Some Yarny Goodness and Papery Badness

Actually, the papers are going well so far (knock on wood). The one due Wednesday is in draft form and needs a few small revisions, and the presentation handout (as much work as a research paper, let me tell you!) is finished except for adding a few citations. Now it's on to the long research papers...
But first, Part 1 of the (modest) yarn haul from Mom and Jess's visit:

Lamb's Pride Worsted in a pretty, subtly variegated purple.

And the reading accompaniment project of the moment? Armwarmers!!

Thankful

Happy Belated Turkey Day!

Most especially today I am thankful for the hospitality of my dear friend Jen and her family, who invited me for Thanksgiving at their home in Wisconsin. I had a wonderful time, got some knitting done, and took a break from homework. It was so nice just to get away from campus for a few days, and though I don't feel totally refreshed and rejuvenated and all gung-ho to start working again, I certainly do feel more rested and less stressed than I did on Wednesday. Will the relaxation actually help me buckle down? It seems to be working so far - I've already churned out half a paper this morning and gotten some good research done for my presentation next Friday. Cross your fingers for me...

Let me show you some pictures of knitting, since the only other thing I could show you would be pictures of my books and notes (not quite as exciting, I'm afraid).
Finished Irish Hiking Scarf! It's on the short side, but I still think it looks lovely wrapped around my neck once. Hopefully my sister will love it for Christmas.

Finished hand warmers! I needed to do a practice pair because I plan to make a bunch of these for Christmas presents. They turned out well, so it's full speed ahead (when the papers are finished).

Weekend Antics

I had visitors this weekend! My mom and sister came out here on Thursday night (well, technically it was Friday morning at 2am) and spent the weekend. We got to make a trip dowtown and have a good time wandering around the campus and parts of Hyde Park. Unfortunately, I did no knitting and no homework, but here are some photo highlights:

My sister said her rear end got shocked by my radiator

She makes me laugh

We liked the tree downtown

My mom liked the sludge-filled pond on campus

We even went to a yarn store, but since I need to write some papers before I reward myself with knitting time, I won't even take my new yarn out of the bag to take pictures until later in the week. Hope you all had a great weekend, too!

Knit-Alongs, Quick Update

ETA: I am such a copycat, but once you've checked out how cool this mapping thing is, you'll understand why! If you're reading this, let me know who and where you are - sign up on my map :)

Haven't made any more progress on the Irish Hiking Scarf, but here is a closeup of the cables, because I think they are really pretty (you can also see that I am going to have to block this sucker, for sure).
Also, I did the crochet edging on Mary and Jane

for the
First pair down! The Christmas gifts are slowly getting done...

WIP Report

This weekend was really fun! The weather was gorgeous - really crisp and cold but still somewhat sunny. I took this from my window because I thought the tree looked really neat.

I had a bunch of friends over for a game night and pizza on Saturday, and we had a blast. An added bonus was that I had to really thoroughly clean my apartment... now if only I can keep it clean until Thursday night when my mom and sister come to visit (cross your fingers for me!).
Here is my latest WIP, the Irish Hiking Scarf (free pattern by Adrian at Hello Yarn) and it's glorious cables.

So far I'm through a skein and a half of KnitPicks Merino Style in Cornflower, and it's going really quickly when I get to do a couple repeats on breaks from reading /research.

Gah! School!

The knitting, which has been going SO well recently (so many FOs! I feel incredibly productive), is going to be relegated to a backburner starting... now.
The final paper deadlines, they are approaching at a frighteningly rapid pace. So I'll be knitting, but there may not be finished products any time soon. Except for the Mary Janes. They might be finished by tomorrow.
And because I don't have any pictures to show, I thought I'd share links to some lovely knitters who have been inspiring me recently:

See Eunny Knit - oh my gosh she is such a fast knitter! And check out the Norwegian Stockings - wow.
Fig and Plum - her finished projects (under "projects") turn out so well!
Streets and YOs - she has beautiful pictures and a gorgeous new sweater in the works.
Marnie Talks - ooh she is trying to suck me into the spinning time warp. If I come back from Christmas break with a new hobby, you'll know whose fault it is!

Happy almost-weekend to you all

More Daffodils

I had so much reading homework yesterday and this afternoon that I was stuck in front of my computer for hours. Some of this may have to do with the fact that I didn't want to print out a certain 50 page article because it would have cost me $5.oo and I would rather save my money for something fun.
Like yarn.
Since I wasn't printing that article, it just made sense to stay home rather than going to the library to print the other two. So while I was burning out my eyeballs learning all about religion as a market commodity (because applying economic rational choice theory to the sociology of religion makes for truly fascinating reading, let me assure you), I worked on some rather mindless stockinette in the round. The decreases weren't exactly mindless, but I did those between articles :)

Christmas hat for my sister who likes yellow
Yarn: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes Daffodil (and there are STILL leftovers!)
Needles: Circular US#8 (ooh changing it up)
Started: 11-8
Finished: 11-9

AND! I can hardly contain my excitement - I got my first official grad school paper back today, with a very happy grade! Check it out (yay)

Okay, I'm actually not sure you can read that - it says A/A- woohoo!

