almost over it

Posted on Posted in book reviews/events, designing, food and garden, lace/shawls, projects

along with the garden, i’m gonna miss my bikes when i’m gone!
so this weekend i spent as much time as i dared on them, haha. on friday i went for a nice long ride through the neighborhoods of canton and a little beyond, then david and i rode out together to do our weekly food shopping in the evening.

on friday and saturday, we went for longer, faster evening rides on our road bikes, which are much sleeker and lighter (and faster and sexier, hehe). in fact, we broke our summer speed record both days (admittedly, we had almost perfect wind this weekend for that). for us, that is about as good a weekend date as anything—like many “couples” pastimes, it’s all about excellent synchronization.

personally i like both kinds of riding a lot—it’s a great way for me to manage stress, get much needed time away from the desk, and have fun during any given week day. it’s also good for my poor circulation . . .

i took up running very recently, in an effort to have all of those benefits while i travel (i’m still doing run/walk intervals, but they are getting much longer now). so i’ll be doing that while i’m away for the next month and hopefully, i won’t fall too far behind in my biking speed. i never dreamed i’d enjoy running, but to my surprise, i LOVE it. i’m actually more tickled that i like it than i am when i meet my weekly goals.

as for knitting, i’ve been mostly working on secret projects in the days running up to my departure, so as to get a few patterns knocked into semi-usable shape before i leave.

i did, however, treat myself to some work on my blümchen cardigan on saturday morning when i got together with debby and susie for some R&R knitting. in fact i was so involved in the R&R part that i blew past the point where i was supposed to start my shaping and had to rip back. that pin marks the center of my waist dart. a quick conference with susie and it was decided that it would look best if all the decreases converged on that single twisted rib.

my sunday morning plan was to get going right away on my packing so as to have it all squared away by evening. i made the mistake of going out to the garden for a quick look at the green beans and ended up coming back into the house with this

holy beet greens, batman!
yeah, i had not been paying attention to how badly things needed to be picked. so instead of starting my packing first thing, i got all of this into the freezer (a little less for david to do this week). i ended up with six bags of greens and two bags of green beans, PLUS enough to eat with some salmon for dinner last night (i sautéed all the baby greens with garlic and oil for side dish and stir-fried the green beans with sesame oil, garlic, soy, and a little hoisin sauce, mmm).

obviously, falling behind on the packing did nothing to quell my pre-travel anxiety. i dunno if i’ve mentioned this, but i have anxiety issues, haha. and at this stage of my life, when they mount up i tend to channel that energy into organizing stuff (this is great for pattern writing). being organized in advance is a complete turnaround from the way i liked things when i was younger, but for now i find it soothing and i try not to make it anyone else’s problem to deal with (perspective is, i think, what keeps it from tipping over into full-blown OCD).

in fact i do whatever i can to minimize it. for instance, i’ve started packing a day or two in advance for big trips, so as not to have much of a deadline. haha, i just have to keep in mind that two days ahead is NOT a new deadline.

anyway . . . i’m rambling.
all that to say that i’m really glad we did relaxing things on friday and saturday, because yesterday was completely consumed by getting things in order, with a little more urgency than i originally planned.

since i’d been organizing my travel knitting for the whole previous week, i pretty much had all of that waiting in bags. i just needed to weed out a couple of things, as two sweaters and six or seven small projects is probably too many, heh. so that funky chicken bag is actually staying home; i also did not pack a sock project, horrors. heck, if i need more knitting, i’m pretty sure i can find some where i’m going . . .

the two bags and paperwork on the left are my teaching materials (i like to keep those very streamlined). i have six or eight hours of layover time in the chicago airport tomorrow, so a few of these are going right into my backpack—i plan to enjoy every minute of that extra knitting time.

next i moved on to sorting out stuff for my suitcase. i’m taking a lot less clothes than i ever have before and about half of them are gym wear. i just get sick of unpacking and repacking stuff i’m not wearing all that much.

as you can see, a good portion of my suitcase space is housing my swatch museum and a couple of knitting projects.

at the end of my trip, i’ll be teaching with cookie at a verb for keeping warm and kristine has requested a trunk show. since i won’t need those items anywhere else in my travels, i’ve decided to ship them to california instead of packing them in another suitcase.

so that’s another thing that needed to be organized and packed

and the one task i’m not done with yet. i finally stopped at 11 pm last night to watch the tour with david). how about all those crashes, eh?

so i’m almost over the hump, but there’s still a little bit to go. time for me to get moving, but i’ve got lots of fun surprises in store for you from my travels. as long as i can get on wifi (and there was a bit of a hangup with that last year, though i think it’s solved now), i’ll be reporting as much as i can from my next stop—london and knit nation. i’ll be teaching calsses and we are sponsoring charity bingo on saturday night with special prizes too, so please join us. see you there!

27 thoughts on “almost over it

  1. Anne you look exceptionally organized and seem to have channeled your anxiety successfully! (I share your packing anxiety, but it usually spills over into packing too much).

    Seeing “Almost Ovals” in the trunk show box has tipped me over the edge – ok, I need to make that one too!

    Maybe you can bike in London on one of those ‘rental’ bikes some cities have nowadays.

    Have a wonderful trip! Can’t wait to hear the reports of your next knitting adventures!

  2. What a cute commuter bike!

    I’ve dabbled in running as well – – definitely a good alternative when biking is not possible. I don’t know about all of your travel destinations, but Portland has some lovely places to run along the river.

