A Fun Weekend

I had a fun and busy weekend. On Saturday, I headed out to Crystal Lake, IL for the Midwest Fiber and Folk Festival. Boy, I could have used two days to really look at everything there was to see and do, though. But, thankfully for my wallet...

But, really, I think I did well in terms of staying within my budget. I went on a cash-only basis and managed to come home with a quarter of the cash allotted still in my wallet. No … I don’t mean a literal quarter… after buying food, drink and a few knitting goodies... I mean that I still had enough money left over to tuck some away for the Stitches market (yeah!) Not that I didn’t find lots of luscious things that I wanted to buy. And, can you believe, that in a total blog-dork moment, I um, only took a total of one picture at the festival. (new friend "alpaca") ! So you’ll have to trust me when I tell you that it was a fiber wonderland. There were so many wonderful fibers and colors to look at and touch, that it was nearly overwheliming! I also took a class, so I didn’t spend the entire time there shopping. The class was called “Getting the most out of Variegated Yarns” taught by Penny Cetner of Wool, Warp and Wheel. It covered using variegated yarns in different contexts. We started a project using both Fair Isle and intarsia techniques to create designs and textures within the project using both variegated and solid yarn; we also learned how using shaping techniques like short rows can really highlight the qualities of a variegated yarn. It was an interesting and thought-provoking class for a designer-wannabe like me.

I also saw knitting friends old and new and I hung out with Sheri from Wednesday Kaffe Klutch, who I also did the Stitches market with last year. We helped each other resist “impulse” yarn purchases a little better this time. (But she did show me a book that is now on my wishlist).

So you’re staring at your screen thinking “get to the good stuff woman! What did you buy???” (right?) Well, even if you’re not, I’m prepared to show you now.
Behold, the lot…

I bought some mills end Louet Euroflax in a sort of grape-silver heather; some organic cotton (show special half-price); there were also a few “fun” trinkets that I also found; a little knitting pin; a funky knitting needle bracelet; some Lauren Burch Buttons (to match two I already had); a hand carved shawl pin; and some handmade soap.
My one big splurge was some silk Mini-Maiden in a totally “me” color: (Hand Maiden Lace Weight 50% Silk, 50% Wool; amethyst) I cannot stop touching this!!!

And on the knitting front, yesterday was just a typical Sunday (Church, brunch, Softball) with time for knitting in-between, so I almost finished my Summertime Shell; hopefully I will have FO pictures to show off tomorrow!

SNP Recap

Whew! I had to take a day of rest after the late night Wednesday! Even though the Brewer’s lost we had a fun night. The one thing I would change is that next time our group would try to organize itself better so we could all sit together. Here’s the quick run down. DH and I arrived at the park with plenty of time to find a decent parking space and avoid the mad rush to get our ball caps and project bag. While in line, I spied no other than Jean-from-last year. Too funny. She disappeared before I could catch her so DH and I found our food and then meandered down to our seats so DH could watch the teams take their batting practice. After we settled in I saw Jean again and we had a nice visit. She’ll be at Stitches the same day as me again, but not in the same class. Oh well, it would have been way too funny if she was! Paula and Ray arrived next, followed by Vanessa and Brian. We eventually located Carol (with her first sock) and her crew a row down and a few seats over... and Chris and her crew a couple more rows down and a few more seats over. There was a brief Jessica sighting, but just then something terrific happened on the field and the cheering drowned us out so we couldn’t catch her attention. I worked on the Skinny Stripe socks… finished the gusset and got a good part of the foot knit on sock #2... Here’s the socks-eye-view of the park:

Have a nice weekend. I’ll be trying to get the skinny socks and the Mis-matched socks done this weekend. Think happy knitting thoughts for me!

