Onward and ... Downward?

I gave some decent attention to my Window to My Soul over the weekend and last night, and as a result, I'm now past the split for the arms -- huzzah! Now begins the long knit down the body.

Although there's still quite of a bit of patterning to go before I start the mindless stockinette section, I think it'll be much more manageable now. For one thing, the rows are shorter (and aren't getting longer as I go) now that I've moved past the yoke. I've also moved to a different chart, which is smaller overall and generally easier to read as the individual cells are larger. The pattern has gotten rather intuitive by now, though I'm still keeping my place just in case. While I'm not comfortable doing away with the chart altogether, I don't have to refer to it as much and am moving through the patterning much faster. The smocking rows, however, are still rather slow and tedious; I only got through about four or five rows of sweater last night total because one of them happened to be a smocking row. I think I have about 3 1/2" more to knit in the stitch pattern before I switch over to stockinette, I'm hoping to get a good portion of that done tomorrow night at knit night (which I haven't been to since August!).

I did spend a fair amount of time spinning over the weekend, as I'm trying to get all my current projects wrapped up before the start of Spinzilla next week. I'm in the midst of plying up some colorful, sparkly stuff (which I'm hoping to finish tonight), and then all that's left for me to do is get out the fiber for next week. I'm planning on using the leftovers of my Romney fleece from this sweater to practice my long draw. The goal is to spin as much yardage as possible, and long draw is a heck of a lot faster than my usual short forward draw. With any luck, I'll be able to spin enough to knit Rainbow a sweater (and perhaps try some dyeing, as I doubt she'll be very excited by natural cream-colored yarn).

We have a day trip coming up this weekend to the middle of nowhere (we're visiting my father-in-law's family), which will mean about five hours in the car. I think my WTMS is a bit too involved for car knitting, what with the chart and the cable needle and the two skeins of yarn to alternated, so I have to do some thinking about what to take. I do have a shawl design idea to work out and some pretty Malabrigo Sock all wound, so as of this moment, that's the frontrunner.