After much traveling, visiting, and merriment, we are finally home for a significant amount of time. While we had a lot of fun and good times visiting family and friends, it is nice to sleep in our own bed and sit on our own couch in our PJs all day! Of course, after a week away from work and school obligations, I do feel an ever growing "to do" list hanging over my head. But we've agreed to try to keep work off-limits until Wednesday. So I'm going to focus on my knitting and watching "Curb Your Enthusiasm" on DVD (and if I decide to actually put on some clothes maybe run to the store to get some new bedding for the hamster and 90210 on DVD).

I finished a second strip on the Circle of Friends baby blanket and seamed the two strips together. Then I realized that the seaming was annoying and cast on to do the next two strips simultaneously to reduce the seaming. So far I've only knit about 10 rows on that.

I also knit through about 4 repeats on Lilith and I've made it to the foot of Kevin's sock. I, of course, haven't taken any pictures of any of this or the newest yarn acquisitions.

Instead I have this picture...

This is actually a Victoria's Secret sweater that I recently saw in their catalog. My first thought was "oh that's cute." My second thought was "I can make that." My third thought was "I'm crazy." But the more I think about it, the more I think I could do it. There's three main pieces... 1. the neck/shoulders, which is just ribbing; 2. the cable across the chest; 3. the body/sleeves which in a careful look at the picture appear to increase about every 3 to 4 inches on either side of the knit column between the cables.

So I need to do some thinking about what yarn and how much, but I don't think it would be too difficult to create a knock off version. This probably won't get started until I clear out some of my current projects, but that doesn't mean I can't start planning and browsing my favorite yarn sites!

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I finally finished Kevin's Baby Ull socks yesterday evening. I've decided to call them Engagement Socks since I started them about a month after we got engaged and they have entwined cable circles down the legs.

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They look more like circles when the fabric is stretched.

What is sort of embarrassing about these socks though is that they took me about 3 months to complete. Yes, they were on size 0s, but still. Three months for a pair of socks?! What is even worse is that I just looked on my Sock Gallery page and it has been exactly 6 months since my last completed pair of socks. I knit 4 pairs of socks in the first 6 months of 2006, and 1 pair in the last six months. That's only 5 pairs of socks in a year. I'm ashamed to call myself a sock knitter.

So aside from my more general New Year's resolutions to eat healthier and exercise, my number 1 knitting resolution is to knit more socks. Now, I'm not going to go crazy and suggest knitting a pair a month, but I do want to beat 5 a year (even if that's only 6 for '07). I cast on for a new pair last night, and I have yarn in my sock basket for 4 more pairs (one pair was even started looooong ago from the Sock Kit Swap. I have 2 socks on 2 circs and have even gotten beyond the toes!).

2007 is the year of more socks!

Of course socks shouldn't and won't preclude other knitting...

I've been making some good progress on Lilith. **Knock on wood** but I only screwed up one row of YOs and it was near of the end of the row, so I decided to leave it. Since the pattern is a 10 row repeat, I try to complete a full repeat every time I pick it up. So far I've completed 7 of 28 repeats.

Today is a getting back into work day (bleh!). I need to complete the syllabus and create the website for my class which starts on the 16th. I also need to make my poster for a conference on the 25th. I don't think those tasks will be too hard to complete today and will be a nice easing into work. Of course, once those tasks are out of the way, there's nothing on the top of the "to do" list above "write dissertation" (which I've been trying to avoid!).

Oh, and finally... thank you to everyone who's been leaving comments. Ignoring your email for a week doesn't allow for being easily able to reply to everyone individually. Maybe once I clear out the spam and student whining, I can find the good emails!

It seems I can't get enough of Dalegarn. This sock is not Baby Ull, but Falk. And it is PINK. Can I emphasize PINK!!! The picture really does not do it justice. This is eye-blinding pinkness, which is why I've chosen simplicity in its styling, so I don't have to stare at it too hard.

It is toe-up with a black toe (although that disappears in the pic). And a black short-row heel. This picture represents about 2 evenings worth of knitting (while watching 90210!). Last night I got a bit farther up the leg before I needed to rest my eyes with Lilith.

