Day One of Our Adventure

Yesterday was the first day of our trip. Joanne and I met at the Park and Ride and caught the Sky Ride to the Denver Airport. Just $10 and you can knit all the way, not bad.

We met up with Sharon at the airport and caught our Frontier flight to LAX (we had Flip the Dolphin on the tail). Not a bad flight, though as hard as we hit the runway in LA, I was wondering if the pilot had left some parts of the plane on the runway.

We took a shuttle from the airport to the hotel, with an Iranian driver who just loved to talk. Luckily for us, some guy had to sit in the passenger seat, and got stuck listening to this guy and responded to his continual chatter, much to our delight.

Our hotel is at the Cabrillo Marina in San Pedro, where there are hundreds of sail boats and yachts. We walked over to a restaurant on the other side of the marina, enjoying the scenery and reading the names on the boats. I think our favorite was "Yachta Yachta Yachta" though Sharon's friend Sherry (from Florida - met up with us at the hotel), liked "Twisted Sister." We had a nice dinner at the restaurant with a gorgeous view of the water from our table, blacked swordfish, lobster bisque, steamed asparagus, garlic mashed potatoes and some cheese bread to die for, and of course some nice white wine.

We met up with Patricia, our cruise planner and knitter from Northern California. We met some knitters from Baltimore, Connecticut, California and the Carolinas. Some of our group which we hear numbers 100, are flying in today. We still have not seen the ladies from Oregon.

Almost everyone had socks up on needles. I am working hard on Mandarin. I also saw a square for an afghan, and the bag from the last Interweave Knits. Joanne finished the first sock of the cruise, kitchnering it in the bar last night. No socks up yet for me.

Lots of humidity in the air. I was up as usual at 4:30AM, and couldn't get in the workout room until 6AM, so I walked around the hotel for 50 minutes to get some exercise because I am NOT GAINING WEIGHT THIS WEEK! Needless to say, my hair is getting curlier by the minute in this humidity, so I didn't even bother to straighten it. If I can find a computer that will let me upload pictures you may see me with enormous hair.

We get on the ship at 1PM. Can't wait. Enjoy your day!

What do you think?

I have looked and looked for a picture of the Colorado Rockies to put on the blog and I think I finally found the one. It captures some of the beauty we are lucky to see living in God's Country, a mile up.

I need to pack. I went through the yarn looking for worsted weight. I did not find much. But I did find an assortment of yarn from a Vivian Hoxboro class I took, so that is going along for the color class I'm taking. There's some Lorna's laces sock yarn in lavender that's going along, with a ball of socks that rock in blues and purples. Some sort of theme here?

The bag is a new Maruca bag along with a notions holder that I picked up over at Colorful Yarns. I blame Kris for this. She loves these bags, so of course I had to look them over and buy one.

I have my supplies box, though I need to remember to put some more double points in it for the worsted weight. Sock knitting in worsted, sorry but Yuck!

I have to finally choose the clothes. The shoes will be picked first, then clothes to follow. I'm not that organized a packer and tend to really over pack. Let's see what happens today.

The Mandarin Jacket is coming along nicely. People stop and admire the colors, always a good sign. I think a completed jacket may be in May's future.

Enjoy the day!

I'm starting to get excited!

This is where I'll be this Sunday, along with knitters from all over the country as we set sail on the Sea Socks Cruise. It's almost here! Joanne and I along with Sharon and her friend from Florida will be flying to LA this Saturday. We will be meeting up with Nancy, Dawn and Willie from Oregon, great ladies Joanne and I met at Madrona in February 2006.

Here's the route:

I haven't packed yet. I had my own private fashion show last night, because I have too many darned shoes. I'm trying to pack the least amount of shoes which will go with the most outfits. Decisions, decisions.

