I have a good reason!

  I was able to find the flyer for that music festival that was going on!  Here it is!  Does this mean that I can now say that I went to it, since I was right there and I could hear the music.

  There are a lot of names on there that I don't know, but there were a lot of people going in and out, so a bunch of them must be good.

  No, this is not another picture of the scarf I was working on while on the plane.  This is another one.  Also, no, the green one is not done.  The width of the green scarf was too short and I ran out of yarn during a Wed night and I had this blue in my bag.  I didn't like this blue with the green, so I started another scarf.

  This is a strange thing, I know.  I wanted to use the brown for the ends of the green scarf, but I also wanted to use it to make the strange thing you see in the picture.  Since I only need some for the ends, I knew I should work on that knitted ribbed part before I used the brown on the green scarf.
  So while that was a long story, now you can see why I didn't finish the green scarf before I moved on to two other projects.  Don't worry, what that thing is will be revealed.

  In other news, I am trying to get Tank to learn to wear a harness.  The reason I am torturing the cat in such a way is because he really wants to get outside and when he is out there he doesn't totally recognize us.  He got out once and when I found him and bent over to pick him up, he hissed at me.  Now when I actually picked him up he was fine with it.
  He was acting drunk for the first two days and now he is just sticking with the disabled angle.  When he thinks no one is watching, he walks just fine.  When someone is watching he slinks around and lays down every few steps.
  This morning he walked over to Bill, tried to crawl onto his leg, then fell over.  He didn't have his harness on at the time.  Since he isn't a small kitten, I know it will take time.

Another other thing...how is it December already?  I'm not ready for this! I am not ready at all.  I hope everyone else out there is.

One Big Hop and Then Back Again.

  Everything happened so fast I didn't get to tell you all about it!

  First I was on a plane headed out to LA.  Bill was on another plane headed my way, but his was supposed to get in 1.5 hours after mine.  Mine had a strong tail wind and got in 53 mins early.  I was going to try and wait for him before I got dinner, but I was way too hungry.  I figured this out on the wrong side of the security check.
  A lot of walking later and I found out that International departure has a coffee shop and terminal 6 arrival also has one.  So I walked 2/3 of the outside of the airport and back since Bill's luggage was going to be at the same place mine had come in.

  The next morning we hoped into the car to drive 4 hours to a wedding.  On the way I got to see a ton of palm trees and I got to try In-N-Out for the first time.  I love it!
  You might have thought that with a 4 hour trip I would have had time to get more crochet done, but the area was just so pretty that I couldn't stop looking at it.

  The wedding was amazing and they kissed at sunset.  Her dress was so pretty!  This was at the second location that had some food and plenty of desserts.

  The next morning a few of us met for a wine tasting and then we headed to lunch.  Lunch was good and we all took over one room of the small tavern.
  Then some of us went to go taste some beer while the others went to go spend the day doing whatever fancied them.  It got to be pretty late by the time we headed back to where we started from and Bill's brother was flying in, so we didn't have a lot of extra time in the day.  His flight ended up being delayed by 2 hours, so I went to bed while Bill stayed up.

  On Saturday there was a memorial for Bill's Grandpa.  He was the one I knit a scarf for not too long ago.  It was very nice, though it was in a part of the military cemetery that they had not finished yet, so he still only had the temporary marker and no grass had been laid down yet.
  There were a lot of wonderful stories and a lot of tears before we all piled back in cars and headed to get some food after and to look at some pictures and other things he had left behind that were pretty awesome.
  Later that night the boys went off to the bachelor party.  No, not for someone else, the same guy who's wedding we went to on Thursday.  They went to a nice dinner, did an escape room, and then played some board games.

