More Yarn Porn

The last of the yarn porn before I begin the yarn diet... This was my package from Germany that was waiting at the post office... The top row and part of the second are Opal Petticoat, the rest of the second row and the bottom row are Opal Acalpulco... I think there is only one color out of the whole bunch that doesn't work for me...

A big thanks out to Beverly who had us all over to her place for Crafty Friday... It was a total blast! Met some great new people, got to try my hand at spinning thanks to Noelle, it was a total BLAST!!! Stayed out WAY later than my normal bedtime (I am usually in bed by 10, I left at 10:30) got home and crashed!!!

Saturday... No plans for the day... Just going to hang out here at the house, work on some knitting, put my feet up, watch some sports and be a lazy couch spud...

Yarn Porn!!!

I have been a BAD BAD girl... Yup, been travelling a lot over the last couple of months... Also been a few sales at a couple of sites and some new stuff I have wanted to try... So, my stash has expanded quite a bit recently...

Here goes: (From lower left corner across:) Opal silk (blue), Lana Grossa (multi color), Opal silk (yellow, green and pink) Lana grossa stripe (blues), More lana grossa (purple and grey), sock landscape (Reds and purples), sock garden (pastels), Color your own (white), sock garden (purples), Lana grossa (purple colors), Jawoll (black and natural), Koigu (blues and purples), Lorna's Laces (purples), Pallette (black), Simple stripes (purple, green, blue), Mama E's C'eye'ber Fiber in Scout color (purples and blues), Koigu (purples and pinks), more Koigu (purples), Lana Grossa (purples and pinks), more Lana Grossa (reds and greens), Artful Yarn (blues) and Claudia Hand Painted Yarn (baby blue)... And no, this isn't the end of it... I have my LAST package at the post office that DH will be picking up in the morning that came over from Germany... Yup, you guessed it, more sock yarn... I got a good deal on E-bay where I picked up the Opal Petticoat collection (8 colors) and the Opal Acapulco collection (8 colors) for $10.00 per 100g ball... Shipping wasn't really all that expensive, so I saved a few bucks... Guess what that means... I have now put myself on a sock yarn diet... BIG TIME... I need to tear through my stash before I can buy any more sock yarn... I have the next 4 or 5 projects planned out, so that should help... (No, the diet does NOT include the Socks That Rock club, that has already been purchased... LOL! Along with the one other sock club I belong to...) The yarn diet does not include a project other than Socks and sweaters...

Man, I have been a total, absolute, incredible BEE-OTCH today... I don't usually get cranky during my monthly celebration, but this time, I am not a good person to be around... I think it is a combination of hormones and the fact that my body has learned to metabolize my ADD meds (again...) and they don't work any more... I talked to the Dr. about upping the dose (again) so I only have another day or two on this present dose. The way it is working, I am better off not taking anything at all... I am completely absent minded, easily frustrated, unable to remember things, easily distracted, and REALLY FRUSTRATED!!! When I take the meds, I can concentrate... It is really frustrating to know how the meds are supposed to work and wonder at 10 am if I even took my meds at 7am... I feel like all I am doing is pounding my head into a wall... And the fact that I am currently having a major excursion at work and I can't concentrate and details are falling through the cracks doesn't help much, either... Yup, I am unmedicated and rambling again...

Tinking upon the great mysteries of the Universe...

Yeah, that's it!!! The cat got into my knitting bag and knit 4 rounds of my socks using the wrong stitches!!!

When will I ever listen? When will I learn??? Carole was just talking about this last night at our SnB group... Bring simple projects... If you bring a complicated project, go to SnB and have a beer, you wind up with F*'ed up knitting... Guess what I am spending my lunch hour doing today? Tinking the 4 rounds of sock knitting I did at SnB last night... LOL!!!

I am finding that tinking gives you time to ponder upon the great mysteries of the universe... Questions are popping up in my mind such as "Why did I decide to try to use black yarn on size 1 needles on a project??? Was I smoking crack again???" and "Would a psychic be able to predict the weather better than a meteorologist???" and "Will drinking catnip tea give me pointy ears like Spock from Star Trek???" and "Do I need brighter light or stronger reading glasses???"

