between things

It was a busy end of October wrapping up everything at work, cheering on the Giants in the World Series, and moving back to Palo Alto. That's right… I'm back home for good! This last year in Sacramento was amazing and enlightening and all sorts of other positive adjectives and superlatives, but I'm happy to be back to our little nest in Palo Alto. I'm not sure what's next for me other than something interesting and exciting, but for now I'm enjoying the in between. 

The boxes are half unpacked, and husband and cats are happy at the prospect of seeing me during the week. So of course the first thing I did was book a two week trip to Chicago to visit my parents for my birthday. As I write this I am mid-trip enjoying the fall colors outside and the cosy couch inside. 

Of course, no trip for me is complete without some yarn in hand. I brought along my current favorite project and have made a lot of progress! Airports and plane rides are some of my favorite opportunities to get hours of knitting in, with breaks of course! I managed to get my yarn into quite a tangle on the plane, though, since I was sitting in the middle seat trying to negotiate a persnickety section of the ball of Malvin while not elbowing my neighbors. Argh. I spent a big chunk of that flight just trying to unknot things rather than knitting. I wonder if my seat mates were amused? In the end I wound up breaking the yarn in a couple places and re-joining when I untangled the mess after getting home. I hope my spit-felting will hold!

One of the primary hesitations I had when deciding on this project for this yarn was that the variegated yarn would look funky with the short row design. Above is a picture of one short row section, and it actually looks just fine. Of course they are all different in how the colors pool, but it's not a weird super obvious spiral effect like I feared. I can tell because of the stitch angles, but I don't think that is an issue specific to the variegated yarn, I see it in the other sections too. I'm sure it will read just fine when all is said and done and I'm not scrutinizing it but wearing it.

I'm in the fourth section of seven and the inches are starting to go by faster as the rows get shorter. This far in I'm finally convinced about the color combo and I think it's going to turn into something I am really going to love. Didn't really notice how big it has gotten until I laid it out to snap this picture, it's gonna be a doozie! I'm sure I'll get lots more done while I'm here; the stockinette goes by fast and I've gotten the hang of the pattern so I don't have to think about it too much. That of course gives me the opportunity to let my mind wander, reflect, and ruminate on the future which is what this trip is all about!