Plodding Along

I had hoped to have more done by today, but it's been an odd week -- not in a bad way, just slightly out of the ordinary. Rainbow has been attending a virtual sewing camp this week that meets for two hours each morning, and I've been sitting in the room with her to help out when she needs it (while keeping an eye on my work email at the same time). Work has been pretty light this week, but because I'm helping her out with pinning and such periodically, I haven't been able to sustain my attention on much during those two hours. It's been great to watch her sew, though, and she's doing a fantastic job. We ordered fabric and notions ahead of time (there's a fabric store next door to the sewing studio, and they're doing online ordering and curbside pickup right now) and the sewing studio supplied the pattern pieces they'd need for the class. Yesterday she completed her first project, a pillow cover. I think you can see from her smile just how excited she was:

The back of the pillow is two panels of the two fabrics that overlap so it can easily be removed from the pillow form for washing. Today the class will focus on finishing up the second project, a drawstring backpack, and begin the third, a zippered pouch. I'm learning alongside her, and I'm excited to work on some other projects with her when the week is over (I may have ordered some extra fabric from the store for just this purpose!).

I'm still working on my Torbellino and although it doesn't look very different from the last time you saw it, I have added to the yoke. I've completed the final increase round and am now working through the last handful of rounds to add the necessary remaining length and final colorwork. I expect that I'll be ready to split for sleeves and body by the weekend.

While no new knitting projects have been cast on -- yet -- I am preparing to start a new crochet project. My nephew is turning 1 in about two weeks, so I thought I'd try my hand at making some crochet amigurumi figures. I did a Ravelry search and kept coming back to this sweet little alpaca. I also pulled out some yarn from the giant bag of Knit Picks Dishie:

I'm planning to start with one and, if it goes well, make a second. The bright colors will be used for the body and the cream for the face, legs, and ears.

Perhaps the real reason I haven't made a ton of knitting progress is because I'm still doing a lot of spinning. It's the last week of the Tour de Fleece, and I'm also back to my usual method of spinning, which I can do without looking. That means I can spin while I read ebooks again. I'm trying to finish up this skein of Southern Cross Fibre mystery wool this week:

Thanks to this spinning-while-reading practice, I finished up Wild Fire yesterday afternoon, and thanks to an after-dinner walk and listening while folding laundry, I also finished Song Yet Sung. Both books earned 4 stars from me, though I still need to write formal reviews on Goodreads. I'm now reading Between the World and Me, which I expect should be a very quick read as it's only about 150 pages and I'm already 15% through it just from about 20 minutes of reading time last night. I'm getting very close to a cover-all on my first bingo card!

I'm off to help Rainbow with sewing. I hope that whatever you're doing as you plod along during these strange times is bringing you some joy and fulfillment. See you here on Sunday!