AHA! I found it!!! Lesson learned, do NOT put your knitting down in the middle of the row. Your sock may get turned inside out and you start knitting back over what you just did and all the stitches come out backwards... D'OH! I didn't think that the Mosiac socks would be such a challenge. First, I took the book's advice and cast on 84 stitches for the sock. Tried it on after an inch, too freaking big... So, I frogged it and went down to 70 stitches (which by the book would be too tight for my foot). Tried it on, fits fine... Go figure... 1/2 inch to go and I can start on the pattern!!! WHEE!!!!

Well, I heard through the grapevine that our LYS just got a HUGE shipment of Koigu in... There goes my yarn diet... Time for a little SEX after work... (Stash Enhancement eXpedition)

I am also pondering submitting a short syllabus for a class on knitting 2 socks on 2 circular needles at our LYS... First, I am afraid of rejection... Second, I am not sure if I should teach toe-up or cuff-down (I am leaning towards cuff-down). Third, would anyone be interested in taking the class??? I guess I will ponder it for the rest of the day and drop the idea by the folks at our LYS and see what they think... It's worth a try...

It's Great... To BE.... A FLORIDA GATOR!!!

I don't believe it... I absolutely DO NOT Believe it!!!

Congrats to the 2006 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS in Mens Basketball, THE FLORIDA GATORS!





What a game!!! We went out to Coaches Locker Room with most of the Unofficial Gator Club here in Albuquerque to watch the game... Yup, I am still very superstitious... So I knit... A LOT... DURING THE GAME... Hey, even my boss sent me a page to stop knitting... Well, I didn't stop knitting... AND WE WON!!!

This is Century Tower... One of the landmarks on campus... We are with all of you celebrating at the O'Dome and on University Ave tonight!!!



'Neath the Orange and Blue VICTORIOUS
Our love shall never fail
There's no other name so GLORIOUS
ALL HAIL, FLORIDA, HAIL!!!
(From the Florida Alma Mater...)

My beloved Gators, Clapotis and AFGO

Sorry for the lack of postings this week, I had some bad back spasms all week that didn't allow me to do much other than lie down and take some muscle relaxers to take the spasms down to a dull roar...

Last night, we went over to my boss's house to watch the Final Four in Men's BB... My Beloved Gators were playing against George Mason in the first game and UCLA played LSU in the second game. We got there a few minutes after tip-off and my Gators had a pretty nice lead. Then George Mason started catching up. Me, being extremely superstitious, realized that "Hey, I need to knit... My Gators don't win if I am not knitting". So, this party is going on and I break out my knitting... ROTFLMAO!!! It worked! Gators won the game by a pretty good margin and are going to be facing UCLA tomorrow for the National Championship... Did I think the Gators would be in this game??? Nope! But, I am happy that they are... We are going to Coaches Locker Room tomorrow night to watch the Gators with our unofficial Gator Club...

I finished the Clapotis during the second game and decided that since it was a bit chilly that I would wear it... My boss's teenaged daughter said "Hey, that's really cool, did you just make that today???" LOL! Teenagers... It felt good getting a compliment like that from a teenager...

We then watched the Formula One race from Australia... What a cool freaking race!!! Dang, when those engines "done blow up", they do it in pretty spectacular fashion... Still debating on going to the F1 race in Indianapolis this year... It could be fun :-)

What is AFGO??? A very wise woman told me that when things really seem to be going wrong, they aren't going wrong... It's AFGO... Another F*cking Growth Opportunity... Well, the newest "growth opportunity" hit me square between the eyes yesterday. My 17 year old son announced that he was going to move back to Florida to live with his Dad after the school year was over... I know this is nothing personal, but it really hurts like hell... Even though I think it would be a good thing for him to do... It's a mixed bag... I don't think I am really processing it yet... I still have a couple of months left with him before he goes... Honestly, I thought I had another year before this day came... I will make the most of the time we have together... I know I have raised him well and we all need to say good-bye to our kids at some point in our adult lives. I have always told myself that my job was to make sure he had the right skills to go out and be successful in the adult world... I think he has most of those skills... His dad has done a lot of good growing and changing in the last several years and I think that he can give my son the last of those skills before he really moves on... I am gonna miss him like crazy, but he is a man now, he deserves to make these decisions in his life and I am going to support him and love him no matter what those decisions are...