I'm knitting these on size 3s so they are knitting up very quickly. I'm not sure how I completely feel about the fabric being produced. It is a bit stiff and has some of that squeaky acrylic feel (even though Falk is 100% wool, I think the superwash makes it a little less than soft). But no matter, I forge ahead in my goal to complete more socks this year than last!

I've been in a general state of malaise for the past several days, which was not helped by slipping down the stairs this morning and landing on my butt. Now my butt hurts and I have a general mood of "meh".

Here's the pink sock as of a few days ago:

I haven't touched it since the picture, which is not helping the goal of knitting more socks than last year. I have been working on Lilith and have started the second skein, so I'm officially 1/3rd finished. I'm enjoying the simple lace pattern, so much that I might need to try a slightly more advanced lace project next... maybe.

Kevin and I went out to eat last night since we got some gift cards for X-mas, thus making it a free meal. Afterwards, we stopped by B&N to look at books. Among other things, I picked up this...

It's gotten some really negative reviews on Amazon because the projects are rather simplistic. But inside there are some cute things that I might make and some things to give me some good ideas, and who doesn't want to own a book with a knit wedding dress inside. Actually, the dress would make a really cute top if you stop knitting at the waist. I think the people who wrote negative reviews are too dependent on knitting books providing the perfect pattern. What I love most about knitting books is what other ideas they can inspire (even if I don't follow them through immediately or ever).

It's Delurking Week. So delurk!

I swiped the icon from Ms. Crafty Snargle.

The blehs are a bit better after some pizza for dinner! (but my butt still hurts).

No, my dissertation is not finished...

No, I haven't finished all of my wedding planning...

No, I haven't finished knitting Lilith (although it's very close)...

No, I haven't heard from any of the jobs I've applied to...

No, NOT THAT!

What could it be?!?!?!

Indications look very good that I'll have another published knitting pattern!!!

Last night I finished off Lilith and I love it! Once I got into the rhythm of the 10 row repeat, this just flew off the needles (and also because I started working on it exclusively).

I only made one little mistake near the beginning. Otherwise, all of the lace holes line up nicely in little rows and columns. Completing this certainly boosts my confidence for tackling a more complex lace pattern.

Of course, the problem now is that I need to block Lilith. I've blocked sweater parts before, but never a 60inch long, 20 inch wide shawl. And not anything that was lacy and delicate. So I need some advice and tips from those with more experience. Where to you block a large piece when you have very little space? Does lace like this need to be pinned? (I'm thinking not really because it is fairly simple).

Thanks for all of the congrats on the pattern. It is for another SnB book that's in the works. I had submitted the idea to Debbie Stoller waaaaay back in October, and when I didn't hear back I figured it was a no-go. But it turns out she got busy with a calendar project and loves the idea (which my faithful readers you have seen here, but now has been taken down). As typical, I don't expect the finished pattern to be too similar to the original, but I'm awaiting more details. Likely, it will mean very few knitting updates once I get started because the sample needs to be finished by the end of February, and it will likely require nearly all my knitting time. And so, until that gets start I need to start chugging my way through the Circle of Friends Blanket because I need to send that out sometime in February too!

The Circle of Friends Blanket is taking shape. I'm knitting the 3rd and 4th columns at the same time and twisting the yarn color changes in the back. While it is a taking longer to knit 2 at the same time than just 1, I won't have to seam them together! (Although there are just as many ends to weave in!) After these 2 columns, I will knit the 5th, 6th, and 7th columns simultaneously.

In life news, I went to the dermatologist on Monday for my mole check up (which was supposed to be in October, but you know what a hassle it is to get the referrals and make the appointments). But anyway, here I am in this little room with the doctor and a nurse, and I'm in my underwear because she has to check all the moles. So that's one level of embarrassing. And it can only get worse, she checks my butt to see if there's moles (which there aren't) and discovers the horrific bruise from my "trip" down the stairs last week. Needless to say, the embarrassment factor couldn't have been much higher. Yippee!

