Death by Ice Cream

I came home from work with a mental checklist of what needed to be completed tonight.

Dishes - check
Feed myself - check
Make lunch for tomorrow - check
Knit - not checked yet

I got sidetracked. Really sidetracked. You could say that I planned my deviation from my checklist. I was the one, after all, who put the ice cream maker bucket in the freezer this weekend. I was the one who bought the heavy cream.

I really wanted ice cream. I was in my gnome leggings, glasses on, hair in a bun. There was not a chance I was getting back in my car for ice cream. Homemade ice cream isn't ready in a day so why bother?

And then I pulled out the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Recipe book my sister got me with my first ice cream maker. And a light shone down right on the French Vanilla recipe (technically, it was the sun through my skylight but I'll believe otherwise for now). I had all the ingredients and I still had my bottle of Mexican vanilla from....wait for it, my trip to Mexico.  Serendipity!

The only thing that worries me with the B&J's recipes is their penchant for using raw eggs.  I mean, I drink egg nog with the best of them but it's pasteurized so I usually don't worry. My family made homemade egg nog one year, with about a dozen raw eggs and lots of bourbon. But ALL of us were too scared to drink it so we gave it to one of dad's friends. He didn't die.

I went ahead and whipped 2 eggs into a "light and fluffy" state of mind all the while getting an arm cramp. I'm in IT, I don't really do this type of physical work. Next up was sugar...beautiful sugar. A couple teaspoons of the gorgeous Mexican vanilla came next. Vanilla has fooled me in the past, with that unbelievable aroma and horrific taste. Yes, I tasted vanilla as a child (and as an adult. Don't judge me). I added in my cream and almond milk and completed the mix.

Into the ice cream maker we go. I stared at it swirling around for a bit then went to read the paper until the timer dinged. That was a terribly long 20 minutes. Now, homemade ice cream does not immediately set up. It's kind of a loose soft serve. But if you are lucky, the mixture that is still clinging to the sides of the frozen bucket form a layer of real, frozen ice cream.

And this is the best ice cream I've tasted in a long time.

Will the raw eggs kill me? I hope not, but if it does, I shall die happy.

The oldest yarn

So back in 2008, my mom and I took some knitting lessons from Susan at the Trading Post in Pendleton. She did a great job at teaching me the basics and instilling a love of creating in me. We had to stop because my dad was in the end stages of Parkinson's Disease but I learned enough to keep going.

Before we left, I said I wanted to learn how to make socks, so I bought a skein of sock yarn from her. That skein has been in my stash since then. Socks were intimidating so I didn't even try them until much later. This first skein of sock yarn was brash, bold, and what-was-I-thinking? I finally got it out.

And then got stuck with my back problems that kept me from finishing sock #2. Dammit.

What my staycation this week gave me was the motivation to finish this pair of socks. Action breeds motivation, at least, so once I picked it up to start again, I just kept going.

It's a million degrees in the shade here but, hey, I have a new pair of crazy color wool socks for winter.

Click to embiggen

The pattern is Vanilla Latte. Hindsight, an afterthought heel would have been better to avoid the striping but I still like them.

I have to go on a short trip for work and was pondering what I could take to knit on the plane and in the hotel room in the evening. I decided to cast on a new pair of socks from yarn that was already wound. I remember I started a baby cardigan with it but decided not to use it. No label but I remember it was from the Golden Skein yarn club. 

It feels kinda good to be back(ish). :)

Depression Sucks

Little did I know when I wrote my last post in February 2017 that I only had about 4 months of not being in horrible pain left. In May 2017, what I thought was a random bout of sciatica turned out to very much not to be.

The last 14 months have greatly sucked and every piece of motivation I could muster up went to just getting up and going to work. There's been no crafting, barely any reading, barely anything that looks like a life, actually. The pain in my back and leg has been unrelenting, making sitting just torture. I probably could have knit while laying down, but I honestly just didn't care.

My spine is covered ( just "impressive" says the neurosurgeon) in Tarlov Cysts. It took 3 lumbar epidurals that didn't work to get me to a neurosurgeon who, thankfully, had heard of Tarlov cysts. He ordered an SI joint injection (which pretty much made me come off the table - yowch) to determine that, basically, the cysts that cover my sacrum have eroded the SI joint, which is supposed to be immovable - the shock absorber of your body - and mine is moving. Walking is painful, sitting is painful, and at my worst, laying down was painful. Since my commute to work is about 45 minutes each way, work was all I could do. Which I had to do because I need the insurance to handle all of this shit.