A week... Yup... Been a week...

And here is Mewstradamas (aka Sean) doing another gargoyle imitation on top of the television...

Man, what a weird week....

Our hot tub was delivered on Thursday! WHEE! The delivery folks even did a clean out of the tub. Now, the inside is sparkling! We have the electrician coming out this Tuesday to hook up a 220V line from the garage to the tub! By Wednesday, we will have a working hot tub! I am really excited!!!

Knitting: Wow, lots going on.... I restarted the clapotis with some 100% alpaca, here are my results so far:

I LOVE the colors in this... Hopefully I will get to the meat of the clapotis today... I am still working on the increase rows...

I am also working as a "test knitter" on another project. That one is caught up to the point where I am waiting for the next set of instructions... I will show that one off once the pattern has been published and I have permission from the person I am doing the test knit for...

Today is Sunday, that means "Cars going around in circles" day... We watched yesterday's race from Bristol. They had to stop the race for a bit for a SNOW delay... Pretty funny...

I am going to need to set out all of my yarn for a "yarn porn" shot one of these days... I kinda went on a fiber binge this last month... OK, it was a HUGE fiber binge... Really big one... I have projects for the next 3 years... Cool...

Friday was really strange, but tied this week together nicely... We had a group "happy hour" after work with the bosses and a few of my co-workers... Let's just say the immensely philosophical conversation that was going on at one end of the table was interuppted by a comment from the other end about how "SIZE MATTERS"... ROTFLMAO!!! It's nice when all of the loose ends seem to tie themselves up and we all DO live happily ever after!!!

Long post, playing catch up

Here are my completed "made up socks" done with Lorna's Laces... I finished them in California on my trip, but I still need to take one of the cuffs apart and re-bind-off since it was a little too tight on top... Yup, today is the day to get a few UFO's finished before I head back into Clapotis territory

Here is one of the pairs of socks I started while out in CA... I am just doing plain old socks toe-up with Toasty Toes yarn... I am pretty close to finished on this pair... Figure I will try to get the cuff finished off today and get this pair cast off also...

Here is the progress on the Clapotis... I started it on Thursday afternoon. I just did the first Drop Stitch... COOL!!! I was wondering how one little drop stitch would make such a cool ladder, now I know... I am using Rowan Baby Soft yarn, so I am not expecting any real stretch to it... I figure it would be a nice wrap to have at work...

Man, my blogger is not working well at all... I got over the problem of not even being able to see my blog... Now, I am not able to upload pictures... We took care of that problem by uploading the pix to Photobucket.com and transferring the links... Thank Goddess I still have some rudementary HTML language programming left in my brain, since I am doing this post strictly through HTML... Fun...

Last night, hubby and I went out to PF Chang's to celebrate my birthday a couple of days early... Dinner was very nice... Had my favorite lettuce wraps and lemon chicken... The PF Chang's Green Tea drink (not tea, the alcoholic drink) was really yummy and I had some with dinner... MMMMM

Hubby and I have been talking about getting a hot tub for a few years now... We have the perfect spot in the back of the house to put it... On Friday, hubby called me at work and told me he found a 5 seater hot tub (complete with cover) at a neighbor's moving sale for $400, do we want to buy it??? WHAT??? ARE YOU KIDDING??? HECK YEAH!!! So on Thursday, our pre-owned hot tub is coming home ;-) He called an electrician to get the 220 wired out the back wall by the kitchen so we can plug this in... There was some sediment from the water here in NM, but other than that, the tub looks to be in good condition... I figure pre-owned saving a few thousand dollars is a good thing!!! So, question to the Albuquerque Stitch and Bitch GRRLZ, anyone up for a hot tub gathering when the weather warms up??? Yup, this was a GREAT birthday surprise... It won't be installed in time for my b-day on Tuesday, but hopefully we can get it up in running in the next couple of weeks...

