Summer Travels and the Sock Summit

It has been an amazing summer. I have had the privilege of returning to one of my favorite countries, Spain; I visited Morocco, France, and Guatemala for the first time and I ended my two months of travel at the Sock Summit in Portland, Oregon.
There are so many pictures and so many stories so at the risk of boring all my readers :) I will just talk about the Sock Summit and return to the other places in the future.
It has been a week since I returned from Portland and I still feel "homesick." Portland has been added to my list of favorite cities and the Sock Summit is a yarn event I am determined to do again.
Six thousand knitters, crocheters, and spinners attended the 2nd Sock Summit. The picture above is just part of the line waiting for the marketplace to open on the first evening. Lovely yarns and fibers from large and small companies, mostly indie dyers, tempted us in each aisle. I was so overcome with excitement I forgot to take pictures. It was awesome and overwhelming.
I not only bought this gorgeous yarn , I expanded my Signature needle collection.





In addition to the marketplace there were 50 or more different classes on knitting, dying, spinning, designing and anything to do with fiber and socks. I took a Darning class in hopes of repairing some of my handknits, a class on sock design with JC Briar (very infomative) and a class on "beginnings and endings" with Ann Budd (fun!).


Many of us made and brought stitch markers to swap. My dear husband helped me make 91!

Here are some of the stitch markers I collected in the swaps. Many of the markers represented the knitter's state or country, some were just creative and pretty. I almost don't want to take them off the holder and use them.

The Sock Summit was an amazing experience made even better and more memorable because I spent it with my daughter. We found great places to eat, toured the International Rose Gardens, saw a little of Portland and oooed and ahhed over the yarn. She's an incredible knitter and a lot of fun.
More about Portland next time.

Marrakech to Madrid - First Stop - Morocco

On May 27 we took off from Richmond International Airport. I think it's "international" because it has two direct flights a day to Toronto. What we know was the size of the plane. Our boarding passes listed our seats as 7 window and 8 window. How could we be sitting next to each other and both have window seats? There were two seats across, probably seated 22 people, had propellers, and no flight attendent. The c0-pilot/navegator greated us, went over the usual safety instructions and then went through the curtain, put on his head phones and we took off. Less than two hours later we landed in Toronto.

From Toronto we flew to Franfurt, Germany. We spent our two hours there, going through customs, passport check, security and hiking about a mile and a half to our gate, just in time to board our flight to Madrid.
After spending a night in Madrid, we caught an early departure to Marrakech on Ryanair. A description of Ryanair is a good subject for another blog post.
Marrakech Airport is small and modern. We took a cab to our Riad (guest house) which was located down an alley in the old section of the city. This is what we wanted, to experience Marrakech and experience we did. The Riad was very nice, the people helpful, the room clean. We spent the rest of our first day exploring the Marrakech museum which really didn't tell us much and the souks (marketplace). The souks are mostly located on winding alleys, full of noise, people, motor scooter, donkey carts and did I mention, motor scooters? . The sellers/merchants tried hard to interest us in their goods. If we stopped to look at our map we were immediately approached by a boy who offered to show us the way, for a price, of course. It was hard to concentrate on the merchandise because there was a constant traffic of motor scooters (did I mention the motor scooters yet?) coming for both directions. In the big plaza they come at you from all directions and there is no escape! I learned to stand still and pray they would go around us.




Our second day was spent on a private tour of the nearby Atlas Mountains. I need to post more pictures. Our guide Philippe is French and has lived in the Marrakech area for over ten years. I didn't ask him why. The mountains are beautiful! We offroaded a bit, had tea with a Berber family, walked through a field of sheep and horses, ate lunch at a lovely restaurant, and learned a lot about an area I didn't know existed before we started researching for our trip.



On our third day in Morocco, we spent our time trying to find some tourist sights, avoiding the souks and buying some souvenirs for people back home. We did find one palace, the one synagogue in town, and a lot of alleys. This is a picture of the Khoutoubia Mosque. As we are not Muslim we were not allowed to enter but we could walk through the gardens.

I have more pictures for another day. Though our three days in Marrakech were interesting, I was glad to return to Spain and the rest of our trip.

