Recouping

Wow. It took me a couple of days to recover from my trip home to Indiana. I had suffered from seasonal allergies after I entered my twenties and they still flare up from time to time when I'm there. Austin is no friend to an allergy sufferer so I have bit the bullet and surrendered to the occasional need for Nasonex and generic Allegra. I pushed myself a little bit to much in the end and spent most of Tuesday in a daze - I even took a nap. I am not a napper. Napping makes me cranky and spaced out.

I have pictures to share but for some reason Blogger is not letting me upload any of them! Is anyone else on Blogger having this problem of late?

I did purchase yarn on my trip despite budget limitations. Tangled Web in Oak Park, IL, is sadly closing their doors. My friend Rebekah and I went to partake in the 40% off (this was on Aug. 10th so they may have closed by now) all remaining yarns. I picked up 6 skeins of luscious Rhapsody wool/silk blen and 1 skein of a Wool in the Woods boucle. Once in Indiana I had to make the usual visit to the Cass Street Depot in Fort Wayne. I should not have purchased anything but I confess to this one skein of Malabrigo Merino Wool in the Java colorway. I've since heard that Malabrigo is a wool co-op of sorts so I'll have to do some investigating into that. This yarn is destined for my first Shibori knitting project, a scarf of some sort. After my own LYS Hill Country Weavers, Cass Street Depot is a favorite. It's in a former train depot building and has shelves and cubbies of yarn in a spacious light-filled setting with wood floors.

I got to spend a lot of time on this trip with my best friend's daughter, Lauryn. When Lauryn showed the slightest interest in sewing about a year ago I sat her down at my mother's machine and we made a pillow together. For Christmas I bought her a mini Janome and we have enjoyed making several things together now. She has always caught on so quickly so I think she can now work on some things on her own as long as her mom is there to supervise (mom does not sew!). I've got to work up some small projects to put together with instructions to send to her. On this trip she made a sleeping bag for her Barbie (crocheted) and a pillow to go with it, pants for her baby doll, a swanky bag with fuzzy fringe. I neglected to photograph the bag but I'll share pictures of the other two when I can. Lauryn is awesome! Thanks for making so much time for me Lauryn (and Renee).

More on the trip in my next post. I'm busy with orientation for grad school and packing for our move closer to campus. Pretty exciting times!
Tschuss.