Excited!

I've been in contact for a while with Jonelle from Southwest Trading Company. She asked me to knit her a B4 Bag in Karaoke. She wanted to use it to help advertise the Karaoke yarn.

She sent me some yarn, and I knit it up, put on the buttons, and was going to line it, but she said, nah...just send it.

Last night I got an email that included a mock-up of what will be a 4 x 5 foot banner that will be in their booth at TNNA. The banner will then make its way around the country in a Karaoke touting event. My contact information will go along with it, so LYS owners can (hopefully!) order patterns before the trunk show gets to their store.

I believe this will also be an ad that will be in a couple of yarn magazines.



Cool, huh? So if you're going to be at TNNA, take a gander at the banner in the booth, and also peek inside the booth...I may be hanging out there at times (the bag will be there in person too!) I have decided to go to Columbus next month as an affiliate/designer. Just to get my feet wet, and see what it's all about. I am excited, and nervous, and expect to be totally overwhelmed. But hopefully it will be a good learning experience, and will give me some idea of what I need to do to further my business from here. My friend Kim of Knitting Matters will also be there on the same mission.

Meanwhile I've been working on my socks (almost done....soooo close!) and a mystery project done in Dream In Color (Happy Forest is the colorway). I must say I LOVE this yarn so very much. It's got such a nice feel to it, and has a lot of SPROING. There are such great colors to choose from. I can't wait to knit something for myself using this yarn. I got it from Threadbear in Lansing, sight unseen, (feel unfelt) after hearing Rob rave about it on his blog, and am not sorry. It's just lovely!

You might recognize what this is, but don't say anything....shhhh.....just in case the unknowing recipient might be reading.....

This is so "my color" :-)

FO, OTN and a Mile of Targhee

Here's a baby blanket knit for my neighbor's daughter Christie who had a baby girl earlier this month. Christie was only 16 when we moved here, and has grown into a woman, a teacher, and now a mother of 2. Her son is 3 and is the cutest little guy. Anyway, I finished this a few days ago, gave it a wash and dry, and it's sitting here ready to get delivered.

The yarn is Sirdar Spree which is a chunky cotton/acrylic blend and is really soft to the touch. Just right for a baby blankie!

On the needles is a pair of socks I started when I was going to Ann Arbor to see Stephanie (Yarn Harlot) I got as far as the heels and then the socks sat for a bit. Yesterday I decided to turn the heels so I could just go around and around at Kaitlyn's track meet later in the afternoon (which I didn't end up going to after all). I'm glad the heels are done though, because now it's almost mindless knitting to the end, and I'm hoping to make good progress on them tomorrow night. We are gathering at the home of one of the gals from my knitting group instead of at the coffee shop we normally meet at. We can get a little crazy if we want to. I'm making my famous guacamole and we'll have other snacks and drinks. I'm sure a good time will be had by all.

Yarn is Wildfoote from Brown Sheep that I got (REALLY CHEAP!) in February when I visited the factory. I love the soft pink...



I skeined the last of the plied Targhee (from the previous post) for Diane, and it came to about 250 yards. Added to the first skein which was 625 yards, I figured out that is 1750 yards of singles, which equals a mile....
a MILE!!! of singles. Oh my. No wonder it felt like I was never going to finish spinning! So I spun a mile of singles. Then I respun that same mile of singles to put more twist in them. Then I plied it into 1/2 mile of 2 ply yarn.

Diane is looking for just the right shawl pattern to knit the half mile of Targhee. (Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!)

I'm now looking forward to spinning some Merino for my friend Linda who created the logo for my business website Once In A Bloomoon Creations as well as a Bloomin' Knitiot logo (which I have unsuccessfully tried to add to the top of my blog...not being too great with HTML....so if you can help with that I'd be grateful for that too!)

Oh Happy Day!

It seems like I've been spinning this Targhee forever! Last night I finished plying the first bobbin and today I got it skeined and washed. It's just about dry after a stint out on the covered porch this afternoon.

Particulars:

Targhee top from Susan's Spinning Bunny

I somehow was able to spin this really thin. Much thinner than I thought I could, and pretty consistently. It was actually thinner than I was trying for, but decided to just keep going since it was working out ok. More yardage is not bad, it just takes a looooooooooong time to spin each ounce!


