Things I did on my spring break

Flew to Portugal, where we

Admired the boats:

Cascais Harbor. (Icarus Shawl, in Misti Alpaca Lace--my first big lace project and favorite, most-worn knit.)


Visited the Boca do Inferno:
"Boca do Inferno" translates to "Hellmouth." But no Buffy sightings, even though we walked out to it six times.

Saw peacocks:
Taken at the Castle of St. George.

Wandered around Lisbon:

Even found a yarn store, and bought some yarn. No pictures of that yet, though.

Walked for miles along the beach:
There's a lovely quay from Estoril, the town we stayed in, to Cascais, the next town over, and beyond. I think we averaged about eight miles a day!

Saw the casino that inspired Ian Fleming's Casino Royale:


Ate tons of seafood:

Wandered around the towns:
All the sidewalks of the larger streets and most of the smaller, pedestrian walks were paved like this, with interesting designed.

Knit some, read some. Mostly just enjoyed being with the husband, who's in Kyiv for the semester--Portugal seemed like a sunnier option for the first week of March, and I found a great deal online. So we had a romantic tryst in Estoril for a week, and now it's back to snow, classes, and missing him.

Lace Love

Some lace love:

Elizabeth Zimmermann's February Baby Sweater, aka the Baby Sweater on Two Needles, from The Knitter's Almanac. 4 skeins of Knit Picks Shine Worsted in Apple Green, almost entirely used up--I have enough for the stem of an upside-down daisy hat left, I think. I have some really cute buttons that look like white flowers, and I'm going to use yellow embroidery floss to attach them. For a friend, who's due in May with a little girl.



Evelyn Clark's Lace Leaf Shawl (Fiber Trends pamphlet), in Mountain Colors Bearfoot "Ruby River." 11 pattern repeats, and I didn't knit the last two charted rows of the border (which was a very good decision--I have about 7 inches of scrap yarn left after weaving in the ends). I love Clark's patterns--they're great for knitting until you run out of yarn. The final measurements on this were 51 inches along the top, and 26 inches down the spine, which is totally respectable. The recipient seemed quite pleased with it, and put it on immediately, which is always nice!

Silent Poetry Reading

Ulysses

It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel; I will drink
Life to the lees. All times I have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
That love me, and alone; on shore, and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea. I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known, -- cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honor'd of them all, --
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one t me
Little remains; but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bounds of human thought.

This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle, --
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labor, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me, --
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads, --you and I are old;
Old age hath yet beyond his honor and his toil.
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men who strove with Gods.
The light begins to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends.
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are, --
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seak, to find, and not to yield.

Alfred, Lord Tennson (1809-1892). Poet Laureate of England, 1850-1892.

"Ulysses" was first published in 1842.

Cambridge Jacket!

Not one but two FOs! The first I knit in a day, while the sleeves to my Cambridge Jacket were blocking:

Thorpe (this is the second one I knit--the first I made for my Dad for Christmas in a ginormous size, as his head is really bit. But the DH did something to the photos I'd taken and now they're lost on his computer somewhere.), in Louet Riverstone Chunky (color: bright blue). Destined to warm my mom's ears.

And Cambridge Jacket, seamed and zippered:


I'm pretty pleased with the way the zipper went it--this was my first zipper attempt. The DH seems to like it, as he's worn it several times already. He's off on his next excellent adventure in ten days, and I'm happy that he'll be able to take it with him. I might not be able to go with him, but at least I can send him wrapped in hand-knit sweaters.

Sleeve Island

While the Husband is home, I decided it was time to knit him another sweater. I bought the yarn a while ago (Valley Yarns Williamstown, in a rust color), and he picked out the pattern (Cambridge Jacket by Ann Budd, from IK Summer 2006). I even swatched last spring, but didn't cast on until Dec. 28.

The back and the two sides knit up pretty quickly--lots of time in NJ hanging with family, plus several car trips back-and-forth to Boston, helped:



I'm working on the sleeves now, for what seems like forever, although I know I'm getting close to done. (Okay. I'm telling myself I'm getting close to done. 'Cause, really, how much longer can I keep knitting sleeves?) I decided to take a little break today, though, and pin out the fronts and the back to block. That way I can start seaming while the sleeves are blocking.

