Tomorrow we’re heading across the country to spend a week in Connecticut, visiting my husband’s family there. We have some long flights ahead of us, so I’ve been planning my knitting.

I’ll work on one handspun shawl, Textured Shawl Recipe by Orlane (I’ve made this pattern before and loved the result!).  

I also have a pair of socks I plan to knit with this Steven Be yarn that I bought at his shop in 2015.  The colorway is “Cunning,” a la Jayne Hat. 😜. I’m not sure if I’ll make them plain vanilla or do a quick search for sock patterns that are good for variegated yarn with short repeats. 🤔. If you have any suggestions, let me know!

I’ve prepared lots of snacks and activities for the kids during the long flights, but please wish me luck anyway! 

Inspired by a friend on IG, I decided to take out my spinning wheel tonight, for the first time in ages! 

I took the pink and purple bits from a “Three feet of sheep” package I bought in Wisconsin in the summer of 2015. 

Apparently I have no problem spinning super thin yarn, even when it’s been a while. Yeah, I’ve still got it! 😜

Done! 

And on a birthday party and art show opening day, no less.

I’m pretty sure that I hit an aha! moment today. I’ve been knitting along on my Ishbel shawlette, but having consistent troubles with the edge and middle numbers.  One was too big, the other too little. Well, I think my problem was using markers between the edge and main patterns, expecting them to stay at the same count, but the edge stitches are always increasing, and the lace pattern still  isn’t appearing…

So I think that all I have to do is frog back to the beginning of the lace pattern  and omit the edge marker.

Right? 

This seems to be the slowest pair of vanilla socks that ever was.  Finally, at a meeting tonight, I turned the second heel. This never happens at these preschool meetings, but tonight I was sitting next to another knitter/mom, who, halfway through the meeting, looked hard at my work and exclaimed, “have you been turning a heel?”  It’s nice to have one’s (small) accomplishments recognized. 😜

This morning I attended a rally:

To remember (thank you, Sandra Lee Fewer for your words): don’t be complacent! Issues that we thought were over and decided, regarding women’s rights, we still/again have to fight for! Si, se puede! 

And in the evening I turned a heel:

I’m pretty tired! 

I finished the body of my sweater and moved on to sleeve #1 today!

My knitting WIPs are getting plenty of attention, but this weekend I decided to squeeze in some sewing.

I’m using a “scrap bag” of Moda fabrics I bought a few years ago.  All I could see through the small window of the bag was the white fabric with cows on it. I had thought they were deer (crazy, right? I look at fabrics more closely these days), so I imagined the bag would be full of cute, quirky woodland-themed fabrics, but I got dairy-themed ones!

I was making decent progress today until my iron suddenly made a popping noise, then a burning smell, and I realized that the cord had broken/melted(?) in half, and the iron was history. 

As long as I remember to buy a new iron tomorrow, this should be a quick project!   

My WIPs aren’t that exciting right now, and 2/3 of them happen to be dark projects that don’t photograph well at night. Today I was lucky enough to have some free time to take pictures with good lighting, so here’s a WIP update!

My Time Traveller socks are coming along fine. I can probably start the heels soon.

After I took the following photo, I started the vine lace pattern on my Ishbel shawl. So far, so good.

And here’s my Flax sweater. It’s such a simple pattern, but for this busy yarn, I think it’s a good choice. The stockinette is so easy I even knitted during a Parent Ed meeting  last night, during which we watched a video with the lights turned off.  

And my fourth WIP, the Project Peace cowl, well, I frogged it a few days ago.  I found it boring and it hurt my hands, so I didn’t  think it was worth it.  

Happy knitting!