DSCF0194, originally uploaded by sherlockandsam.

We had several beautiful days at Niagara Falls last week. An amazing place. Quote little B – “That’s the biggest waterfall I’ve ever seen.” That’s something coming from a 2 year old.

Not only did we have a beautiful trip at a wonderful place, I was even able to do a significant amount of knitting in the car, which is a rarity for me since I often get too carsick to do anything but look out the front window. There was one casuality as a result. I lost one KnitPicks double pointed sock needle to a hole in the seat. After an attempt to take apart the cup holder and save the needle, we pronounced the needle a goner. But since I went from 5 to 4, I moved my stitches around and kept knitting until I tracked down a LYS in Niagara Falls and landed a set of Inox double points. These are really nice double points.

More on Niagara Falls knitting later. Tomorrow I leave for Tennessee and the Appalachian Mountains for a few days.

1. I’m working on redesigning my boring classic looking blog look.

2. I’ve taken many unsuccessful pictures in the hopes of sharing my FO’s and progress on UFO’s. (Yikes!)

3. Stash clean up is in progress.

My guy and I took an anniversary trip to Annapolis, MD two weekends ago. We had a fabulous time. I also fit in a quick trip to the local yarn store, but more on that later. Ok, gotta go – Little B is doing dangerous things with knitting needles.

It happens every time I knit a heel flap, but somehow these needles continue to find their way back.

My first Jaywalkers are almost finished and I love them. But finding shoes to wear with them; that’s a whole different adventure. If you have suggestions, or just want to share your favorite shoes-for-handknit-socks, let me know. Here’s an example of how badly I need your help.

The birthday cake is courtesy of my friend Rachael, who noted that when you move away from home, your mom doesn’t make you a cake anymore. Thank you for picking up the slack!

It was a beautiful, yet allergen full day at MDSW. I was joined by an almost entirely non-knitting crowd.

The two purple boys on the right are my sons standing beside their dad (by the way, I need good clever short hand names for my fam – I’m out of clever right now), the pink and purple girl and boy on the left are my niece and nephew. Fun was had by all as we shared Birthday Funnel Cakes and watched the Sheep Dog demonstration. Niece Leigh is five and already a knitter. She has made some beautiful things, including a scarf for her teacher.

I had a light haul from MDSW. I try to be careful not to buy anything when I don’t know how I’ll use it and by 10AM the place was so jam packed of people it was overwhelming. My few purchases were all from my first stop; Tess Designer Yarns – two skeins of sock yarn and two skeins of merino laceweight yarn, destined for the Hanami Stole someday.

The lovely messenger bag was a birthday gift from my Brother-in-law and fam. If you saw the line for buying MDSW stuff, you’ll know what a great gift it was!

Moving on! 
This was almost too pretty to knit… almost.

The yarntini jaywalkers are fabulous – a wonderful match between pattern and yarn. I’m not so sure about the Daisy socks. The pattern is Oblique openwork from Sensational knitted socks. This is the 3rd pattern I’ve tried with this yarn. They don’t look too bad in this pic, but not exactly what I’m going for.

I’m glad to see that Isel solved her sock yarn puzzle. I’m hoping I can do it too!

Just a quick pic of my sorta finished unblocked Flair.You can see the bottom ends aren’t woven in yet. I’m planning to add a couple of inches to the length and take an inch off the sleeve length. The seed stitch on the sleeves fall right at my elbow and it makes the seed stitch edging wrinkle up in an ugly way. Not sure why I’m so crazy happy in the pic. Maybe it’s because of the new garden beds my man just made. Yeah home grown tomatoes!

The Sundara semi-solid is saved for a Nancy Bush pattern, probably Traveler’s Stockings. I started this pattern in some yarn pirate semi-solid, but I’m having major pooling issues. I think this yarn might work beautifully. The other skein is the Vintage colorway of Yarntini, destined to be a pair of Jaywalkers.

Some skeins in the basket feel like a burden – a task that’s sitting waiting to be accomplished. But the best projects, are the ones that can sit and wait for their day and bring joy to the knitter before, during and after the project.

Eris is taking a back seat, but not forever. Spring has caught my interest so Flair is close to completion, but I’m thinking about adding a few extra inches to the body length after seeing this beautiful completed Flair.

Knit on!