Year of Projects 3: waiting to start Vorticity

SOCKTOPUS: Totally Vanilla • Kandahar • V Junkie • Kwalia • Farmer McGregor • Shur'tugal • 2luvcrew • Vorticity • Rumpled! • Crowley • Om Shanti • Mince Pie Mayhem • Hundred Acre Wood • De Stijl • Fiori di Zucca • Caretta Caretta • Spring Shoots

This time last week I was in Washington, wrapping up a four day getaway. We had the perfect weather for walking, so that's what we did. Besides, the driving looked crazy and parking seemed impossible, so walking was far the better option!

The National Mall is one monument after another, and one museum after another - we could have easily spent another couple of weeks to really see it thoroughly.

The National Holocaust Museum was amazing, sobering, moving and disturbing - don't miss it if you visit DC, although it's not suitable for children, or even teens I'd say. We were fortunate in our timing as the Museum is set to close Tuesday for five months while the curators return wooden barracks on loan from Auschwitz and replace them with barracks from Birkenau, which will be on permanent display. It's artifacts like these that contribute to the chilling visceral experience for museum visitors.

The Lincoln Memorial was astonishing in part for its sheer size. Sometimes things look bigger in photos and in movies, but in this case the reality far exceeded my expectations. I couldn't resist taking this picture of my sister dwarfed by the columns of the portico. Imagine Martin Luther King Jr. on the steps giving his "I have a dream ..." speech facing a sea of humanity surrounding the reflecting pool on the National Mall in 1963.


There's been some knitting in the past few days too. While waiting to cast on the next pattern in the Socktopus KAL  I decided to cast on a pair of BFF socks from Knit. Sock. Love. The yarn is Top Cat MCN in a colourway called "Sandalwood".  The pattern is basic ribs and cables - I needed something easy on my head because I've been crazy busy and stressed over the last while - but the magic is in clever increases and decreases when transitioning from plain stockinette or rib into and out of cables. Those increases and decreases are just the perfect thing to avoid any puffiness or bunching of the fabric. I'm at the heel flap of sock two and I'm hoping to finish these up by Tuesday, when I can finally cast on Vorticity!

I should also mention, there's a Back to Socks KAL going on over at Wandering Cat Yarns on Ravelry... any pair of socks completed by October 31st with Wandering Cat Yarns  and posted in the FO thread on Ravelry gives you an entry and a chance to win a surprise yarn pack. I won a yarn pack last year and it was awesome!

Now I've got to run through the shower and get organized. A new Michael's has opened just up the street, and Shirley and I are going to check it out. Won't it be nice to have a Michael's close by? And potentially expensive! Oh dear!