Category Archives: Travel

Three Weave Structures From One Threading

Almost two years ago I went to Whidby Island to attend a workshop by Kathrin Weber of Blazing Shuttles.  It was probably the most influential thing to happen to my weaving ever.  I learned to let go at that workshop.  I learned a lot of other things and met some FANTASTIC weavers, but I really learned to just let go and enjoy weaving and color.  I’ve always been a pretty plain vanilla girl.  Kathrin’s personality is as colorful as her dye work and you can’t help but have a great time.  If you have the opportunity to attend one of her workshops, do it!  You will learn how to use her hand dyed warps to get the most out of them.  Along with that comes lots of great tricks/tips that you can put to traditional warps as well.  The picture on the right is my workshop project.  You can read more about it here.  On the last day we did a dyeing workshop.  So. Much. Fun.   I’ve been dyeing wool fiber and yarn for years, but dyeing cellulose fiber warps is a whole different animal.  I wouldn’t say it’s harder, just different.  Enter today’s post….

In the last post I showed you the hand dyed warps that I was going to tie on to a towel warp I have on the Glimakra Standard.  I’ve woven one of the warps already in Deep Teal and have started the 2nd in Black.  Let me tell you that when I dyed these I thought they were a flop and I wasn’t happen with them.  I overdyed them with blue and I’d say they’re not too shabby!

Twill towels

In other hand dyed news, I had a twill warp on a LeClerc Medico that I sold back in Aprilish.  The warp had been on the loom since the previous April.  Are you seeing why I decided to sell it and my Mighty Wolf.  Neither were getting much action.  I LOVE my countermarch and the cherry BW was my 50th birthday gift, so she’s not going anywhere.  But I digress… the warp on the Medico…. I directly wound it from the Medico to the back beam of my Baby Wolf and that’s where it sat and waited all this time.  A couple of months before that warp I’d done a hand dyed warp in Turned Taquete and Block Twill.  There’s been a lot of talk on the Blazing Shuttle Facebook page about also adding Repp to that mix.  I’ve done Block Twill and Turned Taquete on the same warp before and you can see that project here, but I’d never tried Repp on the same warp.

 I threaded the warp on the BW in Blocked Twill using the stripes as a guide as to where to change my blocks.  I will add that if I’d know this was what I was going to do, I would have added more layers of color so there would be more changes, but it is what it is and I’m just playing around and having some fun.

This is the Repp  I wove yesterday.  I realize the epi is not as close as it usually is in Repp, but again, I’m just having fun here and playing around.  I actually like the fabric a lot.  It’ll sew up into a great bag, storage container or bench pad. Next I retied the treadles to weave Turned Taquete which is one of my faves:

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Last, but not least, Blocked Twill

Vävstuga Weaving School

For years I wanted to go to Vävstuga Weaving School in Shelburne Falls, Mass.  Though I’ve been weaving for quite a while and have been using Becky’s “flippy book” and video since I bought my Glimakra Standard a year and a half ago, I still learned quite a few good tips and it’s always fun to hang out with other weavers, both new to the craft and experienced.  

Where to begin?  Located on the Deerfield River next to the Bridge of Flowers, the setting alone is beautiful.  A weaving friend of mine did the class with me so we shared the double room in the dorm where we were surrounded by gorgeous handwovens. 

The whole crew was awesome.  From dealing with Bettie in the office during “registration” to being greeted by Tonya the first evening.  I have to say, I’m a food-driven girl and Kim’s meals were something to look forward to.  I was salivating an hour after a meal from the smells coming from the kitchen.  I will be waiting very impatiently for the cookbook to come out and will buy it immediately.  The salads were ridiculous.  My favorite was the pear… I think….  Honestly, I’d go back just for the food alone.  

Becky had a great way of mixing weaving with drafting classes to get us away from the looms for a bit each morning and afternoon.  As long as I’ve been weaving, I’ve always relied on computer programs or magazine and book drafts to weave.  I know have a tiny understanding, but it’s still a little foggy in my head.  We had a couple of ladies in our class that had never woven on a floor loom before. The rest of us were SO impressed with their quick grasp of craft.  I would say that is a great sign of how great of a teacher Becky is.

