NaNoWriMo

So this year I've decided that I'm going to participate in NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. The whole aim of the month is to write like crazy and churn out a 50,000 word work of fiction, which at first sounds fairly daunting, but it works out to roughly 1600 words a day. Which works out to be a devilishly 66.6 words an hour, or 1.1 words a minute. Of course, you can't be writing one word a minute for a whole month, but I'm sure that you catch my drift.

Given that you're not really supposed to start writing your novel before November, which is when all this frivolity takes place, I've been thinking of starting to get a little bit of an idea of a story, just so I can work on developing the characters I'll be writing with over the month, get acquainted with them, if you will.

The problem is, what to write about? There are an infinite amount of topics that one could write about, so many that simply choosing a topic to write about will be a bit of a task in itself, but I'm kind of excited at just seeing where my imagination goes.

Has anyone else out there in the blogosphere participated in NaNoWriMo, or have decided to have a go this year, because it would be great to have some writing buddies for encouragement.

x peace folks

Pumpkin Pie or Pumpkin Scones?

This is my dilemma at the moment. I think I'm going to go for the pie, but the scones are awfully tempting too.


I'll let you know how it goes :D

Adjusting to the new interface

I'm not a hundred percent shore whether or not I like this new interface, I mean, sure it's more streamlined, but I suppose you just get accustomed to what you've been using for the past year or so, right?

Anyway, there hasn't been a whole lot of knitting or anything going on around here, I'm trying to settle down into holiday mode for the next two weeks, so I really have to pace myself. The great thing is that I have very little in the way of actual homework for uni (apart from having to watch a Spanish movie, but I don't really see that as homework), so I could theoretically get a lot of time to finish off a lot of the projects I have been working on.

Maidenhair is going fairly well, I only have one front side and one sleeve left to knit, which feels very satisfying. It was always such a large project, but it really does feel that I am definitely past the half-way mark now, and that every stitch I slip off from one needle to the other is just another one closer to being finished.

Don't get me wrong though, it is great to knit, because it isn't nearly as hard as it looks, but you get an amazing amount of knitting respect when you whip it out for other people to gaffaw over. It just kind of get's to that stage where you really are keen to start another medium-difficulty project, where you might be flicking through a couple of patterns and you just see one that you have to try immediately. 

I normally have about three different projects going at the one time, and at the moment, I've got Maidenhair as my medium difficulty, a simple fisherman's rib sweater as my easy one, and then the fiendishly difficult "Wedding Ring Shawl", which I practically never take out anywhere for fear that it could blow away in the wind. 

Anyway, tomorrow I will hopefully be going to the Chilean Festival at Fairfield showground, it should be pretty great, multicultural fairs normally are pretty interesting, plus it's a good excuse to hang out with friends and stuff like that, so hopefully I will have some pictures from that to share with you all.

x peace folks

So it's been a while

Hiya folks, it sure has been a heckuva long time since I have posted something here, but I think after a bit of a hiatus I should be ready to get back into the swing of blogging again.

Things, as always, are pretty hectic at the moment, although I picked some fairly easy subjects to get through at uni this semester, which gives me a little bit more time to do other things, like knitting and working and all those types of fun things.

Maidenhair is still going, and going. I swear, that thing is a yarn-devouring beast most of the time. I always find it quite interesting though, I've memorised the pattern (which is suprisingly easy to memorise) so I don't have to be looking off charts all of the time, but it's still enough to keep my interest up in what I'm knitting.

As for the language studying, I am working on getting down a bit more Hebrew and Arabic at the moment, it has always been a real aim for me to learn a couple of Semitic languages, and I think that I am really starting to make progress on the Arabic front. I don't really know why, I have just found Hebrew so much more easy to pick up, whereas I've probably been exposed to more Arabic, with it being fairly widely spoken in the local surrounds.
And then I'm also studying Polish at uni this semester, which is going alright. It's always the same with the first year language studies though, you can never express yourself nearly as well as you would like to, but it is really interesting getting to study a Slavic language as well, soon hopefully I will just be able to go from country to country in Europe and not really have to worry too much about not understanding anything.

And I don't know if I've put it on here, but my sister and I will be going to the United States and Canada at the end of December and through most of January, which I am so totally pumped about. I know that a lot of people would prefer to go in the summertime over there, but to go to New York and Canada in the wintertime is really just going to be amazing for me, although I think the cold might be a bit of a shock for my sister. She'll just have to get used to it though.

But it will really be great to get to use a lot of the things that I have been knitting for the non-existent cold weather over here in Australia, all the little mittens and hats that just sit in the cupboard waiting to be taken out and used.

So I think that pretty much wraps up a lot of the stuff that I have been doing lately, it has been crazily busy, but I'm kind of glad to say that the craziness has started to die down a little, just in time for the Christmas rush to begin again. I'm sure there is someone out there who is already counting down the weeks, but it is not going to be me for the moment.

Peace folks

Holidays

Ah.

I guess I can really now breathe a sigh of holiday relief, now that I am officially on uni break until next semester! I can now think of all the great things that I can do now that I have a whole lot of extra time on my hands. I wanted to write a bit of a list of all the things that I wanted to accomplish in my last month of teenage years, and so I really want to get a whole lot of those ticked off, but for the most part I'm hoping that there will be some pretty good times in the next few months. :D

And, for good measure, I have finally found a job which is exciting, even if it isn't a definite, ongoing type of thing. I'm just happy to have a bit of money coming in for the holiday in December and January, which will be awesome.


On to the knitting aspect of things, I am slowly cracking along with the Maidenhair coat, and I'll take a picture of it tomorrow in the nice sunlight. Sometimes though, it does feel like a bit of a task to get through, you know how it goes though. You check how long the piece is, then you knit for the rest of the night, and then you measure the back piece again, and it's only really grown another centimeter or so. Even though that is physically impossible, because you know that you've checked your gauge like a pro at the start of all this craziness anyway.

Either way, Maidenhair is making great progress, I really hope to get the back done in the next couple of days, which will be the biggest part of the project all done and dusted.

I also recently purchased one of the Wedding Ring Shawl patterns, and I am eagerly looking forward to its arrival in the mail, because I think it comes with a whole lot of wool and yarn samples as well, enough to make that mind boggle anyway. I know that the shawl will take a whole lot of time and patience to finish up, but it is going to be worth it.

And then I have been crocheting squares for a blankie that I have been making for a while whenever I have a little bit of free time too. So I think it's safe to assume that the next post I get around to doing should be photo-heavy. :D

peace for now x
matty

back from outer space

Alright! I have finished my 3rd semester at uni, and only 5 more semesters to go until I graduate.

The past month or so has been pretty hectic, and there hasn't been a whole lot of knitting going on at the moment, just a bit of planning wherever I can fit it in. But I do have some garter stitch scarves on the needles, actually two or three I think.
It's mainly been a whole lot of exams and tests for the past month, and I haven't really had a lot of time to put in effort in my blog, but now I'm back with gusto :D

I'll be off for the next two months or so, and next semester I should have NO ESSAYS to write at all, which is a really encouraging prospect to look forward to.

Either way, watch this space for a whole lot more knitting news folks

x peace

BEST DAY EVER

-SUOMI VOITTI! FINLAND WON THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP HOCKEY MATCH AGAINST SWEDEN!



And, I also got my green provisional licence, which means that there are only two years left until I can get my full licence, pretty exciting.

Not a whole lot of knitting going on at the moment, but really, with Finland winning the hockey after 16 years or so, and getting another notch carved onto the road to the full licence, it's been a pretty nifty day all round.

x peace folks