Knitting desire returned

Bur first, my awesome near-typo of the day: when answering a student's e-mail question about how I wanted them to structure a paper, I first typed "Literature Cuted" instead of "Literature Cited."

I did catch it before sending the e-mail, though.

My desire to knit has returned. I don't know if I burned it out over Christmas break with the near-constant knitting, or if being sick and stressed (I was probably sick with the stomach bug longer than I realized, based on how much better I feel right now compared to how I've felt the past 2 weeks) sapped my desire to work, but I've been picking stalled projects back up and wanting to work on them again.

The biggest one is a pair of basketweave knit socks out of a part-bison yarn that I bought at BPAFF this fall. Basketweave takes a really long time to knit because there's a lot of purling, but I think these socks will be worth it when they're done - they look really good so far. I'm a few rows short of starting the heel flap on the first sock.

I also realized I have Starbuck going and want to get back to work on that. I find when I stow a project in a bag (instead of leaving it out on the sofa or a coffee table), I forget about it and don't work on it.

I also started a new project (yes, another): I am participating in the ITFF swap that is going to happen this month, and I realized that one of the gifts I am giving my swapner would fit very nicely (and go well in) a small knit bag. So I found a free "dice bag" pattern on Ravelry (like the bags that role-playing gamers use to carry their multisided dice) and started it the other night. I'm almost done already - nice fast small project, and I might make more in the future as "gift wrapping" for other small gifts (I think what I am planning to give my mom for Mother's Day would fit in one). They can be made out of leftover sock yarn, which is even better.

Also, I may have found something I want to watch online while I knit at some point. One of those "you might learn something" things - I ran across a series of videos by Dr. John Burland, who is (Was? I guess he's emeritus now) engineering professor at Imperial College, London:



That's just one of them, there's apparently a whole series of videos on soil engineering and on soil strength/stress properties. And this is the subfield of soils I know the LEAST about, but conversely, is what Other Major That Takes My Class is most interested in. So this might be a simple way for me to bone up a little. (And the sand castle demonstration is kind of fun)