On a less embarrassing note, today was the first day of classes, and I managed to wing my way through the intros and presenting the syllabus. Many of the students seemed a bit scared by the syllabus (it is daunting when taken in all at once), but at least half of the students have been in my classes before, so I'm hoping they stick with it. The class was actually so full that one girl had to sit on the floor! I think it is going to be a good semester. Instead of a big lecture course, I have a small seminar class and I hoping that by the third week the students will be in charge of leading discussions and running class. And while February and March will be tough months for the students, by April the class will be a breeze (3 class periods for a movie and discussion, 2 class periods for poster presentations).

Of course, lots of stuff for job 2 just reared its ugly head today (I've been trying to ignore it otherwise). I have a meeting tomorrow with the new professor I'll be working with, and I'm a little nervous, but I'm hoping that afterwards I'll have a good idea of where the semester will be headed.

This waking up at "normal" hours is making me very tired (along with my self-imposed ban on Red Bull and limiting caffeine intake to 1 Coke a day... which is down from my normal Red Bull in the morning and 2-3 Cokes during the day). So it's off to bed for me!

Dear Smoke-Detector,

While I understand that you are an inanimate object and it may be difficult for you, I think that you need to go back to smoke-detector elementary school and learn how to tell time. At the very least, if you could learn that darkness indicates a time to be quiet unless it is a real emergency that would be highly helpful.

You see, your sudden panic attack this morning about the status of you battery occurred at a time that your humans were sleeping. You know how you were angry about your battery being weak, well, sleeping is when the humans recharge their batteries.

If you could have held off your panic attack for even two hours, it would have been annoying, but acceptable. But 5:30am is sleeping time, not beeping time.

And if you are so concerned with getting a new battery, why is your construction such that it is near impossible to access your battery? We do apologize for putting the battery in backwards, but you didn't need to make that sad dying sound when we did. But your overjoyous beeping and shouting at having the battery properly installed was quite obnoxious.

But look, Smoke-detector, overall I like you and you do a good job of protecting us humans from fire and carbon monoxide. Just remember next time, that the humans are more willing to be patient with you if you don't have your panic attacks during sleep-time.

Just a few hours ago I finished up the 3rd and 4th columns and sewed them to the first two. At some point today, I'll cast on the last 3 columns. This blanket is going to be very difficult to give away, I am loving how it is turning out and the drape of the fabric.

We discovered the other day that the hamster LOVES wheat bread. He doesn't usually eat food from our hands when he's outside of his cage, but randomly the other day Kevin was eating some toast and I gave him a little piece to eat, and then another, and another. Here's some pictures from his snacking last night...

Warning... Long, rambling, non-knitting post ahead. Just trying to clear out some of the voices in my head, and also prove to myself that I can write, even though the open document of my dissertation shows no proof of additional writing today.

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I was hoping to be able to post about how amazing it is to get up early (well, early for me) and accomplish a lot of tasks during the day and feel very productive. But instead I feel exhausted and in dire need of a nap, and have only completed 4 "to dos".

Kevin needed a ride to the train station early this morning, and afterward I headed over to Kohl's to find something to wear for the looming plane ride and conference that are rapidly approaching (don't you know I get stuck with the crappy poster session of the first night, so I get to fly in and then run to put up my poster and stand next to it trying to look like I didn't just arrive, but am well refreshed). After Kohl's (which was very successful, I bought pants that don't drag on the ground... ok, yes I finally ventured into "petite" land instead of juniors, but I feel without a section... shouldn't there be a young, short professional section?... anyway, I'm off track), I stopped by the pet store to get some goodies for the hammie and headed home to get to work. I finished up 2 things for my class for tomorrow, and should be writing brilliant and intelligent additions to my dissertation.

Instead I'm reading every possible guideline available from the TSA about flying. What to bring, what not to bring, how to bring it. For the past few days I've been terribly moody, and specifically very "blah" and sad. I've figured out that it is probably because I'm scared to death about flying. Well, not so much the being on the plane part (although it's been 10 years since I've been on a plane). It is the security part. I scared about going through security, getting stopped by security ("ma'am, what is in that big black tube?" "a poster, I swear!"), security looking at my underwear in my bag and rifling through what I've carefully packed (in the realm of packing and groceries, I'm amazingly organized and anal. I HATE when the grocery store clerks just throw my stuff randomly in bags. It makes me very angry). And what if they declare my knitting needles "dangerous" and take them away from me? What will I do on the plane?!

