In Knitting News

Nell Sweater
I started sewing on the right hand button band and, as I feared, the hole started shifting up on me and are going to be out of line. I decided the best course of action would be to sew on the buttons so it would have something to aim for, but as I was laying the sweater out on the couch in preparation, a thunderstorm started.
The pups have developed a thunderstorm phobia in the last month or two. I wasn't home when it started, but Hubby had reported there was a storm and a massive clap of thunder that seemed centered over the house, which made the house shake. At the time, Hubby said it was so bad he was sure the house had been struck by lightening or a tree had fallen on it (neither occurred). When it happened the pups high-tailed it to their Fort (i.e., under our bed). They have been a bit nervous during storms ever since. Which is a shame. I was always so happy they weren't those types of dogs, and it made their lives better too. Now we are just trying to act normal during storms and hopping they shake it off.
Anyway. When the storm hit, Baru decided the safest place was in the Puppy Fort. Samson decided the safest place was as close to me as it was physically possible to get. So he curled up in a tight little ball on my sweater and wouldn't budge.
And really, you can't be upset with your beloved puppy in a situation like that, so I rescued the US2 dpn and moved on to working on my

Arrgyle Socks
The heel flap has been knit and turned. I decided to go with the heel stitch with a garter stitch edge like I learned in Charlene Schurch's class. I did the flap and turn in pink and intend to do the gusset and bottom of the foot in purple. I hope I have enough purple for both pairs because it's the main color for the socks. I sewed up the back of the leg, finally (when Samson had my sweater trapped). It went rather quickly (which is good considering it's just a sock) and I do enjoy watching stitches suck together when mattress stitch is tightened. I sewed with purple, be cause I'm bad. The back of the leg, where the seam is, is a purple cuff, a pink diamond, a green diamond and half a pink diamond. So I suppose I should have sewn with pink. I tried the sock on when I was done sewing and as far as I can tell the purple doesn't show through. And I think it might be a "no one should be that close to my sock" situation. I think I might sew the gusset gaps sooner rather than later as I'm working the sole of the foot so I can get a better idea of how long to work the instep pattern.

Stealth Knitting
On Saturday night I received the pattern for Pam's sock for the Knitting Central Sock Club. She gave me the yarn the other weekend when we were working together. I won't say anything more than that it's all very cool. How's that for a tease?

Going Dark
I'm leaving for Las Vegas in the morning. We have a 7:30 flight, so we'll be leaving the house at an ungodly hour. Don't be surprised if you don't hear from me for a while (which will be different from...?) because, of course, I don't have a laptop. I'm fairly certain there will be free email stations like at the conference in Philly, but this show is much, much bigger, so the stations will be much busier and I doubt I'll have time to hang out at them and blog. I could try to swipe Boss Man's or Mr. R's laptop, but they would probably expect me to make an official company post as well. Still you never know what might happen. It is Vegas after all.
Project wise, I'm taking the test knitting, obviously (I'm still at the swatching phase like a good knitter), and my Arrgyle Socks. I'm flying home Friday. So I'll be home in time for the start of Summer of Socks 08! I think my first sock will be my Alchemy Girlfriend Socks, which I lusted after for ages before buying and I think the furthest I got was swatching. They are the project my US2 dpns were in when one broke.

Ok, I think that will have to be in for now. Lunchtime is over!

