This and that

I had forgotten how fast worsted-weight, all-stockinette (or nearly all stockinette; there's some shaping but it's minimal) sweaters grew. It's gratifying to see the back of Potter taking shape.

I don't know how much I will get knit on it this coming week; this is going to be a brutal week. Monday I give an exam (which I will also need to find time to grade). I have evening meetings Monday and Wednesday, and Tuesday I have my usual 12-hour on-campus stint, this time not even broken by going home for lunch, as there's a 12:15 meeting (which I fear will be a bit rancorous; there's One Person who is having problems with Another Person (I am neither of the Persons in question, FWIW) and we may have to try to work out some compromises.) And I have a biostats exam to write. And I have all 20 of my soil samples to start sorting.

I'm going to be tired by Thursday (the first afternoon this week I'm done before - well, before 7 pm) And I have to find time to get the car in for an oil change, which will probably be Thursday (How I wish they did the drop-off and loaner thing at the place I take my car. But they don't; no one in this town does. So I guess I'll bring my knitting (I won't have any grading at that point, and I can't exactly drag my soil and microscope and forceps and everything along, and set up in the waiting room).

***

I came home from church today and had a moment of fear. I walked into the room where my phone is and saw the message light blinking. Now, everyone in my family and everyone who knows me well knows that I am a church on Sunday mornings - so there is no point in calling me, unless it's an emergency. (Or a wrong number). Fearfully I called in to my voice-mail box - in fact, I think the last Sunday-morning call I got was to tell of the death of a relative. So I was hoping it was just a wrong number.

Well, it wasn't, but it wasn't an emergency call. My other colleague who is preparing a packet for promotion was calling to get some pointers on what stuff to buy to make the packet. So I called him back and told him. And had to laugh, after I hung up - partly because I think I told the other person doing this that this fellow hadn't started yet and that I wouldn't be at all suprised if he called or e-mailed me with a question about it. But mainly, I laughed out of relief. (I so seldom get phone messages that are just ordinary everyday messages...)

***

I've got yarn set aside for all the fingerless mitt gifts I want to make. I have patterns mentally chosen for three of them, and I'm still thinking about the fourth. I plan on starting these soon, but I want to get a bit farther/finish some of the "simple socks" I'm knitting on. Right now I'm working on the Opal Antonia socks; the first sock is finished and the second one's now at the point where I can knit and read - so I pulled out Pielou's "After the Ice Age" and started reading it again. (I never finished it the first time; I got busy with something, put it aside, and lost the thread of the narrative. That happens a lot with books for me; I'm always restarting or going back a chapter or two to remind myself of where I was.)

You know, I'll be glad when this semester is over. It seems like knitting and reading are things I've not had as much time to do lately, and I'm sure the extra hours of teaching are part of that. (Next semester, I think I go back to teaching 12 contact hours, which is what we're "supposed" to have. In truth, the 12 "contact" hours is actually 14 contact hours, because you only get half-time for lab, but right now I'm teaching 15 "contact" hours which works out to an actuality of 17.)