Christmas Preparations

I can't believe how close Christmas is now.  In ASDA they have a giant tree with a sign saying how many sleeps until Christmas and the Christmas market is back in the centre of Liverpool. 

I'm hoping to get a chance to put up my little Christmas tree on Saturday but we have The Boy's little brother coming to stay so I don't know when I will find time - Friday is just too early isn't it?

This year I've decided to crochet an advent calendar made of little stockings using this pattern (I just added the pattern to Ravelry here).  I'm doing each day a different colour and sewing the numbers on.

I haven't got very far as I have so much uni work at the moment but I'm hoping to get lots of work done this afternoon to allow myself some crochet time later.

The Boy doesn't know that I'm making it so hopefully it'll be a nice surprise when he sees it.  I also need to buy sweets and write some notes to put into the calendar - so much planning needed!

A Few Things to Report

I have been meaning to write more blog posts but now I'm falling behind because of uni work so I'm just going to include everything in one post.

The Boy and I went to see Al Murray at the Liverpool Philharmonic on Monday. The show was so funny - definitely worth paying to see it.  We were sat on the second row so got asked names and jobs but we weren't picked on like some of the front row and the latecomers.

On Tuesday, there was a half price poster sale at uni so we all went and bought some posters.  I bought a Venice poster, The Boy bought 2 Hobbit posters and a vintage map as well as a 2013 calendar.  He also bought a Hobbit mug for himself and treated me to a Big Bang Theory mug.

Today, I met up with Mum in town while she was out doing some shopping (and starting her Christmas shopping).  We browsed a few shops then went for a nice cuppa and a cake.  Afterwards we did a bit more shopping and I bought this lovely bag in Accessorize.

I am going to remove some of the charms and replace them with nicer ones.  I'll show you how it turns out.

Another amusing thing happened while we were shopping - I was trying on a skirt as I only have 2 but unfortunately it was too large.  As I went to fasten up my skirt afterwards the zip snagged and ripped so now I'm down to only 1 skirt.  Definitely need a shopping trip now!

A Housewarming Present for my Bestie

My Bestie recently bought his first home which is very exciting.  I went to visit him on Saturday night so I could see the flat I've been impatient to see ever since he told me about it.  The flat is lovely!!! Definitely worth the wait :)

I also finally got a chance to give Bestie the housewarming present I made for him:

A giant crochet blanket.  It has crochet Lego squares incorporated into the granny squares as we are both huge Lego fans.  He absolutely loved it!  His flat doesn't have heating at the moment so I'm sure he'll be glad of a blanket to curl up under.

A Tough Time

I haven't felt up to blogging for the last two weeks.  My Nan died last week after a short illness.  It came as a shock to our whole family as she was so independent and strong.  My Mum wrote a lovely blog post about her here.

She was such a big personality and we will all miss her.

This week I have just been trying to concentrate on my uni work but I am going to visit my Bestie this afternoon to see his new flat and give him his housewarming present.

Happy Halloween - The End of Blogtoberfest

Well, today is the last day of Blogtoberfest and I'm glad I've achieved my aim of blogging every day so thanks to Kat for hosting it this year.

Tonight we are going to a house party for Halloween then maybe going to a club or two in town but I won't be staying long as I have lectures in the morning.

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.

Cute Knitted Toy

I have finally got around to finishing this little toy. I had made most of him but I hadn't made his legs - I couldn't face doing all of the i-cords in one go so he kind of got forgotten until now (I do have another knitting project that is hibernating because of i-cords).

The pattern is one I have used before - Anything Animals by Rachel Borello Carroll and it knits up really quickly.

Confusing Autumn

The clocks went back yesterday and I've been a bit confused since then.  It has been getting dark earlier which makes me think it is bed time at about 7pm.

Hopefully after another sleep I won't be as confused by it.

The Brewery will be back soon

Today, The Boy went to the brewing shop again.  We haven't brewed in a while but now we are fully settled he wants to start again.

He stocked up on kits to save him the journey next time he wants to brew.

Lager and Wheat Beer kits

So now the only question is: which one should we make first?

The Boy asked me tonight if I could make a floor mat for the beer bucket to sit on.  By tomorrow.  Talk about leaving to the last minute again.  I've started it using some wool I didn't like.

Suddenly rather cold!

When I stepped out of the house this morning I was hit by how cold it has become.  I left kitted out in my badminton clothes so wasn't as well wrapped up as I normally am.

I think I'll have to hurry up some of my knitting projects, especially my cowl so I can wear that to walk to uni in the cold.  I'm about halfway through it now so hopefully I can get it done soon.

Another boy from uni has requested a scarf and, as we worked together on our project last year, he told me he should be my priority.  Luckily he hasn't chosen a colour yet so I can't possibly start it until he does.

Badminton went well today and it was a good way to warm up.  I'm inspired to do more exercise now as it felt really good but then I look at the weather forecast and see that it will be getting colder so maybe the exercise can wait.

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.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad's birthday and The Boy and I have just got back from a meal out with my parents in town.  It was a good meal and we sat and had a drink in the pub afterwards.

Here is the card I made for Dad:

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.