Wintergreen Mittens

Why no photos of my progress on the Wintergreen Mittens? Because when I was coming back from the %^$#@&^ AAA conference, I forgot them on the plane. By the time I realized what I had done, it was too late. Apparently a ziplock bag containing two balls of exquisite alpaca yarn and one and a half beautiful mittens (one was completely finished and SO beautiful...) looks like garbage to a plane cleanup crew. So my mittens are gone. I am hoping posting this will help me move from anger to acceptance.

BSJ

I realize that the world doesn't need another Elizabeth Zimmermann Baby Surprise Jacket; nor does the world need extended commentary on how completely freaking amazing the construction is.















This particular BSJ was knit on a #5 out of just over one skein (oh well...) of Dream in Color's Classy in the color Blue Lagoon. If it weren't the worst point in the semester I would have rounded out the look with a pair of Saartje's Booties, but it is just not to be.















Suffice to say that I enjoyed knitting it and I hope little baby Gwyndolyn enjoys wearing it.

If he weren't my student, I would feel REALLY smug

Quizzes are a necessary evil - occasionally even the most dedicated student benefits from this most primitive of motivational tools. While I eschew the pop quiz, I do give most of my students a set number of quizzes over the course of the semester to - ahem - inspire them to make my class a priority.

So, grading a stack of quizzes this afternoon, I saw that an Obama-supporting student had used the 3 or 4 minutes he had to wait for his slower classmates to finish to decorate the back of his quiz with a big American flag anchored in Obama's name. Not to be outdone, his neighbor, a backwards-baseball-cap wearing type who, to his credit, had the courage to identify himself as a McCain supporter during our post-election class discussion of the candidates, decorated the back of his quiz with the following slogan:

[name of my college] LOVE'S MacKain

Yup.

I made a leaf!

Most of this was accomplished waiting for a late flight from Chicago last night. It remains to be seen if this mitten gets finished waiting in line at my polling station.