It's Sunday... Just finished watching the Formula One race, now have the TV ready for the NASCAR race... Love watching cars go roundy-round and knitting and sipping strawberry margaritas...

Home again... Ahhhh...

More sleepy sea lions...

Made it home yesterday and immediately hit the sack... Man, it's good to sleep with my hubby and kitties in my own bed again...

I was supposed to head out to the rink for some skating, but I was absolutely wiped out... I ended up staying home instead and hanging out with my hubby...

Time to get started on the clapotis... I unpacked the yarn last night and I will be casting on today... Maybe....

Dinner deserves it's own post

The wharf at Santa Cruz... Great place to go check out Sea Lions...

Yes, it's my last night here... Stitch and Bitch grrlz, I really missed you tonight and I was thinking about ya while eating dinner... Looking forward to seeing everyone next Tuesday...

Made the decision... Since I didn't pack my size 8 circs, the socks won out...

Since I have FINALLY completed the audit and 90% of the problems were solved on this trip, I decided I deserved a REALLY nice dinner out... So, I made reservations after work and went out to one of my faves in San Jose, La Papillon...

Dinner started out with a glass of Champagne (yup, the real stuff from France) to celebrate all of the hard work I have put in over the last 2 trips out here to get this transfer to run smoothly...

Dinner was served with bread and the dining utensils were SILVER...They gave me a petit fois gras for an appetizer, free of charge (SWEET!) OMG!!! MELT!!! Yummy... The next course (again, freebie) was an anise/duck consumme (again, MELT...) For dinner, I had the wild mushroom open ravioli with a glass of chardonnay... This ravioli was TO DIE FOR... After taking 45 minutes to finish the entree (and savor EVERY bite of it) I went for dessert... They had a bittersweet chocolate mousse topping a crust of macadamia nuts... SHEER HEAVEN!!! The only way to describe this meal is a culinary orgasm... No kidding! Every bite was a flavor explosion in your mouth. Incredible... Unfortunately, KIP was IMPOSSIBLE at this place...

Mike, you missed a GREAT dinner... Maybe next time...

Now, time to go to sleep. Gotta be up and out of the room by 4am to catch a 6am flight back to Albuquerque... Yup, I was doing the "cabbage patch" down the hallway of the hotel this evening singing "I'm going Home!!!!"

"Fate must have a reason... Why else endure the season of Hollow Soul"... k.d. lang - been my theme song this week... Gonna do a figure skating program to this song this fall!!!

California, Day 9, almost done

Yes, this is what I drove through on Sunday morning to get to the beach in Santa Cruz to go look at the sea lions (the pic that I posted yesterday)... It was still snowing when I took this picture... Now, being from Florida, I am not used to driving through snow to get to the ocean...

I am going home tomorrow morning... WOO-HOO!!! Yippee!!! Unfortunately, no first class upgrades were available... Booo.... So, I need to head to the store tonight to pick up some food for the plane, since it leaves at 6:20 am and NOTHING is usually open at the airport that early...

Things I will miss about California:
Good Wine (and LOTS of it)
Sea Lions
Sushi in the cafeteria
Toblerone bars in the vending machine
Communknity
Green... All over...
Rain (and LOTS of it)

Things I am looking forward to in Albuquerque:
Hubby & kiddo
Kitties
Puppies
My own bed
Skating
Friends
Stitch and Bitch
My birthday next Tuesday (the 21st...)

Tonight, the packing starts... I picked up a duffle bag here at work so I don't have to worry about being over the 50 lb limit with all of the stuff I picked up this last week... Way too much yarn (is there really such a thing???) and wine... I have a 4 pack carry-on, but still need to pack 2 other bottles... Time to see if there is any bubble wrap around here that I can steal to wrap the wine bottles in... I have one last tool fingerprint to do then I can head back to the hotel and start packing everything and making sure the iPod is charged for the trip...

Now, the important question, start the clapotis or finish the socks on the trip???

California, Day 8

Here is one of the pictures of the sea lions that I went to the wharf to go out and see... Kinda feeling like this sea lion today...

