Little sock progress

 Saturday was mostly devoted to what I NEEDED to do (mowing the lawn, running the weed whacker, and then going over to school and working a bit). Sunday I kind of sat around and (I probably should not have) watched some of the news and getting mad at how tawdry and cheap and corrupt and nasty and ugly everything seems to be, and I admit I carried that in to today and didn't get as much done as I might have wanted (BUT: I did get the bones of a research presentation for next month put together, and I got the supplies for a new version of the mark-and-recapture lab I thought of, and I called a well-recommended lawn clearing company to start the process of getting the brush cut and removed. I would do it myself, but it has kind of gotten away from me AND the city will no longer pick it up, you have to either pay ($50 a load) or haul it somewhere yourself and honestly, I have money saved up, so maybe I just hire someone to take care of it, and maybe hire them again in the fall for another cleanup). 

Sunday late afternoon I switched to reruns of "Criminal Minds." I like the puzzle solving aspect and the "work family" aspect, but a lot of the episodes are a little rough for me. And yet, oddly, it seems less horrific than some of what's going on in the real world. So I started work on the socks I had done the ribbing for earlier.

I messed something up in one of the pattern rows, and wound up having to un-knit several rows, which I admit made me rage a little (it was inattention on my part, and I hate having my time wasted). But I fixed the problem and got back to where I had been, and added a little on also this evening:

 It's got "paired" decreases and yarn overs (in the same row) and that makes it "fan" a little bit, and the other pattern row is just purl stitches. It's sort of like the old Feather and Fan that's a very common knitted lace pattern (there are many variants of it, like there are of most "folk" patterns that have been handed around for generations). I like it; it will probably break up any pooling, and when you're counting rows it seems easier to keep going than with just plain socks where it's "knit however many inches" with nothing that changes. Maybe I shift to do more of these types of things...

Here's more of a close up

You can see the garter rib (the raised part, which is made by purl stitches, since this is knit in the round, the "smooth" parts are just regular knitting) and the yarn overs there. 

Tomorrow I need to motivate myself to finish most of the rest of the samples (I think I have seven left but that's too many for one day; I'm noticing I get eyestrain headaches if I do too many) and I could work more on my talk. 

And at some point I have 240 metal washers to spray paint. I might do a few first to make sure it doesn't gunk them up so much that the magnet wand won't get them any more - I have so many I figured I better get one of those big-magnets-on-a-stick like roofers use to pick up nails after doing a job, so I didn't lose many every semester. (The department had supply money leftover, so they bought everything). 

I'd like to figure out a couple "new" labs (or "replacement" labs for concepts I already cover differently) to keep things fresh but I'm not that creative sometimes and I'm a little surprised I thought of this lab. It's probably not ORIGINAL but I've not seen it published elsewhere.

I dunno but maybe my "Weekly trip for enjoyment" this week might either be the Native American Art museum here on campus, or maybe a trip down to do Dino Days again even if it's mostly the same specimens as last year...