Now I'm with a chiropractor/PT for 20 sessions (per insurance) to jump through hoops to get SI joint fusion surgery. I've had Ulcerative Colitis so bad I had to have a permanent Ileostomy. Hypothyroidism. Asthma. Basal Cell Carcinoma. Dislocated hip. And this, my friends, has been my worst period of health problems ever. Chronic pain, day in, day out. The depression that I had under control is completely out of control. Because I can't do the things I used to love to do anymore.

Work has dumped an amazing amount of new responsibilities on me and life has gotten so overwhelming that, well, I just need to write.

I know this is supposed to be a knitting, fun, blog. It will get back to that, I swear. But I have to dump my demons out somewhere. It might as well be into the void.

On a side note, I'm on staycation from work and I have gotten back to knitting a bit. Pumped full of Tylenol and with new Flector patches and ice packs, I can sit for longer than 20 minutes! :)

Not Fading Away....

I cannot believe it's been almost a year since I last posted. My book blog has been busier because I've been reading more than crafting, thanks to wrist pains.

I'm coming back.

Hang in there!

Book Review: Faux Taxidermy Knits by Louise Walker

I bought this book on my own - no one asked me to review it :)


I haven't knit anything out of this book yet but I have many patterns marked. This book is too adorable for words but I'll try to form the words to do a review because, well, the review would be weird without words.

I found out about Louise Walker through her Etsy shop because I was looking for taxidermied animals. Fake ones, for my office at work, as I'm wont to do. I still plan on buying one of the kits because they come with everything you need, including the backing. I'm leaning towards the T-Rex head, personally. But check out her shop for kits and patterns, every one more awesome than the last.

Her book came out in 2014 and includes 2 sections: Wearables and Habitat. We have 15 patterns, ranging from basic knitting level to advanced. The basic patterns are just as entertaining and intriguing as the advanced and intermediate patterns. Take a run through the patterns on Ravelry here.

I'm going to run through my absolute favorites that I plan on casting on soon:

The fox stole, which is also the cover photo, is a must have for me. I love my scarves but the thought of wearing this foxy fox around my neck in the winter makes me very happy! It's an intermediate pattern with quite a bit of sewing (the body, ears, legs, tail are all separate pieces) but I'm quite ok with that.

The Polar Bear Paw Mittens are a must for the cold Midwestern winters (with this winter being the exception to that...weird weather). These are 2 color mittens with afterthought thumbs.

The Mink Wrap is another awesome scarflike wrap made to look like the fancy pants mink stoles. Made with 3 different colors you are basically knitting 2 minks and putting them together with a hook and eye closure. Very high society!

We move on to the Habitat patterns. Naturally I want the moose head and will most likely buy the kit to get the backing and such. My wall is begging for this guy. Yours probably is too. Even without the kit, the book gives pretty detailed finishing instructions on how to get your moose properly put together and mounted.

My kitchen is begging for some pheasants! Knit with super bulky yarn and being a beginner level pattern, I should be able to get a nice line of pheasants knit up quickly

The Bear Coasters are also on the list. They look like tiny bearskin rugs for your mug. Love them!

While I don't plan on knitting this one, the one advanced pattern in the book is impressive. The Tiger Rug. This is rug-sized for your floor and is really well done. Magnificent beast!

All in all, this book is well done with beautiful photographs, detailed patterns and lots of instructions. Love animals! But knit them, don't hurt them.

Purchase from Amazon

Selfish? Or just really thoughtful to yourself....

February really got away from me! I finally got some down time this weekend where I could just knit, read and watch movies. Be a vegetable. And it's been lovely.

 I had wanted to write up some goals for this year but I guess my first goal should be to get motivation to write my goals. Regardless, I believe this year will be a stay at home year working on my house and myself. I only have 2 trips planned: a weekend in NYC and a week in San Francisco. Just two? We might throw in a trip to Chicago as well, since it is so close :) Next year, though, my friend and I are talking about a cruise to Italy and Greece and I'm all over that one. That makes my mantra this year "Do you need that? Or can that money go to Italy?". See where this is going? YARN DIET.

