Home again, home again...

...knitty, knit, knit. Photos are forthcoming from the trip, probably tonight or tomorrow.

I actually knitted a lot less than I thought I would during our weeklong trip. Casting on for my first sock ever, with smaller needles than I've ever used before, which were somewhat blunt, was difficult enough. Add to the equation that I was sitting in the middle seat of a three-row coach airplane section, and trying to entertain a two-year old, and it reaches Herculean levels of difficulty. I did, however, manage to get the damn thing cast on. Twice, since the first time I started knitting with four needles and you're supposed to use five, and I couldn't figure out how to undo it. That's okay, I thought, it's a long flight, and did it again. When we made it to our hotel in Lenexa, I discovered that I had done the wrong stitch pattern for first eight rows, and had to rip it all out, at which point I got snitty at it and put it aside for a few days. (I am now about three inches into the first sock. Casting on when not at 30,000 feet made all the difference.)

I did get one thing started and completed during the week - the Airy Scarf in Kidsilk Haze. It's purdy. I started working on it during the drive up to Iowa, and finished it on Thursday. I meant to wear it to work today, but left it on the arm of the couch accidentally. Now I need to engineer another outfit that it will complement to wear tomorrow.

We arrived in Iowa on Nana's 70th birthday, and I gave her the Tie One On I'd made. She really seemed to like it, and when we saw her having breakfast with friends the following day, she had it on again.

I bought some thin purple wool yarn, on quills, during a visit to the Amana Woolen Mill. It seems like fingering weight, and I have a design idea for it I sketched out yesterday. I won't say more because I am so confident of its eventual fabulousness that I may submit the design for publication, even though not so much as a swatch is in evidence as yet.

In other good news, Knitters' Forum should be getting off the ground soon, according to the administrator. Within the next week or so I should be able to start testing. Thanks to all of you have volunteered to check it out; you'll be hearing from me soon!