Harvard Bound

I'm off to Harvard tomorrow night for Howe Cup - the women's collegiate national squash championship. I'm just a little bit excited... we're seeded in Division D, but I'm looking forward to seeing some of the top teams play, and just spending the weekend on campus.

One thing I love about Smith is the random holidays. Take, for instance, Mountain day - the college president chooses a nice fall day upon which to ring the college bells, cancelling class so that students can enjoy the outdoors (my house went apple picking). Today was Rally Day - a chance for seniors to wear their hats and gowns, and for the rest of us, a day off.

After finishing some homework I thought it would be a good idea to graft the toe on the first of Nanny's socks, knit using Paton's Kroy. The yarn gave me some attitude while knitting, splitting and twisting like crazy. I'm not a fan of grafting, but how could things go wrong with Sally Melville's excellent instructions and diagram? Wishful thingking. I would like to blame the yarn for the sock saga that followed...

Things were going along well until I got to the point where I had to go back and tighten stitches. Apparently the yarn had split while grafting, which resulted in a bit of a mess. Then I saw the line of instructions that read: "Be very careful not to split the stitches, or it will be IMPOSSIBLE to go back and tighten."
The next 45 minutes was spent gritting my teeth trying to follow the yarn through the grafted stitches, a process not helped by the dark colors. Then I got the bright idea that, if I cut one of the plies of yarn, I could get around the split stitch. Yeah, good one Jess. I wound up with this:

Sigh. And many frustrating moments later, this:


A cute, sturdy ankle sock for the coolest grandmother ever (seriously, this woman wears Harry Potter toe socks). Just don't mind the messy looking toe. The sweater and Branching Out scarf were temporarily cast aside, as I discovered I could knit socks and read at the same time. Hooray for multitasking! And for that reason, socks may be all I knit for the next few weeks, judging by the large pile of homework looming in the corner...