Once I was done spinning 2 bobbins, I was worried that I didn't have enough twist in the singles since they were so thin. So, believe it or not, I sent every yard back through the wheel for more twist. Dang! Would I ever get around to plying this stuff?

Finally I started plying and wondered if I was getting the right amount of plying twist. When I skeined it, it twisted back on itself a bit, so I thought maybe I had overplied, but once I gave it a bath, it hangs straight. Yeah! It poofed up a bit in the washing, and I am so anxious to send this to Diane.


I haven't done a WPI yet...I forgot to do that earlier. Curious to see what it comes out to be. I still have some more plying to do, but the first skein turned out to be 625 yards and it is 4 oz.


Eye candy:

Panes Anniversary

It was 2 years ago today that I started selling the pattern for my first design, the Panes Bag, online and in stores. Wow, a lot has happened since then! I have another pattern in the works, and a couple more in the brain. I hope to have them available to you soon.

Thanks
to all of you who have shown your support over the past 2 years!

It

We know in our brains...we know "it" will happen. We get that burst of warm weather in early spring. We get all excited. We bring out the shorts. We put away the woolens.

We spin on the porch in the setting evening sun.

Even though we know "it" will happen. After all, this is Michigan...

In the week that followed 2 days of 81 degree record-breaking temps and in the same week it was 70 degrees ..."it" happened.

This is what is going on outside my window as I type

IT:

Happy Easter!

Oh, and look at these cute little sheepy candies I found at the drugstore!

April Fool's Day with Yarn Harlot

After weeks of anticipation, April 1 was finally here and it was time to go back to the Ann Arbor Library to see Stephanie again. I left the house at 10:40am, picked up Kim and headed out. We wanted to be sure to be there plenty early to make sure we had a seat in the main room. No "overflow" room for us!

After a bit of a detour, we arrived at the library around 12:30 and found many many knitters already in attendance. We grabbed our seats and settled in. Mike had packed me a lunch, so I had a bit to eat, and Kim had a couple of power bars to keep her going. Before too long, Tim from the library made an announcement (which I guess had already been made once before we got there) for any newcomers to let us know that Stephanie was not in Ann Arbor. Stephanie was not even in Michigan. Stephanie was in Chicago. She had been on a flight that was unable to land that morning because of fog. Stephanie was TRYING to get a flight, and they would keep us posted.

So, the couple hundred of us sat. We knit many stitches. We chatted. We knit some more. We snacked (even though Tim told us there was no eating in the library) Sorry Tim, but we were hungry, and we were there for the long haul. Kim is in this photo, on the far left, in lime green, 1/2 way back.



There was no complaining. There was no fidgeting. There was no uprising. We came, and we weren't leaving until we saw Yarn Harlot. There was no need to entertain us...we had all brought our own entertainment and it was in our hands. However, the library people thought it would be fun to give us a parade of kids in their April Foolery hats they had made elsewhere in the library. There were 2 of these parades. We clapped for the kids and they looked at us rather oddly. It helped pass the time.



We got several more (non)updates from Tim, then finally he told us she was on a flight that was supposed to land around 3:30 and that hopefully she would be there by 4:00. She didn't arrive until 4:30. She came running in to cheers from the crowd, walked to the podium, looked at us all for a moment, and said....

CRAP!

Roars of laughter.....

Poor Stephanie had started her day at 3:00 AM and was just walking in to the event 13.5 hours later. She explained some of how things had gone badly all day (I'm sure we'll read more details on her own blog when she wakes up and has a chance to write about it). Then she told us how the car that was to meet her at the airport OH SO MANY HOURS before was no longer there, and wondered how she was going to get to Ann Arbor, because..."it was too far to walk"...when some random dude named Brad said "I can drive you to Ann Arbor". She said she checked Brad's passport, but still.... Anyway, Brad was at this time pointed out at the back of the room and also got a standing ovation. But how crazy is that???? Well, at least she got there. And we were happy.

Unfortunately Steph cut her talk short because the library's closing time was 6pm. Well Tim had already told us that they would let us stay past 6pm due to the circumstances. But maybe they didn't tell Steph that. Or maybe she was just too exhausted to give us more. She was her usual hilarious self, looking lovely in her Bohus and we soaked in every funny word.