The bring along knitting is already decided. I'm bringing the Koigu Mandarin jacket, which I really want to make headway on and get this gorgeous thing done. An easy shawl in Lorna's Laces Helen's lace, for the idiot knitting time (2 or more glasses of wine), and since it is a socks cruise, something is going up on needles, just not sure what. I want to make Eunny's knee highs from Interweave Knits, and since Eunny is going to be on the cruise, I want her suggestions to make them in a smaller size. I also need to put yarn aside for classes. That's right, there's plenty of classes, along with yarn crawls in San Francisco, Victoria and Vancouver. Knitting, yarn, away from all stresses, YIPPEE!!!!!!

Got to get back to work. I need to clear my desk before the week is out.

Did I mention, I find out my Colorado bar results while on the cruise? Either way, bar results = bar presence on the ship. Time to break out the idiot knitting.

Itsy Bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dots on that bikini

I could have crocheted this. But are you kidding me? Maybe Tim over at String could have whipped this out for me, or Cassidy or Kate for our cruises. But mine would have had to allow for the many additional areas of skin that are on an almost 50 year old body.

Instead, this went home with me yesterday. Boy, I don't know. I may have lost the weight, but I still have baby belly. And I don't know if a million sit ups could fix it. My husband picked out this suit. I think I need to take him to the eye doctor. He must think I'm still in my 20s.

The cruise is this Saturday. How did it get here so fast? I need to figure out what I'm bringing. There's requirements for the classes, but they list worsted weight yarn. I really don't use worsted that much. I need to go through my class yarn bag and see what is in there. I have plenty of DK. Oh well, what are they going to do if I bring the wrong yarn - kick me off the ship? Make me walk the plank? Send me to the bar? Yeah - send me to the bar.

Thought I would get the pink shawl done last week, but not much knitting was done. It's not that I didn't have some time, I'm still in that funk. I need something that I just have to work on. Is it just lack of Spring Fever? I didn't even hit a yarn store in LA. I could just be on system overload. My husband said, why don't you design something last night, when I said I should go knit, but nothing has my attention. I have some ideas in my head. Who knows?

I'm thinking of going back to school to get an LLM in Tax (Master of Laws in Taxation). I don't know. I went to college for 13 years already and have enough degrees to paper the bath room. I received a letter from an attorney who teaches at DU, so I need to talk to him to see if it is feasible that I could practice in this area and do it part time. Decisions, decisions.

Enjoy the day, it sure is pretty outside.

Not much knitting today

Today was a blur. Grocery shopping, laundry, bills and taxes. No time to knit though I did finish reading "The Friday Night Knitting Club." Have you read it? If so, who are you in the book? Cat? Georgia? Anita? Peri?

I'm off on a plane again tomorrow. Wheels up to Pasadena. Three shawls are coming along for the ride. Enjoy your week.

Looks like a boa to me...

There's the 4 boas, googly eyes is in the back, green hair to the right, snake shirt to the left, and the "ridiculous one" in the middle. I think he looks darn good, but I'm the seamstress.

I'm knitting bored. I don't know what I want to knit. I will finish a shawl this weekend and want to work on something new. Haven't got a clue what to do. Like others out there in blogland, I'm missing the knitting mojo at present. Send me some good vibes.

Top 10 Reasons

Not much time for a post, but I read this on the Knitter's Review and thought I'd share it with you:

Top ten reasons to buy yarn:

10. Doesn’t have to be watered, fed, repotted or pruned.

9. Doesn’t have a shelf date.

8. Doesn’t need to be walked, groomed or fed. And it doesn’t shed. Usually.

7. Doesn’t need a sitter when you go out. Or someone to watch it while you’re on vacation.

6. Doesn’t need its litter box changed.

5. Doesn’t raise your blood pressure. Or your bad cholesterol.

4. Never talks back or asks to use the car and then returns it with the tank on empty or borrows your handpainted yarn socks and washes them in the machine on hot.

3. Makes a great interior design color splash even if you never use it.

2. Never changes the channel to a sports program. (It's okay if I do!)

And number 1: isn’t fattening.

There is a chair under there...

