Little Wit Knits – Unplugged

I woke up at oh-dark-hundred this morning and managed to roll myself into the boy’s truck. From there he drove me to the airport where I had the pleasure of being randomly frisked. Good morning, you’re half awake, let me pat you down. I was in a foul mood for the next 15 min or so until I got over myself. I did however have the pleasure of a direct flight that lasted somewhere around 2.5 hrs. Which meant I also had the pleasure of an in flight movie. Today’s movie was Julie + Julia. I rather liked it and can I say that I love Meryl Streep? She does an excellent interpretation of Julia Child. I have also seen her exhibit at the Smithsonian, it’s very cool. If you have the chance, get over there and check it out. Watching the movie really makes me want to get into the kitchen and cook up something fun. The boy and I will have to discuss this in more depth once I return home.

The jet travel also lent some great knitting time. I am on row 6 of Chart D of my Ishbel shawl. 3 more rows and then the bind off. Maybe if I got off this silly computer I could get it finished during this trip. Once I landed in Denver I hung out for a bit waiting on my colleagues to arrive then we were off to work. I am looking forward to working on this project again and it’s always nice to get out of the house periodically and see my colleagues in person. Alright off to work on Ishbel a bit before I fall asleep. G’night.

The boy and I drove to VA this weekend. We were off to visit his uncle who is in the hospital, rehabilitating from an aneurysm and a minor stroke. It was great to see him and he’s doing amazingly well all things considered. We also got to hang out with his cousins for a little while. I even let them talk me into going off roading. Holy cow. It’s a bit unnerving when the whole vehicle kind of rocks and you’re near a little cliff and it can’t get a good “footing”. Fortunately, we made it out alive so all is well.

After hanging with his cousins we drove closer in to DC to visit my friend who is working up there on a TDY from her TDY. Ahh government jobs, they always keep ya on your toes. We had a good visit and she took us out to eat to celebrate our engagement. The boy spent a lot of time playing with her cat by getting the cat to chase a laser around the hotel room. It was rather fun to watch. Sunday we moseyed into town and I finally got to go see the wonder that is G Street Fabrics. For those of you local to the c-bus, it’s a fabric shop that is probably bigger than the old Lazarus basement. I was a bit stunned at all the selection. I wish we had such a shop closer to home. Alas, the only project I knew the exact quantities of fabric I needed, they did not have the fabric I needed so I left without buying anything. But I did take a picture.

Then we headed into Alexandria where I went to Knit Happens and snatched up some Yarn Love – Charlotte Bronte Worsted. I have been wanting to try their yarns for awhile and I finally had a chance to see them in person before buying. I also snatched up a lovely little shawl pin to use with the shawl I was working on during the road trip. (More on the shawl later) All in all it was a good visit and I was happy to make it home and fold myself into bed.

So I came home from Germany to find the last bit of my yarn from Maryland Sheep and Wool had arrived. Perhaps y’all would like to see some pictures of what I managed to score?

I headed over to the Tilli Tomas booth to find yarn to make Sahara as well as the pattern. They didn’t have the worsted weight silk there but they did have the DK Plie. Unfortunately they were out of Atmosphere which is the colorway of the worsted sequined silk that I got last year. Fortunately Tracy is awesome and shipped some to my house. That would be the yarn that showed up while I was in Germany. Now that I have all the pieces I s’pose I should get around to knitting it eh? Oh and I also bought some Beaded Plie because I felt like it and it was pretty. Any ideas what to make with 120 yds of DK beaded silk?

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="230" caption="Plie by Tilli Tomas"][/caption]
At the Autumn House Farm booth I found some lovely deep plum Highland Heathers yarn. I snagged enough to make a sweater for myself.

At The Fold’s booth I snagged some mill ends in enough yarn to make either Featherweight or Whisper Cardigan.

On Sunday as we were preparing to leave I found this fabulous light brown alpaca roving at the Zeilinger Wool Co booth. Considering how much the boy loves him some alpaca I decided to buy a pound of it. We shall see how long it takes me to actually get around to spinning it.

Oh one other cool thing I got at MDSW was this gift of Wollmeise yarn from Kim.

The final thing, or rather the first thing I bought but don’t have pictures of still is a 4.75 lb Rambouillet fleece in jet black. Lord only knows how long that will keep me entertained

One of the best things you could ever hope for on a business trip happened today. We finished all of our work, early. That’s right, EARLY. That never happens. We’re usually working late on the last day trying to squeeze things in. When we’re stateside we’ve been known to race to the airport to catch our flight. But no, this has been one of the best business trips ever. AND we finished our work. Since we finished our work early enough we were able to pop back into town. I was able to get over to the wool shop and pick up five sets of needles. I think I have finally filled in all the gaps in my Addis collection so life is grand for me. Then, just because we could and because we had another 30 minutes or so on the parking meter my colleague and I decided to walk to Switzerland. For the uninformed, Konstanz sits on the Swiss border. So we walked across the locals’ border and hunted for a welcome to Switzerland sign to take our pictures next to. Alas, the best we could do was a sign for the town name.

I may even be a little sad to go home tom’w. I really have had such a splendid time on this trip!

Today is one of our German colleagues birthday. So after work we met up with her, her husband and some of her friends (many of whom I have met before). It was a grand time with lots of chattering. I was feeling super chatty at the beginning of the meal. We met at an Irish Pub and it was Bingo! night no less. Alas, I didn’t win at Bingo! but I came very close to being a come back kid. Anywho, here’s a nice photo of the birthday girl.

Oh and here’s a shot of the pub.