Just being surrounded by knitters for all those hours was fun. There was a round of applause for an FO (which I have since found out was completed by Tracey) , Dana was handing out nametags for bloggers and then taking pix of all the nametags. We met Kyle who works at Threadbear (and Kyle's mom) and talked with them quite a bit. Waiting in line to get our books signed we chatted with a few more folks. Fun fun fun. There were many more bloggers there whose names I recognized but I wasn't taking notes (DUH) so I can't list them all here.

Finally it was our turn. I got up to the table, and Stephanie looked up at me, read my shirt (which I had made with my blog logo and URL) and she said to me "Are you really the Bloomin' Knitiot?"....a recognition which thrilled me and made me feel like "someone". I had made Stephanie some personalized pens and a beaded orifice hook, all of which she seemed to love (and will soon be available on my website).




She signed my books, and when Kim was getting her book signed, I went around Stephanie's back with my camera and she laughed when I said I was going to macro her Bohus.



It was just a riot. She is so down to earth and approachable, and I am just thrilled for all her success and for sharing herself with us.....events such as the book tour, but also in letting us into her life by continuing to write her blog, no matter how tired she is, no matter how frazzled or busy...she knows we are there waiting to read more, and she comes through. (Sometimes the natives get restless waiting for updates...myself included....but it's always worth the wait.)

Thanks for a great time, Steph. We love you!

Sweet Spring Spinning

Today started with early morning thunder and lightning, (I love a good storm during the night.....) but the storm had passed by the time I got up. It turned out to be a beautiful, very warm March day. It was a record breaking 81, which is WAY more than the 48 that is average for this time of year!

I had some errands to run this afternoon and each time I got out of my car or came out of the store or the school, I was shocked by how warm it was, since it was such a sudden warm-up rather than a more gradual one.

After dinner, as the sun started to fall in the west, it shone on my front porch. I grabbed my wheel (which I have finally given the name of Ella) and took her outside for about 30 minutes of spinning in the fresh air and sunshine.

I can see many more hours in the future, Ella and I on the porch, doin' our thing.

Who's representing in Ann Arbor next weekend?

I keep checking Stephanie/Yarn Harlot's blog to see if she's written about the big event in NYC on Thursday but who knows when she'll get around to giving us the full story. I just read all the comments, clicked on links to blogs that belong to people who were lucky enough to be there.

If you don't know about "representing", go read the Feb. 16th post on Steph's blog.

It's only a week until Stephanie comes to Michigan. I went last year and I will go again this year. What a blast. I need to get a pair of socks on the needles to take with me.

Give a shout out if you'll be there, and we can say HEY to each other.

Bloom!

Happy Spring!

Finally, the first day of spring!
Ok, technically not until later today.... not the first FULL day of spring.....

Soon, things in Michigan will be in bloom.

Well, we can hope....
there could still be more wintry weather looming in April...

Having the last name "Bloom" lets me find many things with that word on it.
Here are a few of the things I've gathered.

Many have been gifts from my sister who makes a point of
finding bloomin' gifts for me!

This set graces my mantel every spring:*********
This sign is in our 'garden themed' bathroom.
I thought it was appropriate to see as we step out of the shower :-)

********
This cute little ducky is also a springtime decoration in our living room.
He brings orange jelly beans!

********
A garden stake.... Or what I might say to my husband if he's in the doghouse :-)

********
This year's Valentine's Day flag: ********
This sign is in our entryway:
********
Bloom wine!
********
I'll plant something in this little flower pot soon
********
Also a flower pot, put into use for pens/pencils for many years now

********
Sweatshirt from Bloomindales ********
Keychain from my friend, Maria


If spring weather has not arrived in your neck of the woods quite yet, I hope it shows up soon. It was well into January when we finally felt it was winter here, so it wasn't a long winter, but it sure was cold, and I'm SO READY for
Bloomin' Spring!!!!

If you never hear from me again....

It'll be because I've been sucked down into the quagmire that is the dirt (MUD) road from my house to the pavement. We've had a couple of really warm days, causing a thaw that is too fast for our road to adapt. If the thaw is slow, the water (melting snow) has a chance to slowly dissipate. Right now it is mixing with the dirt and every time someone drives down it, the mud layer gets deeper and deeper. The frozen ground is way underneath now, and it is becoming treacherous.

