on auto pilot

So, it ends up that my camera isn't dead; it's just in charge. It'll still take a single decent pic when I turn it on, but no more than one and I have no control over any of its settings or timing, so for the past few days, I've been aiming in the general direction of something I'd like a picture of, turning the camera on, and hoping for the best. No control over flash, zoom, focus, etc. Eh, whatever. ;-) The auto pilot pics are what will be on the blog until I make the time to get a new camera.

I wish I had understood the camera's new-found independence last Sunday, when nephew Zach wove a basket at a workshop offered by the Hale Homestead during the farmers' market. I was mostly with the knitters at The String Thing, but I'd pop over to see how Zach was doing every once in a while. I've never done basketweaving before, so it was all very interesting to me. Each workshop participant started off with the same supplies and basic instructions, and each basket turned out very different from the others, totally functional and attractive!

Meanwhile, Leah's participating in a swallowtail shawl knitalong with friends at our LYS. Knitting lace and following a chart are still fairly new to her, so it's been a challenging project. This was her first try to get it started:

She realized she was off kilter in a few places, so that attempt was torn out. Second try reached approximately the same point yesterday, when we noticed a few problems on that one too. She was frustrated at that point, so I helped her tear it back to the third repeat and I think we can get her back on track today. She's trying to learn to read her knitting better so she'll see boo-boos as they happen and can more easily correct them. It'll come with practice.

I put together three strands of fingering weight wool (two dark green, one army green) and the Woodland Shawl pattern for the start of a thick, warm winter wrap, which will look infinitely better after I block it, as is the case with all lace knitting, even the chunky kind.

The leaf motif is easily memorized, so this will be a good social knitting project until it gets too big to lug around with me or too hot to have it in my lap. Good thing, too, since there's a lot of social knitting on the calendar. Hooray for evenings at summer concerts and outdoor performances!

Thanks, everybody, for the well wishes for my Gram. She had a cardiac cath on Monday, where they found a kinked vessel and two mild areas of narrowing. They put in a stent right then and there for the kinked vessel and the narrowing will be treated with meds. She'll be back to her usual activities in just a few days.