WIP Wednesday: Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc

My daughters recently heard about a little ritual that was supposed to produce a snow day off of school: you sleep with your pajamas inside out, mismatched socks, and a spoon under your pillow, and the next day there will be no school.  They tried it Sunday night and it didn't work (for the Cedar Tree kids: Tertia had no school because of the MLK holiday).  But I think I may have come up with a better trigger: finish and block a shawl using Madeline Tosh Merino Light:

It was really more of a slush day, but I was glad of it because I woke up with the same headache that never went away yesterday.  I did have to protect the camera from the drips when I took it outside.

That was my 414 yards of yarn for this year!  I finished with about 6 yards left in the skein.  So what do you think -- have I hit on the key to causing a snow day?  It happened this way last year, too!  I would be more than happy to knit with TML lots more from now on if it really works!

I made two more Farmer's Wife blocks this week: this is #83, Spider Web.  You may remember I am using something vintage, thrifted, or repurposed in every block of this quilt; the blue stripe is from an old dress shirt of my son's, and the green is scraps I found at the Goodwill outlet bins.

Block #84, Spool.  The tan has been in my scrap bag a long time, I think since I stuffed a bag with scraps at the store that Quilter's Newsletter Magazine used to run in Colorado... so at least 15 years ago.  The pink is leftover from a patchwork dress I made at least 10 years ago.  I think.

I've started sewing the pieces into rows for the Orca Bay quilt.  It goes a bit slowly and I have to be careful with the stretchy edges of the string blocks.  But it's coming along.  It's too big for my design wall: I should really do something about making my design wall big enough for the typical big quilts I usually  make.

My Crumbs signature quilt is still at school, waiting for one last Kindergartner's signature and a few staff members.  Then I'll see about getting it on the frame and quilting it in time for the auction.

Here's another quilt possibility for the auction: leftover sports-themed fabric donated by my Mother-in-law, very simple 8" blocks.  I have almost enough to make a twin-size quilt.  It would be a nice counterbalance for the bright pink Stars quilt.

Oh, and since some are weighing in about the SOPA bill and how to stop online piracy without hurting free speech rights, here's what I think: I think we should stop piracy by going after the pirates, not after successful businesses.