral.

My Day and a Scarf Progress Report

I had a long management lecture this morning followed immediately by a meeting with my project supervisor to discuss my progress.  He was pleased with my progress and I'll be starting to assemble the previous Radio Telescope soon.  

I didn't stay in uni too long as I wanted to go into Liverpool to meet The Boy as he got off the train (he had been away visiting his family this weekend).  He hadn't expected to see me but it was worth the walk there to surprise him.  I also picked up another ball of wool for one of the scarves I'm making as I figured out I didn't buy enough originally - oops!  

I made so much progress on this scarf while I was sat watching Formula One as it is just knit a row, turn, knit a row, turn, for the whole scarf.

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.

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.

Good Luck Eve! and FO Friday

My little sister, Eve, goes away for university tomorrow.  This is quite a scary step for my family and makes me feel rather old.  She is being rather braver than I was and is going halfway across the country to Cambridge - I was only brave enough to move about 10 miles from my parents.

I gave her a box full of presents last weekend which included some things I had crocheted for her as well as a lot of other presents I had rounded up from Amazon, Etsy, and high street shops (which took a lot of planning but somehow I pulled it off).  She loved all of her presents.

Here is what I made for her (I'm posting it conveniently on a Friday)
Two of the patterns are by my favourite 2 bloggers - My Mum and Lucy 'Inthesky' and the other is one of my own patterns

I made her some snuggly mittens to keep her warm in the old buildings:
Pattern : Granny Chic 'Granny Stripe' Wrist Warmers by Lucy Inthesky

This bunting is to match the colours in this blanket my Mum made for her to take to university
Pattern: Pretty Lacy Bunting by Janet McMahon

And finally, this bunny in disguise as a bee was just to make her laugh
Pattern: Simple Striped Bunny by Grace McMahon

I was pleased with how all of the projects turned out - my favourite is probably the bunny but I'm sure she will get most use out of the mittens.

Good Luck Eve!  

We'll text/talk/Skype lots (maybe even write too) and come and see you in a few weeks xxxxxxxxxxx

In other news, I have decided to go against my nice system of not starting a project until another is finished and am currently neglecting big projects that need finishing in order to make other projects.

I started knitting a scarf for The Boy after there were several requests from the boys at uni for hand made scarves (The Boy's one is a practice-run to see how long it takes to make a scarf and how much I should charge).  I'll be using chunky wool for any requested scarves as this is my absolute favourite weight to knit in and grows so quickly.

I am also meant to be making a present for The Boy's little brother (using this pattern)  who is staying with us tonight until Sunday.  I'm making it as a footballer in a Celtic FC kit although annoyingly I left one ball of wool I needed at home today so I couldn't do much on the doll in the 6 hour gap I had between lectures.

Quick Mention - The Journey Man

One of my uni friends has just started a blog about Software Development and other stuff he is interested in called 'The Journey Man':

http://justajourneyman.blogspot.co.uk/

I can't wait to read more of his posts - I love his chatty style of blogging.

FO Friday - Valentines/ Birthday Makes

I was so proud - I finished The Boy's Valentines presents on time.  It was also his birthday on the same day so even more important to get it finished.

So I finished the 'Fight the MAN Fingerless Gloves' by Pren Wilcox.  It took me a few attempts though as I was crocheting it, trying it on me and thinking it looked big enough when I only have little hands compared to The Boy.  I haven't managed to get a photo of him wearing them yet so you'll have to make do with me.

The colour is a bit washed out though - they are a darker green in real life.

Another project I had been meaning to finish for The Boy I changed to a present - Jolly Little Goody Bags by Yellow, Pink and Sparkly as an apple cosy

The pictures are a tad blurry as I took them with my phone.

The final thing for The Boy's birthday that I made is the one I am most impressed with.  It is not crochet so a bit out of my comfort zone (I've never been good at making cards but I bought the book I Love Card Making by Amy Gooda which gave me a lot of inspiration)

And now for a non-present related project:
I made iPod Case by Brenda K. B. Anderson after seeing a mention of the free pattern Crochet Today

I made it for my little walkman that I've had for years.  The sewing isn't the best but I managed to get the song name 'It's my life' by Bon Jovi on the side because I love it!  The pattern had 'mixtape' written on it but I think it's much more personal this way.

Productive week for me!  I also did the bravest thing I have done for a very long time yesterday - months ago when I was working over the summer, I agreed to talk in one of the weekly seminars held for undergraduates in my department and talk about my experience as a summer student. 

Well, the day arrived and I was terrified!  I got up on the stage, looked at the 100-150ish students looking at me and said - 'oh wow this is scary!'  The Boy had told people about it so some of my friends turned up to watch me.  I talked for about 3 minutes, whilst trying to stop my legs shaking but at least I survived and it went ok.

I won't be doing anything like that again for a very long time!

I'm free!!!

My exams are finally over! I know 4 exams spread over 2 weeks sounds quite relaxed - I thought so too but it has been so tiring.  I think they went well though.

Now that they're over I can't wait to get back to crocheting and blogging.  Oh that reminds me, I've got 737 unread blog posts on my Google reader to catch up on.

I have a trip to the nearest craft shop planned for tomorrow and I've written a list of all the lovely things I want to make - most importantly are birthday presents for The Boy and my Sister but I also want to make a granny square blanket which looks like a Tetris game (it was the first app I put on my new phone) but that needs more planning and A LOT of wool.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some of my WIPs finished too before I start burying myself new projects.

I'll let you know tomorrow what I end up with.

Back at Uni

I've finished at my summer job and am back at lectures now.  I only have twelve hours of lectures per week (down from about 25 last year).  Although it does mean that we have to spend lots of time on our group project  - Augmented Reality.  We had to set up a blog to keep our supervisor up-to-date on it but it is blank so far (ARLivUni.blogspot.com).

The flat is looking A LOT tidier!  We've assembled almost all of our furniture and unpacked all the boxes. However there are lots of cardboard boxes lying around everywhere.