I've also been aquiring more yarn--I stopped at Webs (again) last week. For my mom, really, who wanted some yarn for baby blankets. So I volunteered--it was only right, since she is my mom. In addition to the yarn she wanted, I got:

Louet Riverstone, in bulky (and in the warehouse!). Destined to be a Thorpe for my mom.


Araucania Ranco Multi, in a brownish-pinkish-greenish swirl. One of my favorite pairs of socks is out of Ranco Multi, and for the price (warehouse: $8.99!), I couldn't resist a hank.


And two balls of Adriafil Knitcol. For nephew-the-elder knee socks; he saw a pair with faux fair isle, and really liked them. And he likes bright colors--this looks like it will meet both requirements!

Hap

Hap

If but some vengeful god would call to me
From up the sky, and laugh: "Thou suffering thing,
Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,
That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!"

Then would I bear, and clench myself, and die,
Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;
Half-eased, too, that a Powerfuller than I
Had willed and meted out the tears I shed.

But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain,
And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?
--Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,
And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan . . .
These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown
Blisses about my pilgrimage than pain.

--Thomas Hardy. 1886.


If we begin as we mean to go on, I'd like a do-over. The semester started off well enough in terms of classes and students--nice kids, willing to put some effort and cheerfulness into a required class.

But other things seem to be stacking up--the unexpected loss of a colleague, and of a former student, and of a friend's mother. The former student, in particular, is hitting hard; he was a really nice kid who just wanted to live his life like any other eighteen-year-old, but cancer got in the way.

Hardy's poem, with its rage and sorrow, says it far better than I can.

Spring Term

It always strikes me as funny that the spring term begins in early January, often with snow on the ground. We used to be on a quarter system, which meant we'd be starting our more aptly named winter quarter this week, but we switched to semesters a few years back. Which means we have a fall term (starting quite sensibly in September), a winter break (a few all-too-short weeks barely stretching over the holidays), a spring term, which starts tomorrow, and two short-but-intense summer sessions. (Summer 1 starts at the beginning of May, though, so that doesn't really make sense, either.)

This year, the winter break didn't even stretch far enough to include Orthodox Christmas, which we celebrate, and which occurs on Jan. 7. My first class is on Tuesday--I'm on a Tuesday/Friday schedule again this term, hooray--so the plan is for me to drive from NJ to MA tomorrow, teach on Tuesday, and head back down for Christmas Eve festivities after classes. G will stay here--no sense in both of us missing all the fun.

Of course, we'll have to be back in Boston on Thursday, so it will be a short trip, but certainly better than not coming back down.

I'm looking forward to my classes this term--two upper-class writing courses, and one first-year. I didn't have any first-years this fall, and I missed them--there's more notable progress with the upper classmen, since what I want them to accomplish is on a lot of levels more measurable. But first-year students--especially in the fall--have a sort of bright-and-shiny joy to them which is lovely. They love being in college--the freedom, the new experiences, the chance to reinvent themselves--and it shows. And their enthusiasm for classes* is catching.

The upper-class courses should be good, too--I had three sections in the fall, which was too much. But two sections should be fine--enough to keep my on my toes, but not so much I run out of steam before the end of the day. Since the first-year class and the upper-level class require totally different kinds of energy, I find that the change in pace is enough to make the day less tiring.**

And I have a new knitting project to look forward to--I cast on for the Cambridge Jacket for G on Dec. 28. In a feverish burst of knitting, I've already finished the back, the left front, and about a quarter of the right front. (Saying this will probably doom me to sleeve-island hell, but I'll take my chances.) I want to finish the knitting by 12/15, so I can block the pieces, seam them, and have at least a week to deal with putting in the zipper. The whole thing needs to be done by Jan. 31, which is when G leaves for the next leg of his research trip. I want to send him off (this time to Kiev) wrapped in a new sweater!

*Granted, not all freshmen are enthusiastic. And not all freshmen want to be in college. But I got super-lucky last spring, and had an amazing bunch; I'm being optimistic about this new group.
**Maybe not less tired, but at least a different kind of tired--I'm not nearly as walleyed with fatigue at the end of it.

Aude Lang Syne

2008 is almost over. It was a mixed year for me--lots of good, peppered with a fair amount of bad (or at least difficult to deal with).

The Good:

• I finally (finally!) finished my dissertation and managed to graduate.
• As a result, I am now gainfully employed full-time. With dental, even!
• And I'm teaching a course on Jane Austen this summer, also as a result.
• G got several excellent grants which enable him to do his dissertation research (see, also, "The Bad").
  
