I…. don’t … wanna go to the US for only one week and then come right back to work. (Well, as you might guess, I actually mind only the coming back, not the going. I think we made a strategic error this year by underestimating our available holiday time and not taking big heaping gobs of it at once, as the Dutch do. We’re also only going to the East Coast for a week and a half, in October. While there is such a thing as too big a dose of family, I’m not sure that really applies to new babies.
Brief digression: Ooo! A new Discworld book, Snuff, is due out October 11. And it’s a Sam Vimes books!
Speaking of new babies, I am nearly finished my nephew’s blanket, for values of “finished” that equate to “very tired of it and declaring it Big Enough”. (Actually, this is how a lot of my projects end.) It’s made in sort of a square spiral; I need to do three more side of the current row of the spiral, and then I’ll crochet a border. The local knitting club meet this week; hopefully between that and my long flights to an from Japan next week (did I mention I’m going back to Japan next week? Well, I am.) I’ll have it done by the end of this month. Though then again, if I take the bit between my teeth and decide to make it bigger after all, I’ll have the long flights to and from the US in September. And again in October. But the plan now is to finish this one. If they want a bigger blanket, I can make one … in a nice heavy worsted or bulky yarn.
So the next decision is what to knit next. I have promised myself that the next project will be a lot quicker,either with bigger yarn or a small project in fine yarn. I have some purple yarn my mother gave me, Dream in Color Classy yarn, which I know from experience is a pleasure to knit with. I’m thinking of either a Carnaby skirt or the U-neck fitted vest pattern by Stephanie Japel. I’m not certain whether non-Ravelry members can see that link, but there are a bunch of examples on Flickr. The question is just which I’d wear more: a purple vest or a purple skirt? Ted’s opinion was that a knitted skirt could be problematical until he actually saw pictures of the skirt. It’s heavily textured so that pills won’t show too much, and the yarn is smooth enough that I think it will wear well. Also, it’s a skirt shape I do wear a lot, and as long as I don’t make it too short it’s definitely professional enough for work.
Another digression: we just found out a colleague died last week. He fell off a mountain in Switzerland, quite literally. It’s a bit shocking, though I didn’t know him well; he headed another section in my department and I had a one-on-one meeting with him right before he left on holiday. I can’t help but think that this is how he’d have liked to go …. but not when.
Isn’t that always the way of it with things to say about deaths and new babies and new books and work all at once?