Four more sleeps!

I realized that this morning - Monday night I will be on the train, going to my parents' house, getting ready to celebrate Christmas.

My exams are all done and graded; I just have to figure up grades for one class, and then I can submit the grades, and then I am done. I have some research I am picking away at, but I've actually got quite a lot done, and if I take it with me over break, I can probably write:

a. an abstract to submit so I can present it somewhere
b. the better part of a paper - certainly the introduction and materials and methods and part of the results and discussion

I started a new project last night. I cast on for another pair of socks. I decided one of the things I had lacked this fall to work on was a nice complex pair of socks, so I started the "child's socks with Miranda pattern" from Nancy Bush's "Vintage Socks" book. (Except they aren't really "child's socks" - the original pattern from Weldon's was, but Bush has sized them up to fit an adult woman). They have a neat little lace pattern - a series of yarn overs and related decreases - forming almost an hourglass shape of eyelets on the sock. I'm using a burgundy colored Sheepjes Invicta yarn. They're 80 stitches on size 0 needles. I'm almost done with the ribbing.

(Invicta has become my new favorite solid-colored yarn. It's inexpensive but is much nicer in quality than either the Elann 4-ply sockyarn or the KnitPicks "Essential" sockyarn, both of which are disappointingly scratchy).

There is a lot of joy I get from starting a new project. Part of it is the excitement of starting something new, and part of it is almost a kind of hope, and part of it is - I can't define the other part of it. But there's a joy in finishing up a couple of projects and then allowing myself to start on something new.

I am planning my break-knitting. I know I'm going to take the new "Miranda" socks (as I have dubbed them), and probably the Little Pink Sock (and knit its mate) even though I'm a bit bored with them right now. And I've got yarn out for a pair of slipped-stitch patterned socks (Lorna's Laces in "Watercolor"). And I pulled out the Regia Nation colors (I bought the one that was red and yellow - I was misremembering, thinking those colors were in the Welsh flag; they are actually not. (They were in the old Soviet flag and also the Chinese flag. Not that I want it to look like my feet support Communism.) But, they are on the Scottish Lion banner- not an official flag but it is sometimes used. And it's quite impressive, with its rampant lion and all. The red and yellow also recall the colors of Gryffindor, especially with the striping, even if they're not the perfect burgundy-and-gold. I'm going to just make simple socks out of these but I think I'm going to use one of the ribbed patterns in the front of Bush's Vintage Socks book, there's a neat one that has what's called a "Welsh heel."

I like the idea of socks that look like they might be manufactured for the use of Hogwarts students having a "Welsh heel."

I'm not sure yet whether I'm taking a larger project. I'd love to take the Central Park Hoodie (which kind of got stalled when I started on Christmas gifts), but I'm not sure if I will have room for the yarn. And I'd like to take Bloom and finish it, which would take up less room, and would finish faster. I will still have to think about that.

I'm also putting aside books I want to take to read. I've been doing pathetically little reading this week - mostly concentrating on finishing "The Tale of Holly How," which is one of those Susan Wittig Albert mysteries featuring Beatrix Potter surrounded by a mostly-fictional cast (including animals. I find some of the animal stuff - especially the whole badger-sett-as-bed-and-breakfast a wee bit too twee, but the story is basically enjoyable). I wouldn't HAVE to finish it right now; I promised my mother I'd loan it to her when I was done.

But anyway. I found my copy of "Mauve" and thought that might make good vacation reading. And I'm determined to finally finish Trollope's "The American Senator." And I think I'm going to take and finish "Founding Brothers" (I am close to done) and then also take what I am almost thinking of as a "companion volume" - "Glory, Passion, and Principle," which is about particular women (like Abagail Adams) who played an important role in the Revolutionary War era. And I need one other novel, not sure what yet. Maybe if I can find a fattish mystery that I won't finish while I'm still on the train...