gone girl

oh gosh, i miss cookie already! we had a great visit while i was in the bay area and i will admit, it’s been hard to settle in at home. haha, i’ve been gone so long my home feels strange to me.

the last couple of days there were a lot of fun—wednesday i took the train to the city for a good haircut and some shopping on my own, followed by dinner with cookie and friends

plus drinks at the bourbon and branch speakeasy—where they make some delicious concoctions. i had a flight of scotches, but next time, i will definitely do cocktails instead. normally, i stay away from the sweet stuff, but theirs are really refreshing rather than cloying.

on my last morning i headed out for a run in the neighborhood, intending to go the usual four or five miles, but then discovered the stevens creek trail and changed my plan to a slightly longer run—maybe eight?? it was a lovely detour, BUT

i fell into a bit of adventure which i won’t detail, except to say that somehow i ended up in a high security area i shouldn’t have been in, with no ID and no idea how to get out. i finally managed to leave without landing on anyone’s radar and boy oh boy, did i ever head straight back to familiar territory, haha.

i did not stop running the whole time except to check the map on my phone and once i was back on cookie’s doorstep, i saw i had racked up eleven miles—my longest run ever, yay. maybe it is time to sign up for some kind of running event.

but seriously, i could have made that easier on myself . . .

that afternoon i took off for home—david and i were really looking forward to seeing each other. with everything that happened in NYC, we had not spent any quantifiable time together since october 17th.

once on the plane, i took out my sock knitting and relaxed. i had made great headway on this sock during my travels—i figured i could finish it on the flight home.

as luck would have it though, i unexpectedly came to the end of my yarn just as my first flight was touching down in denver—arghh.

i folded it away in a huff—just a couple of inches short of the finish line, drat. i knew i had a full skein of this yarn at home (the last one of that lot!), but of course i’d have to wait to finish it now.

i wish i’d noticed these swatches tucked into the bottom of the bag—i believe that’s what they were there for, in case i ran out. i mean, i knew i had swatches somewhere, but did not remember preparing myself so well in advance—if only i knew myself better . . .

anyway, today when i was setting up the photos for this post, i found them and promptly set to work cannibalizing them.

now i have enough to finish, i think. i will take this project along to a doctor’s appointment tomorrow and hopefully, make some progress on the toe.

back on my flight, i was not without something to work on—after putting away the sock and changing planes, i pulled out my other nearly-finished project, hazeline. with the final sixteen rows to go, i settled in happily to knit my way back to ohio.

i love the yarn i’m using for this one—it’s hazel knits entice in our september club colorway. i though it would be nice in this pattern, which was last september’s club design. this colorway is exclusive for our club, but wendee has a couple of good substitutes, such as portobello.

this project worked out perfectly; i knit right up to the time we touched down and finished the last row before the bind off. binding off requires more patience than i can muster during plane travel so i waited to get home to finish that last step.

it still needs to be blocked, but i’m hoping to tackle that tomorrow or wednesday; i actually have another piece that needs blocking as well—the wasp and rose sample that vanessa has been knitting during my travel period

which arrived while i was in california—isn’t it gorgeous?? since the original yarn is now unavailable, she knit her sample with yarn provided by buffalo gold, now known as the buffalo wool co. ron and theresa saved the day on this project by giving us some of their gorgeous lux yarn, a bison/cashmere/silk/tencel blend in colorway lupin.

this yarn has a very similar fiber content to the kami bison yarn i used for the pink version, the difference being that it is a bit denser with a slightly tighter twist. it’s lusciously soft, though and i’m sure that blocking will work additional magic on the hand of this fabric.

i can’t WAIT to see its transformation.

the last couple of nights i’ve been working on swatches for a future secret project and getting my bearings around the place. since i still hadn’t discovered those sock swatches yet and felt too exhausted to go in search of more alpaca in the flapjack color, i pulled out the other waffle cream sock which had no mate and cast on for a second one in the oatmeal color.

wouldn’t it be great if i could finish both of these pairs for our anniversary in a couple of weeks? now THAT would surprise david, alright, haha.

we’ll see—this is as far as i’ve gotten since i got home friday night. while i knit i contemplated how little time there is left in the year—where did the fall go?? suddenly, that annoying c-word keeps popping into my mind. you know what i mean—christmas knitting.

i am so not ready for that.

but i’m going to try—i’d really REALLY like to make some sticks and stones sweaters for the whitfield boys—simple, top-down raglans could be doable; they would love that. if i could get two done for the las vegas boys for christmas and one done for the NYC boy for his january birthday, i’d feel very satisfied.

they are still in sizes that i can manage; after this year, they will start aging out of my tolerance for knitting kids sweaters. i know that sounds cold, but so be it; when you have thirteen nieces and nephews, you have to have a cut-off point for larger knitted gifts. i have some nice briar rose sport weight yarn from rhinebeck for these projects; i’ll show it to you when i get closer to actually starting them.

saturday and sunday were gorgeous here and david worked outside while i worked at my desk. since both of us were looking forward to a couple of home cooked meals by now, i asked him to dig up some carrots, leeks, potatoes, and sweet potatoes while he was out there.

we have a nice size crop in all of our root vegetables this year and in beautiful shape, too. on saturday, after biking out to do our shopping, we came home and baked fresh-dug sweet potatoes, which we ate with curried shrimp and greens and our own frozen corn.

on sunday i made codfish cakes with the white potatoes and leeks, roasted carrots, and garlicky green beans—another yummy meal. it’s so good to be home!

last night i got out my bloch ness sweater project to get reacquainted. mmm, i missed the cushy softness of this polwarth/silk DK—doesn’t indigodragonfly make pretty yarn?? you can see more of this colorway here; it says sold out, but don’t believe a word of that; kim just likes to get email. so write her one with your request and she’ll dye you some yarn.

this is very close to being finished, which is one of the reasons i decided not to lug it around on my recent trips—i was concerned about how much room it takes up in the suitcase.

now is a great time to finish it—i think we’ve seen just about the last of the warm fall weather; it is literally getting colder here by the hour and the forecast shows temperatures dropping steadily as the week goes on. i would like to have this done by next week so i can begin the kids’ sweaters—wish me luck.

and now, i must get back to work on those swatches or i will never get caught up. tomorrow, look for the release of the hasselnusse pattern and later this week, we should have wasp and rose ready to go.

signups for our barenaked 2013 club begin on sunday for current members; circle the date!