what a sight for sore eyes, eh?? i am SO happy to be home, especially with a greeting like this—my lipstick tulips (not their real name) just outside the garage door, at that perfect prebloom moment. sigh.

and these hyacinths—WOW. slightly past their prime, they nevertheless held out til i got home to show off their dressy easter ruffles and perfume.

one last daffodil also stayed the course for my viewing pleasure . . .

sorry for the delay in getting back into the blogging saddle, but the last couple of days have been sorta not what i’d planned—both the weather outside and my post-flight equilibrium failing to rise to an acceptable level. despite heading straight to bed after getting in monday night, i couldn’t work at all on tuesday. while not technically sick, i was so congested that i couldn’t hear or walk straight (cookie and david have seen me in this state and will attest it is NOT amusing after an hour or so, haha). thankfully, that has passed and i’m feeling much more myself.

yesterday i had a pile of bookkeeping and paperwork that needed urgent and immediate attention, so that was another day lost. but today—ahh, today is for us to chat.

so, i bet you’re all waiting with baited breath to hear who won the crochet inspiration book by sahsa kagan—thank you all for participating; we really appreciate that!

and the winner is . . . kristi~ohio. congratulations, kristi!
you know, many people leave wonderful stories with their comment entries for books—i’m not sure why, because it doesn’t influence who gets picked in the random drawings we do, but i LOVE reading them. it’s as if by telling the most elaborate story, the karma gods will smile on that commentor and make their name rise to the top.

anyway, kristi is one of those people that includes a little story with her comment and i like this one particularly well . . .

I learned to crochet at a young age and then taught my grandmother. We started out making afghans. I moved on to knitting. However grandma loved it so much she continued on with crochet for the next 40 years until she passed away. Over the last year I’ve been thinking of crocheting again. This looks like the perfect book. Thanks for the opportunity to win it.

i would love to see an old home movie of little kristi teaching grandma to knit . . .

i was SO busy in austin i never even got to tell you about my wonderful weekend at hill country weavers—wow, what a shop. that’s the owner, suzanne, with me in the photo above. we offered three full days of classes plus a trunk show and lecture friday evening. we did lots of lace knitting, finishing, and talked about making better yarn choices. we looked at all 565 photos in my slide show, too. oof!

the shop itself is a knitter’s wonderland—suzanne has been in business a long time and has an incredible inventory to show for it. everything from sturdy yarns to knit for kids to the most luxurious fiber blends are represented here. you need a nice long day to explore it all and the staff at HCW will let you have all the time you need.

i feel bad because i came home with so few photos—many of the ones i took didn’t turn out. i know david has a bunch; maybe he’ll put them up on our facebook page.

i did get this photo of the back of sherri’s gorgeous leaving cardigan, which she finished at 1am the night before her class—which is touching and impressive all at once in itself, but then damn, that is a nice sweater she made, too. it really does the pattern justice and i’m so happy she wore it to show us.
unfortunately, my photos of the sweater front did not turn out so well (too dark to see it), but sherri has some lovely photos on her project page.

most of our outside time in austin was spent exploring the local coffee joints before getting started on the day—we did not make it out to take part in the night life on this visit.

but with such beautiful mornings to wake up to, i didn’t feel like we missed all that much. the people watching is equally great in the early part of the day—just different, as they say there . . .

and while we didn’t get out to hit the social scene much, we DID have a wonderful time with our family. i got out every day in the gorgeous weather for along trek with junebug, who an excellent walking companion, very well trained. and the kids are a constant source of fun.

aaron wanted me to be sure to take a nice picture of his bike. moving vehicles are his passion—this kid is going to have a devastating ride one day . . . although i’m not quite sure where or how the dragon fits in.
like i said—different.

(seriously, can you resist the cuteness??)
even when david took us all out for a sushi meal and they were faced with a lack of traditional tableware, they carried it off with flare

the texas hansons are getting a screen printing business off the ground, so we spent some work days with my brother, discussing a few projects and swapping software skills.

we’ve actually had these totes onsite for a while, but soon they’ll be in our store; it’s a nice, sturdy bag, big enough for project, patterns (of course) and tools, but not SO big as to be threatening in a crowd. isn’t the print job lovely?? joe is really good at his work . . . and an awesome guitarist, too; they’ve put together a great family band—check it out on youTube

so you might think that with all that going on, i did not advance my knitting projects much, but funny enough, i got a ton of work done, too (as is often the case when i visit texas).

the pieces of the new whitfield shortie are complete and they await seaming and completion, probably this weekend. they don’t look nearly as cute as they will in a few days, with the collar and pocket on. and we should have a pattern ready for testing very soon as well, yay.

i swear, every time i took this project out of the bag to work on it, a flock of knitters fluttered over to feel the fabric—kim, the frolic yarn is just gorgeous and a big hit in texas.

and then there is the ruckus caused by scottish heather colorway of grace merino yarn i’m using for my cable and rib cardigan—another crowd favorite.

i have to add that each one has been a wonderful knitting experience, too; the kind of yarns that make you WANT to rush to your knitting chair to work each evening.

my secret project is heading down the homestretch as well; i’ll be done very soon and getting that pattern on to the next step. which will leave some of my needles free to start something new . . .

i was thinking that since i came home with a scarf to block (hopefully this afternoon, when i’m done here), that i should get another on the needles right away to take along on my next travel dates to the loopy spring fling and the spinning loft retreat (still spots open and it’s sooo close to maryland; you could escape with your new fiber to spin/knit dreamland!).

i’ve printed off a few charts to keep in a folder of “spring scarf ideas” because i think it’s time we had some new and pretty lace scarves, don’t you?? it’s the perfect project for the season, totally totable and lightweight enough to slip into a mia bag (omg, that orange poppy dot one is too, too cute) and carry in my purse.

i just have to go through my yarns and pick something (that’s the hard part). i think the first one is going to be something fine, but slightly fuzzy; not exactly sure what yet, but i’ll know when i see it.

i still have to unpack my suitcases too, so i’m thinking that today, i’ll block the scarf and unpack while it’s drying. if i’m really good, i’ll get some stash organized before i have to go out this evening (i bought containers and everything before i went away, but never got started on the actual sorting and organizing . . .).

i have fiber and spinning to talk about, but i think i’ll save that for another day.

spring beckons and i think it might be a good day to get outside as well. if i’m going to have time for all that, i better get cracking.

one last thing though, since a few people have written to ask . . . we are DEFINITELY working on getting our fall project club pulled together and making excellent progress. we plan to open signups around the 1st of may; currently that is dependent on when the site is ready, but all seems to be moving along on schedule. we will let you know as far in advance as we can of the actual signup date, by posting an information page explaining what to expect. the club ravelry group will be put together at the same time to provide a place for everyone to get together and chat.

meanwhile, the yarns have all been chosen and most of the projects have been planned; we are super excited about the luxurious selections we’ve been able to pull together for it. i think it’s going to be a ton of fun; i can’t wait!