Stitches Midwest and Knitting

I would love to be one of those bloggers who posts the day after something happens. "Yesterday I had lunch in Paris." Alas, I am not one of those.
A week and a half ago I was in Chicago for Stitches Midwest. I had lunch there, too. It was a great four days. My daughter and her family drove up from St. Louis. She and I shopped the Marketplace while my son-in-law and granddaughter went to Legoland.








We knitted in the lobby of the Schaumberg Renaissance Hotel.












We joined hundreds of other knitters dressed in pajamas for a party in the lobby Friday night. Franklin Habit looked great in his robe and night cap. There was food, prizes and knitting, of course.








Chicago is a great city. We walked to the end of the Navy Pier and then took my granddaughter to the Chicago Children's Museum.



We had a delicious dinner at the Chicago Diner.
Vegetarian food!




I bought too much yarn (if there is such a sin), had some great food, met lots of interesting people and spent time with family I don't get to see nearly enough. Loved every minute.

Back again

A friend of mine reminded me that I had not blogged in quite some time. It's going to take some time to catch up on everything so today I'll just post a little of the most recent stuff.
My grandson turned 2 years old last week. He enjoyed his cake.

I'm a teacher so I have my summers off, more or less. Every summer I set goals. This summer one of the big goals is to knit more. In April I went to St. Louis to attend the Loopy Ewe's Spring Fling, I bought a lot of yarn. In May my daughter and I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival where I bought even more yarn Ever since, I've been on a self-imposed yarn diet, (until yesterday when I fell off the wagon and bought some very pretty Merino silk Malabrigo at The Yarn Lounge in Richmond, it was my birthday). I have been knitting furiously to use some of my stash before next month when I head to Chicago for Stitches Midwest where I will no doubt buy more yarn. Here is one of my current projects, the Shipwreck Shawl by Bethany Kok. I'm knitting it in Sweet Georgia sock yarn in the Coastal colorway. I love this shawl and I love this yarn. The shawl and I have had several frogging and tinking times but overall it's a fun knit and I love the way it's turning out. The wooden bowl is a bead spinner (stringer) to speed the process of stringing all the those gorgeous beads. The shawl pattern calls for 5000, yes 5000, beads and anything that can speed the string process is welcome. Besides, it's always fun to get and learn to use a new toy.

Knitting (finally ) and exciting news.

On the left is the Mara shawl I finally finished last week and blocked this week. (What else does one do when stuck at home after a snowstorm?). It was made with Malabrigo Worsted weight in Captstone. A wonderful yarn though it had a little more olive green than I had anticipated and than can be seen in this photo. It was a great knit for riding in the car, watching movies and just soothing the mind and I love the feel of it. The Girasole blanket (Jarod Flood) is made with Cascade 220 Heather and is a much brighter yellow than the picture shows. I'd like to make it again in another color and a more washable yarn. In the meantime, it's a great blanket for keeping warm watching TV.
The exciting news is that I'm going to the Loopy Ewe's Spring Fling in April!! The Loopy Ewe is my favorite internet provider of yarn. Sherri has great service and really knows how to make each customer feel special. What make this news even better is my daughter and granddaughter live in St. Louis so I'll be able to see them too. What a great trip: yarn, knitting people, The Loopy Ewe and my family.

Big Guy

Big Guy passed away last Tuesday. He was our last cat. It's sad because I can't find any decent pictures of him. They are all out of focus. He'd been old for a while; his days of chasing mice and rabbits were far behind him. Now he doesn't have to spend his time begging us for food, he's probably well fed and happy. We loved him, even my grandson. We miss his meows, "Where's my food?" and the was he glared at us when we petted him but then asked for more. It was a privilege to be part of his life.

A Kniiting Retreat

It's been a month since we left Ireland and I'm already planning on what I want to see when I return.
Two days after we returned school started. The first day was rough but now we have settled into a routine of sorts.
I'm still working on the Girasole blanket (I need to take pictures). I keep making stupid mistakes. Also on the needles are two pairs of socks, both from Cookie A's Sock Innovation, a sweater for grandson, and a shawl that will probably take 5 years to complete. The shawl is the Swirl shawl pattern published by Jojoland for their Melody line of yarn. I bought the pattern and yarn when we were in St. Louis this past April, I've made 6 swirls.

