Post-post post

Or, the post that comes after the last post made.  The post-post post.  Get it?

 

The stacks of exams have been graded, the final totals calculated, and the final grades submitted.  Everybody survived the commencement ceremony.  There is still plenty of work to do, but the semester and academic year are over and as of noon tomorrow, I'm legally free until early August.  I've still got a short report to write and a course to develop, but for the most part, my time is my own for a while.  Let's see what's in the hopper...

• Finish polishing up an article and get it off to a journal for publication
• Plan and execute a birthday party for my dad
• Visit the sister
• Give a talk for the state archaeological society's field school
• Massage a course to accommodate a new textbook
• Knit a pair of socks for the Emperor for Christmas
• Finish the dadgum Jupiter Cardigan
• Get the craft room in order
• Solve the Great Bag Dilemma (again)

Oh, so I'm not going to be able to just hang around and read Jane Austen fanfics and cozy mysteries... well, that's life.

Another project that I hope to work on is that set of Regency duds I keep harping on.  At minimum, I'd like to have one dress that could be worn in public during the day, plus all the stuff that goes underneath it, and the things I'd carry in my hands while wearing it.  While a ballgown would be nice, and interesting to plan and construct, I don't think I'd ever use it.  But a day dress -- that I might wear.  One of my colleagues is interested in the Regency period as well, and I might be able to con her into doing this with me.

Last week I made an unusual order from WEBS, the online yarn store.  They're having their yearly sale, and that's when I try to get a ball of yarn for the Emperor's Christmas sock.  This year, they put three of my yarns on sale, all at once, so I fell for it.

Four, count'em, four skeins of Malabrigo Baby Silkpaca Lace, in Piedras.  It had been on backorder for months, so when WEBS had it back in stock, I not only ordered what I thought I'd need for a project, I ordered one skein more.  How many times have I tried to make something and come up just a tad short, and had to either abandon the project or desperately search for one more skein?  Not this time.

Here's the yarn for the Not-Secret-At-All Christmas Sock.  I'm going to enjoy working with this yarn as these are some of my favorite colors and color combinations.  While my best-loved sock yarn is still Opal, my favorite to use for the Emperor is Berroco Sox because for some reason, it knits up faster.  I can't explain it -- the gauge is the same, I use the same needles and stitch count, but this yarn knits up really fast, and this is the only project in which I'm holding myself to a deadline.  It was great, last year, to have the sock finished early in the summer, and not to have to worry about it during the busy days of autumn and winter.  I'm also going to take pictures of the process; I've been working on a self-striping sock yarn knitting tutorial for years and all it needs to be complete are a few more illustrations.
  

This was an impulse purchase.  One of my favorite Ravelry crocheted shawl examples uses this yarn in these colors.  While I'm not sure I'll do that pattern again (I used it for the Eggplant and Avocado Shawl), I do know that I love these colors, and bought enough to make a shawlette whenever I get around to it.  Actually, it's enough yarn -- about four hundred yards -- to make any one of a number of small shawl projects.  Maybe I'll do the CheChe shawl again, who knows?

So I'd better get moving.