Back to Normal

Judging by the traffic this morning, the city is getting back to normal. In fact, I'm pretty sure every single resident was on the freeway this morning while I was driving to work. The main evacuation center, Qualcomm Stadium, was put back into service for its intended use - a football game. As further proof, I saw some engines from a northern California fire department heading home.

It's nice to see, although I will say that the slower pace of life was kind of a welcome break last week, since I was not personally affected by the fires in any way. Now, it's back to business, back to school for the first time in almost two weeks.

I've been knitting away like a maniac on my Central Park Hoodie. I've finished the back and both of the fronts. I cast on for the first sleeve on Saturday and here's my progress:



I didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted yesterday because I spent about 9 hours doing homework yesterday! I've still got more to do this afternoon before my class tonight. Am I almost done with this school thing?!

I've also begun thinking about my mom's Christmas gift. Over the summer, she brought yarn home from a trip to Cambria, CA that she asked me to turn into something - a shawl, wrap or more likely a scarf since I only have 165 yards. Here's the yarn:



Isn't that a lovely photo? It's so dark, you can barely make out the colors. I'm hoping to remedy that this week with the purchase of a modest, but new digital camera. Mine dates back to 2002 and it's really ready to retire. Anyway, I have a couple of ideas that I got from Ravelry: this and this. The yarn is fairly busy, so I think something to work well with that would be best. Any preferences?

Finally, it looks like it's going to be 70 degrees tomorrow, so it might actually be cool enough to wear Wicked. I think wool and 90 degree weather don't go together well, so Wicked has been sitting folded on my dresser waiting for its debut. When I tried it on after blocking, it seemed to fit really well, so I'm so excited to wear it!