Family

Picnic dinner at our house with my extended family.

Ben and Bekky were visiting from Colorado, so it seemed like a good time for a get-together. 

Seems like a lot of people, but we were still missing a few grandkids.  

Mild Obsession

Driving to Colorado and back gave me plenty of time for listening to my iPod.

In depth.

I had never really listened to these lyrics.

This is my new absolutely favorite song.

Cloud Cult

Transistor Radio.

Where I've been
Where I am
Is the show.

College visits

Girl of the House and I spent the day visiting Hamline University and Macalester College in St. Paul

We've visited six colleges so far in her college hunt.  Her senior year is fast approaching.

It's Alive!

After it suffered through the never-ending winter in the house, the hibiscus is happy to be back outside.

Let's Do the Time Warp...

Awakened from a three hour nap in the back seat of my car, only to find I'd slipped into a uniquely Iowan dimension.

Do we really have to do winter again?

Headed home

On the way home, in the dark, in the rain. 

After eleven hours, it may just be time for a nap. 

Class Knitting

I drove to Colorado to stay with Ben and Bekky while I take a nursing informatics class in Boulder.

Yup, drove to Colorado to sit in a windowless conference room for 18 hours.

It was an excellent class, but my days of being attentive during extended lectures are long gone. I made it through half of the first day before I started to nod off.

   

However, I am able to be attentive (by which I mean stay awake) when my hands are busy.

  

This led to knitting.  

(Imagine that.)

Nice garter stitch knitting that doesn't require attention. 

I probably made more eye contact with the instructors than anyone else in the room.

3S Shawl in Knitting Fever's Painted Desert yarn.

Just enough yarn

Finished the yellow stripes on my Color Affection.

I was getting nervous, but I had just enough yellow.

Nebraska - High Point #2

Made it to the highest point in Nebraska!

Highpoint #1

First item checked off my bucket list.

The high point of Iowa!

It was a beautiful day for driving.

Worth getting up early

Last shot of sunshine on my early morning run, just before the rain started.

Luxe

In the mail today:  Gradiance Luxe yarn from the Unique Sheep to knit Now in a Minute.

6 lovely little skeins of hand dyed merino/silk yarn.

I had almost forgotten I ordered the yarn six weeks ago.

Father's Day

We spent Father's day at my nephew's house in Minneapolis.  

It was like herding cats to try to get a picture, but I finally snapped a couple.  Girl of the House, my Dad, my brother and my nephews.

Home computing

Diet Mt Dew spilled on Girl of the House's laptop.

Paul's in the middle of a resuscitation attempt.

YarnVenture!

Today I drove around SouthEastern Minnesota, yarn shop to yarn shop.  It was a beautiful sunny day for a drive and I hit five yarn shops, from Winona to Northfield.

It was YarnVenture!

Goodies!

I picked up a dandy new bag at Yarnology in Winona, and managed to fill it up throughout the day.  A skein of Sun Valley Merino fingering yarn from Hank and Purls in Rochester.  Luscious spinning fiber from BeeLighted in Zumbrota.  Nifty notions and another skein of fingering yarn from What in Yarnation in Cannon Falls.  A new pattern and yarn from Northfield Yarn.  Every shop had its own strengths, and it was fun to see the differences.  I really consider myself lucky to have Northfield Yarn as my local yarn shop  (I liked it the best of them all!)

And goodie bags at most of the shops, full of fun stuff!

My favorite goodie bag item?  The bright red knit sign, also from Yarnology.

If you're in Minnesota or Western Wisconsin, you can still take part in this event.  Second day is Saturday June 15.  You'll have a lot of fun!

Feeling very spoiled

Girl of the House made a beautiful meatloaf for supper tonight.  

What a treat!

As we (frequently) say at our house, "I'm a very spoiled girl".

Highpointing

Planning a trip for later this summer.  I'd like to hit the highest elevations in a couple of the states I'm going to travel through, so my planned route detours from the usual.

Highpointing info

More fun mail

It's been a good  week for the US mail at my house.

I received my copy of the first issue of Jacey Boggs' new PLY magazine, a magazine for hand spinners.  

I'm going to take my time to savor and fully evaluate this one.  It looks really useful at first glance.

And I like the sheep on the back cover!

Doing Monday Up Right

Number one way to improve a Monday:  Driving home in the sunshine (unusual around here lately) and coming in to a delicious supper being prepared by my husband.

Number two:  My yarn and pattern arrived from KnitCircus (and a freebie sample!)

Pixie Dust Fingering yarn in the color Andromeda.

Can you see the sparkles?

There's a knitalong for this Corrina shawl, and I'm in!

Blooming

I managed to get a run in today between the intermittent rain showers.

The wild phlox are blooming like crazy.

I don't need to plant flowers in my yard.  I just go visit them in the Carleton Arboretum.  The best part?  No weeding necessary.

Sailing on to Sleeve Island

Renewed interest in my Mondo Cable Pulli led to finishing the body

and sailing to Sleeve island.

Power on!

Mittens #11 in 2013

Soccer games that are an hour and a half from home offer plenty of simple knitting time in the car.  I actually got these finished.

Knitting these mittens reminded me that with my handspun, when I think I made a worsted weight, it's really a bulky yarn.   These are only 37 stitches around.

This is a great pattern for handspun, as you knit from the tip of the mitten and get a personalized fit.  Sizing on the fly, regardless of yarn weight.

Summer soccer?

55 degrees and a light mist. 

I'm wearing fingerless mitts and my down puffy. 

What perfect June weather for GotH's soccer game!???

Although the new mittens almost match my puffy!  

Mittens and shawls

Mittens and shawls

Mittens and shawls

I'm gonna get me some mittens and shawls.

Apparently I have no control.

Tip Down Mittens from my own yarn, spindlespun last summer and plied in January.

The Arb is greening up

Slightly over a month ago, the Carleton Arboretum looked like this:

It's getting greener now, but I'm waiting to see how the open hillside develops:

The way it looked before they cleaned out the old non-native growth:

Color Affection

I've been working on my Color Affection shawl during breaks at work.  I still have many short rows to knit before I'm finished.

It's all garter stitch and that makes for good knitting and reading.

Sunday Evening

With this weird weather lately, we haven't been outside to enjoy our Sunday evenings.

We really like being out all evening on the deck.

Halloween?

Clue 1 of the Through the Loops Mystery Shawl.

Maybe I should have chosen a blue as my lace color?

I've been working to expand my wardrobe color choices.  

Orange is definitely outside my usual selection.

Well, it is a mystery knit along.  I'll keep going.