Home again, Home again

I've actually been home since Monday night. I have a 5 pm train out of Philly. I take back what I said about it being a civilized way to travel. The train randomly stopped on the tracks out of Penn Station and south of New Rochelle. With no explanation offered. Well, after we'd been sitting there a while, a guy came on the loudspeaker and said something obscure about letting another train go east before we continued north. Anyway, we were supposed to get back to my desired station at 8:19 and didn't get in until 9, which made for a late night.
I took some time to read the plaque explaining the sculpture in the freaky big room at the convention center. (You probably can't read that.) It was all about how the rail shapes of the sculpture (it did remind me of a roller coaster) was meant to honor the original use of Reading Terminal as a train station. And there was stuff about glass forms that represented various constellations. So I found Orion, which is my favorite constellation because I can always find it in the sky. I actually think the dippers are a little tricky. So I suppose I developed more of an appreciation for what was going on. However, my mom and brother had the same reaction to the room and the stuff hanging from the ceiling that I did, so I'm glad to know I'm not alone in my "what the heck?" reaction.
Speaking of them, we had a nice visit. The food at the Hard Rock was fine. There was a bit of shocking moment when the music stopped and this guy started yelling for everyone's attention. But it turned out to just be the birthday for the 8 year old boy at the next table--so everyone in the restaurant yelled "happy birthday" and we got back to our meal.
Oh, and remember that wine the other night? Yeah, well, as I was carrying it back to my room I spilled some on my superhero sweater. Aaarrgh! I rinsed it with cold water as soon as I got in the room, so I think it survived. I think I'll wash it in the normal manner before I start busting out the Wine Out or other extreme measures.
As for knitting. I moved along on the Arrrgyle Socks much faster than I expected. What with how fiddly they are and on US1 needles and all. But I suppose this is the third time I've attempted them (kept calculating an incorrect number of stitches to cast on. Yeah, is was fun creating the chart in excel 3 times, why do you ask?) so I guess I've got the hand of it. When I hit the eyes I took a moment to count--17 bobbins in play. No wonder they kept getting tangled. It wasn't so bad. I actually made it passed the nose and was trying to figure out how to manipulate the yarn for the mouth when I stopped working on them.
I went to a number of sessions on the first floor of the convention center on Monday. As soon as I came down the escalator I was greeted by this:
Which got another "what in the world" reaction from me. Can you tell I'm not into the modern art so much? In case you can't make it out, I took a close up. Yeah, bowls and cups and little Chinese restaurant spoons. They are all stacked under an set of escalators and there are numerous "do not touch" signs around it. Which of course made me want to touch it, but I didn't.
At least the sessions made more sense than the art.
I finished the lettering for "ravelry" on my bag on the train ride home. So I can safely say it took about 7 hours. Wheeee. No picture because I haven't taken one, and don't you think this post has enough pictures as it is? I got the "a" in my ID done last night while I was watching "Enchanted". It's a Disney movie about a cartoon princess who is sent to NY City but retains her bubbly personality. It was so preposterous it was good. But then I looked down and realized I had managed to mess the "a" up. Rather than dealing with it, I went to bed. Tonight I yanked it out, and rather than redoing it, I came up to drop all my pictures into my posts.
Well, the bag was looking good.
I guess that's about it for now. I'm sure there was other stuff I was going to tell you about my trip, but it escapes me at the moment. Maybe I'll go work on that "a" now, maybe I'll clean the kitchen. Or maybe I'll just flop into bed.

Philly: Day 2

The lunch break is running from 11 to 2:45, which is pretty darn nice. And also means no demand for the email stations again. hehehe.
I hit Reading Terminal Market again, this time I got a salmon and goat cheese frittata with a little field green salad--and a chocolate cupcake. Chocolate frosting this time.
The mint one last night was very yummy, obviously since I went back. The cake was just the right consistency and the icing was very subtly mint flavored. I'd been concerned it would be cloying. I'm going to have to make time to go back tomorrow and get some to take home to Hubby. I think I can manage not to squish them, or at least I hope so.
I hit two sessions in the morning, which were informative, but I still managed to get the heel flap on the CPS knit. I was lounging in my room, but didn't trust the numbers I had for turning the heel so I came questing for the computers to check the "Heels by the numbers" website, which is really very handy to know about. Anyway, my numbers were indeed funky, well they might have worked but not for the heel I really prefer.
Since I was over here anyway, and housekeeping hadn't been to my room yet, I did a quick sweep of the show floor and then hit the press room to refill my water bottle. Usually I quest for free bottles of water, but I'm not seeing any--making refilling the one I bought this morning the way to go.
Mom called this morning and we decided on the Hard Rock Cafe across the street for dinner. I hope I don't have to make reservations. Well, there is a convention in town, but it looks like there are plenty of social events that should keep the crowds occupied.
Did I mention I'm on the 20th floor of the hotel? It's freaky high. I can't see Ben Franklin from my room, but I can from the windows right when you get off the elevators. You can see the asparagus buildings too.
And the convention center has this freaky big room with marble floors and some weird sculpture handing from the ceiling that you have to walk through on the way from the hotel to the session area. I took a picture of it, but with out a fish eye lens I don't think you get the impact. I could see a wedding reception being held there. It makes me wish I had clicky shoes on so I could make lots and lots of noise when I walk through.
Speaking of shoes, in a moment of insanity I brought my little blue flats that aren't good for walking. When I was back in my room for lunch I switched to my brown Timberlands, not perfect with stockings, but better. Even though it looks funky.
Ok, it's almost 12:45, hopefully housekeeping has been by. I want to flop. If I'm quick I might be able to get the heel turned and the gussets picked up before I have to come back. I didn't plan the stealth knitting very well this trip.
By the way, can someone tell my stupid head that a convention is not the time or place for a headache? I'm actually holding up rather well. I popped two Exedrine... at 5:30 when I woke up, but I'm finding the dark spots to sit in the rooms. Which is another reason I want to relax a bit.
Right, off to make use of my hotel room!

