Sleeping In, Cooling Off, and Celebrating

Happy Labor Day, friends! It's a day off for all of us, but it's also a day of celebration. For one thing, the Mister and I are celebrating our 17th anniversary today. But Labor Day is also taking on some special significance for me as my union ballot is in the mail and I could be a union member by the end of the month. This morning Mo and I are going to the annual Labor Day parade downtown with my parents. It's one of the biggest in the country, and in the past it's featured some pretty high-profile guests. There was talk that the president and vice president might appear, but now it's sounding like they're going to be doing another campaign stop. Still, it should be a good time.

Personally, I'm also celebrating the fact that the heat and humidity have broken again! As I type this, it hasn't yet hit 60ºF, and the high today is only 73ºF. I can't wait to run in this cool weather!

I got an early dismissal from work on Friday afternoon and took full advantage of the long weekend to get some crafting and reading done. We got some rain on Saturday afternoon and evening, though not the thunderstorms I was hoping for (they ended up north and south of us), but Mo and I spent the afternoon bingeing Gilmore Girls and crafting in any case. She's been working on a pretty epic crocheted blanket, which I will share at some point in the future, and I finished up the Newborn Vertebrae!

I know it looks like the sleeves don't quite match, but they do, even down to a few stitches of gray in the bind-off. The thin brown stripes that appear on the right side were all in the yoke; because the stitch count was at the largest right before the sleeve stitches were split off and that color is a thin stripe, it just didn't make it across the whole yoke. I'll admit it bugs me a little, but this is what happens when you use a self-striping yarn for an item with variable stitch counts -- and I highly doubt my niece is going to care! Now I'm working on a hat to go with it that should be finished up in a day or two.

I also worked on my sweater spin and finished up the first sleeve skein:

This ended up approximately 183 yards for 46 g, and I've now spun more than 1,800 yards for this sweater! I am nearly finished with the second sleeve skein, the final one for this spin, and should finish the singles today. I'm hoping I can find time in the next several days to swatch for the sweater because the Pigskin Party is kicking off on Thursday, and I'd love to start a new sweater!

Today's plans, other than the parade and a run, include doing some laundry and trying to finish a book. We're making dinner at home tonight, and then tomorrow it's back to the grind. I have a big work project waiting for me that I'm trying not to think about today. If you're off today, be sure to thank a union member! See you back here on Wednesday.