Knitting Angel

spring shawl

I turned in the penultimate draft of the dissertation yesterday. 270 pages were shoved into a Fed Ex box and sent off.

Granted this is not the final draft (it ain't final until my advisor says its final), but everything beyond this should (hopefully) be smaller revisions. We are shooting for a summer defense if possible (summer defenses are always hard to schedule because the committee members tend to not be around- but we shall see) mainly because the deadline will soon be past for a spring defense. At the worst, it will have to sit all summer, and I will go back in the fall to defend it. But the end is near. I just have to keep crawling towards it. 

In the meantime, I don't have to think about it for at least two weeks or so (the time it will take my advisor to read it) so I have another project to work on for the time being... and I have time for... KNITTING!

So I promised myself that once I finished the diss draft that I could buy some celebratory yarn and start a new project.

So I headed to my LYS and bought 4 balls of Manos silk/wool blend for a Maja shawl (Knitty winter 2008 pattern.) The yarn is soooooo soft and shimmery (my camera does no justice to the colors- they are very spring-like)

The pattern is an easy knit- very easy actually. It is mostly garter stitch with just the crossed-lace rows every eight rows.

(I was trying to stretch it out so you could see the stitch detail with the help of a candle)

This is really easy, but just interesting enough that you don't get too bored with it, and I think will make a lovely shawl.

I am beginning to transition towards lighter yarns in anticipation of my move to Texas, so I think a lot of my work with wool will be in the form of shawls and lace. 

I also got the latest Interweave Knits. I think it is interesting how so many people are panning it on Ravelry, when I really like a lot of the patterns. I am thinking of knitting about  4 things from this issue, but at the moment, I don't have the right yarns to do it, so I am holding off. (The Webs sale in April often brings good deals on lots of yarns so I am waiting on  that to see if I can get some recession-friendly yarn prices for cotton and cotton blend yarns.)

So at the moment I am feeling a bit weird with nothing to do, but knit and teach my class (which is a lot of work in and of itself, but I have been so focused on the writing. Gosh- it feels weird to not be doing it.)

Knit on!

The dissertation cave

Almost there folks, almost there.....

I have four of the five chapters in- I just have to edit one more chapter and the intro and conclusion. Then I wait and see if it is good enough or if it will need significant revisions.  I have been hard at work in my "dissertation cave" (aka my office) and I am exhausted-- every evening I come home home and stare at the TV and maybe knit a little bit...

On the knitting....

I can only handle the simplest knitting at the moment and for some reason, socks were not cutting it, so I picked up my Wollmeise Clapotis that I started this past fall.

So every evening I knit on it.

I got a huge mess of it done this weekend while watching the Oscars, and then to my horror realized that I might not make it.

I only have one skein of the stuff and trying to get another would be impossible.

So today I came home and knit frantically. I needed to know. I had to know. Would I make it? Or, would I run out of yarn?

I finished today--with this much left.

That, my friends is a very small, small, small, bit of Wollmeise left.

Here is the Clapotis:

Knit in Wollmeise Sockewolle, 1 skein (almost ran out) did 6 increase repeats- 14 middle repeats, on size 4 needle. The color is Wilder Mohn. It is a gorgeous varigated red (the camera does not do justice to it) It is a bit shorter than I would like, but I still have to give it a stiff blocking at some point- and hopefully that will help. 

I am hoping to get the introduction in tomorrow and the last chapter and the conclusion on Wednesday. Then I am hitting the LYS where I have some yarn waiting for me, a splurge-- (Manos wool/silk blend for a shawl) a nice gift to myself for having gotten so much done in such a short period of time.

I can only hope it is good enough. Time will tell. I'm hoping that I will start knitting more and have more frequent updates once this is all done. Goodness knows, I need a vacation from the books and computer.

Not much

Every morning I get up early, head to my office, work on my dissertation all day (pausing to teach class) and come home and stare at the TV or talk on the phone.

Rinse, repeat.

I am churning out a final draft of the diss. I have three chapters done, working on four. Hoping to finish all the chapters by Saturday night (there are five). Next week I write the intro and conclusion. I am shooting to have a complete, final draft in the mail to my advisor by the Monday of the last week of the month (I forget what day that is.)

We shall see if it happens. So far, I have been on a roll.

Knitting- what knitting? Not so much on the knitting. Too tired to knit, and frankly almost too stressed in a way. I have worked a bit on my Clapotis (knit in Wollmeise yarn), mainly because it is just mindless enough and you get to look forward to all those dropped stitches. 

Meanwhile I blocked my foliage shawl. Here is a picture of it blocking. I am gonna try to get some ladies at the yarn shop to shoot photos of me in it but this is how it looks.

It is huge and warm and I love it.

Send dissertation-completing vibes my way please. I want this thing done. Now. Will finish. Will graduate. (I'm trying to will myself to survive this.)