There’s no place like home!

Oh it feels so good to be home! I had a super time, but....my brain was full of new things (still is) and I was ready to go home to process it and relax! So let’s see…how was the trip? Super! The conference was super! It was aimed at grad students (meaning I understood a lot—Yeah!) and had problem sessions after every lecture! This really helped me process the new material! It was also in my area, which means most of the talks I found interesting! Not to mention meeting new friends and old “conference” friends. The biggest surprise was seeing Greg—he and I both participated in a 6 week summer program 3 years ago to prepare us for grad school (there were 16 participants) Everyone went to different schools and when the summer was over I wasn’t sure how likely it would be to see these special people again. Then in the hotel lobby I see Greg!!!! In a related area as to what I do! It was fun to relive fun times and get caught up! I also roomed with Diane, a grad student from Michigan (I guess now she has graduated so she is really a postdoc, but…) We met a year ago and also roomed together at a conference last fall, so it was fun to see her again and catch up! Not to mention all the new friends!

Diane, awesome roommate that she was, drove to the conference and was kind enough to take me to a yarn store! Yep, Diane, a non-knitter, humored me in a yarn store! We went to the Knitter’s Mercantile! It was a lovely shop with a good selection (I don’t have much to compare it to, but…they had lots of sock yarn and I was able to feel some yarn I had only read about!) It was a super friendly store too! They let me wander around at my leisure, but were also willing to answer questions! They had comfy furniture where local knitters were knitting and chatting! It was awesome! And I came away with 2 new (to me) sock yarns to try!

1) Online Supersock Cotton in Beach Color—Tracy has highly recommended this yarn for those of us who live in warm weather climates! I’m eager to try it! It feels very soft and I loved the colorway!

2) Trekking pro natura (a wool/soy blend!) I have yet to knit anything with soy and I can’t wait to cast on with it and see what it feels like!

Now what knitting have I been doing? I have two socks in progress!

1) No Purl Monkeys (these were the trip socks because I knew the pattern was super easy to do on the go) I’m using knitpicks gloss in dusk! One down, one to go! Okay, so I didn’t get it completely done on the trip, but today all I’ve done is knit and spend time with my cat who missed me a lot :) DH is away until tomorrow! (Our trips overlapped this time) Needless to say we are both ready to be home, together, with no future trips for a while!

2) Retro Rib Socks. I worked on these before the trip. They are in knitpicks essential also in dusk!

More details on these socks as the second sock (rest of the first) progress!