WIP Wednesday: New MKAL, Seaming, and Refashioning!

Well, my kids are officially in school, which means I have just bumped up my knitting time in a huge way. Due to when their school starts compared to when I have to be at work combined with the distance I live from said school and work, I wind up with a couple of hours of time to kill each morning now. PLUS I have the car pickup line to knit as well. I've been frustrated about not having much knitting time this whole summer, but now it's been a huge consolation for having to wake up so early. 

I decided a month ago that I would join the Sweet Georgia Yarns' Playin' My Song mystery shawl knit along, so I pre-purchased the pattern and then waited for August 15th for the first clue to be released. I've gone a bit rogue with my yarn choices - they recommend sock yarn, but I've chose this set of lace weight Swan Lake by Lotus Yarns that I got from Temu a few months ago and I just really want to work with. These are a cashmere/wool/angora blend and they are just so soft and lovely. The lace weight makes for a light and airy shawl, but living in Florida I could use a little airiness for sure. So I'm about to cast on my shawl and have fun with the mystery :)

My car knitting has been to finish the second front panel of my Susan Shaw cardigan. I followed the original vintage directions and pressed the pieces with a damp cloth and it actually worked very well. I've only ever soaked and pinned out to dry for blocking before, but I was pretty impressed by the results with this method and it was so much faster.

Now I'm working on seaming the panels together so I can try it on and then I have to decide if I want to seam the sleeves like the pattern calls for or just knit the sleeve on the arm hole. I'm still undecided. I've never really made many seamed designs before (not intentional, I just have always been drawn to designs that are seamless), so I'm hoping this goes well.

And on the sewing front, I've been working on what I thought would be a quickie refashion, but has turned into a full reconstruction, lol. I got this Orvis brand linen skirt at a thrift store with the plan of making it knee length and adding patch pockets, but it's turned out to be much more work than that. All worth it, though, to have a good khaki skirt in such a lovely fabric, so I will persevere!

What are you working on this week? Are you feeling the approach of fall yet?