We didnt

get to go to GATS (Great American Truck Show) but I don't think that we feel like it was a huge big deal. Other than getting there to sign up with brokers and find out some more info about the things we need to do for using our own authority, there wasn't anything that we were burning to see or do there. I needed some Infinite Aloe, DH needed a couple of lights and other than that...nadda. It just kept us from spending money. It is a little frustrating when you ask to go to Texas and then you are only offered trips to North Carolina or Nebraska, but then again, you know, they aren't a travel agency. LOL
We have been running pretty well, getting some miles and we were able to go home last weekend to get our mail. I still haven't taken pictures of the yarn that I got. When we had time, the trailer was in the shop for brakes and I couldn't use it to wind yarn, so DH wouldn't let me get out my yarn to take pictures of it. I have started my I Love Gansey socks from Six Socks KAL. They are turning out gawgeous!!! I got some yarn from The Fiber Denn: Laine Ruban in Silver Forest. It is showing off the cables really well, unlike the Bearfoot yarn that I started out with. The Laine Ruban has no halo and it looks and feels like it is the same base as Koigu. It's soft and in shades of gray green that is lovely. I think they may end up being my sister's birthday present. I think that she would like them and her birthday is next month, so I have plenty of time to get them done. I did one repeat of the pattern last night on the first sock and then cast on the second sock and got halfway through the repeat on that one while I did laundry today. I have started doing my socks that way so that I don't have second sock syndrome (SSS) and I get them done about the same time.
I still haven't finished DS's socks, because I have gotten to the 3 X 2 rib and it's not all that exciting, although the foot fits ds really well, at least for this week, and he is excited for me to get them done. They are good for working on when we are watching movies and stuff, but the other socks that I have going take more concentration and I work on them while we are going down the road and can tune everything out, or I can listen to podcasts.
We spent most of the weekend having our truck worked on or DH working on our truck. We had an air leak in the trailer and when we took that in to get it fixed, the mechanic said we needed new brakes as well. So DH had him do that as well as replacing the broken part. It ended up costing twice as much as the mechanic said it would and then DH still had to help him get the wheels on right on the trailer, because the mechanic put them on wrong and DH was UNHAPPY about that. I got to do exciting things like laundry twice...wooo hooo!!! although I did have some good knitting time in there.
We watch Blade Trinity on television the other night in a truck stop. It was an odd movie, although oddly compelling. We watched a few minutes of it and got hooked, so we ended up sitting in the tv room and watching it. Today, while DH was changing the oil filters and fixing some other things, I was inside the truck stop doing laundry. The tv room had A Few Good Men on. It's the one that has Tom Cruise, Kevin Bacon, Keifer Sutherland, Demi Moore, and Jack Nicholson. It's about a court martial of two marines for committing a "Code Red" on a fellow marine. I am not a huge Tome Cruise fan, but I do think this is probably one of his best roles. I had to stay inside even though my clothes were done so that I could see the end of the movie.
I don't have much of anything else until I am able to take some pictures of the yarn and the socks that I am working on, so until something happens or I get to take some pictures, I bid you adieu

