Back to... what?

Yup, it's back to... oh, what's that, school? This year will be different for me than all other back-to-school years, as I am neither taking classes nor teaching. How odd. (Not to mention, "how nice to be able to say this, while I have the chance!) It lends a very different feeling to the whole back-to-school thing.

As I think about it, it's been ten years since I went to college, meaning it's also been ten years since I moved back to the east coast from California, where I'd lived from the start of elementary school to the end of high school. Yet what I feel is not so much nostalgia for my ecstatic rediscovery of the beauty of sugar maples an oaks in the fall, but a definite sense of excitement for this school year and for the future. If all goes according to plan, I'll be ABD by the start of next summer. (I'll have as much education as my dad, who never did a dissertation and left grad school with an ABD). It's more likely that I'll have finished my exams but the dissertation proposal will take a little longer than the above plan would indicate.

The idea of moving on is tremendously exciting. Last fall, I entered my fourth year of coursework after college, and while I felt really very sick at the idea of taking even more classes, I wasn't quite ready to do the exams. I felt somehow out of place and time and stuck in the middle with no way out but to muddle forward. These last few days, I'm back to feeling like I'm in the right place at the right time, and I like that. Let's just hope it lasts.

I had meant to save these for a more specifically sock-related post (on the emerging saga of Fleece Artist yarn, gauge, and toe-up toes ... and thanks for all your suggestions!) but instead I'll show them now.


Pattern: simple stockinette socks
Yarn: Trekking #100
Needles: size 1 bamboo dpns
Time: about a month, on and off
Thoughts: I think Coffeeboy's foot is wider than his ankle, given the stretching going on across the foot. At least these aren't too big like the last pair I knit him. One day, I will get this right! I think more measurements are in order.

Have a great weekend, everyone! Enjoy the knitting! We're due for the remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto, which means (more) rain, which means staying inside and cooking, reading, and of course knitting. I'll have more sock news when next I post!