Cattywampus

Before I get too far behind myself

I'm doing catch up blogging. 

Wednesday after my conference Jocelyn was kind enough to scope out a restaurant and drive up from San Diego to pick me up from the hotel to have dinner with me.

Jocelyn and I 'met' when we were both test knitting the Raven Stole (simurgh) for Anne.  We've been writing back and forth since November and it was wonderful to get a chance to meet in person and put our stoles side by side. 

We each liked one thing or another about the other's stole better, isn't that the way it always is?  Really it just made me want to knit something with that lovely Geisha yarn from Blue Moon.  Hers had so much bounce compared to mine, it was lovely!

Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures outside while it was still light, so we only have these tablecloth pictures.

But we did get the hostess to take a picture of us wearing them - I'm sure she thought we were nutty, but who cares?  She was kind enough to oblige us so it's all good.

It was really just so much fun to meet in person and learn that we get along just as well in real life as we do on the internets.  Thanks for coming up Jocelyn!

Ooh and purple trees - the Jacaranda (?) I love california b/c these trees are just SO beautiful!

12 hours later

So here I am in LA.  My computer says it's 8:51.  My body says it's 8:51.  But my cell phone and the daylight outside belay that information.

   

How very confusing.

I left my house at 9:00 a.m. this morning and here I am, 8:51 p.m. by my time, finally arrived at my hotel.  I don't have anything against California, but doesn't it seem like I should be somewhere more exotic than LA after 12 hours of travel time?  It takes less time to get to Paris from the East Coast than to another state in our own country.  That's just wacked.

I'm going to try to stay up until 9:00 p.m. local time in an attempt to acclimate to this timezone somewhat.

I am allergic to my hotel room.  Hmf.  Why do they insist on spraying them with perfume after they clean them?  Uck.  Hopefully it will fade or I will be a stuffed up mess while I am here.

A random picture of the Las Vegas airport.  I was going to put some quarters in a slot machine, but they don't take actual money - you have to go buy tickets to use in the machines.  That's WAY too much work to throw away my money, so I passed.

 

I am rambling about nothing.  Really I just wanted to show off my knitting.

The socks - 6 hours from Philly to Las Vegas.  The red is the back of a cardigan for my goddaughter - 1 hour from Las Vegas to LA. 

You said you wanted a closer look at the socks?  Happy to oblige...

 

The toothpick is my cable needle.  Normally I cable without a cable needle, but on a gauge that fine I just don't think it's a sane idea.

Now I have to decide if I should eat dinner or if the meal I had mid-day WAS actually dinner.  It's all so very confusing.

Three day weekend bliss

Every weekend should be a three day weekend.  The difference in how one feels at the end and what one can accomplish is phenomenal.

Saturday morning we drove up to a quilt shop in NJ that is having a sale on Berninas and got this beautiful thing.  (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

It is my birthday present.  I also got this pretty pattern while I was there, it will be a (hopefully) quick little quilt top to make with my Brand New Machine. 

I haven't sewn at all since we've moved, my old sewing machine was in the habit of making me Very Angry.  It most likely just needs a good cleaning and a tune up, but I was ready to move on, it has been with me for 10 years and my sewing needs have matured significantly in that time.  I'm REALLY looking forward to starting a project and not swearing or throw things across the room (at least not b/c of the machine).

A Bernina for my birthday, is my man the best or what??  :-D

Saturday afternoon/evening we spent out people watching/having dinner & drinks.  There's not much better than sitting in an open cafe enjoying the company and a good beer while watching the world go by.

Sunday we got a picnic lunch of fried chicken, macaroni & potato salads, and brownies for dessert and went to visit my grandmother.  We had a nice visit, she will be moving further away soon to be in a nursing home closer to my mother or aunt and it was really nice to spend some time with her.

This morning we went for a walk down into Society Hill and wandered through St. Peter's churchyard and among the graves.

 

It's a very peaceful, somber sort of place.  It was founded in the mid 1700's and many of the graves don't even have words on them anymore.

I love the roses planted in the middle, such a beautiful spot of color.

It seemed like a fitting way to spend an hour on Memorial Day.

