F is for

FishFishing equipment abounds, including this very cool hand-painted plug--one of many that G has stashed. But our fish are more than just edible, or equipment-related. Oh, no. There is, dare I say, a bit of a fish fetish around here:


A fish stapler


a fish wine stopper


fish salt-and-paper shakers


a fish plate
another fish plate
and another fish plate




a fish print
and another fish print (this one's my favorite--hand colored by the artist!)

E is for . . .

Exhausted.

No pictures; I'm too tired.

Spring break is over; we drove over 1000 miles (Boston to MIL's, NJ, to Grad School, NJ, to NYC, to Parent's, NJ, to NYC, to Parent's, to Hospital, NJ (to see the new nephew) to MIL, to Parent's, to MIL, to Boston. It makes me tired just thinking about it.)

The defense, while nerve-wracking, was a success; I now need to clean up the dissertation and submit the final copy. But I've got well over a month before that's due.

The new nephew, although a month early, was almost 7lb when he was born on Saturday (having kindly and politely waited until after Aunt Susan's party on Friday). He's back in the NICU right now, for jaundice, but seems to be getting less yellow by the minute and they expect him home in a couple of days.

Stupid annoying medical things are making me feel generally crummy and run-down, so the driving and excitement took more of a toll than it normally would. (This has resulted in a complete stoppage of all grading around here, but since we're going to a museum for class tomorrow, I don't think it's so awful. I'll have their papers done for Tuesday.)

I have a job application due tomorrow and I'm having the worst time articulating a teaching philosophy.

A more cheerful post (with knitting!) coming soon. And my F will definitely have pictures--lots of pictures.

Finish-itis

Blue knee socks for a three-year-old, done and mailed:


Swallowtail, done:
(details on Ravelry)

Flowerbasket shawl, started, blocked, and done:
(details on Ravelry)

Both shawls were knit using Fearless Fiber sock yarn (Brick House, the red yarn, was a gift from my sockapalooza pal; Hudson, the blue yarn, was purchased through the Ravelry ISO/Destash board)--the colors are amazing. Perfect for lace--enough color variegation to be interesting, but not so much that it's overwhelming.

D is for . . .

Dissertation*

*I know this is late. But I've been torn between wanting to post, and stick with the schedule, and fear that posting would jinx my defense, which is set for this coming Thursday.

Startitus

Ramona: Re-started to fix the scallopping at the bottom of the center seam. Since I managed to snip the wrong thread, I ripped back a few rows and added another inch to the length. The knitting's been done for at least a week, but I can't seem to manage to sew the hem down and reseam. Which is too bad, since I'd really like to wear it again before the weather's too warm for angora. Blue socks-that-come-up-to-his-knees for T. One is almost done, and I've cast on for the second, but I haven't had a lot of car knitting time lately.

Cabled baby blanket for the new, not-quite-here-yet nephew. The only problem is I'm not in a cabling kind of mood. But SIL really wanted a cabled blanket, so I'm pushing through a couple of rows a day.

And once I manage that, I turn to my new love:

Swallowtail Shawl, from Interweave Knits Fall 2006 by the oh-so-amazing Evelyn Clark. The yarn is Fearless Fibers superwash sock merino, in Brick House, and the colors are wonderful. Very subtle and interesting. I think it will look wonderful when it's blocked. The yarn was a gift from my sock pal, and I've been saving it to find something that would show off the colors.

I started it on Tuesday, 2/5; I'm done with the first border chart already. So another three days or so and I should be ready to block it. The nupps aren't too bad; I'm using size 6 KnitPicks Harmony needles, and I've been nupp-ing loosely, so the p5tog are going relatively well. (What does "nupp" stand for, anyway? Why nupp? Why not nipp? or nup?)

I started it in part because, having just mailed off my dissertation in its penultimate form, I needed something a little complicated to distract me. I'm thinking about giving it to my (female) head advisor after my defense; I'm not sure if that means I need to knit something for each of my committee members, though. I've got another skein of Fearless Fibers sock yarn, although it's not the superwash version, so the skein has less yardage. Maybe another Swallowtail? Or something slightly less complicated (or at least, less-complicated looking) for my third reader (also female), and a scarf for my second reader (male)?

I'm hoping to schedule the defense for my spring break, which is the first week in March; it would be easier to go down if I don't have to juggle classes at the same time. We'll see what the committee says, though. But at the rate this shawl is moving, I should be able to finish another couple of gifts before then.

C is for . . .

I had a lot of trouble deciding on a C. C, in my world, is often for chocolate. And champagne. (Not to mention the calories that go along with them.) It's also for chai, and cold, and china. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that really, the C that I wanted to show you?

Colgate, where I spent 1991-1995. (Or, as my husband likes to call it, the mythical kingdom of col-ga-tay.)

The "golden nipple" atop the Chapel, visible for miles--always a sure sign that we were getting close to campus.

Torchlight ceremony, the night before graduation. It involves a walk down Cardiac*, the main hill on campus, while wearing academic regalia and carrying a flaming torch. Good times.

Lawrence Hall, home of the English and French departments. Although I rarely use my French anymore, I double-majored: French as well as English.


Lineberry Natatorium, where I spent most of my time as a member of the varsity team, swimming back and forth. It was rarely warm enough to have the roof open, as it's shown here.


Colgate in winter, which lasted for much of the academic year. My birthday is at the end of September; 3 out of 4 years, there were snow flurries for a birthday present.

All of these photos are official Colgate photos (I saved them to my desktop, though--no hotlinking for me!). My pictures of Colgate, although precious to me, are not digital, and I don't have a scanner, so I've borrowed these to show you my C.

*Colgate-ism: you can tell the seniors from the first-years by the size of their calves, due to the number of times that they walk up and down Cardiac each day.

A Blogger's (Silent) Poetry Reading

Cyclamens


They are terribly white:
There is snow on the ground,
And a moon on the snow at night;
The sky is cut by the winter light;
Yet I, who have all these things in ken,
Am struck to the heart by the chisilled white
Of this handful of cyclamen.

written by Michael Field (Katherine Bradley 1846-1914 and Edith Cooper 1862-1913).
from Under the Bough, 1893.