Like a whirlwind

The last two weeks have flashed by so quickly that I didn't realize how long it's been since I blogged. The trip to Washington, D.C. was fabulous, and I returned from five days in Oklahoma City last night. I'm tired!

My knitting has been as disjointed as my life. I took the Pi Shawl with me to DC, but didn't work on it much. On the outward-bound plane, I was jammed between two large men who each used one of my arm rests, so I was pretty much folded in half and could hardly move my arms enough to read, let alone knit. Within half an hour, I could feel my temper getting warmer and I wondered how those guys were going to survive the four-hour flight. Then, the flight attendants put on a movie -- and my seat mates were rescued by Ioan Gruffudd and the rest of the Fantastic Four! It was a dumb movie, but it distracted me enough to keep me from making a scene. After that, they put on an episode of Journeyman, which stars Kevin McKidd, and I got through the rest of the flight. I guess sometimes I'm like a bird with a shiny object. As for the rest of the trip, I was so busy seeing the sights and doing business that I didn't pick up the shawl again until I returned home. There's a new mistake now, and I'm negotiating with the knitting gods before I pick it up again to see what happened.

While in OK City on business, my colleague K-- and I planned a yarn crawl and we saved it for Saturday afternoon, when there were no conference sessions and she had made her presentation. The first place we went was no longer in existence, but the second place had to be one of the best yarn stores I've ever visited, not so much because of the goods but because the folks were friendly. If you're ever in Oklahoma City, don't miss The Gourmet Yarn Company! When you come through the door, someone greets you and tells you how the store is laid out. There's a big table and when we were there, it was packed with knitters happily stitchin' and chattin'. Oh the yarns, oh the colors. I only bought a pattern, but the nice lady at the counter gave me two plastic drawstring project bags to take home. K-- and I spent a good hour in there, feeling the yarns and becoming inspired. I saw Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, and got to get a look and feel of Schaefer Miss Priss, which is what Amy Swenson used for Mr. Greenjeans (which might be my next sweater project).

Our yarn crawl ended when we stopped at the mall for a quick lunch and staggered out a couple of hours later, K-- clutching some new red shoes. We raced back to the conference hotel so we could meet our gang for dinner... and K--'s red shoes (wine-red patent-leather Mary Janes with four-inch heels) were the hit of the night.

I had been thinking about making a nice scarf for myself for a while now. I have that one skein of Fiesta Ballet that I brought home from Santa Fe in April, and had cast on with it for My So-Called Scarf (first seen by me here at yarnstorm). The yarn's a little bit splitty, though, and all of the back and forthing in this pattern makes Ballet a less-than-ideal yarn for that pattern. Then, last week I was arrested by an ad for the Ballet Lace Scarf. It's interesting, and it shows off the color changes for that yarn beautifully. When I saw it at Gourmet I picked it up. It requires only one skein of Ballet, and the pattern is pretty straightforward and actually easy to memorize. It's already on the needles and may become the project of choice for the upcoming England trip.

Meanwhile, the Emperor's Seamless Hybrid has been patiently waiting for me at home. I got a few rounds into the increases when I discovered that if you follow the directions, you get all left-leaning decreases, which makes for a wonky shape in a raglan. So, I'm tinking back to fix it but I know that once I get moving in the other direction with it, the sweater will fly off the needles again (in a good way).

Am I all caught up now? Good!