stick a fork in it

Well, with the exception of the final exams (which are entirely written and even the machine grading keys made up) and a field trip tomorrow afternoon, I'm done for the summer semester. I think Friday I will take the day mostly off and clean house, and then Saturday and Sunday (after church) come in and pick away a bit more on the tension zone paper.

I'm coming in Sunday because one of my students is taking his final late. Yes, on Sunday. Normally I would never do that but (a) he someone from his flight squadron passed away and he has to go to his funeral - in Washington State - tomorrow and (b) He's a really, really good kid. (standard disclaimer applies: he's younger than I am and a student, hence a "kid"). Originally he was going to take an Incomplete and make up the exam in the fall, but that's sort of a pain, for both him and me. So Sunday it is.

When I told him that his taking the exam on Sunday was okay with me, he shook my hand. Just about crushed my knuckles. Amazing how strong such slender hands can be. I knew he was military; whenever he came to my office to ask me a question he would stand in the door in the "at ease" position. It was actually kind of...touching, I guess is the right word. (My life would be a lot easier were all the students like he*.)

(*I think that's grammatically correct but it doesn't sound "right" to me somehow. "...were all the students like him" sounds better but I don't think that's right...he is the subject of that sentence, no?)

So, I think I'm going to celebrate by going home and casting on something new. Yes, I'm still loving the new Bookworm Vest, but it's going to be my proctoring-knitting tomorrow and I find I do need to limit a bit how long I knit on the cotton/silk blend. The lack of stretchiness makes my hands unhappy. So I'm going to start a sock pattern I've been wanting to do for a while - it's the pattern in The Joy of Knitting - a pretty simple sock but with a little knit/purl detail on the leg (sort of like a "clock" except these are anklet type socks, not long stockings). I know exactly the yarn I want to use, too - some of the bright green Elann four-ply sockyarn I bought a couple months ago when I bought a whole mess of solid colored sockyarn from them (before it all sold out; had I been more acquisitive, I would have bought at least two skeins of every color. I hope they bring it back some time).

Do you ever "see" a pattern in a particular color? For some reason, I'd been "seeing" this sock (even though it's only represented as a line drawing in the book) as green - sort of a bright leaf green. And I have the yarn that fits it.

Sometimes, I even "see" patterns worked up in one color in another - like the Cul-de-Sac vest (which is still unstarted). The pattern was shown in a red, but I "saw" it in an old-gold color - so that's what I bought.

According to Sally Melville, that's supposed to be sort of unusual - being able to envision something in a different color than what it's made up in - but I kind of think lots of knitters do that.

(sorry for the "mixed salad" tone of this post - it's hard to come up with good transitions)