No Expectations

Last week, I found myself caught up in a fantasy of what Women's Weekend would be like this time. Once L mentioned going to a yarn shop, I went overboard and mapped out a yarn crawl that I was going to begin on the trip down, by stopping at Ewetopia Fiber Arts Boutique, and that we would continue on Saturday by visiting Yarn & Needle, Knittique, and the Yarn Basket. And when we weren't enhancing our stashes, we would be knitting socks.

As excited as I was about all my plans, I did take a moment to remind myself to have no expections....

The reality was it took me forever to get going Friday night, what with the constant second-guessing (should I go? should I stay? how sick am I?), so by the time I neared Ewetopia, it was past closing time. Then the cabin had no heat, so part of Saturday was eaten up relocating to warmer digs, which left less time for the rest of the yarn crawl. And it turns out that Women's Weekend is not the best venue for teaching the art of sock knitting, as there are too many distractions: movies, chocolate, wine, descriptions of weddings and upcoming grandmotherhood, cards, etc.

But we did make it to the Yarn Basket, which is a lovely little store in a converted garage chockful of great yarn. After much dithering, I settled on the following selections:

For a red, red, red hoodie, this Cascade Yarn 220 "The Heathers"...



I bought more than enough, because I am going to use some to make a pair of two-color mittens, with the following black Plymouth Yarn Galway...



And this Cascade 220 "Paints" caught my eye and wouldn't leave me alone...



I'm thinking it might work for the Math Geek scarf I tried earlier in a solid color.

(Can you tell I like red?)

And I did get a little knitting done, working my sock until my hands cramped. I used the Ann Norling pattern from my first socks but I don't remember knitting the 9-10 inch cuff called for. I decided to give it a try and knit and knit until the result began to look vaguely phallic.



I squeezed the skein and decided I'd better stop until I could weigh the remaining yarn. This just seems like too much cuff.