Weekend at home

I think deciding to stay home and work on various projects - rather than running around, burning gas and spending money - was a good idea. I feel much more rested than I probably would otherwise.

And I got a bunch of stuff done. I started the second "Elegant Sock" and I also finished the first of the cable and leaf lace socks:



Like a lot of lace socks, it doesn't really come "alive" until you put it on. (It's kind of like blocking, in a way - a lace shawl looks like kind of a crumpled mess until you stretch it out in the blocking process. Well, lace socks get stretched on the foot, so it's almost like they're being blocked as you wear them).

I also devoted a lot of time to working on the Miss Marple shawl. I don't think I've shown a photo of it on here yet; it's kind of hard to photograph as it is so large.



I call it the Miss Marple shawl because it's from an article in Piecework - they reprinted an old Weldon's pattern (the pattern from the shawl) from 1930 with the suggestion that it would be the sort of thing Miss Marple would knit. I decided to use the Silk Garden sockweight out of my stash for it. I like how the striping of the yarn sort of intersects with the striping of plain stockinette and the eyelet bands on the shawl. (Its real name is something like "Bands of stockinette and open-work")

I'm just over half-done with it, and I just attached the third of four balls of yarn I had. (I may still be racing the end to see if I have enough yarn, but if I don't, I think I might have some other sockweight yarn that would work for the very last bit of the last point if not).

The yarn has a pleasant "earthiness" to it; it's kind of grabby on the needles and has a slightly crunchy feel. (And some bits of vegetation in it here and there. And I got a tiny blister last evening - which recovered overnight - from where the yarn rubbed).

Here's a close up:



I also have a small bit of relief; I had been watching the floods nervously wondering if my train trip in a little over a week would still go. (I joined one of the train-discussion boards online just to keep up with it; people were talking about how they'd get phone calls telling them the run was cancelled on certain days). Amtrak called me today for an unrelated reason - trackwork in Illinois means I'll be riding a bus from St. Louis to Bloomington (no biggie that; I did that at Christmas) and I asked the woman if she knew if the Texas Eagle was running or if it was cancelled for flooding. She said, "I THINK it's running...let me check." I heard the sound of computer keys clicking and then she said, "Yes, we started running it full way again yesterday."

So, hopefully that means the waters are going down for everyone in Missouri. (And hopefully the waters will go down for the folks in Memphis soon; I've seen that flooding on the news). But I'm relieved to know that (barring anything else bad happening), I will be sleeping in my compartment on the train instead of trying to sleep on a bus - or instead of trying to drive to Illinois. (I think I could do it, if I drove over 2 days, but I don't relish the thought of trying to navigate my way onto Route 55 in St. Louis.)