ATY-MSP-ATL-AVL

I'm heading out soon. I'll check in tonight, from Asheville.

y'all be good now

Linkies

While the salsa bubbles on the stove down in the kitchen (yes, we're still harvesting tomatoes, and I had some that wouldn't last a week until my return), I thought I'd post a few links for your amusement and edification.

In the Shameless Bragging Section, my son, the writer and artist, has opened his own web store. Right now, he's selling his original embossed and printed note cards, but he'll be adding more stationery items soon. One of the embossed designs is a ball of yarn and knitting needles, inspired by you know who. I'm especially fond of the robot series cards. (I'd show some of the cards, but I want you to go and look for yourselves...)

And my friend Mary (here, and here) has two(!!!) designs in the new Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts 2010! I am so happy for her! Scroll down to the Bohus Inspired Hat, and the Blooming Stole.  Oh, and go buy the magazine.

In the Non-Shilling Category, Video Division, here's the world's smallest animation, filmed through a microscope. It has knitting needles, but it looks more like weaving to me. It's cool regardless.

And this one is a commercial, but I dare you not to smile anyway.

And finally, because I am Evil (Evil, I tell you), here's William Shatner singing Rocket Man.

Okay, I need to get back to the salsa, and my packing.

Airports I have Known

I have the last of my SAFF class sample knitting done, so today and tomorrow will mostly be taken up with packing, and organizing, and cooking things for The Hub that he won't eat while I'm gone, napping and trying to rest up, oh, and writing another chapter of the YA. I leave very early Tuesday morning, and should be in Asheville around 3:00pm their time.

All of this prep got me to thinking about the airports I've frequented in the last 18 months (and the fact that I'm frequenting airports so often that I can consider comparisons as Blog Fodder). I went 24 years between my first and second flights. And it wasn't until this latest spate that I ever had more than one plane trip in a year(and usually there were several in between). Things change, I guess. I'm not a world traveler, but there certainly are a few airports that I know my way around in now.

Aberdeen  Regional Airport (ABR): This is my closest local airport- 43 miles away. It's the one I use when someone else is paying my air fare, since tickets are often $100 higher than from other departure points. It's a nice little airport, only 1 gate, and the planes are usually on time. I've never flown anything from there except the puddle jumper that connects to Minneapolis/St Paul. The jet is small, noisy, and usually cold (even in the summer). Since it's a short hop, the turbo prop doesn't go very high, which means that there is always turbulence. Every landing in Aberdeen is a bit of a white-knuckler- with the flight back from Greensboro last January, being the absolute worst- we landed in pure blizzard conditions. But we made it. ABR is a Delta hub.

Sioux Falls Joe Foss Field (FSD )- Joe Foss Field is 185 miles from me, down in Sioux Falls. It's not a big airport, but it does have several gates. It serves not only Delta, but United and Allegiant as well. If I'm flying Delta, I usually spend the extra bucks to go from Aberdeen or Watertown, because early flights from Sioux Falls require an overnight motel stay (there goes the $100 savings). But it's perfect for Allegiant, which flies non-stop between FSD and LAX, and several other major destinations, because Allegiant flies out in the afternoon (meaning that we can drive down before the flight) and arrives early in the evening (meaning no motel stay on that end either). Currently, FSD is undergoing a major renovation which involves long, winding, plywood-lined walkways to get from the entry door to what used to be a desk 10 feet away. But the work will be done soon, and it's going to be nice.

Watertown Regional Airport (ATY) is 75 miles from me. And I'm cheating just a bit by including it here, since I haven't flown from or through Watertown, for a long time. But I'm using it on Tuesday, because the ticket was over $100 cheaper, and 30 more driving miles isn't a big deal, especially on a familiar road. I'm sure it's much like ABR- one gate, and puddle jumper to MSP.

Minneapolis/St Paul (MSP) is huge. It's the big Delta hub, which means any time I fly out of a SD airport on Delta, I have to route through MSP even if I'm going west. It's a lovely airport, with lots of shops and restaurants, and a well-marked tram system. Since I usually fly in on a small plane, and out on a much bigger one, I always (and I do mean always) have to trek from one gate to a very far away gate for my connecting flight. Sometimes the leeway for catching those planes is tight, but I've learned that as long as I have at least 20 minutes from the time I get off one plane, until boarding the next, I can make it. At least I have on the 10 times I've been through MSP in the last 18 months.

