Nana-a-go-go

That’s me.

I feel like I’ve been on the go for several weeks now. Having some quiet time here in TX with DD1 while we await the birth of her daughter is a real blessing and necessity. I won’t be able to recap everything, but needless to say it has been a very busy couple of weeks.

My brother and Niece spent about a week visiting me and we did a quick weekend trip to WI so he could attend a friend’s wedding. We had a little extra time after arriving and he graciously took me to this shop where I enjoyed meeting the owner and checking out her shop. The night of the wedding I hung out in the hotel watched baseball on TV and knitted, mostly getting this going: (another pair of Noro Skinny Stripe socks)

Last week was mostly a normal schedule for me while my brother reacquainted himself with our area and found fun things to do with his daughter. On Weds we went to Stitch-n-Pitch with the Chicago White Sox (Sox 6; Angels 2). It was my first time at the new Sox stadium and we all had great fun, here are a few of the pictures from the game: Thursday Mom and Dad picked up my brother so they could visit with him for the rest of his trip and Friday I got in the car and drove the first leg of my trip to TX. I arrived on Saturday and installed myself and the kitties in the guest room / nursery at my daughters house. The kitties are still adjusting to meeting their “nephew” kitties. It’s been an interesting process to watch.

This is what Saucey and Tony have been doing mostly...

Since there is still a day or so before the baby is due, DD has taken me to some of her favorite places here in TX we visited the Fort Worth Stockyards (sorry no pic), the delightful Fort Worth Zoo where we enjoyed a very pleasant morning and saw several great animals as well as the flamingos on parade and we also visited Jennings Street Yarns , but mostly we have just been enjoying each other’s company. She’s as prepared as she can be for the baby’s arrival, so it’s just waiting time now. I’m nearly finished with the baby blanket (just two more octagons): So I’m about as prepared as a Nana can get. If I finish the last two octagons before she goes into labor, I still have a couple of pairs of socks I need to work on. Well hopefully the next post will be pics of my new granddaughter (with the finished blanket of course!) Happy knitting Nana

Nana’s Fantastic Adventure

After attending The National NeedleArts Association (TNNA) show this weekend, I have to say that I had an amazing experience. There are so many things happening in my brain right now it’s hard to know exactly where to start. First off there won’t be any pictures in this post. I think I was so overwhelmed by the enormity of it all (and possibly a major yarn fume high) that I totally forgot I had a camera with me. This wasn’t my first “trade show’ ever, but it was my first TNNA and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I really did not know exactly what I was getting into when Linda told me she wanted me to go. If you have ever been to any trade show in any industry you will understand when I say that the primary function of the show is for the various companies in that industry to showcase their products or services to entice you to either sign up with them for a new account or to enhance your existing account. In this case the show was a showcase of yarn and needle craft supply vendors and lots of peripheral goods and services. Our primary mission at the show was to look at the new fall lines of yarn for our existing vendors and to check-out some of the ones we are considering adding to our store. Whew! All I can say is that it was a lot to take in and even more daunting of a task to make decisions. I’m glad I don’t have the final say-so, but I am pleased to be a part of the process. There were 258 yarn companies represented at the show. Additionally, there were publishers, authors, designers, accessories, you name it and what have you. The most amazing part of this experience was that everywhere you looked there was something new or different, eye catching, tactile, beautiful and tantalizing. It is nearly impossible to think clearly if you don’t have a game plan ahead of time. On top of that, as I guess is the case in every other industry, there were the “celebrities.” Everywhere! I might have missed a few, but just to give you an idea, I had a chance to meet and talk with: Cookie A; Amy R. Singer; Casey, Jess, Mary-Heather and Sarah (Ravelry) (but no Bob); Janel Laidman; and Jane Slicer-Smith; Cookie, Janel and Jane all have new books coming out late this summer or in the fall and I got to see previews and sneak peeks. The inner fan-girl wanted to jump up and down and squee, but this was a professional event, and I did act responsibly. Even though, if I had remembered about my camera, it would have been a really cool photo-op since I am knitting socks by both Cookie and Janel right now (But I'm not sure I would have been courageous enough to ask!) Also, I tried to meet Claudia, but her booth was so busy when I went by that it just wasn’t meant to be, did I mention my Monkey socks are out of Claudia Hand Paint! See what I mean… They really were everywhere... some sightings; Brett, Drew and Robyn of Knit and Crochet Today; Kaffe Fassett; Cat Bordhi, Lily Chin; Doris Chan; Sharon Dreifus; Jackie E-S and many others I’m sure I've forgotten because my brain is too full. I’m not just dropping names for the sake of showing off; I’m trying to convey what the atmosphere was like… ordinary people like me just sort of hanging out with well, the Fiber Elite… just, wow! And everyone was acting like it was just business as usual, well… it actually was. Because, of course those folks were there to promote themselves and get their books/patterns/yarns into our shops and eventually our customers hands. So that’s what I have been up to lately. To say that I am still wound up is an understatement. I am also very tired. I hope to have a post with some knitting pictures up soon. Happy Knitting! Nana

