almost done…and just starting.

I’m very nearly done with Elle Melle…

It took me several tries to get the picked-up stitches for the raglan sleeves (which are knit top-down) to not look ugly, and if I were to make another one (and I probably will, because I adore this sweater!), I think I have an idea for a selvedge that’d be neater to pick up from, but ANYWAY, the sleeves are done, and so is the neckline.

I modified the neckline slightly from the instructions. For one thing, I added short-row shaping to raise the back neck, because it drives me crazy when patterns don’t include something like this – it makes SUCH a difference for fit! I find that without it, the front neckline “cuts in”, and just generally sits too high. I mean, store-bought shirts all have lower necklines in front than back. We’re just built that way. And because this added some extra length to the collar along the sides and back, I also added an extra set of raglan decreases. The finished sweaters I’ve seen all looked pretty wide at the neckline, anyway, so I figure going a little smaller can’t hurt. So now, all that’s left is the button bands, and M will have an ADORABLE purple cardigan to wear, just like she requested.

I am seriously so madly in love with how this sweater is turning out. The Beaverslide 2-ply Sport/Sock yarn is utterly perfect for it, and the colors I’m using just work so nicely together, and gosh, I really want to make a grown-up Elle Melle (with set-in rather than raglan sleeves) for myself with their yarn, too – maybe in Woodsmoke and Charcoal? I’m kind of a Beaverslide evangelist, after all. Such gorgeous yarn.

So anyway, Elle Melle is almost finished…but something else is just getting started:

Today was the first day of Fall Semester! I’m teaching 3 sections of our extra-supportive freshman writing class (which is mostly international students, but not entirely), and there is no rhyme or reason to the order in which the classes occur relative to their recitations, or the classrooms they’re in, and I’m also running workshops for a bunch of other classes, and it’s really hurting my brain! Color-coding to the rescue! The first day went ok, though it’s going to take me awhile to learn all of their names and to get used to the weird computer classrooms where I’m teaching this year, and to just generally get into the routine of being full time instructional faculty, rather than a grad student who’s also teaching a class or two. Speaking of which…

…I got an updated ID card. So exciting to see the word “Faculty” where it used to say “Graduate Student”!

Here’s hoping I can still keep knitting this semester!