etc.

Here’s the completed Contessa Shawl (click for bigger!), the fruit of eight evenings-worth of knitting in front of the TV (what could we possibly be watching on TV during the off-season, you ask? Big Love, Meadowlands, Scrubs reruns, the final season of The Shield, Hell’s Kitchen, Entourage, CNTM, and now Big Brother 8. Bien Sur!). I had so much fun knitting this that I’ve already cast on for the Verona shawl in Fiddlesticks Zephyr (in Aegean Blue), a lovely combination of merino & silk. Yep, this knitting stuff is all sorts of fun.

Research is proceeding apace. To-day is my second last day of leave, I’m back at work next Tuesday. I can scarcely believe it’s been four weeks. I’m pleased with what I’ve managed to get done, although I haven’t done a scrap of blogging about my research, which has surprised even me. I think I’ve come to the realization that I don’t do well with in-progress-blogging: that is, blogging about things about which I am still forming an opinion. Does that make sense? I’ve generated some process-oriented ideas as a result of all the reading I’ve been doing, and I’ll probably blog those, but the rest of it is all still too amorphous at the moment. I had hopped that the blogging would stand in for a formal research leave report, but, well, obviously that won’t be the case now. Best get to report-writing.

Happy weekend, friends!