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We are in Palm Desert, near Palm Springs. It is all about golf and relaxation. Mr. Celia planned it. Pamela and I are knitting socks.
It's beautiful and quiet. But the smoke from fires in LA and San Diego blew in here yesterday about the same time we did. Last night, the moon was smokin' orange, and today it's hazy. I feel very lazy.
They have been kicking my butt. The yarn and pattern are so pretty, but I have knit, ripped, and re-knit both cuffs at least twice. Last night, while watching Dancing With the Stars, I ripped the stockinet on one sock back to the ribbing and re-knit it again. When they're done, they better be worth all that perfectionist angst.
It was a last minute shocker. Mr. Celia leapt out of his chair and started talking at the TV. It was that bad.
The Boyo went off on a road trip, but there is still plenty of commotion around here. In the back yard next door, my brothers removed the slab last weekend.
And this weekend, they're digging a new garage foundation.
Last weekend, our guys painted
This weekend, they're felting.
I am still lying low, and now caught up on Heroes. If you haven't watched it, do. If you have, WOW!
It's a chiropractor-prescribed pajama weekend. I'm not supposed to knit. Instead, I'm watching Heroes, volume one, and trying to ignore all the commotion around me. Time to go back to bed.
It's the Cal Bears football team. Two weeks ago, on "Upset Saturday" they were number six nationwide when they beat the Oregon Ducks. Last week, our (now number three) team had a bye and we found ourselves rooting for Stanford to upset USC. It is extremely rare for us to root for our local rival, but root we did and, almost unbelievably, the Cardinal beat the Trojans, putting our team in the number two position. They are doing better than they have ever done in my lifetime. Mr. Celia has never been happier about football than he is right now. Tomorrow, at 4:00 pm PDT, Cal hosts Oregon State in a very important game. We'll be watching. If you have cable or dish and can get Versus (go to www.versus.com to see if it's in your area) you can watch, too. And if you can't, send GO BEARS vibes our way. 
GO BEARS!
Yesterday after work, I took the ferry to San Francisco, where I met up with Mary-Helen (Witty Knitter) and Sandra from Australia at Artfibers. They are passing through on their way to a conference in Vancouver. What a lovely evening! Browsing through all that gorgeous yarn was a nice start, then we popped around the corner to Cafe Claude for dinner. We sat at the outdoor tables in the alley, ate a delicious meal, and got to know each other a little better.
I was pretty sure I'd like M-H. In person, she gives good hug and both she and Sandra are interesting, witty and plenty of fun. I'd probably still be talking to them, if I didn't have to get up and work today.
They even brought presents! A nostepinde:
The wood is Red Gum and the piece is signed by the artist.
And this cool kangaroo magnet, intended for my refrigerator, which I've used to brighten my cubicle at work.
Thanks so much ladies! It was really a pleasure to meet you both.
I had hoped to write this post last Monday, which should tell you a little about how October has started out for me. Not bad, just busy as ever. By now, I had hoped to be much closer to finishing my first pair of Socktober socks: the Summer of Love Lace socks from the Rockin' Sock Club. Instead I am still slogging along on the cuff of the second sock, and I just discovered a mistake - waaaay back in row three. This is a pattern I have to pay attention to, and my attention has obviously been elsewhere.
While I contemplate ripping back to the beginning of the lace pattern, I'll show you a photo of my progress.
That is two separate lace cuffs. While laying them out to photograph, I discovered why I've been stymied by this pattern since Sunday night.
You probably can't tell, but the last pattern row has the last ssk in the wrong place, which means the k2tog on the other end is in the wrong place as well. So I have to figure out how to fix that before I can continue. This may include ripping, but probably not back to the beginning of the pattern. These socks are for me, and I can live with a little imperfection.
The yarn is beautiful, though.
I'm trying to get them set up so that I can knit the rest of the socks using the Magic Loop. We shall see if this works, with this confounded pattern.
Next in line are the Tyrolean Stockings. 
They're for the peripatetic Boyo. It looks as though he'll be leaving us again in November, this time to do an intensive one-month course in Italian...in Florence. (He says he'll be back for Christmas.) I've got to measure and fit the stockings on his real legs before he flies the coop again.
And also on my needles, aching to be finished in Socktober, are Uwe's German flag socks.
Not much progress has been made since this photo was taken, and after such a good start! But these are good mindless knitting. That is, if I could bear to put down the Summer of Love socks long enough to do any mindless knitting.
Finishing those three pair is my Socktober 2007 goal. I'd hoped for one more pair, but at the rate I'm going, I'll be a lucky, lucky gal just to finish the three pair already on my needles.
Now, rushing off to get ready for work. You know what they say about a woman's work.
Which I have been trying to write about for days. Saturday morning, I headed over to the Knit and Crochet Show at the Oakland Marriott. Jill and Susan at Y2Knit needed someone to help mind their booth while they were both teaching continental knitting. It sure was fun getting into the market early and walking around among the still-shrouded booths. And fun to talk to so many people about knitting. Later, the Girlie joined me and we spend several hours looking at absolutely everything before we bought.
The Girlie found plenty of single skeins that would make interesting amigurumi bears. I was looking for something special for Neiman, and I found it.
I lingered a long time at the Argosy booth, fondling the luxury yarn. This Haiku 4 Ply is really much more beautiful and soft than a photograph could ever capture. The solid is Rowan Cotton Glace from my stash (purchased originally from Stash). I think this will end up making a beautiful, elegant, and interesting sweater.
I also shopped for my International Scarf Exchange yarn and came away with this:
I've been swatching, but haven't yet decided on needle size or pattern. This is also unbelievably soft and pretty, colors not nearly done justice by the photograph.
I thought I was through buying, but when we hit the Article Pract booth, I found this:
It is exactly what I needed. Inside the lovely orange bag there are nine blocking tiles.
Which I put to work immediately after I returned home.
This is a brilliant product, and I love that the tiles have their own bag, that can be stashed in the closet until needed. Should be available online from cocoknits very soon, if not already.
To make the weekend even more wonderful, I put on my pajamas at 5 p.m. on Saturday and stayed in them until mid-afternoon on Sunday. I could have easily stayed that way, but the Girlie came over (to craft!) and we "had to" run out to Stone Mountain for some supplies.
Later on, Mr. Celia and I had dinner with old friends and went to see the closing night of Hysteria, a truly entertaining play.
It was a very good weekend, and blogging about it mid-week is a good way to sustain me until the next weekend rolls around.