  They had so much fun that Bill didn't get brought to the hotel that night.  I had driven myself and his brother back to the hotel, so I didn't mind.  They were having too much fun doing guy things.  His brother also had an early flight out in the morning.
  The next morning around 1:40am (also when I was told that Bill was going to stay the night) I felt really sick.  I slept and sweated and worried that I would be no fun on Sunday.  I got up enough to help Bill's brother to the hotel shuttle that was complimentary.  I was back in bed some more.
  Bill didn't get dropped off until about 11am or so.  I thought one of his cheeks looked puffy, but I thought maybe it was an odd angle or that maybe he had slept on it funny.  Later he told me that he thought he might have fractured a tooth.
  After he slept for a few hours I convinced him that even though we were leaving the next day, we should probably have someone look at it so we might be able to help it not get worse.  He also couldn't open his mouth fully.  The doctor at the Urgent Care we found said that it looked like about a third of his tooth was missing.
  I got to take my first Uber to the wedding reception that happened later that day.  The doctor told Bill that he shouldn't drive after he got some strong pain meds, and I didn't want to have to worry if I had a bit too much to drink.  Turns out that was an awesome idea.  There was also a music festival going on right next to the museum we were headed to.

  These little guys were Fruitadens and they were my favorite.  I want one as a pet that I can carry around like some people carry around small dogs.
  This get together was the big one.  There were supposed to be over 200 people there.  The food was good, the drinks were fancy, and there was some great dancing.

This morning the whole airport thing was super crazy.  Our terminal was having construction, so after we were checked in and gave them our checked luggage we got to wait in line and then walk over to another terminal.  This took a lot longer than we thought and I didn't get to try the food place I was hoping for.

  I was able to find this bLAt (get it? We're in LA!) that was really good.  It had avocado and garlic aioli on it as well as what you would normally expect.  The flight had the kind of seats with the TVs in the back, so I didn't get a lot of crochet done there either.  The guy next to me did work for Panasonic (the ones who make those) before transferring to United.  He got called on to help fix one of them a few isles up.

  Tank is glad that we are back and I think it is time for bed!

Hello, I remember you!

  I was trying to catch up reading The Yarn Harlot's blog when I thought to myself "Maybe I should update my own blog!"
  There have been many things working against me getting anything done to show off here.  Working two jobs is high on that list because both become busy at the same time.  The craft store becomes crazy because first you have Halloween, then Thanksgiving, followed by many winter holidays.  My other job gets busy because we have to put together all the packets for the members and also process renewals.  I thought it would be wise to pull back on one of them.
  Another problem I have is that I have two scarves on the needles now.  They take a while to get anywhere with since one has a lot of short rows, and the other is double-knit color work.  For some reason I have been itching to work on a shawl.  I know it would be another large project, but I feel like being able to work on a nice and long row that I can get lost in would be nice.

Since I am just getting past all the fall colors I was going to take a picture of it with some orange and red leaves.  Mother Nature decided to try and start raining whenever I tried to do this, so here it is on a chair.
  As I have been working on it, people have been asking me how long I plan to make it.  I'm not sure.  I do know that it is too short right now since you can't really wrap it around and have much hanging.  I don't know if I will try and use up all of the border color or not.  I figure I will just keep making little triangles and see when it feels right to stop.

For now, however, I am off to go string some beads on some crochet cotton.  I have been invited to a wedding in about a week and I have some presents to make!

Been busy, but what do I have to show for it?

  I seem to have had one of those months where you feel like you have been really busy, but when you try and think of all the things you got done from it, you draw a blank.  One of the things I know I have done but can't show much proof here is practicing my motorcycle riding skills.

  I have been learning how to and practicing my kumihimo skills.  I liked the fact that the only thing I really had to buy was the disk.  I already have a bunch of different cords and tons of beads.

  The very top one was the first beaded one I have ever tried.  The one below it is a half-round braid with beads.  It and the one below it are future Christmas presents.  The light blue spiral one isn't all the way done yet.  The one coming out of the disk was an idea I had.  Though the cords were not long enough to cover all of it, I think I can make it work.

  I did manage to get one thing done and all the ends woven in.  Here is the cowl you saw me working on back during Rolling Thunder.  I really like the pattern and I might have to make myself one.

  In this picture you can kind of see where the cat had snagged it while trying to play with the bag.  I tried to fix it, but I have yet to become skilled at fixing snags.

If you are wondering what cat I am talking about, take a look at this mug below:

  This is Tank.  He turned 3 in late August and likes to help me untie my shoes and clear off tables.  He is also helping me type right now by resting his head on my hands.  He has a high pitched meow that doesn't hint at all the ways he can find to get himself into trouble.  He also likes to be held while on your lap and being bounced like a small child.

