A Step or Two, But Not Three

I've made progress.

This looks vaguely like yarn, not sheepyard mud, after washing. I think I'll keep it - my firstborn!
Inches and inches, maybe 20, of lovely mindless purple garter stitch have been made. Perfect for knitting in the heat wave we just had. I certainly won't finish this in time to send it off by Afghans for Afghans' July 24th deadline, but I'm getting there. I'm not sure I'll have quite enough of the purple yarn, so you can look forward to red or green or blue cuffs, and maybe even stripes on the fronts above the waist. I don't know yet.

And then we have this, my Lacy Cables Shawl.
Note the lovely little bit of cabling.
And the not-so-lovely bit, where apparently I cannot pick back up a very basic yo, k2tog, lace pattern, once I put it down for three weeks to make my Prosperous Plum Tank, even though I can still cable properly.
Why, listen! I think I hear the bullfrogs croaking now. Sigh...

In Other News of the Spineless
Since Stariel likes my bug pics, she gets one more. The squeamish should avert their eyes now.

A wasp with a bad sense of color - can't she tell she clashes with the Swamp Milkweed?

I'd post more, but Blogger is being its usual recalcitrant self.