A few things I learned along the way....

I'm back. Gabe left on a plane this morning, I start back to work on Saturday and school starts on Monday. I'm hitting the ground running, to say the least. Before I get into everything, let me fill you in on a few things I learned along the way while driving back to NY...

• It is an inevitable truth that no matter what side of the car I'm on, the glaring sun will be baking me while I ride. I'm serious about this. If Gabe and I switched seats, the sun would decide to switch too.
• If you decide to work on cross stitch in a moving vehicle, you WILL drop the needle and it WILL take about a half hour to find it again... This unavoidable situation, however, is offset by the fact that you will also get a lot of stitching done with the uninterrupted hours of car time...
• Similar to the last point, lace work should be avoided in a moving vehicle because it is not a pleasant situation when you come across a mistake... trust me on this one.
• Highway rest stops do not cater to vegetarians.
  
• In a related point; living off sunflower seeds and Doritos is not a "balanced" meal for a vegetarian.
• Being in a car with another person for 30 hours will reveal quite a bit about their personality. If you're lucky, you will like what it reveals.... It so happens I'm lucky.

So, I've spent the last week in NY, visiting with my family and Gabe's family. It's been relaxing and wonderful and I have to admit, an excellent way to end the summer. Surprisingly enough, I was able to handle my emotions quite well and only cried a little bit the night before Gabe left and then a few tears at the airport this morning. I think it's because I've forgotten what life was like without him so I wasn't dreading it as much as I did last semester when I only got to see him for a week at a time.

As for the crafty stuff. I started a lace weight shawl out of the merino laceweight while we were driving. It's fun, but currently I have more important projects to get finished, and I'm actually thinking I'm going to rip this one and make some other lace project with it.... when I have more time... which won't be for awhile.

I did make a mistake in it on the drive... that was fun to fix...(note the sarcasm)

I also worked quite a bit on my green sweater. The front is looking fantastic. I absolutely love the way the cable pattern is turning out. I'll be working on the sleeves pretty soon and I'm thinking that I'm going to alter them a bit. They call for a sort of flared sleeve, which looks good in the type of yarn that the pattern originally called for (Jaeger Trinity), but I'm thinking that since this isn't a very drapey yarn, it's not going to look as good. I can't say I'm looking forward to the math, but I'd like to make a sweater I'm going to wear.

In other fibery news, I've been spinning like a maniac.... with Gabe's mom! There is something very exciting coming up soon that involves all this spinning. Gabe's mom invited me to be a team member in the Sheep to Shawl contest at the State Fair. We compete in just a week and a half! I'm so excited! It's going to be so much fun! What we were spinning was the yarn we are going to use for the warp. What we spin at the fair is for the weft. I can hardly wait!