I’ve been back in school for a few semesters now (after about 7 years of office jobs in various bureaucracies), but the bizarre feeling that comes at the end of a term still catches me off guard every single time. To go from being so busy I’m not sure I have time to eat one day to having almost no deadlines or responsibilities the next is quite jarring. I don’t think I ever experienced anything quite like it in the workplace. I spent the weekend doing a lot of decompressing (read: nothing!).
Here is a shot of my dog, Luna, re-enacting for all of you what this kind of looked like:
She has captured my totally lazy but slightly unnerved ethos pretty well here. I am hoping that this time I finally learned my lesson about starting too late on writing projects. And there may be a prize involved for any of you who remember to remind me about this lesson, oh, around April 1. 
I accomplished a small bit of knitting during the weekend of laziness, but it was of the totally indecisive process-oriented sort that I lapse into when my head isn’t in it. The lace cowl/neckwarmer that has been in the works as a gift for my mom went through about three iterations, including the one that got farthest along, the Branching Out scarf (Knitty 2005).
It’s a great lacy dk-weight scarf pattern and I thought it would end up working well in the ballet pink Berroco Pure Merino DK I’ve set aside for this project. However, about 40% through it was just looking kind of meh. See:
It just didn’t match the vision in my head. The yarn is too dense and sproingy. Also, I’m not sure that my mom ever really wears scarves. She lives in Arizona, you see, and the desert part, not the snowy northern part.
Mulling all this over in my academia-addled brain this weekend somehow led to the conclusion that this yarn actually wanted to be socks. Mom will wear those as a solution for cold tile floors all winter! And, the only pair of my handknit socks she has are some awful Cascade Fixation ones I made a long time ago when I had just started knitting socks (which probably explains why she’s never requested more…). And, I already had a dk-weight pattern right in my knitting bag. This is how I came to be knitting a second pair of Duckies.
I rarely make the same pattern of anything twice, but these worked up so fast and turned out so well the first time that I don’t really mind a repeat. I knit just far enough to be sure I like the resulting fabric and I’m now going to be putting them on the back burner a bit while I deal with some loose ends I want to manage before the new year:
- The finishing of my Lace Panel Cardigan—all sewn up and almost done! I’ll finally be able to show you this week.
- Slogging Along to finish the last of my everlasting Featherweight cardi as well as some sock UFOs from the bottom of the knitting bag
- An exciting test knit shrug I’ll tell you about some other time
- More buggy mitts for kids
Whew! That’s actually a meaty list. Good thing I have a little break to enjoy.
The end of term is such an odd feeling, I agree!
I hope your holidays are good, and good luck with all your knitting.