Probably my favorite part of the whole week was dinner at Becky’s house one night.  Shocker.  It involves food.  It was amazing.  What a beautiful spot she lives on.  Reminds me of my grandfather’s place in New Hampshire.  The dining room was fully lit with candles when we arrived and we were treated to a Swedish-style meal at Becky’s table.  After dinner was a tour of the house with all of it’s looms available for classes and the Immersion Program (oh, but that I could do THAT!).  I fell in love with the smålandsväv fabrics and  would definitely love to return for a class in that structure.  The big treat to end the evening was a little concert in the living room.  Thank you to my class-mate, Liz for the permission to use this photo!!

If you can do it, go.  If you are an experienced weaver, you’ll still learn a few things, if you are a new weaver, you will come out far ahead of those of us that were mostly self-taught.  I leave you with random pictures from the week.

Best Weekend. EVER!

I’m a little late on the report.  It’s been a crazy week with the snow storm and all.  SPA was greater than I ever imagined.  I think women owe it to themselves to get away once in a while.  Even though I had a screaming sinus headache the first couple of days I had SUCH a good time.  I didn’t realize how much I needed the break until I could take a nap and sleep in til 10:30, do what *I* wanted to do when I wanted to do it and the very best part, being able to share the love of wool with so many other women.  I had a great time hanging out with Kim, Kathy, Carole, Terry, Laurie, Martha, Lucia, Manise (who I finally got to meet!), Sharon, Di (and her GORGEOUS wheel) and I got to meet Dave from Merlin Tree who so kindly tried to help me with a wheel I wanted to sell.  Like so many others, I had my camera the whole weekend.  I have no idea why I didn’t take one picture.  I guess I was just having too much fun.

Here’s my loot:

A Forrester spindle.   She spins like a dream. I picked this one to remind me of New England when we move to Texas.  The roving is Kim’s (Woolen Rabbit) BFL in “Blues”. 

Ann Hanson’s Butternut Scarf pattern and Kim’s Alpaca in Chocolate Chambord.  YUM!

And evidently I like Kim’s Chocolate Chambord because I bought it in sock yarn the day before.  And I had to get something for Dan so I bought Burgandy Bean to make him some socks.  I know.  Thoughtful huh?  The colors are much darker than the photo shows.  It’s much more Aggie Maroon than it looks.

Maahhtha

Two of my neighbors and I headed down to the city very early yesterday morning for a Martha Stewart Show taping.  There was some confusion because when I got the tickets they called me interested in getting a bunch of Army wives from West Point down for a show.  They asked me to look for a certain person when we got there to make arrangements for a future show.  So,  we’re sitting there waiting for our number to be called and they say, “Can the Army wives please come through now.”  We were surprised, looked at each other and got up.  At the same time a group of about 20 women in front of us stood up as well.  The other audience members were kind. They clapped and yelled stuff like, “Go Army!”  Come to find out these ladies were all from Ft Monmouth, NJ. 

The woman that had asked the Army wives to come forward was the same woman I’d talked to on the phone a few weeks back.   I told her who I was and reminded her about our conversation about the Army wives from West Point and she said, “Oh yeah…” then she asked my two friends and I to go back and sit down until they were ready for us.  It was very humiliating to walk back in the waiting room and be separated from the other Army wives like that.  We felt like all the other audience members thought we were phonies or something.

When Joey was working everyone up for the show, he introduced the NJ group (who were seated on the other side of the studio from us) but not us.  It was just weird and uncomfortable.  It’s not like we were looking for any kind of attention or anything.   In fact, when they called “the Army wives” were were surprised.  What they don’t get is that Army wives… really all military… are a great big family.  It doesn’t matter where you’re stationed.  We all got a kick out of all of us showing up for the same show and we would have had fun sitting together.  When she asked us to go sit back down, we thought it was just a big mix up and that the number on our tickets was our seat numbers and it was just too late to switch the seats this close to air time.  Not so.  The numbers on the tickets were simply how they called you into the studio.  They easily could have let us go in with the NJ group.  All I can say it was weird, embarrassing and it stung a little.

We still had a great time.  It was very interesting to see how it all worked.  It was great to get out with my friends, too.  One is moving next month and with us leaving in June, I want to do as much as I can before we move.  That’s the hard part of being military. Saying goodbye so often. The good part is that you have friends pretty much anywhere you go.

All I had was my little pocket camera so the pics aren’t that great.