Mary

Meet Mary (Jane to follow later this week) -

Yarn: KnitPicks Merino Style, Rhubarb, about a third of a skein
Needles: US 7 dpns
Started: 11-7, pm
Finished: 11-8, am
New Skills: Turkish Cast-On, Kitchener grafting (yeah, you would think I'd know this one by now, but I've never used it right before. Something just clicked this time)


Another overnight knit :) I started this before I went to bed, got sucked in by the fun of the Turkish cast-on (toe up is now seeming even more fun to me), and couldn't wait to finish it up this morning. Here are lots of strangely angled shots. Please excuse the pajama pants, as Tuesdays are my lazy mornings, and ignore any hairy leg you may see, as I've been getting up late and having quick showers.

I'm such a fan of the heel construction - pretty pretty decreases!

I think that Mary here is slightly large on me, but she will be perfect for my bigfoot sister!

There's still lots of time to join the knit-along! These are going to make fantastic Christmas gifts - I'm probably going to make about 2 more pairs, myself :)

I have a target on top of my head

That's all I can think when I'm wearing this hat. :)
It was a super quick knit, specs below.

KnitPicks Wool of the Andes, Daffodil and Coal
way less than 1 skein each (sorry, I'm so bad with exact yardage!)
Like all my hats, very loosely based on the Kitty hat from Stitch 'n Bitch
Circular and DPNs, US #7
Started: Thursday 11-3
Finished: Friday 11-4

Excuse the crochet hook - I had literally just pulled the yarn end through the last few stitches!

Eggplant Love

First of all, let me say that the only time I'd ever eaten eggplant before I came to this school was at my grandma's house, and as much as I love Grandma, she has a tendency to do massive amounts of very bland cooking. You can't blame her; I'm from a huge Polish/Irish Catholic family, and she is the mother of ten, so you know when the kids were growing up it made total sense to make a giant pot of spaghetti or a huge tuna casserole. My dad has horror stories about the cupboard stocked with boxes of evaporated milk and the endless cans of VanDeCamp's Pork'n Beans. So anyway, not to bash on Grandma, but the eggplant - it was disgusting.
Later on I had some eggplant tempura at a Japanese restaurant and it was so much more delicious, but I thought of it as an exception to the rule that eggplant is a soggy, squishy vegetable with way too many picky seeds.

And then, THEN... I came to the U of C, and they invite speakers to the Div. School each Wednesday and serve these phenomenal vegetarian lunches that my friends and I go to together. About 3 weeks ago they had the most delicious soup I've ever tasted. AND IT WAS MADE OUT OF EGGPLANT! So now I think I am in love. Perhaps I am too easily converted, but if a bunch of students, grad students who, like me, are probably used to whipping up a lovely meal of rice-a-roni or mac and cheese or tomato soup from a can*, could make such FANTASTIC soup out of a bulbous purple vegetable, I'm willing to give the eggplant another chance.
Which is perhaps why I picked up the Noro Silk Garden and made an Eggplant Blossom scarf to go with my suspiciously eggplant-colored wool winter coat. This eggplant stuff is a slippery slope. Just note how many times the word "eggplant" has come up in this entry. Anyway, here are the scarf and the specs:
Eggplant Blossom
2 skeins Noro Silk Garden, Color #34
25 sts on size 13 needles, knit in seed stitch
Started 11/1, finished 11/3 while watching ER - there was a cute baby CHIMP on ER!!!! So happy :)

*Please allow me to hold onto the illusion that other people are just as lazy about cooking as I am, because finding out that grad students have enough time to cook gourmet meals in the midst of all the reading and writing would make me feel very guilty (I told you I'm Catholic, right?!). :)
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Ooh and I just joined my second ever Knit-Along (because Socktoberfest was such a great experience!), and I'll be making some very Sweet Mary Janes (picture in sidebar) along with Jennifer of Piddleloop and some other new friends. You should sign up, too!

Mini-post

Hey all,
Just a mini update here - I'm currently working on a scarf in my highly prized Noro Silk Garden (color 34) that I feel like I've been hoarding in the stash forever. As soon as it's finished and I charge the batteries in my camera, I'll show pictures with my new coat.