15 March 2006

What happened to spring?

Monday, we had 70 degrees and thunderstorms. Tuesday, we had sun and 50 degrees. Today is going to be another 50 degrees. Welcome to spring in Kentucky. I'm on spring break, but it's too cold to do any cycling (can't anyway--I have L's cold. The two of us seem to be developing bronchitis again.)

I am keeping busy, though. Yesterday, I learned how to start an online class. I will be working on getting both classes I teach set up for that. It's not hard, but it will be very time consuming. Once it's done, I'll just need to tweak things every semester.

I am also watching movies and knitting. I don't sit still well, but if my fingers are busy it's easier for me to watch a movie, read a book, etc. Surprisingly, I've discovered that I can do this even when knitting fair isle. I started the Norwegian Socks, and I am really enjoying it. The yarn and book are from my SP. She seems to have figured me out pretty well! I've had to shorten the leg (15" down to the ankle means over the knee for me), but that's okay. These pictures are from yesterday (last night I did the calf shaping and another pattern repeat) but they show the colors pretty well. I'm so impressed with myself! Knitting with yarn in both hands seems so difficult when you see it, but it isn't as hard as I thought it would be. These socks are going to be very warm as the stranding means the yarn is pretty much doubled throughout. I probably won't get to wear these until fall, but I'm still having fun knitting them!
The book has several other sock patterns that I want to knit, so at least I'll have lots of sock patterns to choose from.

I need to decide what kind of soup I'm going to make for tonight and write a list for the grocery store. At least I can do the grocery shopping sans children with my job schedule.

5 comments:

Pat said...

50 degrees? Lucky. We also had 70 on Monday and 30s and snow on Tuesday. Yeehaw. I cannot wait till spring gets here, and I don't mean the vernal equinox.

Anonymous said...

Socks looking pretty!

I'll be interested to hear about your online teaching experiences. I use Blackboard as an adjunct to most of my regular classes these days and find it saves a lot of paper (at least for me & the department), and some time, though some students resist it or just find it inconvenient.

I've never taught an all-online course, though.

Kate said...

I'll let you know. It probably won't be until next spring, though. It might take me that long to get everything set up!

I like the socks too. They will keep my feet toasty next winter.

Patrick--We whine here if it's only in the 30s in January. 50s in March are going to get a bit of whine.

Anonymous said...

Your comment about knitting with yarn in both hands reminded me: I've been knitting with a group at work semi-regularly, and one of my co-knitters (she works on dictionaries--appropriate for Oxford Univ. Press, but means not much interaction with Bibles, i.e. me) when she's making a sweater, knits both sleeves at the same time by using circular needles and working from two balls of yarn simultaneously. It keeps the sleeves more identical than doing one at a time, since people tend to knit differently on different days.

Kate said...

I've done that with sweaters for L. His sleeves are small enough that I can fit them both on straights. I don't many circulars yet to do that for sweaters for those of us bigger than him! Have you tried it?