These are the cookie cutters we got for these super cute cookies:

Afterward we headed back up to Times Square for lunch at my favorite pizza place, John’s Pizzeria. Then over to Junior’s for cheesecake.  Terrible picture but it’s all I’ve got. 

Over the last few days tons of packages with hats have been landing on my doorstep.  Holy cow, you guys!  58 more hats (163 total)!  I’m sure there’ll be more later today.  We’re getting a couple of deliveries a day with the Holiday help at the Post Office.

No More Holes In My Gussets!

Daniel, Lucky and I got home from Columbus last night.  Bottom line, Lucky is deaf for life sadly. 

Jeremy came and stayed with us from Ball State so that was a great save to the trip.  We spent all day Tuesday at COSI while Lucky was at the OSU Vet Hospital:

It was a great way to spend the day if you’re ever in Columbus.

Back in early May I went to West Port, Ct to meet up with Jennifer (Major Knitter) for a class with Charlene Schurch.

Here’s a great shot of Jennifer in her beautiful shawl.

I went thinking I’d just have fun because, after all, I’d been knitting socks so long, what could I possibly learn. I even have a few of her books that I’ve knit socks from, so for sure she wasn’t going to teach *me* anything new.  Ha.  Shows what I know which isn’t near as much as I thought.  lol.  It was not only great fun but Charlene was a FABuoulous teacher and I learned a ton.  No more holes in my gussets!   

There were many great socks to be seen:

Kim Wasn’t Lying!

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My new “little” cousin, Nelson,  in the sweater I knit for him last month.  I think this is the last time he’ll be wearing it. lol.

We went up to New Hampshire over the weekend.  Got to meet up with Kim (Woolen Rabbit) and hubby again for lunch and a trip to Patternworks.   What fun but I can’t believe that as many times as we’ve met up, we don’t have a picture of us together.  I’m sure it’s because neither of us really like to have our picture taken but we’re going to have to remedy that next time.  And she wasn’t lying about the snow!  It’s exactly the kind of snow I remember as a little girl up there.   There’s a picture somewhere in my grandparents basement of me standing on the sidewalk in front of the house we lived in with snow piled way over my head on either side of me.  I remember my grandfather and uncles having to climb out the 2nd story window to clear the snow from the front door and the 1st story windows.   As soon as we hit Highway 16 our jaws dropped as we saw the several feet of snow get deeper and deeper.

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The Texas boy got a little taste of New England life as he helped my cousin get the snow off of her roof.   This was after we’d just gone up and helped my grandfather clear off his workshop and garage.   My 82 year-old grandfather swore to us that he wasn’t going to worry about the roof of the house because he’d shoveled it a few times over the last month and it didn’t have the accumulation the workshop and garage did.  Yea.  When I went out to take the above picture of Dan and Muria on her roof they just pointed up the hill at my grandparents house:

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See the guy in the red jacket on the roof?  That’d be my very stubborn grandfather.  See the the yellow wood in the foreground?  That’d be the fence that Joe could just step over because of the snow.

Crazy.  Just crazy.  I’m glad we won’t be around when all that melts.  What a mess.

No Place Better than New England for Tday

Lots to catch up on!  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We made the six-hour trek to New Hampshire.  We did pretty good traffic-wise.  Hit it in a few spots in Connecticut on the way there but pretty much smooth sailing other than that.

As if getting to live this close to my family isn’t great enough already, it’s even better because I get to visit with Kim (Woolen Rabbit) and her hubby who live a very short drive from my family.   I was especially looking forward to her meeting Lucky since we both have a love for the Cavalier breed.  We met them for dinner on Friday night and she surprised me with this:

Gorgeous, no?  The pattern is Delicato Mitts from Anne Hanson at KnitSpot and the yarn is Kim’s.  I’m telling you, the girl’s got an eye for color and she seems to have my favorites down pat.

I’ve been working on socks with the yarn Kim gave me when we went up over Labor Day.  I guess it’s only fitting that I show them in progress… I wasn’t hiding them, Kim, I promise!

I tried the Sherman Heel on the heel and toe.  I love the way it looks but…  Dear. God!  If I don’t have my mind completely on it I lose track and have to rip back.  I am getting the hang of it though and getting better at figuring out where I am without counting.  I’ve never had to rip back so many times.  I think it was worth it though.  NO GAPS!!!  Can I hear an AMEN?! The Sherman Heel was originally posted on the Knitlist which is long gone. I’ve added it to the bottom of this post.

