Knitting in Transit

I've made good progress on my Nothing But A T-Shirt. I'm working on this as a KAL with the Lumpy Sweater and The Sarah Winchester of Fiber Arts . This is the back, and I've actually made a little more progress since the picture was taken. I have finished the bust increases and I'm confident I'll be able to finish the back this weekend and get started on the front. In other happy knitting news, I finally got around to calling Knitpicks yesterday about my broken needle. The whole phone call took about three minutes. No being on hold and no hassles. Just friendly customer service. A new needle is already on the way! I'm still working on the Gloria cowl, but haven't worked on it much the last couple of days. Perhaps that will get finished up over the weekend as well.

I haven’t posted much the last few days (okay, so it's only been one day) because all my spare computer time has been spent searching for hotels in opposite corners of the United States and finding information on Costa Rica for a vacation presentation coming up this weekend! Oh boy, do I have travel plans! I’ve already talked about my Summer Knitting Queue. Behold, my Summer and Beyond Travel Queue! First up, a trip to New Ulm, MN to enjoy all things German and tour the Schell Brewery . This may be only a day trip, but we may camp overnight at Flandreau State Park . The plans are still brewing…hahahaha! Get it? Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to visit Wisconsin Rapids to visit my 96-year old grandpa. My dad and step-mom were there recently. He lives in a retirement trailer-home community, and when bad weather struck, they all sought shelter in the rec center. Grandpa was not worried…he just wished he had brought some beer. I know what you are thinking now. New Ulm and W...

About two weeks ago, I had a summer knitting queue all set to go. I was excited about the projects I had planned and couldn't’t wait to get started. Then, I actually started to try and get going, and well…reality set in. Let’s review: the queue consisted of Synesthesia socks; One Skein Wonder; Nothing But a T-Shirt; Josephine Top; Sockapalooza socks TBD. Overall, a pretty realistic plan for summer knitting ( Edit: Actually, it seems a bit much ). Some stuff for me, stuff for family, stuff for strangers. In addition to that, I’m planning to knit some socks for my step-mom from the Cinnamon's Dye Pot yarn I received. The yarn just seemed to say “Kathy” to me. Now, let’s see where things are at with these projects. One Skein Wonder: Completed! Nothing But a T-Shirt: Woo-hoo! It's going well! Synesthesia Socks: on hiatus until new needle arrives Sockapalooza Socks: just waiting for the Sockapalooza 5 Sign up! Kathy’s Socks: Still in the imagination stage Josephine Top: ...

Earlier last week, I e-mailed the gang I knit with over lunch to see if anyone was interested in going to the Stitch-n-Pitch with me on June 21st. I like to watch baseball, so I'm not sure how much knitting I'll get done, but it seems a good excuse to wear my new Ravelry T-shirt in public. Holly wrote back and informed me that Borealis Yarns was having a sale, 20% off everything in the store. Would I like to go after work on Friday? Would I! I told myself I would only buy one skein of yarn, and it would have to be sock yarn, because then I'd know exactly what to do with it.: Socks or a Gloria cowl. But when I got there, I was confronted with this: And this: And this: With all that yarn at 20% off, how could I only take home one lonely skein? I bought this lovely Louisa Harding Grace , silk and wool. I'm making Gloria out of this. It is so soft. The minute I touched it I knew it would be perfect to wrap around my neck on a chilly day. Then I saw this Manos silk a...

I am finally posting about my yarn adventures while I was on vacation last week. It’s been a struggle to not post about this sooner! My time is limited, and I wanted to post about my adventures in Denver while they were fresh in my mind. Without any further ado, KNITTING CONTENT! Before I went to Denver, I was around town for three days. Cleaning, spending time with my dad and step-mom, and spending time with my nephew. I did not get as much knitting done as one would think, but I did manage to finish up my sister’s One Skein Wonder. I love it! The sizing is perfect. Seeing how well it fits, I am tempted to rip back my One Skein Wonder and resize it. Hmmm….we’ll see. I think Gigi will be very pleased with it. I know her husband will say, “what the heck is that?” but I don’t really care. The yarn I used was Classic Elite Bazic Wool in Thistle. It’s a superwash wool, so she’ll be able to toss it in the washing machine. She’s a busy mom, so that is a good thing. I only took one knitting ...

