Dear Blog,

I think of you every day, yet, I never take the time to write.

So this is a quickie:

In our house we've been plagued with colds and sinus issues. Two rounds of antibiotics and steroids each. And one of us is still hacking.

As the two readers of this page may recall, I'm a big ballet fan. I've been a season ticket holder (that's patron) to the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater for thirty(!) years. I'm a believer in supporting the arts you love - be it professional wrestling, jazz, or whatever. Our ballet is incredibly flexible in their season ticket holder policies. So when my mother-in-law passed away, and we just didn't feel like Giselle ten days later (even though it's my DH favorite - he has a "thing" for the Willis), we exchanged the tickets for another performance and gave them as a Christmas gift. Well, two weeks ago the creeping crud invaded out home. See above, and we didn't feel up to traveling. So I exchanged another set of tickets for the following weekend. We were packed and ready to travel Saturday (tickets were for Sunday). However, when I got up Saturday morning, we were in the middle of a snowstorm. A full blown snow storm, not the predicted flurries. So reluctantly we changed plans (you may add "yet again" here). We'd drive right to the theater on Sunday, stay overnight, and drive home Monday. The weather looked promising. Fast forward to early Sunday morning. First thing I did was to look up the weather and what did I see? A travel advisory for our entire route!!!!!???? Not for Sunday, but for Monday. That meant that we'd certainly be able to get there, but coming back was going to be a problem. As we discussed the possibility of it not being a serious advisory....it changed. Now it was a severe weather warning. So, here we are, all packed up and no where to go. Fortunately, the box office and ballet theater allowed me to swap these tickets for the final performance in April, when there is no possibility of snow - even in Central PA. At least none that will stick around. But I now have four tickets to Cinderella (with the PBT Orchestra). Anyone want to buy 2 excellent seats to Cinderella? This has not been a good year for traveling...or ballet for us.

Lastly, I'd like to share some gratuitous knitting content. My Wurm (not Raveled yet, I need a better photo). LOVE. IT. Even though it's getting a little to warm to wear it, says the woman who lives where it is currently 25 degrees.

 I used a worsted superwash called Giusto, dyed by an indie dyer Altobish. Sadly, she has given up dying yarn and has gone back to teaching viola and violin full time. I say sadly because this yarn was to die (pun intended) for. I actually bought two more skeins. It only took one to make the hat, so I have another skein in the blue, and one in spring green. It was great to knit with and I have a feeling it's going to wear like iron, which is really good. I'm not particularly gentle with my knitwear.

 Then there is this. This is Four Play, in the Gypsy Heart colorway. I find it fascinating that the skein looks so much different than the cake, which knits up totally differently in the scarf. Scrunchable Scarf,  that is. With the busy variegation, I wanted something that would be poofy, yet I didn't think cables would be a good choice. And it looks even more different than in the photo because I changed the cast on. What is in the photo is 32. I upped it to 38 (multiples of 3, +2 for selvage) and found the flashing and pooling overwhelming and repetitive. So  settled on 35 and that seems to have worked better. A 3 stitch difference really mattered.  I just love these simple yet lovely patterns. They let the yarn shine. And if you ever get the chance to snap up some Four Play, do it. You will not be disappointed. Srsly.

So I lied,,,

Pictures today.

First things first, trip to Atlanta went well. Between forty and fifty folks attended my session (and there were nine other sessions at the same time) and NO ONE left, even though it was right before lunch.....Also, I didn't get tarred and feathered, which I half expected. In addition, I was given, what I considered a prime slot, the second time session the first morning (Saturday).

When I arrived on Friday evening, it was around....oh...90 degrees and there was a big bright thing in the sky. Looked vaguely familiar, but it had been so long since we'd seen anything like that in the sky in Central PA, I couldn't be sure. As if Atlanta knew I was coming, the aquarium, which usually closes at 5:00 pm (on a Friday! How dumb is that?) was open until 10:00 pm and had jazz in their atrium! It was about 6 blocks or so from the hotel, I was a assured it was a "safe" walk for a lone woman, so I went.




