On the road again

I tell you, I don't think I can take any more meetings. Aren't I supposed to be a teacher? I mean, I'm pretty sure that was what it said when I applied for the job. It didn't say anything about endless meetings. Nope, definitely not. There's no way I would have signed up for that.

The worst is that many of these have been non-knitting meetings. So I don't even have a) the feeling of having accomplished something even during the meetings that involve talking in circles, or b) that little something that helps me to pause that crucial moment between thinking something and opening my mouth. I say far fewer stupid or impolitic things when knitting during meetings than I do when I'm not. This is especially true when I've been in four hours' worth of meetings in a row, as I was today, after which I had to impose an email moratorium on myself, lest I say something truly stupid in documentable form.

I have been making progress on Gust, though. It is a very nice knit; the pattern is memorizable, and the yarn entertains me with its color shifts -- I keep looking to see what will come next. I've decided to get a bit further with it, and then to cast on for the second Violets Rising sock for Older Daughter, and after that's done, to finish Rick's second sock. Meanwhile, I am on a mission, a mission with which you can perhaps help me. It goes like this.

I want to knit Irtfa'a. I still love the motifs, even after knitting Simurgh, and I have always wanted to knit a shawl with faroese shaping, and judging by the fact that I keep revisiting pictures of it and admiring the ones knit by others, this is the one for me. I want to knit it not in a ravenesque colorway, as I did with Simurgh, but in colors like those of a kestrel. I adore raptors in general, but there's something about kestrels that really captures my imagination. Maybe it's their small size and spunk (over-identification? see above discussion about impolitic comments). Maybe it's the way they are able to hover, mid-air, by beating their wings like figure eights in the air. Whatever it is, I think that finding a yarn with those colors would make a lovely summertime shawl, and I'm on a mission. What does a kestrel look like you say? Why, like this.

Lovely, no? There are more pictures here; I won't inundate you with them here. I have this theory that somewhere I'm going to find a laceweight yarn, more of the wool sort than the silk sort, with the same beige/tan/grey/blue shades of this bird. Wishful thinking? I'd like to believe it's not. But meanwhile, it gives me something to look for, eh? It's a way to prolong the knitting pleasure.

I also finished spinning the beautiful silk that Wanda sent me, using my turkish spindle. I'm hoping I'll get to ply it soon. It's a relatively small amount, and I'm considering knitting an i-cord bracelet for myself with it, which seems like a fun way to keep something beautiful and some of my spinning around me, all at the same time. I'll post a picture of it next time.

Meanwhile, I'm off to Fresno tomorrow evening and Thursday to do fieldwork, so I probably won't get to post again until Friday. I'll be taking some knitting with me, so maybe there will be time in the car to get something done. In the meantime, I do believe that a glass of port and a piece of dark chocolate are waiting for me next to my knitting chair.