Ridiculous

I have a couple completed knitted items to post once I take a photo. My green cardigan is being sewn up and then it's done!! I know, I can't believe it either. It's been a WIP since August. I almost didn't bother. But so glad I did.

Below you will see a photo of my darling little Ella. She has taken to "nursing" her toys, just like mommy nurses little baby Lucy. I can't think of anything cuter at the moment, can you? I would like to point out that Ellie the elephant (the toy that Ella is nursing in this photo), is an elephant that I knitted for her. I love it.



As soon as I finish the green cardigan, it'll be here. I hope to finish it today!

Back in the Peg

It's way too late. I am SO tired and I NEED to go to bed. But I realized that I am still being so bad with posts, so now that I am home for 2 weeks, I am going to knit my little face off, and do lots of fun stuff and blog blog blog.

Here are some new pics of my family trip in New Zealand. Since my sister and my Mum and I are together again, we are trying to compile them all. There are about 900 (I took only 49, the rest is my Mum and Chels), but here are some of my faves.


This is me and my fam in Kaikoura. We loved it there. We stayed in a killer bed and breakfast called Admiral Creighton Bed and Breakfast and all of us HIGHLY recommend that place if you are in Kaikoura.



You know how you're not supposed to take pictures in museums and art galleries and such? Well, Chels doesn't really pay attention to those rules and took a bunch of pictures of this neat exhibit in the art gallery in Christchurch. It had all these cute little helpful hints. I'm quite fond of this one.


I went to Marine Land in Napier 3 years ago at Easter when I first moved to New Zealand, and held a cute little blue penguin then, but since pengies are my FAVE animal, I had to do it again. So worth it. They are so adorable.


Dad, Chels and I in Queenstown. We stayed in the most MONEY hotel there. It's new, so it was super reasonably priced, but I'm sure it's going to skyrocket when the owners realize what they have. It's right on the lake. Beautiful.


Oooooh, here's a goodie. Colin, Jenny, Roxane and I with my freshly bound thesis!!! Yes, that is it. That little purple book is my blood, sweat and tears from the past 2 years. Cute isn't it? You'd never know it almost sucked the life outta me.


So now I'm back in the Peg. I was in California, as I mentioned last post, as well as London. Then hit Vic, Van, Stoon, Gine and now home. This is me and my adorable little Gramma. One of THE grammas that taught me how to knit 22 or some crazy amount of years ago. I am almost done my army green cardigan that I started last August or September (that's what I am knitting in the pic). So close!! Can't wait!!


Here are some legwarmers I knit myself out of Noro Kureyon wool that I bought while in Victoria. I think they're friggin rad. Chels loves them so much she wants me to knit her some EXACTLY the same. So I had to order the same colour from Beehive in Vic because nowehere else I checked had the exact same colour.




AJ and I are looking for couches for our little house. I want leather. What do you think of these two sets? I love both and they are both a steal of a deal. I lean towards the brown for looks but the taupe for comfort. I'm gonna look around.

Well, that's me for tonight. I am so beat. Have to go to bed NOW. Later Gators.

I have a bad case of the travel bug

Holy crap. Last post Feb 20th? Seriously? Wow, I guess I have just been all over the place. Literally. So had a fantastic time travelling NZ with my family. I love this picture of my Dad and Chels. This is at a B and B we stayed in in Kaikoura.


I managed to knit my friend Steve and Renae's new baby Luke a little tuque and sweater.



And my friend Erin's new nephew a little skull hoody. Chels has warned me that I will be responsible for outfitting any babies she has since I knit for people I don't even know.


Then headed to Cali to spend a week with Chantal and Greg - which was totally amazing. It was so great to catch up with them and I haven't been to Irvine to stay with them before. We had dinner on the beach in Newport (the OC) and watched the sunset. It was great.


Then I went to London to spend a week with Ben and Alaina, which rocked beyond belief. I am very much in love with London. My favorite attraction was the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge.




