Here are the Kureopatora armwarmers:



It's hard to photograph your own arms.

Started something new last night - decided I wanted to try out the "Sock Garden" yarn I had ordered from KnitPicks. I cast on 76 sts on a set of size 1 needles (normally I prefer 2's, but this is a softly spun yarn and it's all wool, so I figured the tighter the gauge, the better). I'm going to do a 2x2 rib and then pop in what Barbara Walker calls an "eccentric cable" (from her Book #1) right down the front. I sat down and planned out where the rib falls so that the 2 purl sts on either side of the cable fit in with the rib. (I think I'm going to continue the rib on the non-cable part of the sock, for a snugger fit). The color I'm using is called "Stargazer Lily," a pink with yellow combination. (I like pink and yellow together; I know some people think that's an odd combination).

So we'll see. I'll post more details and maybe a fairly complete pattern once I've finished one. I don't know how the cable will look on the variegated yarn - already it's sort of doing a spiral-stripe effect, just in the 2x2 rib.

In other news, I began reading Richard Preston's "The Hot Zone" last night. I would not otherwise have chosen this book to read, but one of my Directed Reading students wanted to read and analyze it. (I read his latest, "Demon in the Freezer," over break because another directed reading student is doing that one.). I have to say, of all the things I fear in life, Ebola (and Marburg) and those other scary scary diseases are probably the worst. Most of my other fears I can write off as irrational or fears I can do something about:

Fear of hypodermics - yet I can "gut up" enough to go in and get the necessary vaccinations.

Claustrophobia - I recognize this one is largely irrational

Flying - ditto; plus I tend to take the train when I travel

Being left all alone in life - well, I can keep trying to make new friends.

But diseases - well, there's not a whole lot you can do. They're creepy and horrible - there's something eerie about these emerging diseases. And Preston is way too good at describing the results and symptoms graphically. (I had to skim a lot of the part about what happened to Charles Monet, the Marburg patient zero). I do have one gripe about the book, though - I don't like how Preston telegraphs "Something bad is going to happen to this person." It feels like you're being manipulated. The whole deal with Nancy Jaax and how she "never expected the day to be eventful" and how she "didn't check the suit properly" and then the hole in her glove...and then nothing bad came of it. I don't like being jerked around by writers.

I guess I'm glad I became an ecologist. For us, bacteria are generally interesting things that live in the soil and help out with nutrient cycling, and viruses are barely on our radar screens unless we're concerned about Oak Wilt or something like that. I'd never survive as an infectious disease researcher - I'd go all Adrian Monk and only drink bottled water and require that my silverware be autoclaved before each meal and never go out in public if I could avoid it...