Home Again and Yarny Goodness

I and thankfully my suitcase made it home safely. The Fairbanks-Anchorage and Anchorage – Minneapolis flights were fairly unremarkable. Knitting happened mostly as desired and no infants or queasy moms were seated nearby. The flight from Minneapolis-Milwaukee which should have been an efficient 56 minutes took more like 2 hours and 47 minutes; spent mostly sitting on the runway in Minnesota; due largely in part to storms in the great lakes region. The drive home was not fun either, but like I said I made it, and was greeted by two (happy?) kitties when I came through the door.

It's good to be home but I miss my guy terribly already. Here he is in uniform: The kitties and I were pretty lazy yesterday and I thought I’d get this post up, but we were really lazy…. anyway, as promised, I wanted to tell you about yarn stores in Fairbanks.

Here are the goodies that my DH helped me pick out:

(my apologies for the dark pictures... it was a bit cloudy that day).

The first stop was A Weavers Yarn; which is co-located with the owner’s home, so we initially thought we took a wrong turn when we ended up in a residential area, but found it easily enough. A nice shop with lots of good choices for knitters, weavers and other needle artists; since it was the first stop, I had to show a little restraint, but these goodies ended up in the bag:

One skein of Pagewood Farms Hand-dyed Sock Yarn; 2 skeins of Watercolours cotton embroidery thread (for embellishing) (and because it was just so darn pretty), and 2 skeins of Rabbit Ridge Hand-dyed sock yarn. Plus the owner Susan was helpful and friendly and threw in a couple of free sample patterns.

The next stop on our tour was Northern Threads which is also a quilting shop. This was a large shop which is primarily a quilting shop. The shop offered an excellent selection of yarns, fabrics and all the essentials for knitters and quilters. My Mom would love this shop. Here my biggest decision was over colors more than brands. I found an excellent yarn called Rustic Tweed from Queensland Collection. It came in so many nice colors that I had a hard time deciding. Even DH was stumped (he really liked both of the greys so well even he couldn’t decide which was better). The yarn has a very subtle variegation within the skein. So I really wanted to buy a sweater’s worth, but didn’t bring that big of a suitcase, of course the owner assured me that they do ship! I settled for two skeins of a soft creamy gold toned color… and there was also a scrumptious skein of Misti Alpaca sock yarn that I couldn’t resist, as well as a couple of nice buttons to tuck away for a future project.

After that we decided to take a break for lunch and went to a Chinese restaurant where I had some yummy cashew chicken and DH had some teriyaki chicken. We must have been hungry because there were no leftovers! Thus fortified we trekked onward.

Next stop was Inua Wool Shoppe which is a must not miss place. The shop is beautiful and the yarn selection is very well balanced and again I had a hard time not buying several things that I could have bought and settled instead for a few well-chosen things. Of course the one I know you’ve been waiting to hear about is the big-ticket item that is home-grown in Alaska. I’m talking Qiviut and yes! I got some. I had hoped to get some in a natural color, but the shade I preferred was only in stock in fingering weight and I wanted the lace weight because I figure I need to make something very special with this yarn and of course lace weight knits into spectacular things. I settled for a pretty cranberry color and found a lovely smoke ring pattern to knit it up with*. The shop also had an extensive selection of Noro Sock yarn (both Kuryeon and Silk Garden) and I got to see, fondle and pick from colors I hadn’t seen much of locally. After narrowing it down to three possibilities DH helped me decide on color S102 which is predominantly pink-blue-orange. (I see more striped socks in my future). I also found this funky little button that says “will knit for coffee.” It is supposed to go in the hole of a croc type shoe, but I think I will figure out a way to attach it to my knitting bag. (Maybe not the one I take to work… don’t want Linda to get any bad ideas.) I have to give kudos to my hubby here. He didn’t gasp or tremble at all when we checked out. Love him!

