These last two weeks have been all about reading and writing. I mentioned my papers in my last post and thankfully I have four papers under my belt and only one due next week. Getting in the groove is starting to happen but some days I think it will never happen. Lack of sleep does tend to put a strange angle on life at times. This week I planned out every day in a reasonable way and have managed to stick to it. At this rate, I’ll have all of my readings done by Friday evening. Of course, I’ll have reading responses that will need to be written this weekend for one class but the readings will be done.

Last Saturday, I had a wonderful day with S sewing. I got some work done on the quilt that I’m making. Over the last week, I’ve also knitted quite a bit on the Demin baby project during study breaks and knit night. With a little time in the car this weekend, I’ll probably be near completion on the Demin baby project. Sunday, I’m planning on sewing in the evening. Maybe this weekend, I’ll finally get to two of the skirts that I finished back in July but never hemmed. With autumn weather quickly approaching I only have a few more weeks to wear them. I’m really itching to get myself back into knitting the Martha sweater. It’s been so long I don’t even remember where I left off with Martha.

With October comes Socktoberfest and the desire to start a new pair of socks. I’m thinking I know what I want to knit and it’s a cute pair of anklets. My goal this year is to finish one sock since I’m not sure I’ll have the time to knit a pair in October. Last year I managed to finish a pair in 27 days but that was with a lot of time on my hands.

The baby quilt and the Moderne Baby Blanket have both arrived at their respective homes. The response to both has been overwhelmingly positive, as I figured it would be. At the home of the Moderne Baby blanket, the dad wrapped himself up in it and fell asleep. If that’s not a compliment, I don’t know what is.

I love these moments I’ve been having lately. They’re moments where I get off the bus, I’m walking through campus and it dawns on me, “I’m in grad school.” Yes, I’ve been in school for about five weeks but these moments are interesting. For years I’ve thought about going back to school and wondered what would it be like. This morning as I was walking to the library, an image of what I’d thought grad school would be like immediately flashed in my head and everything seemed so right. Do you ever have moments where you suddenly feel, “this is exactly where I’m supposed to be”? In my mind, I didn’t expect to be married while in grad school but I’m very happy that I have Bryan to keep me sane.

This past weekend was a busy one of readings, papers and a tiny bit of knitting. My first grad school paper was due on Monday and I handed it in early on Sunday night. (We post our papers online, which saves some headaches and the panic of getting to campus without my paper.) Wednesday, my second paper was due and next week I have two more papers. These first two papers were a bit challenging, just getting words on the page can be so daunting. Now I feel like I can get the next two done without any problems. The paper due this coming Monday is really interesting. I have to research an organization for my intellectual freedom class and discuss how they would be an ally in a book challenge situation. I’m researching the American Booksellers Association, an association of independent booksellers, which has been really interesting. The entire intellectual freedom class has really made me more aware of books that are currently being challenged and what it means for librarians. There are two challenges in the news now in Maine and Alabama.

Onto other news, I finally sent off the quilt to its rightful owners, baby (born in June) and mother received the blanket on Monday, I can show it off here now. It’s my first quilt and I’m quite proud of it. I’m working on my second quilt and it’s another secret project. I’m hoping to get some serious work done on it this Saturday during my Saturday Sew-over with S.

Last week, I also started another baby project in Rowan Demin, which is going quite quickly. The baby was born in May so I’m hoping to get it to the mother soon. There are so many babies being born this year that’s it’s been quite difficult to keep up.

Well, I’ve managed to survive two weeks of classes. There have been meltdowns and self doubts about getting through school but yesterday it all seemed to come together. I’m truly enjoying my classes, especially Children’s Lit. What isn’t fun about reading picture books for class? Today, we discussed the picture books we read for class and I had one of those “this is totally what library school is supposed to be about for me” moments. In my readings for today, I discovered a few picture books that have come on the scene since my childhood that I really liked, such as Good Night, Good Knight, The Princess and the Pea, which has my favorite artwork of all of them, and No, David!. And I’ve also rediscovered some books such as Where the Wild Things Are, My Friend Rabbit and a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin that I hadn’t read before. (I always remember the Rumpelstiltskin my parents read to me as a child that was illustrated by Edward Gorey, which is still how I envision the little man.)

There have also been the serious library school readings about information that had my head swimming a few weeks ago. It’s all about reawakening that intellectual mind of mine that’s been sleeping in the back of my head for over 10 years. (I didn’t need it when I was getting my computer science degree, that called for the practical mind.) My first paper is due in about twelve days and I’m nervous about it but know that I’m fully capable of writing 800 words easily.

My assistantship at the reference desk is going well and I’m starting to get a handle on how to answer some questions with confidence. It’s definitely challenging and I’ve learned so much in the last two weeks at the desk.

My knitting and sewing have suffered a bit from my busyness with school, as I completely expected they would. I did manage to finish the Moderne Baby Blanket two weeks ago and blocked it last week but just got around to taking photos today. I’m also making myself work on the Go With the Flow socks, which are almost finished. Last night as I was working on the socks at knit night, I realized I made a somewhat blaring mistake that I refuse to fix. On one sock there are four lace ribs on top of the foot and on the other sock there are five lace ribs. I’m so close to being finished with my third sock of the pair (I had to reknit one of the feet) that I’m leaving them as is and calling it a design element. (Photos of evidence coming soon.) Just before school started I started another quilt that’s a bit of a funky monkey quilt but that will have to be for another day.

My goals this weekend are to get all of my readings finished for my Monday classes, finish the Go With the Flow sock, hem two skirts, and possibly work on the panel skirt that I started and have neglected since mid-July. It’s a lot but if I put my mind to it I think I can do it.

Since I’m so immersed into the whole library thing now, I love finding random library-related things now, such as this song that I found out about on The Shifted Librarian blog.