I'm still tired. I'm hoping it's pollen allergies and adjusting to the warmer more humid weather down here, and not a sign that my house has some kind of funky mold that's poisoning me (it smelled ever so slightly musty when I first got back).

Read four chapters (and summarized two) in the new textbook I've selected for my Ecology class. I'm using Charles Krebs' Ecology textbook - a more recent edition of the same text I had when I took Ecology. (this is the third textbook I've used in as many years - the one that my predecessor used was chock full 'o' errors, and the second one I selected I decided was too simplistic). I like Krebs because he uses a "case study" type of method, where he discusses a well-known ecological study to explain some principle.

I hope people like it. It comes across as more erudite to me than the other texts I've used.

More on the vacation knits:

I knitted the Carnival shawl from Knitnet (link is to the current issue, which is also good; if you want the shawl pattern you'll have to buy one of the back issue CDs but they are worth it, IMHO). I used the five different colors of Mexican Wave as suggested. I didn't fringe it - I don't like fringing and I find that fringed stuff always looks ratty after I've had it in my grubby paws for a couple months.

I do need to block it. Instead of being a triangle, it is a diamond shape right now thanks to the fact that the increases are down the center.

I also did another thing differently: instead of waiting for a color to run out, I stopped about 1/2 to 2/3 into the end of each ball and used the remainder as random "stripes" up in the next color or colors - I felt that blended the yarn better.

The other socks I knit were a pair of simple worsted-weight cabled socks. I used some Big Ben I had in stash (in beautiful autumnal colors; it's truly a shame that most of the Socka yarns are out of production - they were good yarns, good quality, interesting color combinations. But I guess when Schoeller bought out Stahl they decided that Fortissima in sockweight was more important than the whole Socka family. Oh well).

I used a standard top-down sock but added in a 14-st (12-st if you don't count the two purl sts used to set off the cable) braid. This pattern is from the Knitting Stitch Bible, a nice if expensive new book of knitting stitches. (I had checked it out from the library in my parents' hometown, then looked at it at the Barnes and Nobles and decided that it wasn't worth $30 to me to have yet another stitch treasury).

I modified the pattern slightly to make it narrower.
Rows 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 8: p1, k12, p1
Row 3: p1, slip 4 to cable needle and hold in front, k4, k4 from cable needle, k4, p1
Row 7: p1, k4, slip 4 to cable needle and hold in back, k4, k4 from cable needle, p1.

It makes an easily-remembered cable stitch and works up into a nice fat braid. I think I'll use this again,
on solid colored socks, so it'll be easier to see. I have some very old Stahl Hobby ("mit Merino," as it says) that is roughly sportweight that would look nice as a sock with a fat braid down the front.