A bientot mes amies!

I leave in a few hours for France with my mom and my sister! We are all very excited about this trip! This is something we've talked about for years, but one of those things we've never really acted on until a few months ago. And I'm so glad we did! I know it'll be a great adventure full of fun sights, yummy food, and I'm sure a few squabbles...we are family after all! But at the end of the day, your family loves you no matter what! Plus, in our case, it's usually all settled with a glass of wine or a good gin and tonic!

I'm currently debating about the whole knitting needle on flight issues. Normally, I'm fine, but now I'm working on my socks with two long metal circs. If I can take them on the plane, I'll have a new pair of socks to walk around France in. Otherwise, I'll have to shove them in my suitcase and hope there are good movies on the flight to entertain me. But then again, how do you enjoy a good movie without good knitting? Ah...I know...my issues....you all feel for me. I can tell!

Enjoy your crafting/cooking/travel adventures while I'm away! I look forward to reading all about them on your blogs that I've come to treasure so much!

Well I almost made it....

The plan was no more yarn/knitting stuff until after France. (I also had to amend that plan to include no new fabric after several trips to the fabric shop resulted in lots of new pretty fabric in the craft closet.) So what do I do five days before I leave? Bought new needles for my latest project: Springtime Bandit Scarf.

Oh well, at least I'm holding off until buying the rest of the yarn until I get back. So it almost counts....right?

Look! Look! Look!

I can see out my windows! My view is back!!!

I came home yesterday and the plastic construction wrap was gone, but the scaffolding was still there!

Then, I came home today and the scaffolding was gone!

I'll admit it, I got a little misty....

I guess the hubby was listening

Last Friday night, as I was finishing my first sock, I was singing the praises of just knitting on one project at a time. I quickly cast on for the second sock and got to work. I showed the hubby my fabulous new sock and he too agreed, it was fabulous, then went back to watching T.V.

Fast forward 48 hours to Sunday night. I was getting ready to pick up the sock, when I was distracted by the lovely new scarf pattern Rebecca sent me, Springtime Bandit. Then I realized this lovely yarn I had needed the perfect pattern to go with it. And there you have it. The beginning of my next project.

So here I was: in one hand, the pattern, in the other, my luscious yarn. Then I heard it:

The hubby: "What are you doing? You can't start another project until your socks are done. Isn't that what you were talking about the other night?"

Me: "Ah....huh."

Hubby: "Where's your sock? Put that down and finish your sock."

Me: "Uh, O.K."

What's a wife to do? That's right. I knit on the sock on Sunday night. And on Monday at my knitting group, I started the scarf. Pictures to come later. Stay tuned.

Well huh.

I've been using the "Erin" method of knitting (focus on only one project instead of my usual three at the same time) for a while now and it still amazes me at how quickly I get things done.

Like this sock for instance. It is supposed to be my travel knitting project, but clearly I'm just whipping right through it. I've got the first one done and the second one is well on its way. I guess I'll just have to wear them around France instead of working on them!

Now to find another project....perhaps the hubby will get a hand knit pair of socks for being understanding about this two week trip with my mom and sister to France that he wasn't invited on.

Getting closer...

Je suis tres enthousiaste por mon vogage a France avec mon mere et mon soeur!

It's getting closer and I've been so busy lately that I just realized it's less than two weeks away! I've been brushing up on my French. I feel pretty good about it. I've got some of the basics down:

- Where is the bathroom? Ou es les toilettes?
- I'd like a chocolate eclair please. Je voudrais un chocolate eclair s'il vous plais.
- I'd like a glass of white wine please. Je voudrais un verre de vin blanc s'il vous plais.

Really, do I need much else in France?

If you have any great French travel tips, places I should see, cafes I should stop and get a bit to eat in, please share! Merci!

They are not so much stripes...

...as they are diagonals. But it's better than the yarn pooling so I'll take it.

The things you find in houses

The hubby and I have started house hunting. It's kind of exciting and scary at the same time. I guess it's time to give up our renting ways to put down some roots.