I attend a wonderful knitting group every Tuesday night. We meet in the party room of a local grocery store (Ukrops, for those of you who know Richmond). The first weekend in second weekend in September, three days after we got back from Ireland and Spain I packed up my car and drove to the mountains for a knitting retreat with several members of our knitting group. Most of us spent the entire weekend knitting, (with a break to go yarn shopping at On the Lamb in Staunton and a couple of times out to eat). We talked, knit, drank a little wine, and talked, laughed and knit. We are all looking forward to January when we can do it again.
Here is Jo in On the Lamb. If you're ever in Staunton stop in this charming shop.

The Cliffs of Moher and more.
Yesterday we battled high winds to view the incredible Cliffs of Moher that overlook the Atlantic Ocean on Ireland's west coast. Although it was difficult to even walk at times the view was well worth it.

Here are a few pictures of the beautiful and haunting Irish countryside. Tonight we are staying in Cashel. We hiked the historical tour here which included the Rock of Cashel, a cathedral and castle built on a rock overlooking the town. While it has not been in use for 500 years it still has a dramatic impact.

I had to take a picture of the sheep grazing below the rock. They were not impressed.

The picture below is the Rock.

Madrid

I have been in Madrid (Spain) for about a week and a half. Unfortunately I have not had wireless access for my little laptop until now.

This is my 4th trip to one of my favorite cities.

This picture is of the inside of Lanas Sixto, a cute little yarn shop not far from Plaza Mayor. The owners are friendly and helpful and look at all that yarn!

This picture is of the famous Plaza Mayor. The

little stuffed sheep in the foreground is from The

Loopy Ewe, my favorite on-line yarn enabler. I

had hoped to enter the "Loopy on vacation" contest but it ended yesterday and as I've already said I only got wireless today so Loopy will be part of my blog post of Madrid.

Tomorrow morning I leave for Ireland where I will meet my husband in the Dublin airport. It's good to get away to remember how much I miss everyone, especially my DH of 32+ years.

We're supposed to have wireless in all the places we are staying so hopefully I can add more postings and pictures. I have more of Loopy in Madrid too.

Hasta luego.

This is long overdue. I finished this stole in late March and finally sent it to my mother-in-law last week for her birthday. It is the Arctic Diamonds patterns by Donna Druchunas. Although it's a little shorter than I would have liked my MIL is a small women and spends much of her day in a wheelchair. She is a former knitter herself and I hope she enjoys it.

Last week my daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter visited from St. Louis. Here are my two gorgeous grandchildren spending some time together. Granddaughter was thrilled with her baby cousin and baby cousin was fascinated with Granddaughter.




Daughter, SIL, granddaughter, son, grandson and I went to Virginia Beach for the day. It was great weather. This is daughter with her nephew. Afterwards she and I stopped in Williamsburg at Knitting Sisters (a very nice shop) and did some serious yarn shopping.

Rivendell Socks

I finally finished the Rivendell Socks! It only took three months. I have tremendous envy for those who can whip up a pair of socks in a week. If I could knit faster I could possibly make a dent in my stash.
These socks are from the book The Eclectic Sole by Janel Laidman, a nice little book with several unique designs. I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan and the name of these socks caught my eye. There are a few others in the book I'd like to try but right now I'm knitting on a pair from Cookie A's book Sock Innovations.
Now it's off to knitting group. Tonight I'll be working on a sweater for my 11 month old grandson.

Too many projects

I actually don't have too many projects on the needles right not, at least not for me. I'm making a Girasole blanket (a design by Brooklyn Tweed's Jared Flood) for a KAL that I've joined at the Loopy Ewe (one of my favorite places to buy yarn). I had planned to make it in Dream in Color Classy but the day I was going to order the yarn our washing machine overflowed and gave up the ghost after 21 years of faithful service. The purchase of a new washer caused me to be a little more frugal in my yarn choices so I bought Cascade 220 in bright yellow. Girasole is Italian for sunflower. Sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers (which is probably one of the reasons I decided to do this KAL) and the yellow seemed an appropriate although not particularly creative choice. The blanket is a fun and fairly easy knit and as many fellow KALers have said, it's addicting. I took this picture two days ago and I've moved on several more rows.
Meanwhile my Rivendell socks are nearly done; I'm on the toe of the second sock now. I'll take a picture of it and post that next time.
Knitting time is difficult to find these days. Our grandson takes up a lot of time, but he is a joy and very photogenic.
He loves bathtime. He's napping now so I think I'll try to do some housework or knitting. It's difficult to decide.