Denver Stapleton (DEN)- I usually connect through Denver when I fly United. Stapleton looks like it was put together by insane clowns. It's all pointy circus tents on the outside. Inside, it's lovely. Denver has the only airport where I've gotten off at one gate from Sioux Falls, and boarded at another only two gates down. No schlepping across the airport- all United flights come in and go out from the same area. That's nice. No, I'm not saying that strongly enough: that's flat-out wonderful. I also had an absolutely wonderful (calorie laden,high carb, dripping with fat) pretzel dog there. I remember it fondly.

Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta (ATL)- I spent a very interesting 8 hours in Atlanta last January, when I was bumped from my flight to Greensboro due to overbooking (I got a $400 flight voucher for my trouble, so it was worth the wait). Atlanta is a lovely, big airport- I believe the flight magazine said it was the busiest airport in the country (though that sounds wrong to me, I'll bet O'Hare tops it). The trams are the fastest I've ever been on. I'll be flying through ATL on my way to Asheville next week (I route back through Detroit), and I'm looking forward to it.

Seattle Tacoma (SEA)- I flew from SeaTac on my very first flight (when I moved to South Dakota, barely 18 years old, all by myself). It's changed a lot since then. It's a gorgeous airport, and if you are very lucky, you can get a fantastic view of Mt. Rainier from the terminal. The Security people are extremely fast and efficient, and yet they manage to smile and make you feel comfortable too, which is a pretty amazing feat.

Los Angeles (LAX)- LAX can be overwhelming. It's huge, and the traffic to and from it complicates every visit. But we generally come in on Allegiant, which has its own door, and security, and we've never had any trouble getting either in or out of LAX, or through Security (who are civil though maybe a bit curt, which is understandable given the volume of people they deal with on a daily basis, a large percentage of whom are doofuses- including the lady in front of us who truly could not understand why she was not allowed to take her 15oz aerosol can of hair spray on board). My only complaint about our flight out in September was that our gate changed several times and I had a very hard time understanding the loud speakers, but that was probably my exhaustion (and the fact that our flight was delayed by over 90 minutes, so I was getting cranky).

Portland (PDX)- Portland's airport is smaller than SeaTac, but it's plenty big just the same (I flew out at 6:00am, and barely gave myself enough time to get through security and to my gate. I won't underestimate how busy it is again). If you're lucky, you get a fantastic view of Mt. Hood as you arrive and leave. PDX also has some wonderful stores- I could spend time there shopping.

Salt Lake City (SLC)- Salt Lake City has one of those airports that I thought would be small, but wasn't. We had only 45 minutes between flights, and we were hard pressed to get off our plane and on the other in time. There was a lovely view of the Great Salt Lake on the way in, and the mountains too.

Detroit Metro (DTW)- I don't know when Detroit's airport was renovated, but they did a fantastic job. There are fountains and sculptures, and lovely art, elevated trams, and a very cool psychedelic speed walkway. There are also very good food booths out on the fringes for those of us flying out to, or coming back from smaller cities. Not all airports have as good a selection in the boonies (I'm looking at you, MSP). I'll be routing back from Asheville, through Detroit (skipping ATL altogether), and I'm looking forward to it.

Phoenix Sky Harbor (PHX)- Phoenix had the only airport in all of my recent travels, that flummoxed me. I didn't think it was very well marked, and I had to ask a harried desk clerk where to go next. I had to exit the airport and ride a bus about a mile, to my connecting flight to Yuma. That also meant that I had to go through security again. I was in a hurry, with not a lot of time to look around, so I can't report on much except that the bookstore sold lollipops with embedded scorpions.

Yuma (YUM)- Yuma has a small airport, but it's international just the same (many connecting flights to Mexico). The United attendant made me check my carry-on bag (the one I've taken on every single flight so far, with nary a peep from anyone official, including on the flight to Yuma a few days earlier), because she said it was too big. Cost me $25. grumble, whine.

Piedmont Triad International (GSO): The airport serving Greensboro, NC is a lot bigger than I expected it to be. I flew a good-sized jet from there, to Detroit, last January. It was nice. Otherwise, nothing much stuck in my head about this airport, except that it was the destination that was overbooked that caused me to dally 8 hours in Atlanta.

