The Best........and The Worst of It

Well the best of it is of course these three handsome boys! Jacob (on my lap) is not a photo guy as you can tell............. but he told me repeatedly "I'm just glad you came Mimi!", which of course covers up for any of his on camera stinkiness!

As always, by kids all over the globe, bunny ears are pretty dang fun. Jacob thinks that if you close your eyes they don't count. I miss them already and find that life is about 90% quieter and almost unbearably less exciting!

On the worst front that would be my travel knitting! I finished the lovely periwinkle toned shrug. The pattern was an internet freebie and it has given me great pause on the freebie front let me tell you! The shrug, while very cute and the yarn is delicious------- finished blocking and will fit an 8 year old. My daughter, for whom the gift was intended, is very svelte but not of 8 year old proportions. I'm cranky!!!!!!! The PROCESS was delightful, I'd use the yarn again in a minute, and of course the sheet knitlyness of it was everything knitting is all about. The PRODUCT sucked! So, those of you with a child in the 8 year old range------ let me know! My other shrug, with the fun novelty yarn is not finished but very close. I can't be sure but I think it is headed for the yarn extraction zone. I can't bear to find out that this one is outward bound! It would make a great hat and scarf I think------ and that may be the end of it. Harumph. The Lopi made it out of the zippy bag and the earflaps are done and I'm ready to cast on for the body of the hat, my youngest grandson will enjoy it I think!

That of course is me in the mitered square sweater! LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It looks actually quite great open, the upper fronts flop down nicely and give a sort of sweatery lapel look, very casual. Please ignore my neck, I beg of you! Is it not just THE WORST??????????? I think that when I was 60 pounds heavier my neck was at least not imitating a stupid turkey! I always thought I would age gracefully, I really did! I was apparently stupider than can be, stupid--- stupid---- stupid. Of course when I had the thought of sailing with a smile into my golden years (which by the way I have NOT arrived at!) I was younger----- with that taut nice skin and firm jawline that defies even the thought of age. Older and wiser is altogether crap if you ask me. I digress, forgive me. In this current time of neck warp, I am going on record right now to say that I am going to have a neck job done. Really, I'm not kidding! I hate my neck and if I have to knit the cheap stuff to pay for the neck then so be it.

I am of course lying to myself. There is no way I will knit the cheap crap, at least for any sustained time frame. But for the moment that little white lie to self is enough to make me investigate the possibilities. You know I tell all so count on the fact that I'll spill the details as they unfold. My hair looks pretty crappy too if the truth be told but I think you hardly notice. Really. It's my reality, I cling to it.

LOVE the back of this sweater! And only one flippy point----- ack!

My wrap up would be:

• Loved the process, the mitered squares were fun
• I'm expert + at picking up stitches
• I like Noro in principle but probably won't be in a hurry to knit with it again
• The sweater is a large, I was chicken to knit a medium. It SHOULD have been a medium but the whole weight loss thing has me not thinking in medium at all. Despite that, and because of the wrap aspect, it fits great.
• The shawl pin is from Ruby Vegas (rubyvegas.etsy.com) and is great. Simple, geometric and looks nice on the sweater. I do have to be careful with the whole seatbelt thing though!
• Nothing feels quite as nice as a sweater finished!

The grandkids were great, my daughters' were wonderful and the trip was a wonderful success. Too fast, but a fast trip is far better than none at all!

The travel knitting thing kind of makes me laugh! Because I used to live in Hawaii, traveling to the Mainland was another kettle of fish! My travel days were routinely 14+ hours, punctuated by a lot of airport layover knitting. I am used to being a travel project warrior and used to get a lot more done, just based on hours spent. Because my wait at the airport was under an hour and the trip itself was 2.5 hours------------- far less knitting happened than was packed. It's all good! The periwinkle shrug that will fit someone else's child was fun, the novelty yarn was interesting to knit because I never work with the stuff, the Lopi hat was begun and so only one ball of yarn actually saw no action outside of my suitcase.

The entire week flew by in a blur and when Friday came it was time to repack the suitcase and think about heading out. The nor'easter was winding up and the wind gusts were upwards of 40 m.p.h. A tailwind was confirmed once I boarded the flight bringing the flight time to an hour and 40 minutes. With only two podcasts listened to from the many loaded before I left and knitting and reading to do I knew I'd have to hunker in to enjoy the last blast of my getaway.

This was not to be.

