WIP: Flower Market, in Oberlin

I cast off Spruce Forest the other day and needed a new project to take with me to Oberlin, so I cast on for a Flower Market Shawl in some Madelinetosh Prairie.  This colorway is called Byzantine, and the more I knit with it, the more I like it - it's technically red, but it also has brown, burgundy, and some deep purple in it.  The fabric is pretty crumply so far, but I can tell that it's going to be stunning when it's blocked.

My friend Ethan gifted me this pattern on Ravelry a while back, and I think it's very fitting that I'm knitting it in the shop where we spent so many hours hanging out together!

  

So this is the first time that I've been back to Oberlin by myself since I left for Japan in summer of 2010.  Lumberjack lived with me during my last semester of school, and then we both visited in April.  This time, I'm staying with a good friend while Lumberjack is home working.  I miss him a lot, but it's also been nice to sort of reacquaint myself with the town, and to reflect on who I was during my time here and who I've become.  I don't recognize many of the students anymore, but I've been running into professors, bosses, and people who work in shops I used to frequent - and it really is like coming home in a lot of ways.  I'm glad that college is over, but Oberlin has become a lot more than just my college town - it's become part of my identity.

So this trip has been really good, mostly because of the people I've been spending time with, but also because yesterday I went thrifting with my friend Sparkle... and found my wedding dress.  I'll share that story later, but I will say that a lot of factors had to line up correctly for me to find it, and it seems sort of magic that they did.

Happy Friday!