1. There’s a special peril inherent in knit-blogging: your computer keyboard may collect little wisps of wool that will then multiply into dust bunnies thuggish enough to make your keys stick and your cursor cavort about the page randomly highlighting blocks of text and deleting them if you don’t stop typing fast enough. Cat hair has similar powers. Wool and cat hair together will go all Jackie Chan + Bruce Lee on your important work documents and you will spend half a day typing one character at a time and then tweezing the fearsome bunnies out from under the keys that seem to be causing the problem, which will turn out to be all the keys. It will take you all day to complete the layout of a single algebra lesson. Ask me how I know. (My husband tells me you can pay someone $80 to professionally clean your  keyboard, but I’m a cheapskate with a pair of tweezers and a firm will. The bunnies shall perish.)

1a. The “computer cabinet” at our school does not contain any computer-related equipment (such as, say, one of those air canisters for cleaning dusty keyboards), unless you count some extension cords and sundry cables. It does, however, contain PYthon (R) Dust, a “4th generation pyrethroid insecticide and photostable piperonyl butoxide” for the control of horn flies, ticks, and lice on lactating or non-lactating cattle, sheep, and goats.

2. Birds have no taste buds. I have not done any experiments to prove the veracity of this, but my friend Barb says so and I believe her.

3. The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes is a treasure trove of heart-warming geekery the likes of which I have not encountered in some time. It weighs half as much as Ada does and contains useful diagrams and algebraic formulae describing the possible ways in which Colonel Moran might have shot a wax bust of Holmes through a second-story window without also shooting out the lamp casting the shadow of the bust or hitting the ceiling rather than the far wall of the room.  Thanks for the recommendation, Katherine!

4. There are sixteen days remaining before Christmas. I’m not panicking, though, because I have not yet taken stock of the number of gifts remaining to be knitted. This is for the best, I’m sure.

Here’s what I’m knitting right now. This year’s Sarah-Katrin Christmas exchange was dialed down to 5 — a new baby and a half-time job don’t leave me quite enough time to take on a whole sweater, as we’ve done in years past. And anyway, Katrin’s racing to finish the most enviable sample knit. So we’ve decided on a nice, easy triangular shawl pattern: Kristen Hanley Cardozo’s Clothilde, which I’ve been wanting to knit since she first published it. I had a nice slate grey cashmere blend from School Products marinating in the stash; Katrin chose this fabulous, fabulous Tosh Merino Light in “tart.” People, I could knit this yarn till the cows come home. Stinking FABULOUS, I tell you. That is all.

(No, I didn’t knit this relic from my childhood… and my mother’s not sure who did. Intriguingly, it seems to be an example of Armenian knitting — the contrast color is stranded and trapped behind even when it isn’t in use, which makes the hat warmer. And Ada’s was made by someone in Peru.)

Snowy woods. Early twilight. Pies in the oven of spiced pumpkin and of apple, ginger, and lingonberries. Baby napping near a space heater (not too near, and tended by her father, lest you should worry for her safety!). Wool on the needles. Singing through the tattered 1947 Fireside Book of Folk Songs (charmingly illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen in their very first job) with my mother while slicing apples. (You’d never believe what Sweet Betsy from Pike was up to in this version.) The cherry tree busy with birds — rufous-sided towhees, juncos, fox sparrows, chestnut-backed chickadees, and my favorite nuthatches — waiting their turn for the feeder. Family drawing close around the wood stove.

A good Thanksgiving to you, whether or not you’re celebrating a national holiday today.

This has been finished for almost a month… my friends are pointing out that I’ve been a negligent blogger lately, and it’s the truth! I love this shawl, though. It’s another Akimbo — I knew I wanted one for myself as soon as I tried on my brother’s. I still had plenty of Socks That Rock in Pond Scum for the edging; the teal is some flydesigns Monarch that’s been marinating in the stash since… oh, probably 2007. Back when you could get it in 660-yard skeins, anyway.

I went up a needle size to US #7 to achieve a slightly larger size, and I think it was a good decision. I also think I should stand in front of orange walls while wearing it as often as possible. (Especially if those walls stand in proximity to amazing scones.) Although it’s nice against brown, too:

In other knitting news, I’ve finally picked up the Tomten jacket I’ve been knitting for the last eighteen months in an effort to finish it for my nephew’s Christmas. I decided it needed some jacquard patterning at the shoulders a la Franklin Habit, so more on that soon. (Pssst… how do you make an accent grave in WordPress?)