1-2-07 Random thoughts

I finally saw Eragon today with my aunt. It was...okay. I thought the book was good, but when one cuts one's fantasy teeth on Tolkien and Lewis, the standard is set rather high. When I was reading Eragon, I could hear the author talking. It's hard to lose yourself in a fantasy world when you feel as though have a narrator standing behind you. I was rereading The Silmarillion last night, and the Ainulindalë (Tolkien's mythology of the creation of Middle-Earth) is simply breathtaking. I get goosebumps just thinking about it. (But if you really want the great-grandfathers of all goosebumps, listen to the audio version read by Martin Shaw. Wow.)

I start my first grad school class two weeks from tomorrow! I'm taking Immunology - have the book already and have been studying from it. Rumor has it that people who take time off between finishing undergrad and starting grad school do way better than those who just plow straight through, because the "break-takers" panic and over-study. I have determined that I will do my very best in this class. I don't think it'll be any harder than my undergrad classes with the Professor of Doom, so I'm not terribly worried.

Knitting progress:
Mock cable socks in Plymouth Sockotta: %65 done with sock #1
Pi shawl from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitters Almanac: %40 or so (need to swap out the cable on my circs to accommodate the 288 stitches!)
Baby sweater for little one #3 (not mine personally, but third baby I've knit for): I'd rather not think about that, but I'd better, because he's due in less than a month! Perhaps the baby wrap sweater from Mason-Dixon Knitting would be a good baby gift for this one. I've made a five-hour sweater and Anouk from Knitty so far for the little munchkins that seem to be arriving en masse lately.

The ball-winder I got for Christmas has definitely been put to good use! I wound up eight or so sweaters' worth of wool, glorious wool. At my favorite thrift store, I even found a sportweight cashmere sweater to recycle last week! It's a white/lavender plied yarn that is lovely in a ball, but won't look good on me (o! the pitfalls of being a redhead). Maybe the cashmere is a good practice yarn to try KoolAid dyeing! (well, the cashmere, and the mountains of laceweight yellow wool, and the 5 balls of violently yellow sportweight WoolEase that somehow followed me home against my better judgment...does anyone know how well acrylic accepts dye? I'm guessing that it doesn't, much, but I'd like to try anyways.)

Oh, and for all the Harry Potter fans (specifically Remus/Tonks fans): rt_challenge is up again!!!