School's over!

It's been a ridiculously long time since I wrote. School, I teach (or try to teach) Spanish, takes a lot of time and energy. Then in the beginning of April my grandson was admitted to the hospital. After nearly a month he was discharged and is now living with us. He is 10 months old and as cute as he could possibly be and that is unbiased opinion. The same week he was discharged my car was rear ended while I was stopping at a stop light. It took over three weeks to repair it but I was given a loaner by the insurance company.
But things are not entirely insane. It's a beautiful day and I'm back on the blog I tried to start last year. Now I just need to take pictures of the few things I've knitted on in the past few months. Meanwhile here's a picture of my grandson and my granddaughter (who does not live with me).

Election Day

The long campaign is finally over. We can all breathe a sigh of relief'; no more TV or radio ads, no more signs littering our roads and highways, and no more annoying phone calls (at least from the political parties). Best of all, no more negative, less than truthful accusations flying across the airwaves.
It's a drizzly day. The lines were not horribly long at the polling place. It feels good to do one's civic duty.
It's a good day to knit. I have several WIPs to choose from.
I won a $25 gift certificate from Hampton Bay Yarns for my orange Monkey socks entry in the September Sockdown in the Sockknitters Anonymous group on Ravelry. It's very exciting. I never win anything. Maybe it's a good week to try the lottery.
Here are the socks. The yarn is Katia Caricia, a 100% merino sock weight yarn I bought in Madrid in June. It's soft and the socks are very comfortable.

Mimi

It's been a week since we had to say good-bye to Mimi. Mimi was a character, a unique cat. She developed a blood clot on her spine and could no longer walk. Mimi was the boss, or she thought she was. At less than 8 lbs. she stood up to our 88 lb. German Shepherd and won the battle of wits. Everyone knew when she was hungry, when she wanted to go outside or when she just wanted attention. I miss her.

Yes, here is is August and I am finally getting around to posting the journal I kept on my trip. I have edited a bit but for the most part these are the entries I wrote each night I was in Madrid. I miss Spain very much.

I was taking classes at Elemadrid in the attempt to improve my Spanish. One of my goals is to finally, FINALLY become fluent in the language.

June 7, 2008,

I’m sitting in Newark International Airport for an 8 hour, yes 8 hour layover. Internet connection costs money and being the cheapskate I am I have elected not to connect. Sigh.

I had a sandwich from an “Italian” place and shared a table with a friendly talkative computer geek who was flying to the UK for business. It was a nice break in the time. It’s now 6:26 p.m. My flight takes off at 10 p.m.

June 9, 2008

I did not write yesterday. They plane was delayed over an hour at Newark due to thunderstorms. We were already on the plane when they announced that. But we arrived in Madrid around 12:15 p.m. After getting my passport stamped and getting my suitcase I found an ATM so I could have some euros to pay for a taxi into the city. The taxi driver was friendly and I even carried on a little conversation with him. Crazy Americana. There was a bit of a problem getting hold of the landlady for the apartment where I am staying but I finally found her. The apartment is tiny but clean. There is an itsy bitsy balcony which overlooks the patios of the ground floor apartments and the pool. It doesn't look like I'll have much of a chance of ever using the pool as the temperature for these two days has not gotten out of the 50’s and this morning I awoke to the sound of rain. I walked through the wet chilly streets of Madrid this morning in a t-shirt and capris. Crazy Americana.

School is okay. There are only two of us in my classes. They other guy is a businessman from Finland. I think he said his company makes snowmobiles. He’s nice enough but will not be someone I can hang out with. It may be a long 3 weeks but I’ll survive.

June 10, 2008

The classes went better today. Most of the jet lag fog had lifted and I understood a lot more. Because I am in a higher level class and because there are only two of us this year is more challenging. And that is a good thing.

After classes I started walking back to the apartment when the sky opened up and rain came, heavier and heavier until I finally ducked into the next metro station and took the train two stops. I went “home” and made myself some lunch and did my homework. I returned to school around 3:30 for a conference on Religion in Spain. It was taught by Javier who is excellent. After the conference I walked toward the apartment with no idea what I was really going to do. I ran into my classmate Teo. We talked, in Spanish of course, and walked. Then we parted and I went to the bookstore of Corte Ingles with the thought of looking for a book on the History of Spain. I found a few but after seeing their size I decided to wait until I get back to the states and order one. Then I went to the main Corte Ingles in search of a Post Office supposedly exists there. Instead I found their upscale Supermercado and a small natural foods section. I bought some food. But I still can’t find the post office.