Beer, Baseball, Buddha and Biology: Part Three Biology Day, AKA Sunday Sunday we woke up bright and early (no sleeping in this day) to leave by 9 a.m. for the Denver Zoo. The boys were very excited about this, and why not? As I was soon to discover, the Denver Zoo is a very nice zoo. The day was gorgeous…sunny and in the 70s. This time I remembered my sunscreen. We saw mongoose… Monkeys…. Elephants… Lorikeets (hmmm....looks like there may be a little somethin-somethin going on there) and Dall Sheep! No, they are not mountain goats. They are sheep. Wonder what their wool is like? Then my camera battery died. So, no pictures of the hippos and rhinos. I could have spent more time there. It’s a good sized zoo, and we didn’t even get over to the side with the lions, tigers, and bears. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to go back some day. Then again, I have an irrational fear of being mauled by a lion or tiger, so maybe it is best to stay away. We were there most of the morning, and then it w...

Beer, Buddha, and Baseball: Day Two Buddha Day, AKA Saturday It was another beautiful day in Colorado. After a morning at Target with Angie, Jack, and Alex and a quick lunch at Chick-Fil-A, Angie and I headed to the Shambala Mountain Center in Red Feather Lakes, CO. Shambala is a Buddhist retreat center focusing on meditation, yoga, and other contemplative practices. Angie and I were headed there to see the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya . The day was absolutely gorgeous. As we joined the other folks waiting for the Stupa tour, I realized I'd made a big mistake. No sunscreen. Everyone else was slathering themselves with the stuff, and all I had was some lip gloss with an SPF of 20. Not only was it very sunny, but we were also much closer to the sun, being up in the mountains and all. I'd just have to take my chances. We began the trek up to the Stupa past fields and trees. I can only imagine how beautiful it will be when summer arrives. We stopped to pick up our guide in front of t...

I'm back! My vacation is over and the trip to Denver completed. I'll be writing about my "Beer, Baseball, Biology, and Buddha" trip over the next few days. I wouldn't want to overwhelm everyone (okay, actually just myself) with an extraordinarily long blog post after so many days of silence. I will also be devoting a separate blog post to the woolly and corny (you'll get it in a few days) aspects of my trip. So, here goes! Beer, Baseball, Biology, and Buddha: Day 1 Day One is the Beer and Baseball portion of the trip. Also known as Friday. I actually arrived in Denver on Thursday about 3:00, but there isn't much to tell about that day. Certainly nothing that begins with a "B", so we'll just pretend it didn't happen. After a nice, snuggly nights sleep at Angie's house, I awoke and we headed to Fort Collins to visit the New Belgium Brewery , home of Fat Tire ! When Fat Tire became available in MN again, it was a HUGE deal. I was excit...

Today I am spending with the little guy out in the burbs. He's napping right now, but earlier today we went up to his new daycare for a visit. While there, I was MOBBED by children, in particular little girls. I don't know if it was the dandelion in my hair or that they were so excited to see someone new. The two I chatted with the most, Scarlett and Emma, let me in on various news, such as: their mommies are coming to pick them up; one of them had a princess bike; one wants a pink flower, the other purple; and of course they wanted me to watch them go down the slide. Since I am out here at my sister's place, that means I will measure her later and then be able to begin on the Nothing But a T-Shirt. I'll be using this Rowan Calmer in a blue-ish shade with white for the trim. I also have started a One Skein Wonder for Gretchen. I've made a lot more progress since I took this photo. It's made out of Classic Elite Bazic Wool in Thistle. While I was home Monday, t...

Remember how there were camels on Northrup Mall last Thursday, and then on Friday there were those cute plastic bottle flowers , and how I wondered what Monday would hold in store? Turns out nothing, because I am not there! I am on vacation! So far, my vacation has been spent at home, doing exciting thing like cleaning my apartment and washing my couch cushion covers. Jealous, aren't you? For fun, last night D and I took a Sushi making class. It was offered through community ed at one of the local high schools. It felt like going back in time as we passed rows of lockers and entered the home ec kitchen. Ah...memories. The first couple hours of the class were spent preparing the ingredients for the sushi while the rice cooked and seasoned. Sushi means "seasoned rice", not raw fish as many people think. There was no raw fish in the sushi we prepared last night. We did have: avocado, cucumber, carrot, daikon radish, grated spicy ginger, roe, sesame seeds, asparagus, mushroo...