Kind of a short and truncated YOP week for me with the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US. I mostly worked on one project, but will mention I did do a bit of work on my wool applique project. (No image as it really looks almost the same.) My DH and I did a bit of travel to the southern part of the state and I took the project with me with lots of good intentions to work on it, but I neglected to pack my thimble, so once I started digging a hole in my finger with the needle, decided I would put it aside and work on it a bit this week at home instead.
What I did work on was my Sonoran shawl, and I’m happy to report I’m about halfway complete on it.
I also realized having worked the second repeat of the Lace A chart that I didn’t work it correctly the first time around. I glanced quickly at the chart, then took it with me for some appointment-waiting knitting, and didn’t take into account the parallelogram shaping so wound up working the yo/decrease pairs differently. You can see the correct version with the staggered eyelets at the top of the picture. Am I mad? Not in the least – I think it looks fine and I am definitely not ripping back what I’ve gotten done! I’m a bit further on than this picture, having finished up the striped section that’s just started at the top of the image. I’ll be working on this more this week.
That’s it for YOP updates, but if you are interested in some travel notes, keep reading…..
We live in the northern part of New Mexico here in the US, closer to the Colorado border than the Mexico border. We decided not to travel back east to see family for the holiday, so my DH and I took our camper and went south to the largest lake (which is man-made) here in the state, Elephant Butte. The water level is SO low having had a decade plus of drought (and more forecast to come) that it barely qualifies as a “large lake” but we did have a lovely Thanksgiving Day hike around the lakeshore in a blustery wind while the dog ran in and out of the water (and we saw a total of 2 people, which is my kind of “busy”.) The day before Thanksgiving (Wednesday), we drove down to White Sands National Park, which aside from being the area where they did missile testing for WWII, is also an amazing geological area, a huge set of gypsum sand dunes. We packed a lunch and walked out into the dunes and enjoyed the scenery which is really other-worldly. The park was pretty busy – lots of adults and kids, many of whom were sledding on the dunes – but once you walked back several hundred meters, there weren’t a lot of people, which we enjoyed.
There are some grasses, and yucca plants (like the one above) poking through the sand in some areas, but others are completely pristine with nothing but the sparkling white sand blown into patterns by the winds. (No filter on the above photo – our skies here in New Mexico really are bright blue almost every day.)
A very nice, relaxed holiday weekend for us. Hope yours is lovely whereever you are in the world.
Knit One, Spin Too 
Well, golly. We are neighbors. We are in Arizona! Your sonoran shawl is moving right along. Your Thanksgiving sounds so peaceful. Your have so many lovely places in NM to visit.
Definitely sounds like a great long weekend. I definitely agree with not ripping all of that back!
It was! Hope your Thanksgiving weekend was nice too!
Well, I don’t see anything with your shawl. I think it is lovely. Honestly, if you do something consistently wrong, it is no longer a mistake…it’s a stitch pattern!
Oh, what I would do to feel that sand in my toes.
IKR? That’s my plan – I’ll do a matching “wrong” section on the other end and it will be a design detail. 😀
Your shawl looks great. I love the colors. Glad you had such a nice weekend of siteseeing.
Thank you! It was a really nice getaway 🙂
I agree with the plan to leave the shawl as-is. I think it looks almost better this way, with a different pattern both times. It makes it seem more like a sampler.
I’ve been to White Sands once, and it was a bizarre landscape. Really neat, but not anything like I’d seen before (or since).
I’m just going to match the opposite end with one “right” and one “wrong” lace pattern and call it good.
It’s really like going to the moon – everything looks very unworldly.
That sounds like a good plan!
Oh I wish we could travel down south in our Camper but with CoVid I just don’t feel safe enough to do so. I do love living vicariously through your pictures though.
Honestly? It’s the only way I’ve felt like we could travel at all this year. We’ve found that everyone is staying well apart, and anything you have to do indoors is fully masked up here in NM. (And that a lot of places have gone to online or touchless check-ins, which has been really helpful.) I have to get on a plane in 10 days to go back east to see my parents and I am dreading it. Double masking and loads of hand sanitizer and hopeful thinking but they are at an age I need to make it happen (it’s been 2 full years!), so we’re all vaccinated up and I am doing the least amount of connections and other potential contact I can.
Your shawl is lovely! Your Thanksgiving celebration was awesome and TYFS. I’ve never been to NM but my Mother was a nurse and went there in the 30’s. She loved it and always wanted to go back but never did.
It’s amazing that any plants grow in that sand. Gorgeous photos…thanks again! I’ll pray that you have a safe journey back to see your parents.
It’s an amazing landscape and so many different vistas in this big state! I am hoping all goes easily and smoothly for the trip back to the east coast too!
I can’t spot the error on the shawl and I’m usually good at spotting odd ones out. It is a fabulous pattern and I keep getting tempted to pop it in my library but I need to wear the shawls I have more often before I make any more. Thank you for sharing your holiday photos. I haven’t been to New Mexico, although have been to Colorado and Mexico so just haven’t done the bit between 😀. I hope you will share more in future. It’s good to get more knowledge of our blogging friends lives. Well I enjoy it.
Now you have an excuse to visit NM if you get back to the States 🙂 One of the things I love is seeing all the wonderful places people live, even if it’s not a “travelogue”. Sometimes I think we forget all the positives about a place we live when we see them every day, and SOMEDAY, we’ll hopefully have an easier time with travel. I’m really glad we got the opportunity for a week on the Isle of Skye the spring before the pandemic hit.
Skye is only about 90 mins west of us and we love it. It’s only 70 miles away but windy roads to get there but beautiful views on the way.
Sounds like a great weekend! Your shawl is lovely.
It really was – thank you!