I drove Kaitlyn to the corner to catch the bus this morning, because there truly is nowhere to walk. I nearly got stuck on my way back home. I hopped back into bed to catch about another hour's worth of sleep, and actually dreamed that my car got stuck in the middle of the road. Then I drove Jake to the corner and it definitely gets worse every time I go through.

It's bad enough when there are big pot holes to contend with. You just go slow. But it's gone beyond that. You CAN'T go slow, because you will sink. I just have to gun it and hope I make it through. Oh, my poor mud-covered Yarnbox....when will I ever see your beautiful green paint again?

(ps...the year we found this house, there was a similar situation. We looked at the house for the first time in March. Everyone who lives on this road had to park their cars at the corner and walk to the houses...the road was impassable. So we did the same. Parked our car. Our realtor parked his car. We donned our boots. We hiked through the mud to look at the house. We bought it anyway. This is the first time it has been that bad again in the 14 years we've lived here. I do NOT want to have to park my car at the corner, but I fear that may be what's in store. I am actually hoping for some sub-freezing weather again so the mud will freeze/harden enough to drive ON it again, not IN it. UGH)

25 Slick Tricks with Candace

On Monday I went with my knitting buddies Sharon and Kim up to Lexington for a workshop with Candace Eisner Strick. The workshop was arranged for Sharon's knitting guild. Kim and I were the only "outsiders" there. The rest were all from the guild.

It was an all-day workshop, starting at 9am and running til 4pm. We had about an hour for lunch, which was potluck, provided by the guild. What a yummy array of foods. There definitely was a LOT of food.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I can't show you pictures of Candace, her lovely kits and samples, the guild, the food, etc. Please do check out her website though. She has some very unique designs, and the "Merging Colors" yarns are incredible. The yarn is soooo soft and the way the colors blend together in the garments is magical. She had all of the samples that are on her website there for us to fondle and drool over.

Candace is a great teacher, and quite entertaining as well. The day flew by and it was quite a nice experience.

A good many of the 25 Slick Tricks I already knew. There were also techniques I had done before but managed to brush up my skills on those a bit. Still others were shown with a slight change from how I was used to doing them. I did manage to learn a few brand new (to me) things that I will definitely put to good use in my knitting future.

Latvian Braids (very cool)
Invisible Cast On for Ribbing (equally cool)
The One-Row Buttonhole (better than the gaping Two-Row Buttonhole)
Knitting in your loose ends as you go
Converting bind off shoulder shaping to short row shaping to eliminate "stair steps"
Binding off over cables


New Sock Pix!!



The first ones are my "blizzard" socks. I try to have socks going when I am travelling, and name them for the situation or place where I was knitting them. These are Koigu. Toe Up (Queen Kahuna style) with a ribbing that I made up because I couldn't get the Melanie's Twist pattern to work out and I got frustrated.

The second pair are my "lodge" socks that I started almost a year ago when we went to the Great Wolf Lodge for spring break. These have an after-thought heel. It was my first attempt at the ATH and truthfully I am not all that thrilled with the way these socks fit. They are definitely cute (LOVE Trekking!) but having not done ATH before, I was afraid to finish them up, not knowing if they were going to be "right" or not. I decided before I left for Diane's to just kitchener those heels and get them off the needles. I think you can see from the photo that there is too much heel. At one point, I may redo the heels (that's the whole point of making them after-thought, right? So you can replace them if you need to) For now I'll live with them. I definitely learned something about ATH socks. And what I need to do to make the next pair better if/when I decide to use that heel again.

Trish, Diane and Becky's Excellent Adventure

I've been back from my visiting my sister for over a week and am finally getting around to writing this post. I've been busy catching up, and I've been sick. I'm still sick...and I'm sick of being sick! ICK!

So, here's the adventure...

On Tuesday Feb. 20 I arrived in Omaha where I was met by Diane and we started our drive back to Vermillion, SD where she lives. We stopped along the way to have some dinner. Before going to the house, we stopped at Diane's friend Sophia's house. Sophia is the one who lent me a spinning wheel while I was there. She lent me her Ashford Joy. Of course now I want to have a folding wheel. I really enjoyed spinning on that wheel, and I can see where it would be very convenient to have a wheel I could pack up in its carrying case and take along. Maybe camping. I can picture myself in the evening, sitting under the awning by the trailer, spinning away.

