molasses on a cold winter's day

.

Very little knitting happening in my corner of the world. DH went on a business trip Research Triangle Park and brought back the magnet you see above. I specifically asked him for an (almost) unbreakable magnet, because Missy has played with the breakable ones on the fridge and they eventually get dropped onto the floor. Missy is normally an angel when DH is around and then turns into The Little Terror when he is not around. So it's been a trying time for us both while DH was away, leaving me exhausted at the end of the day and no knitting accomplished.

I had the pleasure of driving to my local airport, Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) for the very first time to drop him off, and again during rush hour to pick him up. It was pouring rain when I drove him to the airport and I could not get a good feel for the airport layout or a good look at the signs. It was a clear day when I went to pick him up. I must say that the signage could be improved there. It is not quite as good as my previous local airport San Francisco International Airport (SFO) which made perfect sense to me, although having gone there on and off during the past several decades may have helped me gain an intuitive feel for how to manoeuvre around the place.

Note to self for the next time I need to drive to the SJ airport during rush hour: DO NOT take 101 to Guadelupe. It was a dead slow crawl. I could have walked faster! Ok, not really, but it sure did seem that way while I was stuck in traffic. Next time take Central Expy.

So besides not knitting, I haven't much time to catch up in the blog reading dept and don't even ask me about the state of my email messages. I am also not very good with Ravelry mail as I don't always think to check them and I can't seem to keep the number of unread messages under 3 digits cough127cough. I did however finally managed to figure out how to add my followers to my sidebar. So this is a small victory for me. See? It's in my sidebar! :-)

Here I am sipping on my cup of coffee while I contemplate giving up coffee again. I only started drinking coffee again in the fall, beginning with now and then, and then working up to having it daily. I am wondering whether the coffee is what is causing the underarm/side/arm pain I've been having on and off since about roughly the same time I started drinking it again. Yeah, it's a real pain, quite bothersome at times and then sometimes not very noticeable. Sometimes there is a bit of numbness in my arm, as if I had lost just a bit of circulation. Perhaps it is the coffee. Perhaps it is bad posture in front of the computer. Perhaps a bit of both. However when the underarm pain is at its worst, I don't even notice the pain I experience from my left dpn resting on my left ring finger. This is getting a little better, I am trying not to hold the needle as tightly.



I have finally finished this trilogy, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, and am glad I can say it's done and over with. Now I can move on to something else. I've started this book of short stories, The Ladies ofGrace Adieu, because I recently finished and enjoyed reading Susanna Clarke's other novel Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrelll. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get into it, perhaps I'm just not in the mood for it right now and will just have to try again later. What do you do when you are between books? It is not like knitting where you'll have a couple of big projects and some little ones to fill in the gap. I don't really have a "go to" book to fill in the gap.


Regia 4Ply Color Sock Yarn

I recently picked up some sock yarn from a LYS in San Mateo, Nine Rubies, new stuff that I have never knitted with before. They have some lovely local hand-dyed sock yarn, BayWood Yarns (RavProfile, blog, Flickr photos), merino in gorgeous colorways. I was very tempted. However my goal was to get something with nylon content, such as Opal or Regia which Suzann had recommended. And I really could not justify getting more "pure" fibery goodness when I had recently added these 14 hanks to my stash. So I picked up 2 balls of Regia 4 Ply Color (Ravelry Link) because it is 75% wool 25% nylon.

Regia Silk Color Sock Yarn

I also threw in 2 balls of Regia Silk Color (Ravelry Link), a wool/nylon/silk blend. And I picked up Trekking Pro Natura (Ravelry Link), a wool/bamboo blend, to try out because I vaguely recall somebody mentioning this brand. Well, this should keep me busy!

Trekking Pro Natura Sock Yarn

It's too bad that Nine Rubies is a bit of a drive for me. I only happened to be in the area because I was meeting a friend at Hillsdale Mall. This yarn store had a sitting area on one side where several knitters were gathered and it looked like such a fun thing to do!

I've got more yarny goodness to share with y'all, I just haven't had time to get my pics lined up. I also have sock knitting adventures to share too ... yes, still working on Practice Pair of Socks #2.

Copyright © Smariek Knits 2005-2009. All full copyright rights are reserved by Smariek Knits.
.