A semi-quiet weekend here at String. 

First, progress on my Dragon Stole, which I’ve modded to include the central undine from its pattern’s ultimate ancestor:

Mods include the star above the beastie’s eye, the large flower in front of it, and beginning of the mermaid at the right. 

You can see that my spool of Valley Yarns Tencel 8/2 has been barely diminished by all this knitting.  The tencel is quite easy to work with, a bit slippery compared to cotton (which for me is a good thing), but less slippery than rayon.  It doesn’t roll back on itself to kink, even coming off the cone.  Being about half done at this point, I estimate that my cone, claimed by Webs to have 3360 yards on it, will be ample for 8-10 shawls of this size.  At around $25 for the cone, I’d rate it as a very good buy. Aside – if you’re budget challenged or packing for an extended stay somewhere, consider taking up lace knitting.  Lace offers the most knitting satisfaction per dollar invested on materials, and per square inch of suitcase space.

Then, coincident with the Indian nation’s Republic Day, Younger Daughter’s school had their annual field day – a morning of track and field events pitting the Indus International School’s various houses against each other.  Phoenix, Orion, Hercules, and Pegasus have vied all year for points in academics, debating, deportment, and sporting events, just like at Hogwarts.  Field day is the culmination of the annual competition.

Assignment to the houses appears to be pretty arbitrary, no sorting hat here.  Younger Daughter was shuffled off to Hercules on the whim of the admitting administrator.  Hercules took first place in the day’s marching.  Here they are, behind their blue flag:

Perhaps the most fun of the day was the kids vs. faculty tug of war, where (no surprise) the myrmidons of the massed houses triumphed over their long-suffering teachers.  Younger Daughter’s sense of triumph is palpable:

Phoenix house won the 2012 house trophy.  I hear the kids are already plotting new domination strategies for 2013.