Weekend Excursions... And Sock Work

The weekend has passed and sometimes I wonder at how quickly time flies by.  For weeks I have been looking forward to the PCSW spring conference (our themes for this conference were hand made dolls and most had hand weaving or spinning in them somewhere... and the other topic was Poppys. Our challenge was to make a Poppy for each Canadian soldier that died in Afghanistan. There were many but not enough yet and so the Poppy challenge continues...) Here it is Monday and now the conference is over and once again I seem to be realizing how quickly time passes.  I did indeed enjoy the Conference on Saturday.

Teapot and I started out on Friday morning heading into FSJ for dental appointments. (Neither of us needs any work done... woo hoo!) After that we had lunch and then went looking at wee cars and took a couple out for test drives. I really liked the Dodge Caliber and the Jeep Patriot. At this point those are the two that really grabbed me. Still I guess it will be a while before I can buy one of them. We did try out the Chevy  Sonic and I had a look at the new Cruise but neither of them appealed to me since they both have low profiles which is really hard for a person with a steel rod in her back.  It means that every time you try to get into the car you have to duck down and my back does not curve anymore so ducking is not really an option.

After that I headed off to a friend's house where we had a lovely afternoon and evening yaking about spinning. She is also involved with the MSP and so it was cool to see her work. She is finished and was at the time just pressing her 50 hour project which was a lovely hand spun linen table runner, which had been beautifully dyed. Her work was impeccable and made me start to feel a little anxious about my own. But that is always the way I think. In the end generally speaking, our work is all comparable for those of us in the same level. I tend to knit more while she tends to weave more. But both look lovely.

I had a dreadful night on Friday night not getting one blessed wink of sleep... I think I was too wound up about the following day. I certainly had a perfectly comfortable spot to sleep... but still sleep was illusive... I knew sleeplessness would totally screw me up for the next day.... and it did in a way. The next morning saw us up at 4:30 a.m. and on the road by 5:00 a.m. Our conference began at 8:00 a.m. and it was on the Alberta side of the border which meant that we lost an hour. 8:00 a.m. their time was 7:00 a.m. our time.... that's the reason for such an early start. I slept in the car since I'm like the proverbial baby that falls asleep in the car as soon as it starts to move at the best of times but after a night of sleeplessness I was hooped. My poor friend had to do the driving without any input from me. Thanks heavens we had another passenger because she was able to talk to my friend and keep her company while I passed out. I mean how pathetic is that. Still getting on the road so early meant that we were home earlier than expected since the conference ended at 3:30 p.m. their time, which is 2:30 p.m. our time. A three hour drive after the conference, broken by a quick stop in FSJ to get picked up by Teapot, saw me pulling in the driveway here at home at 6:30 p.m. just in time for supper which the Daughters had cooked for Teapot and me. Still the many miles covered over the weekend and the lack of sleep on Friday night did leave me droopy all day yesterday and even today I'm feeling rather lack-lustre. Still I haven't been sitting on my arse doing nothing. I have been knitting.

Speaking of which, the socks... are coming along nicely... I have one sock finished.

Sorry that the picture's colour is so bad... The sock here appears mustard but in actuality is more ecru. I will take a better picture when they are both finished and dyed. I might even get one of the Daughters to model them...

With only the other left to do,  I should be finished the whole project by sometime next week. Tomorrow I will begin the spinning for the second sock. So I am hoping to have my stuff in the mail to my instructor by Monday or Tuesday. That is... if all goes well.

Meanwhile I was reading this morning a little. My reading consisted of two things... I won a door prize this past weekend which happened to be a doll magazine, so that was the first of the two things. the other was a book that the Daughters have been wanting me to read for quite a while. First I had a good perusal the magazine about soft bodied dolls... interesting and while I am not into doll making there are some pretty cool things to look at in there. The other thing that I was reading in The Hunger Games which Hollywood has recently turned into a movie. We had taken the girls to the movie during spring break and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The girls talked me into reading the book and I am glad that I am finally getting a chance to read.  This is interspersed with knitting of course. The reading does give my poor hands a wee break every so often.

I have been debating which colour to dye the socks when they are finished. Blue seems to be the colour that I am mostly leaning toward but somehow it doesn't seem right. The socks have a lovely leaf pattern over the instep, reaching up the ankle and shaft.... so I was thinking green would be better since leaves are green, especially since green seems to be emerging more and more as my favorite colour. (I seem to be leaning more and more toward moss green, but then tomorrow I might prefer purple). I need to be satisfied with the end result... So far I am hoping that the project will fetch me a high mark.

So that's it from here for today. Tomorrow I might not get a chance to write since I will have to go to town again. Tomorrow we get our truck back from the dealership after eight weeks of to-ing and fro-ing and waiting for Ford to get their act straight so that we can have a fixed truck... we now have a rebuilt transmission... and most importantly we have a new engine in it. They have replaced several things around the transmission so what's under the hood is mostly new and hopefully this will solve all problems... I keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.  Wish us luck 'cause I really hate the thought of not having our truck any longer... I'm sick to death of driving the loner which is a terrible old piece of junk and has no step... let me tell you it is not easy for an old lard butt like me to climb into such a vehicle.... Teapot gets a laugh every time I try... the first step is a real douzzy... meanwhile my wrist and back suffer every time I have to pull myself in, so I really want to get our truck back.