Let me start by saying how much I appreciate all of the lovely comments made on my last post, A blogiversary contest, celebrating two years of blogging.  I am resisting responding to comments because I will use a random number generator to pick a winner from the responses, and don’t want any from me messing up the process.  If you haven’t left a comment, but would like the chance to win two skeins of Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Verdes (photo below), the contest is still open until the 15th of October; just click on the link and follow instructions in the post.

As to the title of this post: Now I know I’m crazy. Why do you think that is?  Could it be perhaps because I have been steadily knitting away on the gorgeous (but striped) Soumak Scarf Wrap, but have so far neglected to weave in a single thread?

Everyone knows that the only way to save your sanity on such a project is to weave those ends in as you go along, and not to save them all for the end.  So yes, this is definitely a little bit crazy, but it is not the crazy I refer to in the title.

By the way, don’t you just love the photo above? It really shows off the colours so beautifully.  This morning I said to Doug “Do you think you could photograph my Soumak Wrap, and make sure you get a good shot of all of the ends hanging off?”  He said “Do you mind if it gets a tiny bit wet from the dew?”  And upon getting a negative response, he took off, draping it up on the plants in the back garden, and came up with the most lovely photographs.  I particularly like the ones which show the back of the fabric, like this:

And this:

I must admit, this Wrap is so beautiful I could knit on it all day long.  (For those of you who haven’t been following along, the pattern, designed by Lisa Richardson, is the Soumak Scarf Wrap and is published in Rowan 54.  It uses 10 colours of Rowan Fine Tweed.)  It is so irresistable, I have to include one more photo:

If that is not the source of my craziness, perhaps it is the fact that I managed to mess up the lace on my Viajante shawl/poncho, which happens to be the easiest lace possible to knit, and then compounded the problem by not noticing it.  Ripping out 8 rows of lace over 470 or so stitiches (not to mention getting the lace back properly on the needle) is not fun.  I should have been able to show you a finished Viajante today, but instead this is what you get:

(This photo picks up the blue tones in the yarn, but in fact it is the purple tones which are predominant.)  Here is a closeup of the lace, which is still unblocked:

And because it was Doug who was taking these photos this morning, I can assure you that there are more esoteric shots as well, such as the below Portrait of Spider with Lace:

Messing up what should have been fairly mindless lace may be a tiny bit daft, but again it’s not the craziness the title refers to.  What could that be?  This week, I went back to school!  Yes, dear readers, this is alas true:  At the tender age of 52, more than 20 years after getting my PhD, I have started in on another degree programme.  I am enrolled in the Executive MBA programme in Management at the Henley Business School.  To compound the folly, I will continue to work full-time at my day job, managing a neuroscience research centre.  Last week was the starter workshop for the degree programme, in which we were resident at the school, and spent 4 very full days in a whirlwind of classes and activities from early morning till late at night.  I returned home with an armload of textbooks and a very full brain, only to fall over in a state of virtual catatonia.  This hectic schedule will continue over the next two years (and presumably only get worse with time).  And I have done this to myself willingly!

I have learned three things from this past week.  First, I need to get in better shape if I intend to make it through the programme.  This calls for more stamina than I have in reserve. (Unfortunately knitting doesn’t really qualify as aerobic exercise.)  I need to seriously hit the gym.  Second, something is going to have to go.  There is no way that I can sustain this without letting go of something I hold dear.  I do not want that something to be knitting, or blogging about knitting.  I would really like that something to be housework, but given that I am not so great at that in the first place, that won’t cut it.  And third – now, I know I’m crazy!