Ugh

I am approximately twenty rows away from finishing the final chart of my shawl .... and I'm freaking out because I think I have read the chart wrong. I know in my heart that lace on the needles looks like crap and I shouldn't expect it to resemble the beautiful blocked versions on Ravelry but I may have to put aside all of my grading and all of my project folders to finish this & get it off the needles so I can block it. Then I'll either be thrilled/relieved/proud or I'll be doing something drastic to bemoan my knitting hubris in taking on this project in the first place.

Home again, and the onset of pennant fever

I'm back from my conference and am trying to make sense of re-entry into this life. For example, just how much research can I do into green tomato recipes? I can't believe how many green tomatoes I have right now, and the first frost is approaching....

For the record, I had no visceral memory of ever having been in Boulder before, though in fact we were there as a family for a while in (I think) the summer of 1968. It's a place that makes my hometown of Cambridge MA look positively right wing. And so beautiful! How does anyone get their work done? I was also curious about the vast numbers of kids we saw out and about during what I think of as school hours, and the motivation for holding a big kids festival on the Pearl Street Mall from 3-6 on a weekday... in addition to the conference, we were able to sneak out for a dinner in an amazing place, and of course I dragged a friend to Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins. Although we went for me, she ended up buying something. The patterns in that book are so cute. I can't wait to see which one she tackles first. (The only kind of evangelist I'm ever likely to be is the fibery kind, and I am very good at it.) We ran into another conference attendee while there, and spread the word among like-minded literary scholars when we returned from that exciting escape.

My paper and other conference/academic responsibilities went very well indeed, and as always attending this gathering feels like renewing my very lifeblood.

However, I lost the pattern for Tudora on the plane just as I was getting to the decrease/bind-off part of the exercise, so that's not finished. Now I'm home & can print it again, though, it should be a matter of a couple of innings.

And, in another misguided attempt to modify a pattern, I had thought I could convert Jared Flood's Druid mittens into a size large (the pattern is written only in Women's small) by just casting on and proceeding with size 4 needles. I completed one entire cuff before deciding that I was on track to create women's size humongous instead. So, time to frog & then back to size 3 needles as called for in the pattern. I'm using the Dream in Color Smooshy in the Ruby River colorway that my mother bought for me at Lettuce Knit last year and they're going to be SO gorgeous .... just right for fall in New England. This is my favorite time of year, and my favorite region in which to spend it.

Okay. Must keep moving! And let's hope that Joshua Patrick Beckett is close enough to 100% tonight that we can finish off this series before anything typically Red-Soxian occurs.

Teaching Knitting

Tonight I proposed a dorm S 'n' B as an alternative to the football game under the lights (and, more importantly, in the torrentially pouring rain). It was just fascinating to observe the different ways the girls approached the yarn and needles. Some had knit before and needed only a little push. One lefty couldn't manage to learn right-handed and sequestered herself in the corner with my laptop & a YouTube video on casting on and knitting left-handed. Some of the smartest but spaciest kids couldn't figure out the sequencing of tasks involved in the knit stitch, and one ninth grade perfectionist ripped her work out 4 times and finally threw in the towel, vowing to try another day. But two of the first time knitters took to it like ducks to water (one ninth grader working on a hat and one sophomore creating a very fuzzy scarf), and they really rocked. I can't wait to see how they progress and if they continue to like it. They were all surprised how fast the time went; most stuck to it for over 2 hours.

(I had actually worried that I wouldn't get any takers for this activity but I had eight girls knitting at one time or another and I count that a success. If I were still doing Lime & Violet's Chore Wars I'd definitely get to move up a level as a result).

I'm tired of the rain. Oh, and there could be a new installment in the puppy story. I'll keep you posted.

A Little Fiber Content

All three of the photos above are the Falling Water scarf --the top one shows you how the variegation in the yarn is playing itself out, and possibly gives you a sense of the lace pattern (though pre-blocking, it just looks like a big blob to me), while the lower two are closer to the actual color. I'm really enjoying this -- it's a quick and pretty knit. I've done about 11 pattern repeats thus far and will be interested to see whether I can actually get two scarves out of one skein of this yarn (Neighborhood Fiber Co Studio Sock, from last winter's sock club experience.

Below ... behold! From this morning, D#2 biking to school for the first time.