Happy Mother's Day

To everyone that gives love, care and attention to a child. Happy Mother's Day!

My Mother's day was fine. Didn't really get to spend the day as I'd hoped, but it wasn't anything horrid or tragic. Got text/phone calls from almost all of my guys. My youngest son Pete called this morning. He was on the way to his new girlfriend's parents house to meet them. And my "adopted" son sent me a quick text message. Bob and I have been "adopted" by a young man that we know.

But my idea was to spend the day in Salt Lake City just relaxing and finding something "touristy" to do. I even found two yarn shops that were open on Sun afternoon. Wrote out the directions and thought I was good to go. But by 10:30 we had eaten breakfast and checked out of the hotel. Bob was ready to move on. And the yarn shops didn't open until noon and nothing else to do for the next hour and a half. So we spent the day driving - currently in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Bet there isn't a yarn shop around here that would possibly be open before we leave in the morning!

The right tools

As we all know, using the right tools for the job make all the difference in the world. As part of my swap package to Reese, I made a small knitting project bag. And the darn drawstring gave me the hardest time. Well, I finally pulled out the right tool and in minutes the job was done!



The bag came out just the size I was hoping for and I plan on making plenty more of these. I did take a picture of the bag filled with the swap presents, but it came out horribly out of focus. So I leave you with just a teaser:

Ravelry tin swap

There is a group on ravelry that started because of altoids tins! There is actually an amazing amount of knitting (or any other) stuff that can fit into a tin of that size. So a spin-off group started to swap altoids tins and a few goodies to fit into the tin.

I recently participated in the second of these swaps. And in the questionnaire, I said I'd let my swap partner choose which size tin to send along to me.

Well, she went wild! I was amazingly spoiled and already have plans for the yarn she included. The tins she sent looked like:



And this is all the stuff she managed to put into the tins:



I plan on using the yarn for my next HP inspired afghan squares, the stitch markers are already in use. And see those scissors peeking out? Last summer all of my quilting stuff was stolen from my car. Including those same scissors - and they were a favorite. I am so very happy to have new ones! Thank you Reese!

Road trip knitting

While this is a picture of partial sock #1, both socks were finished while we travelled cross country. And I even started a top! FO pics to follow shortly....



I bought this yarn in a ravelry destash. The intention was to use the yarn for my sock yarn blanket. But then the bright cheery colors really grew on me and became socks. But I do have enough yarn leftover for more than one square for the blanket.

And Wyoming Sky!

Please note the date because I really did take this picture today. Although I'm now in Salt Lake City and there is even more snow in the surrounding mountains! I think SLC is one of the prettiest places to go. I just really wish I was I had a day off here during the week. Because even though there are a bunch of yarn shops, I don't think any of them are open after 8 pm or on Sundays. Blech.

Nebraska sky

It was awful!

The loading dock anyway. We had done the same show in NH the previous year, but I didn't have a clue what the loading area was like. The same weekend I was in NH, Bob was in Chicago. So I had a rental truck. It was supposed to be a 12' truck, but I ended up getting the 14'. Which partially meant that I was too tall to fit into the parking garage. On the plus side, I didn't have to pay for daily parking. On the seriously minus side, this is a picture of the loading dock:



I almost cried. See those steps? The only way I had to get my product into the show. Fortunately, there was a teenaged boy there working for tips. He was willing to hoist everything from the back of the truck up onto the loading dock. From there, I had a cart to move everything. It took us 30-45 minutes and was the best $20 I had spent in quite awhile.

And because I knew that Bob would never believe me, parking pictures:



Notice the gas cap in the above picture? Notice no gas cap in this picture? Proof I took pictures of both sides of the truck!