It's almost done

The promotion packet, I mean. What it still lacks are the tabbed dividers (which I am working on this evening; it's one of those Avery product things where you can (allegedly) print labels for the tabs and have it look nice and neat. It's a lot easier to do on an inkjet - or so I've found - than to mess with this stuff in a frickin' laser printer, so I took my tabs home and am trying to psych myself up to find the appropriate "template" and type in all the stuff I need).

The biggest thing that remains - and yes, I am procrastinating on it, thanks for noticing - is compiling all my teaching evaluations and making a selection of comments from students to include. (I am assuming it is SOP to only include the positive and substantive comments.)

And I'm still waiting on the letters of recommendation, but that's a bit out of my control right now. (I did gently e-mail one of the people today to remind them).

And I have my "team." (I'm thinking of them as a "team" rather than a "committee" because that seems friendlier). I asked the last member today and he said he'd be happy to serve.

I don't have my last-year's Faculty Development assessment; it is still over in the dean's office. I may not get it, I don't know. My secretary called the dean's secretary and her response was, "She DOES know that this packet isn't due until the 15th?!?!" But my secretary knows me better than that, that I have a psychological need to have big things done a week in advance (and small things done a couple days in advance) so she said she didn't say anything. (As I said to my secretary: "Of course I have to have it done early. What happens if I get that respiratory crud that's going around? I won't get an extension on this thing if I get sick, isn't like a class...")

It should be as done as it can be (by my hands at least) by tomorrow afternoon. I will be glad to be done with it; it has kind of eaten my life these past couple of weeks.

I will say I feel more hopeful about my chances after reading over my letter-of-application. I've done quite a bit these past few years, and I think I've probably gone beyond what some people do in some departments.

***

I did start on Potter last night. Swatched, my gauge mojo is back, I got spot-on gauge with the first needle I tried (a US size 7, as recommended in the pattern). I'm working on the ribbing for the back hem right now.

It's really nice to have a new project.

And yes - I will knit no yarn before its time. I do tend to buy things and let them hang out in my stash for a while before starting. But starting a new project from stash-yarn always makes me feel hopeful, that some of the stuff I have hanging out there will eventually get turned into what I bought it for (or something even better).

I do have a wee dilemma: while looking in my stash for something else, I found four skeins of Silk Garden sockyarn. It's about 1200 yards. I KNOW I didn't buy it for socks (1200 yards would probably make a pair of tights for me. No, I will never knit myself a pair of tights.) I think I bought it for a shawl but for the life of me I cannot remember what pattern. Was there a shawl pattern lots of people were making of Silk Garden a year or so ago? (I think that's when I bought it). If I can't figure it out, I'll just have to look at my patterns and decide on one. (I think it would work best, because of the striping tendencies, in a rectangular shawl rather than a triangular one).

The "something else" I was looking for was sock yarn I could repurpose into arm-warmers. I've decided this Christmas will be the Year of Fingerless Mitt Gifts. I have several female relatives, a couple friends, and one "blind" giveaway (the AAUW Christmas party) to provide gifts for, and there are so many neat and fun armwarmer patterns out there. And armwarmers are fast to make; I find they are even faster than socks.

I already found a color I want to use for a pair for my mom (It's ok: she doesn't read this, so I can say it). And I'm going to use the second ball (two balls, originally bought for socks) with a different pattern for the AAUW gift. And I think I'm going to use one of my balls of Sockotta for my sister-in-law who's not that fond of wool. And maybe the blue, worsted-weight super-soft Auraucania yarn I bought last year for myself and never used for a pair for a friend who loves the color blue.

I might even do a masculine looking pair for my dad; he gets cold sitting around at home sometimes.

(For my brother - I have two balls of the "time traveler" colorway of yarn - inspired by the striped scarf that Thom Baker wore as The Doctor - and I think I'm going to do a watchcap).

As busy as I am, it may be madness to plan so many handknit gifts, but then again, they're all small. And they will all be different patterns, so I won't get bored with the same thing over and over again. (And armwarmers are fun to knit.)