WHOA IT'S BACK!

Blogger was gone...inaccessible...since Wednesday afternoon or so. (I think if you commented between then and now, sadly, your comment is lost to the ether. As is, apparently, my post about using a belly-dance exercise show as a way of trying to work through what I think now MUST be bursitis in my hip. Oh well.)

It was weird being unable to blog. I found myself fretting that people might worry about me; I know I occasionally get "are you OK" e-mails or comments when I don't post for more than a day or two.

At any rate...the semester is done, my grades are (almost, pending one last student getting their directed readings paper to me) in. I'm cleaning house today in preparation for leaving on break. (I always like to leave a clean house, for various reasons).

I'm kind of relieved the semester is over. I'm ready for a break, ready to do something different.

Oh, and they managed to at least partially restore my office computer. It was kind of fidgety and crashy yesterday - it shut itself down twice, and then went through a scandisk procedure, and then seemed OK - and Firefox was very crashy and the Flash plugin would not work (No, I did NOT "upgrade" to Firefox 4.0.1. I've heard bad things about it). I'm hoping I'm scheduled for a new computer in the fall, I think it's time for me to get a new one, and they can just migrate all my files and stuff over to it.

So, as I said, today I'm cleaning house and thinking about packing and contemplating winding off yarn for over-the-break projects. I will definitely take the two socks-in-progress with me, and the Marple shawl. And I want to do some amigurumi over break - I have the partly-done Amineko (which I may work on before break, but only up to the point of needing stuffing - it's easier to carry it unstuffed). And I'm taking yarn and patterns for the Tuzki and for another critter that I bought a pattern for - it's a Reneegurumi pattern called "The Big Bad Wolf" (except he is not that big, nor does he look that bad. Even as a child I suspected the Big Bad Wolf got a bad rap in the fairy tales, that he was just a predator trying to make a living in the world...)

I'm also thinking about winding off yarn for two pairs of socks from van der Linden's "Around the World in Knitted Socks" book - I have some Smooshy in a color called "Plum Paisley," which is a deep purple with greenish overtones here and there - I want to use that for the "Scent of Lavender" lace socks in there. And I think my Bugga! in the color Bog Fritillary (which is a lovely light brown - sort of a golden brown) will become the Tea Time socks (which are sort of Aran-patterned.)

Maybe it's funny but I am most interested by the socks representing cultures that ancestors of mine came from - I also like the Alpenglow (German) socks in there. And the Herringbone from Kiel (also German, and it's a colorwork sock - normally I don't like doing colorwork). I also like the Irish socks but I would TOTALLY do them in different colors - these are colorwork socks with a shamrock and diamond design, but they are in kelly green and hot pink which is just overpowering to my eyes. I could see a soft tan and green, or a cream and green. Or even a dark color background with cream for the designs.

I also really like the argyle-style Scots socks, though that's partly (I think) because the colors are nice and crisp - a charcoal for the main part of the sock, with they argyle worked in a bright green with cream accents.

I also like the Brussels Lace socks (apparently I have a tiny bit of Walloon ancestry), but I'd leave off the beads (I do not like knitting with beads) and I'd rewrite the heel to a flapped heel rather than the hourglass heel they do.

It'll be nice to just have some time to work on knitting and relax without thinking about "what do I need to teach tomorrow."