I started myself on a selfish kick as well. Which leads me to ponder why knitting is called selfish when you knit for yourself but no other hobby is called selfish. Is there selfish crochet? Selfish crossstitch? Selfish woodworking? I don't think so. In fact, in Buddhism there is a saying

This is the truth. You cannot care for others if you don't care for yourself. So instead of selfish knitting, I'm going to engage in zen knitting.

I'm kicking off my zen knitting with Yarngasm's Box O'Sox KAL. Kristin organized this to be selfish knitting so, at the end of year, we, for ourselves, are the proud owners of 12 new pairs of handknit socks.

On The Needles

I started a pair of vanilla socks just because the yarn I had bought (yarn diet? what?) was so beautiful laying there in the skein. I need to see what it could do. I found a group on Facebook called Addicted To Sock Knitting and have been using that as inspiration. Witch Candy Yarns posted some photos about her shop update and her yarn was amazing. I ran right over and purchased Indian Bead Belt. It's sparkly and gorgeous

I know how many WIPs I had but I'm tearing through these socks so it's ok :)

I also started back on my Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West. That was a WIP from a while ago but it has been languishing. It's an easy knit and I usually work on that while watching movies.

Off The Needles

The narwhals are done!

I really wanted to make narwhals for my niece and nephew once I saw the pattern. Rebecca Danger has the cutest toys and they are pretty easy to make. I'm really happy with how these turned out although as soon as the kids got them, they started poking everyone with the tusk :)

The kids picked their favorite colors and those are some fine looking narwhals!


With the Spring-like weather coming in, I think my mood will approve and creativity will come out. It's not been a bad winter here in Indiana but Winter tends to bring me down. I can't wait to fling open the windows and welcome in Spring!

Until next time....

WIP it. WIP it good.

As part of my new year 2016, I decided to go through ALL of my Works In Progress and either frog them or finish them. Some of these things have been on the needles for years!!

I only ended up frogging one item, but the yarn is a gorgeous Malabrigo in chocolate brown and bright blue so I think that will just end up being another project really soon.

So here's what I have to finish this year:

My Viajante

Martina Behm is a talented designer. I've already made her Hitchhiker and Trillian and started tackling  the Viajante. Whew. This is made from lace yarn and I think it's going to take forever. It looks like I ended right at the point where I need to join so I'll at least keep it out so I can keep it moving. It will be pretty when it's done since it's in Gnomeacres Gnomey Night (inspiration: Starry Nights by Van Gogh) and it has sparkles!

Blanket

That's all I can say about this :) It's a present for someone who may or may not read the blog

Socks

Rose City Rollers pattern and that's all I can say about this as well :)


Love Bites Sweater

From the Vampire Knits book, I chose the Love Bites sweater because I realized I had an awful lot of grey Berroco Vintage yarn and I wanted a simple sweater to start with. It's casted on and has several rounds already worked. Technically a guys sweater, I am knitting the smallest size. It does call for dropping stitches but I think I'm going to try something different. In Buffy The Vampire Slayer, she had a sweater that had random purl stitches all over the body. I like it and am going to try that with this one.

Best picture I could find

Sparkley Gradient Shawlette

I've already made one of these shawlettes in a rainbow gradient and love it. I got this yarn as part of the Sunnydale (again - Buffy) yarn club from Dizzy Color and it's so pretty. I'm already through the green and have hit the blue. Easy pattern to memorize.

Boneyard Shawl

A Stephen West design, I'm diligently working through this. It will be an awesomely large shawl to wrap around myself in the office. Still on skein one of two of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock in the Minestrone colorway.

Exploration Station

Another Stephen West design, this was a mystery knit-a-long but I got diverted. Still going to finish it! I really like the bright colors I picked but, now that I know what the finished design looks like, I'm thinking some neutral colors would look good too.

BRIGHT!

Iced

My first cardigan. I left it at the entire body completed with one sleeve done. What? Just a sleeve and a yoke to finish. But when I pulled it out to look at .... eh, I need to rip out the bind off of the body and lengthen it. Maybe that's why it just languished. Still will be a very very cozy cardigan and it will get finished.


