Back in town

I'm greatly relieved that there is not much on the calendar this weekend. I have two suitcases to unpack (from my two different trips), a number of phone calls and emails to return from the lovely people who wished me a wonderful birthday. And I have a pile of mail to go through. Not to mention the need for some sleep and straightening up in various parts of the house, and I'm sure there will be laundry. I'm very glad that I got us caught up on dishes before we left.

I'm not complaining. I don't feel the need for a ton of relaxation because we certainly got a lot of that in Mexico. But wednesday was a 14 hour workday and thursday was nearly 10, and only having one workday at the office during the week is a bit unmotivating. It feels like the week should already be over and it isn't 2pm yet. (And in the disrupted state of my "things", I forgot my iPod today...so there is really no way to make the day feel like it will go any faster.

And I've decided that I'm not participating in the knitting olympics. With the travel of late, I haven't had time to "train" (swatch, adjust a pattern, etc.) and I'm really into socks at the moment and don't want to stop them for a sweater. I thought about trying to knit 3 pairs of socks in the 16 days, but then realized that I'm just really not into the pressure at the moment. I'm in a nice post-vacation mood and I have nothing else putting pressure on me this weekend or next week...and I don't want to impart any deadlines right now. But I do think it's an awesome concept and I will take my own oath that every time I sit down to watch the olympics for the next 16 days, I will knit in support of those in the knitting olympics. :-)

While we're on the subject, a knitting update.
- Before we left for Mexico, I pinned up the pink pullover in progress and it seems like it will fit well. I haven't finished the front yet, but what I have done seems to fit as desired. I will do a full pinning of the sides when I finish the front to make sure I'm not kidding myself.
- the orange cabled vest is too small. :-( Not only do I think it will be too tight around my tummy, but I was also brain-damaged enough to start the armhole shaping several inches before I should have. (I think I was being impatient at the time). So the whole thing it too short. I *had* the back done and I was nearing the armhole shaping on the front. The difficulty of the sizing is that to keep things symmetric, it can be made bigger by adding 4 cable columns, which I think will be too many. So I am hoping that I can just frog the back to the armholes and frog the front and add 2 cable columns to that on the next attempt. This would save about 1/3 (or more) of the knitting I've already done and still hopefully keep it from being too big.
Of course, two cable columns might not be enough and I might have to frog it all. So I didn't start this process before vacation the thought of it made me pretty mad at myself. I think I have calmed now.
- I finished the rust colored socks yesterday on the return trip from Bradford. I got a lot of work done on them in Mexico. I'm really happy with the cable pattern I made up. The foot is a little long, but one less repeat might have made them too short, so I'm not overly concerned. I do hope the yarn softens a little with washing.
- I started a pink, lacy shawl in Mexico. It's a diamond mesh pattern and my first lace with lace weight yarn. I had to start three times, but as long as I totally pay attention (no looking away during the purl rows) it isn't too hard.
- I started a pair of gray, alpaca socks on the return trip from Bradford when I finished the rust ones. The pattern is "River Rapid Socks" from sockbug. I plan to employ the same technique I used for the rust socks - when I finish the cuff of #1, I'll knit the cuff of #2, etc. No second sock syndrome here!
- I haven't worked on the baby cardigan at all this week.

I *plan* to write about Mexico this weekend. ;-)