Saturday, November 14, 2009

Seriously? Where did *this* week go?

I have got to pull my blogging schedule together! Right now, my work schedule is pretty crazy; once I get to campus, I'm in either meetings or classes all day long. So the one day I work at home is the day that I need to get grading done. And by the end of each day, I'm ready to fall over, and I just don't seem to have any more words left in me. I keep thinking that if I can just get past the next deadline, things will open up a little bit, but something always gets tagged on to the end. At this point in my mental calculations, I figure if I can just make it until mid-February (when the last of my current deadlines will come along), then I can take a little break. (Laugh with me now, people, laugh with me now.)

However, knitting does continue. I finished the first sleeve of Elektra last night and attached it to the back. One more sleeve, and then it's just the two fronts, and if I remember correctly from last time, those go quickly. Still no pictures, but progress is being made. If I can get the second sleeve done before the end of the week, I may take it in to my beloved LYS and ask for some help with the whole mattress stitch thing. I know it's supposed to be easy but honestly, I just can't seem to make mine turn out the way I know it's supposed to. And I think I've decided that it's silly to keep banging my head against that particular wall when I can go and ask for advice from Carol, finisher of garments par excellance (no fears, Carol, I'm just asking for advice; I'll do the actual work myself, I promise!). I only wish I knew as many ways to put a garment together as Carol does (and herein lies the reason why I knit so many shawls, socks, and scarves: no seams!).

I'm also contemplating whether and how much holiday knitting I'm going to do this year. The list keeps getting smaller and smaller. I'm down to between one and three gifts, with a strong leaning towards the "one" side of things. It feels selfish, but given that I'm going to be out of town for the next five weekends, with somewhere close to 2,000 miles of driving and a trip across the country and a conference paper presentation included in all of that, I think I need to make some sanity-preserving decisions here (let's not mention all of the grading that's about to come my way; talk about chickens coming home to roost!)(and who assigned all of these papers, you may ask? I'll never tell). As for the one present I really want to knit, though, I've already bought the yarn.
It's a ball of the tweedy Zauerball (am I spelling that right)? I absolutely adore the colors, and I'll be using this to knit socks for someone else I absolutely adore: my niece. She's the only niece I've got, and it came to my attention that she has no handknit socks (she's not deprived of handknits, mind you; she has a gorgeous poncho that both of my girls developed quite the lustful relationship with while we were in Cincinnati). So it's my hope that I'll get a pair of socks knitted up out of this before the holidays, but if I don't get done in time, that's OK. There's always Martin Luther King Jr Day presents to be distributed in mid-January, right?

All right. That's the quick update. I'm off in twenty minutes to drive to Bakersfield and Tehachapi for work this weekend. I'd better go pack!

15 comments:

Rachel said...

I am with you on the seaming front. My sister got more than one hand knitted sweater in her life as a barter for seaming mine too!

Have a safe trip or should I say trips? :)

Jane said...

I used to give all my knitting to a friend to sew up for me as it was my least favourite part. Have a safe journey

Willow said...

Oh I feel your deadline pain! I do hope you have a little bit of time to breathe deeply and relax before the end of February. I'm hoping I'll make it to Christmas break.

Mary Lou said...

And garter stitch seaming is always a bit trickier to me. Safe travels

twinsetellen said...

Ah, those Zauberballs are so fun. Those socks will fly off the needles.

Best mattress stitch tutorials I've seen - Sally Melville in The Knit Stitch and The Purl Stitch. Dramatically improved my technique.

Safe travels! (and you aren't being selfish, you're being sane.)

Nana Sadie said...

With that schedule? Forget the knits for the holidays - ok, you may do the socks but only b/c sock go everywhere you do.
Take care of yourself.
(((hugs)))

Wanderingcatstudio said...

Can't wait to see those socks knit up... that yarn looks yummy

FUZZARELLY said...

Ditto what KnitNana said - Take care of yourself! To quote Mar, It's a rare and handy thing.

Anonymous said...

Take care, and good luck with the chaos. I'm not travelling, but I did manage to catch whooping cough. Life is made of complications for everyone this year.

Best of luck. I'm off to bed again.
Sarah/Scienceprincess

Alwen said...

Oh, man, look at that! I think that's the exact Zauberball I want!

Bea said...

Wow you are knitting that sweater fast. I love that you are knitting socks for your niece. If that is all you think you can handle with traveling and deadlines, I think that is where you should put your limit.

EGunn said...

I've been wondering the same thing about weeks, and I don't even have a crazy schedule right now!

Definitely sounds like holiday knitting commitments should be kept to a minimum. It's not selfish - it's sane!

Good luck with the mattress stitch...you'll get it in no time once you see it.

Rachael said...

Aren't those such fun balls of color! I have one in a similar colorway to knit up as a xmas gift for a friend. I am woefully behind on the paltry amount of xmas knitting I was going to do.

I totally concur with you on the seaming, it's miserable and for the birds! (I say as I prepare to test knit a fully seamed cardi for anne...)

Gwen said...

Just this morning, I was listing knits in my head. The mittens for the kiddo, for his birthday in not quite 2 weeks. Sure! Cabled mitts for his teacher before winter break. No problem! Very warm mitts for Dad for Christmas. Easy Peasy!

And what have I managed to knit in the last month? Not much, even just counting stitches. Good to have big dreams!

Good travels! Good seams! (lucky niece)

RobinH said...

One thing that always helped me in seaming sweaters is to pin the two ends, then the midpoint, then (for long sweaters) the quarter-mid-point...and so forth, so I'd have some idea if I was putting more tension on one side than the other. (My favorite patterns are ones where I can just line up the pattern to make sure the two sides are coming out even!)

Egad, 2000 miles of driving? Horrors. Especially if you are by yourself! (Most of my -thankfully shorter- upcoming drives will be knitting time for me, as my husband is willing to drive.)