Dateline: Philadelphia

I'm at a convention in Philadelphia. (See I really do travel.)
There are women here in prom dresses. I'm running around in jeans and my superhero sweater. It's really quite strange. But I think they have some event tonight, so they aren't just dressed up for the fun of it.
Amy Tan was the keynote speaker tonight. She was really funny, which made me glad I came down tonight rather than rushing down in the morning.
The show floor opened after the keynote, there was food and drinks. Never saw that before, at least not on the floor. I've already collected some Tasty Cake chocolate cupcakes, a note pad, a flashlight (!) and numerous chocolates. And I turned in my ticket for a glass of wine. wheeee!
Now I'm going to head back to my hotel and flop.
I grew up about an hour south of Philly, so the idea of ever staying in a hotel here never crossed my mind. But here I am. I took the Amtrak down, such a civilized way to travel, and arrived at the hotel around 4. After registering for the hotel and the convention, I hit Reading Terminal Market, which is right across the street from the hotel. I think I was there once with mom when I was a teenager.
Man, you could get lost in there, and I don't think it's really that big. It's really cool, I wish we had something like that near us. I told Hubby I'd do my best to stick to our healthy eating regime while I was down here. In support of that I found a place making big salads and got their version of a chef salad, mixed green, prosciutto (sp?), grilled chicken and some veggies. Really, I think it's a bit protein heavy, if anything, although I did get a piece of foccaci (sp?) bread as well. I was starving, but the event that included the keynote started at 5, so I dumped it in my room and took off!
And as yummy as that sounds (I had a bit of chicken and it was very tasty), I also bought a mint chocolate chip cupcake from the Flying Monkey Bakery. $1.75 for a cupcake, it better be damn good. Luckily there is a Starbucks in the the lobby, so I'll be able to snag a cup of tea. There is tea in the room, but the choices are chamomile or Earl Grey, neither of which I'm in the mood for at the moment. Of course I still have to finish this wine....
I do have the camera with me, but no way to download the pictures. I don't have a laptop, I'm actually on the public computers at the convention. But as it's 8:45 at night, no one is in line. Still, I should wrap it up, I have a long day tomorrow. Sessions start at 8:45 am and my mom and brother are coming up for dinner tomorrow night.
But first, in knitting news, I finished the black detail on the ball on my Ravelry bag. Since hind sight is 20/20, I think I could have done the black by intarsia also. The lettering is moving along apace, as I suspected. I got "rav" done on the train down. During the keynote I worked on the large version of the Cat's Pajama's Socks. I finally made it past the first pattern round, sheesh, and can start the heel. Remember, I'm just doing an anklet to test the size. I also brought my arrgyle socks, which are at the point where the skull comes in.
I'm not sure I can work on any of this while I'm tipsy. Of course the wine will wear off once I get some food in me. And since the food is in my room, I really must go!