Not much going on today... I did re-do my travel reservations... I am coming home on Wednesday now rather than Friday. I am looking forward to coming home, I really miss everyone... A 5 day trip is fine, but 10 days or 14 days really is way too much...

I made one last trip out to Communknity to get some more yarn... One of the girls there was working on a clapotis... Between her and Noelle, I am now going to try the Clapotis so I have a nice wrap for work... Someone thinks that it's OK to keep the air on FREEZING the entire day... I picked up some nice pink baby soft wool to make it with...

Still working on the socks... I am about to turn the heel on the Toasty Toes socks... Looking forward to that! I am hoping the pair will be done before I get back...

California, Day 7

OK, how much more freaky can you get??? Gentlemen, start your engines...

Today was a blast... Started out the day heading down to the coast to check out the Sea Lions... On my way, I ran into a snowstorm... Yes, snow.... Snow on my way to the beach... Made it through the mountains and got to the Wharf in Santa Cruz and checked out the sea lions...

After I got back, I headed up to Sonoma for some yummy wine tasting... Went out to two of my favorite vineyards, VJB and Ledson... Had ravioli at a great Italian place next door to VJB... Picked up a couple of bottles of wine and had a couple of others shipped home since I won't be able to carry all of the wine and yarn I pick up on the plane back home with me...

I can't wait to get home...

California, Day 6

Here is a picture from the Picchetti winery we visited last week... Pretty area...

Today was "be a freaking bum" day... I slept in till about 8:15, went down, got some breakfast, then came up to my room and knit for a while... I am working on starting another pair of socks with my Lana Grossa yarn that I found at Comunknity the last time I was out here in San Jose... MAN, this yarn is just soft and delicious to work with... After watching some basketball and doing some knitting, I got a little lonely and decided to head out to Comunknity to get some yarn and have a little bit of social knitting time... I picked up the Winter issue of Interweave knits for the cool sock pattern and the short row explanations...
I met Scout's Secret Pal, who was working at Communknity today, she was really a neat person... We hung out and knit and chatted... I think I am going to start a Clapotis, they look so cool. Noelle did hers and it looks like something I can use at work to keep warm at work... I will post some pics next week of the place that has been my "home away from home"...

I also posted a picture of the Mountain Lion Warning sign that was posted at Picchetti Winery... I love this sign, I think it is a hoot ;-) (For all MSTies out there... KITTTTTTY!!!)

If you ever see a mountain lion, you should not let small children wander out of sight... DUH!!!
The sign also tells you to sing, whistle or talk while you hike to alert the lion of your presence... I guess the song "What's New, Pussycat" would not be a good choice... The sign also tells you at the end to fight back if attacked... Now, is that a no-brainer or what??? This is after telling you to keep children close to you and to pick them up without bending down... So, now that I have totally screwed up my back and I can no longer walk or move and I have a child in my arms, I am totally gonna be dinner for the kitty....

The warning sign could save a lot of time by saying "This is a Mountain Lion. Make lots of noise. Don't turn your back on the kitty. If you have children with you, you will make a delicious meal for the lion and they prefer it if you just sprinkle salt over yourself before you are attacked..."

Tomorrow... Wine tasting and Sea Lions... If I get my butt out of bed in time... No, they don't make wine from Sea Lions... I have to take a drive down to Santa Cruz to see the sea lions... Then, up to Sonoma to taste some wine... If all works out well...

California, Day 5

Yesterday was sheer hell at work... So what do we do to relieve the stress??? KNIT!!!

At 5pm, I took off from work and braved rush hour traffic to head out to Communknity... OMG!!! I found my home away from home...

I browsed through the yarn and books for a while... Nothing different in the books, same ones I find at Village Wools... Yarn, now THAT is a different story... There was a brand new hand-painted yarn there.... I picked up a really nice blue and white yarn for sockies... There was another 100% Merino hand paint that I also picked up...

