School started last Monday. Teaching 3 classes is certainly a new experience for me. Oh, and I have to find some time to start up a research program (I just got a student volunteer to work with me, so hopefully that will kick my butt in gear on the research stuff). And oh yeah, there's only 6ish more weeks until the wedding and about a million more things to be done.

I've got a done of pictures, but not much knitting progress, although it will seem like a lot because you haven't seen anything in a while! I'll post soon!

I finished the socks with "toe vents."



If you'll recall, these were started looooooooooong ago when I did the sock kit swap. I lost the pattern and hated the needles I was knitting them on. I changed needles, and then separated them so I wasn't doing 2 at a time and they zoomed along. The yarn is Koigu (as best as I can recollect). At the top, I just did a simple little roll.



Actually when they reached a height that I liked, I started knitting inside out and changed direction (so that I didn't have to purl the rounds) and got the edge to roll in two directions for the cute little double roll.


And I finished them just in time to start on the new Rockin' Sock Club kit.



The yarn is beautiful. Again, not something that I'd necessarily pick up myself, but I do really love it. And they even sent little fake tatoos because the theme is Flower Power and the 60s. Of course, the pattern is the WORST of the club...



The pattern isn't even challenging in any way. I haven't been particularly fond of any of the patterns, but I've at least given them a go with a few mods here and there, but this. There's nothing to even redeem it because it is a simplistic stockinette stitch sock with a little ugly lacy cuff. Bleh!



Here's what I'm making instead. It is the Snicket Socks from Magknits. Of course, I'm not making them as written and starting from the toe up because I don't know how far the yarn will go. I'm really loving them so far and am actually a bit farther along than in the picture.


That's about all I have energy for right now.

**Where did 5 days since the last post go?!**

Friendly is probably the best descriptor word for my new job. Everyone is almost beyond friendly. In grad school, if you made eye-contact you'd say hi to someone, but there was a lot of rushing around with head down so as to avoid interactions. Here, everyone says good morning even if you don't know who they are. The other members of the psych department stop by constantly to say hi and check in with me and the other new girl. Other faculty from other departments (it is a tiny school, so everyone knows who the new people are, even if I don't know them back) stop by to introduce themselves and offer help and advice. I think there is only one grumpy person that I've run into so far. Teaching is falling into a rhythm, research is starting to bubble (not started, but percolating), and I even have my first college "service" in a few weeks. I still have a hard to wrapping my head around the fact that I'm actually employed at a real job. It sometimes still feels like playing professor instead of being professor. But my early morning students are interested and talkative. And my afternoon seniors actually laugh at my dumb jokes. I just need to find some way to wake up my slightly less early morning class. Overall, job things are good.




Knitting has been slow recently. I screwed up the alligator scarf (just like half a row) and have been too lazy to fix it and continue knitting. The first Snicket sock is beyond the heel, but you can only knit so long on tiny needles at one sitting. I'm still waiting for a new rechargeable battery for my camera, so hopefully I'll have pictures soon.

The Flower Power Snicket sock continues to grow. It would be moving faster but all that twisting of stitches is making my fingers sore so I can only do 4 or 6 rows at a time. The remaining ball of yarn seems to be getting tiny fast so this one should hopefully be finished up soon.



Our hammy has recently taken to sleeping in his wheel. Just like humans end up using their exercise equipment for other purposes (like a place to hang clothes), hamsters end up using their exercise equipment for sleeping.

In the midst of a relaxing weekend (i.e. laying around in PJs as much as possible and napping a lot), I took a moment to get myself off the couch and peek at the hammy. Now both Kevin and I had peeked at the hammy several times throughout the day, but neither of us noticed until that point that there was a big gapping hole in the lid of hammy's cage!!





Here it is "fixed," because you know that duct tape will keep the hammy inside his cage. He was being really cute recently building up a mountain of bedding and then sleeping underneath it. We thought that he wanted to be buried and snuggly. No! He was plotting an actual escape. His bedding has been reduced, and he has since dug himself a cave.


In knitterly news, I finished the first Snicket sock.





Damn cabling!


It does (eventually) fit.





It is actually pretty comfortable once it gets on the foot. But the tightness is making me slow on starting the second sock. Especially since the gator scarf may be finished veerrrrrry soon!

After finishing my gator scarf, I need something new to work on (because I still haven't cast on the second Snicket sock), so I went to the stash and remembered this fabulous Manos Cotton Stria in the color of sunshine that I purchased with a wonderful gift card from a wonderful friend.



Ain't she purdy?! I'm just doing a simple garter stitch rib. One skein got me 19 inches, so I figure 3 skeins will make a nice sized scarf, with one skein left over for a matching hat! The yarn is yummy soft.


Here is Mr. Croc-a-gator.









My only complaint with this project is that my gator is no where near the approximately 56" in length. My st gauge was dead on, but no row gauge was given. I guess I could have added more bumpies to make him longer. He does look kind of silly without any legs. I was thinking that I should make him some gator feet since I have quite a bit of yarn leftover. But right now there's too much pressure in my sinuses and grossness emanating from my nose to think too hard about making gator feet. All of my students have been snuffly this week, and it seems that I was not immune. Fortunately I don't have to teach today, so I can work from home next to a big box of tissues.

I decided to take a break from scarfing with the sunshine yarn and use the fourth skein for a Foliage hat from the latest Knitty.





I started at 10am and was finished by 4pm. I took a break for lunch, breaks to read blogs and email, and lots of breaks to blow my nose. So total knitting time was under six hours. And get this... I even used DPNs for the crown!! I know, I am the queen of DPN hatred. It was a little fiddly at first, but once I got into the groove it wasn't too bad, although I was glad when I got to transfer the stitches to the singular circular needle. Since the yarn is cotton and not as stretcy, I used size 5 and 6 needles so the hat wouldn't be too big. I eliminated the ribbed brim since I was nearly out of yarn and the hat is a good length. There is one leaf on the hat that got completely f'd up, but I wasn't about to rip it out.

My knitting mojo seems to have gone to the same place as the Mets ability to win a game. They've slipped and slipped and are tied with the Phillies for the playoffs. And my knitting is just slowly chugging on the sunshine scarf, but no motivation to start anything else.

You may have noticed the background of the blog changing every couple of days. I've been playing around with different styles and themes. Does anyone know how to design a new style for movable type or apply a css that you found elsewhere?

Week 5 of school is finished and this afternoon I participated in one of my first "service" activities. It was great because it involved free pizza and the person I was with did most of the question answering. What continues to amaze me about myself though is my ability to somehow pull an answer off the top of my head that sounds intelligible and plausible and is supported by research evidence that was stored at some point in a neuron. When I first started grad school, it always amazed me how people could give presentations and then deal so effortlessly (or seemingly effortlessly) with the questions afterwards. Or even talking with my advisor or other professors, they could come up with answers to questions even if it wasn't necessarily related to their expertise. I guess part of being an academic is the ability to generate answers and thoughtful discussion. I was terrified during my Masters defense and did terribly answering questions. I was nervous during my dissertation defense about answering questions (likewise at job interviews answering questions, especially about research). But at least as I'm told from the people who were there, I did great and it had the seemingly effortless appearance to it. At the discussion session I attended today, I was very worried because the topic was faaaaaaaarrrr from my field (don't even get me into how I got roped into it) and I was afraid I would either have nothing to say or say something stupid. And while my partner (who was a little less far from his field) addressed most of the questions, when I did talk and add information it seemed to received well, and my partner (again, who has been in academics for a loooooong time) seemed impressed with my insights and phrasing. I guess it was one of those moments (like when my first student called me Dr.) that I really felt as though I am an academic.