And it IS a sweater!

What a week. I spent all day on Wednesday (and by all day, I mean from 9:30-5:30) in meetings. I did manage to find time for a bathroom break between two of the meetings (small blessings), and I got lucky at another meeting and ate a sandwich, but it was quite a day. (I should mention that my reward at the end of the day was to go to knit night; that really helped.) That wouldn't have been so bad, except that every other day this week has also included a meeting or two (not usually in my calendar) squeezed in between classes, or between other meetings and office hours, or... Some weeks are like that. All the meetings come at once.

The upshot is twofold:
a) I have had lots of knitting time (and many envious looks from non-knitters who have also been attending all of these meetings this week and just have to sit); and
b) I have had no blogging time to share the results of my knitting time (nor have I had any daylight hours to take pictures).

Tuesday's meetings gave me time to finish the neckline on the handspun sweater. I thought for sure I'd get home and be able to weave in the ends and call it done, but when I tried it on, I decided that I really didn't like the rolled bottom after all (very Jetsons; so Jetsons, in fact, that when I said I felt like someone from the Jetsons to Rick, he didn't say, "What do you mean?", he just started whistling the theme song instead), so I took out the cast-off edge and knitted a small seed-stitch border. I ended up having not only enough yarn for that, but even after adding the extra inch, I have a small bit left over in case I need to make any repairs or anything. So the sweater ended up taking under 1,000 yards of (heavy) worsted-weight yarn.

The pictures are just quick, non-daylight, shots. I'll work on some better ones when the weather is cooler and when I'm actually home during the day.
It seems to fit pretty well, and it blocked out nicely. It's soft enough that it didn't bother me to wear it over short sleeves (until I got too hot; we've had summer thunderstorms over the last day or so; it feels very East coast out here right now).
So there it is! This is definitely a casual sweater, rough-and-tumble, warm and, I hope, rugged. I think I'll get a lot of use out of this at soccer games and hiking and going to the mountains in the winter. But it's light enough (between the lace sleeves and the scoop neck) that I'll be able to wear it around here, which is good.

I also finished the Noro socks, and am very happy with my mismatched pair.
Alas, it has not been cool enough to wear either of the above out and about. Soon, I hope...

I spent most of Wednesday's meetings working on the Bermuda shawl, so maybe there will be pictures of that soon, too.

Meanwhile, today the girls and I head up to Sacramento to take my dad out for his 75th birthday, and to drag my mom and the girls to Lambtown. (Yes, Beverly, you guessed right, and please do come say hi to me if you see me! I'd love to get to meet you.) I'm really looking forward to it, both because there are events there that I haven't seen before (like a sheep-to-shawl competition), and because there are vendors there that I love (and I just got paid! my first non-furlough paycheck in a year! shopping!!), so I may treat myself to a few things (not a fleece, not a fleece, not a fleece; MUST spin the first fleece first).