All good things must come to a temporary hiatus?

Besides so often arriving home on Wednesday too tired to feel enthusiastic about shoe-blogging, I’m running out of shoes that deserve a post. Yes, there are more shoes in my wardrobe, but I’m not sure you need or want to see them. I like the solution I found last week — posting shoes I might wish for— but before I get locked into feeling I am obliged to do this each week, I’m going to take a break from My Shoes Wednesdays for a while. Do feel free to peruse past Wednesday shoe posts — check out the link list to your right.

That feels better — I’ve pushed one obligation away. Now I have to focus on this big stack of student papers that have to be marked and returned by next week’s exams. Perhaps a reward system is in order — finish this pile, buy the Cydwoq shoes; finish the next pile, buy the . . . Okay, that might be destructive to the credit, so I’m more likely to do a bit of marking, a bit of knitting in front of the Angel DVD (this is my second time through first all of Buffy, then all of Angel. Right now, I’m midway through Season 3 — the plot thickens and thickens and then some!)

I know you don’t want to hear me moan about the marking, so I’ll update you on some of the knitting that keeps me cheery: Having finished the Serpentine Mitts, I began a second pair. These are to go with the garter-stitch scarf I knit for my daughter, Megan — I won’t show you the scarf ’til I give it to her this weekend as an early Christmas/going-away gift to keep her warm while she works at a ski lodge in the deep interior of BC this winter.

Also on the needles, a pair of fingerless mitts to go with the Twizzle Beanie I made this summer — another Christmas gift for someone.

I’m sewing up the last seams on the Cabled Vest, but I’m not rushing to finish it because I’ve suspected for some time that the fit is going to be too sloppy to wear anywhere but around home. Still, I love the richness of colour in the Rowan Scottish Tweed as well as the way it defines the cables so clearly.

And I’m so pleased to have finally finished the Lily Chin Reversible Rib Shawl. As I said in an earlier post, much as I love this pattern, and also love the Kertzer Ovation kidsilk blend I knit it in, I don’t love the way the two work together. About six inches into the shawl, I realized that the variegation didn’t work for the large stitches and the disturbances created by the large, swooping cables (over 24 stitches!). Of course, rather than immediately rip, I carried on hoping that a larger field might soften the effect. By the time I knew that absolutely wasn’t going to happen, I was not going to rip twelve inches of fine mohair — come on, really, would you?

At least it feels wonderful to wrap around me when I’m cuddled up reading, and I think I can probably find a giftee at some point. Meanwhile, another pair of needles are freed up. Here and above, the shawl poses invitingly on a cozy leather club chair in my office at home. Should make the marking more comfy anyway.

I’ve also cast on for the back of the Dollar and a Half Cardigan and finished the ribbing. I’m making it in Garnstudio’s Silke-Tweed (a silk-lambswool blend in Shade 14, a dill-picklish green).

And the last thing I’ve got on the needles is the Noro SilkGarden scarf I cast on for last night (and already have eight or so inches on). I’ve resisted for the last three or four visits to my LYS, but, well, you know, all the other kids have knit them . . .

And one last bit of catch-up. I wanted to mention the wonderful, wonderful run I had on Saturday around the newly-reopened seawall at Stanley Park. With the extra distance there and back, I probably ran 12-14 kilometres (the seawall itself is 10K), more than I really should have given the lack of training recently, but it felt fabulous. There are still several spots which need to be repaired, and some of the damage from last winter’s storms will leave some cliffs alarmingly bare for a good while, but it’s hard to imagine a more sustaining and distracting view (I know, those two adjectives might seem odd together, but for my kind of running they make perfect sense).

Now I’m going to add labels for this post and really confirm how all-over-the-place I am right now.