Now I’m back in the apartment. It feels good to get away from the crowds of people. There’s only so much mob scene I can take before I near meltdown. Now I’m gorging myself on crackers and goat cheese. Time to find the fruit and vegetables.

There’s a threatened strike by truckers here because of the high price of gas. It has caused a rush on the supermarkets and gas stations out of fear that there will be a short supply.

June 11, 2008

It was another rough conversation class. I do pretty well in grammar, it’s the speaking and understanding that comes slow. Sure, I can put together a sentence but the person to whom I am speaking will fall asleep before I figure out the vocabulary, select the right verb and conjugate it in the proper tense, remember to make nouns and their adjectives agree in number and gender and make sure I am using the right object pronouns in the right place. I guess that’s why I’m here. To my credit I have become a bit bolder than last year. I bought some tweezers today in a small pharmacy/health shop. We won’t mention how much they cost. I bought my dinner at Maoz this evening (I couldn’t face any more goat cheese, I OD’d last night) and ordered in español. And it’s only the third day. I was into the second week last year before I would open my mouth in public.

The young woman who is my grammar teacher is Arantxa, she was one of my teachers last year. She is very good. My conversation teacher is Maria. She’s very nice, animated and helpful. She’s marrying an American and is very excited.

Madrid

I arrived in Madrid on Sunday after a long and fairly uneventful flight, except for the thunder storm in Newark which delayed our flight over an hour after we were already on the plane.
When I left Virginia on Saturday the temperature was in the upper 90's. The temperature in Madrid: the mid 50's with a chilly drizzle. The rain continued off and on until yesterday, Wednesday. The seasoned traveler that I am only packed for a hot summer in Madrid, not a damp, windy, cold totally out of character Madrid. Monday I bought a sweater.
I have a tiny, but cute apartment three blocks from Puerta de Sol. It has been a comfortable refuge from the rain.
The truckers in Spain have been picketing and threatening to strike on Monday. There has been a run on the supermercados (supermarkets) and food is getting a little scarce. It's just part of the experience.
Tomorrow I will hopefully post some pictures I have taken to far.
But right now I'm going to head to the supermercado.

Packing

On Saturday, that's two days from now, I leave for Madrid. I should be packing, I should be doing laundry, vacuuming and running around crying "I have so much to do, I have so much to do." Instead I sit here at the computer posting a comment on my blog.
I will be in Madrid for three weeks, all by myself. Okay, there are 4.5 million other people in the city but I will be there without husband, friend or family. I'm going to improve my Spanish, to get beyond the grammar and book Spanish and really learn to speak and understand it. Besides, Ilove Spain. This will be my third visit.
Hopefully I will be able to post pictures of the city and its yarn shops.

This is my first attempt at blogging. It's rather scarey for a 50 something grandmother who only uses the computer for e-mail and reading the news. Whenever something goes wrong I run to my 21 year old son. Yesterday my cute little laptop went dark, it wouldn't turn on, no response. "Oh crap it's crashed. What will I do? No e-mail, no Ravelry, no wasting hours of my day reading blogs and searching for knitting patterns. What am I going to do?" Panic. Tears began to well up in my eyes. I called my son, who by some miracle was home at the time. "Adam, my computer crashed!" I calmly yelled, fighting back fear and tears. He sat down at my desk, tried to turn on the power button, glanced to the side of the machine and pushed the power cord back into its place. The cord had come loose, I had drained the battery and the computer wouldn't work. He pushed the power button again and the screen lit up.
I'm still trying to understand how to set up this blog. When I do I'll post the pictures of all my WIPs.
Next weekend I leave for 3 weeks in Spain followed by 8 days in Italy. In Spain I will be going to school trying to move closer to the elusive goal of fluency in Spanish. It's my third trip to Spain. I love the country and its language. After three weeks my husband will join me in Madrid for few days then we will fly to Rome, rent a car and drive to Tuscany. Part of my reason for starting this blog to post pictures of the trip.