Our dd came home for Thanksgiving and some fun knitting times. Since both sets of our parents are celebrating in heaven, our celebration is just for the three of us (plus our 3 dogs). The usual turkey, dressing, potatoes, yams, cranberry jello, and pumpkin pie was delicious .... even the leftovers eaten Sunday noon!Saturday morning when dh went pheasant hunting, the dd and I headed to a small town about 40 miles away after busymomof2 on Ravelry alerted us to the existence of a yarn shop ..... I have to drive 75+ miles to get to the nearest shop ..... except all the on-line yarn goodness. The shop, Ewe-Phoria Yarns, carries a variety of yarns. The owner formerly had an on-line shop when her family lived in Denver. Now, she has come to northern Iowa, opened a shop, still maintains her online business in the backroom of the store, and dyes yarn, too! It was a very delightful experience for both of us. Across the street was a gorgeous quilt shop .... there was an overwhelming display of flannel .... didn't know they made that much flannel. Anyway, the flannel pjs (three sets) that I made dd while she was in college are losing their softness. I have two lengths of pj flannel to sew .... now I have three! The newly acquired 5-yards is in the washer, soon to go in the dryer.Oh, the uptown boot socks that I'm knitting from yarn sent by my SP11, are progressing well. With two days free from teaching school, I was able to "power-knit." I knit both socks on magic loop, so I'm about halfway finished with the gussets .... once those are done, the rest is easy.
While dd was home, I was able to photograph the Norwegian mittens (my first pair ever made) and scarf, just used the snowflake pattern from the mitts on it. The scarf was knitted on a 16-in circ #3 and took 5 balls of Norwegian yarn (it is probably about six feet long). The set matches the colors (a dark plum and heather grey) of a Columbia cold weather jacket we bought for her when she was in college. DH and I are looking forward to a 4-day bus trip to Branson, Missouri, to go to seven shows and enjoy the Christmas "glitter." It will be another short week at school.TLGB
Today I took off to visit a yarn shop new to the Iowa Great Lakes area, northwest Iowa. The shop is actually a branch of The Yarn Basket in Carroll, and is located on the east side of highway 71 in Okoboji, just south from th
e McDonald's. It's located in a small stone house next to a small strip mall. Beth, the owner, was in the shop today with a class of three knitters, I believe. I asked for a DK yarn to knit the upcoming socks for the Six Sox KAL. I ended up with some soysilk and also some bamboo. We are to have a contrasting color for the socks, so I choose two colors of the soysilk (blue and rust) and a variegated (green, blue, brown, and rust) plus a solid brown in the bamboo. I really like both of the yarns, so just need to decide on one when the pattern is posted. I also purchased a book to send to a downstream and some light blue yarn to knit booties and a cap for a grandson of one of my coffee friends. 
I was thinking as I drove to the shop that I should try to get in contact with a knitting friend that lives in the area, but didn't do anything before I left. I turned around in the shop and who was coming in the door but Jean. She was there with a couple of knitting friends (they knit together once a month). When she lived here, we were part of a knitting circle that met weekly in homes with dessert and coffee served. That was almost twenty years ago ..... wow, how time flies when you are knitting.I started the last pattern repeat for the scarf I'm knitting in the Ravelry Scarf Exchange. It's going to be a surprise, so suffice to say that I think it's awesome. Hope Humglum will, too.TLGB
Well .... my yarn diet was definitely broken within one day of being on 
vacation. We arrived at my brother's cabin on Gull Lake northwest of Brainerd, MN last Friday. On Saturday, my sil and I went into Brainerd to see the newest yarn shop there, Between Friends. It's located in a corner store in the downtown area of Brainerd. I picked up some yarn for socks - Tofutsies, Plymouth Dream Baby, and SandnesGarn Mandarin Petit, and a couple of Clover Soft Touch crochet hooks. I also found some Plymouth Fantasy Naturale to knit another market bag since I just used some of the Sugar 'n Cream dishcloth yarn I had and I don't think it will hold up as well of the FN. When I was ready to check out, the owner asked me to draw a 
popsicle stick from a bowl on the counter. Well, I drew the only 50% off of the most expensive item you have, so the Tofutsies was only $8.50 .... what luck! We also stopped at Among the Pines in Brainerd where I picked up two hanks of Jitterbug in the popsicle colorway and two cakes of Malabrigo worsted in the saphire magenta 239 colorway. I picked both of these for my daughter who couldn't make it this year due to working the week-end of July 27-29. When I spoke with her, I told her that she would have quite a bit of the second hank left over since they only have 295 yds ..... then I thought to just go in for another hank and we can both have a pair of socks. When my dh and I went into town for some fishing "stuff", we 
stopped at shop to pick up another hank. Well,.... the dh was really missing his hunting dog, Cozi, by this time. The owner's very old, very arthritic yellow lab was strolling around the store. My dh got about 10 minutes of a "dog fix" that seemed to last the rest of vacation.On Monday, my sil and I went north to Nisswa (no yarn shop there but a very good coffee shop/roaster) and Pequot Lakes where we found Unraveled, a new yarn shop that opened after the first of the year. I had already done enough damage, so just purchased some BSYC Wildfoote in the brown sugar colorway. Oh, could I have done more damage .... they even had sari 
silk. The owner asked how I did my socks, I replied that until the last pair I had always used dps, but since I did the June RSC socks on magic loop, that's all I want to do if I can make the pattern work. I didn't have my current socks with me, so on Wednesday my dh wanted to see Nisswa (actually to get a pizza fix at Rafferty's Pizza, a family pizza restaurant) and Pequot Lakes. He didn't even object to stopping at the yarn shop so I could show the lady how ml works. I even said he could go in the bookstore next door to the shop, but he came in with me. What a sweetie!TLGB
With crazy weather here in northern Iowa, school was cancelled ... being a teacher, I have promised myself that "snow days" will be knitting days. I was able to finish the first sock in KP self-patterning plum colorway that my daughter has already named raspberry latte ... the socks are for her. When I began the second sock, however, the ball was wrapped the opposite of the first so I frogged the ribbing I had almost completed and rewound the ball correctly since I want to make the socks match as closely as possible. Since I'm still recovering from the "bug" making the rounds at school, I decided a nap would be nice ... well the two dogs (a Brittany spaniel and a miniature poodle) as always jumped up to cuddle. Much to my amazement, when I awakened 90 minutes later, they were still cuddled in tight ... must have something to do with the cold weather in April.Alcariel, our daughter, is out in Virginia visiting a college roommate ... she plans to do some yarn shopping out there .... she did bring me some delightful handpainted yarn from Boston where she was at a medical conference last week ... it will probably become a hat and some mittens or a very long scarf. Maybe she can find some sock yarn to bring back to Mom ... after all, I have completed a couple pairs of socks lately.Must get upstairs to set the needles in motion again. TLGB
