Knits

Well then… it’s been a rather busy week. I had another trip to Durham where it was absolutely beautiful on the Wednesday (but cold) and a bit yucky on Thursday although it had started to clear up by the time I was headed back south. Unfortunately I didn’t book a seat on the train which was totally crowded so got booted out of the seat I took more than once; it’s not fun having to stand up for 90-minutes in a crowded, hot, stuffy train when you’re hungry and have cramps.

On Wednesday I met up with a couple of Ravelers — stitchwort who kindly helped rehome four balls/skeins of yarn and lucyvanp who oddly enough actually works in the same building as I will be working in; unfortunately she’ll have returned to Manchester by the time I arrive. I made some good progress on my second Marigold sock on the trip up, but due to the train situation described above, I didn’t knit at all on the way down. I’m just about to finish the turning of the heel so that’s something.

I have finished the Fetching gloves for my co-worker. I really like how they came out. I followed the pattern this time (my previous attempt included several more cable repeats since I can’t read, apparently) and you know, it may be a pattern that uses one ball of yarn, but then you end up with “gloves” that only cover the palm of your hand if you’ve got larger hands like mine hence the extension on both the thumb and top of the glove so that they actually cover a significant part of one’s hand. I like this two-tone effect and may make myself a similar pair — just not in hot pink. Yuck.

And yesterday I received my first instalment of the Zen Yarn Garden semi-solid sock club (you people are of no help — I asked for some telling me no, and I got none). It’s more teal than I could get a picture of (believe me, I have 50 pictures that all look about the same, but none of them green enough — and that hot pink doesn’t photograph well either; you can hear the camera say “My eyes! My eyes!”). The band says it’s about 450 yards so it looks like I’ll get some very good boot socks which I will need in the north.

Speaking of which, my contract finally came through. There’s been a bunch of problems at the university end that were totally unexpected and I can’t go into here, but they seem to be resolved now so things are moving forward. I did speak to my current director yesterday and negotiated an end date so I have that now which is exciting and scary. It’s many, many weeks off, but there’s a lot going on between now and then so I need to start planning things out — even begin packing up things that I know I won’t be needing between now and then. I’m so looking forward to moving up there. It’s absolutely beautiful and the people are friendly. I can’t wait.