Virginia or bust

The moving plans have shifted in over-drive. I have a month, plus 3 days (I leave July 23rd), before I load up a truck and start driving back east, like some sort of wagon trail or pioneer in reverse. The better part of the weekend was spent packing and sorting and repacking, but I am glad to say that all the nooks and cabinets in my living room have been unloaded and packed, and I have a massive heap of cloths, books, fabrics, and other stuff to get rid of. Hurray! Getting my fabric collection down to 2 25 gallon bins was quite an accomplishment. Now if only I had been able to reduced the yarn and fiber stash some, oh well. At least that will all get put to good use. Knitting and spinning keep me sane, I'm going to need that while in school.

The people I've been talking to to find apartments back there have been so freakishly nice! I don't get it. Of course, the whole world isn't like it is here, but these people have been so genuinely caring and helpful, I'm not quite sure what to do what myself. I have a lead on a good sounding townhouse, and a complex that's trying to find me a one bedroom that will work with my move schedule and budget.

I finished my pink sweater thing from White Lies. The crochet edge was sort of intimidating, and not made any better when I realized the written out pattern was missing a row, and I couldn't decipher the last row on the graphed version. Never mind that it doesn't really flow and ripple down the front like in the picture. Oh well. I figured it out, and it looks really cute. I just need to find something to wear it with. A little black dress or something would be very cute. The whole thing is more cropped in front that I thought it would be, possibly because my boobs are larger than the pattern models (which seems to be the case most of the time), but it should still be ok with jeans and a tank top.

I've made very little progress on the actual charting for the new orenburg shawl project. I do have some ideas, so that's a step in a direction anyway. The theoretical part of the design process always takes me the longest. Once I've worked out what I'm trying to do, it goes pretty fast. So far, I think I'm going to do a double border palatine with an all over design in the middle section. I'll use interlocking hearts and a snowflake pattern for the boarders, and then something open and airy for the middle. I just need to chart out the borders so I know what kind of stitch counts I'm working with in the middle section.