Domestically Challenged

It Came!

On Friday, the US Postal Service delivered three of the eight boxes (now ten after the repacking incident) we had shipped from Canada. One of the boxes was all stash.

 

So many things to knit! True to form, even though I now had perfectly good yarn, I went to the yarn store. I cycled to Knitting in La Jolla which is a 5 miles ride downhill along the coast. The views were quite beautiful. Every now and then, I would see Pacific Ocean peeking out through the trees.

Disaster struck right before arriving at the yarn store - my left crank (the part that attaches the pedal to the frame) started to separate from my bicycle. In all of the years that I had been cycling, that had never happened to me before. I was pretty sure that I couldn't make it the 5 miles back uphill without my pedal so I set out in search of a bike shop. Looking for a bike shop in La Jolla is like looking for a bike shop in Yorkville (for the Canadians) or on Rodeo Drive. I asked at a few places near the beach that rented bikes, but they were clueless. I figured I should just walk my bike over to the yarn shop and fondle yarn while I tried to come up with a solution.

(This is only one part of the store. It is much bigger than this.)

Knitting in La Jolla is a lovely store exploding with yummy yarns. The shop owner was so sweet and even though I only bought buttons (by this point my hands were covered in grease and I didn't want to sully the yarn) she went out of her way to try to figure out where the closest bike shop would be. Luckily, her son is an avid cyclist and she had a pretty good idea of where to send me. Buttons in hand, I raced towards it, hoping it wouldn't be closed. I had no idea how I would get back to University City without my bike. But the shop was open and the guys fixed my crank in under a minute free of charge. Phew!

So what did I need buttons for?

 

This is the Baby Kimono pattern from the first Mason-Dixon knitting book. I started knitting it in 2006 and even though it knit up amazingly fast, it languished in my knitting basket for over two years because my first attempt at seaming made the whole thing wonky. I made it using Rowan All Seasons Cotton on US 7 needles. One of the big incentives to finish it, besides B mocking my perfectionist tendencies, is that someone I know just had a baby boy. Congratulations Phil & Shari!

FO in the Wild

Sue sent me a pic of the Djangos in the wild. Amazing! I love the yellow on yellow.

 

Thanks, sue!!!

My Only WIP

Only one WIP made it to California. I had more packed in my suitcase but when Costin weighed it the morning before our flight we discovered that not only was the bag oversized but that it exceeded the weight restriction by 10 lbs. That led to a frenzy of unpacking the  suitcase and repacking things into boxes that my MIL was kind enough to offer to ship to us. I think I put my other WIPs in these boxes which probably won't get here for three weeks. Luckily, we shipped my stash the week before we left so it should get here early next week. I wonder if I will finish these socks by then:

These are Thuja from Knitty. The pattern calls for a heavier yarn, but I'm using Estelle Cadenza on US1 needles. I fell in love with this colourway after Bree brought home a skein. This photo makes it look a little minty but it's more of a moss green. I'm wasn't crazy about the colour pooling but now it's starting to grow on me. Maybe because it's my only project... I wonder if I'll be able to wait until next week to cast on something new. I just discovered that there is a yarn store 5 miles away (and my husband offered to bike there with me)!

I'm here!

Saturday we made it to San Diego without a hitch. It was amazing how well it went, actually.

     

We put all 10 pieces of luggage on the plane (including a little black cat and two bicycles) and got 10 pieces back on the other side. Costin, whose luggage was lost at Pearson for the better part of our honeymoon, was floored. I had nightmares the bikes wouldn't make it through or that Minchie would die in the belly of the plane. Phew! The next step was to get all of our stuff from the airport to the rental car place on the shuttle. That was very interesting. Thankfully the shuttle driver was very nice and helped us load everything on. He was quite amused by Minchie and let her ride up upfront with him. We got a huge gas guzzler to be sure we could fit everything in, but even then it was a tight squeeze. Minchie had to sit on my lap.  We got to San Diego, via Target (Minchie needed a new litter box), around 10:30 pm (12:30 am EST) and promptly passed out on the air mattress after an exhaustive search for my glasses. The glasses were never found. Nor was my contact lens case...I had left them in Toronto. Oy. Strange, I had done a similar thing before moving to Ottawa (that time I had left my glasses in the pocket of a housecoat at a B&B in Montreal). Maybe it's my subconscious' way of telling me that I should get new glasses.

Almost There

Wouldn’t you know it; after spending a morning trying to catch up on 17 pages of friend activity on Ravelry, I started to plan a project involving some gorgeous yarn that I had packed and shipped to California yesterday. I almost got off the couch to get it, too, before I remembered. It’s strange not having any stuff. Aside from a bicycle, a cat, a computer and a suitcase full of clothes, everything I own is now in the care of Canada Post. Oy.

We leave for San Diego on Saturday. I am so excited and nervous all at once. Hopefully all of our luggage makes it, hopefully our bikes make it and hopefully our little kittie makes it through alive. I think I will feel much better on Saturday when we are there... before I realize that I’ve moved 2500 miles from my friends and family. Oy.

Having time off work has been nice. The first week of September, we visited my parents and my sister in Sudbury. We spent so much time outside it was almost like being at summer camp. We kayaked, biked and ran a spontaneous half-marathon. 

 

My husband even swam the length of Ramsey Lake. We kayaked alongside him so that he didn’t get run over by boats. It was hilarious how many people pulled up beside us to ask, “Is that guy swimming?”

While in Sudbury, I powered through a pair of socks but didn't post about them because they were a present for LtK. Now that she's received them, though, I can show all of the pictures I want!

 

I made her some Monkeys for being the 1000th commenter on this blog. I used some great yarn that I picked up while I was in Halifax for Carrice's wedding. It's Tanis Fiber Arts Hand-dyed Yarn in Peacock. The yarn was so colourful and springy, I may have to find myself another skein before I leave the country. Lisa has more pictures of her modelling them on her blog.

Now I'm at my MIL's in North York making sure that everything is packed and ready to go. I hope I have enough knitting to last me until my stash arrives in California (fingers are crossed that it will arrive). I can't wait to get there myself - all of this saying goodbye is getting me down.