I know, I know. It is absurd to be so worried and scared of security (security definitionally should make us feel safer). And more absurd in that I don't plan to violate any of their rules. I'm not afraid of the flying part (although I'm a little nervous about my ears not popping and then getting sick because of it... it's happened before). I'm not afraid of standing next to my poster for a boring 2 hours while no one reads it and no one talks to me. I'm not afraid of the "networking" dinner with big-wigs from psychology (ok, maybe a little). Just the damn security. I guess I've read/heard too many horror stories and have been imaging every single worst possible situation. And so I've been moody and miserable.

But I'll get over it and everything will be fine. I am a logical and intelligent person, and some little part of me knows not to be so freaked out. It is like doing laundry... I really hate the lead up to getting started, but once it gets going everything is fine and it is over quickly. That's it, I'll think of security like laundry... something that is unpleasant and you don't feel like doing, but once it is over everything's clean!

Knitting on the blanket is going sloooooow. So I started something new and quick. I hope to finish or near finish it tonight (depends on how fast my crochet ability is). Then I'll have some pics. Instead, for now, you get more ranting...

I was so happy for a few minutes because I actually wrote 3 kick-ass paragraphs on my dissertation. (And yes the dissertation is more than 3 paragraphs long, I'm not starting from scratch here people... the dissertation is already at 53 pages, which includes tables and works cited). But they were 3 really awesome paragraphs based off of ideas I got while rereading an article I hadn't touched in over a year, but picked up because my class will be discussing it today. And so I was happy, briefly, about the writing, and looking forward to class in about an hour.

What changed my mood so quickly to pissed off and annoyed is that this university (like many others), has a policy of allowing students to add and drop classes at will during the first 2 weeks of the semester. In a large lecture class, it is only as annoying as a few students at the beginning of week three showing up and asking "did I miss anything important in the first 2 weeks?" This gets to the level of infuriating when you have a small class to begin with and are trying to pair up students to be discussion leaders for upcoming classes. I had my list prepared and ready to go last night. It took surprisingly longer than I thought that it would to arrange and try to fit everyone into something they wanted. And guess-freaking-what?!?! FOUR students dropped since I last accessed the roster last night and 2 new students joined, which fs-up my schedule and which will cause me to answer "did I miss anything important last week" today at least twice. ARGH!!!

What this leads me to believe is that for the first two weeks of class, I shouldn't do anything. We should all just show up, maybe sing a few campfire-type songs, and patiently wait until the end of add-drop and we know who is in and who is out. If I was running the show, you'd register for classes and the only way to change is to get special written permission to drop from the professor and a Dean, and special permission to add from the professor and a Dean, AND you need to write an eloquent, flawless 3 page essay about why you need to drop/add, none of this willy-nilly adding and dropping. The process should be hard enough to discourage students from actually doing it. I took some pretty terrible and unpleasant classes in college (Orgo and Cell and Molec Bio, anyone?), but I didn't drop them because they seemed "too hard" or "too boring." I signed up for it, I stuck through it to the end and didn't look for an easier class to fill out my schedule.

Sorry for spewing another rant onto the blog, but you can know that my students probably thank you, the blog readers, for listening (reading) my rant, so that by the time I get to class, I've cooled down and won't go off on them!

From "Wedding Knits"...

Knit and crocheted with Rowan 4 ply cotton in white and light blue. The body used about 1 skein of 4 ply, I probably could have knit and crocheted a solid white one and still only needed 1 ball.

The body is about 10.5 inches wide. And I circled the boo-boo that happened because I was too busy yelling at the TV while watching the president's speech (he's lucky he didn't get a crochet hook through the head... well I guess I'm lucky because that probably would have destroyed the TV) and laughing at robotic Cheney and Ms. Blinky Pelosi.

