Catching Up is hard to Do…

Playing off a refrain from an oldie but goodie (come-a, come-a down, doobie doo, down, down…) This is the part where I tell you about the rest of my vacation and catch up on what has happened since I got home. Well, that’s what I planned this post to be about anyway. So, I have managed to download all of the photos I took while I’m away. I even uploaded them to flickr and updated my ravelry with the knitting related pictures, whoo! Things have actually been sort of busy. I didn’t get much time to regroup before jumping right back into my regular schedule, so I’ve been trying to squeeze things in here and there. I think it’s Tuesday already. Yikes! That means tomorrow is October! So, the rest of the vacation was spent wandering around San Francisco (seeing some of our favorite places) with my youngest daughter Monday and my oldest daughter and her husband on Tuesday, finishing off with everybody meeting up at Giants stadium (aka AT&T Park) to see the Giants play the Colorado Rockies. Let’s just say it was a good night for baseball and the Rockies looked better than the Giants, whose starting pitcher Tim Lincecum had a rough night, but ultimately pitched well enough to set a new team record. The cool thing about the outing was it was my Grandson’s first Major League baseball game which was a fun thing to be a part of. Too bad “Papa” (DH) couldn’t be there too. He was extremely jealous back at home. DD1 and I made up our own stitch-n-pitch event during the game too. I got more of the spring forward sock knit between strikeouts. The only other Giants game I ever attended, despite living in the Bay area over three years was one of the last played at the old “Candlestick Park” so it was also fun getting to see the new stadium. The next day was my departure day, but we managed to pack in plenty of fun before I headed to the airport by going to the Oakland Zoo. I’m not sure who was the most excited to go to the zoo, DD1 or my grandson. Either way, despite many exhibits with animals hiding out from the warm weather, we had a nice time and all too soon I had to go to the airport to come home. I wish I could show you every picture I took, but there were so many! Here’s a quick montage to give you an idea of how much fun we had together… Oh, and did I mention that I finally finished Spring Forward between flights home? Here’s a quick look at the finished pair Since I’ve been home, DH has been naturally needing my attention (and the cats have been a little on the clingy side too). We went and saw the movie “Miracle at St. Anna” and checked out a local “Octoberfest” over the weekend. Since I have several projects in limbo due to various issues, I chose to work on baby gifts and finished this cute set and another blanket buddy for babies born last month to church families. I also attempted to read the book I was supposed to have read already for the book club meeting tonight *sigh* it’s not a good read for me. Monday was sock class and I was having a bad reaction to the latest change in weather and had a little trouble focusing, so my class project sock needed several times of being frogged… it’s currently sitting in time out. No picture as it is a bad knit and does not deserve to be called a sock… Today was catch-up on housework and time to start the project for the class beginning on Thursday afternoon. More on that in another post, as I need to get going and I’m sure you’re ready to go read someone else’s more fascinating blog!

Actually, here's one final picture that is probably my most favorite of all from this trip... god bless little boys! Oh, yeah (GO CUBS!)

Vacation so far...

I can't believe how fast this trip is flying by... but here's a little glimpse of how it's been so far...

Some knitting in the park (and a new friend)

Lots of fun and games...

Food...

(Seared cauliflower with a roasted red-pepper pesto...yum!)

Festivals...

and Family

Oh, and as promised, here's the finished Hey Teach

Quick Update

I survived my day of travel to CA. The flights were uneventful and I had a nice time in the waiting lounge in Milwaukee when an impromptu knit meet up sprang up between Me, Terry and Kate while waiting to depart. We had a nice time knitting and chatting together. I finished Hey Teach on Tuesday. It came out great and I have pics to prove it... once I can get them into interspace I am trying to figure out how to get my camera to work with DD's computer. Rumor has it that Saucey is at home pouting. That's about it for now, more when I get time and cooperation. .

Me and Ted

Are members of the not-so-popular “almost society”

He almost pitched a no-hitter last night which would have made history (back-to-back) after the one Carlos pitched on Sunday.

I almost got my “Hey Teach” done over the weekend. I finished off the knitting on the sleeves Sunday night. I had to wait for it to block a little before the assembly and knitting of the button/neck bands. Sigh Here's the rest of the pieces…

(ick, the picture of the sleeves is blurry, sorry) When I’m done here on the computer I’m going to go see how far I can get towards actually finishing it! Hee, hee

Because….

Tomorrow I’m leaving on another trip! I’m going out to CA to see my DD#2 and grandson#1 and then next week her sister (and hubby) will be coming out there as well. So I get to see both my girls!!! There’s gonna be a whole lot of spoilin’ goin’ on!

I hope to be able to do a post or two while I’m out there, because what Nana can resist showing off pictures of her pride-and-joy grandson either?

So now, I’m off to do some knitting and figure out what to pack… Oh, and on a totally unrelated note… if you’re a knitter or crocheter (or know one), and you want to do something specific to help out a Hurricane Ike victim, one of my favorite independent Yarn Dyers, Ray from Knitivity is in the process of trying to recover from Ike. He actually started his yarn business after he relocated to Houston as a Katrina survivor. He could really use some yarn orders to help with the repairs on his roof (and other basic necessities). So, if you love yarn and especially hand-dyed yarn, check him out. The orders might take a little longer than usual, but you won’t regret it, and of course, every little bit helps.

