Sunday, August 24, 2008

Summer's end

While I used to think of summer's end as being after Labour Day, or at least when school started, it now is marked more by a state of mind than by specific events. At work, it's time for the annual autumn grant deadlines looming very close, and for TW, faculty meetings start this week. I am feeling my usual pleasantly melancholic emotional sensation that always means fall is here. Don't get me wrong - melancholy isn't a bad thing in my book. During such moods I am even more than usually introspective, inwardly examining, and self-reflective. These are very powerful states of mind and usually productive of times of change and growth for me. Spring is usually thought of as a time of growth; for me it's always been autumn.

So how have I spent the last few days of my summer? Today I was with my niece for her 3rd birthday party, which was a blast. At least a dozen miniature human missiles masquerading as 3-year-olds shot around my brother's yard, fueled by raisins, lemonade, and birthday cake. My mom was there, too, along with my my sister-in-law's parents from Wales. My niece has known all of the children her whole life and it's great to see her grow up with such a cohesive group of friends from such a n early age. She's also old enough to know what was going on and to know that I was there, and very likely remember next year that I was at her party. She opened her birthday gift (the pink dress with bloomers from an earlier post) and wore it for the party. It fit perfectly and she was absolutely adorable in it.

As for the Ravelympics, I managed to fill 2 complete bobbins of spinning of my Dad's vanilla merino, which was exactly 8 of the 16 ounces I was attempting to spin up. While I did not fulfill my entire goal, I am very, very happy with what I did accomplish. In the parlance of the sportscasters, I didn't win the race but I did finish it. I'm also pleased that I was able to greatly expand my ability to spin with either hand, which was a big part of my personal goal. My right hand now has an equal partner in spinning!

Knittingwise, I am sadly without pictures but I am on the home stretch with the Moderne Log Cabin Blanket. I'm on to the last large intarsia-section at the end, and when I run out of the taupe colour I am done, with the exception of a border. It is definitely too big to take on my commute but it's getting lots of couch-knitting time. For commute knitting, the Leilani cardigan has actually begun and there will be better pictures soon!

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