Time Flies when you forgot you didn't post...

How did a whole month go by? Apparently I only imagined posting about the trip back, knitting, and spinning, after I got home from California! I'm so sorry I never actually did it.

So let us check back to that list of things I wanted to do when I got home.

• sleeping in my own bed with the cat, with the window open and the down comforter on. -- CHECK. Made me very happy.
• watching a whole lotta West Wing and knitting with my mom. -- CHECK. Lots of fun, and now we're as caught up as we can be. In fact, we've just about run out of English language programming and she's going to start making me watch German murder mysteries soon.
• cooking something really good. -- CHECK. Lasagna, breaded lemon chicken thing, snickerdoodles, fajitas, strawberry rhubarb pie. We love you, America's Test Kitchen/Cooks Illustrated!
• $100 teaching award I won. -- CHECK. Put toward the price of spinning class.
• knitting with the girls on Saturdays. -- CHECK. I've only managed to make one meeting, plus spinning last Sunday. I missed everyone and it's good to be back.
• going to Andre's with my mom and grandparents. Goin' on Friday with my grandparents, so almost check.
• seeing my mountains instead of the Riverside hills and their haze. -- CHECK. I had the biggest smile on my face the first time I saw the Flatirons the day after I got home!

So that's been a pretty successful venture, I'd say. It's been very, very good to be home.

The drive home from California was exciting. About an hour out of Riverside the truck lost power and we pulled off the road in Barstow. Called the truck people and they had a repair guy to us in 10 minutes (!), and we discovered that a pipe that connects the engine to the turbo engine was broken, hence no power. Within four hours they'd brought us a new truck, we'd repacked everything into it, and we were on the road again.

The landscape in California and Utah is fascinating. My driving companion and I took a lot of pictures the first day and then discovered that the camera battery was dead for day 2, which was very disappointing. The California desert sections were interesting with scrubby trees I'd never seen before. Vegas was a sight, as were we, I'm sure, cruising a little bit of the strip in our 16' Penske truck. Neither of us had been to Vegas before (my companion was a Brit who wants to see as much of the US as possible), so it seemed like too good an oportunity to pass up. Despite our setbacks, we made it into Utah that night.

Day two was filled with amazing landscapes. Bluffs and canyons I can't begin to describe. I was so bummed about the camera battery. This is the place I really want to go now, maybe a week or two, driving around and looking at these incredible natural formations. Just how cool was it?

I wasn't driving, and I didn't knit. I just looked around at formations, colors, rock strata; deep, narrow, twisty canyons; and the wide, green, (irrigated) valleys between them. It was just fascinating. Southern Utah has 5 national parks (from W to E, Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, and Arches) and several national monuments which I'm sure are all exquisite and fascinating. I just need a week or two, a vehicle, and a couple more teaching awards to pay for the gas. A traveling companion with patience for my photography (perhaps with a lap-ful of knitting) would be a bonus.

In the knit and spin departments, there are a lot of updates, but I don't have pictures for all of them.

Looking at the list of WIPs, I finished the Goddess Shawl in June, probably. I should get a photo and then I'll write a long entry about the history of that project. I finished the Shapely Tank just before I went to California. Pictures are also in order and I'll try to work on that while it's still warm out. Most everything else on that list is still languishing, but I'm hoping to dig stuff out again soon.

In the mean time, I finally worked out my difficulties with the sockapal2za socks. Mom's finished hers, too.

(Left: My socks, "Summer Garden Socks" designed by my mom. Free pattern available from theknitter.com. Knit in Lorna's Laces Happy Valley (variegated) and Lang Jawoll (white). Right: Mom's socks, "Friday Harbor Socks" (with modifications) from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road. Knit in Sheldrige Farms Fingering Weight Ultra in hand-dyed variegated blues. Click either one for big.)

With the socks finished, a new project awaits! Ok, maybe old projects await! While I was in California I started the Polka Dot sweater (with the tubular cast on). The body is knit and the ~400 sts for the edging have been picked up. You know what's going to be worse tha tubular cast on? Tubular bind off. Kitchener stitch on those ~400 sts. This has not motivated me to knit the edging, but I try to make myself look at. Its kind of a shame, since it's so close to finished. Of course, after the edging I need to knit moss stitch ties (probably 24" by 6 or 8 sts, twice!) so there's a ways to go. Picture will come of this, too.

I do get a new project, though. A post doc in our group had a baby boy a week ago, so there's a sweater to be done for him -- swatched last night. I'm very excited about this since it's cute, small, and mostly stockinette in the round. Should be done in no time!

Beyond those things, I'm aiming to put the sleeves in the Rowan sampler sweater and finish that off, then try to work on Rogue and hopefully my red and black sweater. New projects are staring at me from the stash and the basket, too.

Yesterday was a sad day for spinning, as I had to return my borrowed spinning wheel. I put my name on the list to buy the same one (Lendrum double treadle) as soon as Shuttles has one in stock, but that's expected to be two months. Two months!! Thankfully, Nancy offered to loan me hers for a bit, so I might be saved. I'm looking forward to the spinning class and lots more spinning. In the meantime, I finished up the wool/silk blend from Lambspun and got about 400 yds (2-ply) from 4 oz. of roving. Its destiny? Unsure. Maybe a scarf or mittens. I think I'm leaning toward a scarf.

And finally, I started spinning some Cormo that I bought in Estes Park in June. It's well-prepared roving that just about spins itself. Sometimes I can do straight long-draw technique and not have to use my right hand at all, which has been a fun, new experience. The cormo is incredibly soft and feels springy on the bobbin. I bought half a pound of white and half a pound of grey. It spins up very fine and the few bits of vegetable matter usually fall out on their own. The booth where I bought it had many beautiful, two-tone scarves, and (at least for now!) that's my goal with this fiber.

I'll do my best to post more consistently now! School's started, classes are under control, research is taking a little break but will be back next week. Hopefully this semester I'll have exciting projects to photograph and motivation to post before the world thinks my advisor's chained me to the desk . :)