Asheville Hendersonville (AVL): Finally, Asheville. NC. It's a small airport, but it has a nice little bookshop and cafe, and good vending machines, and the Delta clerk shuffled people around so that my sister and I could fly back to Atlanta on the same plane last October. It's just a 20 minute hop from Atlanta, but it's a smooth flight (unlike the hop from MSP to ABR). I am very much looking forward to landing in Asheville on Tuesday.

Itinerary: ATY-MSP-ATL-AVL

All Horseshoe, All The Time

The Horseshoe (side note: I type Horshoe every. single. time. and then I have to correct) socks have been relegated to the Car Project, and since I'm not in a car very much lately (except when I'm driving, and I haven't mastered the whole Knit While I Drive thing yet), I haven't made much progress.

I'd kind of like to wear these to SAFF, and in my normal world, I could finish the foot of a sock (even a lace sock) in an evening. But I've been distracted and busy lately, so I can't guarantee that I'll get these done before Tuesday.

I'm using hand-dyed yarn, which is notoriously variable, but I still didn't expect this much difference between the tone of one half of the skein and the other- note how green the finished sock is, and how purple the one in progress. Interesting.

And what, you may ask, is this Distraction? Well other than working on my YA, and getting ready for SAFF (I still have a little bit of class example knitting to do), this has done the trick:

The KAL Triangle Shawl (btw: welcome all who are K-ingAL! Lots of new people tuning in- I hope you stick around for the rest of the blather. And possible prizes...) is distraction heaven. It's coming along very well, though this is the *quick section*- with every 16 rows, we add 20 sts total, so pretty soon, rows are going to take quite a bit longer to finish. The lace pattern looks every bit as pretty in this version as it did in the hats and the socks.

It's a very simple lace pattern, which will show up nicely after blocking (and it would show up better now if I wasn't using such dark yarn). I love how the edges are going to scallop- it's going to be very pretty.

Have any of you cast on? If so, send me a pic and I'll post it.

Thursday Tab- Milton Bradley Betty Campbell Round About Dolls

In this case, wood means heavy cardboard. This is a lovely and unusual set, and Betty Campbell is one of my favorite paper doll artists.

Wanna KAL?

Oh, don't act so surprised. Like you didn't know that I was going to start knitting a Triangle Horseshoe Lace Shawl. The only mystery was whether it would be bottom up, or top down. And when I'd finally give in.

At least I finished writing a chapter of my YA first. And I got past the heel on the Horseshoe Lace sock before I bowed to the inevitable, which is when I learned that the definition of inevitable includes: really tricky.

It's hard to adapt an asymmetrical motif written for knitting in the round, to a flat project that needs to be vertically symmetrical. With edge motifs. And 10 increases worked as evenly as possible into 16 rows, but only on the right side (of the fabric, not the shawl. There are an even number of increases on either side of the shawl)(duh). It took awhile, and a bit of brain wrinkling, but I got it worked out.

I've already added 2 Horseshoe Lace Motifs (2 new repeats are added every 16 rows after the bottom point), and so far, it's working out well. This yarn is natural colored millspun (commercially spun from a small farm) merino/nylon. It's highly processed and looks to be heavy fingering weight, but my guess is that it'll bloom to at least sportweight after washing and blocking. I'm knitting it on Size 8 needles. I don't know if it'll need/want an edge lace or not- the edges are pretty lacy already and the filler-motifs on the edge (for the increases) are lacy too, and they'll be sorta scallopy from the double increases. I'll wait until the triangle is done to decide.

I have no idea how much yarn this shawl is going to take, or how big it'll be. I have over a pound of this yarn, so I can knit until I am so sick of it that I run screaming into the night.

Want to live dangerously and knit a shawl along with me? From a totally untested pattern? Choose whatever size yarn you want, and whatever needles feel right and join the fun.

Click on the jpg to enlarge, right click to save. Print from any graphics program.

No signup. No deadline. No Pressure. Join in if you like, and send me progress pics if you can.