We visited with Sophia for a while and finally got to the house. Diane and Becky showed me all the things they've done to the house in the 2 years since I've been there, and Diane showed me some of the things she's knit that I hadn't seen yet. Then Diane says "Sit down...I have something to tell you". I was a little perplexed and curious...she had a piece of paper in her hands. She told me she wanted to wait until Thursday morning and tape this paper to the bathroom mirror and surprise me, but since I had so many plans for what I wanted to do while I was there (spin spin spin, work on my new pattern, work on my website, knit, etc) that she thought they should tell me so I could spend my time there wisely before we left.

Yep, we were going on a road trip. The paper said "Pack an overnight bag...we're going here!" And then there was a picture from the Brown Sheep Co. website.

Now, several weeks before I even knew I was going to Diane's, she said..."You know, the next time you come to visit, we should go out to Brown Sheep's factory." At which point I got on Mapquest and found out it was a 9-hour drive from her house. I basically wrote off the idea, thinking it was not going to happen....being that far away.

Well Diane and Becky had decided that we were going on this adventure anyway. They made hotel reservations, called Brown Sheep about getting a tour, and so it was all set. We were going!

Wednesday Diane and Becky both had to work, so I basically spun all day long. Diane and I had ordered some beautiful hand-dyed Targhee top from Spinny Bunny. I was going to spin the color she ordered, since she's not a spinner. So I got started on that.

Later that evening I spun a single of some natural roving she had (unfortunately she doesn't have any clue what kind it was...I wish I knew because it was some AWESOME roving) and I plied it together with some novelty yarn that she didn't know what she was going to do with. It turned out really cool, and I think she'll probably make a scarf with it.

Thursday I got some things together for the trip...packed the cooler and gathered whatever we needed. Becky came home, we loaded the car, picked up Diane from work, and started our trip. We drove about 1/2 way to Brown Sheep, and stopped for the night.

Before we left, we became aware that there might be some weather issues while we were gone, but at the time, the storm was just forming and we decided to take our chances.

Now, mind you, before I left home, I asked Diane what kind of clothes I should bring, and what kind of jacket, etc. She told me it was going to be around 50, not to bring a winter coat. "Just bring layers" she said. So I had no winter coat. No hat, gloves, scarf, boots. I had a nylon windbreaker, a sweatshirt, some long and short sleeved shirts. Walking shoes and clogs.

Keep this all in mind as this adventure unfolds....

Friday morning we got up and drove the rest of the way out to Brown Sheep. On the way we saw Chimney Rock. We thought we might come back to check it out up close, but that didn't end up happening. We got to Brown Sheep right around 11am. The factory doesn't run full production on Fridays, plus they close the factory at noon on Fridays. So while we didn't get to see a lot of the machines running, we were taken around and given a great tour by Sherry. It was very interesting to see, and to hear the history of the company, etc. When we were done with the tour, we went to the little outlet store, but before we got very far into our shopping, we realized we were starving! So we asked for a recommendation for lunch.

We were led to a great place in town that was in a little bungalow house remodeled to be a restaurant. The atmosphere was very nice....artsy...and the menu was superb. We went back to shop some more. Mr. and Mrs. Brown were there in the shop and it was an honor to meet them!

Diane got a quite a bit of yarn, but I didn't end up buying much. I got a case for my circular needles that has the Brown Sheep logo embroidered on it. I got a few skeins of sock yarn. I picked up some Cotton Fleece for a friend, and some roving for another friend. I still have so much stash from when the store I worked at closed. I couldn't justify buying a bunch more yarn, no matter how good the prices were! We ended up leaving there about 4:30 I think.

Meanwhile, we are hearing stories of the weather that is brewing. It was starting to sound kind of ominous...the "two-headed" storm that was forming. People were telling us "don't go east" and "don't go north". Well, we had to go east AND north. We pondered our strategy. Originally the plan was to stay Friday night out in western Nebraska by Brown Sheep and drive all the way back on Saturday. But because of the storm, we decided to try to get as much driving done on Friday night so we didn't have as far to drive on Saturday when the storm was supposed to hit.

There was much discussion on which route to take. Coming over, we had taken the interstate across Nebraska. It was a quicker route, though it was a much longer distance. If we went the shorter route, we would be on 2-lane roads through very small towns, rather than be on the more heavily travelled interstate. Eventually it was decided we would take the shorter route to the north.

