Washington and Back

I spent a week in Washington, DC, visiting my daughter and granddaughter, keeping them company while my son-in-law's work took him halfway around the world, and helping out with a couple of my daughter's projects that needed another set of adult hands and a bit of baby wrangling. Sewing time was non-existent. But that was more than made up for with lots of Baby Cora time. She is seven months old now, animated and busy, and loves to be on the go, which we were. Every day.

 

The highlight of the trip was a venture into the Maryland suburbs for a meetup with the one, the only TONYA RICUCCI--the Unruly Quilter herself. In the flesh!

We had a great Indian lunch and Cora charmed the waiters, who made her a napkin crown.

My time with Tonya was way, way too short. I thought of so many other questions for her later on...  But now we are real-world friends and can get together again for more chat.

I took along the inevitable traveling socks knitting project. I am so sick of knitting this pattern, but one can't argue with success--it's properly mindless for air travel and doctors' offices. And most importantly--this pattern fits me very well. The pattern is the Ann Norling basic adult sock, and I have more than gotten my money's worth from this $3 pattern leaflet purchased when I was a beginning knitter. This is the sock pattern that made sense to me.

 

Socks fit me best when they have ribbing of some sort. Early on, I made one pair of stockinette socks that bagged in a yucky way. Never again. 

This yarn sucked me in when I saw it at Distraction a year or so ago. It makes me think of End-of-Day glass--all sorts of colors thrown in. Wasn't going to buy Any. More. Sock.Yarn , but you know how that goes....

And seriously, I do need to branch out a bit, sock-wise.

I left extreme heat and terrible storms in the DC area and came home to extreme heat and absolutely no rain.

Our grass is brown and crackly, trees are stressed, and we're working to keep the newly-planted ground cover going. So far, so good. But no rain is in sight, at least for another week.