good grief.

Hey, how’s it going?  So, yeah, you might have noticed that I just up and disappeared again after telling you about all kinds of fun Nashville adventures, with very little knitting content.

Sorry.  mea culpa.  Or, rather, I blame the semester.  There have been conferences (yes, plural), prospective students, classes to teach, classes to attend, meeting upon meeting upon meeting, a trip to Vancouver (awesome) for a conference presentation of my own (phew.), work to grade, grants to apply for, a mindfulness-based stress reduction class (oh, the irony) … did I mention that I’m also supposed to be writing my first chapter right about now?  It’s been hectic and harried in that way all semesters become hectic and harried.  I’m not complaining — there has been some really great stuff going on, like meeting with an academic press about my project (!?!), winning an essay prize for a paper on embroidery (!) * — but I am worn out.

Anyhoo, the last couple of evenings — despite all the nagging little things to be done — I’ve come home and knit.  Some friends just had their second baby, and since the first received a few woolly knits, I thought: what better excuse?  That baby needs a sweater.  Despite the fact that it’s summer in the south.

Considering the likelihood that spring is pretty much over, I started with some Lion Brand cotton.  Unfortunately, that version was pretty darn unattractive.  And who needs an ugly baby sweater?  So I moved onto some Plymouth Boku from the stash in lovely, bright rainbow colors.

Maybe there will be a few cool evenings?  Maybe this will still fit in the fall (I really have no idea about relative baby sizes …)?

I also whipped up one, lonely baby sock (in Koigu) …

In other news, remember last year when I was complaining about all of that indexing?  Well, here it is!  My copies arrived — and, boy, is that a lot of books (the index is in vol. 6).  My part was very, very small — compared, you know, to the 25 years my advisor spent editing the edition — but it’s still exciting to see the finished project.

Happiness is handknit socks on the feet of very dear friends.  Perfect spring breaks should always be commemorated with wool.

Okay, it’s off to campus for me … but I promise not to stay away so long!  I’ve missed you guys!

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* I don’t mean to toot my own horn (well, only a little), but I’m so excited to finally have figured out what I’m doing with my life …  Mostly, it’s nothing more than an index of perverse perseverance, stubbornness, and the power of friendship to keep one going … it’s weird because people in Nashville really only see that I appear to know what I’m doing, without access to all of the years spent slogging through desperate unhappiness that got me here.  It’s like the hidden iceberg …