Hi All,
I have been slammed here at work; no time to blog. Wah. Sorry about the lack of pictures (Marti), but just think of the workout your imagination is getting :)

I am still drifting between projects. Oh yes, I have made 2 tatted and beaded bracelets since Saturday, and just about finished the fingerless mitts, and progress continues on the blue socks and the peppermint socks, but I have no big project to work on. I suppose I should finish up the grey sweater ("Aud") and get spinning for "Jasmine". There is such a lack of spinning time.

The entrelac on the peppermint socks is a big job, but very fiddly, so I can only work on that for a few minutes at a time.

In my non-knitting life, I am going to yoga, still slogging thru algebra (although I have been ignoring my homework), still petting the pets, and have rekindled my romance with the library. Current reading list "Sibleys Field Guide to Western Birds", "The Worst Hard Time", "Beethoven's Hair", and something I forgot the name of. It covers medical curiosities through history; conjoined twins and such.

Spinning classes start up at Knit N Stitch on Wednesday - I am excited and nervous and unprepared. Situation normal.

The beginning of the endings: I finished the body of the Adamas shawl last night and am going to start the 12 rows of the border tonight after my algebra exam. I think I can also finish the Purple Earth socks tonight. I am just about to the casting-off part. I hope I don't leave myself with no airplane knitting. I suppose I could *gasp* bring a book, as the flight is only an hour.

I did no chores last night, but I did ply the demo yarn off my good spindle and watch "Lost". And today I sucked it up and bought my new textbook. So I am not an entirely hopeless case.

Ahhhh, Wednesday. A new Megatokyo comic (things are heating up for our heroes), an actual lunch HOUR, during which I accomplished some knitting, some good news about staffing here at work (it's a secret), and the undying love of Fishy IV.

I am hopelessly behind in my cleaning schedule before I leave for AZ. I hope the petsitter will still be friends with me. I am committing to cleaning pet cages, sweeping everywhere, and taking out the trash.

Math is nearly done. We had an exam last night (I think I did well), then review tonight, then our Final tomorrow, then a whole weekend off before the Spring term begins again on Tuesday. Whew. I am still unreasonably annoyed by people who did not take any of the prerequisites, who flat out refuse to read the book, who don't ask the teacher questions, and who talk during lecture asking me for help / answers. The meek may inherit the earth, but I will be the one who passes math.

The plying for grandma's mittens is nearly complete. I will finish that tonight as I survey my freshly swept kingdom. It looks like I will be knitting them there, which has the upshot of having grandma right there for a fitting.

Knitting has been slow. I am at the ending point of a bunch of things.

• Adamas Shawl: I have decided NOT to play russian roulette with my yarn, and will go directly to the edging after this last row. I have a half row of purling to go and then I need to find my edging chart.
• Purple Earth Socks: At the ribbing and nearly done. They have been languishing for a week now. I need to find my notes so I can figure out where I am. Time to finishing - maybe 6 hours knitting. Probably less.
• Peppermint Socks: 2 feet and heels are finished and languishing. I keep forgetting to look up a pattern for knitting entrelac in the round. At this rate, it will be next Yule before they are done.
• Aud: This is the grey sweater. It is on my next-to-the-bed bookcase. Guess what? It's languishing. I need to spindle some more yarn. I have front back and 2/3 of both sleeves done. A week's hard knitting, maybe. I am in dread of the sewing up, which is probably why I have not been working on it.
• Sock yarn: this has been sold, sight unseen, and unspun too. I love spinning it, but have been sick and tired this last 2 weeks. It is first on the list of spinning projects when I get back from AZ. It makes good movie spinning.
• Lemonfrost Ingeo: One skein (4oz) done. Need to spin the other 4 oz.

Well, that's enough of UFO identification for now. There are a couple other projects half finished which may get frogged, a couple which might get abandoned, a couple which are plain lost, and who knows what else lies in the bottom of the closet...

I just remembered I was supposed to go buy my textbook at lunch today. Dang me. Tomorrow for sure!

I am joining the St. Brigid poetry day out there in blogland (http://www.creatingtextiles.com/). Here is one of my favorite poems, learnt in high school and, amazingly, still committed to memory (mostly). However, I can never remember where I put my cell phone.

Fire and Ice - Robert Frost
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire,
I find with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

I spoke too soon. My cow-orker's cold from last week made its way over to me and I was felled, I say, felled by it Tuesday and Wednesday. No school, no yoga, no spinning, almost no knitting, could barely watch tv. I did a lot of sleeping and snuffling. And laundry. And pushing the cats off of me while I slept. The dogs were happy to have me home. Back to work today and in desperate need of a nap. And some soup.

I did get a few rows in on the Adamas shawl. I have reached the point of being worried about the amount of yarn remaining. I *think* I can get in one more pattern repeat before beginning the edging. I will put in a lifeline at the end of this repeat in case I have to rip back. I hope not.

I have only the ribbing left on Mandy's socks, and it is going slowly. Man, I hate ribbing. Then I need to look up a way to do entrelac in the round for the peppermint socks, and I will be nigh out of sock yarn. I have one skein in reserve, but am not sure I want socks out of it. It might be a pet skein. I need to get spinning and make my own sock yarn. This is spin from my stash year, after all. I also need to get moving on my grey sweater and the Christmas mittens.

I want desperately to start the wool blanket, but have been too wiped to do my weft calculations and measure my warp, much less warp the loom. Perhaps this weekend. I have been reading my weaving books for motivation and guidance. Now I don't know if I am eager to start or frightened I will "mess it up". I don't want to make swatches forever.

I finished the grey-purple BFL and found I do not have the yardage I need to make the shawl I wanted it for. So I need to find a 500 yd pattern for a circular shawl and then spin 1200 yds for the Rona shawl.

OK, I am just muttering now. Must go snooze in the car.