Take my mind off my dissertation

Things have been busy here with writing, and preparations for my dissertation proposal defense. It has been scheduled for next Tuesday, April 7th and my committee members are now in possession of my manuscript. The only thing left to do before my defense is prepare the .ppt and practice it. In the last month I've also finished up a book that I am writing with my advisor on administrative diversity and we submitted another manuscript for review to a journal. Yes, I've been very, very busy. Sadly, that means less time knitting - but I certainly have been dreaming up new projects. See here and here.

I have been exhausted at the end of each day so I needed some mindless knitting that would take my mind off the keyboard and re-center me on the important things like spending time with my husband and enjoying my kids while they play. I settled on a pink sock series - for kids (thank you Ann Budd). I've finished up one full pair, and am about 75% done with the second pair. I had fully intended to make a third pair for my youngest, but with spring/summer coming I think that I might hold off for a bit. They would make for a quick summer project anyway.

Before the writing began I was also able to complete one of the no-purl monkey socks and have just cast-on for the second. There's no rush to get these done and I'm enjoying the slow pace of these projects. I don't usually like to have lots of projects on my needles at the same time, but having lots of socks, at various stages of completion, gives me the option to pick up a project at lots of different points. If I feel the need to finish something, I can pick-up the kids sock. If I just want to sit and knit, I can cast-on the other monkey sock and get going.