grumperina is a genius!

Enough with intensely thinking through decisions I don't have to make for over a year, eh? Thanks for your willingness to engage in a discussion of my potential career paths and professional satisfaction, and so on. It has been very helpful, believe it or not. Here's what I'm going to do: teach the class, see how it goes, meet with some professors, apply for the program in January '09, do some research and writing about what I think might be my dissertation topic, and then, at the very last minute, decide whether to enroll for the fall of '09.

Let's talk about socks instead, shall we?

I just started these:
These are Uptown Boot Socks, by Jennifer Appleby, as found in Favorite Socks, published by Interweave in 2006.

I'm using Opal 6-ply, which is a nice fat yarn, so these are knitting up very fast. I started them just this morning, with lots of time off for changing sheets, vacuuming floors, and a quick trip to Target to buy socks for Little, who does NOT appreciate hand knit socks. This yarn comes in very large (150 gm) skeins, which I found particularly helpful when I was knitting socks for my brother, who has very, very large feet. I forget what size, but he's 6'8", and his feet are proportional to the rest of his body. I used the entire skein on his socks, so I expect I'll have plenty left over when I'm done with these. My feet are big too, but more in the normal camp.

The really amazing thing about the knitting of these socks has been learning a new technique from Grumperina, who explains oh-so-clearly how to knit cables without a cable needle. Her tutorial is here. She has also knit these socks, but she used a particularly stunning yarn. Pictures are here. This, my friends, has completely changed the way I feel about cables. No longer is this an experience to be avoided at all costs, a technique that tenses my shoulders and sets my teeth on edge. I like the look of cables, but I've always looked for patterns that require very little cabling. No more! Bring it on...