The story that I can tell this week is that, yesterday afternoon, I finished the paper that is my final assignment for this semester’s graduate course (College Student Development Theory). And today, just before 1 pm, I finished creating the PowerPoint slides for my accompanying class presentation. After taking a break to watch the F1 Sprint race from Qatar, I made some final tweaks and uploaded the files to Canvas and received the congratulatory fanfare of virtual confetti. It’s silly, yes, but at least there’s some small event to mark the milestone.
All that’s left now is to attend the last two in-person class sessions and give my 15-minute presentation at one of them. Then I wait for my final grade to roll in. I managed to get 48/50 on my previous presentation, which was better than I had expected.
Between semesters I may try to do some pleasure reading of Young Adult books I have checked out while being in the campus library to look for other materials. I have three or four titles waiting in my home library that have been set aside all semester, and I’d like to take time to enjoy them and get them back into circulation.
After that, I need to turn my attention back to to the biography project I’ve been working on, and to develop some short articles I can write and submit as I’m in the process of learning more information for the longer work.
I acquired no new typewriters this week, but I did get to test the Underwood extended-carriage model that I snuck into the house a month or so again. The ribbon is dried out, but at least it’s properly installed now. The carriage doesn’t advance when the keys are struck, which may mean that the drawband is broken. I won’t get to that anytime soon, but at least now I know what is (and isn’t) going on with that one.
But watch this space! I’m planning to clean and rehome two of my typewriters by the end of the year.
This week I’ve made some progress on the Impossible Read, reading chapters in The Mists of Avalon here and there between working on other tasks or waiting for things to happen. I have about 125 pages (nine and one-half chapters and an epilogue) left to go, then it will be time for a movie break to lighten the mood. I make no predictions about exactly when that might happen.
Knitwise, this week I finished the rose-and-grey shawl while I spent Tuesday in a hospital waiting area. It wasn’t a room as much as a concourse, and while I eavesdropped on the other waiters I found that I wasn’t the only person who had made the comparison. I knitted, waited, walked around, read, knitted some more, and waited some more. I decided on the finishing style of the shawl: two ridges of garter stitch knitting, a row of eyelets to match the shorter edges of the shawl, another ridge of garter stitch, and a stretchy bind-off that centered the eyelets in the border stripe. Then I walked around again, wove in all the ends, took a deep breath, and read a little more before I felt ready to do a photo shoot.
The shawl is wonderfully warm. The long edge doesn’t lie straight, so I had planned to wash and block it — with the blocking wires — after I got home. But it’s been chilly in the house, and I have spent a lot of the last two days walking around with it wrapped around my shoulders. I have let the ends hang down sometimes. I have tied the ends into a loose knit sometimes. It’s been warming me, as shawls are supposed to do. I’m in no rush to stop being warm, so I think I’ll keep things as they are for now.
I had some leftover Dark Grey Heather and Dark Rose Heather left over, so I divided each leftover ball in half and started on a scarf that would turn those bits into stripes at the ends of a Light Rose Heather scarf.
So…
…and then…
…and then…between writing sessions on my paper…
…and then…during the Formula One Grand Prix of Qatar…
…and then I realized that I was halfway through my one skein of Light Rose Heather, and the piece is just 18 inches long. That’s not the halfway point of a Scarf of Usual Length. I’ll need to pause and stash-dive to see if I can find another skein of the Light Rose Heather or even Light Grey Heather. Or something else suitable and heathery to help fill out the middle of this scarf-to-be.
Any suggestions? What color would work if I can’t find a skein of either rose or grey?
Chocolate Sheep 