In spite of having absolutely no packing done, my house in total disarray, only three rooms having been vacuumed, my husband dragging everything out of the 21 cubic foot freezer and putting almost the entire summer’s worth of work food out onto the snow covered back yard in order to defrost it (better him than me)  and my extreme tensive state… I went to Sue’s to learn from Norma (different Norma) how to make a basket.  Well, sheEE.. IT!  I had fun.  I was working at nearly sonic speed, and my memory retention was set to the furthest off position.  But, I had fun.  It’s NOT finished, no ones is.  That’s for the ‘next’ time.  Sure hope I’m there for it.

  like a bunch of standing rib roasts

  Cindy showing off her expertise in tool management..

Then, I came home to try and guess what temps the weather would be for the next 16 days and tried to find something that didn’t look completely ridiculous with all that weight gone.  If the weathermen of the world can’t guess it, how can we?  There’s a whole wardrobe difference between low 70S and mid 80S.  I go from comfortable to roast.  Fun’s fun.. and decisions??
Second in preparation, I decided to sit down and chart out the back of the Must Have Sweater in Excel. Spreed sheets are handy to use as checklists, especially when you are on the go.  It’s been printed and saved.  In geeky fashion, I’m considering copying it to a memory stick.  The chart for the Flower Basket Shawl has been laminated.  This technique stiffens, waterproofs, and generally makes it easier to prop it up or stick it in the seat back in front of you on a plane.  As my friend Paula says, "Knittin… it ain’t just fer grandmas no more".  If you haven’t ever checked her out, you should.  I mean, you really should.  Click here.  Paula is a marvelous knitter, so look at her knitting gallery and then make sure you check out her latest hats and scarf patterns on her blog.

I stayed up way later than I should have, wanting to get the first repeat of the lower flower basket finished and change over to a larger needle. I thought I was on a roll and went on tho the second repeat.  Nope, I’ve frogged that row 4 times already.  I have the right amount of stitches when I end row 10, but can’t make it work with row 1 and it’s repeat.  Don’t know why.  After the third try I went to the computer to check for errata.  Finding none, I sent out email to bloggers that have recently said they’d finished one.  I headed for bed, thinking I’d surely find my mistake if I recounted and started fresh in the morning. Fresh is NOT a great description of me in the morning.  With my second cup of the morning elixir I began.  Fourth try… one stitch extra before the center stitch.  Counts all match.  Frogged again.  Time for another cup and and the LAST, please let it be, load of laundry.  It won’t be, the suitcases aren’t packed.   Clothes are just stacked in piles waiting.  Changes will be made.  Laundry will be needed.
I’ll post when I can.  At the present time, the apartment my SIL rented for C’s Mom, did not have a phone.. no dial up., no cable.  I will have a laptop, business needs, though blogging may take advantage, if, IF, I take it to a wi fi setup. 
And, my thanks to Beth, for putting all this together and emailing me with the local SnB locations and times.  Isn’t the virtual world wonderful? 

Will sending posts from my cell work…

On the trip to Portland a couple weeks ago, we stopped at the Coldwater Creek Outlet store.  I bought a cute little dusty lavander tencel jacket, sort of a denim jacket cut.  I had hung it in the laundry thinking I’d wash it once before taking it south.  When I dumped the laundry bags out on the floor, I saw it.  And, I saw that it went perfectly with the purplely /olive brown singles that I had just dyed.  I need to accessorize!  It’s time to make the Flower Basket Shawl.  It’ll look great slung over the jacket, and purple is up there on my favorite list.  It meets all the criteria for a travel project.  My sister spent half her morning scanning and emailing the directions, one page at a time, first by fuzzy fax, then directly to email and my printer.  My copy, was (you can guess) in VT, probably next to my desk, in the great black hole that swallows up everything I want to find, right before I think of using it.  Now, I have two projects lined up.. both shawls.

   Cause

   Effect

too bad that neither picture has true color.. it’s SO frustrating!  Picture dusty lilac, soft pink and khaki, maybe that’ll help.  Have a great weekend.