Happy Independence Day my fellows Americans! Today’s going to be a low-key day for me since I’ve already been to the requisite cook out (yesterday), have seen plenty of fireworks (Disney World fireworks have ruined me for all others), and it’s supposed to rain here. For some flag-waving variety, here’s the flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 that inspired Francis Scott Key to write our national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. More info about the flag at the Smithsonian, which has the flag in its collection.

I’ve been plugging away on my two knitting WIPs and making steady progress. I finished the Hourglass Cowl Scarf over the weekend. We drove up to New Jersey (central NJ, near New Brunswick) to spend time with my in-laws, so I finished it at my sister-in-law’s house. I need to weave in the ends and maybe add fringe (or maybe not), and wash and block it, so I’m not posting pictures of the FO just yet.

My Old Town Cardigan (aka Future Favorite Two) is at a really ugly looking stage: I’ve put the body on stitch holders (scrap yarn) and am knitting the sleeves 2 at a time in the round. It looks like a mess, like I’m knitting a Thneed from Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax, but I made lots of progress on the sleeves in the 3 hour car ride to NJ, at my SIL’s, and during the ride home. The pattern doesn’t have decreases in the sleeve and I don’t think I put decreases in my first Old Town, but I may need to with this one. My gauge is a little bit larger than what the pattern calls for and I think I’d rather not have two giant sacks hanging off the body. I need to poke around in other people’s project notes on Ravelry to see if anyone else has added decreases and/or just add my own.

When I wasn’t knitting, I was taking pictures. I posted most of these to Instagram also. While I have the Instagram widget set up on my blog, I suspect most of you read it the way I read blogs – through WordPress, email, BlogLovin, and various other readers that don’t load the whole WP page. I know I could force everyone to read it that way, but I really hate it when I’m on a mobile device and someone has done that. So. Here are the pictures in mostly the order I took them – my apologies if you’re seeing them twice (or just uninterested). Also, all of them are presented as-shot, with no filters or adjustments, and all were taken with Camera+ on my iPhone 6.