Knitters make the greatest friends

This weekend, I took a 4+ hour roadtrip north to PA to visit 2 lovely knitting friends that I never would have met if not for Ravelry. Grace and Holly are sisters, and we ran into each other on the dishcloth KAL group that I used to run. Holly and I ran it together for a while, then we sort of lost interest in it, and turned it over to Grace. We all still knit a lot, but our main focus is no longer on cloths - we've all branched out from the cotton as we've grown and learned as knitters. Anyway, I went up last summer to stay with Holly and her family, and this time I stayed with Grace and her hubby Ben. We dropped by Holly's house on Friday night to surprise her, which was fun :) Grace and I got a lot of knitting done - she learned how to kitchener/graft a sock toe closed, and finished her second pair of socks, along with a letter cloth - she's making the whole alphabet to put together for....she's not quite sure yet! I finished off a pair of socks, and worked on a few of my UFOs. I showed Grace how to knit I-cord, and she just went to town, and knitted most of the handle for a water-bottle carrier that I will be felting this week. Oh, and I also got her a bit hooked on Grey's Anatomy! We watched the first 2 episodes, and I left the rest of the season for her to finish off.

On my way north (I'm west of Baltimore MD, she's slightly east of Scranton PA - about a 260 mile drive) on Friday, I stopped at 2 yarn shops that looked promising from their websites and KnitMap listings. The first was Uncommon Threads, in York PA - they've got a great location in downtown York, though parking is on-street and metered. The two ladies who were working when I arrived were very friendly and helpful, and I left with a pretty skein of Malabrigo Sock (Impressionist Sky colorway, if you're interested) to add to my stash. My second stop was Colonial Yarn Shop in Shiremanstown (Harrisburg) PA, which was a bit "off the beaten path", but worth the detour, especially with GPS telling me exactly how to get there! Since we all know that I judge a yarn shop by their sock yarn selection, let's just say that this store is a winner in my book. I had a hard time only leaving with 2 skeins, but I was a good girl, and bought just a Trekking Maxima in blues and purples, and K1C2's new Crock-O-Dye in a gorgeous brown kettle-dyed color. All the colors of COD were calling my name though!

On my way back to the interstate, I spotted a billboard for Just Clogs in Mechanicsburg, and frantically scribbled down their address, thinking I'd stop by when I was coming home on Sunday. Was very disappointed to get there yesterday only to find that they are closed on Sundays. I may need to take a road trip back up there sometime soon, as I totally love Danskos, and would love to be able to see and try on the other brands that are discussed and photo'd and drooled over on the Ravelry Clogs group.

As for the knitting, there's been a lot of it going on, and a lot of progress, but no good pictures so far. I'm now at 5 completed UFOs for the year, with 5 left to go, and one that was sent to the frogpond recently. I'm well on track to meeting my goal of finishing all of my 11 (now 10, after subtracting the frogged project) UFOs within the 12 week deadline I set, which is March 26. I've been very good, and still have not cast on anything new since Christmas Eve, although the Knitting Olympics are coming up fast (11 more days!) and I do want to participate, so I'm giving myself a free pass to start something new for that - if only I could decide what to make!

Today is my day off, the kids are at school, and I'm going to get cozy on the couch and finish off another UFO project before they get home. Happy February!!