Catching Up On #INKtober

I have not been the least bit disciplined about sketching every day for #INKtober, even though I really like my bridges theme and have spent time I probably should have been sketching searching the internet for interesting bridges to draw. And boy, are there some quite wacky ones out there, like the first one in the above picture. All three loops are paths and wouldn't it be wild to walk over them? The second one shows a very different type of draw bridge where the roadway that will go up on each side is split diagonally rather than having the full lanes going up and meeting in the middle when they come down.

There are a couple of shows on the Smithsonian channel that I find so interesting as they show engineering marvels, and I've watched how a bridge similar to the top one goes up, its pillars coming down between the lanes rather than arching from side to side. I couldn't believe the one on the lower left, the suspension arch looking like a quilt pattern! I equally could not believe the one on the lower right that looks like giant hands holding up the bridge. Turns out they are made of fiberglass finished to look like stone and are purely decorative.

Yesterday I sketched out these two, a foot bridge made of circles with the suspending poles taking on the look of boat masts, and a tower that twists (purposely!) as it holds the suspension wires. Just two more to go and I know what the last one will be . . .

On the knitting front, I've set aside the red sweater to work on this "An Italian Summer Scarf" in that time slot as it is another one that is so simple that it can be worked on almost without looking at the needles. It and the Distance Scarf are both near the halfway point, and this one also uses some yarn that has been in my stash so long that I can't even remember what I originally knitted from it. Whatever it was, it left me with an untouched skein and about a third of another skein of  Lion Brand Wool-Ease yarn which is an 80% acrylic/20% wool worsted weight. I was pretty excited to find that this pattern takes the worsted weight yarn as so many patterns these days call for DK weight yarn while most of my old stash is worsted weight, AND that I actually had exactly the right amount of yarn to make it. I'm a little disappointed in how it feels knitted up - very stiff and a bit rough. I'm hoping that a soak with some Bath Fiber Wash loosens and softens it up. Like the Distance Scarf, this one will be a gift to a special person. Whether or not either of those can actually get done by Christmas is still questionable.