Caught up in the rush

Oh my...it has been a while, hasn't it? I have thought about posting almost every day for the past week and a half, and it just hasn't happened. The trip to Philly and the wedding were great; it was nice to have some time away from lab, and even better to meet some new people. We're not very good at getting out and socializing, so it was good to have an excuse.

After posting about travel knitting, I went upstairs to explore the stash and decide what to take. I bought several sweaters' worth of Patons Merino on sale a year or so ago, and haven't done anything with it since the two first sweaters pilled with minimal wear. So, I have a ton of Patons that's been weighing on me. Which led me to cast on for an afghan. Not exactly standard travel knitting, but it was only in the baby stages, so it wasn't too big for carry-on. Big yarn and two plane rides means that I'm about 10 inches into it, and the feather and fan stitch I picked is super easy to keep track of.

I decided against taking the leaf socks, because I still haven't picked a leaf stitch pattern for them. Instead, I took along Anne's Tudor Grace, which has been fun to work. The pattern is super easy to memorize, and it's making quite a bit of progress considering how little time I've spent knitting on it.

I know. You want pictures. But the camera isn't out, and I'm feeling lazy. Pictures next time, I promise.

We really liked Philly. We saw all kinds touristy places; we visited Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, the Ben Franklin Museum, the Natural History Museum (they have a great butterfly garden), and took a day trip out to Valley Forge. It was so nice to have a city that was fun to walk in, and that could be covered pretty well by foot. Walking around Boston was one of our favorite pastimes when we lived there, and we really miss having a city compact enough to access entirely by foot.

Despite Branden's best efforts, we only made one yarn shop during the whole trip. He had a whole list of them printed out, but we got distracted with other things, which is just as well, since I don't need any more yarn.

I'm feeling pretty emphatic about that at the moment, actually. I feel like I've barely been knitting, and my projects list is beginning to feel a bit oppressive. The last thing I need at the moment is more on my "to do" list, so I'm glad we didn't increase the stash much.

I did pick up a couple of balls of Jojoland when we visited Nangellini on South Street, though, since I've been meaning to try it for some time and Branden thought he might like a pair of socks. It was a nice little yarn shop, with all kinds of novelty yarns and bright colors. The owner was very friendly, and took us on a guided tour of her favorite yarns.

We tried to stop in at Sophie's Yarn (also on South street), but they weren't open when we got there. The shop kitty looked quite content to be curled up asleep in the window, though.

So that's the short version of our trip. We landed back in Seattle late Sunday, and were back at work Monday. My new faculty orientation for the teaching fellowship began today, and I'm working on getting postdoc funding. I think it must be fall again...I can just feel the academic year winding up...

I'm debating whether or not to go to TKGA this weekend. We have planned to go to three or four fiber-related events near Seattle, and have only gone to Alpacapalooza, which was much more about the alpaca and a lot less about the knitting. Something always seems to come up at the last minute. It's so silly not to go, since it's so close, but I kinda want a weekend at home to finish the laundry from our trip, weed my garden, and come to terms with the fact that it's time to come back to real life. I am torn. It would be nice to go hang out with knitters, but it we have done more socializing in the past three weeks than we usually do in three months, so it's tempting to stay home, too...