Thing One and Thing Two

After a couple of days of rain, we are having beautiful weather today - breezy and not as humid with some delicious sunshine.  Woo hoo!

Zinnias my daughter cut from the back yard!

And....I'm pretty darn excited to be taking a little trip tomorrow to see my folks down on the Gulf Coast.  They live about 7 hours away so we can make it in half a day - very doable and I don't mind driving at all.  In fact, I prefer it to flying in most cases!

I'm taking two knitting projects along, regardless of whether or not I touch them while I'm away.  I hope I at least get a chance to sit on the porch swing for 10 minutes and knit 3 rows.

Project Numero Uno (while I don't speak Spanish, I did hear this phrase in a movie and it means number one)

Ecru Cable Pillow

 I had to do some digging to find just the right color of Ecru, and like buying paint, I had some choices to make.  There's off-white, cream, ecru, and about 30 other shades of it, as I looked through my stash.

30 shades of Cream

And because my twist is inconsistent, and the ply is not always two or three ply (makes a difference in thickness) I had to get a really bright light, un-hank all the skeins and hold them up next to one another for almost an hour.  I eventually found enough skeins of the wool I felt comfortable starting with, and began knitting right away.  I hope to get a 12"x12" square from it and since its all homespun, I make no promises on the evenness of the finished pillow. I'll definitely have to press it when I'm done.

The other project I'm taking on the trip (Numero Dos) is another shawl I've started.  Its going to be light blue.

Zephyr Acrylic Needles from Knit Picks

The wool is from my stash and is a blend of Romney and Mohair.  Not extremely soft, but very light weight.

 I'm planning on using an easy shawl pattern from the same author as the Swallowtail Shawl.  This one's called Flower Basket Shawl and I got the pattern from Interweave Knits magazine, Fall 2004.  It should be on Ravelry, too. 

We had a house full yesterday for my father in law's birthday/Labor Day. Steaks on the grill, homemade cookies and some really good nacho cheese dip.  I love that stuff!
And my husband's friend brought over a large organ for the recording studio upstairs.  Just like the kind your grandma played at church!

My reading is still in limbo right now.  I am having trouble settling on something, but that's not unusual.  It takes me a while to make up my mind;  I am very indecisive.  Not kidding.
 But I've got my Kindle in the knitting bag so something will happen, I'm sure.