Hermione Socks

First sock leg is still on the needles. I know the yarn came from the Tempted yarn club but I don't have the label anymore. Still working up very pretty and I just need to knuckle down and get them done!


I Flunked The Written

Buffy again! This is a pattern that came with the Sunnydale yarn club. Very pretty and I'm using one of their yarns, O Soave Fanciulla. Dizzy Color does an amazing job at taking inspiration and making a beautiful yarn. This will get done as well!

O Soave Fanciulla

I found some projects I inherited from a friend who passed away. Unfortunately, there are no patterns with the projects or even labels for the yarn, so I will be frogging those and re-vamping the yarn for another use.

The next post will be what I'm planning with new yarn (what? yes, new yarn because I'm an idiot). But I really need to get some of these off the needles!!!

I Don't Know Where To Start.....

I've missed you, blog. I don't think I have many readers but I've missed documenting my creative exploits for the world. I think I've missed the creative exploits most of all. It took a lot of effort to make the post back in August and work on the alpaca fleece. Quite literally, since that post, everything has been at a standstill. Expectations were high and I couldn't reach them.

Without dwelling on 2015, I'm going to challenge myself for 2016. What I do, what I create, will be for me. Sure, there will be urges to create for others but they will be surprises, not by request. What I learn, I'll learn for me. Not to earn more money, create a side business, blah blah. No deadlines, nothing specific. So I guess my new year's resolutions (if they can be called that) are: be happy, create, learn.

My loosey-goosey goal is to blog at least once a week, hopefully more. If I don't meet that, eh. The world won't end. :)

Just so there are pictures and fun things on this fresh-as-a-daisy post, here's what I have been up to:

A cruise! Again? Oh yes, to Cozumel and Costa Maya. This time we were out for 5 nights and it was just wonderful. Winter in Indiana is cruel sometimes and getting away to sun, sea and sand for a bit was rejuvenating! I much prefer Celebrity Cruise Lines to Carnival as I'm just not much the party girl/drinker as the young kids can be. I turned 40 on December 7th and this was my present to myself (as well as a purse and earrings bought on the ship). Hello, new decade! Let's have fun!

Deck 16 - Solstice - far away from hub bub

Cozumel, Mexico - little bar we had lunch at. Look at the view!

Beach we lounged on in Costa Maya. Just a little bit longer....

I managed to read 3 books, cover to cover, while on the trip (my reviews are on my book blog here). And I got a pretty good portion of a sock done. Speaking of socks, FOs and WIPs!

I lovingly call these my Bloody Damn Socks. I dyed the yarn myself and it turned out mostly what I was envisioning. I wanted more gray/silver but mostly just got dots. I still really like how they turned out. I used Knit Picks Bare Sport weight yarn along with Jacquard Acid Dyes. I used the pattern Just Yer Basic Sport Sock (my Ravelry project page).

I had decided sometime in the summer to make my mom another pair of socks from yarn I bought while in Daytona Beach. I loved how they striped up and look beachy.  I used TOFUtsies made with 50% superwash wool, 25% soy silk, 22.5% cotton, 2.5% chitin (made from shrimp and crab shells!) so they are apparently antibacterial as well. Good for a diabetic who just broke her leg? (You heard me. Beginning of September. It's been a rough remainder of 2015). Yes. Mom loves these and I guess they are comfy because there is no elastic so she doesn't have to worry about the sock pressing into her skin or cutting off circulation. Yay. Also, this is just a plain vanilla sock.  (my Ravelry project page)

This was crazy. Knit with size 35 needles my fingers cramped after a row or 2. My friend's little boy outgrew his baby blanket I made 5 years ago and I decided he needed a big boy blanket. I found the yarn in a clearance bin and it was a) boyish and b) so dang squishy. I used up every scrap of yarn and it turned out nicely sized for the kiddo. And ... he loved it! Yay 2! Basic Diagonal Comfort Blanket pattern from Lion Brand (my Ravelry project page).

Very basic bulky hat that I knit for my brother. He lives in New Mexico and works road construction at night. It gets pretty dang cold out there so he needed a warm hat. I'm in the process of making him socks but damn, the man has big feet. No Ravelry page for this. So very basic.

