Summer at UC Ewok Village

I've been back for a while and have no excuses as to why I haven't been blogging, so I'll just jump right to the good stuff.

France was incredible. Nice is one of the most wonderful places I've ever visited and I was delightfully surprised by Marseilles. Now that I'm preparing my lectures for World History through Food, I'm discovering what a key role Marseilles or Massalia has played in the last 2500 or so years, and I'm even more impressed.





Lily and Erik's wedding was equally wonderful. Going from France to MT was a bit of a culture shock, but I think we adapted pretty well. It was wonderful to be part of a couple's public expression of their happiness with, love for, and commitment to each other. And, I've been inspired to start quilting again. It may be a while b/c of the knitting projects, but I was really blown away by Lily's work.



Speaking of knitting, Rogue is going to be the death of me. After installing (badly) the wrong zipper (it's for a cardigan and I bought a zipper that you can't open, sort of like on pants), I tried it on and its still too big. The bust actually fits fine, but the hips and waist are quite large. I think I'm smaller than I think I am, and I think that the ease is greater than I anticipated. I also think it expanded when I blocked it. My gauge is dead on, or was until I blocked it (I checked the whole time!). And the finishing needs work. I'll post pics tomorrow, still too down about the never-ending sweater that everyone and their mother swore was "easy", to do so today. My goal is to fix the finishing, hem, and then felt/block. (warm to hot water with a little poking, then into cold water, and then trying to block it smaller than it currently is).

Now I'm back in SC, prepping for lectures that begin next week and trying to stay warm. Seriously, our highs have been in the low 70s and it's cloudy and cold every morning. Not that I want it to be deathly hot or anything, but I figured that since its summer I'd be able to put away some of the sweatshirts and wear a few dresses. Not so much.

Finally, I have a new blogger template that I love, but it'll take me a while to migrate a couple of the elements from the old format over to this one.