• I have a new nephew, who is fat and funny and smiley and completely adorable.
• Nephew-the-elder is also funny and smiley and completely adorable, albeit in a much skinnier fashion.
• Nephew-the-elder continues his love of hand-knit socks.
• My friends and family enjoy (mostly) good health and happiness.
• There has been lots of knitting.
• I got to go to Poland where I fed the birds (and squirrels) and see the salt mine.
  

The Bad:

• G's grants required him to spend the fall semester in Poland.
• Miscarriage #3, right before said trip to Poland.
• Too much time apart from G, which makes me sort of blah about everything.

But on the whole, more good than bad.

On the knitting front, this year I finished:

• 1 sweater (Ramona)
• 6 pairs of socks (4 of them for nephew-the-elder)
• 1 baby blanket
• 1 pair of Fetchings
• 1 cowl
• 2 hats
• 3 Elefantes
  
• 8 lace projects, including my favorite: Madli's Shawl

Of course, there were any number of false starts, as well, but I'm not counting them.

We had a bit of a snow storm today, so our New Year's Eve plans are lots of hors d'oevres from Trader Joe's, along with a couple of movies--I'm thinking Iron Man to start. Of course, that's our plan every New Year's Eve, so the storm really didn't change much. :)

Happy New Year's to everyone--I hope 2009 will be a wonderful year for everyone.

12 days

It's not quite time for the 12 days of Christmas to start, but a friend sent me to this:



Grading is moving a pace. 32 down, 22 to go. And the biggest reason they're not done is that I'm goofing off on YouTube.

grading jail

54 out of 56 students turned in their final portfolios yesterday. I wasn't really expecting the last two, as they've both fallen (yikes. I hit post with a sentence that read "they've both falled off the face of the earth. and they let me teach in the English dept.) off the face of the earth (or at least campus) as far as I can tell.

So today and tomorrow (and hopefully not Friday) I am in grading jail.

Which isn't as bad as it sounds, as

• I'm only reading final reflections
  
• Which are letters to me
• Which makes them easy to read
• And often full of entertaining observations on their (sometimes perceived) progress
• Excel figures out my grades for me
• Which means that the only maths I need to do anymore is for knitting
• Which is more fun than the maths for grade figuring.

I should really get started, though, since even if it's not as bad as it sounds, I still have to do it.

Is it sad that I'd rather clean the bathroom?

I'm holding out several carrots for myself, including knitting and cookie baking. I have in fact finished the knitting portion of a Thorpe hat I'm making for my dad, although I cannot for the life of me locate one of the seven or eight yarn needles I know are somewhere in this apartment. I lost the last one in Poland, so I have a toe to graft on a pair of socks, as well.

And pictures to post, except G has confirmed that the camera cord abandoned ship and stayed in Poland with him, so I can't actually get said pictures out of the camera for another ten days.

Poland, part 3: Christmas in Krakow

Krakow is a charming city--fairly compact with a lovely old town. We walked all over, on Friday, and the weather was perfect. I should have taken more photos--we went to the Old Synagogue, for instance, which holds a wonderful museum, but it was starting to get dark (night falls even earlier there than it does here!) and I didn't take any pictures.

Earlier that day we went to Wawel, however, and I got this picture of Wawel Cathedral:



No photos of the dragon, alas, as the dragon's cave was closed for the winter.


That evening was the first night of the Krakow Christmas Village--maybe 100 stalls of ornaments, gifts, and food. G took a few pictures--this one give you a sense of how it looked




And this is a close-up of one of the Christmas stalls. I bought a glass ornament for my mom (not from here--a stall in the next aisle had the exact same one, only for 5 zloty less!). But I love the picture--it almost looks like a Christmas card to me!


I'd show you pictures of what I bought, and the knitting I did (almost two whole socks--albeit not matching socks, as it was the second sock of one pair and the first of a different pair), but I can't for the life of me find the cable to connect the camera to the computer. I've looked all over, and I'm afraid it might still be in Poland! Thank goodness there are less than 12 days left until G is home.

Poland, part 2: Salt Mines

The last time G was in Poland, he spent six weeks in Krakow taking language classes. One of the field trips he took was to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, which is located about 20 minutes outside of town.