Amazing what you find when you start to put away crap. There's the knitting chair with only 2 projects on it. Now, I'm not a miracle worker, there's things that are in staging areas to be "put away in the yarn room" but I have my chair back. Did I knit in it though? Nope - sat on the bed as usual.

But in the mess, I found two shawls that just need to be worked on. So, it's a shawl week. I'm on row 95 of 200 plus rows on one of them. I wonder how much progress can be made this week?

Time to wake up the boys, I'm single mom for a couple of days. Enjoy!

A mess and a dress..

That is my knitting chair in the bedroom, which is dark, because the other half is sleeping. Pretty bad don't you think? The house is a disaster, alot of which is due to me. Let me think, which rooms have yarn in them at this moment? Answer - the kitchen, the desk in the eating area next to the kitchen, the dining room, the front room, my bedroom, the yarn room, the bathroom in the yarn room, and the basement. This is bad, very bad. Oh my. Crap. "Lucy you've got some xplaining to do."

Okay, okay, I will never win house keeper of the year, nor will I win mother of the year. I am content to do what I can, be happy or a bitch, like every normal woman on this earth, and go on. As long as I can buy yarn and knit. Oh - and buy books and shoes of course!

You know, I work full time, and try like an idiot to do everything else. So when the oldest son told me he was in a play, I said okay, let's do the mom thing and make an outrageous costume for the boy. And I can sew anything - right? So I trotted off to Joann's, bought snake skin fake fur, did I say I had to turn him into a boa constrictor? And worked on the thing for a couple of days. I made a hood, attached a 10 foot snake tail, and proudly showed it to the family. I thought it was pretty cool myself, and thought won't his friends and teacher be so impressed? Well, J came home and told me his friends thought he looked ridiculous. The other boa had a visor with googly eyes for his costume which was so cool. So again, no mother of the year, I just made my kid look ridiculous!

It's Easter, the kids are up, but haven't realized yet that their Easter baskets are hidden in the house. Good for me, since I need to jump in the shower. Oh - and it's snowing again. Oh please - let the lilacs bloom. I will be so sad if they don't.

There's a dress on needles pictured in the above mess, or should I say, there's a 4 inch portion of the bottom lace edging on needles in that mess. I have looked at that dress ever since I saw that Rowan book. I have no idea what I will wear under it, but I have yarn, needles and beads.

Went to String yesterday, where I got the yarn and the book. Cassidy looks great, her baby is due in August. Some people just look so pretty when pregnant, I just felt like a blob.

The other half has to go to Ohio to testify in a trial for a case he worked on three years ago. I don't have the heart to tell him that I just did a preliminary job on the taxes and we owe again. He gets so pissed off. I can't wait to hear the screaming. Maybe I'll tell him when he gets into the truck to leave. He can scream by himself, yep, that's the plan.... "Bye honey, and by the way we owe big bucks, have a good trip....."

Enjoy your Easter, eat that chocolate, and have a great day.

It's a Koigu Day

It's April. I have leaves on the rose bushes that made it through the winter. There's purple buds on 2 of the 3 lilac bushes. We mowed and fertilized the yard. So of course it is snowing.

Yes Colorado, you got us again. We thought it was spring and you said oh no you don't. Let's have some more of the white stuff.

A friend called me up last night, and we left our kids with the other halves and went out for drinks. I think we laughed ourselves silly. (So did people in the place that saw me land on my backside after slipping on something on the floor!) It sure is nice to be able to go out with a bud, when things haven't been that great and they make you laugh.

So, it's a Koigu day. 12 different, cheerful colors to play with while I watch the boys at swimming, and watch whatever mindless TV I want - though maybe it's a Food Network day.

The Sea Socks cruise is in three weeks. I can't believe it. I am so ready to go. Ten days away with friends and knitting- yippee!

Oh, and last but not least - THE GATORS ARE THE NATIONAL CHAMPS!!!!!!!!

Enjoy your day!