Works in progress

Hooray for magic loop. I am really pleased with the way the hat is coming along, and the magic loop method deserves a lot of the credit. If I'd been knitting this on dpns, I expect I'd have ladders in it. As it stands, this is looking like something someone might actually pay for.

The long tail cast on gives the hat a neat edge, and the k6, p2 ribbing makes for a nice design. I want to have the hat finished now. The knitting of it is taking longer because the last stitches are exceptionally tight on the needle and don't like to slide as easily as the rest. I'm slightly concerned that the hat might not be big enough. It's pretty stretchy, though, so it should be fine. Heaven forbid the day when I make something that must fit. I have a feeling that much anguish will result.

The scarf is also showing good, if a bit slow, progress. I'm not worried about finishing it in time to send to my International Scarf Exchange 5 pal, but knowing how the last couple weeks haven't been the most productive knitting-wise, the fear whispers to me. I'm not completely in love with the pattern. Having already scrapped one pattern and frogged this a couple times to obtain the proper width, I think I'm stuck with what I've chosen. It's nothing against the pattern. I just think I may get bored with it.

It's less than a month until my airport and airplane knitting endeavor, but it won't be done to eat up time waiting on standby for a flight. I found out that my sister-in-law will be switching jobs. Naturally, when she leaves the airline, she loses the reduced travel rate benefit that extends to family members. I knew she was looking, so this wasn't unexpected news. It might have been fun to play The Amazing Race mini-game of "will I squeeze onto this flight?", but since I would have had zero persuasive power in the matter, it would have lost a lot of the luster. Knowing that I won't face several hours of waiting is kind of a relief. Plus, I won't have to abide by the airline's dress code for the program, although I suppose I'd accept wearing less comfortable shoes to save eighty bucks.