7/30/2005
Well, mom’s 50th birthday was yesterday. Dad was baling hay so my sister, mom and myself went to St. Cloud and had lunch at Red Lobster (somewhat disappointing, but still a treat) and did a bit of shopping. Then, the real fun was today,
Mom was kind of pissed at dad for yesterday as my uncle always takes days off for people’s birthday, but dad always thinks he is invaluable if any small thing is going on. But, he made up for it, LOL! My sister lied and said she had to work at the portrait studio today, which would normally be 9:30-5pm. I said I wasn’t feeling good after the long car ride and all the shopping yesterday and needed to go into g’ma B’s for a treatment on the nebulizer and soak in the tub but that I also needed to take a muscle relaxer so I couldn’t drive myself in. So, we planned with dad that he’d come in at 12:30pm and get me from g’ma and g’pa’s and we’d do lunch. So, g’ma fibbed and told mom she had a present she forgot to give her yesterday to get her to come into the house. Mom totally didn’t pick up on anything. We kept thinking she’d comment about the food smells - asking g’ma what she had made for lunch etc. But she didn’t so Amber said “Happy Birthday!” Then mom just about died, LOL!
We grilled chicken seasoned with lemon pepper and had all kinds of yumy garden vegetables with it - kolrobi, rutabaga, swiss chard, baked potatoes, coleslaw (cabbage, peppers, onions and cucumbers - a little twist, but really good), and fried zucchini. Yumm! I dished up all the veggies and didn’t even have room for chicken on my plate. I think I could have skipped it all together except that my sister is a seasoning master (I’m not bad myself, but it’s a treat to have her seasoning). Then grandma made Rhubarb dessert and our neighbor was going to show my sister how to make sour cream rasin bars (think the pie, but with a sort of oatmeal cookie crumble on top instead). However, her sister is just moving back to MN from Calafornia so she just went ahead and made a batch for us.
It was definitely easier to pull the wool over mom’s eyes since my sister and I could read each other’s lips and pass notes without mom being any the wiser. Though I have to give props to my aunt Renae who talked to her on the phone last night for nearly an hour making it even easier to plan and let dad in on his role.
We did have a few worrisome moments. For example, last night I supermanned in my bedroom. I have to keep my bedroom door open so the AC in my room can get to my sister’s room but I can’t let her cat in there so we have two baby gates set up in my door. Well, when I’m going back and forth (such as getting ready for bed) I leave the bottom one up. I was coming into my bedroom to put on my PJs before brushing my teeth and such and my foot caught on the baby gate that was in place and then caught the other baby gate that was leaning against my door and I totally went airborne. I caught my head on the corner of the bed, tried to catch myself with my arms so bruised both wrist and actually hit the floor first with my knees. So I’m pretty banged up and not feeling too well. Dad had taken some Tylenol PM about 30 minutes before this all happened so he came to see if I was okay. I couldn’t get up but I wasn’t bleeding so he went back to bed. Mom had to harness Gaston up and go to the barn to get ice packs (picture will be forthcoming from my sister’s camera - it was super funny). Well, mom luckily got the ice packs and was in the house just before my sister got home from picking up the bars from our neighbor which were to be stored in the freezer in the barn. Then this morning mom just about beat us out to the barn to put the ice packs away before we got the bars out. She totally would have found them if someone wasn’t smiling down on us.
What was funniest was my sister totally put on her drama queen hat and was complaining to mom about how there was no way I’d be ready to go in 45 minutes and that I had better not maker her late for work etc. etc. Then, 5 minutes before we’d need to leave for her to make work she bitched me out and told me I needed to get a move on because if I wasn’t ready she was going to leave me behind and I wouldn’t get a nebulizer treatment or a soak in the tub, LOL! Mom still randomly cracks up when she things about that great bit of acting she did. It really was too funny!
But, it all worked!
I travel most of the day on Monday. Mom and I will come into town on Monday morning and mail my box of stuff out and perhaps stop off here at Northern Grounds so I don’t come home to lots of work to do and then we’ll be off into the cities and to the airport. I’ll get to Ft. Collins about 10:30 pm that night. So, I might have a post on Monday morning or it might be later. I do have my first Flatiron Clog sock completed and a small start on #2 to show you when I return.
7/26/2005
On Saturday we had tickets to the matinee of Little Shop of Horrors at the Orpheum theater in downtown Minneapolis. Not too far away was a shop I had seen advertised in Spin-Off called Creative Fibers. So, we headed out a little early (which was a *very* good thing as we stayed mostly ahead of some really severe thunderstorms) and visited this shop.
