Return Trip

Wow, it's good to be home. As much as I like to travel, I guess it's a sign that I'm getting older that by the end of a trip, I cannot wait to walk through my door, kiss my sweetie, soak in a tub and pour myself a glass of wine. Sleep on my fancy sheets and wake up the next morning to have coffee, read the paper and knit a bit. I've become quite a little creature of habit.

I enjoyed myself this turkey day, even if I did put more than 1700 miles on the rental car in 6 days. Yikes! And the state of Kansas never gets less boring to drive across, though I did manage to do the 500-mile return trip with only one stop--a new personal record.

And along the way, I handed out some knitting--Christmas came early! My grandfather, still in the hospital after massive heart surgery, fondled the basketweave scarf and said he couldn't wait to be back on his daily walk to put it to use. (All the while he's saying this, his feet are shuffling under his chair... he couldn't sit still. It was the cutest form of stir-crazy I've seen in a while.)

In other recipients... my brother-in-law seemed to like his Marsan Watchcap, in Onyx Lamb's Pride worsted. Wow, that seemed to go quickly, after the teeny tiny sock needles. My sister giggled and giggled at her tasseled fat hat. My best friend loved her Shedir (and refused to believe I didn't buy it!). And one aunt was the happy recipient of the chevron scarf. Another aunt wore the finished socks to turkey day:

I finished them two days before delivery. How's that for meeting deadlines! This photo isn't the greatest, since the sun goes down about 4 p.m. in Denver, but I think it does show the way that the color in the Lorna's Laces Ravenswood is mostly a smattering, with no severe pooling. They also match as much as could reasonably be expected, so that was good.

And I managed to get in some yarn shopping, with Stacey and Anne (and Stacey's mom!):

It was a cute little shop, Recycled Lamb, and I had fun poking around at everything. I actually handled myself with quite a bit of restraint. I bought some of the pink roving (see Stacey's blog for pics; she bought the rest of it!) to make thrummed mittens, one skein of Lamb's Pride to make another Marsan Watchcap, and then 8 oz. of some gorgeous dark brown alpaca to make a boyfriend scarf. (Alpaca was seriously cheap at just $3/oz! I had to stock up.)

And, I finally got a picture of a long-overdue FO: The Kittyville hat from Stitch N Bitch, which I made for my superhip cousin last winter, but never got around to snapping a picture of. I made her wear it to dinner one night. It's in the most god-awful 100% acrylic, sportweight, so I doubled it. Luckily, it seems to be wearing pretty well. I mean, how cute is Bree:

(and click here to see a second view). That hat, I have to say, was a blast to make. In wool, I bet it would be positively divine. Pompoms! Ears! Earflaps! What's not to love?