Traveling

I just returned from a short business trip to DC.  The meetings and camaraderie were great.  The actual getting there and back less so.  I ask, how do non-knitters cope with air travel? OK, I see people with their Kindles and other book readers, and people diddling with their cell phones and I really get why people have smart phones and iPads.  I had a laptop with me and did actual work in the airport and in the hotel room.  But I must say I spent about the same amount of time in airports and airplanes as I did in meetings. Here is what I have to show for it.  90% of a pair of socks.  The yarn is Fortissima Socka Mexiko Color (0051).  They were lots of fun to knit.  My seatmate on the final flight to Asheville, suggested that I stay in the airport long enough to finish them, though I decided to go ahead and finish them later.  Maybe tonight, surely by week's end.  This may be a personal best in terms on sock completion.  Nothing fancy here, obviously.  Just a basic sock recipe that I like to use for self striping yarn. As it happens, this is my 5th pair of socks in 2011.  Even if I am not really in a self-imposed sock club, these seem to be my May socks.

My fiber is traveling without me to the Carolina Fiber Fest in Raleigh, NC with Judy and Marie, owners of Asheville HomeCrafts.  They are vendors at the event and decided to make their booth's focus Needle Felting.  So they'll have lots of notions and supplies, including plenty of hand dyed fiber from the studio of Smoky Mountain Fibers.  I spent a few weeks dyeing and prepping the fiber for sale and now it is on it's way    They are also taking hand spun yarns and my patterns.

Friends and Fiberworks will also be at the Fiber Fest, taking lots of great yarns and patterns, including the 2 new patterns that I developed for their store, including this new red version of the Trailside hat. So if you are in the neighborhood of the Carolina Fiber Fest, drop by either booth to visit my work in person.

Meanwhile, I'll be finishing this fine pair of purple socks!