The last stop was the Memories and More shop which is a combination scrap booking and knitting shop. Her yarn selection was smaller, but by no means inferior to any of the others. I already had a rough idea of what I wanted before we went (from looking at the website) and was not disappointed! Malabrigo… yippee! In (ahem) a nice light purple shade. And she, too had Noro Sock Yarn and I found a shade of navy-gray-black (S233) that I hadn’t seen at Inua… it too needed to come home with me. I also got a couple of “Alaska” themed pages so I can do a memory page for the trip. (If I ever get photos printed, etc).

Whew! That seems like a lot. I’ll have to talk about my knitting in another post!

Have a Yarny Weekend!

Nana

* In a kind of funny coincidence I was telling DD#2 about our adventures and the pattern I found but I couldn’t remember the name of the designer. Then, she told me about this designer she really liked who had a lot of smoke ring patterns. After she sent me the info on line, I went to the website, and it turns out that it was the exact same designer!

Alaska Highlights

Wow, the time here is really flying by. I guess the fact that the sun is shining most the day makes the passage of time hard to track! DH and I have been having a great time just hanging out, eating great food and exploring some of the area in and around Fairbanks. Unfortunately a couple of the things we had on our list had to be scratched because the official “summer” opening isn’t until this week or next week, but there has been enough else to do. So here are a few highlights of my trip so far. My DH was sweet enough to take me on a “yarn crawl” on Weds and we visited all four of the yarn shops in Fairbanks. Each one had something unique to offer and I enjoyed them all. I’ll have to do a separate post about the goodies I found which will be coming home as “souvenirs” Then that evening, I was fortunate enough to find and join a group of knitters for the weekly meet up at the Alaska Coffee Roasting company coffee house. The Group is the Fairbanks Fiberistas and I found them on Ravelry. Gotta love that resource! I also love the fact that it was so easy to join right in. They like to make up their own KAL’s so some of the ladies were doing an entrelac scarf and some were doing the Cat Bordhi’s Spring Thaw sock (Knitter’s #91, Summer 08). I was working on the Lily of the Valley sock and everyone had nice comments on it. We continued our explorations the rest of the week and through Saturday. Some of the places we went and things we saw: North Pole AK (Santa’s House); The Silver Gulch Brewing and Bottling Co (Yummy food and great microbrews); the Museum of the North (at University of AK, Fairbanks); and on every corner… a coffee hut! I suppose if I had to live here that would be the one thing that would make it more bearable for me (besides the four great yarn shops)! On Sunday, DH took me to the church he has been attending and after services we went to the Alaska Salmon Bake at Pioneer Park, the food was again yummy and the park, even though not quite up and running for the season was charming and we enjoyed the pioneer museum there as well. So here are a few pictures I took: Hopefully the next post will be more fiber and knitting related. Mo Jo to Go! Nana!

Traveled and Unraveled

This weekend, we traveled to Des Moines to visit DH’s family. Since Saucey is now a ‘special needs’ kitty (insulin twice daily) that means that the kitties have to travel with us since we don’t have anyone close enough (or willing enough) to take on administering her medicine. This is not really a problem since the cats travel well by car and our trips are usually short. The only challenge we faced this time around is that SIL and her husband now have 4 dogs since their newly adopted ‘second dog’ had pups last fall. We usually stay with them when we visit Des Moines and so we weren’t sure how they would react to the dogs. Here’s a little glimpse of how the trip went… Are we there yet?

What is that down there? Puppies! Puppies everywhere… ('mom' Dabney and pup Monte.... pup Hugo)

I didn’t get very many good pictures because the cats hid most of the time (looking out occasionally from a strategic vantage point) and because generally the dogs were in constant motion. Winston (the oldest dog) didn't make it into any at all.

(Monte and Hugo 'wrestling')

We had a nice visit and made it home safely, the kitties are happy to be back on their own turf and I’m still trying to get back into the groove.

Knitting wise, things have been slightly less than promising. I did make some progress on the MIL sweater (back is finished, one front is half done).