  3. Have a great trip!

    I completely understand the trip and organization anxiety..I tend to do the same thing myself for big trips, all to try to avoid driving those around me nuts.

  4. I’m almost fainting with fear to see that you are trusting your treasures to a mailing box, but on the other hand, I’ve never had anything major go astray so I don’t know why I always worry about it LOL

    But I can’t believe that I am going to miss you at Verb — a place I’ve wanted to go to for a long time. I don’t live “nearby” but could get there in a couple of hours — if I weren’t half way across the world right now!! I am sure you will have a FABULOUS time!

    I’ve traveled 90% of my life, and still get suitcase packing angst. Akkk!!

  5. I’m looking forward to all the reports from KnitNation so I can live vicariously through you once again on your “over the pond” travels! You will love Verb, too! Safe travels!

  6. The crashes were awful! I felt quite sick after seeing the one where the stupid television car knocked poor Flecha and Van Hoogerland over.

    Hope you have a safe trip, looking forward to saying “hi” at Knit Nation.

  7. Ugh! I must admit I have Bianchi envy! (In my little town in Iowa, you can find any kind of bike you want. As long as it is a Trek. If you want to be different and ride something else, you have to go to Chicago or somewhere. My mom has a gorgeous Bianchi road bike, but since she is tiny, it looks like it was made to fit an American Girl doll or something.) Anyhoo—safe travels and I hope that I get to meet up with you to take a class in the future.

  8. Have a great time in Berkeley! When we were at AVFKW last month they let me bring our little dog, Gracie, in so she could play with Cleo. They both had a great time. Give Cleo a belly rub for me!

  9. Safe trip, see you at KnitNation. Almost ovals will be a WIP, penultimate week of school getting very hectic!

  10. Yep, I develop strong sitz-muscles every July – from watching the Tour, not from riding my own bike. Much dismay in this household at the crashes, especially the last one. (That careless driver will have to flee Europe in disguise and under a false name, don’t you think?)

    Thanks for posting your recipes and menu plans. Vicarious dining – you’re better than a cooking show!

  11. Seeing your bike reminded me – we had to be in your area Friday and ended up going the wrong way – but turned around at McKinley Park. I had never seen it before but, it looked like a really lovely place. There was a track across the road too. You are probably familiar with it.
    After reading your blogging peeps today, guess I won’t be seeing you anywhere except maybe on your own turf.
    Have a great trip! We’ll be enjoying it with you!

  12. my friend lisa is going to be taking your sweater fitness class at verb– i’m so jealous! teach in southern california sometime, won’t you? 🙂

  13. I just realized that you will be teaching at A Verb for Keeping Warm. It is a wonderful store all of 15 minutes from my house. I hope I can still snag a spot in one of your classes. What a treat! I love your patterns and your attention to detail.

  14. Bon voyage Ann, I so enjoy your blog – the gardening particularly inspires me! I have a few balls of lovely yarn awaiting the right project and am very attracted to the Blumchen cardi already.
    I am new to knitting fitted items and have a question. Are swatches meant to be blocked? My recent experience is that some exotic yarns (those containing cashmere particularly) grow a lot after washing, so washing the swatch is essential to planning to get a decent fit from a fitted garment, yet it is rarely stipulated that one should base size choices on a blocked swatch. I have blocked the last couple of project swatches but am still an inexperienced knitter in sizing terms so it takes a bit of a leap of faith to choose to knit a size lower because the swatch grew. Is there some definitive book on this topic? I do understand if you are too busy to answer this – have a great trip 🙂

  15. This is bad but I’m still drooling over your Bianchi. But running is good, running is fun, and it’s very portable. Your schedule sounds nuts but good, and running should fit in well. Have an excellent time, which I’m sure you will; I wish I could come too.

  16. I wish I was going with you, Anne. I hope you have a fabulous time in all of your travels.

    Loving how Blumchen is coming along. : ) You simply amaze me with all of your designs ideas.

    Stay safe. I’m glad you’ll be checking in with us.

  17. Have a safe fun trip! I really like the stitch pattern on the Blumchen!!
    Another must have one…..maybe two…..

  18. Travel safely, Anne, and have fun (which I know you will). Can’t wait to hear about Knit Nation and your time at AVFKW.
    BTW, I noticed that in the box that you’re shipping for the trunk show that you have tags on some of your samples. You can’t imagine how very much that pleased me. It seems that either at a yarn store or at a festival there are those who don’t label their samples. It drives me crazy to have to look for someone to tell me what yarn and what pattern it is (and then even I’m even crazier when they don’t know or can’t recall…). Sorry for the rant, but I did want to tell you thanks for what you do.
    Can’t wait to see the mystery projects…could they be for the Club?

  19. I hope your flights go okay. that’s a long stopover in Chicago. I bet you’ll get lots of knitting done.

    I’m off to London on thursday and trying to decide how much knitting to take. Only going for 5 days tough. LOL. I always end up taking too much.

  20. can we see a picture of your road bike??

    i discovered running last year – and you are right, it is easy to do while traveling! after going from run-walk to 5k, i am now getting ready for a half marathon. you never know where life will take you!

    enjoy your travels.

  21. we made kale chips and loved them and have been experimenting with different greens. mustard greens were weird. i wonder how beet greens would do?

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