I don't really stalk Etsy shops. But I wanted a skein of Hand Turkey bad enough I contacted Lara at Gynx Yarns to see when she would be making more. She let me know the date and I stalked. And I got me a skein! (Wow, her stuff sells out quickly). My first sport weight socks (My Bloody Damn Socks were the second) I screwed them up repeatedly. I was worried I wouldn't get them done by Thanksgiving but I did, with a day to spare. I never worked with Gynx Yarns before but I really loved how this worked up. I'm a fan. (my Ravelry project page).

HO HO HO. :)  So this is the only half-finished object I'm posting right now just because I have way too many to post. But the yarn is gorgeous and I'm really eager to get back to finishing this. I started off in The Walking Dead Mystery KAL and purchased this TWD yarn from Jimmy Beans to tackle the first clue. This is as far as I got and I'm not sure why. It's beautiful yarn, perfectly zombie, and a great pattern. Again, I think life got in my way. Jimmy Beans Ravelry group is here and you can check the Walking Dead MKAL and everything else they have going on.

I did teach a class on sock knitting and I think it went well. Perhaps too much for one class though. I have some more ideas on classes for 2016 so I'm hoping they will be well received and I can share the joy of yarn and needles with everyone. 

More posts to come. Stay tuned!

Alpaca My Bags!

My kitchen smells like a wet alpaca is living in it. But let me start at the beginning.....


Several months ago, I visited an alpaca farm and bought one pound of alpaca fleece to try my hand at processing and spinning. It's been hanging out in a bag in my craft room since then. I've been preoccupied and my house has been, let's say, in dire straits since the farm visit and I guess I'm that person who can't move forward when I see other things that need done. Since then, craft room has been organized and the rest of the house is well on it's way to being purged of "stuff" so it doesn't feel so cluttered. Now, let's process some fleece!

Keep in mind, I have zero experience doing any of this so YouTube is my friend. I plan on documenting everything I am doing, including all of my mistakes, so maybe others can learn from them (I hope I learn from them too!). I opened the bag of pretty white fleece from Lily and wow...alpaca smell. It's terribly humid out so I plunked myself down in my craft room with the bag, another plastic bag and a trash can. The process of picking out debris (hay, sticks, poop) from the fleece is called skirting and that's what I sat in here and did. It actually didn't take that long because the fleece seemed pretty clean from debris. I've never handled alpaca fleece straight from the animal itself and it was...odd. And still a bit smelly.

Alpacas don't have lanolin like sheep so the whole soaking to get rid of lanolin isn't needed but this bag of fleece was in desperate need of washing. Welcome to YouTube:

I used a bucket in my sink so I could do small batches at a time and I also used Dawn to "shampoo" the fleece. As of this writing, the first batch of fleece is on it's 2nd 30 minute rinse. The water was pretty clearish after the first rinse but I decided one more run won't hurt. I have to remember not to agitate the fleece because I don't want a felted mess.

Since it's so humid out, I'll be spreading the fleece in the front foyer by the big window to dry. I had this terrible vision of putting the fleece outside to dry and watching the birds carry it off. I'm pretty sure that will happen.

I also got my spinning wheel set up, thanks to YouTube again. I bought a Lendrum single treadle and it was fairly easy to set up with the video and NOT with the instructions it came with. I have no knowledge or experience with spinning wheels and it would have been nice for the written instructions to assume that.

I have so much to learn and I'm finally excited to learn it all!

My wheel!

Line. Speed. Beauty.

I am falling victim to inertia. My brain, and house, contain so many things I want to do and learn but once I am home, I just do what I always do. Thankfully still knitting and reading instead of mindlessly watching TV but still. I need to get my body and mind in sync and get moving in another direction.

I heard the title above recently in regards to learning a new skill. It stuck. I think my main problem is, if I start spinning, if I put my wheel together and really have to start, I'll suck at it.

OF COURSE I will suck at it. I've never done it before.

But the thought of sucking at it has caused me to stop before I start.

Line:

Learn the technique. Don't worry about how good you are because you won't be. Absorb everything you can about the new skill you are trying to learn and PRACTICE.

Speed:

Once Line is conquered then you move on to speed. Once the technique is down, you have the confidence to speed up the process.

