And I'm off (again)

Remember last week, when I said that Fries was my last fiddler's convention until my friends' convention in October? Well... I lied. I knew I'd be going away this weekend -- Julie and I are scheduled to dance on Sunday at the Clear Creek Festival in Berea Kentucky (scroll down to the bottom -- see on Sunday at 2 p.m. when "Hell or High Water" is scheduled? Yeah. That's us). But yesterday, Julie called me up and convinced me that on the way to Berea, we should stop by Laurel Bloomery, TN and spend one night at their fiddler's convention. Just enough time to dance in their flatfoot competition, stay up all night dancing and making a rukus, and then drive off to Berea to hang out with more friends and dance our exhibition dance on Sunday. It didn't take much arm twisting.

So... not much knitting to show (the foot of that sock is killing me!), but I have been getting some prep work done for my fall knitting... swatching, a little designing, and a lot of hanking, washing, and rewinding cone yarn I ordered from Webs. Ugh, it's so disgusting on the cone. I hope it will soften a lot with a good wash or three. But it's a beautiful color, and I've got some nice projects in mind...

Oh, and for those of you (mom) who mighte worried that I'm not getting work done -- don't. The dissertation writing preparation is coming along nicely. I leave next week for a two week trip to Philly to meet with my advisors, take advantage of the library (and Trader Joe's!), and generally get ready to what I expect to be a marathon fall. Yes, this is the time when I start to write the dreaded dissertation (and I'm not even done researching yet!). But I have grant applications due this fall that require a completed chapter (just writing that makes my heart start racing), not to menion the paper for the hawaii conference... So, I'm in training for the "getting down to business" that must happen come September. These next two weekends are like my last hurrah until winter break. I plan to live it up!

More when I get back from Kentucky...