Knitting and Dancing

I've been knitting, but not blogging lately.  Between the day job and dance calling gigs, I've been on the go.  I'm writing this in a Bruegger's bagel place in Durham, NC.  The wireless in my hotel last night was so poor that I was forced to watch cable TV and knit on my demin blue socks.  I've been blasting through these at nearly record time.  In fact I knit from midway down the cuff & most of the heel flap last evening, after I took the picture on the right.

I really like this yarn - Paton's Kroy Socks in a demin blue colorway that fades lighter & deeper as one ply changes at a time.  The socks don't truly match - and that's okay.

I've also been knitting on my green cardigan.  It's a yoke sweater based loosely on this pattern, but I doubts I'll start with the lace motif.  It's very pretty, but I think the character of the yarn might be better suited to a moss stitch section, then maybe a garter rib, then a seed stitch with a couple of garter ridges in between. I can hide the decrease rounds in the garter rows.  Seems like it might be a good idea to knit a swatch of this pattern combination - what a concept!

The dance schedule has been quite busy.  I attended the English Country Dance SpringFest in Durham last weekend - I had a wonderful time dancing to Helene Cornelious & the Sun Assembly's house band, Collard Greene (great name!).  I called the TCD contra dance on Friday night, I'll be calling the Asheville Advanced Dance this coming Friday night - that's tomorrow- and I'll be calling the ECD on Sunday afternoon.  I'm usually not this busy, but all of a sudden I have a bunch of calling gigs.  Also, there are dance events all over the place.  I'd love to go to the Nashville Playford Ball, but its kind of a haul - about 5 hours of driving each way, though the band and leader are probably worth it.

In the mean time, I've been dyeing and shipping orders from the shop, but mostly the day job has kept me quite busy.  In a few minutes I'll be on my way to a meeting at UNC-Chapel Hill to work with a collaborator.  We are developing a Summer Institute for teachers using the Library of Congress and the Paideia method. Ah, spring break!

6 Things to do While Waiting....

...for my students to submit their work.

In real life, I am a teacher; both instructional technology to undergraduate education majors and professional development workshops for teaching with primary sources to K12 teachers. This time of the year I am finishing up the primary source reporting and grading student projects.  Mostly though, I am waiting for my undergrads to send me portfolios, take their online final and finish up outstanding work.  Since I can't just pull out my knitting, while I wait...

1. Pack up work to take home.  The weather people have predicted a lousy Sunday and Monday, so I can expect to work from home on Monday.  I'll be taking journals and books to read, hard copies of assignments & rubrics (because sometimes paper is OK), and the right flash drive, fully loaded, of course.

2. Search for a particular Excel spreadsheet.  Go a little bit crazy because it appears to be hiding.  Remember the name of the file.  That's the one!

3. Because you are paranoid, email same docs to self as you just saved to a flash drive.

4. Add names to the database.  It's boring, but now it's done.

5. Make a cup of tea.  This is a particularly good time waster use of my time as it takes me out of my office and I can see if there is any mail and chat with colleagues.  I also like tea.  One of the adjuncts brought cookies. 

6. Tidy up my office.  After all, it's the end of the term and there is a lot of paper and stacks of journals.  Add a few more journals to the going home stack.

Funny, I never have to make work when I am home.