DD’s sweater, not so good. I got about halfway through the sleeve and realized the stitch count was out of whack. Since we didn’t have access to the internet, I had to wait until we got home to look up the pattern errata on line to be sure there wasn’t some tragic mistake. Okay there was… my inability to decipher the pattern instructions… so I had to frog it back to the cuff… sigh… but never fear, it’s quick knitting when you actually do it right!

The horseshoe cable sock made it through the heel turn and gusset with out incident, but so far I’ve knit the same 8 rows on the foot twice

And if that wasn’t enough unraveling there was also a slight yarn-winding incident that left me with a highly tangled skein of yarn that took 3 tries to get undone and rewound. All is good now.

May your 2009 be filled with many happy hours of knitting and many finished projects!

Two Wrongs Really Don’t Make One Right

Just a quick update before I dash off to work. Our weekend was busy but productive. First there was the drive from snowy Illinois to equally snowy Michigan and back with more snow in the forecast.  We had a nice visit with the SDs, grandtwins and grandaughter and still made it safely home before the next round of flakes. Yesterday we braved the bitter cold temperatures and the mall for last minute shopping (and survived).  

As planned, during our trip to MI, I cast on for my next big project, a sweater for the mother-in-law of my step-daughter.   I think it’s safe to say that this project could earn me major points with the knitting gods if there is such a thing. I sure hope so anyway, because at this point it is an undertaking of both fascination and horror. 

You see some time ago, I sort of agreed to knit a sweater as a favor to my stepdaughter.  I say sort of, because it was really more like my DH who told his daughter that I could probably do it and the project got presented to me.  Now I don’t want you to think of this as whining.  I like doing nice things for people that I love and besides that I’m looking at the whole thing as a knitterly challenge.  It’s also a chance to try a pattern I wanted to knit for myself anyway. 

The problem is the yarn.  Now I’m not really a true yarn snob.  I believe every yarn out there has a place in the knitting spectrum.  Some yarns are better for some types of projects and are easier on the budget when you know the project recipient might not appreciate or care for a garment or gift made out of expensive yarn.  Acrylic yarns also have their place for people who have true wool allergies and for children. I do have my preferences, but the fiber content isn’t what is giving me trouble. It's the color of this yarn, which can only be described as "helloo 1985... please take your colors back..."

Yes an ombre yarn in vintage colors which didn't work then and still don't work now.  It is both a fascination to see what is happening with the patterning of the yarn when combined with the lace stitches of the pattern; and kind of a horror to behold.  The pattern doesn’t complement the yarn in any way and, well, I’m not sure that if I had chosen this yarn myself that I could find a pattern that would.  IMHO even the stockinette stitch portions blend the colors in undesirable ways.

Here’s a quick rundown:  I’m knitting this sweater, with this yarn (Red Heart Supersaver in Wedgewood)  (More pink and blue than picture shows).

 and this is what I’m getting so far…

Do ya’ think? Even the camera didn’t want to get involved with this.  It took three tries to get a halfway decent picture that didn’t vibrate.

I devoted most of the weekend to working on this and I'm almost finished with the back.  We have another round of travel coming up and I plan to work on it some more then. It’s resting comfortably in its own project bag for now.

Meanwhile, other knitting continues to happen.  (Fear not dear daughter), sweater sleeves are progressing nicely, if a little less than photo worthy.  But will be my focus until the next round of car knitting.

My horseshoe cable socks are on track, and various small projects are still being finished at a relaxed pace. 

So it's back to our normal routine for a few days and then Christmas followed by more travel.  

Stay safe and warm and keep on knitting!

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.

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…

Whirlwind

Well it feels like I’ve been caught in one these days. My cousin got married last Friday, in a lovely ceremony in Lake Geneva; so I had my parents visiting over a few days. (Unfortunately the Cardinals were in town playing the Cubs and I was surrounded by Cubs FANS)… humpf. Anyway it is always good to catch up with family and we had an opportunity to visit with (ironically) the Twin City branch (Aunt, uncle and cousins) and meet some nice folks who are friends of my cousin and his new wife. (the happy couple)

Then, with barely time to catch my breath Linda, Chris and I took an early flight Monday for a quick trip to St. Paul to meet with the fabulous staff of the Yarnery; to get tips on marketing and promotional ideas to help our shop grow. We also hit a couple of other shops while in MN to get some of the local flavor there and ideas about displays, etc. we also checked out some surrounding non yarn-related shops. There might have been one teeny-tiny yarn purchase on the trip (yarn we don’t carry and which might be hard to find for a while) Linda made me swear on a stack of alpaca that I wouldn’t knit with it at work…

(Malabrigo Silky Merino DK, colors Hyacint & Bahia)

We arrived home late Tuesday, tired, but with heads swimming with many ideas. I suspect things at the shop will get busy for me as I start working on some of the projects and ideas we’re planning.

