Mayhem the Bold

Finally I have retrieved my Mayhem pictures from our sojourn at Chris' place! Here May is contemplating the essentially transitory nature of the universe. Either that or she's waiting for me to make the fishy move again.
You are in my power fishy!
No, wait, this cannot be right....
Grrrrrr! Take that evil fishy!
Oh, yeah, you know I' m the cutest!

Habu, Hockey, and a Small Pile of Koigu

A modest pile of Koigu. Modest, of course, when compared to the monster amount of Koigu purchased on my trip. This is just the New York Koigu!
The Koigu Sock at the Chicago Wolves game that the adorable Kelly took us to - We screamed, we cheered, we booed, we comported ourselves appropriately I think!
GO WOLVES!!! Dave kept screaming "Carn the Wolves" which confused people - Carn is kind of short for Come On in Australia, but once they saw the amount of Wolves merchandise he was decked out in and they figured out he was pro Wolves not anti Wolves, it was all cool.
Oops, this is another New York shot - two skeins of Habu bamboo, in my favourite colours - grey and purple. No idea what I'll knit with these - they were pretty and I decided I MUST HAVE THEM.

We had such a blast in Chicago! Kelly was the perfect hostess - she arrived to pick us up at the airport with welcome signs hung all over her dad's van, and there was much hugging. We dropped off stuff at our hotel and went out for lunchy goodness and then hit the YARN STORE.
Pics of my wildly enthusiastic purchases to follow.

Then we hit Borders for knitting and coffee and books, and all of a sudden it was like three hours later and time to get dinner and hit the hockey game! I don't think there was actually three consecutive seconds where one of us wasn't talking full speed!

Thank you, dearest, we had a wonderful time and we have been missing you! Count on seeing us again one day!

And the Unfinished Shawl Has a Home to Go to! Plus the Adorable Mayhem

uberstrickenfrau has put up her hand for the faroese shawl in cream baby wool! Yay! When I finish this puppy you'll have to send me your address so I can ship it off to you!

Blogger just ate my Mayhem pictures. Sigh.

Yes, Yes, There Will Be More

There will be more tragically out of date pictures and crushingly funny commentary on my trip. Which now seems so long ago... sigh.... but life has conspired to make me kind of busy at the moment. Yesterday I got the news that I get to be in charge of organising FORTY information sessions across the STATE and coordinating funding, venues, presenters, travel, accommodation, and catering.

Kill. Me. Now.

EDITED TO ADD: Laurie's Book is available for preorder! THANK ALL THE GODS. She told me about this when I met her in LA and I was sworn to secrecy and I have been BURSTING with the not telling!

Oogle

I got to the gym at 7am this morning.....

*snore*

Chaos and the Sock

Chaos trying his hardest to ignore our deeply offensive presence.
Chaos glaring magnificently at my finished Koigu sock. Poor Chaos. He couldn't understand why Chris had deliberately invited us in, and then she LET US STAY. She took us out for dinner but THEN SHE BROUGHT US BACK. He spent the entire evening glaring at us from behind things, under things, and around corners. Isn't he beautiful??

Ha! Cashmere!

Yes, I know I've already posted this one, but I snuck it past Blogger's reluctance to let me show pretty things to the outside world, so you get to see it again.

Koigu casmere, from String in New York. This was my very first yarn store on American soil, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was small, but loaded with koigu, and Dave convinced me to treat myself to a skein of the cashmere. Ow, you have twisted my arm, I said, and proceeded to knock him brutally out of the way by bounding directly towards the cash register.

Aint it pretty?? And no, Chris, I did not have this on me in Minneapolis, for which I am profoundly grateful, as I suspect a cashmere-shaped hole in my yarn booty would have been the result!

Carruth House

As Blogger is taunting me so much, I have decided to post random pictures and posts about the trip so that it cannot disrupt my carefully planned travelogue. Hah!

This is Carruth House in Boston, a beautiful old house where we stayed for three nights in Boston. Strangely enough, the house being in Boston and all. Anyhoo, it was polished floorboards and a beautiful suite of rooms, and the host Heidi was friendly and helpful. Each morning we got a selection of croissants, muffins, or bagels from local bakeries, and we ate hugely before setting off into the wilds of Boston.

A note on driving in Boston - why are half of the streets one way? AND WHY ISN'T THIS RATHER IMPORTANT FACT NOTED ON MAPS?????

It took two hours on my birthday to finally reach the yarn store we were aiming for. It turns out, naturally, that the yarn store was a) ten minutes away from where we were staying and b) closed. Arrrgh. Fortunately, we found another yarn store so that my dream of wallowing in yarn on my birthday could be realised: A Good Yarn in Boston, where the staff were friendly, one of the other customers was also having a birthday, and I purchased much yarn. Yarn pics will have to come later in some cases, as it is still in the box I shipped it back to Australia in. Thanks Wendy for the yarn store recommendation!

In Which Blogger Can Bite Me

It took TWO HOURS yesterday to upload those pics! There were going to be more! With some sort of coherent narrative! But I ended up so frustrated that I had to go away and start another sock to calm myself down.

Blogger is reaaaaallly challenging my natural "I'm too lazy to be bothered moving to another blogging system" attitude.

Sigh. Knitting. I am actually knitting! I have finished a pair of socks, started another sock, and I've been industriously knitting away on a faroese shawl in sooooft cream baby wool. Because I felt like it. I will never wear it, but I always have hope that someone will see it and yell "gimme!" so that I know who to give it to. And I cannot keep something in soft cream wool in a four cat household. Nuh-uh.

Oh thankallthegods I just spotted a leftover chocolate easter egg on my desk......

I want to get all my pics posted so that I can pay the proper respect to my fabulous hostesses on the trip - you were awesome guys!

Three Days in New York Part One

The interior of the Guggenheim
The interior curvy bits of the Guggenheim
Another shot of the Guggenheim
Mmm......... Koigu Cashmere........
Central Park
The Chrysler Building

I'll have to post pics in two or three lots as Blogger is being its usual pain in the ass.

Gack

Yes, I know this doesn't look much like the beginning of the Yarn Tour Notes 2007, but we've had some setbacks! We locked 0urselves out of the house last night and this morning we learned that our car needs a new clutch which should only set us back around $1400 or so!

Sigh.

The cats seem to have forgiven us. Dorian seemed a bit confused by the whole thing, but has since spent the last couple of days ignoring us from short distances. Lulu is obviously relieved that things are back to normal. Marlowe is purring constantly and following us around, and the first night back he dragged half of his toys into our room in case we wanted to play with him. Meiko has spent the last few nights waking us up three times a night for cuddles and reassurance.

I'm Baaaaaaaaack

I am back and frazzled and jetlagged and confused and tired and grumpy. And I have to go back to work today!!

Y'all, it was a hoot and a holler. We met some wonderful people, bought massive amounts of yarn, and ran over a wig in Boston. It was that kind of trip.

I have pictures to post, I have posts to write, people to thank and yarn purchases to flash. But unfortunately I have work to go to. (booooooo!!!)

More to follow!!