Here’s a blind, juvenile saltwater crocodile getting some head scratches. Taken at the Maya Key Animal Rescue Center.
Category: Travel
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Stealthy Startits
Startitis got tricksy yesterday. After I organized my stash, Startitis pointed out that a snow day shouldn’t have to settle for just any ol’ knitting project–such a fine holiday deserves a brand new project. Perhaps Sheldon or that new blue sock yarn. Luckily my chilly feet pointed out that if I work on the sockotta socks, they’ll be warmer sooner than if I start new. A few hours later, Startitis suggested getting a head start on Christmas knitting. I had called Mom to ask her sock size before I cottoned on to Startitis’s plan. Then Lost started and I lost (haha) interest in taking my eyes off the screen long enough to cast-on.
At school, another teacher and I are looking at European locations for a possible school trip. Is it wrong that I want to take the kids on the Ireland trip because it says we’d be touring a sheep farm?
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Trippin’
This past Thursday I drove up to Oklahoma to visit my parents. Despite a hailstorm and a cracked windshield, it was a pretty nice trip.
Last time I visited my parents, I dragged them to a couple of different yarn shops for a mini LYS crawl. This time my mom beat me to it. She found a new one for us to visit. This is especially nice since she doesn’t knit–although she does have the makings of a champion enabler. She took me to the L & B Yarn Co. in Norman, OK. This yarn store easily competes with my affections for The Woolie Ewe. L & B is a very swank shop and the women who work there are very nice. My dad was dragged along to the store, and they set him up their classroom with a soda so he could read his book in comfort. I walked out with–
and 
Those would be Crystal Palace Yarn’s Panda Cotton in Roses and Prism Yarn’s Lacewool in a very pretty Mojave. The Panda Cotton will of course become socks one day, but I am still not sure what the Lacewool will be. Maybe the Spirit of the Southwest shawl or the Children of Lir.
We also went back to the Gourmet Yarn Co. and I acquired even more laceweight.
Mom disapproved of my getting a navy yarn when there were more colorful yarns to be had, but this is the perfect color for the Scotch Thistle Stole that I picked up at the Dallas Fiber Festival.
You know what this blog has been missing? Cat pictures! Because I have no cats, you’ll have to settle for pictures of my parents’ cats. Sunny decided to help me bag books. And Sampson ignored me.
*Update*
This was on the coffee table when I got home.
Matt spent from midnight to 2 am getting the gigantic knot out of the sock yarn. A husband who will spend two hours unknotting yarn is super special.
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Spring Break
It’s the last day of spring break which never lasts long enough. I got a lot of knitting done but not as much as I would have liked (but what knitter ever gets as much done as she/he really wants). I purchased the yarn for the Voyager Lace Stole and began it.
Those who are familiar with the pattern will remember that it calls for a provisional cast-on that you pick-up and bind-off later. Notice that there is no provisional cast-on attached to this fine bit of knitting. That’s because I can’t stand trailing around all that extra yarn and I think it looks tacky to boot. So after I knit the six rows of garter stitch, I went ahead and picked up the stitches, unpicked the crochet chain, and performed the longest picot bind-off that I’ve ever managed to date. No more trailing, turquoise waste yarn. Behold–a close-up:
During my visit home to see my folks and my sister, I managed a feat so spectacular that I still get breathless and my pulse races just thinking about it. Are you sitting down? I talking them into an LYS crawl. And none of them knit or crochet. Even my father went (although he didn’t go into the stores–that might have been expecting a bit much). At Sealed With A Kiss In The City, I scored some Sockotta yarn. BTW, when the directions say to look for a green house, they aren’t kidding–the house is margarita green. Then we moved on to The Gourmet Yarn Company, where I found my real prize–
Earlier that day I found out that Matt’s cousin Blair and his wife Andrea are expecting their first child. In fact, this is the first kiddo on my husband’s side of the family since his cousin Sara was born 18 years ago. This means that I get to start knitting baby things. It’s a good thing my mom was at the store to reel me in; otherwise, I would have walked out with the yarn for a blanket as well. As it is…well…I noticed later that the Soup Socks by KnitWhits are for ages 3-6 and it’ll be a while before the sprogling will be that old so I bought this pattern:
Don’t know what yarn I’ll use yet–maybe Baby Cashmerino or Knitpicks Shine. Hope to have both the Soup Socks and the Moc-A-Socs finished by the time we see Blair and Andrea in Captiva.
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Two Letters
Dear Texas Civil Engineers,
I apologize for every dirty, nasty comment that I ever made regarding the seemingly unending construction zones. After 4 years of undeserved hateful thoughts, I realize now that you had the knitter’s best interest at heart. You wanted us to have better, smoother roads, and indeed, they are far more silk-like that the roads of the state to the north whose highways must not been repaved since they were first built by drunken cavemen the lowest bidderengineering freshmen paid only with beer. A Russian join performed on one of your interstates would not have involved swearing (or blood). No knitter would have been so frazzled as to have rejoined the working yarn to the outside end of a center-pull ball. The miles of left-lane closed, 25 mile-an-hour traffic, men-at-work zones show that you, dear engineers, are the engineers who care. Thank you.
With enlightened admiration,
SpringPlumDear Drunken Cavemen Oklahoma Civil Engineers,
Sit on it and spin.
Bite me.
Kiss my arse.
Please quit your day jobs.Regards,
SpringPlum