This Weekend

we were able to have a break. We delivered our load to Broken Arrow, OK on Thursday, and then on Friday we picked up a load ending up in Delaware, but it had 5 stops to it. We had a delivery to make to Fayetteville, AR that was supposed to deliver Friday, but after waiting 4 and a half hours to be loaded, we weren't able to be there. I called and set up a delivery appointment for Saturday morning. Friday evening, we got to Tontitown, AR and found out that they were having a Grape Festival. That entailed a Spaghetti dinner, crafts people set up in tents, a book swap/sale and a carnival. We went to a restaurant called Mama Z's and had a spaghetti dinner and found out that they were the restaurant supplying the pasta and maybe the sauce that was being used for the dinner at the festival. One of the pluses of going to the restaurant over the festival for dinner was air conditioning. It was hot and humid and sticky. After dinner, we strolled up to the church grounds that was holding the festival and wandered through the craft tents. We were able to purchase some things for our as yet unbuilt house and something for a Christmas gift. We then took the DS to the carnival and let him ride a few rides. When tickets are $1.00 a piece, and the rides cost 3-5 tickets each, it gets a little pricey. We spent $11 on tickets and that allowed him to ride 2 four ticket rides and one 3 ticket ride. He had a great time and it was fun watching him laugh and smile while he was doing it. We also picked up some grapes, it being a grape festival and all, that taste almost exactly like Welch's Grape Juice. I even asked what kind they were, not concord cuz those got frozen, but now I don't remember.
Saturday morning we got up and made our delivery and then headed out across country towards St. Louis. DH had said that we could get a hotel room for Saturday evening, with a pool, because we had all kinds of time and not very many miles. We stopped at a rest area in Missouri and picked up the coupon books for hotels and found out that not very many hotels were honoring their coupons, didn't have truck parking, didn't take pets, or charge an exorbitant fee for having a pet in your room. I did a lot of searching and finally found the hotel that we needed to stay at. They have a very generous pet policy (they don't charge for them), a pool AND a hot tub, a hot breakfast and they also have a cocktail hour and a half in the lobby that includes snacks, sodas and juice, and if you want them beer, wine and mixed drinks (3 per person, please). And what is that wonderful place to stay....Drury Inn & Suites in O'Fallon, IL. It is a new hotel and if you clicked on the link above, you can see that it's seven floors of very nice rooms, great beds, and friendly staff. We were able to walk to Buffalo Wild Wings and get dinner and then come back to the hotel, get our wine to go with dinner, eat, swim a little (the pool was cold, for some reason) and then do a mile on the treadmill. They do have a neat pool, it's half indoor and half outdoor...you can swim under that glass wall and go to the outdoor pool. They had a large enough parking lot that we could park the truck, although we did have to wait until noon of Sunday before we were able to get out. We had to wait for the parking lot to clear out some to be able to get around .
The only bad thing about staying in a hotel is that we have a really bad habit of staying up really, really late watching television. We have a tv on the truck, but we don't watch a lot of commercial television. We mostly watch movies that we already own. So when we get a really nice room like this one, we tend to watch a lot of things that we don't normally get to see.

We did have a good time and got some rest and relaxation away from the truck. That's always a good thing. The only thing that I really wanted to do that didn't get done was to wind up the yarn I got at home and to take pictures of it. It is still residing in the bin under the bed and hasn't seen the light of day since it was placed in there. I hope to do something with it in the next few days, although I think I have been saying that since we were home, LOL! I didn't even take the laptop into the hotel when we were there, even though they did have wireless service, but it was one less thing to carry in.

Sunday, after we left the hotel, we went to Brownstown, IN to make the third stop in this load. We got there just as third shift was starting, and when DH asked if they would take the two pieces off of our truck, the guy that he talked to said that he didn't know how. Fifteen to twenty minutes later, he came over and knocked on our door and said that he would go ahead and take them because he couldn't see us sitting there overnight for two pieces. YAY! We were able to get up to Bellefontaine, OH for first thing Monday morning, which meant that we got to do the miles to Nazareth, PA on Monday instead of having to do them over night on Monday night which meant that we were able to get the delivery for Nazareth, PA and Georgetown, DE off and be done today by 2 p.m. PDT.

Now, we are sitting in Bridgeville, DE waiting for a load. We are trying to get them to give us something that will take us to Dallas, TX for this weekend, or at least for Friday and Saturday so that we can go to the Great American Truck Show. We need to go to the show to be able to talk to some people about the things we need to do for going out on our own. Hopefully they will be able to find something that heads that way and we will be able to go. Not only that, I need some more Infinite Aloe, and we first bought it at the Dallas show and we should be able to pick up some more there.

The weather here on the East Coast is cold and rainy and really a change from what we have been used to. We actually had to dig coats out of the storage bag this morning because it was so cold. When we stopped at a rest area, DH got our and turned the heat on in the truck because I was freezing and I had even put a sweater on. It did warm up a little bit in southern Delaware, but it's still chilly, just not pouring down rain anymore.

I don't have any yarn pictures or any knitting pictures today (see explanation above) but I have been working on ds's socks, and I have the heel turned on both of them. He's getting excited and wants me to finish them so he can wear them. I want to get them finished because I want to re-start the six socks Gansey sock for this month and I want to knit my mom some socks in the blue/purple Bearfoot yarn that I have for her. Because of the mohair content in the yarn, I have decided that I am going to do one of the ribbed socks from Barbara Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. There are three or four different rib patterns and I think with the halo on this yarn, it needs to be a simple sock. I know that it didn't work for the Gansey sock, I couldn't see the cables. When I have something to show, I will.

