Dispatches from Swiftsburgh

Happy Friday, friends! It's been a long week, and it's going to be a long day, but on the plus side, I don't have to work today. I'm taking one of my two annual personal days (because if I don't use them, they disappear at the end of the fiscal year, which is the end of June). Of course, just my luck, we got an email late yesterday that the office would be closing at 2 this afternoon ahead of the long weekend -- the university is closed on Monday for Juneteenth. This is reminding me of the one time in my employment when the university closed due to snow and I was already on maternity leave!

In any case, I am ready for the long weekend, which is shaping up to be a busy one here. Tonight and tomorrow night, Taylor Swift is performing downtown, and in addition to the city's issuing a proclamation renaming us "Swiftsburgh" today, there is quite a lot of hype. Whether or not you're a Taylor Swift fan, there's no denying the economic impact her tour stop will have on the city -- the estimate I heard was that it was anticipated to bring in $12 million. The Swiftie in my household is very excited to attend her first official concert this evening, and I'm just hoping to be able to stay awake! I think a nap this afternoon will be in order.

Yesterday I realized that we were almost halfway through June and I hadn't had something on the wheel in almost two weeks, which is not acceptable to me if I'm going to continue to use up my fiber stash. So I pulled out this Southern Cross Fibre club shipment from last July, Hens and Chicks on Bond wool, which happened to be inspired by a photo I posted in the SCF Ravelry group:

I split it for a fractal two-ply (lately my favorite thing to do) by dividing it in half lengthwise and then dividing one half in half again. I started the first bobbin and took some progress shots along the way of the different colors, and I put them in a composite:

Meanwhile, after finishing my mother-in-law's socks, I started two other projects. First, I'm knitting up another sample of my Obfuscation cowl using a set of mini skeins from Knit Picks that I'm knitting in rainbow order:

And Mo and I have started a little knitalong together, our very first! We're knitting the Mas Vida Shawl, which is a bit of a stretch for her knitting skills, so we are doing it row by row together (and I did the start for her, which involved Judy's Magic Cast-on and was very fiddly). This is an excellent visual example of how individual gauge can be -- we're both using the same weight of yarn and the same needle size, but obviously one of us is a lot more relaxed:

Mo's shawl (on the left) is being knit with yarn from Ex Libris Fibers that she bought last month. I'm using some deep-stash yarn: Fibernymph Dye Works Harmonia, a superwash merino/cashmere/silk base that Lisa doesn't dye anymore. I don't know exactly how old this yarn is, but it still had her old label design, so it's several years old at least.

Finally, some happy news -- look what arrived in yesterday's mail!

I didn't pay for tracking on the broken pair I sent back to Skacel, so I didn't have any way to know if it had been received until this replacement came. Three cheers for great customer service!

I hope your weekend is full of good things. I'll be back on Monday to report on the concert!