The Harlot Has Landed and Other Stuff

(our group: me, Melissa with Trella, Stephanie with Helen, Christine (in back), Michelle and Kelly)

Yes! It is true that on Friday June 20th, the Yarn Harlot descended on Chicago and made it to the second edition of her Oak Lawn book signing. (Thanks Nana's!) Did we have fun? You betcha! The day started out a little cloudy (and I can’t repeat the things that might have been yelled at those clouds…) but not so bad-weatherish so as to prevent a plane from approaching or landing in O’Hare. I rode down to Oak Lawn with Christine and the delightful Helen since the other members of our group took a jaunt out to the Fold in Marengo to stock up on … what else… more yarn. The met us down in Oak Lawn. We hadn’t actually determined a meeting time or place, but it seemed logical to stop by at Nana’s Knit shop before we did anything else and lo and behold, there was the other half of our group already talking to the Harlot herself and (drum roll please) Franklin! We got a bonus pre-event visit and photo op right then and there. (Pardon the “squees” from my inner fan-girl). I also presented my “gifts” of the Violet washcloth and emergency chocolate to Stephanie and she seemed to like both. Yes that’s the same washcloth pattern that I was previously designing – I wanted to do something representative of IL and chose our state flower the Violet. I didn’t get a chance to visit with Franklin there because they were whisked off a few minutes later. So after a little browsing in the shop, we left and went to a nearby restaurant and had a leisurely dinner, and then headed over to the hotel to claim our seats… there was a short wait in line as we arrived about five minutes before the doors open - I used that opportunity to go to the restroom (having consumed 2 iced teas and half a glass of water at dinner). The line had progressed to the point where right as I walked out of the restroom, I was able to join our group and enter the ball room. Do we have the timing thing going on tonight or what? Stephanie’s talk was funny and insightful and we really had a thoroughly fun time. I managed to work the mis-matched socks to the point of starting the heels while she spoke. After her talk we had to wait in line (some more) for the book signing part, but due to having brought enough knitting for a four day trip that was no problem. I whipped out the Aquaphobia sock which was still on probation after misbehaving during meet-up Thursday night. I worked on it some and did my best to get back on track with the heel – I managed right up until the point we got to where Franklin was hanging out and then I had to stop and do a little chatting with him and take a picture (of course). He’s as nice in person as I imagined he would be! I resumed the sock knitting for the rest of the wait and the sock began to settle down and cooperate, so I let it get its 5 seconds of fame and be held by Stephanie when we got our “official” book signing picture taken. All in all, it was an excellent way to spend an evening.

So what could be better than that? Well, I’ll tell you, Saturday was my birthday, and DH did his very best to spoil me most of the day. We had a lazy morning (well had to get out of bed early, but laid around the house and drank coffee); then a stop at Caribou for coffee, a trip to the mall and a new pair of Capri pants; a late dinner out and a nice relaxing evening finished off by a soak in a bubble bath. Hardly excitement, but I’m at that age where doing what you really want to do is a great present. Besides, I already showed off pictures of my new needles and yarn that “he” bought for me. (You know, he authorized the purchase, to get off the hunter-gatherer-of-gifts hook). Now if he could just train the cats to let me sleep in on my b-day…. LOL!

Grads, Grands and a Few Things In-between

I hope your Memorial Day is going well.
We had a busy weekend, full of travel and family and friends. Youngest SD graduated from HS on Friday, so Thursday, we traveled to AL via Atlanta.
There was a lot of family (mostly related to DH’s Ex) around and we tried to spend as much time with the kids as their schedules allowed. I was a good girl and left the knitting in the car (or at the hotel) when we were visiting.
Here’s the proud Grad and Dad:

In addition to the graduation, we were able to see the MI grandkids and I got a chance for a knit meet up with an internet friend while in the GA/AL area.
Boys in a box…
‘Papa’ and granddaughter Alanta (see how much she’s grown!)
One of the nice aspects of the internet knitting community is the removal of that feeling of being a “lone knitter” – a few mouse clicks and a little googling and all of a sudden you can find yourself in the midst of many like-minded knitters. I discovered an even nicer aspect to this connection during this trip. I read a knit-blog by a fellow sock-knitter; Becca who as it turns out is the wife of a soldier stationed at Fort Benning, GA (soon to be Fort Bliss, TX). Normally when we travel DH lets me seek out a LYS in the area we are traveling in to get a little calm-me-down time and to reward me for being a good sport if his ex-laws are involved. The town we visited in AL is basically in Fort Benning’s back yard. From reading Becca’s blog, I knew that the closest yarn shop was probably back in Atlanta (100 or so miles), and we would not have time in the short span of time after we landed or before we went back to the airport to visit a yarn shop. So, in lieu of a yarn shop visit, I got to do the next best or maybe an even better thing. Mini-meet-up! I touched base with Becca to see if she would be available when we were in town and we worked out the details for a little knitting over coffee/diet coke. (L-R, Becca and Me)How fun to meet your internet friends in real life. We had an amiable chat and knit a little. I admired the Fair Isle sock Becca was working on for her son, and she checked out my Aquaphobia. Becca shared her secrets for doing a nice heel flap on a toe-up sock (it's also on her blog) and I probably talked way too much about the “old days” when I was still in the Army. Something about seeing all those uniforms just brings back all the memories! Any way, it was a nice diversion for me during the trip and guaranteed knitting time. To paraphrase something Becca said, this was the first time I deliberately met someone I knew from online. And I can add that it turned out to be fun!