  We got him after a friend had to move back home and his mom is very allergic to cats.  It was really stressing him out having to worry how this fur-ball would do in a shelter, so we took him.  He has definitely taken over the house.

Success

  I know it has been over a week since you heard about how my class was going, but..... I passed the class!  This means that I have all the knowledge I need to ride a motorcycle around an empty parking lot and side streets that aren't heavily traveled.  I know some people might have the confidence to go out and start down small streets and be ready for big ones before too long, I know that won't be me.

  It took me a really long time to get confident enough to drive a car on a real street and not in empty parking lots and empty neighborhood streets.  We have been looking at little used bikes.  There is also a possibility that I might be getting the bike that one of my friends is currently using.  Will I ever practice enough to get comfortable enough to go on anything bigger than is needed to do a small grocery run?  Who knows.  There is something cool about showing up to knitting on a motorcycle though.

  We did all have a good time though.  There were usually two lines of something running at once so both coaches could watch you and you could get the most run times out of each exercise.  We had a running joke where someone in one of the lines would honk their horn and someone else would say "I know, this traffic!"  It was really sad when one of the people I was closest to didn't make it through to taking the paper test.  I really hope she tries again.  You can do it Vita!

  Here is the progress picture that I had promised that I would take.  It is pretty close to the colors you see in person, but my phone wanted to make the colors a lot brighter.  I'm not sure how long I intend on making the scarf, but I also have a feeling that I might get bored with it and put it aside a few more times before it is done.

  I'm also trying to decide if the shawl I want to design will be a circle shawl or half circle.  The center pattern I want to use might not work for a half circle.

Ellies hats

  My mom and I were heading to Knit Night on Monday and I saw a bumper sticker for Ellie's Hats.  I think it is cool that hey have a drop-off spot near my house.  They even said that the location will take boxes that have not been sent through the mail.

  I also had the best conversation with my husband the other day:

Bill: "Hi?"
Me: "Hi."
Bill: "What are you doing here?"
Me: "I live here."
Bill: "Really?"
Me: "What are you doing here?"
Bill: "I think I'm sleeping."

He sounded so hopefully excited when I told him that I lived there.

  Another thing is that I'm taking motorcycle classes this weekend.  I got though Day 1 with only one dramatic thing.  One of the people who was in front of me slowed down more than I was expecting and I didn't know how to brake quickly while being worried.  I didn't want to go around her since we had been told not to pass each other.  Though they probably meant to not lap each other, it just stuck in my brain that I didn't want to go around her.  This caused me to try and stop shorter than the bike wanted to and we went down.  Now my pants are designer (has a hole) and my one boot looks really tough (trying to not be upset that it got all scuffed).  I did have fun telling people that I was trying out to be a stunt double.
  While I have learned pretty much all I had set out to learn when I thought of taking the class, I'm stubborn and want to see it to the end.  I mean, part of me that is really tired and grumpy and who doesn't want to go out in a hot parking lot to try new things for another day doesn't want to, but the part of me that I will be once I get some sleep says that I would feel sad if I didn't give it a try.
  I'm also really glad that I didn't bring anything with me to try and work on.  My brain is fried enough with just all the new motorcycle skills and being in the heat I know I would have messed it all up and had to try those rows again anyway.

  I don't have a picture of it, but the Spectra I'm back to working on has gotten into the red in the center triangles.  I will try and remember to take pictures on Monday if I don't sleep through the whole day.

A New Place to Knit

  Since we were losing Uniquities some of the ladies were looking into another place we could go to.  Wegmans is nice and all, but going to the same place every Saturday would get old before too long.  Some of them heard that there was a small group of ladies that met at a church on the second Saturday of every month.  Two of us went to go check it out and reported back that it was really nice. 
  The ladies were so nice and one even made cookies that looked like tiny pancakes.

  One of the ladies who meets at the church is blind.  She knits completely by feel.  If it were me, stockinette would be the hardest thing I would be able to try and pull off, but she does patterns and different stitches.  She is super cool.

  Another thing that was pretty cool is that the ladies who went to the church would bless the finished items before they were going to be distributed.  I think that is really sweet of them.

  This weekend I also went to one of my friend's weddings.  It was great and I will try and get pictures up for everyone before too long.