Nothing says July like a heavy shawl

Why, hello there!

With near constant ran and overcast skies, I saw no point knitting cute camis or tanks. If summer is on holiday, so is summer knitting, I s'pose. So I knit the delightful Springtime Bandit Shawl with City Tweed sent to me by the fine folks at KnitPicks.

I'm jaunty, even though there are garbage cans behind me.

This is a great pattern that fulfills my requirement of being complicated enough to keep me interested, but not so complicated that I can't watch "Mad Men" while knitting. (Five episodes into second season! So good but depressing!)

The yarn is also very yummy -- smooth and shiny and rich. I'm also not usually a fan of super tweedy yarn, but this is nice and subtle and not too heavy.

Hanging out to dry on ye olde fire escape

Very glad I finished this so that I can take it on our trip this week -- we're embarking on a heritage trip, visiting our ancestral homelands together. So on Tuesday we're headed to Ireland, Vienna, Slovakia and Prague. Can't get here fast enough.