I survived the dentist!

That's right, everyone! It's been, well, a few years since I had insurance and since a dreaded dentist last looked in my mouth, and today he did so, and I checked out in relatively good oral health! I'm thrilled! Even having one cavity was a relief, compared to the plethora I expected!

Coffeeboy, unfortunately, has to get a "deep cleaning" tomorrow, wherein they'll numb his mouth before starting the cleaning. It sounds like a pore cleanser or something, only ... worse.

I don't really have much knitting news right now - but thanks for all your kind comments on Kiri! I have many goals for this week: presentation on Wednesday, summer funding application due Wednesday, emailing some dissertation thoughts to my advisor, finishing a complete draft of my lit review, and TAing the final two sections of the semester.

I think I got through the worst of it today, especially since I've been dreading this dental visit for, well, years. Makes everything else seem like pancakes.

Why hello there!

Hi everyone... It's been a long time, but I'm still here! I can't really believe it's been so long. I've been, let's see, trying to keep my head above water for my class, work on my lit review, figure out a dissertation, thinking about moving. The usual. Somewhere in there I stopped feeling like blogging. I think it's because I don't really know what to say about, say, the family gathering in Florida that followed immediately on the one to Colorado. Or about my weekends. Usually they're not all that exciting: maybe I'll get together with some friends, usually Coffeeboy and I spend a night in watching something on the TV. Often I'll be doing schoolwork during the day. It doesn't exactly make for exciting Monday-morning reports about my weekend, but maybe people enjoy those posts? Or they're a necessary part of the blogging ritual?

Needless to say, though, I've been knitting, and I have a finished shawl!

Pattern: Kiri
Yarn: K-P Shadow in "Jewel"
Needles: Size 5
Time: March 18-April 22 (not at all bad!)
Size: 25x51 before blocking; 30x60 after blocking.

I got to wear Kiri to my subfield's party this afternoon, and it received many compliments. I finished it last night and blocked it overnight, in time to wear today. Thankfully the weather's been just right for a new shawl! I also got to use the new shawl clasp Coffeeboy gave me a while ago; it works very well to hold the shawl on. This was a very fast knit, with an easily memorizable pattern. Highly recommended!

It's finally spring, and our garden is in full daffodil form. We've also started thinking about spring vegetables!

Despite the nice weather, though, I'm spending my days in the library or in other places conducive to studying, trying to figure out what I'm going to write my dissertation on. I thought I had some ideas, but right now they're, shall we say, on hold. I just have to assume that one day, as I keep working though stuff, things will fall into place.

Knitter's first hole

This past week we celebrated Passover in Colorado with Coffeeboy, returning yesterday with plenty to do before we take off to see some of my mom's family in Florida this weekend. Hence the lack of bloggy communications. I managed to do some knitting, but largely ignored the internet and blog-land while there, in the interests of hanging out (and doing some reading). While there, I discovered something on the bottom of my fuzzy foot:

A GIANT THUMB-SIZED HOLE!

... well, I also discovered that under what had been a lot of mohair, the slippers had hardly felted, probably explaining the hole. Harumph. I knew felting wasn't really my friend! Perhaps I will try to add some fiber back in there and send these soles through their watery cycle once more, or maybe I'll just wait until I notice the cold floor leaking through on the ball of my foot... and do something.

Speaking of Coffeeboy, he accepted the job in North Carolina! (I kind of added a "breaking news" section to my previous post as he got the offer soon after I'd posted it). We'll be moving sometime this summer, and until then, we'll be trying to figure out what to do with our current place (rent? sell?) and hopefully buying one somewhere around Asheville, NC.

I hear Asheville is a really fun place to live - music, arts, hiking, a yarn store or two. It probably doesn't quite have the research libraries I'm used to in the heavily-libraried northeastern seaboard, but there are still ILL and related borrowing systems, car trips to visit friends (and their schools's libraries) at cities nearby, and the inevitable longer trips to archives in various places. Other than what I hear are the inevitable awkwardnesses of writing a dissertation from afar, it should be OK - and fun to start off on this adventure! I know I'm going to miss many things about grad student life "in residence," but I'm trying to focus on the positives of the move (living in the mountains! an artsy subculture! great opportunity for the Coffeeboy!) to balance out all my half-panicked thoughts of "how can I possibly read all those volumes of that old, rare journal, before we move?!"

Anyone know of yarn stores near my soon-to-be new digs? Or how to patch a hole?