Beauty:

Get your Line and Speed down then you move on to Beauty. THEN and only then, do you move on to creating art.

This whole process is behind some of the greatest art that is out there. Artists, musicians, filmmakers, everyone has to start at Line. Then they move to Speed. Then they create art and Beauty.

Everything I admire about spinning yarn, all of the people I follow on Instagram and Ravelry, I want to be there someday. And I will.

I will suck at this. But I'll get better. And I'll be blogging about every mess-up, foible, and success along the way.

Line. Speed. Beauty.

How Does That Equality Feel?

A pretty historic day today. One that made many proud to be an American and one that struck fear in the heart of homophobes. Same-sex marriage is legal in all states!!!!

It's funny, I had casted on an asymmetrical triangle shawl about a month or so ago and cast it off late last night. And it turned out to be fitting, a rainbow gradient, for today.

Pre-washed and blocked

We might as well start with

Off The Needles

The pattern is called Ex-Boyfriends but my intent was a simple pattern that will display the beautiful gradient yarn that I purchased at Stitches South this year. The yarn is from Apple Tree Knits and is Socklove Fingering (80% superwash BFL, 20% nylon) in the Chakra gradient. It was an easy pattern to memorize and watching the colors unfold was pure potato chip knitting. I haven't had a finished object in a while but this is a good one to kickstart the mojo.

On The Needles

I had a staycation from work (and it was incredibly needed) and I tried to organize my UFO projects. Reality is, I have way too many projects just hanging out on the needles and I need to get them finished up and moved on so I can cast on more projects. I have several pairs of socks on the needles as well as my Iced cardigan (still!). I recently started a baby blanket for a friend's adopted daughter in Jamaica. She had a baby recently and my friend is heading down for the wedding. I felt the baby needed something to wrap up in when he's cold and to spread on the floor to play on so I started a basic Lion Brand blanket. I purchased 2 colors each of Brava bulky from Knit Picks in Gold, Green and Black (Jamaican flag colors) and am already through the increases for green and gold. This is going to be a giant blanket! The yarn is crazy soft and squishy for an acrylic and will be easy to toss in the washer and dryer. New moms don't need anything extra to worry about.

I also casted on a Boneyard shawl, in theory for Camp Loopy. The yarn I bought from the Loopy Ewe for this is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock in Minestrone. It's gorgeous and I heard great things about this brand from various podcasters - mostly Kristin from Yarngasm. The colorway reminded me of my friend's photos from her safari in Africa. I originally tried knitting the Mossy Waterfall Scarf but tore it out because the pattern got lost in the colors. I still plan on knitting the scarf, but in a solid or semi-solid so the detail shines through. I've wanted to knit a Boneyard by Stephen West for a while so I went with it. It's turning out very pretty and the pattern is pretty easy to memorize except for the M1L and M1R. I still need a cheat sheet on those.

Not even close to done so it looks like I'm a bad camper. The picture of the animals in handknit socks cheer me up though!

I have lots more on the needles but that's for another day.

In Your Ear

I'm currently trying to catch up on podcasts and managed to plow through about 10 Knitmore Girls podcasts in a row. All that really did was add to my queue.

I also started listening to Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (she of The Yellow Wallpaper fame) through the Craftlit podcast. I'm already halfway through the book and it's just as odd and strange as The Yellow Wallpaper.



More to come as I figure out where I am at and how to get back to my crafty life. Being without Eva has been much harder than I ever anticipated and I know I've let myself fall off of my own radar. I do have plans for more blog writing, crafty and otherwise, so here is hoping I hold myself to it!

Eva

Stitches South 2015: My Recap

Once again, I've been gone for a bit. My knitting mojo left, I think because I had a hard time dealing with the loss of Eva. This, coupled with problems at work (that have since resolved), had me really down in the dumps. I had signed up for Stitches South earlier in the year and went, hoping my mojo came back.

And it did.

But first, in order to really get the mojo, I had to finish up "obligation" knitting. Now that it's out to it's new owner, everything I do is for ME!!!! I think this is one of the big take-aways from Stitches that I left with: it's ok to knit for myself. While it's good to think of others, it's important to think of yourself too. I saw so many things that inspired me and made me want to KNIT ALL THE THINGS.

