Knitting in Transit

It's My Sister's Birthday Too! That's what happens when you have a twin. Many years ago, my sister and I grew tired of duking it out in the womb for room. She shoved me aside and emerged into the world and before she could warn me that it was cold and bright and loud out there, I followed her. And now we celebrate. First stop for birthday celebration was Psycho Suzi's on Friday night, where some friends joined me and David for large drinks and little pickles wrapped in cream cheese and ham. That's me with my very large, flaming drink. At first it seemed awfully strong, but I got used to it. As a birthday present, the Tiki gods smiled on me and allowed me to wake up the next morning hangover free. Yay! Saturday we headed to the 'burbs where my Dad and Kathy took us to a Japanese steakhouse, where we were serenaded while wearing this odd mask. That was fun. Here's all of us, full of steak and shrimp and salmon and lots of fried rice. It was fun evening, an...

There hasn't been too much knitting or blogging going on around here lately. There has been a lot of biking, so I'll update you all a bit about that. I know my brother and sister-in-law are into biking, so this post is sort of for them. Labor Day, David and I and our friend Kym headed southeast-ish along the river towards St. Paul, crossed the river, and then headed back towards home on the other side. It was a beautiful day for a ride and we were lucky enough to see this bald eagle enjoying the day as much as we were. I think we biked about 30 miles that day. The day was capped off with lunch at the Longfellow Grill in Minneapolis. I should have taken a picture of the area around the Grill. It is right along the bike trail along East River Road and gets a lot of bicyclists stopping for drinks and food. It was crazy how many bikes there were! The next week, September 13th, we rode in the St. Paul Bike Classic with Kym and Michael. The St. Paul Bike Classic is so much f...

Did you know, that in a pinch, a knitting pattern book can serve as a bedtime story? When Gigi and the Little Guy spent the night Saturday, he was not interested in the book Gig brought, so I searched on my shelves and could only come up with this . Turns out, the Little Guy enjoyed looking at the pictures of little kids and animals... counting birds... and the truck blanket was a hit. And here is where I am with Flair. I got to this point last week and just have not been able to get any further. Hopefully over the weekend I can get some sleeves on this thing.

Can it really be that I have not updated my blog since August? Why yes! It can. It's been a crazy last few days of summer around here: multiple trips to the State Fair, more biking and swimming, gearing up for the always crazy first day of classes at the fourth largest university in the nation ( well, last year anyway ), thinking about knitting. Sunday, Gigi, David, the Little Guy and I headed to the State Fair. We were there about 7 a.m., which is a great time to go to the fair. There are hardly any people there, and there is breakfast to be had! We passed by the Giant Slide on the way to Machinery Hill. This is one of my favorite things at the Fair and Gigi and I went down while the Little Guy waited with David. As soon as we got off, the Little Guy ran up and wanted to go down the slide. He decided he wanted to go with me so we climbed the stairs and he was so excited all the way up. I thought for sure when we got up there he would change his mind, but nope...I held on ti...

I am utterly exhausted after this weekend. It was all about food and fitness. The fitness was needed to counteract the food. For those of you who only read my blog for the knitting content, I will tell you that I finished the body of Flair last night. Now it's just sleeves, collar, and buttoning. By the time I finished, it was too dark to take a photo without the flash, so I don't have a visual to share. Soon though, I promise. Now that that is out of the way, you don't need to read about my other adventures unless you are interested. Well, you may want to continue to see some sheep pictures. Saturday morning, David and I biked up to St. Thomas where we met Kym and Kyle bright and early for a run. We ran about 2.5 miles with them, and then the two of them continued on (they are training for the Twin Cities Marathon) while David and I hopped back on our bikes and to the Mill City Farmer's Market . We had breakfast there (goat cheese omelets with cucumber and som...

My mom took the day off today and since it was my usual day off, I headed to the 'burbs to dye yarn with her. She had purchased some dye and cheap yarn and considered this a "test" run for when she gets the yarn from the yarn crop share she is a part of. The yarn soaked in her very deep sink for part of the morning. Looks like noodles. It was then was added to the dye on the stove top. The color is cantaloupe. After simmering for about 30 minutes, the yarn was ready to be rinsed and hung up to dry. At this point, the house was filled with the smell of wet wool. Delightful. I'm not really sure if that should be read with a slightly sarcastic tone or not...I don't think wet wool smells great, but there is something sort of comforting about it. The only complaint I have about this process is that the instructions say to constantly stir the yarn in the pot, so that the color distributes evenly. Granted, we stirred gently, but I think we all know what happens when you...

(the post immediately below shows the map of our bike ride...if you are feeling so inclined, you could open it in another browser window and follow along as I describe our day) A Monday off in August is a wonderful thing. My office is crazy this time of year, even more so on Monday, so if I can avoid just a little of the crazy, I'm happy. David and I had originally intended to go camping this weekend, but the triathlon got in the way of that plan. Instead, we decided to go for a bike ride around The Cities (as Mpls/St. Paul are affectionately known in these parts). David was at his place, so he got an extra four miles of biking in in order to meet me at the synagogue about a 1/2 mile from my place. From there, we zipped down Mississippi River Blvd, across the river, and then up Minnehaha Parkway to Mel-o-Glaze Bakery donuts for some coffee and carbs. My donut was a bit too much - glazed, then glazed again with chocolate. A bit too sweet, but the coffee helped. We enjoyed our...