Our plans for a weekend at the Great Lakes went awry, thanks to airline delays, so instead we made lemonade out of lemons, hired a car and set off through the Appalachian Mountains to West Virginia. That meant I needed some in-car knitting, so I cast on for the Insignia Shawl by Cecily Glowik Macdonald in this summer's Knitscene. I used some vintage cotton bought from a thrift shop in cobalt blue - a cotton shawl will be perfect for over-airconditioned inside spaces here in DC. And it's all garter stitch, perfect for the car.

However, I didn't have the required 4.5 mm circular with me, so talked my husband into a stop for coffee in the pretty town of Cumberland, Maryland, deep in the mountains and with a yarn shop (Millicents Yarns and More, http://millicentsyarns.com/). They were happy to help me out with a needle, and I was set for the weekend.

The "dreaming spires" of Cumberland, Maryland.

The Insignia Shawl