Over the Rockies and through Minneapolis...

To grandmother's house we go. The pilot knows the way to steer the plane through rain and possibly sno-ow!

We're off to the frozen north this afternoon, so Knittin' Mom will be on hiatus for the week. Note to any potential burglars who are reading this - we have a security system, nosy neighbors and a big angry dog named Killer who we've been starving all week so he'll be especially mean to anyone who breaks in. (Just in case you're like my mom, that last part was a joke - but we really do have a security system and nosy neighbors...).

I do have a few things to blog about before we leave the civilized world. First, I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of my wonderful Secret Santa gift.

Sydney loves her bear so much, she's been sleeping with it. And she never sleeps with stuffed animals! Owen loves to chew on his, but then he loves to chew on everything. There was also a tin of yummy, yummy cookies and biscotti, but those are long gone. The yarn is Knit Picks Simple Stripes in Storm (hmm, someone's been reading my wishlist) and a yummy ball of Plymouth Suri Merino. Not sure what I'm going to make with it, but I sure love to pet it!

Now I have the difficult task of deciding what knitting I'm going to bring with me to Minnesota. I have two hanks of No No Kitty yarn, which I got from kpixie before they sold out.

I was stupid and didn't check the yardage, so I only got a single hank of each thinking they would each be enough for a pair of socks. By the time I figured out that they were well short and went back to buy more, they were long gone. I'm going to try some toe-up shorty socks and see how it goes. Otherwise, Sydney's going to be getting a couple nice pairs!

I'm also making some progress on my Whitbys from Kitting On The Road.

I decided to use the Artyarns Supermerino that I had on hand for these. Unfortunately, I didn't check my yardage (again) and had to go buy another hank. You'd think I'd learn. Anyway, they're knitting up nice and fast. Love that sportweight yarn for socks! I'm hoping to finish these up on the trip.

Do you think my family will think I'm strange if I do nothing but knit socks all week?

It's time for me to get packing, but I'll leave you with two last pictures. First, my brilliant new stash organization scheme.

To deal with all my leftover balls of yarn (these are really becoming an issue now that I'm swatching a lot from single skeins), I had this flash of insight that told me to put each ball in a ziploc baggie along with the ball band. This keeps the remaining yarn relatively neat and also I can figure out what the heck it is when I dig it up six months later. Duh...

Finally, I present to you the yarn from hell.

This is Heavenly from Artful Yarns, and it is anything but. It's got a metallic component which I swear was giving me slivers when I was knitting with it yesterday. It looks really cool knit up, but it makes a swatch with the consistency of steel wool. I can't imagine actually wearing anything made out of this stuff. Perhaps it softens up a little bit when washed? I'll give it the benefit of a doubt... Anyway, I was swatching it up for a submission, but now I'm asking myself if I'd really want to knit an entire sample sweater out of this stuff if my sub got accepted! I'm going to come back to it when we get home and see if it really is the yarn, or if there was something else making my hands all itchy.

Have a great New Year everyone, and I'll see you in 2006!