Sweater love:



The first few inches of the back of the Greek Pullover. (I've just started the part where you increase.) I've been working on this off and on since the weekend.

And last night, I wound off a couple of the skeins, swatched (successfully), and got this far on the back of Kenobi:



You knit it with worsted weight yarn doubled, so it's going to be a fairly fast knit. And it's a nice balance of thought-requiring and "mindless" - there's no shaping for the first 19 inches, but you do change stitch patterns as you go across the row. (You can see the stitch markers I've put in there to remind me, and you also might be able to see that there are panels of moss st, reverse stockinette, and a couple kinds of rib).

Two things the pattern does not mention but that are helpful: first, using stitch markers to denote the different panels of pattern. Second, it's helpful to write out a "crib sheet" for both right and wrong side rows of what pattern goes where. (Eg: "right side: MS - RS - 1 x1 rib...."). Although as you get later into the knitting it becomes clearer what each pattern is.

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A couple of comment roundups:

Lydia, thanks for the references. I'm going to look those up. As there aren't normally German classes taught on campus I'm not sure the campus library would have them, but I've had pretty good used-book-finding-fu through Powell's and other places, so I may see if I can get my own personal used copies.

And actually, I like the idea of learning it primarily for reading (the old graduate school model - my parents both learned French and German as reading-courses; in their day, it was required for Ph.D. students to take two languages, at least up to some minimal level of reading proficiency. That requirement has since been dropped, at least in the sciences.)

We don't have a German program here (We have French, Spanish, Choctaw, and sometimes Italian for the people in music), which is why I think the class I'm in (as a continuing-ed class) is pretty full.

Grace: I use a cross-country ski simulator. I've tried propping a book on it and reading, but either the book falls off, or I get a little seasick because the book moves with the exerciser. I suppose I could get an old music stand and set it up next to the exerciser but I'm concerned about having my neck out of alignment...I'm prone to neck problems. Also, as I'm exercising at 5 am (usually right after getting up), I kind of prefer having the overhead lights off, less of a shock to the system. I suppose I could look into books-on-tape, see if my university library has any they check out.

K., I've seen SO MANY studies supporting that. Learning and keeping the mind active are apparently key to not "checking out" before it's check-out time, so to speak. It kind of makes me wonder about the push, at least in some areas of society, to be passive consumers who don't really DO anything other than consume. And it makes me wonder a little bit about the people who are so fast to zone out with their iPods and such. Don't get me wrong - listening to music can be very active and thoughtful - but I've seen enough glazed faces, enough people who look like they've "checked out," to make me wonder if electronic amusement always has a salutary effect.