We drove until about 9:30 Friday night and stopped for the night. We passed through towns with populations of under 100 people, some with populations of under 20!!! We were definitely in the sticks! We got up Saturday morning and by the time we left about 1/2 hour later, a light snow was just starting to fall.

It picked up, and within about 2 hours we were smack dab in the middle of a blizzard. The snow was coming down fast and furious. The wind was blowing like crazy. We couldn't see 3 feet in front of us. We couldn't see the road. There was hardly anyone else out in these conditions, so no tire tracks to follow. It was about every 20 minutes that another (big diesel pickem-up truck) vehicle would go by. We were out there virtually alone. It was not looking good.

Then we spotted this sign. We agreed that even in these conditions, we HAD to turn around and get a picture of the sign (specifically for the blog post, if nothing else!)

We were doing a bit of slip-sliding away and eventually got to the town of Ainsworth. This was a "real" town. There were gas stations and restaurants and yes, even hotels. We stopped for gas, and also picked up some emergency items such as jerky, cheese sticks, almonds, water, etc.

Personally, I would have been quite happy to stop right then and there and wait out the storm. I was pretty scared to get back on the road. I was too scared to even knit! My eyes were glued to the road the whole time. I have no idea how much snow had fallen at this time. I just know it was coming down hard, and blowing/drifting like crazy.

At the gas station we were told that further east it was a little warmer and the roads were better, so we decided to go on. I told Diane that before we left, we should call someone, let them know where we were, what route we were taking, etc....just in case. No one really knew where we were and if we fell off the side of the road and got stuck, no one would know where to look for us. The ordeal of James Kim kept flashing through my mind.

So on we went.....

(keep in mind....I have no boots, no hat, no scarf, no gloves, no winter coat) HOWEVER...we now have a LOT of wool in the back end of the vehicle! And crazy as it seems, when we were at Brown Sheep the day before, it WAS about 50 degrees. See? I'm in a t-shirt.

The roads eventually did get better. It was slightly warmer and so the roads were more slushy and there was more traction. The snow eased up a bit and we had several hours of "ok" driving. Then as we got close to Yankton, SD, it started coming down heavy again. We got stuck one car behind a snow plow, and I think that it was a good thing to be behind it than in front of it. We ended up following the snowplow the entire way into Vermillion (at 20 mph). There was about 4-5" when we pulled in, and I think we got back just in time. It was still snowing very heavily, and by the time Sunday morning came, there was 10"-12" out there! And it was the day I was supposed to go home.

We decided that trying to drive the 2 hours to Omaha in this weather would NOT be fun. And since the airline was offering a "weather waiver" for changing flights without a penalty, I ended up staying an extra day (Yeah!) and left on Monday. By then the roads were perfectly dry.

Turns out that on Saturday they had closed 270 miles of the interstate that we contemplated taking, so we could have gotten stranded if we had gone that way too. I have a feeling we would have been through that area before it closed, but I'm not sure.

So, it turned out ok, but it was pretty scary for a while there!

The trip turned out to be 1115 miles from start to finish. Yikes! It was a big chunk of the time I had to spend with Diane, but I have a feeling that if we hadn't gone when we did...it probably would have never happened.

Here are the other Targhee tops we got from Susan at Spinnybunny.com. They are awesome. The colors are great and I am really enjoying spinning them. I am able to spin this yarn really thin. Diane is going to end up with a lot of yardage from the Clematis Vine colorway she ordered (above). She wants to knit a Clapotis with hers. These colors are Tamarack & Spruce, and Roses For You. Pretty, yes? I'm so glad I was introduced to Targhee fiber through my spinning teacher at Threadbear. It is a wonderful wool and I know I will be spinning lots more!

While I was at Diane's, I started with a cough. Luckily I didn't really feel sick while I was there, I was just annoyed by the cough. By the time I got home I could tell it was turning into full blown bronchitis. I get bronchitis a lot, so I know the routine. I got to the clinic and got some drugs. Once I was done with the antibiotics, I started getting a stuffy nose, and the sneezing started. The cough has not yet cleared up. I am a mess! I just want to feel better!

Monday I had a knitting adventure that I will write about tomorrow. And I'll show pix of the socks I started while on our adventure. I actually got to knit on the plane coming home too, so I made lots of progress and had them finished in just over a week. That's pretty good for me.