Knits on a Train

Here's a brief recap of yesterday's Awesome Adventure of Awesomeness.

It started at the Albany train station



where I boarded the north bound train.



This was my first time traveling by train, and I rather enjoyed it. Instead of dealing with traffic and stress, I had a lovely and productive trip.





After about two hours I arrived at my destination: Sock Summit 2011! First thing I met up with Jocelyn.



The train was late, but I managed to catch the line and achieve one of my primary SS goals.



This was then succeeded by an ever bigger geek moment of win.



That's me with Lucy Neatby.



And that's me with THE Yarn Harlot.

After these two big events of Awesome, Jocelyn and I had a lovely lunch and catch up. I miss her since she moved to Portland.

After lunch I was on my own for shopping, and so I hit the market. I saw everything, but the long months of fiber diet practice and training, I wasn't tempted by the massive overload of pretties. I stayed within my planned budget (hurray for cash!) and got things that I really like.



Yarn for a sweater, the first JazzKnitting book, a cone of Habu linen steel, and my SS11 official button.

After I was done spending I hung around, ran into friends, knit, watched a rigid heddle loom demonstration, and waited. Why? Well for one thing my return train didn't depart until 6:15, but my collection of pictures was incomplete. So I waited for classes to end so that I could get one final picture.



That's me with Franklin Habit.

By this time I was very tired, so after one last hop through the sockgate



I got my dinner (Subway), and headed back to Union Station



where I boarded the train and came home.

Adventures

I know I promised pictures of my positive purple socks last weekend. I took the pictures, I really did (the Monday after the weekend I promised them to you, but I took them). They are currently languishing on my camera's memory card. I had two big final projects this term, and school work trumps blogging (almost) every time.

I finished the dress. Well, mostly finished the dress. I still need to finish the armholes. But other than that it's finished. Unless I decide to unpick and resew the hem. I did get it done enough to try on for fit, and it's P-E-R-F-E-C-T. I love this dress. I'll probably end up wearing it to the rehearsal dinner next weekend. I also re-sewed the crotch seam in a pair of wrap pants that I got on sale at the fair trade shop downtown, and now they fit great, too. I'd have worn them today, but then I thought about the logistics of tie on pants and air plane bathrooms, and went with jeans.

As for knitting, I've got a good start on the Scoop Neck Pullover from fall 2009 Interweave Knits going, but I left it at home (wool knitting was not what I wanted for this coming week). I'm using Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran in a deep magenta color. It feels lovely knitted up. This morning I started Percy (ravelry link) in Arucania Lonco (the purple cotton that I got at Yarn Garden a few weeks ago. It's coming along nicely now, though I did have a rocky start and seem to mess up every third pattern row. It might not have been the *best* choice for plane knitting, but I chose it and I'm sticking with it.

If you haven't guessed from my hints, I'm traveling. I'm actually posting this from the Phoenix airport (hence no pictures, too much hassle to pull everything out of my carry-on). I'm heading to my parent's house for a week and a half because my brother is getting married on the 21st. And I'm not traveling alone, either. Westley is laying very calmly in his carrier next to me on the airport seats. He's done marvelously today in the car and on the plane. He was such a good boy going through security, too. Just sat in my arms and watched what was going on around us. I'm a little worried that he might be getting dehydrated (I gave him wet food last night and this morning to boost his moisture intake in preparation). I've tried to give him water but he's not having it. I'm betting he'll sleep good tonight. I'm hoping he'll sleep good tonight, because I'd like to sleep good tonight, and the two are directly related.

Well, I just checked and my flight is delayed by about 25 minutes. I guess I'll pull out Percy and get some more work done when my ears aren't popping and I'm not being elbowed by a too close seat neighbor.

Ruminations

It's 6:19 am central standard time, and I'm sitting here in the Austin airport, waiting for my 7:05 am flight. I arrived in sunny central Texas on the 16th, and have been enjoying the weather (ok, not the wind so much) and the sun. I meant to post earlier, but, well, things just got away from me.

On the 16th (a Wednesday) I sat in a much different airport, nearly as early in the morning, knitting away (the caffeine had kicked in, I'm still waiting for this morning's tea). By the time they called for boarding, I'd gotten this far:

That is a good start to Traveling Woman by Feministy.com. The yarn is Sunshine Yarn Luxury Sport in "maroon bells" that I got as part of a swap with the NCIS Knitters group on Ravelry. By the time I landed for my 3 hour layover in Pheonix, it looked like this:

That is the completed stocking stitch portion of the shawl. YAY!!! However, by this time I was a little brain fuzzy from having been up since 3:30 am and flying all morning (which always makes me extra fuzzy). That's as far as the knitting got for the day. On my second flight I read Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs, and at one point I tried to sleep (which didn't work).

I had a busy time once I got into Austin, and my knitting time decreased so that I didn't finish my shawl until the 22nd. I've worn it every day since. I love it. It's soft. It's smooshy. It's warm. It's maroon. Basically, it's knitting perfection.

It needs to be reblocked, and I'm going to steam the ever loving life out of it to see if it will help hold the block. Regardless, I love it. I modified it sligtly due to a smaller yardage of my yarn than what was called for. I used 250 yards of sport weight instead of 385 yards of fingering, so instead of starting the lace section with 11 repeats, I started with 9. I also used US 5 needles instead of US 6 needles because I like my 5s better. It makes it a little smaller overall, but I'm not known for being a big person so it fits me perfectly.

After this I ended up doing some impromptu last minute Christmas knitting at the request of my mom. She saw my Sand Dollar Hat and loved it, so she bought some Patons Silk Bamboo in Sapphire and I knit her up one of her own. I finished and blocked it yesterday, and neglected to take pictures of the finished product.

In addition to being busy, I was also distracted from my knitting by this:


This is Girlie, by parent's 18 year old blind cat. Everything she does is cute beyond all reason. She slept with me almost every night. She sought me out when she wasn't asleep. I doted on her. I miss her already.

Ok, they just called the start of boarding. I've got a short wait, I didn't log on to get my boarding pass in time (even though I was awake, cleaning up after Girlie who'd had an upset tummy).