1. We got up this morning before the sun. Not too much before, but it was certainly dark and made me cranky!

2. Modes of transportation: 2 cabs, 1 train, 1 airtran, 1 plane, 1 trolley.

3. Airport security was annoying, but not bad. I did generate several easy ways in which it could be improved... for example, the 4 extra people just hanging out waiting to stack the plastic bins could maybe assist people in putting their stuff into bins and guiding them as to what should be in bins, instead of having 1 guy trying to oversee 2 lines and yelling at whoever was doing it wrong.

4. The plane was tiny! We're talking 50 people or less tiny. There was one row of one seaters and one row of 2 seaters. Fortunately I had my knitting. Airplane seats are so uncomfortable. I can't imagine a long ride, I was squirming after 20 minutes.

5. They gave us food on the plane! Like real food! I was expecting a bag with 3 pretzels in it and maybe a drink, but they gave as a "fun-sized" turkey sandwich with lettuce, "fun-sized" bag of baby carrots, and a "fun-sized" bag of Skittles, and a choice of many different drinks.

6. Walked around and saw Beale St, where we ate at BB King's club. Very cool. And they had the most amazing food I have ever tasted... fried pickles!!! FRIED PICKLES!!!! Oh my god, I think I'm going to make Kevin take me back there every day we are here to eat more of them, and then have him figure out how to make them at home. FRIED PICKLES, people, they are the awesomest! (I also had a pulled pork sandwich that was very good).

7. Stood next to my poster for one and a half hours. I actually had people interested in it and asking questions, sharing ideas, and giving me suggestions. It was actually a very positive experience (unlike the last poster I had that no one wanted to read or talk about).

8. Drinking Miller High Life and eating Doritos in the hotel room, watching the Colbert Report an hour earlier than normal (what is this central standard time?!) I'm very sleepy.

9. Tomorrow? More excitement! (Hopefully including pancakes!!!!)

1. Woke up and ate breakfast at a great little local breakfast/lunch shop. Had pancakes, eggs, and bacon (some of the best bacon ever!).

2. Took a tour of the Gibson Guitar Factory (it was just like being in a live version of that Discovery channel show "How It's Made"). Toured the Rock 'n Soul museum, which was very awesome and learned a lot about the history of blues, rock 'n roll, soul, and gospel. The museum had MP3 players for everyone that you'd type in numbers to learn more about the various exhibits (and to avoid reading). But you also could type in other numbers and listen to music. I think my favorite song was "Mule Boogie". How can you go wrong with a song about your mule kicking people?!

3. Returned to the hotel and had a nice afternoon nap.

4. Decided to go to dinner at the "Big Foot Lodge" because they advertised fried pickles. Their pickles were good, but not as good as BB King's. (Kevin and I are making plans try making fried pickles at home). Kevin ate a pulled pork sandwich, and I had the deep-fried cornish hen with a side of fries and cheesy corn. Yum!

5. After being stuffed from dinner we decided to walk around for a bit and ended up back down on Beale St., which was rockin'. We first stopped in a music store and were greeted by the friendliest salesman. As we looked around, I picked up a compliation CD and another guy working there explained how it was the greatest compliation CD of Memphis rock music and if we liked that he had another we should check out. We ended up leaving with 2 CDs (the guy was very persuasive, and he was right the CDs are awesome!).

6. We walked around Beale St. and stopped into several bars. The first one was a small place with a little band playing. They were very fun and good. You know a band is good when other muscians/singers are there watching them. Then we went to another bar that had an Elvis impersonator, who was really awesome. Kevin and I debated how you actually make the decision in your life to become an Elvis impersonator. And then finally we ended up at a third bar where there was a guitar player and a saxophonist playing "Freebird". But then changed over to a bigger band with a really good female singer.

7. A bit tipsy, but full of music we headed back to the hotel to crash.

Today we've been a little slow on getting up, but the plan is to hang out for a bit with Kevin's aunt and uncle who are in the area. Tonight I was invited to a dinner with psychology big-wigs, I'm a little nervous about it, but my desire for a free meal is stronger!

First off... how is it that I'm managing to blog everyday of conference/vacation, but not under normal circumstances? Anyway... onto the list type break down...

