Free-range knitting without tears

Here is a photo of the back and one front of my Kalahari vest that I am knitting for the Jane Thornley knitalong on Ravelry. In the true spirit of free-range knitting, I deviated a bit from her original pattern. I am now working on the other front and then will have the 2 gussets to knit and sew it all together. The deadline is May 31 so I should be finished in plenty of time.

The choice of yarns was inpsired by a stock photo of the Kalahari desert that I found on line but I also decided to do a little watercolor sketch - the photo and sketch have some gold grasses in them and even though I had pulled some lichen Giotto ribbon yarn from my stash for this piece, somehow it just didn't work with the other yarns. The variegated orange ribbons in the vest (where the little bows are) are actually stribbons that I cut on the bias from a vintage silk scarf. I then zigzagged the strips together on the sewing machine - they knit up beautifully and are a lot cheaper than buying ribbon yarn.
Yesterday morning we watched the Endeavor take off.  We can see it once it clears ours and out neighbors' trees. It's funny but when we moved into this house 7 years ago, our tree was so much smaller - as they say, time flies!

I'm off to knit although what I really want to do is read - I am hooked on A Discovery of Witches , mentioned in a previous post. The book is so "spellbinding" (LOL!) Just picture if you will a funky witch who doesn't want to use magic, a hunk of a vampire (swoon!!!!!!), and lots of wired daemons all participating in a yoga class - and of course, an evil wizard out to get her. The book is very well written and moves quickly.
Check it out.

thanks for reading and have a super day!

Chris