I finished the Sorelle Lace Pullover.  I am mostly pleased.  I am going to try to do a single crochet stabilization of the back collar, it pulled down a lot from the time I put it on to the time we got back to the house.  I''m hoping I can keep it from stretching out and falling off my shoulders like it was.

This is also my first seaming job.  Quite honestly on a raglan like this I'd rather just redo the calculations and knit it all in the round, it wasn't worth the trouble to seam it, but I think it came out decently all things considered.   I made the bottom half a S and decreased to an XS for the top half to maintain the 1" of ease recommended.  It turns out I probably didn't need to do that, but it makes for a nice, loose fit for summer.

The yarn - Berroco Touche, is quite lovely and soft with a very nice drape, but even on this 75 degree day it was warm to wear outside b/c it created a heavier fabric.  Overall I am very pleased with this top, I think I could have gotten more wear out of it if I had finished it a month ago, but still, I'll be able to wear it to work this summer.

Later today I have to finish packing and the dogs get dropped off at my dad's in NJ for their week long vacation.  I am off to LA in the morning and then we are weekending in San Diego for our anniv and I am uber excited!  I am going to get to meet Jocelyn on Wednesday too, how cool is that??

Hope you all had a lovely three day weekend as well!!!  Oh & if anybody local is interested in a cheap second hand sewing maching that just needs a little TLC, drop me a line. 

P.S.  Ten days until my hubby is home for good!

Travel Knitting

I'm zooming right along to the conclusion of the Sorelle Lace Pullover - and I'm NOT going to run out of yarn (I think), thank goodness.  Hopefully I'll have an FO post for that this weekend.

Someone make a note - I'm actually going to SEAM something, first time EVER seaming more than a button band or some such thing - do I get a prize?

My mind is occupied by the possibilities of travel knitting for my trip to LA next week.  I have already decided I'm going to make these cabled socks from Sensational Knitted Socks.  These are small, reasonably complex and yet repetitive enough that I won't have to follow a complex pattern every row, that should be for a very long plane trip, and hopefully will be very pretty.

I am also going to take the Drawstring Chemise, which I am hoping I have time to cast on for this weekend and get a feel for that lace pattern on the bottom.  Once I get past the lace this is just lots of stockinette, so that will be a good no brainer.

The third project (I mean, really, you didn't think I could survive on only two, what if I get STUCK on some unexpected problem or finish one or end up trapped in the airport overnight or something?) is this adorable cardigan for my 4 yo Goddaughter.  Her birthday is coming up in June and it's time for a new sweater for her anyway.  I have some bright red Cotton Fleece I am going to use for this, a very good yarn for cool summer evenings in upstate NY.  This is definitely a low impact project - a sweater for a small person, short rows, nothing but ribbing...I have delusions that I might actually start AND finish this on the trip. 

I suppose it depends how involved I get in the other projects and if I really can sit in the airport/on a plane and knit from 9:00 a.m. eastern - 3:30 p.m. pacific, I mean that's 9+ hours of knitting without even a traveling companion to distract me!

btw.  total sidenote -if that time zone is called pacific, why isn't this timezone called atlantic?  or why isn't that one called western?  hmf.

So, three projects and none of them will take up very much space in my bags, a varied level of complexity, varied needle sizes in case my hands get stiff, and NO METAL NEEDLES just in case airport security is more enthusiastic than I've found it in the past. 

What do you think, am I covered?   

So much life, so little knitting!

We started the weekend Friday night at a Beer and Cheese Tasting at DiBruno Bros.  No matter how it seems like the small portion of beer they serve you with each cheese isn't very much beer at all, it always adds up.  Especially when you go out afterwards - because really, at 8:00 on a friday evening what else are you going to do?

(isn't she cute?)

It's very yummy, actually, the beer and cheese are wonderful pairings and it brings out flavors you would never imagine were in either.

(this is across the street from our building, no clue what they're doing, but they keep towing all the cars every morning)

After some quality dog time in the park Saturday we went to see KOOZA (Cirque de Soleil) with my dad & stepmom.  It was wonderful, as always.  This is the third one we've seen and it amazes me how they are all equally entertaining but with a completely different feel each time.  Though to be completely honest, I spend most of the time holding my breath b/c I think somebody is going to fall and get hurt, I try to will the performers to stay up with the powers of my mind. I doubt I do much good, but I don't think I could stop if I tried. 

