Travels . . . With and Without Yarn
I've been in travel mode the last two weeks. And I've got one more trip to go. All of these jaunts are writing related, but you wouldn't know it from the pictures I brought home.
My first trip was to Pasco/Richland, Washington. Okay, all the NW natives are saying, "HUH?" And then, "Why???" Well, because I spoke at the Washington State Library Association Conference. Sort of one of those "Wither the librarians go . . . " So I went with my friend, Jane Porter and we flew over to avoid the 10 hours of driving and high cost of gas. It was cheaper to fly, believe it or not. And while I knew we were going to talk all day, (okay, yak and gossip) I still had a pair of socks on the needles ready to take. But then I hurried out the door the next morning without my knitting.
Okay, when I got to the airport and realized I didn't have my knitting there was a momentary sense of panic. Okay, big panic. A day without my knitting? Desperation set in. Happily we had some time after we landed in Pasco to raid a phone book, make a call and get directions to a yarn shop. Then we couldn't find the shop. We went up and down the road four times. Then another phone call was made and this time we spotted:
Oh, duh. Could it be any bigger?
Jane is a non-knitter, but a patient friend. She was more than happy to put her feet up on the dash, soak in some sun and read a book while I got my fiber fix at Sheep's Clothing.
Don't be deceived by the shop's small size--there is a lot of yarn in this shop. I mean a lot of yarn. But I couldn't find anything that tempted me. I was still dreaming of the socks I'd left behind. So I looked, enjoyed all the wonderful samples she has all over the shop and went back and found Jane doing her best imitation of a tourist.
Now don't pity me that I didn't find some excellent skeins for stash enhancement, because I knew that in another week I was headed to one of my favorite cities, Portland, Or. Home of Powells Books and Knit/Purl. So in reality, I was really biding my time for the shopping ahead.
Now, after the Pasco fiasco, I decided to make sure I did not make the same mistake when I went to Portland this past weekend. I don't know about you, but it takes some thinking to decide what knitting to take with you. Flying? Driving? Business? Fun? All of these are factors. I was taking the train, so I knew that a pair of socks on size 1 double points and fingering weight yarn would probably be another sort of fiasco as I rocked down the rails, so I went with a stash project:
I've had this Booga bag pattern and yarn tucked away for just this sort of occassion. Some big quick knitting for travel or mindless knitting. This counted in both columns. I'd had these skeins of Noro Kureyon for a few months and now I had the perfect block of time to knit it.
I knit the i-cord going down. You wouldn't think a 5 stitch, 6 foot length of i-cord would take long, but it took a good part of 3 hours to get it done.
Of course, the next day was taken up with a Reader's Luncheon that is enourmously fun, and I love to attend, but in the back of my mind I knew that Knit/Purl was JUST ACROSS THE STREET. You see, I stay at the Governor Hotel when I go to Portland because it is across the street from Knit/Purl and about 3-4 blocks from Powell's.
A geeky, book loving, knit happy girl can't get it much better than that. Well, the excellent room service helps as well. :)
And did I find the skeins of my dreams and some great books? I'll save that for my next post.
My first trip was to Pasco/Richland, Washington. Okay, all the NW natives are saying, "HUH?" And then, "Why???" Well, because I spoke at the Washington State Library Association Conference. Sort of one of those "Wither the librarians go . . . " So I went with my friend, Jane Porter and we flew over to avoid the 10 hours of driving and high cost of gas. It was cheaper to fly, believe it or not. And while I knew we were going to talk all day, (okay, yak and gossip) I still had a pair of socks on the needles ready to take. But then I hurried out the door the next morning without my knitting.
Okay, when I got to the airport and realized I didn't have my knitting there was a momentary sense of panic. Okay, big panic. A day without my knitting? Desperation set in. Happily we had some time after we landed in Pasco to raid a phone book, make a call and get directions to a yarn shop. Then we couldn't find the shop. We went up and down the road four times. Then another phone call was made and this time we spotted:
Oh, duh. Could it be any bigger?
Jane is a non-knitter, but a patient friend. She was more than happy to put her feet up on the dash, soak in some sun and read a book while I got my fiber fix at Sheep's Clothing.
Don't be deceived by the shop's small size--there is a lot of yarn in this shop. I mean a lot of yarn. But I couldn't find anything that tempted me. I was still dreaming of the socks I'd left behind. So I looked, enjoyed all the wonderful samples she has all over the shop and went back and found Jane doing her best imitation of a tourist.
Now don't pity me that I didn't find some excellent skeins for stash enhancement, because I knew that in another week I was headed to one of my favorite cities, Portland, Or. Home of Powells Books and Knit/Purl. So in reality, I was really biding my time for the shopping ahead.
Now, after the Pasco fiasco, I decided to make sure I did not make the same mistake when I went to Portland this past weekend. I don't know about you, but it takes some thinking to decide what knitting to take with you. Flying? Driving? Business? Fun? All of these are factors. I was taking the train, so I knew that a pair of socks on size 1 double points and fingering weight yarn would probably be another sort of fiasco as I rocked down the rails, so I went with a stash project:
I've had this Booga bag pattern and yarn tucked away for just this sort of occassion. Some big quick knitting for travel or mindless knitting. This counted in both columns. I'd had these skeins of Noro Kureyon for a few months and now I had the perfect block of time to knit it.
I knit the i-cord going down. You wouldn't think a 5 stitch, 6 foot length of i-cord would take long, but it took a good part of 3 hours to get it done.
Of course, the next day was taken up with a Reader's Luncheon that is enourmously fun, and I love to attend, but in the back of my mind I knew that Knit/Purl was JUST ACROSS THE STREET. You see, I stay at the Governor Hotel when I go to Portland because it is across the street from Knit/Purl and about 3-4 blocks from Powell's.
A geeky, book loving, knit happy girl can't get it much better than that. Well, the excellent room service helps as well. :)
And did I find the skeins of my dreams and some great books? I'll save that for my next post.
Comments
When I first came to your blog today and saw the Pasco picture, I thought that looked like that area, then discovered it was! I haven't been to that shop, but I have driven past on that bit of highway behind Jane many times on my way to my sister's place in Spokane. :)
As for travel knitting, I'm still trying to decide what to take with me on my cruise in 13 days! :)