We've been out with our realtor a couple of times now and well, there's a lot of overpriced crap out there. There's also some interesting crap out there. You never know what you're going to find when house hunting.

Like today for instance. We went into one one house and saw not one, but two, organs that seems liked the house -which was built in the 1920's - was literally built around them. They were tucked away in these cubby like organ holes. The one on the main level was huge, then I went into the basement to discover there was another one:

Ah, the things you find in houses. The organs were also for sale so if you're in the market for one, I can hook you up with the realtor.

The Nebraska Gift of the Month CLub

For the hubby's birthday his year, his sisters gave him a 6 month membership to the Nebraska Gift of the Month Club. Now, I'm sure you're wondering why Nebraska. Well, a very small town in Nebraska called Guide Rock is where the hubby's dad and his four brothers grew up on a farm.

So for the last few months we've enjoyed salsa from Nebraska, and Italian salad dressing (I know, who knew). Now, being the massive popcorn lover that I am, I was waiting for the box of popcorn to arrive.

And arrive, it finally did.

In the box was 5 flavors of popcorn: carmel, kettle, salt & vinegar, cheese and tutti frutti.

Now I have to say, I was a little frightened at this. I'm a popcorn purist. I believe all you need is just the butter. The carmel and kettle corns were quite tasty. We tried the salt & vinegar, but neither of us liked it so we pawned it off on a friend. But the cheese and tutti fruitti just scare us.

For one thing, the tutti fruitti weights 10 oz. All that candy coating is quite heavy on the popcorn. And I'm sure you're curious about what exactly is shellacked on the popcorn since its not naturally flavored like strawberries, grapes and bananas. Such natural ingredients like; sodium bensoate, lecithin, mono and diglycerides. Yum.

The hubby is taking the cheese and tutti fruitti flavors to work in the hopes that some people will eat them so I don't have to feel guilty about throwing the food away. Although I'm sure with all of those preservatives, it wouldn't go bad.

Project Update: Condo Progress!

Since another busy week around the Knitting Knot means little progress on knitting, I thought I'd share some progress on the condo construction!

Construction crews finally installed the insulation in our entry way along with new drywall that's now all patched up! It's nice to finally have insulation again now that spring is coming up. I mean, it's not like I needed it December and January when we were having record low temps.

And the new windows are really nice too! The new skylights will look great once I can look up and see the sky instead of construction workers.

They've also started adding the new exterior siding. It's darker than I'd like, but as long as I don't look out the window and see the mold growing on the side of my condo, I'm quite happy.

And the best news is, they've started taking the scaffolding and plastic wrap down on the other two buildings! Ours is hopefully not far off either. In fact, I used my journalistic interviewing skills to get to the bottom of this matter. The following interview was conducted in my elevator as I headed to the bus stop this morning:

Me: "Hey, how's it going?"

Construction guy who happened to get into the elevator with me: "Good, and you?"

Me: "Good thanks."

CG: "Good."

Me: "So, um, when are you going to be done?"

CG: Laughing. "Uh, well, we're starting to take down the scaffolding on the second building today so yours should start to come down in about two weeks."

Me: Playing it journalisticly cool, "Really? Ohmygosh that's so great! Really? You're not just making that up?"

CG: Now trying to get off the elevator and get to work, "Uh, yeah. Have a nice day."

Back in the saddle again

It's been a very long week and sadly, there has been no knitting. Last week I finished my project (a gift to be shown later). And to top it off, I also finished my book! I don't like that anxious feeling of what to knit next as I dig through the yarn stash while also flipping through my library of knitting books. Usually, I don't have this issue as I have projects lined up. But not this time. And this crazy week I just had didn't leave me with any knitting time, let alone much free time anyway.

But I'm happy to say it's a new week. And a new project was cast on this morning in fact. Then progress was made when I met up with Jessica, Rebecca and new knitter Margaret at Trophy Cupcake for knitting and a sweet treat! Nothing like friends and a good sugar rush to get a sock project off to a good start!