Still on break

I lost a couple days of break to a bad cold. (I'm still coughing some). While it kind of stinks to be sick while on vacation, I would find it worse to be sick during the semester and have to try to decide if it's preferable to go to work sick, or go through the paperwork rigamarole involved in cancelling classes (and then second guess myself, "Was I really sick enough to justify that?")

I did knit a fairly complex small toy - a fox that is heavily colorworked - from a freebee book that I got when I bought a copy of "Knit Now." This is a British magazine but the "Books A Million" near me seems to carry it - or at least, carry it sometimes. (This was the first I noticed it, but then the cover caught my attention). It's a very nice magazine - it's more expensive than most American magazines (I think I paid $12.99 minus my small Books A Million member discount) but there were lots of patterns in it, and several of the patterns were quite unusual and interesting - there's a headband done Celtic knot style, by knitting loops of i-cord and looping them together. I want to make that sometime, mainly because it's an interesting technique. (I'm not sure how a headband would look worn with bangs...I have to wear bangs (British: Fringe) because I have a  high forehead and I think I look too much like those dolorous portraits of late-Medieval women if I don't do something to camouflage the high forehead). But maybe it would look OK. There's also a nifty pair of socks in the magazine, and a shawl inspired by the Queen's Diamond Jubilee that I already have set aside some yarn for. (I had some Briggs and Little yarn I bought ages ago for a shawl that I never made. And while it's maybe a little more "rustic" than the yarn originally intended, still, there's something about making a shawl inspired by the British monarch out of a yarn from one of the Commonwealth nations that I find appealing.)

Other than that fox, I've (nearly) finished a pair of simple socks. And I finally started the "Yellow stockings, cross-gartered" that I realized I could make using one of the Cookie A patterns.

I will say it's finally cooler here. And I got to experience the "derecho" that was in the news a couple days ago. Here, it mainly manifested as huge thunderstorms with lots of rain late one night. (And of course, as is typically, the really nice, early-fall-feeling weather is due to come in the day I go back).