Long time, no blogging...

I know. It's been a while...

I had the best of intentions of blogging from Chicago last week (business trip). I planned a yarn crawl on Sunday and maybe a visit to The Fold on Tuesday. Schlepped my notebook on the plane, visited three yarn shops on Sunday--as planned. Took a whole bunch of pictures. Went to my meeting on Monday, then dinner Monday night. Just before the entrees came out I found out that my department was going to have another restructuring. There were going to be layoffs (not right away, but staggered over the next year). I still have a job. My staff still has their jobs. Most of the rest of the department is getting laid off. It all took me by surprise. I'm still a little stunned by it all, and sad--very, very sad--for those who will be leaving.

I've been working on my Chicago blog post for a week now, but I just can't seem to finish it. As much as I really don't want to talk about work in my blog, I think I needed to say all this before I could move on. So, I've got another two days in the office this week, Thanksgiving with my mother and younger sister, and then I'm off to Vermont for a few days to see Jim and work on the house. And a blog entry or two (or more). I'll have some yarn pictures for you. Really neat stuff I bought out in Chicago.

For now, I'll leave you with some sky pictures at 41,000 feet. The colors were so clear, so blue, with a fluffy white cloud carpet below us.

I've fallen off the yarn wagon

I was trying to be really good about not buying yarn. Really, I was. But the last few weeks have been stressful at work and, well, here's what I've done. The Internet just makes it too easy. Let's just call it Eye Crack Candy Friday!

Vesper Sock Yarn (Crew on top; Strange Little Mama on the bottom)

Socks That Rock (Saratoga lightweight on left, County Clare midweight on right)

A Piece of Vermont (Grandma's Attic)

And now, here's the haul from my Portsmouth weekend.

Clockwise from left: Inox needles, Seacoast Handpainted sock yarn in Spring Rain, 2 skeins of Araucania Nature Wool Chunky (#105), 2 balls of Debbie Bliss Baby Alpaca Silk, 2 skeins of Valley Yarns Stockbridge (#161834), Regia Surf sock yarn (#5417), and another skein of Seacoast Handpainted sock yarn in Fresh Air.

Well, at least all this wool will cushion the fall, you think?

Another F.O.

Yup. I've got another one...

It's Thuja! All done! Here are some stats for ya...

Pattern: Thuja from www.knitty.com
Yarn: Art Yarns Supermerino
(Color 130, 2 skeins plus a bit of a third skein for the toes),
purchased at Knitting Central
Needles: KnitPicks Options, size 5 (Magic Loop)
Started: September 16, 2006
Finished: November 8, 2006

I love these socks! The colors pool/striped differently on these, but at least the colors matched. Plus the pattern was easy and really a very quick knit. I think I'll be making more of these!

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I can't believe it's been over well over a week since I last posted. I've got all of last weekend to blog about! So here goes what hopefully will be the short version...

Friday
I took the day off from work to drive up to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Even rented a car so I wouldn't put gobs of miles on my poor Forester. The original plan was for me to drive straight up with a few stops along the way. After many conversations with Jim, the plan morphed into driving up to Vermont, pick up Jim, and then head over to Portmouth. There were still stops along the way.

Stop #1--Country Yarns in Wallingford, CT. Bigger place than I expected. Lots of yarn. I bought a skein of sock yarn (pictures tomorrow).

Stop #2--Fabric Place in Cromwell, CT. Sadly, their store closing sale is still going on. A decent amount of yarn left, but it was all pretty much frilly scarf stuff. I didn't buy anything here--it was just too depressing.

Stop #3--Webs. Yikes! I haven't been here in a while. They moved stuff. They added stuff. All the pretty fibery things distracted me. I lost track of time, and lost track of everything I was thinking I wanted to buy. Fiber overload, big time! Thankfully, I only walked out of there with a small purchase--eight balls/skeins for $37. Actually rather good for me.

Stop #4--Northampton Wool. A quick stop. Touched the yarns, bought some needles that Webs didn't have.

Proceeded to Vermont. Took a quick look at the house. Put Jim's stuff in the car and drove to Portsmouth. Checked into the hotel. Drank a glass of wine. Fell asleep.

Saturday
Went to our meeting (the whole reason for the trip to Portsmouth). Finished up early and got to go to The Yarn Basket. It's a tiny little shop, but it's pack with soooo much yarn! Jim barely tollerated my scoping out the yarn basically behaved while I browsed. I bought a skein of sock yarn. Then we left Portsmouth and stopped at the state liquor store on our way back home to Vermont. Once back in Vermont, we stopped for dinner and did a little grocery shopping.

Sunday
We had Jim's parents over for lunch, we did some work around the house, and I left around 5ish.

It was a really short weekend with lots of driving. Kind of tiring, actually. Sometime soon I really ought to give myself a quiet weekend to recharge. When might that be? Not this weekend. I'm heading out to Chicago on Sunday for business early next week. Oh well...

Time to call it a night. Tomorrow morning I'm taking a two socks on two circs class at The Village Knitter, then it's off to work. However, not a bad way to end the week, yes?