Carmel! Aglets! and Inspector Owl

I spent last weekend in Carmel with a lovely group of women; I've been knitting with them for about 10 years! Lots of knitting, laughs, good company, and wine. I worked mostly on the border for the Melon Shawl, from Victorian Lace Today. I started the shawl while helping my mother through hospice, and had bought two balls of yarn for it in Ventura; after I got home I realized that one was a very similar but slightly different colorway!!! I finished the body about 4 years ago and was determined to use the 2nd color for the border. I got one long edge done last weekend, and knit around the corner; I'll need to pull the corner out and redo, but otherwise it looks fine. 

I used some thrums from another project and made a band; I want to make two, to use to lash my leash sticks to the loom. It's 4 cards of 5/2 cotton, threaded two dark, two light, then woven with some black cotton something that was on one of my shuttles. I wove about 5 chevrons forward and 5 backward. I've also been looking for the best way to do the aglets, on these cords and also for shoelaces, one of my current obsessions! Ian Fieggen has a wonderful site with lots of info on aglets, different ways to thread shoelaces, and knots to tie them with... For this piece, I whipped it with the black weft thread and then coated it in clear nail polish; for the next lace, I'll whip and then try glue.

I finished two of the placemats, and got tired of the same old pattern... I switched to this. Owl is inspecting for me.

On other fronts, I finished spinning the light brown Merino I talked about in the last post. It's all washed, dried, and put away; someday I'll weave it into something lovely and very, very warm; maybe a ruana. I may dye more of it, as the overdyed brown is lovely.

I'm also taking a watercolor class, and just signed up for a beginning drawing class. It's all Art, all the time. I felt somewhat guilty about engaging in these frivolous activities, with the current political climate, but then realized if the world goes to hell, what a better way to spend my time than drawing, painting, weaving, and so on?

I probably need to set some priorities; I've got default weaving and knitting projects so they won't show here.  Here are some possibilities in no particular order:

• Figure out the next steps on the pub quilt.
• Start another card woven band so I have 2 to lash on my leash sticks. 
• Use the pattern book from New Zealand to create a fish table runner.
• Plan the next loom project, maybe a scarf for the DH in the bamboo I bought for that.
• Plan and sample the next spinning project, maybe the demin colored roving for the pin woven shawl.