And then when we got home I found this little gem from Claudia (bavgirl) in my mailbox:

Thank you so much, Claudia.  It was a fun little challenge.  And thanks, La (Knottygirls), for telling me about it!

My grandparents gave me a great gift as well.  A photo album put together by my great-grandmother on Gram’s side.  I’ve promised to scan every page and photo and make CD’s for everyone.  I couldn’t wait to get it home to compare to my family history notes.  This is my great-grandmother x3, Christiana Lewis (Soule) Chick (left). 

Her sister, Judith Thomas Soule, is on the right.  Christiana is my favorite person in our history because through census reports I’ve been able to get the most information on her.  She is my link to all my Mayflower ancestors.

It’s getting very cold and grey here in the Hudson Valley.  This is the view my boys have on their way to/from school each day and every weekend when we attend Mass.  This is taken from the Catholic Chapel here at West Point.

The Sherman Heel from the old Knitlist:

The Sherman Sock, or ‘How did you do that?’

Mary Sherman Lycan, 9/3/99:

The Sherman Sock is named for my late father, Rallston Sherman, an inventor. He always said an inventor is someone who is too lazy to do things the right way. The Sherman sock is knit from one side of the base of the toe cap, around the toe tip, and up. It is worked flat on two needles for the double-mitered toe and heel, and in the round for instep and leg.

Its advantages:

  1. As with peasant heels, the identical toe and heel are structurally independent, with no need for gussets or other awkward foot shaping. Use a contrasting color for toe and heel, for a very nice effect. Leg and instep are straight tubes, allowing for maximum freedom in stitch and pattern design.
  2. The mitered toe and heel, based on Montse Stanley’s suggestions for mitering, are easier to work than wrapped short rows. The decreases and increases are smooth, without holes or long carries inside.
  3. Toe-up construction allows for best use of yarn: if you start to run out, make tennis anklets; if you have extra, make long socks.
  4. Toe-up construction of identical toe and heel eliminate guesswork on the length of the foot. The depth of the toe cap is the same as the depth of the heel, so you can try on and measure as you go. Just poke your toes into the toe.
  5. Toe-up construction allows Fair Isle, lace, and Aran patterns to be knit right side up, except on the first half of the toe cap. If you want your multi-row patterns to come out even, toe-up construction allows you to fit the foot exactly, and fudge the leg length, to accomplish that.
  6. Worn-out heels and toes can be reknit as peasant heels.
  7. No more toe grafting!
  8. Sherman socks are fun to fold flat into little torpedo shapes.
  9. The invisible cast-on at the base of the toe cap makes it impossible to tell where you started knitting.
    Mystify your friends. ‘How did you do that?’

For more information, see: http://web.archive.org/web/20071231151807/www.knitli…


A Heel Is Born

Thanks for all the well wishes.  I’m back to normal.   The stuffed nose is even gone.  It was kind of nice to sleep for a couple of days.   I’m not a sleeper so on the odd occasion that I do, it’s pure bliss.

Winter has finally arrived here in Bavaria, Germany.   It seems it’s coming in full force.  The forecast is up to 12 inches in the next couple of days. Yesterday I was wearing a thin jacket around.   This morning, I was shoveling a ton of snow so the boys could walk out to the bus stop. I just let Aggie out a bit ago and she didn’t know what to do.  It was hilarious to see her go running to the door only to come to a skidding stop to look at all the white stuff that was all over her yard.  I’m really hoping they call a snow day tomorrow.  The boys have a four-day weekend (not really sure why) so it’d make it a five-day one full of fun sledding and hot cocoa… oh, and shoveling… lots of shoveling.  Good thing I don’t need to go anywhere today.  I can’t unless I go dig the mound out at the end of my driveway that the plow truck left there.  Swell.  I *really* miss Dan. lol.

I’ve been working on the socks on 2 circs.  Still haven’t decided if I like it or not.  Here I am working on one of the heels (I did them one at a time – impossible to do both short-row heels at once):

Here it is finished:

I have to admit that I ended up ripping it back out several times after knitting the other one and something just didn’t seem right (the stripes weren’t even close which led me to believe that I’d knit something wrong).  I ended up cheating and putting them both on dpns to do the heels.  I’m working on the ribbing now and am about 1/3 done.

