This week was mostly a blur. It consisted of a whirlwind work trip to Seattle, in which I got an awful lot of work done, and not a lot of sleep.  But in between work tasks, I did finish the two kits I took with me (if you ignore the maybe hour of knitting I did on the second project today to finish it off).

All I did was make up two kits that I bought at the MatSu Fiber Fest last year. I have all the yarn I bought there in it’s own little containment bin, as I did not have a lot of confidence that there weren’t moths involved, so I have been kind of hot to get it knit up and clear out that minibin!  They are pretty concise kits – yarn bundles, each wrapped in its pattern sheet.

The patterns are not in Ravelry at all, and the yarn does not seem to be commercially available, and I’m not sure if Calypso Farms stocks these generally or not.

First up – the Alaska Cowl

I actually did change this a little bit from the written pattern, but I think it looks nice as is.  This is the first time I have done Latvian braid, and can definitely say this is easier to do than it looks like it would be.  Quick enjoyable knit.

The second project is the Solstice Hat

This is another nifty pattern that looks harder than it is.  There’s no ribbing, so it’s not a “grippy” hat, but it does fit pretty nicely.  The construction is kind of different – like a little yurt for your head! I tried it on, and it reminded me of a pillbox hat a bit.  But anyway, it took only a few hours to make and kept me occupied on my flight home.

So overall, made some good progress in clearing out my “questionable yarns” bin, kept myself occupied on my work trip, and have two nifty new accessories.  All in all, a successful bit of travel knitting!