Newly Finished Objects

 

I finished some things! This hat is a pattern by Franklin Habit, one of his historical adaptations. It has been in my queue for eight years and I finally got around to it. You knit a small rectangle for the top and then pick up stitches around that and knit down to the neck, which is just 2x2 ribbing. Last, you pick up around the face opening and do more 2x2 ribbing there. I only worked on it on weekends, and mostly only during my little knitting group, but it was pretty quick to make. I used leftover yarn: the brown is the remains of a blanket I made for my sister and the green is from a baby blanket. 

Next is the fifth pair of mittens. I think I've explained this previously, but the short version is I had a great idea in November to make six pairs of mittens for the staff in one of the non-academic departments on campus. I found a pattern for fingerless mitts that I liked, and I bought yarn (too much, as it turns out). I was able to modify the pattern to make a closed finger top instead of ending with ribbing. The first three pairs were fast, but I got bored with the fourth pair and it lingered for several months this spring. Now I only have one more pair left, but I'm starting to question the impulse. Is it okay for me to give staff gifts? And, in November they were all women, but now there's been a hire and it's a man. These mittens definitely won't fit a larger hand. Do I send him a scarf instead? Or try to make bigger mittens?

Meanwhile, summer progresses comfortably. It was suddenly very hot and humid last week and the science building went all weird. On Monday it was too warm in my office and there was some humidity in the labs. Tuesday we started measuring the humidity in the labs and it got up to 85% by Friday. I complained about it to the Physical Plant almost every day, but never got any answer so I don't know if they did anything. Thankfully this weekend the outside weather went back to a more normal (for us) temperature and humidity, and the labs are back at 50% humidity now. 

I continue to scan old articles into my reference manager. I'm also trying to catch up on the journals I'm supposed to be reading but haven't. I spent one whole day last week doing remote advising of incoming first-year students, and I have another of those tomorrow. The department newsletter was printed, and I stuffed envelopes and sent them off to be mailed yesterday. I also repaired one of the HPLC instruments that has had a broken degasser for years (maybe 5?). It's been on my list every summer but we never seem to have the money to replace it, but this year I just decided to spend the remainder of the department budget to get it done. So that made me feel pretty happy. I like when I'm able to make stuff work.

Last weekend I had friends over to the house. Friday afternoon is the usual beer on the lawn day, but Cypar had to work and one of our usual guests is visiting relatives out of state, so I invited a colleague and her wife instead. The three of us sat outside under my umbrella for about three hours, talking and drinking beer. It was very enjoyable. On Sunday I had the knitting group over (it's me and two colleagues I taught to knit a couple of summers ago) and we also used the outdoor furniture. Cypar says he's very proud of me for doing social things with my friends. I need to remember more often that I have my own friends (even if they are all coworkers) and do stuff with them.