Once boarded, I discovered that the entire section of seats around me were filled by women. Women coming home from a CONVENTION. Women, who apparently had no hobbies, did not read, and had nothing to DO in their seats but talk too dipdog much and drive me absolutely mad. I knew it was going to be one of those trips when the woman across the aisle and one seat forward approached her seat. She was a large woman, really large. I watched her put one butt cheek into her seat and wiggle and wriggle (not a pretty sight) until she had packed herself into the chair. She then very loudly announced to the entire plane that the seat was made so tiny that it did not have a regular sized seat belt but a teensy one and it would not fit around her. PUH-LEEZE----------------- the problem with the seat belt requiring an extension had very little to do with the size of the seat and much more with the size of the behind!!!! I can say that, I come from the larger behinded folks myself! The flight attendant was very kind when she approached and said that she would find her an extension. Personally, I don't think that she really needed one. If we did have a crash landing I was pretty sure that this woman would leave the accident site with that airline seat still crammed on her tush, just following right along like Mary's little lamb!

I reached into my travelers bag of tricks knowing that there were several ways to secure my privacy and enjoy the rest of my trip. I had dug into my totebag (the way cute one) and had my iPod around my neck so as we leveled off out of the climb, when I heard the ding-ding, I immediately popped the earbuds in and cranked up Socks in the City and prepared for a lovely, if not too fast, flight reveling in the happy aloneness that was mine all mine. After all, what is the universal meaning of an in flight iPod? Leave me alone, that's what it says, leave me alone go away........ shhhhhhh with you! The silence lasted about 30 seconds. First of all the endless chirping and chattering was so loud that I was unable to turn the sound up loud enough on Carrie! Can you get over that? So I tried Stash and Burn------ after all the girls are a bit rowdier than S.I.C. Nope............. almost impossible to hear. You know, my podcast listening is a near religious experience not to be sullied with! I switched to Bon Jovi------- which did almost cover up the irritating twittering. I pulled out my knitting. Then it happened.

TapTapTap. I am not kidding you. The woman across the aisle actually reached out and tapped me on the arm. Three times. I paused my iPod and smiled, ====== yes??????????? What am I knitting? I told her. IPod back on. I'd love to tell you that the tapping woman knocked it off but that would be lying. The tapping woman continued this behavior for the entire flight. She was apparently raised by wolves. Five minutes goes by and the woman in the seat next to me wants to have a conversation. Pause the iPod. Converse. This goes on for the better part of an hour. I'm nice, really I am. But what I really want is to be left alone. This is not going to happen. I did have a few moments of guilt thinking about Kelley Petkun's sweet way of traveling with extra yarn and needles to teach those interested folks along the way. I did not offer much in the way of knitting instruction. I did ask what part of town they lived in and directed them to the closest fabulous knit shop near them and urged them to take a class and fall in love with knitting. I even wrote down the name of the shop and the owner's name. I was achingly nice when I wanted to shove them out the windows. I only refrained because you can't go to your LYS from inside prison walls and I was also a little afraid that I'd be sucked out of the window with them and might have to spend eternity with them or something as my punishment.

When the woman in the seat next to me sneezed and I could see the sneeze----actually SEE it in the light of the cabin, that was pretty much it for me. I was ready to impale the broad right then an there with my Denise's! Unbelievable! I held my breath as long as I possibly could and hoped that no sneeze particles were making their way into new territory, me! I'd barely gotten over the fact that I was surrounded by sneeze-lets when she had to go to the loo. Gathering my needles and yarn, never an easy feat in an airplane----- I let her out. Unfortunately she returned in time to continue to bug the hell out of me for the remainder of the flight. She never mentioned my neck so I suppose I should give her some points or something!

I did manage to get ALMOST finished with "Drunk, Divorced & Covered in Cat Hair" and I have to tell you, it is light and bubbly, funny and fresh in that honest wonderful best friend kind of a way. Laurie------- I can't wait to have a glass of wine with you! Can we have two or five?

I've unpacked, picked up the extra ball of yarn from my LYS (Thanks Knitorious!), done 3 loads of laundry, and blocked the shrug for the 8 year old. Because the weather is getting ready to move past nippy right on to butt cold I've mowed the yard for hopefully the last time and gotten everything except the roses and the herbs put to bed with the leaves blown. I seem at odds and unable to sit and knit from the 'new stuff' so that means it must be time for the short rows on the leggings.

I'll be SO GLAD to get them done.............................