1. Hung out with Kevin's aunt and uncle and cousins. It was nice to spend some time with them because I've only met them once since they live outside of the normal visiting area.

2. Dinner with psych-big-wigs. Oh my, my head is still reeling from the conversation and the champagne. The dinner was in celebration of a new textbook and the publisher/editor wanted to gather a group of fun and interesting researchers to wine and dine with the main author (and this included me somehow?!). There were 8 of us (including me and the editor and the author who is big psychology celebrity). Four others are professors at various universities who have a lot of prominent research, and the last person was another grad student, but a girl who worked in publishing for a while before grad school. It was nerve-wrecking and amazing. The food and drink were awesome. I managed to talk up my research and it generated a great discussion and debate for a while, ending with one of the guys telling me what a great area of research it was. I talked with others about the job market and trying to find a position. The author told us how the first year he was on the market there were no jobs, so he got a post-doc at the last minute, and then the second year, he got only 2 interviews and one job (in late April). So I don't feel quite as discouraged as I was before about not hearing anything yet, but at the same time this finding an academic job thing is going to be hard. The editor woman was super sweet and we walked back to our hotels together. I talked with her for a bit about jobs in the publishing world, and I'm glad that I met her and hope to keep in contact with her because if academic jobs don't work out, something related in publishing could be good.

The moral of the story is that you may be shaking scared to walk into a situation with professionals in your field that you don't know, but you go and act confident and it can be awesome!

(Sorry if today's update is more rambling and typo-filled... I must cut back on the champagne!)

Have you ever been having a pretty good day, getting work accomplished, feeling like things are going well, and then WHAM some crap hits you like a truck and destroys your good productive mood?

I got down to job 2 early this morning. The early train was actually on time and even a little ahead of schedule (if you can believe it). I sent some emails and made some copies for my meeting later day. Then I went and entered a bunch of grades in the computer lab. I got an email from the secretary that the food for the meeting had arrived, so I went to get it. We bring the food down to the computer lab and the computer tech guy is there and barks at us "what are you doing? what's going on?" I tell him that I have a meeting in there later today at 2pm and he grumbles that he had planned to work in there all day. I mentioned that I just needed to put a couple of things on the computers for the class and he gets really mean and yells "and just how are you going to do that? you don't have adminstrative authority. only I can put things on the computers, we don't want other people doing that." I try to be apologetic and say that I didn't know. And now I just feel like crying. It was really embarassing being yelled at in front of the secretary and the professor I'll be working with, and there was no reason the computer tech guy had to be so mean. And now I don't know what to do about the big file I need to put on the computers. I'm afraid that if I just wait until the computer guy's not around, he'll find it and come yell at me some more, but the students can't do the lab I planned without that file on the computer. And of course our meeting is scheduled to be in the lab and if the computer guy is in there I can't really talk about this file without him knowing and so on. Now I feel sick to my stomach and crushed and incompetent.

Thanks for the nice comments.

After posting, I forced myself to do some work, which helped me to feel better (odd... doing work shouldn't really make one feel better... hee hee). At the meeting, the computer guy was not around, so everything was ok, and Carrie's great idea of putting the file on cds solves that problem. The super weird thing is that the computer guy was in the mailroom/lunchroom area after the meeting (we had left over food that we were leaving in there for others to eat). And he was very pleasant and asked if I still had files to send him. It was very odd.

But the meeting went well and I got a bunch of stuff completed (though not my lecture for tomorrow), so the day was redeemed. Now, if one of these days I could post some knitting pictures or get a bit of writing done on my dissertation, things would be really awesome!

Oh, and to finish up on the Memphis trip...

On day 4, we had a yummy breakfast at the Blue Plate Cafe and then went to the National Civil Rights museum, which was incredible. For dinner, we ate at Club 152 and had more pulled pork sandwiches.

On day 5, we got a cab back to the airport. And then sat and sat at the airport. Our flight got delayed for a looong time. It was supposedly because of high winds at Newark, but the pilot made an announcement (once we got on the plane) that Newark apparently overbooks flights and that was the real reason for the delay. The flight wasn't bad, but did involve a landing delay. Then a train ride and another cab and home sweet home!