As we were driving back from Voroneț to Iași, my aunt remarked that I had clearly been working on multiple things over the holiday and asked just how many I brought with me. And was I working on all of them? Or had I finished that red yarn before I started on the lighter colored one? I explained that I was working on all in turns, as fit various circumstances. I was hardly going to work on a beaded lace shawl in the car, was I? And the red yarn was still being spun from top into singles, while the light colored yarn was three singles being plied together.
So, I thought you might enjoy a little update on how I progressed on my projects. First up, my spinning:
I made some really nice progress on both projects here. The red wool is I think more than half way done with this cop. I might even have to end early as the cop is getting heavy and harder to spin. I’ll weigh the spindle to see how much I have on there before I decide. Plying is also well under way, though there is still a considerable amount left to go. Plying never has been, and I doubt ever will be, my favorite part of spinning. But it must be done, and the ply ball certainly makes it less miserable. It’s also a good choice after imbibing in alcoholic beverages. I find the finer motor skills needed for spinning go first and can be impaired even by modest drinking, while I can continue to knit (as long as it’s not a particularly complex pattern) or ply.
And we had to try some of the local beverages:
You’ll notice that both are in what appear to be reused 2L water bottles. The clear one is țuică, made from plums. While alcohol content can vary, the one we had was definitely intense, and one little shot was more than enough for me and my throat. The red is vișinată, usually homemade (in this case by my aunt) from sour cherries and uses either vodka or țuică for the alcohol. I thought it was pretty tasty, and was happy to indulge in a couple more small glasses of this over the holiday.
Knitting was a more mixed bag. I was able to start, and made some visible, if painstakingly slow, progress on the beaded lace shawl. What you see below is just over 1/6th of the lace edging completed. Yeah, this is going to be a long term project. But, it looks great so I think it’ll be worth it. The beads look exactly as I’d hoped with the yarn. I’ve been thinking of it as my “Solstice Shawl” since I started it on the Midwinter Solstice and the colors remind me of the midwinter skies at twilight.
The cowl I started on the plane was making great progress until I decided I wasn’t happy with it. I spend some time yesterday ripping back about 2.5 in of cowl and winding the yarn back into a center pull on my fingers. You can get a sense of how much I ripped back from the “smaller” white ball of yarn sitting on top of the original cake. This however is the price to be paid for making up the pattern as I go along.
Probably you have all forgotten, but just in case: yes, I had a fifth project packed in my bag. Yes, it’s the socks I started back in November on my last trip. No, I didn’t really make any progress. I got about 2-3 rows done in the car before I realized the dark yarn, small pattern, and low winter sun made it a terrible car project right now. And when I was at my aunt’s…. well, beads were far more interesting.
So, that about sums up the crafting I got done during my travels. We are home now, much to the our cat’s delight, and have had a quiet weekend. I’m trying not to think too much about all the laundry in our future, but we did get the sweeping done so the apartment has been “de-furred”.