This is the Paddington Neck Warmer, which is a free pattern from Ravelry. It's for a bulky weight yarn; I bought a Universal Yarns bulky-weight from A Balanced Skein (my first purchase from them but it won't be my last).
I went with fancy buttons, because I can - they're not much more expensive than plain ones, and if you spent the time knitting the thing, why not finish it in a way that delights you?
I finished this (the knitting) while visiting Laura, so the memory of that makes me happy, too. I often remember where I was or what I was experiencing when I worked on a particular piece.
and here it is on:
Weekend plans are going to be simple. I'm not going in tomorrow but I think what I might do is spend a little time doing some reading for teaching - I finished "This Green and Growing Land" today (and I recommend it if you're interested in the history of the environmental movement in the US: for one thing, it's very accessibly written, which makes it interesting. And the author does a good job (I think) of tying things together - in the last couple chapters he notes the tie-ins with the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, and some of the shocking things (like how a serious of internal documents said that siting waste incinerators - which generated smoke, pollution, and toxic chemicals - was better done in small towns that had mostly elderly, minority, "or Catholic" (!) residents. I think I need to emphasize the idea of what is sometimes called "environmental justice" more - the idea that in the past, more-polluting industries tended to be located in lower SES areas (or, the flip side: the only places with affordable housing were areas already polluted in some way) and that that is not right. The students were kind of blank on "environmental justice" on the exams - and given that some of them come from communities that had to deal with that kind of treatment, I think they should know)
Anyway. I found a bunch of articles on the history of the environmental movement and some more detail about things like NEPA, and I want to read them. I think I can do these using Pomodoros and I want to space it out with doing some sewing (now that it's cooled down a bit I think my sewing room will be comfortable again, and I have a quilt top ready to stitch together, and a new one I want to start.
And while I read - well, I might take tomorrow morning and clean (again, sigh, the stacks of books have ways of falling over, and I need more bookcases or to get rid of some of the books I have) my bedroom again, maybe change the sheets, and then sit on my bed and read and knit - either I work on the multidirectional scarf, or maybe I start a new pair of "simple socks" using the funky hot pink and mustard-colored sockyarn I bought on my trip last week. (Sadly, I don't think Flax will lend itself so well to reading-and-knitting; it takes a bit more looking at. It might be my fall invigilating project though).
I still feel a lot happier. I think getting out for a trip last week did a huge amount towards helping - now I feel like I had fun this summer. And it being cooler helps. And being done with the usual round of doctor things (I do need to make an eye checkup some time though). And getting out yesterday, doing some back-to-school shopping, getting to yet another "real" yarn shop (and oh how I hope A Balanced Skein prospers and has enough of a customer base, it's so nice to have something like that comparatively close.)
(I do still have, what, a week and a half before I have to be somewhere at a set time - so I do think I'll maybe do one Whitesboro trip during that time.)
And maybe also, the fact that the start of school is coming? That I feel like I will once again be "useful"? I mean, it's terrible to tie your self worth to how "useful" you are - but I like being busy, I like having a schedule to my day. And I like being able to interact with people - I'll have my research student, too, this fall, and that will be good.
And I am looking forward to it being cooler. I am looking forward to wearing different clothes, and I am looking forward to blankets on the bed. And I am looking forward to fall foods - I have already planned that the first cool Saturday we get, I am making baked beans (from scratch, using dry beans). I miss that kind of thing being appealing to eat - but when it's so hot, it really isn't.
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