Afterwards we went out for a relaxing dinner at Caribou Cafe, a nice little french bistro sort of place.  DH and I both had 'France's favorite cut of beef' which turned out to be flank steak, we asked.  YUM.

(awww, male bonding time)

Today, we went on a bus adventure (took the 33 on a detour) and did actually make it to the Free Library (anyone who has ever used public transportation will know the sheer panic experienced when a bus you've never been on before makes a turn that wasn't on the little map you were looking at online.  All you can do is hope and pray that you will end up at the place you are  trying to go.)   

There is a Book Festival going on!  I wasn't entirely sure what what to expect, but there were authors and book signings and tshirts for sale and funnel cakes.  Funnel cakes make everything better.

I'm at a little bit of a loss to explain why  Darth Vader was at a book festival, but there he is.

This I get.

There is actually an exhibit at the Rosenbach of some of his illustrations if anybody is interested.

Of course, the whole reason we were there was to see the Yarn Harlot!

She was as funny as expected and DH "didn't hate it" (to quote him), I saw him chuckle quite a few times, I would say he actually enjoyed it.  He totally gets bonus points for going with me.  The whole trip was definitely worth the bus panic.

On the way home the wind picked up and it started raining sideways, we lost a perfectly good umbrella to the unpredictability of city wind.  The planned trip to the grcoery store is going to have to wait until a friendlier environmental experience is possible. 

And now I'm actually going to sit down and knit!  YAY!

A very cool thing and some new yarn

So, I was avoiding work late this afternoon as I am wont to do every now and again.  (Don't anybody tell!)  I was blog surfing and I saw this post by Jen, my SP9 spoilee - and check it out - I was the first person to post!  Socks as random acts of kindness,  how unbelievably cool/nice/generous is that?  Now she's going to make me a pair of socks!  That is a Very Cool Thing indeed.  She's also giving away another pair to a random commenter, it's open until May 24, so go on over and check it out!

I feel lucky this week!  Maybe I should play the lotto.

A few weeks ago I got some yarn from knit picks and didn't post about it, so here it is - Shine Sport in Cherry to make the Lotus Blossom Tank.  It's crazy red, bright red, way past tomato red and arrest me red, it's bright 'maybe I should be wearing sunglasses' red.  I like it.

Some bare fingering wool/silk to make a pair of cabled socks.  It's not very exciting, but I think they'll be very pretty.  This is part of my planned travel knitting, I figure when I'm on the plane out to CA I'll have plenty of time to concentrate on something like this!  I even bought harmony sock needles to reduce the risk of them being taken away at security.

And from Webs latest sale, Ella Rae silkience to make Celtic Icon by Fiona Ellis, I think this is just SUCH a pretty sweater.

I thought I was ordering grey, but as it turns out it's called 'berry' and it's a really pale grey-lavender color.  It's actually quite pretty, so I decided to keep it.

That's it for my stash enhancement...now I need to get to some stash busting!!!

Tuesdays are the worst day of the week

Because tuesday is the day my husband gets up in the dark and flies back to North Carolina to stay in our empty house for 3 days and work at his old job.

Thursdays are the best day of the week because this is the day my husband flies home to me.

He's been doing this since we bought the place in Philly in February and it sucks.  I'm sure there are couples who have done things like this and been fine with it, I'm sure there are people who have done worse for longer and lived to tell about it, but this is my story and for me this has been the epitomy of suckiness.

It's definitely been worse for him, with all the flying and staying in an emtpy house and all that, but it's not been fun for me and it really has cut into our fun weekend time together b/c he's been so tired and we haven't been seeing each other enough to want to go spend a weekend visiting somebody else - y'know?

But here's the point.  It's almost over.

Yesterday, my husband got a job IN PENNSYLVANIA.

There are only 3 more bad tuesdays left.  He will be driving home FOR GOOD on my birthday (June 6).  Absolutely.  The.  Best.  Birthday.  Present.  Ever.