While I was knitting on them last night I was watching the PBS special (on DVD) of Colonial House.  I LOVE these shows.  I was hooked on Pioneer House so I had high hopes for this show.  I watched three episodes last night and it’s really starting to get interesting now.  And they have Texas Ranch House out now!  Already ordered it so I can watch it when Dan gets home.  Did I mention that’s TWO WEEKS FROM TOMORROW…. but on to my story…

I took note that a lot of the men were wearing knitted hats that looked felted.  They seemed to be brighter colors than I would have imagined the Puritans wearing.   I love it for the scenery as well.  It’s shot in Maine.  Even though I’ve never actually lived there, I’ve visited often and it’s where my ancestors came to America from Scotland (through Nova Scotia).  My grandparents live about 20 min. from the Maine state line, so they didn’t go far. lol.

I especially like the inclusion of the Passamaquoddy Indians.  My seventh great-grandfather was Col. John Allan.  He was born in Edinburgh Castle when his father was there during the Scottish Rebellions.  They moved to Nova Scotia after the war as his father was given land there by the government for his service.  John Allan was a member of Parliment but ended up going against the crown and helping the Colonists.  Basically, his job was to keep the Indians of the Northeast on the Colonist’s side.  If you’re really interested (it is a really interesting story if you like history), you can read more here.   I even have an excerpt out of a diary of a girl that visited the Allan family.  It’s so cool to read about how they played the piano and sang songs to entertain her and how kind they all were.  Nice to know your kin were kind.

Lubec, Maine from Campobello Island (following pics are scans from old film snapshots):

Dan and I met at an Army school outside of Boston (Ft. Devens – I’m so sad it’s closed down).  About a month into the school we went on a trip to Maine.  I was going to see some papers on the Indian Reservation near Lubec that Col. Allan had written.  Dan claimed he wanted to go to see the Pow Wow they were having that weekend.  I was a little slow in realizing he was interested in more than the Indians.   The name of the cabin we stayed in was Blueberry Hill.  😉  We were married a little over a month later.   Maybe Fats was on to something! We went back there a couple of years later with 10-month old Daniel:

If you’re still reading I’ll tell you a funny story.  I knew that Col. Allan lived on an island off the coast of Lubec. There is a monument there where he and his wife were buried.  We went down to the dock and found a man that was about to take his family on a little boat ride.  He gave us a ride to the island and said he’d come back and get us in an hour.  HOW STUPID were we?!  The funny thing is we didn’t realize how stupid we were until we were sitting there waiting for him.  There was a salmon farm a little ways off and we were wondering if the faint figure we could see would hear us if we started screaming.   But the man did come back for us and returned us safely to Lubec…. obviously.

Dan, Daniel and Dallas (I still miss that dog and she died seven years ago) at our Blueberry Hill:

Athens Was Awesome

We may have only run the 10K but the whole trip was a Marathon in itself.  Pam and I got on the plane Saturday morning in Munich.  We landed at Athens Airport outside the city to the East at 3:00 Athens time.  We took a 45-min bus ride to get to the other side of the city where we had to pick up our bib numbers and race packet.  Then it was a 45-min tram to our hotel.  Too bad we were only there one night.  We got there just in time to drop our bags and go find dinner.  A woman on the plane told us about a restaurant near the Plaka.  We found it but opted for a more lively one across from it instead.  We figured you couldn’t get bad Souflaki in Athens.   We were right.  Our table was full of all our favorite Greek dishes and we PIGGED OUT!   We obviously aren’t athletes worried about our time in the run (good thing).  We walked through the Plaka on the way back to the hotel to find a jacket for me to run in.  We weren’t expecting how cold it was there.   Weather.com was WAY wrong.

The next morning we arrived at the Stadium and got ready for the run.   Since we signed up for the run we were worried about the course description, “the first part of the run is rather uphill.” 

Rather?!  What the heck is rather?  I’ll tell you what it is… it’s 300meters in 3 miles.  That’s what it is.  Every time we hit a hill in the first half, we thought, “Okay.  This is it.  Last one.”  We were dying to say, “It’s all downhill from here.”  The last hill was a whopper, but we could see the 10K turn around point at the top.  We ran the first half in 40 minutes and the 2nd half in 30 minutes.  Not bad for two middle-aged moms that hadn’t been training like they should.  But we did it and it was SUCH a good feeling to cross that finish line in the first Olympic Stadium to the sound of Queen singing We Are The Champions!  I’m so ready to do the Berlin Half Marathon in April now!