I had chosen two fibers for spinning and was looking at the sock yarns while mom was getting help picking out some economy yarn for a baby blanket. She was done and was checking out and to my surprise dad not only bought mom’s yarn and new circular needles (I’m trying to convert her as I think she’ll have less trouble with dropping stitches if she uses circs and grandma’s eyesight isn’t well enough to pick up her stitches anymore if she drops some, but she knits Scottish with a needle resting on her thigh) but he bought the two fibers I had picked out. Mom accused him of paying me to come visit and he said it was for driving mom around and helping with getting groceries and cooking while I’m home…
Anyway, I picked out this Color Me Woop Top in “Earthy.” There is no indication of the wool type. I suspect it is probably a blend of some sort. It is 8 oz and the colors are right up my alley for fall weather which I know will be on it’s way before I know it, despite the 110+ degree temperatures in Colorado last week.
Then, they had a luscious blend of 70/20/10 Merino/Silk/Angora that I couldn’t resist. I got 4 oz thinking I’ll perhaps make a scarf from it. It feels wonderful against the skin! *drool.* Of course I think I will fall prey to letting it age until I feel I can do it justice though… But, then again perhaps not. I think it might work quite nicely on my new Cascade spindle…
I really wish there was some way to show you how soft this is!
Then, I bought myself some yarn. For more socks, of course…
I love the colors of these. It’ll be a bit more of a departure from my wardrobe, but won’t require me to buy new clothes to wear with it. Despite the difference both balls have matching dye lots. I’m suspecting one was wound in the other direction, so I’m probably going to want to ball these again on my ball winder whenever I’m ready to knit them.
Then, because of the novelty and the fact that this is a luxury yarn and dyed right in St. Paul, I had to buy these…
The colors remind me of the MN river valley in the fall. The fiber is Chineese Camel (and it’s softer as heck). It comes from Silk Road Northwoods in St. Paul. It was $14.00 per 170 yd skein *gulp* but I was really hoping to find something that I could not readily get at home in Colorado and this was just the ticket. 170 yds will be a bit scant for socks, though it is more of a sport weight. But, I think I should be able to still get a 5 inch cuff or so as long as I don’t use a highly textured stitch. It will probably be the perfect time to make my first toe-up socks :-) But this is the ultimate in souvenier yarn purchases :-)
Now that my sister is home, thus ends the fiber shopping. She would not enjoy driving around the countryside going to yarn and spinning shops, LOL! That’s why we squeezed it all into my first week home. That still leaves several shops to check out in the metro on my next visit home.
I’m also very excited to get mom knitting again. It means when she comes and visits (we’re giving her free airfare to CO at the time of her choice for her 50th birthday - ssshhhhhh) she can come to Stitch ‘n Bitch and meet all the people I’m talking about all the time, LOL!
I probably won’t be writing much more this last week since there will be no shopping. Though I should be finishing my first Flatiron Clog sock soon. I ran out of yarn and am about 2/3 of the way to the toe shaping. I’ll want to have a decent start on the second sock before (whether it is a new Socka sock or the mate to Flatiron) I fly home. I hate trying to start a sock on the airplane or in a movie vehicle of any kind.
All you SnB gals, I’m missing you! We really need to get together that first week of August so I don’t go through full withdrawl symptoms :-)
7/25/2005
On Friday mom and I ventured up to New London, MN to go to Uniquely Knit. It’s right in the heart of downtown and is a nice little shop. She had a huge selection of Cascade, Lopi and Brown Sheep and a lot of novelty stuff. The sock yarn selection was kind of sparse, but this is a very small town and the shop is quite small in space so I’m not surprised. But she had shelves from floor to ceiling. They had no spinning stuff, though I expected that from the location and name of the shop. I still made a few purchases…
I of course had to buy some sock yarn from Minnesota so I’d have socks to remind me of the trip. I don’t see Socka around in our area shops at home. I think Lambspun might carry it, but I try not to go there if I can help it. So, I picked this up in the nice dusty greens, blues and neutrals. It has a touch of flash that may or may not be evident from the photo. I think these will fit into my wardrobe seamlessly!
Then, I’ve loved the Lucy Bag since I first saw a photo a loooooong time ago, but I hadn’t noticed this pattern at the shop I mostly frequent back home. So I bought the pattern and the yarn needed to make the largest version…
The yarn is a heathered purple so it has a lot of depth and I think will look really great when felted.
My mom also bought two skeins of Lopi and a coordinating eyelash yarn and a felted bag pattern for our neightbor’s youngest (and best friend of my sister). She’s a relatively new knitter but really enjoys knitting bags and mom fell in love with this bag that was on display and decided to get her the main supplies. It will be up to her to get the proper needles, but I suspect by the purse she was carrying when we gave her the gift that she may have them in her inventory already. We also gave her info on where to see the sample and the shop owner (whom we discovered my mom used to visit with when my dad used to play in raquetball tournaments well after we left the shop) said she’d be more than willing to help her should she need some assitance.
So, that concluded the fibery goodness on Friday.