Inquiring Minds Wanted to Know

Thanks to the comments from Happy Place and Knitnana. They both wrote nice things about it, so I thought I'd expand the entry on the baby bunting to let you know why the front and back look different. I'm using two different colorways of the same yarn in alternating bands of stockinette/reverse stockinette which gives it sort of a horizontal corrugated effect. The yarn is Claudia Handpaint in Copper Pennies and Turquoise Jeans. The project is designed to showcase the yarn and possibilities for using it in projects besides (gasp!) socks. PS... I feel more like a snail knitter with all these things in the works and nothing getting done! I plan on finishing at least one thing by Sunday... I'll keep you posted!

The Rumors Might Be True

There have been multiple UFO sightings in my neighborhood. First an apology: the pictures are what they are, the sun is most definitely not playing nice with the clouds this week!

A portion of one front of the “Hey Teach” is hovering on the needles… (The back is finished though)

The Spring Forward socks are limping to the finish line… The Swallowtail Shawl is still in pupae stages… Shop samples and projects are piling up... Class Socks Bye-Bye Baby Bunting (This is the same piece of knitting, just both the right and wrong sides so you can see how the colors contrast)

Newly cast on projects are cowering in the corner…. (Unbiased)

Along with a certain “course” I’m taking that hasn’t seen any progress in months And new patterns are arriving daily… (hourglass) (Milk Chocolate) Candy Apple Double Identity ... Sigh…

I can only knit so fast...

What’s a knitter to do?

Swap Monkeys!

Today’s mail was good: These arrived from Amber … Monkey socks in red and blue. The best part is she dyed the yarn especially for these… how cool is that?

No Post Today - CBUK*

* Cat between user and keyboard

"I said NO..."

"and I mean no"

Did You Miss Me?

I didn’t mention that I might be absent from the blog because I had hoped that there might be internet access available at the resort we were visiting. There was, for a fee, if you have a laptop… (‘nuff said!) So no, I wasn’t able to do an live vacation feeds to keep my readers informed… And you’re wondering… “wheredja go?” “Whadja do?” (right?) Well, wondering or not, I’ll share some of my adventures. So enough preliminaries I guess… DH and I took a little jaunt to Fabulous Las Vegas. Despite the “what happens…” slogan, I can tell you a few things that we did. We stayed at a nice time share resort (the one that Alan Thicke is spokesperson for). We swam in the pool, we checked out the mountains, we ate a lot of good food, drank a few drinks, and of course dabbled in a couple casinos. Most of the stuff people usually do in Las Vegas. We didn’t get to any shows this time because we just didn’t see anything that appealed to us. (And Cher ticket prices cost more than our room!) It was a very laid-back vacation and we were just happy to have a nice place to relax and escape from every day life. We also visited a very nice yarn shop and had fun driving around the area and seeing a lot of different sides of Las Vegas. You can’t really appreciate the city if you don’t get away from the areas where the casinos are concentrated.

If it weren’t for the heat and the current housing crisis, I think DH would still want to move there. The city just has a funny appeal to both of us.

I must be getting old though, because I saw some really young girls all fixed up to go out partying at the clubs and I was really shocked and a little embarrassed/offended by the dresses (if you could call them that) that they were wearing. Since when is it OKAY to go anywhere in anything that doesn’t even come close to covering your cleavage up top or your rear end at the bottom and call it a dress? The thing that I don’t get is they wear these items with really high heels to go dance in? But first they walk a mile or so on the strip to get to the club… it baffles me. Seriously! And don’t get me started on the time we walked into a casino and there were pole dancers in the main area! It’s definitely not a family place, (which didn’t stop people from bringing their kids) but really! Some things still belong behind closed doors – even in Las Vegas! But, it was a fun trip and I actually did get some knitting done during some of it. On the landing/approach to our gate at the airport, I bound off the last stitches of this: Blue T-shirt; Eden Madil, 100% Bamboo; Size 4 needles; Knitting Pure & Simple Neck-down Shaped T-Shirt by Diane Soucy Here’s a shot of me wearing it in front of the Paris Hotel/Casino Then I started this: Spring Forward Sock, Fleece Artist Sea Wool, Size 0 needle; Started on size 1, knit cuff + 1st pattern repeat, decided it would be way too big, frogged, started over with smaller needle- adjusted pattern to work magic loop. And I also worked a little bit on the Hey Teach I haven’t made as much progress as the Harlot, but my goal is to get the back done by the end of the week. Maybe then I can show a picture! Both Spring Forward and Hey Teach are from the Summer Edition of Knitty. (Just in case you haven’t seen it). Oh and yes, I did win on a couple of slots, but nothing BIG, here’s a pic I snapped of my big jackpot on a quarter machine. It wasn’t enough to bring home.

Apparently, any money you win in Vegas, does stay in Vegas…