DH has Pure Country running, so it's time to grab DS's socks and go back in the back and watch the movie. See ya!

SP 11

Yay....Shelby is having an contest and so I am going to post the answers to the questions that she asked here like she asked us to do.

1. What is the one knitting accessory you could not live without?

I couldn’t live without my Knit Picks Options. They are pretty much the only needles that I use for everything. I have decided that there is nothing you can’t knit on circular needles.

2. If you're heading on vacation, do you take knitting with you?

I do take knitting with me. If so, how much and what type of project? I usually take whichever projects I have going in my knitting bag. Because I use a tote for my knitting bag, I usually have 2 or three projects going in it and then the yarn for a pair of socks or two.

3. Where have you traveled to that you'd consider your favorite spot?

Because of the lifestyle that we have, I travel all the time. Some of my favorite places would be Yellowstone/Tetons National Parks, the mountain that my folks live on, and then the whole western part of Montana.

4. What is your favorite knitting book at the moment? Do you own it?

Right now my favorite book is not a knitting book, but a spinning book called In Sheep’s Clothing, A guide to Hand Spinning and I like it because it’s giving me an understanding of the different properties of the different breeds of sheep and their wool. It’s telling me the different length of fibers and the softness and such. I do own it, I bought it at the Interweave Hurt Book Sale. I also love Big Girl Knits. The beginning of the book is a wonderful lesson on styles for different shapes and sizes and the patterns, while I don’t like all of them, are wonderful and there are several that I would like to knit.

5. Do you listen to podcasts? I do listen to podcasts. Which is your favorite(s)? I listen to Lime n Violet, Stash and Burn, but I would have to say that my favorite is Knit Picks Podcast. It is very professional and gives a lot of information.

I'm going to have to go read some of the other blogs to see what other people answer to the questions. I would be interested to see what other people do on vacation and where they call their favorite places.

Hopefully, this afternoon or evening, I will be able to take some pictures of the stash enhancement that I acquired when we went home. I got some lovely yarn and stitch markers and a row counter bracelet that I think is just the neatest thing. I don't know why I didn't get one of those earlier.

Generally...

I have a lot of pictures to post, but that ain't so today. This is probably going to be a text mostly post.
I got my pal for SP11. I enjoyed SP10 a lot, and I am looking forward to spoiling my pal, although I was told that I have large shoes to fill...I think I am up to the task.

I haven't heard from my other pal yet, but they do have until tomorrow, so I'll try really hard to be patient.

Today is my niece's 7th birthday. We were home for the weekend and got to see my sister and her family, and I went shopping for my niece with my sister. From what I understand, gifting the little miss is kind of a crap shoot. She has an 11, almost 12, year old sister that she takes her cues from and if Big Sis doesn't like it, she doesn't like it. I bought her clothes, and left the tags on (how tacky is that) so that my Sister can take them back and exchange them if Little miss decides she doesn't like them.

The reason for being home this weekend was so that we could pick up our mail. We had not been home since May, when we were there for my stepson's wedding. Needless to say there was all kinds of stuff waiting for me when I started going through the mail. I got magazines, bills, ads, and oh yeah, I got some yarn, some more yarn, and then some stitch markers and a row counter bracelet, and then maybe a little more yarn. The yarn and such was stuff that I have ordered over the course of the last three months and I got some really good stuff. I also received the first installment on the two sock clubs that I joined. The yarn from the Zen Yarn Garden's Art Walk sock club is absolutely gorgeous. It is based on the colors of the Hallucinogenic Toreador and I would have to say that it was wonderfully done. I also got my yarn club offering from C*eye*ber Fiber. It was loverly as well. I haven't had the time to play with them yet, but as soon as we get a breather, I plan to wind them all up and then figure out what I want to knit with next. There will be enabling pictures, cuz you know, I don't like to keep this all to myself.
The best thing about being home was I finally got to see, in person, this: I was going to post the picture, but blogger is being a booger!
And this: And for those of you without inquiring minds, they are pictures, which have been on my blog before, of the packages I got from my Secret Pal and from my Tea Swap partners. They both did good and I will enjoy the packages immensely. While we were at home we did share the Chocolate Creme filled Maple cookies as the desert with dinner on Saturday night. I really didn't know what to expect, and they were GOOD! More so than I would have thought, so thank you LeAnn, they were a hit. The rest of the items from the two packages are either here, on the truck, or packed away in the box that I had to buy to store yarn in the container. I think that the only things I didn't bring were a couple of skeins of yarn, but I kept the rest.