Stitches South was in Nashville, TN (one of my favorite cities) and I got on board a little late so The Gaylord was full, but I got a room just 5 minutes away so it all worked out. We arrived on a Wednesday and I went and grabbed my name tag and registration then we were off.

First stop: Dinosaur World in KY for a photo op

Next stop: Loveless Cafe in Nashville, TN - THE FOOD! And Moonshine.

A guy working at the Visitor's Center in TN told us about Puckett's Grocery and Restaurant. We choose to have dinner there the first night. Amazing food, great selection of beer and live entertainment. Did I mention I love Nashville?

Puckett's

The next day, I had registered for a class on Amazing Couture Stitches but in actuality, I was downtown Nashville exploring the Country Music Museum. *cough* I really wanted to go to the Museum because the Dylan Cash exhibit was there. I've no regrets.

Before the museum we ate at the Pancake Pantry. No regrets there either!

We also headed to Belle Meade Plantation. It was neat walking the grounds and taste testing at the winery there.

My grandma lived in Hendersonville, TN on Old Hickory Lake, near Johnny Cash. We decided to head over there to visit Cash's gravesite. It took some searching but we found it

We ended the day eating at The Cock of The Walk, near our hotel because we were beat. Giant, family style plate of hush pups, catfish and chicken with cornbread on the side.

The next day, Friday, was my first class and real day at Stitches. I took a cuff down, toe up sock class by Stacey Trock. I had all my homework done and had already knit up some cuff down socks before so I was more eager to learn the toe up version. Stacey was a really good teacher but I think the class had too much content for 3 hours. There were a few folks who didn't do the homework either so we did have to wait on them to catch up. Basically, we got through a version of the cuff down sock and just barely started learning the toe up cast on (of which I mangled badly) before the class was up.

After the class, I hit the marketplace. OH MY...... It was chaos. My sister joined me and ended up holding my bags while I charged into the booths I wanted to hit (pre-planning my marketplace list!). I got into Miss Babs and The Plucky Knitter as well as Erin Lane bags. Later on, I visited the marketplace about 3 more times and hit up A Hundred Ravens, Seven Sisters, Apple Tree, & 2 Guys Yarn Company. Sew Flo had adorable and geeky bags. I ended up with a TARDIS notions bag. I also ended up getting a new knitting bag and t-shirt. Whew. And yet, I didn't buy nearly as much as others!

After the marketplace on Friday, we were off to the Johnny Cash museum! And for a stop at the Goo Goo Cluster store, conveniently right across the street.

I went back to the Gaylord for the fashion show. Let me say now that I really appreciated the knitters and crocheters there. I was alone for the conference but everyone was very friendly and invited me to sit with their groups. I really did appreciate that. I didn't take photos of the fashion show because I was mostly entranced by it. Beautiful garments and, what made me so happy, I could make them myself!! Wahoo!

After the show, we headed to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner because my sister had never been.

My mom and I (and an elephant)

On Saturday, I was pretty excited (and nervous) to take Lily Chin's Tips and Tricks class. Nervous because the homework was to learn the crochet cast on and I just could not get it. I'm really not the type to go to a class without the homework being done. Lily is officially my knitting hero. She was dressed in a handknit, sparkly purple dress with sparkly purple tights and purple boots. She was funny and smart and helpful and she really knew how to pack in all the information she intended us to absorb into 3 hours. This class was worth the entire price of admission to the conference.

This was our last night in town. My sister and I signed up for a haunted tour of Nashville (in a hearse) and were planning on hitting the bars on Broadway. Before that, we stopped at Caney Fork River Valley Grille for dinner. More good food and live entertainment!

Nashville Ghost Tours offers up an open air hearse to tour the haunted places of Nashville. It was... challenging to get into the hearse and slightly creepy. Our first stop was a cemetery then onward to Music Row and the Capitol Records building. It was a really good tour! No bars afterwards though, it was a madhouse with lines to get in a mile long. There had been a marathon that morning so Nashville was a hopping city. Back to the hotel to pack.

Stitches South was just what I needed. I'm already planning on next year and plan on signing up for a lot more classes!

http://www.knittinguniverse.com/STITCHES/