And for those who'd rather work from written instructions, here they are:

click on image to enlarge, right click to save, print from any graphics program.
And just in case (here is where mistakes sometimes creep in, so if you find any, please let me know and I'll make corrections)
:
Horseshoe Lace Triangle Shawl Written Instructions
Chart A:
Row 1: P
Row 2: K1, YO, K1, YO, K1
Row 3: P
Row 4: K1, YO, K3, YO, K1
Row 5: P
Row 6: K1, YO, K1, YO, SL1, K2 tog, PSSO, YO, K1, YO, K1
Row 7: P
Row 8: K1, YO, K2, YO, SL1, K2 tog, PSSO, YO, K2, YO, K1
Row 9: P
Row 10: K1, YO, K3, YO, SL1, K2 tog, PSSO, YO, K3, YO, K1

Chart B (working all 3 portions):

Row 1: P
Row 2: K1, YO, K1, place marker, (the next 10 sts are the center Horseshoe motif), YO, K3, SL1, K2 tog, PSSO, K3, YO, K1, place marker, YO, K1
Row 3: P
Row 4: K1, YO, K1, YO, P1, move marker, K1, YO, K2, SL1, K2 tog, PSSO, K2, YO, K1, P1, move marker, YO, K1, YO, K1
Row 5: P4, move marker, K1, P9, move marker K1, P4
Row 6: K1, YO, K2tog TBL, YO, K1, P1, move marker, K2, YO, K1, SL1, K2 tog, PSSO, K1, YO, K2, P1, move marker K1, YO, K2 tog, YO, K1
Row 7: P5, move marker, K1, P9, move marker, K1, P5
Row 8: K1, YO, K1, YO, K2 tog TBL, YO, K1, P1, move marker, K3, YO, SL1, K2 tog, PSSO, YO, K3, P1, move marker, K1, YO, K2 tog, YO, K1, YO, K1
Row 9: P
Row 10: K1, YO, K2, K2 tog TBL,YO, K3, move marker, YO, K3, SL1, K2 tog, PSSO, K3, YO, K1, move marker, K2, YO, K2 tog, K2, YO, K1
Row 11: P
Row 12: K1, YO, K1, YO, K2, K2 tog TBL, YO, K2, P1, move marker, K1, YO, K2, SL 1, K2 tog, PSSO, K2, YO, K1, P1, move marker, K2, YO, K2 tog, K2, YO, K1, YO, K1
Row 13: P10, move marker, K1, P9, move marker, K1, P10
Row 14: K1, YO, K3, K2togTBL, YO, K4, P1, move marker, K2, YO, K1, SL1, K2 tog, PSSO, K1, YO, K2, P1, move marker, K4, YO, K2tog, K3, YO, K1
Row 15: P 11, move marker, K1, P9, move marker K1, P 11
Row 16: K5, K2togTBL, YO, K4, P1, move marker, K3, YO, SL1, K2 tog, PSSO, YO, K3, P1, move marker, K4, YO, K2tog, K5

After each set of 16 rows in Chart B, there will be 2 more 10 st Center Horseshoe Lace Repeats per row. Repeat that 10 st motif as many times as needed in each row.

Horseshoeing Around

I may have mentioned that I rashly agreed to finish the first draft of my YA Fantasy by Dec 1. In order to do that, I will have to write every day (except when I'm in North Carolina, and I should then, too), something I didn't do, even back when I had contractual obligations (this book is in an entirely new genre for me, and it's been a long time since I wrote fiction at all, so I'm writing it on spec). The good thing about tight deadlines is that they focus my attention. The bad thing about a fiction deadline, is that I'm not one for outlines (unless forced to write one), and I'm generally happy to let the story develop at its own speed (which is always SLOW). But that takes time, which I don't have. Also, I'm very easily distracted, especially when I have a deadline.

So, I multitask- my morning runs in the park these days are taken up with plotting- letting the characters tell me how they intend to get to the end of this story. And that works out fine, except when it doesn't.

This morning- there I was, jogging along in my usual manner (read: slowly and awkwardly, very much like an old lady), mulling over the scene that I want to write this afternoon, thinking through what must be said and done, and what should be said and done, and what might be said and done, rounding down to the final mile, when without asking permission,  my brain veered over to the Horseshoe Socks, which are progressing nicely.

I'm down to the heel of the mate (it's not off-center, btw- it's just squooshed oddly on the scanner bed), and I'll finish the sock soon (in the next couple of evenings, for sure). Unusually for me, I don't have anything else on the needles at the moment. So, instead of listening for dialog and sussing out plot points, I spent the last bit of my run working out how to adapt the Horseshoe Lace pattern to a triangle shawl.

Now instead of writing a book, I want to knit a Horseshoe Lace Triangle Shawl...

There is no hope for me.