We are in Erie, PA right now and heading for Oklahoma. On Streets and Trips, it looked like we were going to be close enough to Lake Erie to be able to see it, but alas we aren't. Bummer. I wanted to take a picture or two of the lake so that there would be something cooling here, but you know how that is.
I hope to, in the next couple of days, take some pictures of the goodies that I got when I went home and post them here. I got some Sea Silk, in some really neat colors, all turquoise and blues and greens that is really gorgeous. Hopefully I will get some decent pictures to show off the colors. I might even try my hand at lace with that stuff because it is just begging to become something lacy.

I think that I will quit rambling on and post this for posterity. That way I will be able to remember that sometimes I do post even when I have nothing to say.

Secret Pal 11

So I am a joiner. I joined SP11 because I had such a good time with SP10 and had such good swap partners and enjoyed spoiling and being spoiled by them. So here is the questionnaire for this round:

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? I am a natural fiber kind of girl. I like to knit with wool, super wash wool, cotton (for dishcloths), silk (of course) and other natural fibers. I do like some of the bamboo yarns.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in? I use the Knit Picks options set and I store them in the case they came in, although I do have a needle case waiting for me at home.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I have been knitting off and on for about 30 years, probably more off than on, but I have an intermediate skill level and am not afraid to try anything but color work, thanks to the sock groups I belong to.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? I do. It can be found under lyndahitt@earthlink.net

5. What's your favorite scent? I love the scents of lavender and vanilla, although my favorite cologne is Inis, an Irish perfume that is very clean and crisp with overtones of citrus.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy? Is there anything but chocolate? Or caramel? Or the two together, especially dark chocolate and caramel.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin? I have three spindles and try to spin with them when I can. I need to keep one out to use while we drive down the road.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) I listen to all kinds of music. We have XM and listen to country, the decades (up to 60’s anyway), Celtic, folk, etc. I’m not big into hard rock or rap (that’s not music).

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand? I love earthly colors. I’m not wild about orange.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? I am happily married with one child still at home and we have a dog.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? I do wear scarves, hats and mittens, but have never understood ponchos.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? I spend and inordinate amount of time knitting socks, I’m just not really speedy. I like to knit things for other people.

13. What are you knitting right now? I am working on two pair of socks, two dishcloths/facecloths and a tank for my sister.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts? Sure I do!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? I almost exclusively use Knit Picks options. I love the slickness of them and that they are circular. I own some straight needles, but they are packed away in my stash box. I have found that I can do anything on circulars that I can do on straights, but not vice versa.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? I have a store bought yarn winder and my DH and father built me a wonderful yarn swift.

17. How old is your oldest UFO? My oldest UFO is about 9 months old and is a scarf for ds that is being knit out of Lion brand. It’s too hot to knit on it right now, although I do need to finish it before winter.

18. What is your favorite holiday? I love most holidays.

19. Is there anything that you collect? I collect 19^th century ephemera, the items of everyday living, especially yellow ware, ironstone, crocks (Red Wing, most especially), Carte de’Viste photographs of children and women from the mid 19^th century and kitchen stuff. Of course, I do collect yarn, at least that’s what my DH says.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? I would like any of Nicky Epstein’s “On the Edge” books, Cables Untangled or any of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s books that I don’t own, especially the Opinionated Knitter. I would like to have a stitch dictionary or three at some point.

What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? I have a subscription to Interweave Knits.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn? At some point I want to learn to do color work and to knit intarsia, just not yet.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? I am a sock knitter and wear size 8 women’s shoes

23. When is your birthday? July 8th

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID? I am on Ravelry and my username is lyndahitt. I know, really original.

At least now I will be able to put this where my pal can find it when I am assigned a pal. I think that I can mark it so that it shows up in the side bar and I don't have to keep pushing it to the top.