As for knitting, practicality and Airline considerations dictated that I pack light, so after sorting through several possible travel projects; I ended up just bringing two OTN projects and one ready to start (just-in-case). I brought the Aquaphobia socks which I started after finishing up the Monkeys and the Branching Out #2 as an alternate project. I packed yarn and needles for baby projects as my just-in-case option. I got one sock knit thru the foot while traveling and added about 10 repeats to the scarf. Not bad for the amount of time I spent not knitting on this trip.
The Aquaphobia checking out the Kudzu on the road between Atlanta and AL.

So that’s a peek at how I spent my weekend. I hope yours was safe.
On a serious note… Take a moment today to please think about what this country would be like if we didn’t have real life heroes. If you know a service member give them a hug or say thank-you today. If you don’t please say a prayer for all of our men and women in uniform past and present. Having had the privilege to serve with and for these men and women, I can honestly say that they are all heroes in my heart.

Class Sock and a Great Bunch of Knitters

Last night our meet up group the Lake County Ktog Knitters met at the shop where I work. It was a fun and relaxing evening and unlike the Panera’s where we usually meet, there were no dirty looks from the manager or other patrons. Well, really there were no other patrons because we met after shop hours, but that’s just a technicality because the fantastic Linda didn’t mind ringing up purchases made by our members. I took the vest because I was close enough to reaching the neck and armhole shaping that I figured it would be a good meet up project. It was. I might be able to finish it this weekend! (Knitter’s optimism kicking in of course) Here’s a few of the pictures I took:


That's Vanessa's project the Anenemoi mitten (by Eunny Jang)... isn't it pretty? (Vanessa is in the first picture on the left... the one sort of cut off, oops!)

Lots of yarny goodness and knitterly fun was had by all.

If you’re ever up in Lake County on meet up night, please come join us!

Oh, and in case you were wondering… here’s the sock I’m working on for class.

And the Weather Is….

Severe thunderstorms with 100% chance that any important flights coming in to any Chicago-area airport will be canceled.

So we had our exciting adventure to see the Yarn Harlot yesterday, but it didn't quite turn out as planned. Leaving Vernon Hills we had
1) Carful of knitters
2) GPS
3) Munchies
4) Knitting
5) Good spirits.

Well, the trip went fine and dandy, but the ‘seeing the Harlot’ part just didn’t happen. As many of you in the knitting world already know Stephanie couldn’t get out of Toronto yesterday due to our crummy weather here in the Midwest. The Hilton was lovely, our hostess was gracious and the crowd was more concerned about the well-being of their guest speaker than the outcome of the event. We had a nice road trip got in a little knitting along the way and still ended up having fun even if the main objective wasn’t met. We’ve been promised a do-over and that’s good enough for me.

Here’s a shot of Michelle, Jessica (our lovely driver) and Kelly knitting at the Starbucks in Oak Lawn… another of the very patient and understanding crowd… and one of the group at Caribou in Vernon Hills afterwards… making the most of our adventure. (We met the very pregnant Melissa at the train station in Oak Lawn before the event and then brought her back up north with us). Oopsie... I forgot to implore an innocent bystander to take one of all of us, so I'm not in any ... bad knitblogger! Oh, but that's probably for the best...

ps just to end on a positive note: the floors are done (can I get a woohoo?)