School's In For Winter

Grad school is back in session. Sitting waiting for my research class to start, I knit on a plain sock in self-striping wool to easy the panic in my stomach.

Last semester it was this class that drove me to the brink of insanity and a short trip in the white car in the funny jacket. Research meets once a week and is basically three hours of pure, unadulterated hell. We all sit glued to computers as the professor reads the powerpoint off to us - FOR THREE HOURS!

Now, I am quite sure I learned how to read before first grade. I am also confident that my ability to read is not impeded by the words being projected on a giant screen (I have seen a few movies with subtitles and coped very well, thank you very much.) or as they scroll by on a computer screen.

As if that isn't annoying enough, I also have to deal with the fact that the major assumption is that the students know how to do this stuff already and are paying a premium and giving up three hours of their lives every week to hear someone read a power point presentation because we are independently wealthy and lead boring lives.

News flash - if I knew how to do this stuff, I wouldn't be going to school. If I knew how to do this stuff, I would have found a cure for cancer instead of spending Friday mornings being read a bedtime story.

Enough about that. I have fifteen more weeks to freak out about that. Don't want to blow through all my angst, frustration, panic, and feelings of inadequacy all in the first day.

As if our lives weren't insane enough, Hubby has decided to go back to school to pursue a graduate certificate in computer something or other. I am not sure our apartment is big enough for two people in grad school, but at least our schedules mesh better than last semester.

Enough talk of my school trauma and on to knitting trauma.

Over the holidays, because I felt guilty about Hubby riding the bus in the afternoons, I knit Hubby the dickey / neckwarmer from the latest issue of Knitter's in a brown and ecru marled Mission Falls 1824. The yarn is soft and the pattern very simple, quick and satisfying. There is just enough interest in the shoulder shaping to make it a delightful weekend of knitting. I gave it to Hubby and he tried it on. It fit perfectly and looked good on him. I thought he would at least say thank you or something else complementary. He did not. No. He said, and I quote, "It needs a hood on it before I will wear it." At that moment I thought what it would take to get the thing to choke him, but, alas I don't have telekinetic powers.

So, I have been working on a prototype that has a hood. In theory it has not been difficult. Implementation, however, has been a puzzle. I just about have it worked out. Hubby has been trying on the prototype to ensure the design is wearable. He is a most reluctant model. Too bad, such is the wages of the complainy pants.