A week of finishing, and fate

I had the past week off from work, and while much of it was taken up with a trip out of town, I had some time to get some good work on knitting projects done as well. So there's quite a bit to show today.

First off, I finally got all those ends woven in on Tubey yesterday, and I wore it out to a movie last night. I do like it. Definitely a "va-va-vavoom" type sweater, so it's more for going out than wearing to work. Here it is:





Pattern: Tubey, from Knitty
Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Wool
Needles: Size 8 circs and dpns

I also made progress on a project that's been languishing over in the sidebar since, well, since longer than this blog has been here. I started it in the summer of 2004. It's the cross strap tank from the cover of that year's summer VK. I didn't finish it before the weather got cold that year, and so it got pushed to the bottom of the barrel, and then I didn't work on it because I dreaded it. It was on aluminum needles and is a synthetic yarn, double stranded (Lana Grossa Rotonda) so it wasn't the most pleasant knitting.

Turns out though, I was nearly done with it, and when I picked it back up this past week, I had a harder time figuring out where I was in the pattern than actually finishing up the work. I still need to graft the straps (the pattern calls for grafting, but I might do a three-needle bindoff) and sew the side seams, but the knitting itself is done!



My other major progress this week was made on my socks for my Sockapaloooza pal. I'm using a pattern from the knitting pattern a day calendar.
I cast the first one on while waiting for my plane last Sunday. This is where I was by the time I reached my destination a few hours later:



I worked on that off and on last week, while alternating with other projects (I also cast on for the White Lies Angelina jacket, finally) and then really started making headway again on my way back.

There was one small detour though.

See, I had several hours to kill while on my way to the airport on Wednesday, so I decided to get off at a random Metro stop (I was in the DC area) and find something to do. Originally, I'd planned to go down to the Lincoln Memorial or something, but I knew I'd be hitting rush hour with all my luggage, so I just decided to get off at the Bethesda stop instead, and to go get some coffee and knit. I found a coffee shop and as I started to walk towards it, noticed a little something in the rear of the building:



That's a little shop called "Knit + Stitch = Bliss" in Bethesda. I went in, and they were having a great sale on lots of stuff, so I picked up quite a few things, including some Point 5 and Koigu. There were several women in the shop who thought it was just as bizarre as I did that I managed to find an LYS on a random train stop, so we got a good laugh out of that.

Then I went downstairs and worked on my sock with some coffee:


Sorry about the quality on that one--camera phone. Oh, and yeah, I was in a Starbucks. I had a gift certificate.

Funnily enough, a couple of the women from the yarn shop ended up coming in and sitting down at the next table a few minutes later, so we had an impromptu Stitch n' Bitch session. How cool.

I managed to finish the last round of the toe, just as my plane touched down back in Columbus. I tried to snap a photo of that in action, but, alas, it was dark by that point and my camera phone didn't do a great job. I kitchenered the toe yesterday, so now I just need to make the second one. Hooray!