Man, today was long.

we had a graduate of our program come in and talk to the evening class - his area of work is the topic of the class. Then we took him out to dinner. (And my colleague paid for me too, which was nice). But it still made for a long day.

But now I'm home, thinking about knitting. Try to finish Hourglass? Cast on for the Central Park Hoodie? Work a few rows on the band of Samus? Or cast on something totally new? (I'm feeling startitis again. Maybe a scarf for Dulaan? Maybe a scarf for Red Scarf project? Maybe socks for me?)

I worked on the Dulaan socks in my office this afternoon, while reading journal articles. It feels just rebellious enough that it's fun, but not so rebellious that I'm uncomfortable doing it. (Officially, I'm "off the clock" - I'm neither in class nor in office hours and I could even technically be gone during that time. But one way that I have changed over the past few years is that I feel like I need to put in more or less a full day's work - whether it's teaching, prep, grading, research, or just research-reading - even when I'm not involved for the full day. Which I suppose is a good thing.I work harder and longer hours now than before tenure.)

The socks are pretty wicked ugly to my eyes but maybe in a different culture they'd be attractive, or to a different person they would. (I vaguely remember a line from a Judy Blume book - it might have been "Blubber" - where the heroine, feeling unattractive, talks about going to another country where "they wear tin bras or something."). And after seeing the pictures and comments Ryan made on her blog about it, I don't feel so bad that they're not megathick boot socks (but I may make some of those too). If nothing else, the person who receives them can wear them to bed - or under other socks. Or in shoes. They'll be thin enough to wear with shoes. (I'm very conscious of not giving "useless" things - not only in the cost to get them to the place, but also in the disappointment of the recipient).

It sounds like they really want/need the fleece blankets, but right now I'm kind of "meh" about working with fleece. I made fleece blankets for gifts in the past (and a Spongebob one for myself - yes, fleece material with Spongebob on it. Spongebob from the "Ripped Pants" episode. The blanket even has the phrase, "Oops! I ripped my pants!" on it. Yes, I am 37, why do you ask?) and I kind of burned myself out on fleece. Not my favorite material to work with.