season of fruitfulness

I know, I know. Wrong season. But I've had such a productive week I'm a bit overjoyed. Monday I received word I'm a finalist for a rather competitive fellowship, and that kicked me into gear on the remaining fellowship applications I've had on my to do list. So I spent the rest of the week working on those, tracking down my professors for recommendations, and generally spending a lot of time on the computer. I even got to chat with a few of my friends whom I haven't talked to in way too long. It was really good to reconnect. I also found an Austen group on Ravelry and joined in on the Northanger Abbey discussions. I also posted a few more discussion posts to the Austen RAL I'm leading which started getting a few responses again. If you can't tell, I'm feeling re-energized and ready to pick up the dissertation work again come next week.

Knitting wise, I've got the Eris yoke increases almost done--now I just have to figure out why my stitch math is off. I've got 297 stitches right now and after the last bit of increases I should have 399. Except that my math tells me I'll be 22 stitches short. So, I'm going to have to recheck my math (again) and figure out where to drop in those extra stitches. What do you want? I'm an English major. :p

The other projects haven't seen any action since I've been working on Eris, but I did get a square for the remembrance blanket done last night at my cousin's baseball game. I'm looking forward to choosing some more of my stash yarn for the remaining squares. I tell ya, it's a very rewarding way to help bust the stash.

crawling out from behind the books

OMG I cannot let the knitting blog languish like this. I've been deep in the mires of the dissertation and haven't been online much other than for email and library use. I have made progress on my various WIPs though!

As predicted last time, The Black Sheep has long outstripped me on Eris. I'm here:



now with yoke stitches finally picked up (thanks to my longer cables arriving today!). And she's way over here:



(as seen on her blog). CORRECTION!! She just told me she finished it! *falls over*

LOL! Ah well. I thought the Knitting Gods had taken their vengeance when they killed her cables (I put her replacements in the mail Thursday). Meanwhile, I forgot my cousin's birthday was coming up so had to stop to knit these:



That's Peaks 'n' Valleys from Knit Socks! which I *finally* got right! I've now got Cat Borhdhi's Columbine Peaks on the needles (at the gusset) and am at the armholes on Charm. Hey, I had to do something while I waited for those cables.

Oh, and I finally broke down and bought one of those wraps-per-inch tools. It was driving me slightly nutzoid that my stock socks knit up a bit loose:



I used US 2s since those are my fave sock needles lately, but while I was knitting I kept thinking I should've been using my 3s (which I tend to avoid because of the kinky cables). Today I checked the wpi on that lurvly Valore and it came up to sport weight, so definitely size 3 material. I really need to start trusting my instincts. No matter. I still love those socks and am itching to cast on the rest of that yarn for another pair. I've definitely decided to have at least one pair of socks on the needles at all times. They're so addictive and enjoyable.