So.  WOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Speaking of travel, I'm going to a work conference outside of LA the week after memorial day, I'm SO excited b/c I will get to meet Jocelyn!  Also b/c I've never been to CA at all and DH is flying out and we are going to drive to San Diego for our anniversary weekend.  YAY for fun trips, especially when work pays for the plane tickets!!! 

Not much to show

Well, I haven't been posting much lately because I haven't been doing much that's been blogworthy. 

My allergies have been kicking my butt, leaving me tired and rather unenergetic in the evenings and the weekends have been taken up with other things, so I have very little to show.

I did manage to buy a bathing suit.  A good friend just bought  a house with a pool and I didn't have one.  It's not a particularly enjoyable task for any woman, so I'm just glad I found one I don't hate and that I don't have to do it again for a few years.

The only knitting I have to show is this small bit of test knitting I did for Anne.  It's her latest scarf in the 'Little Nothing' series.  This is a remarkably easy pattern considering the delicacy of the result.

She's almost done with hers, so the pattern should be out sometime this week.

Hopefully I'll have more exciting things to show you soon...

Um. Duh.

So, here are my socks.  They're more than a little crazy.  They're also very wrong.

I was blissfully knitting away on these socks until I got them to the end of my heel.  I completely neglected to do the gusset increases I normally do for toe up socks.   I tried to do a short row heel, but quickly realized that they would still be too long as the short row heel adds about an inch.  I tried to think of anybody with a foot a inch or so longer than mine who would wear these and I couldn't come up with anybody.  Any other sock yarn and I probably would have just gifted them away...but this yarn?

It's just too crazy.

So, I figured if I had to rip them back to do the short row heel, I might as well take another inch off and do the gusset increases b/c I really do prefer socks with gussets.

Hmf.  I hate frogging.

Catching up

I had some sort of stomach virus last week and it wiped me out, seriously.  I didn't even knit from Sunday through Saturday.  Today was the first day I picked up the needles again. 

A few things came out of this.  1.  I didn't go to MD Sheep and Wool.  Sigh.  I really wanted to go, but by the time Thursday rolled around it became completely obvious there was no way I would enjoy it, I was way too exhausted and still somewhat ill.  2.  I fit into jeans I haven't been able to wear in 2 years.  I have no idea whether or not they are still in style, but I wore them anyway.  3.  I haven't been able to work on the test knit I'm supposed to be doing for Anne. 

Yesterday we spent a well earned day at home playing Super Smashbros Brawl.  Then we went to Rosie's so I could spend my hard earned yarn money that I had saved to take to MDSW.  After that we walked to Good Dog and had one of the Best Burgers Ever.  mmmmmmm

I got this gorgeous Pear Tree merino - this was a SERIOUS splurge.  Serious.  But I thought it would look so gorgeous as  a traditional gansey.  Okay, maybe not traditional, since it's this color, but traditional style.

In real life it is a beautiful pink, coral, peachy color with such depth...SO pretty.  I have been thinking about it ever since I saw it on the yarn crawl in March.

I also got this Sirdar Baby Bamboo in a pale dusty pink to make the Drawstring Chemise.

The other day I got my last Sundara Seasons shipment - aran silky merino - it's a lovely grey wash over blue, I don't remember the exact name, but it's really gorgeous.  It's more subtle than the picture indicates.

Today we tried to take the car to get inspected but ran into trouble when we couldn't cross Broad Street.   So we just took the car back and went out for brunch instead.

The clouds dissipated and we decided to spend the afternoon at the park with the dogs.  It was LOVELY.  Pixie lost what was left of her winter coat.

Which the local birds thought was grand and they set about lining their nests with her discarded fluff.

It was so funny to watch them come and gather it up in their beaks and fly away, then come back for more.

We saw a wedding party taking pictures - what a lovely day for a wedding!

Mostly we just laid on our blanket and enjoyed the lovely day while the dogs went into stimulus overload, they are both dead to the world right now.

Tonight we are meeting our realtor for dinner and I will gift her the Gust I made, I hope she likes it!!  Later in the week - knitting content - I hope!