I guess I could have taken a pumpkin coach, but my name is Cindy not Cinderella.









The music was excellent, and I made many new friends:

Meet Ms. Grouper. Holy hell she was enormous!!
I wish this lousy cell phone photo could convey the size of this creature.

They have a window viewing tank, like many aquariums, but I've never seen fish get this close, and be so large. I tried to get a photo of the whale shark (about 60 feet long) and a graceful ray (they had a whole school of them) but I just wasn't lucky.







This "ocean" has a tunnel built right in. This is what I dubbed the "tunnel o'fish". The gentleman you see to the left is an aquarium volunteer, that has all the statistics, facts, and trivia about the animals at his fingertips.....He even knows the NAMES of the larger fish, like Fred and Stacy, (and can identify, male and female). Maybe he needs a life, but I'm glad he was nearby.









This is a freshwater rock eel. I don't know anything about him except that he has a face only a mother can love. Looks like he's having a bad day too.











On Sunday, after the conference wrap up, I found ONE yarn store that was open on Sunday afternoon, and with the help of Andre the concierge, got on a bus, and rode about 5 miles to the Needle Nook. The bus driver was very helpful in giving me a head's up when we were coming to the correct area, and lo and behold there it was in a little shopping center. Needle Nook has wonderful yarns (Malabrigo, Bamboo, Noro, all the Cascades, too many for me to remember), a wide variety of bags, needles, books, notions, jewelry and what not. And you wouldn't know it from the outside. From the outside, it looks like a garden variety shopping center craft store. Another unusual attribute is that the person running the store that day was a middle age gentleman (the owner is Arlene who I corresponded with briefly), and there was another middle age gentleman already there knitting a fair isle (or entrelac, I couldn't tell) chula hat. A lovely chula hat with llamas or alpacas dancing around it. I spent a fine hour deciding what I could fit in my carry on, which was my only concern (I brought a space bag with me - be prepared, and I'm not even a girl scout). The one disconcerting moment came when I was trying to decide on a color of Malabrigo Silky Merino for the Drifting Pleats scarf I've always wanted to knit, and two women joined me at the yarn rack. They smelled...no stank...of cigarette smoke. It was totally off putting and gag inducing. And I've never been known for a weak stomach. In desperation I wandered away but they were there for more than 10 minutes, chatting about the relative merits of lace weight......not Silky Merino (DK). I'm sorry if I'm insulting smokers, but criminy...you should know that you can't keep smoking a secret.

After the smokers left, and I made my decisions and retreated to Starbucks(!) which was a short hop across the parking lot, had a cold frapp (it was 90 degrees again), and knit for about an hour uninterrupted. Is there a better configuration - a yarn store AND a Starbucks? Except for the 90 degrees (which really felt like 90, unlike Denver, Atlanta has no shortage of humidity. Ask my hair!) It was then I caught a bus back from whence I came, meeting another nice bus driver, and getting to the hotel in time to have dinner with excellent sangria.

So here's my haul:


The red, which isn't this red, is Silky Merino for Drifting Pleats, and a light green Sublime Extra Fine Merino for the Victoriana Scarflette (please don't ask why that pattern appeals to me, no idea). And, yes, that is a Laurel Burch bag in the background - a little one. And yes, it fit in my carry on.

I'm kinda glad I had a limit. I could have done some REAL damage.



Soon, some process photos.....sorry nothing finished. I can only wish.

It's me...I'm back.

Last week I was in Denver, CO for a conference - a BIG conference. Truthfully, I wasn't delighted to go. I had issues at home that needed to be resolved and managed, and the timing sucked. Well, I'm now glad I went.

The home "issues" while they didn't sort themselves out, at least remained manageable, and I got some "away" time I didn't realize I needed so badly.

