Work in Progress Wednesday v.59

The first day back from vacation is rough.  It's even rougher when you come back from vacation with some sort of creeping crud that makes your throat sore and your nose stuffy.  Boo.  I'm not really looking for sympathy here, just hoping you'll forgive the super-crappy pictures.  You will, right?  Good.

I knit Angostura all the way from Denver to DC, and then in the terminal, and then from DC to Philadelphia.  It's coming along really well, and the back is almost done.  Enter crappy picture #1 (where did the sunlight go?):

It would be almost done-er if I hadn't completed all 59 of the pattern-prescribed rows and then realized that it was going to be too long.  I ended up frogging 6 rows, since consensus on Ravelry is that Cascade 220 Superwash grows quite a bit when it's washed.  I'm working my way up the armholes now, and still loving knitting this.  I really, really hope it turns out to actually be wearable.  By me.  *fingers crossed*

The other project I worked on this week was my goal of visiting all 50 states.  Last time, my map looked like this, with 19 states under my belt:

Now, it looks like this.

That's officially 25 states, ladies and gentlemen.  I managed to knock out 3 in a single afternoon!  Quite the twilight zone experience for this California girl.  New additions to the list this trip were:  Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. 

I have a really cute vacation post all ready to go, but I forgot that after that nasty computer virus I had a couple of months ago my scanner no longer works.  As soon as I figure out how to fix it, I'll share all the good vacation details. 

And now, the reason I probably won't have much progress to show you next week:

Meet Lorenzo, aka Satan.  Lorenzo's family is on vacation in Hawaii this week, so he's staying with me.  He's quite the handful -- a super-hyper whirling dervish who bites (and not in a friendly way) when he's nervous.  Lucky for him he's seriously cute.  For her part, my dog is hiding in her bed.  Hopefully, she'll come out when she realizes she outweighs him by about 60 pounds. 

Finally, the sock yarn swap for the Beekeeper's Quilt is officially on.  More details to follow on Friday, but here's what I'm thinking so far:

• Send 20-yard mini skeins of sock yarn, any wool or animal fiber is fine, but I'd like to avoid acrylic.
• Include a self-addressed stamped envelope with appropriate postage.
• I'll send you new mini skeins of sock yarn from blanket-crazy bloggers far and wide.
• I'll post links to all the awesome puff charts and designs I can find.  (For now, go see Autumngeisha's Puff-design awesomeness!)
• Loads of happiness will ensue.  Probably also world peace.

 Let me know if you're interested in joining us or if there's anything in that list you find disagreeable. So far, the following fabulous swappers have raised a needle to the challenge:

BBatting
nursenikkiknits
Denise
MindingMyOwnStitches
autumngeisha

There's still time to let me know if you're interested.  Feel free to speak up in the comments or ping me via the contact button if you'd like to join.  Who can resist loads of happiness and world peace?

Not the folks at WIPW, that's for sure.  Go check out what they're up to this week.  While you do that, I'm going to stuff Satan in his crate for the night and load up on Nyquil.  It's a non-stop party around these parts!