I wound up nursing a headache for most of the day. I think this is because there's a cold front (which is going to become a stationary front and then drag through the other direction) parked just north of me.

And still we got no rain. I gave the garden a good soaking, and I hope we'll get decent rain this week.

I have one tiny watermelon - it's about the size of a "shooter" marble right now, but it already has the characteristic stripes on it - and I'm hoping it will continue to do well and develop. I'll have to find if any of my watering timers are still working and hook one up for when I'm gone.

(Because this time next week, if all goes as it should, I will be ON THE TRAIN going to my parents' for a short visit. I can't quite believe it but boy darn, do I need a break. Summer is always a drain on me, partly because of the heat, and partly because of the sheer pace of the classes. Going twice as fast is not fun, especially if you don't have a Time Turner.)

In the midst of moving the sprinkler about and nursing a headache (and doing piano practice is not fun with a borderline migraine, and I did notice that my dexterity was clearly compromised...just as I go somewhat dyslexic and sometimes even a bit aphasic when I'm in the midst of a migraine), I did work a LOT on the Cobblestone pullover.

I'm within about 4 inches of being finished. I'm working my way up the yoke. I've done two of the five decrease rounds (which are spaced 1" to 2" apart) and about half of the shortrowing needed.

I'm excited to be close to done with this. I definitely want to get this done before my break (and I think I will be able to, seeing as I wrote and typed up my final exams on Saturday, and the big chunk of grading - the research papers - is already done).

I think I've re-found my interest in working on bigger knitting projects, which was temporarily misplaced (I actually think my interest in knitting, period, was misplaced for part of the summer, probably evaporated away in that string of 110* days we had). I think part of it is finishing stuff. When I feel like I'm getting "nothing" done (and that counts at work, too), I feel kind of disinterested and at loose ends and don't want to work on things.

But then, when I feel like I'm accomplishing stuff (and I am, at work, too - I am more than half done with analyzing the soil organisms in the current set of samples and am well on track to being done by my break - another little goal I had), it energizes me and makes me want to work harder on stuff.

So I think it was finishing the Bird's Nest Shawl that did it - that got me energized again (at least for working on knitting). Maybe starting the soil-sample survey also helped, I don't know. (And getting the finals written and the big papers graded helped).

My next "biggish" project is going to be the Honeycomb vest from Knitty (Ummm... Spring 2008?). It will be nice as a travel project in that it is more portable than many sweaters. And hopefully it won't take too long, seeing as there are no sleeves (though there is all that cabling, and no matter what anyone says about it being faster, I am not comfortable cabling without a cable needle, so I persist in using one).

Haven't really decided on a "next shawl" project. I still have the "Providing Angst to the Crowned Heads of Europe..." scarf from TChem's pattern, but that seems like a longer term project for times when I can really concentrate.

I have yarn put aside for "The Spirit of the Southwest" shawl (a shawl with "pictures" made in lace yarn-overs - sunsets and jackrabbits and the like) which I've been wanting to do for years. And I am considering yet-another Clapotis out of some shiny pretty rose-and-green yarn that came cheap from Elann. And also, my attention is drawn by the "Invisibility Cloak" in the Harry Potter Knits book (that last one I was reminded of as ABC Family is doing one of their periodic "Harry Potter Weekends" - showing the first four movies in a long string).

I like the idea of the "invisibility cloak" (though I suppose one could argue that as a 40ish woman, I may already have my own sort of "invisibility cloak"). And I have some lovely cobalt-blue laceweight yarn I could use for it. (but meh, it's the cobweb-type yarn, which I always find harder to work with than the "jumper weight" (like fingering weight) that the Spirit of the Southwest would take. Maybe if I used a bamboo needle instead of metal? Cobweb yarn is extra-slidy and I always worry about dropping off stitches)

One thing I have been picking away at is getting out all the various patterns I've bought as single-sheets, or bought and printed off via the internet, or printed off from free pattern sites, and compiling them and putting each pattern in its own sheet-protector (dang, those things get expensive, though - but if you invested as much as $6 on a pattern, it's probably worth it for it not to get torn or otherwise wrecked) and then I'm going to organize them in binders (I did that once upon a time, but now I need a separate binder for each pattern type, instead of just one for all of them). So I may find a shawl pattern I decide I have to make RIGHT NOW that will displace the other ones I'm contemplating.