Ever since he came home with pictures, I've wanted to go--both to Krakow and to see the Salt Mines. So on Thursday (Happy Thanksgiving!), we got up insanely early (4:30 a.m.) in order to catch the 6:05 express train to Krakow. We arrived in Krakow 3 hours later and found our hotel (a quite lovely Holiday Inn only a few minutes walk from the main market square), where they actually let us check in at 9:30 in the morning.

From there, we made our way to the Salt Mines.

(puts on tour guide voice)

The Wieliczka Salt Mines is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It's been in operation for over 900 years, although now it only produces small quantities of salt via evaporation, rather than actual mining. There are over 200 km of passages in the mine, with over 2000 caverns, and it's been visited by tourists for most of its existence.

Somewhere along the line (I suspect a real tour guide would know when this happened, rather than going with a vague "somewhere along the line"), the miners started carving statues and things into the rock salt.

The current tourist route starts 64 meters under the surfaces, and ends 135 m below; it follows about 2 km of the passages. The route includes St. Kinga's Chapel:

All carved out of salt, my friends. (G tried to convince me to lick the wall to see if it tasted salty, but I declined.) You can get married here (there's a restaurant 120 m. down for the reception), and they have concerts (the acoustics rock).

There's a salty John Paul II:

And salty chandeliers:

There are also salty dwarfs along the way:

We took the tour in Polish, so I'm a little fuzzy on some of the details, but it was an unbelievably neat place. And the ride up on the elevator at the end is worthy of a theme park!

Poland, part 1: Feed the birds, tuppence a bag

I'm back from my trip to Poland. We crammed so much in that I'm going to try and split it up a bit. Especially since I put off all the grading I would normally do over the break to this week, so I'm grading frantically. I've told myself I don't have to start until 8:00 this morning, but I'm up early (the advantages of jet lag coming back from Europe!), so I'm putting up some pictures.

The trip over to Poland was fine--I left for the airport after my classes, and flew Northwest through Amsterdam, with only a short layover. The flight was quite pleasant--window seat, individual screens on the backs of the seats (I watched Dark Knight, which I hadn't seen, and thought was quite good.) And the hubby was waiting in Warsaw--his was the first face I saw when I walked out of customs.

We took a taxi back to the apartment he's renting, which is a nice flat, even if it is a fifth-floor walk-up. (Stairs were a running theme in this trip, as we managed to hit both the highest and lowest points in the Krakow area within 24 hours.)

I managed to stay up until almost 7 pm local time--I don't sleep well on planes, so hadn't slept the night before. (On a side note: has anyone else noticed how flights east and interrogation tactics are very similar? Meals served at irregular intervals--we had a snack, dinner, and breakfast all in the course of 6 hours; lights turned on and off--it's evening! it's night! it's morning! all, again, in those 6 hours. Very disorienting!)

The next day we had a lazy morning--G went to get ponchkis, which are basically jelly donuts, only so much better. And then we walked over to the Royal Baths (Lazienki Park) to see the red squirrels:


Cute little guy, isn't he? They have a Pavlovian response to people--when they hear someone coming, they sit up, look hopefully in your direction, and wait. If you crouch down with your hand out, they'll spring over to see what it is.


They are not, however, very patient (or very bright--they get confused very easily and have the attention span of a goldfish). If you stand up to get more seeds, this is likely to happen:


Red squirrel attack! They climb onto you, looking for seeds. They're fast, though, so when G tried to take a picture, he focused on his boot. But you can see the furry ears and the eye, if you look closely.

The park is also filled with birds, including a ton of chickadees:



Who, while a bit more timid than the squirrels, will also eat out of your hands:



Unbelievably cool. So cool, in fact, I made G buy more seeds and go back again the next day.

Longwood weekend

I teach on a Tuesday Friday schedule, which means that normally, holidays don't affect my schedule. President's Day, Memorial Day, Patriot's Day--classes canceled on a Monday mean my week goes on as normal.

But this year, Veteran's Day fell on a Tuesday, which means that I had six days in a row with no classes. Since da honey is in Poland, I went down to NJ to hang with the parents. We took a trip, starting with a visit to my great aunt and uncle (she'll be 90 next month, he'll be 91 in January, they'll celebrate 70 years of marriage in May, and they're both totally together and even spry! I want to be them when I get old.) And then we went down to one of my favorite places: Longwood Gardens.