I wish I could have stayed longer, but time and money didn't allow. Now I am in Victoria and LOVING it. It's my favorite city and I really hope I can live here one day. Next Wednesday I am off to Vancouver until the 20th, when I finally get to see my hot boyfriend. After a year apart I am so looking forward to being with him again, for good. I haven't been knitting that much. With all my flights it's hard and I could crochet, but just haven't. I'm itching though. Itching to knit. I am going to try and go buy some wool today so I can at least whip up a tuque or something! Now that I'm back in my home land, I'll probably be better at posting.

I honestly didn't think I could do it

But I did. I have completed my thesis. It's all done. I know that tomorrow when Chris goes through the entire thing from start to finish, he will have a few suggestions and I will have to make some changes, but it is done. And if I had to hand it in tomorrow, I could. Yay!!

Below is a picture of Leanne with one of the headbands I knit her. It is one of my favorite patterns. It takes probably 45 minutes to knit start to finish and it is just awesome. I have 2 of them. I knit Leanne 2. You can get 2 out of a ball of yarn that is 85 metres long - seriously, how can you go wrong?


Here is Lee and Pre, he is wearing the tuque I knit him for Christmas. I love the wool. I wanted it to go camoflage when knit, but it ended up being stripey. It's ok though, the colours are still good.


Well, it's dinner time and I am going home to look over my thesis with Jenny. I would like her input before I get Chris' tomorrow. He is sort of pedantic and if I go through her first I know where he is being reasonable and where he is just being nit-picky.

Almost there! Yay!

Valentine's Day treat

I got home at 8pm last night from work to find that AJ, aka the best boyfriend in the world, literally, had sent me the most beautiful flowers for Valentine's day. I had a very long, very bad day yesterday (see below), and I couldn't imagine a nicer thing to come home to. He just makes me smile. Adorable little Wallis asked me how you can send flowers from Canada.


Below is a picture of the black hat I made that was too big. Nobody with a big head wanted it so I felted it and I like how it fits much better now. I wore it the other day, but since it is summer down here, wool hats are not really necessary. It'll come in handy in Canada in the spring though.


It's Friday, but weekends are insignificant at the moment. My weeks don't actually end. This weekend I will be speding Saturday and Sunday trying to perfect everything so that I can take it to my university supervisor and we can look at the whole package to see if there are any gaps that need filling. I just want this to be over.

10 days

It is 10 days until I print off my thesis. 10 more days of complete and utter hell. Day more days of feeling completely inadequate. 10 more days of sleepless nights. 10 more days until I can relax.

It is all I think about. The past 6 weeks have flown by. Of course this next 10 days will too. But they are gruelling days.

If anyone stumbling across this page has ever contemplated doing a Masters or a PhD, think LONG AND HARD, my friend. Think long and hard. Everyone tells me it's going to be worth it, but this has been a long 2 years of hard work, and an even longer 2 months of writing. I often wonder if it really will be worth it. I mean, I am completely shattered. I have lost all confidence in my intelligence. I have actually gone from loving science and taking pride in my work, to loathing science and scientists, and just wanting to hand it in as is, whether it's submittable (yes I know that isn't a word) or not. This Masters has almost sucked the life out of me. But only for 10 more days.

I would rather be...

That's the game I play when I get sick of writing (which is pretty much every 5 minutes). I would rather be ... than writing my thesis. I won't say all the things I have thought of, but there's quite a few brutal things that I'm convinced would be more fun than this.

Only 2 more weeks. Only 2 more weeks. Thank friggin god. Anyways, I knit this tuque for my friend Lucky a few weeks ago. It is purple and yellow. But the words I wrote on it for him (at his request) could offend some people (and I'm sure they will offend when he wears it), so I won't post the picture in which you can see what it says.


I am completely exhausted. I barely sleep, and when I do it's not a deep sleep. Why on earth people go on to do a PhD is beyond me. I cannot wait to hand this %$#$*&% thing in. 2 more weeks.

Then I can go back to regular knitting again. I miss it.

Oh and then I get to see my family! And then I get to go home to AJ! So there is quite a big reward to finishing the horrid thesis. 2 more weeks.