Heading to NY tomorrow

Mom has an appointment with a cardiologist to try to find the cause of her loss of consciousness last month and I am going to drive up there tomorrow to go with her. I'll feel much better if I can make sure he gets all the info about what happened and also get all of the info he gives her about his thoughts and plans. The only way that will happen is if I go there. I will drive up in the morning after rush hour, spend the night, go to the appointment with her on Tuesday and drive home, planning to go into work a little bit late on Wednesday.

My dye has arrived so I'll be heading out to the storage area in a little while to find the fiber to be dyed black. This black fiber will be spun and plied with the other spun fiber from the TdF to as the third ply for two nice three ply yarns with good yardage for some still undecided project this winter. Also, the almost solid Wensleydale fiber arrived yesterday and can now be spindle spun, to be plied with the perfect storm into (I hope) a lace weight yarn for a small shawl. I am still spinning the silk, but not as fast as during the TdF.

On the knitting front, I finally bit the bullet and figured out the sleeve on the Slinky Ribs top. It went smoothly despite my concerns about not really understanding the instructions and I have several inches of sleeve knitted up. I plan to knit 3/4 length sleeves but will try the top on several times to see what I think.

The V neck cardigan sleeve is growing but not as fast now that the weather has gotten a little more bearable and we are spending more time outdoors. It's a large, warm project to sit in my lap out doors, so I only work on it inside.

Rob's afghan grew some yesterday while we spent a gorgeous day on the boat. I knitted 2.5 squares.

I frogged the wrap/laprobe with my hand spun yarn. I wasn't happy with the look of what I was getting and I like the yarn too much to make something with it just to use it up. I'll have to rethink that idea. On the other hand, I cast on another project. Apparently I have a case of startitis, although in this case it was balanced by ending a project, so maybe that doesn't count. ; )

I have some hand dyed cotton rayon yarn by Roz Houseknecht that I purchased at MD Sheep and Wool Festival one year. It is dyed in deep jewel tones of blue, purple, bronze and green. I am making the Eliina Shawl with it. It looks good and it fits my needs right now. I want easy to knit - apparently lace knitting doesn't fit into my life right now, though I have no doubt that it will again. This shawl starts with lots of stockinette stitch with a few rows of decrease yo thrown in. When I get to the lace edging part, I hope I'll be ready. Otherwise it will go into the lace-in-waiting queue with Laminaria and the Curved Shawl with Diamond Edging from Victorian Lace Today.

I am hoping that October might be a finish up the lace month as well as finishing up socks on the needles or one of a kind that didn't get completed while on vacation in September. Vacation knitting is funny - I need small, portable projects, but I also need projects that are simple and that use at least sport weight yarn that can be knitted with little attention to needles or pattern for knitting on the boat and/or in the dark.

I can't update the blog very often these days. Blogs are blocked at work (I don't like it but I don't blame them) and it's hard to find time to sit at the computer in the evening after dinner, dishes, spending time with DH, doing some knitting or maybe a chore or two and getting to bed in time to get up at 5:15 and be at least semi-conscious on the drive into work. So, it's pretty much just weekends, and I don't even have pictures this weekend. there's not enough progress on anything to show off. I will have news about ribbons from the county fair knitting competition next week, though, or maybe I can sneak in a post from Mom's house tomorrow .....