The week prior to my trip Denver got FEET of snow. The week I was there the temps were in the high 60s and low 70s without a flake in sight. To say it was bizarre, doesn't quite describe it.

The conference was in the Colorado Conference Center. The upper level is an enormous atrium with stunning views of the Rockies--when they were not fog shrouded.



Outside the Convention Center the designers added a bit of whimsey. See the big BLUE bear peering in the windows?



Seems perfect for Denver. The Denverites I met were all very nice, and friendly! Even, are you sitting down?, the bus drivers. (I'm from Pittsburgh, and the natives are wonderful friendly there, UNLESS they are bus drivers. At least that's my experience....Maybe it has to do with passengers like me who leave their clog in the middle of the street while boarding a bus.....Hummmmm.)

On Wednesday night, I took a bus to The Lamb Shoppe. See this is how I know about bus drivers. I got some info from the hotel concierge about where to actually get a bus. Not only did this gentleman give me information, he walked outside the hotel with me to point me in the correct direction! When I got on the bus, it was dark (Standard Time), and I had no idea where I needed to get off, other than between Madison and Maple. I told the bus driver that I needed to get off at that stop (I knew the bus stop was near the shop because I called them), and would he alert me? He said "Sure!". Well, after about 15 minutes I got antsy, and we were in a VERY residential neighborhood, so I stood up to get a better look. He saw me and said, don't worry, it's another two stops away. He then told me where and when to get the bus back to downtown. When I told him I was going to a yarn store he said, "that's a first"..."it's usually BEAD stores!"

Anyway, another blogger/knitter once described the indecision of a knitter as "monkey mind". Well, I'm the original monkey. It used to happen in bead stores, I'd have a "plan" of sorts....("I'm going to buy Delicas.") Then as soon as I'm surrounded by gorgeous beads, well, forget it. I can't even remember I had a plan to begin with. That's exactly what happened in the Lamb Shoppe. The walls were just loaded with gorgeous yarns....seriously! Yarns that I've only read about. And here I was....with no room in my carry-on. In addition, there was a delightfully rowdy stitch and bitch group meeting up front. A table learning how to crochet, and another table of beginning knitters designing their own mittens...... Action packed doesn't quite describe it. For someone who, for the most part, is a solitary knitter, this was like an oasis.

So I wandered around for about 30 minutes, I bought some cotton sock yarn for my cotton loving mother, some Malabrigo, and a Skacel Zauerbal sock yarn, and herein lies a story.

A colleague of mine, who will soon be retiring (snif), recently took an extended vacation. She had seen a moebius shawl at one of our local arts festivals and was immediately charmed by the concept. In my "go big, or go home" approach to most things I said. I can show you how to knit a moebius. She is barely a beginning knitter by the way..... She bought needles, lovely Lamb's Pride Lanaloft, and I helped her cast on.... At her vacation destination, her knitting attracted the attention of other knitters one of whom introduced her to a skein of Zauerbal. Yet again, she was charmed and tried to describe it to me when she got back. I had never seen the yarn. However, lo and behold, there was Zauerbal, right on the Lamb Shoppe shelf! So I bought one for her as a souvenir from Denver.

Anyway, here is a [bad] photo, of the Malabrigo worsted (Ginger Carrot--has it dawned on anyone yet that I buy yarns because I like the color names?), and the Zauerbal.



I am using the Malabrigo to knit another pair of Fetching mitts. This time for me. They will "match" nothing...but I don't care. Nyah, nyah. I knit an entire pair of mitts while I was in Denver. They were that fast...and travel makes for lots of knitting time. (Not necessarily in the air, however.)

These are for my sister this is a new type of Araucania yarn. Loved it!!



I will definitely make the palms deeper (longer?) for me though.

There's more, but it's late here, and I do want to go home eventually.........

When I began this post it was Veterans Day, and I was going to tell everyone to kiss an available service person to thank them. Even though it isn't Veterans Day, I'm thinking this might be a good idea anyway.