See the old man running next to us?  He crossed the finish line ahead of us.  *My* story is that he was only running the 5K.   There was also a homeless man who joined in the last little bit and crossed the finish line.  He was throwing a fit because they wouldn’t put a medal around his neck.  If I wasn’t in such a fog and didn’t realize what was going on, I would have given him mine.

We walked the 10 min. through the National Park back to our room, showered and were on the train back to the airport within an hour and a half of finishing.  We were walking like two old women but we had HUGE smiles on our faces.  It was like we had a big secret.  People were looking at us like we were morons.  lol. 

We got to the airport early enough that we sat down for a leisurely lunch.   When we pulled out our boarding passes the first time I noticed there wasn’t a ticket on Pam’s like mine.  We figured it was just because we were traveling together.  As we’re in the LONG line for the security checks we realize our boarding call was ten min. early than we thought!  Four minutes ago!  Uh-oh.  And everything had gone so smoothly up until then.  So we get to the gate in the nick of time and they stop Pam because there’s no ticket on her boarding pass!  They made me get on the bus to the plane and they told Pam to go look for it.  We told them we never had it but they didn’t believe us.  It was obvious she’d checked in and had it an hour before.  Smart girl that she is she wouldn’t leave the desk.  They finally had to let her go.  The flight took off fifteen minutes late because of it.  Whew.  We were wiping sweat off our brows as we looked at Athens disappearing below us.

I learned something though.  It may have only been 6.2 miles…  but those hills nearly did me in.  I kept going because I had my friend by my side.  We may not have finished first but we didn’t finish last either.  There were at least a hundred people behind us but they stopped the time at an hour and a half so we made it and I’m so proud of us. 

18 Saturdays

That’s how the boys and I count down the rest of the deployment.   We have 18 Saturdays left.  It’s so much more easy to swallow than 127 days.   Thank God because I’m about at the end of my rope.  Single parenthood is for the birds.  I don’t know how people do it on a permanent basis.  I am on the go from the time I slap the snooze button for the last time at 6:15 until the boys are in bed at 8:30.  Doesn’t help that I’m a moron and started the boys in Tae Kwon Do before the soccer season was over.  We have something every single day of the week now.  Even on Sundays there is Mass and CCD (and I’m the Religious Ed Coordinator so I have to work that day). 

We did get to spend about an hour with Dan (sort of) a couple of weeks ago.  He was promoted to CW3 via video conferencing (think really high speed web cam).  It was nice.  He was actually promoted on September 1st but held off on the ceremony until all his troops were back in Afghanistan from R&R.

I have good days and I have bad days.  I’ve told you all a little about my “battle buddy”, Pam.  She has been my rock.  Always there and we always seem to be on the same sheet of music.  Her husband is in Iraq and due home in December.  She has three kids and two of them are younger than the boys AND she has a full-time job.  On top of that, her husband had only been home from Iraq for about eight months before he had to leave again on this deployment.  We had three full years between Dan’s deployments and that was hard enough.  It just stinks no matter how you look at it but she always has a positive spirit and keeps me laughing.  I mean that awesome gut-busting kind of laughter where you start tearing up.  You can see why she’s my hero and I’m so proud to call her my friend.

We’re training to run together in the Berlin Half Marathon in April.  She ran it last year.  Both guys will be home by then and it’s our Grand Finale to the deployments to come out strong.  So I’m going to have a little contest to liven things up around here.  We’re running in a 10K next month to keep us motivated.  The prize?  A full pound of the lavender yarn I have up in the last post.  If I can’t sell it, I might as well give it away. Your mission, should you accept it, is to tell me where we’ll be running.  I’ll take all the correct answers and draw a name from them.  Don’t spoil the fun and put it in the comments, email your answer.  I’ll give a hint per post until I get the right answer.   I have a feeling someone will get it right off though.  Here’s the first hint:

On the knitting front I picked up the shawl kit that I bought in Shetland.  It’s a simple lace pattern but I’m having a heck of a time getting it set up and going.  Could be because I’m trying to watch “The Unit” while I’m knitting.  lol.