The night sky

We were coming across Colorado the other night and got near the little town of Sargents (on the side of Monarch Pass) and pulled off into a wide spot on the road to sleep for the night. DH took the hound out for her nightly ritual, and started calling to me to come out and see the stars. They were amazing. When you aren't in a town and don't have the distraction of the lights, you can see an amazing amount of the lights in the sky. Several months ago, on a trip to one of the sports/camping stores, we picked up a star chart for DS. When his Dad started calling us out to see the stars, he asked to take the chart out to see what we could see. We were able to pick out the big and little dippers, orion's belt, and several other constellations. It was pretty cool to be able to set the date and time and see all of the different constellations that should be visible between the 40th and 50th parallels. As we were looking at the stars, the moon started to come up over the mountain. We were able to actually see it moving up into the sky.
Have you ever been to the Smithsonian and see the clock that is a pendulum that swings in a circle and knocks down the little cones? You feel like you can almost see the world turning by the way that the pendulum moves from cone or mark to the next. That's how it was with the moon coming up over the mountain. It was kind of like tick, tick, tick and every tick brought the moon just a little higher into the sky until it was almost full and we could see it with all of the craters and everything.

DH decided to get the binoculars out to see the stars better, and then we got the camera out to try and take some moon pictures. He then decided to combine the two and see if we could get some closeup pictures of the moon that showed the definition of the craters and such. Now I can't swear that these are the pictures taken with the binoculars or if they are just really good zoom shots. There were about 40 pictures of the moon on the card and I only was able to keep about six of them. Most of the ones taken with the binoculars on the camera were BAD!!! But I think that these might be ones where everything lined up and we got some cool shots of the moon.

The next day, we went to Canon City and met my parents for lunch and then took off south to cut across New Mexico and into Texas. As we were cutting down US64 in New Mexico we came upon a thunderstorm. We weren't in the rain and were able to see these rainbows in the sky.













Both of these were taken out the front window of the truck. They were taken as the rainbow was fading, but we had seen incredibly vibrant double rainbows and were able to see them from end to end. I couldn't get the camera quick enough to take those, but I did get these two shots. Aren't they pretty? Something that we noticed as were were looking at the double rainbows, was that the outside one was a mirror image of the inside one. The colors were reversed on it. I had never noticed that before, probably because I had never seen a set so vibrantly before.



We spent the day yesterday just chillin in the truck stop. I was able to knit a bit, and then we watched some movies. Some of the truck stops have a system called IdleAire. On that system you put this adapter in your passenger window and then you bring this contraption into the adapter and then you have air or heat (depending on the season), television, pay movies, telephone, internet, driver training programs etc., all for the low, low price of $2.18 per hour (or $1.85 per hour if you sign up for the gold membership). The biggest benefit of this service is that you don't have to idle your truck. You save the cost of the fuel, the wear and tear on your truck, and you get to have unlimited television (some channels) and then if you want the premium channels you pay a flat fee for the whole time you are hooked up. High speed internet is a flat fee, outgoing long distance is another flat fee and then they also have pay per view movies. We never pay for the telephone service, rarely for the internet, but we will pay for the extended channels on the television and sometimes will do a movie. Yesterday, the boys watched several westerns on the "free" channels and then we decided to watch a movie. We picked Catch and Release which I thought was a cute movie. It was kind of sad and funny and then everything turned out all right in the end. We then decided to watch A Good Year with Russell Crowe. Very good movie, but then again I really like Russell Crowe. Finally, DH and I decided that we would watch Amazing Grace. It was about England in the 18th century and William Wilberforce and William Pitt fighting for the abolishment of slavery. If you like historical drama's, this one was very well done and although it was very late and DH missed most of it, I enjoyed it.

We are stopping now, for brunch, and I really have run out of things to say. I am still knitting on the dishcloth, ds's socks and am trying to find the yarn that I will use for the Guernsey socks from six socks KAL. I wanted to use some of the Bearfoot that I got the other day, but it is too fuzzy and the cables don't show up well. I may have to wait until we get home and I can look through the at home stash and find something that will work. I don't think that I could talk DH into stopping at a yarn shop again...besides that, I have some stuff that I have ordered waiting at home for me...Louet Gems, that will work...oh good, got that settled. whew!!!

Catch you another day!