Yesterday was laundry, recouperating and I think some knitting...

I made progress on a few projects while others are feeling neglected. I’ll try to get some knitting content up in the next post.

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.

Can You Ever Pack Enough Knitting?

We're going to spend the weekend traveling for graduations and family gatherings as I imagine many others are also doing this holiday weekend. I'm busy here trying to get ready, but I did squeeze in a little knitting time.

The Monkey Socks are done!
Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A
Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote Sock in “Rock-N-Roll”
Needles size 1
Magic Loop 2-at-a-time

Now I’m off to go and figure out how many knitting projects I can fit in my knitting bag. It’s a short trip… by air... Hmm …do you think 17 will be enough?

Back to Knitting…

It’s been a long couple of weeks here at Chez Nana.

Last week after barely getting reoriented from our trip to visit grandbabies, DH decided we needed to go to see his father who is in poor health. We had originally planned to visit on Friday and Saturday, but seeing the forecast for our neck of the woods, we decided we would be better off leaving ahead of the storm (that dropped 11” of ‘Spring Snow’) on our city. That was a good plan, actually since we went to Des Moines where they had beautiful spring sunshine and his family couldn’t believe we were being snowed on at home. We returned home late Saturday, when thankfully all the roads were clear.

Fortunately, all that time on the road afforded a lot of knitting time. I knitted some triangles like this for my diagonal delight vest:
I’m in love with these colors. It took a few attempts to get the hang of the slip-stitch and increases for the triangle, but the pattern was pretty easy to remember once I got going. One word of advice for anyone thinking of doing this or a similar pattern, though; stitch marker! (getting the center increase right is essential)

And I worked on a pair of socks…. Plain self-striping socks, but new technique … two at a time toe-up, magic loop. Whee! If the yarn looks familiar it is because this is a redo of the socks I knit last fall. I wasn’t happy with the fit and decided to frog them and start over. Seemed like a good time to dive in to the toe up technique!

We don’t have a lot of family traditions, but one that has been observed as long as we have had a cat in the family is to treat them to a special dinner of canned food on holidays. Here are Saucey and Zelda enjoying their “Easter Feast” of Salmon and Rice.

Trip Report and Finished Socks

I’m still trying to catch up after traveling to MI to see our new granddaughter. (Alanta modeling her new sweater)

It seems like whenever we travel anywhere it always takes about a day or so to get back to normal routine and feel any energy. I did have some good knitting time in on the trip since we drove.

We had a nice visit with the kids and “Papa” enjoyed bonding with his newest grandbaby. Big brothers Aiden and Braylen were non-stop the entire time we visited, so it was hard to get very many good pictures.

DH also got a chance to catch up with his other daughter who was taking advantage of her spring break to see the new baby, too. She brought along her puppy...(Macy) ...



Who only added to the hubbub the twins were creating. Needless to say it's nice visiting grandkids, but the best part is leaving them well loved, but leaving them with their parents when it’s time to go home.

I finished knitting the Kitty Socks Friday and grafted the toes in the car on the first part of the trip. The best part of that is I got to wear them on Sunday!

The rest of the trip I worked on the Little Slip of a Thing and am almost finished with it. Sorry I don’t have any decent pictures to share. Both the camera and the weather have turned a little uncooperative on me. We had foggy grey blech most of today and I didn’t get a chance to take pictures earlier in the progress when the camera was still behaving. I think it’s just a need for new batteries, but it might have gotten manhandled during the trip. I need to buy batteries, but lack energy to go to the store. …Sounds like a vicious cycle (ha, ha). So my next project will be the one I’ve been looking forward to for a while, the Diagonal Stripe Vest (kit) by Shelridge Farms (and Maureen Mason Jamison) which I bought at Stitches last summer. I’m really looking forward to getting it started….

Stay tuned!