Where they have a new exhibit of very cool treehouses:
Beautiful chrysanthemum displays:
Purty glass gourds:
A single mum plant with 484 blooms (which is a Longwood record, although not a world record; they're using a Japanese technique called "thousand bloom," and sometimes they manage to get that many!):

The orchid room (my favorite permanent part of the conservatory):

And a new children's garden, filled with whimsical statues and water fountains:

We also hit several outlets, and I managed to get a shirt from Banana Republic, a polo for the hubby, a pair of socks, and a pair of pants, all for less than $20 total. I love shopping with my mom--she totally rocks the coupons.

There was knitting, as well--I finished a pair of socks for nephew the elder, finished the cowl, and started another pair of Fetchings. But no photos of them (and probably none of the socks, period, as I left them in NJ on the theory that he should wear them before he outgrows them, and at the rate he's growing I'm worried that will be soon) yet.

Comfort food

I swore I wasn't going to sit on the couch and watch election results as they came in.

I certainly wasn't going to do more than a quick check.

Really.

But then I turned on the t.v. and got hooked. (Although I'm still a little unclear on how the networks can predict a state based on, oh, three percent of districts reporting. Shouldn't they wait until at least half the votes have been counted?)

The anticipation was too much, so I (re) cast on for a cowl with the glamour bunny yarn I bought at Rhinebeck:

Comfort food.

(The details: July is for Quinn pattern, size 7 needles. I've already knit this once (I even wove the ends in), wore it for a little bit, and decided it was too big. The pattern is very clear on the size, but as I've never knit a cowl before, I wasn't entirely clear on what the numbers meant. So I frogged it and cast on again, starting with 90 stitches instead of 111. I've taken out the extra stitch that falls in place of the seam. I've also started the second patterned row two stitches early--the second pattern round straddles the first stitch. Since it's knit in the round, the jog was making the two YOs look uneven, and it was bugging me. Not enough to change it the first time through, but since I was starting over again anyway . . . .)

I'm sitting this round out.

November is NaNoSweMo (National Knit A Sweater Month). And NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). And NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), as well as InaDWriMo (Originally International Dissertation Writing Month, but it's grown to include all academic writing and has been International acaDemic Writing Month, and I can't find a nice link for it).

I've also seen versions for research, recording your own album, and a host of others.

If I were smart, I'd commit publicly to the sweater and academic writing versions--I'm far more productive when I feel vaguely accountable for what I'm working on. Posting progress on both a sweater and an article would motivate me to get more done.

But I'm thinking that November will be a slog, however, and I'm having my own, one-person version (characterized by the fact that I'm posting this on November 3, rather than November 1):

National Sitting-This-Round-Out Month, also known as NaSiOuMo.

I'd like to have National Sit-Around-in-Your-Pajamas-Eating-Chocolate Month, or perhaps National Sit-Around-in-Your-Pajamas-Drinking-Red-Wine Month, but I suspect that won't really be possible. So I'm going to keep busy. I'll go to work, and clean the bathroom, and answer student emails, but nothing extra. No attempts to knit entire sweaters, or to get articles ready for publication.

In another characteristic move, this weekend, in a desperate attempt to distract myself, I knit my glamour bunny yarn up into a lovely cowl.

I frogged it this morning, since it was too big. I'm going to cast on again with fewer stitches. But it pretty much sums up my "one-step-forward, one-step-back" progress of the last few weeks.

November is already proving--three days into it--to be a bit too much for me.

On the poor-little-me side:

• I've been in grading jail for almost two weeks now, and while there's an end in sight, there's also another round of papers coming in.
  
• Another round of papers means another two weeks in grading jail. Teaching three sections of the same class = early burnout.
  
• It's my husband's birthday on Friday, and he's in Poland.
• I'm exhausted from doing virtually nothing, mainly because an annoying knot in my shoulder (I've named it Don, after Don Knotts) is making it hard to get comfortable.
  
• It's our wedding anniversary next week, and he'll still be in Poland.
• I have an annoying head cold that won't go away.
• Did I mention my husband's in Poland?
  
• Student oral reports start tomorrow, and, despite giving them painfully detailed directions on what I want, the questions are still pouring in. Most of them--all of them, really--could be answered by simply reading the directions I've posted on the course site.

I feel all whiny (or, to use the considerably more charming British version, whingey--I do love the "g"), since lots of things are going well.