After the shopping, I hung out with a few of the women there... They had a couple of couches and a nice rocking chair that surrounded a fireplace (that was not operational...) We hung out and had our own "social knitting night". We were talking about how knitting really breaks down a lot of barriers between people and you can get a couple of knitters together anywhere who don't know each other and the conversation just ends up flowing. It was REALLY nice... I was having a tough time out here, just going from work to the hotel back to work back to the hotel... Having a couple of hours to just talk with other knitters was sheer HEAVEN!!! I will be heading back out there this weekend and next week to knit and chat with other women... Yup, I have officially found my home away from home...

No big plans for tonight, I will keep knitting on my 2 pairs of socks that are currently on the needles. Tomorrow, I am planning to head up to Sonoma for some wine tasting and a visit to Infinion Raceway... WHEE!!!!!

California, Day 3

Woke up this morning and guess what??? It's raining again... Third day in a row... Hmmm, guess the bright orb of light in the sky has gone into hiding...

Since there are no pictures to update, everyone gets silly cartoon images for the next couple of weeks...

I am about to head off to work for another exciting day of audits... Good stuff... Tonight, I decided to go ahead and grab something to go on my way back to the hotel and spend the night in my room knitting and watching TV... Can you believe that my hotel doesn't have the Weather Channel??? I guess they don't want us to find out that the only thing going on in Northern California is rain for the rest of our natural lifetimes...

I still need to call Communknity to find out when they have their "social knitting night" this week... Today is Tuesday and I usually hang out with my stitch and bitch grrrlzzzz... I am really gonna miss them tonight... I will head down to the bar, get a glass of wine and knit along with them in the comfort of my room tonight... In-and-Out Burger is not the same cuisine as Flying Star, but we can make due... Hmmm, maybe room service is in order tonight...

California, Day 1 and 2

We made it into California...

After the plane landed around noon, went to pick up the rental car, checked into the hotel, then out for a wine tasting adventure...

We started out at Fogarty winery up in the mountains... I just LOVE rental cars with the Neverlost system... Just throw the address in there and voila, you are on your way... Took us about 40 minutes to get up there from the hotel... We were supposed to meet some friends up there, but the friends who have been there before got themselves lost ;-) We had some absolutely WONDERFUL chardonnay, some crackers and snackies and then headed off for the next destination... Any winery that has a kitty cat hanging out is my kind of place...

Next, we went to Picchetti winery... Great place with more great wines... Their port was absolutely to DIE FOR!!! Sampled that along with the chocolate fondue that they had going... Absolute HEAVEN!!! Our last wine there was a 2001 Angelica... they call it "liquid love", it was more like an orgasm in a glass... OMG!!! Words can not due justice to this wine... I had to pick up a bottle... Yummy...

Then, we were off to Yo Yo Sushi for some dinner... Yup, what's a trip to California without having bait for dinner at least one night??? MMMMMM.... Then back to the hotel for some sleep...

Day 2 was a little less exciting... Spent the day in class to get our factory authorization... Whee... Afterwards, came back to the hotel then picked up folks to go out for dinner. We were at YanCan for some yummy chinese food... A couple of the folks with us decided to try Saki for the first time... ROTFLMAO!!!! The food was really, really good... I had never had sweet and sour chicken with mint... MMMMMM....

Time for some sleep... Tomorrow starts the 2nd part of the audit... Realized when I tried to update the blog that the connection for the camera to connect it to the computer is back in Albuquerque... Guess everyone will have to wait a couple of weeks to see the pix...

I finished my socks yesterday... Did a gauge swatch on the Socks that Rock yarn... Will start the new pair tomorrow ;-)

Catching up again

OK, you land your plane on a landing strip in Africa around lunchtime. You drop off your delivery then go inside to get something to eat. You come back to your plane and see this... What do you do???

KITTY!!!!!

Now, what has been going on? I finally got my first heel turned on my socks I started over the weekend. I will post a pic once I have the other heel finished! Then, it's just knitting up the leg and it will be finished...

On Friday, I am heading over to the local high school to give a talk for National Engineers and Technicians week... Time to warp young minds as to why they should consider being an engineer. While they are at it, we will also be taking appointments for the mandatory lobotomy that you need before going out into the workforce (LOL!!!)