On the life-doesn't-suck-too-much side:

• I'm teaching a major-author course this summer on Jane Austen. This means that I can spend my afternoon reading novels and consider the day productively spent.
• I can also spend the day watching Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy (in both Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones's Diary), and consider the day productively spent.
• I made pumpkin bread today.
• I have lots of lovely yarn to knit with.
  
• I've got Veteran's Day off, which means six days between classes, and I'm heading down to NJ to visit the nephews.
  
• The election campaigning will be over tomorrow. (This is good because it's getting a little nasty. And if I see one more attack ad for either Jean Shaheen or John Sununu, I will move to New Hampshire just so I can vote against both of them.)
• I go to Poland to see the husband in less than three weeks.
  

I really can't wait to go to Poland. Actually, I just can't wait to see the husband. But the trip coincides with the next major round of grading, and I'll either have to spend half my time grading, or stay up for three days when I get home in order to get it done.

I will make some tentative, not-really-commitment kinds of statements, to see if that helps motivate me. For the month of November: I want to finish my Hey, Teach! sweater, as well as some socks for nephew-the-elder. And start the husband sweater. And read for my Austen course (which really does make me do a little dance for joy when I think about it.) And knit the cowl, for the second time (the yarn was so yummy to knit with, it's not exactly a hardship).

And we'll see how the month goes.

WIP Wednesday

Hey, Teach! (Knitty Summer 2008), in Cascade 220:

I've got about an inch-and-a-half left on the armholes, and then the neck shaping. So far, so good. I am making it a little longer than the pattern calls for, as I have a long waist, and like slightly longer sweaters. I'm going to lengthen the sleeves, as well--at least to 3/4 length. Maybe full-length; I'll decide when I get to that point.


I'm supposed to be grading, but I got a package in the mail from Woolgirl (and did a happy dance, because I love getting packages from Jennifer!) and couldn't wait to play with it a little:

3 skeins of Miss Babs Yummy Sock yarn, in Denim, Pewter, and Heartache:




I was thinking about making a stranded hat using the Pewter & Denim, but I think that might be too dark--the Pewter looked lighter on my monitor when I picked it out, and it's hard to tell what the contrast will be until you can actually look at them side-by-side. But the Heartache looks really good with either of them--maybe I'll make a hat (maybe this one? any suggestions?) using the Heartache and one of the other colors.

I need to buckle down and actually grade, so this evening I will feel free to work on the back of my sweater. It's cold here today; definitely sweater-knitting weather!

Accessorizing

1 pair of Fetchings (they're actually black, but I was trying to photograph my own hand and decided not to worry about the color. Or the laundry in the background, evidently.)

Knit in Classic Elite Classic One Fifty (merino wool); one pair took a little less than a skein. Size 6 needles, magic loop; I might go down a size if I knit them again, especially since they're for my mom and she's got smaller hands than I do. I added an extra cable twist at the top, since the first pair I made seemed very short.

But overall I'm happy them, and I think my mom will like them--her office is pretty cold, and she's on the computer a fair amount; these should be perfect!



One husband-hat: We Call Them Pirates from Hello Yarn. I can't make the photo turn so the skulls are right side up. I didn't try that hard, though--I'm sneak-blogging during my office hours. They had a paper due today, so I don't think anyone will come, but I don't want to spend too much time here, just in case.


Knit in Cascade 220, a red heather and white. Size 5 needles, magic loop. I really love this pattern--I've repeated this pattern more than any other (this is my 4th iteration). I may need to branch out into other stranded-knitting patterns, for variety, but this is a great hat.

S is for . . .

Sunday Sky at Rhinebeck


and scrumptious skeins of yarn:
"Glamour Bunny," a mix of angora and silk. And maybe some merino wool, too, but I didn't write it down and there's no label on the skein. But it's 180 yards of worsted, so if I can ever stop petting it, it will make a lovely cowl. Purchased from the Oasis Fiber Farm Mill booth, straight from Otisfield, Maine.

Shelridge Farm Soft Touch Lace in Rust (500 yards of merino wool) from Canada. The color looks pretty accurate on my monitor (for the yarn, anyway--the bedspread under it is much bluer in real life!).


and a random door prize from the bus trip! Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Ruby River--it's much richer and more saturated in person.

Butterfly bush

Or, rather, a bush full of butterflies. (I think it's an aster, not a butterfly bush.)


Next-door to a friend's beach house in Maine--we went up for one last hurrah of summer. I absolutely love the orange butterflies on the purple flowers!