I leave on Sunday for the trip. I still need to do laundry, pack and get a few essentials at the store...

Trip to the Frog Pond...

Here lies the last picture of Jaywalkers part 2 before they went to the Frog Pond... Completely...

Why did they go to the Frog Pond after a heel turn? Tried one of the socks on and couldn't get the sock on past my ankle... Grrr... Rip... As Cartman from South Park likes to say "Screw you guys, I'm goin' home..."

What did the trip to the Frog Pond teach me? Plenty. First, some yarns are better for some patterns than others. Yarns like Opal and Jawoll have a looser tension to them, so they tend to stretch more. These yarns are good for a tight pattern like the Jaywalker sock pattern. Tight tension yarns such as Lorna's Laces and Socks that Rock do not lend themselves easily to a tight pattern like this pattern... So, what to do with this beautiful Lorna's Laces yarn???

We go WAY OFF THE DEEP END and design our own sock!!! Here is my progress so far on a pattern I am calling MooKitty's Toe Up Mock Cable Pattern... If you click on the link, you will notice the pattern is not complete... The pattern will be complete when the socks are complete... I figured it would be good to write down what I do on my "made up" socks so if I ever take one out and decide to make it again, I will know what I did... Yup, ADD is a WONDERFUL thing ;-) I will bring these to our Albuquerque SnB meeting on Tuesday to show everyone... The picture does not do the socks justice... So far, so good on the fit... We are using Lorna's Laces in the Georgetown color for these socks also...

We have started making plans for the business trip to San Jose starting on March 5th... One of my co-workers wants to go out wine tasting on the 5th (Sunday) to a couple of wineries close to where we are staying... So far, there are 5 of us going on this road trip... Should be a ton of fun!!! I want to try to go up to Sonoma on Saturday the 11th to go to a couple of my favorite wineries up there and get some yummy wine to bring back to Albuquerque... I also want to visit the Infinion Raceway again...

Time to watch the Busch race from California Speedway! And knit some more on the new socks...

Quickie Update

Now, doesn't this defeat the purpose of a bird feeder? Or do we have 2 bird feeders going on here? Yes, this guy was in our backyard hanging out on top of our bird feeder... In the middle of a very bustling suburb... The hawk is real, he is not a decoy...

Where to start??? Work has been a bear! I got back on Tuesday (after having President's Day off). I submitted my expense report for my last trip then turned around and made my arrangements for my trip out there starting March 5th... The good part? I get to go back to my favorite LYS in San Jose, Communknity, and play around there! I am looking forward to a couple of weeks of social knitting! It will help take my mind off of the fact that I will not be able to be with my Albuquerque SnB Grrlz! So, for the next week, I will be getting the cats herded for the next part of the trip ;-)

My socks that rock yarn came in yesterday! I got a hank of the Queen Rock yarn. I am looking forward to winding it up and playing with it on another pair of socks...

I "Allisoned" someone yesterday. I had been working on a pair of socks for a friend's wife. She got them yesterday and loved them :-) Always makes me feel good when one of my projects finds a good home! Still working on the Jaywalker socks, part 2, and another pair... At least the trip will allow me time to work on that. I am also thinking about digging out another sweater and working on it... It is a pretty cable design that I will use from a pattern book and I will adapt it to my style of working on sweaters in the round rather than a piecemeal sweater... Should be fun! The yarn is an alpaca/wool/silk blend that feels yummy on the skin!!!

A wonderful day off...

Ashley (Boo) kitty being cute, as usual...

Not much going on today... Went to the LYS to get a couple of balls of yarn... I think I drove poor Jaime nuts... In and out of the store 3 times within an hour... I have picked up some new yarn for my next project. A nice gray sock yarn for some fun knitting...

After I got home, went to the airport and picked up the kiddo. At the airport, I ran into another fellow knitter... I gave her one of our SnB cards, I hope we see her at a meeting soon :-)

Tomorrow is our weekly SnB meeting... I am looking foward to being with the grrrlz again! I missed not being there with them last week. I will be casting on the new pair of socks and working on the Jaywalkers part deux...

Time to go get some sleep and work on getting rid of this cold...