I am alive, well and I still knit. Every person is given challenges at various times in their life that must take priority over their normal routine. I was just too exhausted to do anything more than go to work, take care of personal business and sleep. I accept my challenges and will overcome.

One small thing I did was break one of my fingers in two places. Yep, my ring finger on my right hand broke in two places and a little piece of the bone chipped off. It was painful for a while because I am right handed. You would be surprised just how much you use that finger. Typing definitely hurt, so no blogging or personal e-mails, only work e-mail got done with a broken finger! I twisted it in my bowling ball. Yep, pretty silly. Couldn’t knit much either. My finger is now almost healed so my knitting is picking up. Woohoo.

I recently went to Virginia for a week and had a wonderful time visiting my son, grandson and daughter-in-law. My grandson wanted to see where the “President” lives so I ended up in Washington DC for one day. Looks like he lives in a nice big jail.

Secret Service everywhere, bars all around…. I am not easily impressed but my little guy was and that is all that matters.

Above – Son and Grandon admiring the view from park next to the Washington Monument.

Saw the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Capitol, museums, theaters; the works. I was impressed by the history of DC. I went the weekend end after the Cherry Blossom Festival. I missed the festival but still got to see the Cherry blossoms.

I did end up with a $100.00 parking ticket for a souvenir. Funny story about that. Not ”ha ha” funny, just “funny.” We found the greatest parking spot right in front of the Washington Monument. We were thrilled. it was right in the middle of everything. I read the green sign, DH, DS, DD read the green sign, we all read the green sign. The green sign by the great parking spot read “3 Hour Parking from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.”  Great! To us hicks from Denver, that also means unlimited free parking after 4:00 pm. It was around 2:00 pm. So we went sight seeing, went to dinner and then did some more sight seeing, until 7:30 pm. We thought we were so smart to wait for the rush hour traffic to clear before leaving the area. The traffic was horrendous but not a problem for us. We had it all figured out. We were walking camly back to the car after dinner when we all got a strange eerie feeling when we spotted the area where the car was parked. There were only 3 cars parked on the entire long block. Ours and 2 other vehicles. The other 2 vehicles were just sitting there, with men inside, watching our vehicle. All of a sudden, with horror, we realized what had happened. We missed reading the red sign, down the street, the one that was not close to the green 3 hour parking sign. The one that said No Parking after 4:00 pm. How are we supposed to know that where we parked turns into a turn lane during rush hour. I think it should have said so on the same sign. At the very least the 2 signs should be together or at least near each other. In our city, you can park free downtown after hours so that is how we interpreted the green sign. I do apologize to the DC rush hour drivers that must have cursed at our car that day. On the other hand I am grateful that we did not get arrested and/or the car did not get towed away. I believe it was minutes from being towed.  Yes, I feel like a big goof ball. It was just too easy getting that prime parking spot. We should have known from the beginning that it was not a good sign. We had heard how hard it is to find parking in the city and here we are first timers scoring a great parking spot. Next time I guess we should try the Metro.

The good side is that we had a nice drive and saw much of the city. I am pretty sure the neighborhood I spotted that I would so live in, on”Princess” Street is a bit out of my price range this year so maybe I’ll check it out next year! I can see the Purple Princess living on Princess Street. 417 Princess Street to be exact.

I got to visit The Knitting Cottage in Fredericksburg, VA where I acquired this;

Apparently you can knit directly from this fabric to make some socks. Very interesting. 

I visited Knit Happens in Alexandria. What a cute store.

I bought some yarn dyed by local dyers. This first one is from the Neighborhood Fiber Co. and the colors of the yarn are named for different neighborhoods in the area. Of course I had to get the one with purple in it called Brookland.

This one is from Yarn Love in the color Red Delicious.

Life is good and I love yarn. 

If a man does his best, what else is there?
–General George S. Patton

REAL SILVER. Yes, real silver spun is into this lovely PURPLE yarn. The color is called Tanzanite. It is heavenly. Not only that it is 73% superwash merino, 20% silk, 15% nylon and yes 2% silver. Heavenly I tell you, beautiful and heavenly.

Can you see the fine silver threads? Of course the pictures do not do this yarn justice. It is so awesome. Don’t you just wish you could see it and fondle it right now. I do and I am.

My friend Kathy rocks. She presented me with the yarn along with this cool little project bag.  

I also got a hug along with it; on a day when I really needed a hug. She is always there for me when I need a friend and I have no idea how she does it. She has a rough job right now, two young boys, a husband, knits fabulously, teaches knitting classes and most of all always has time for her friends. Thank you Kathy, you are awesome. I love the yarn but most of all I appreciate your good thoughts for me and DS and of course, the Hug; you made my day.

I have acquired a few things this week.

First off …

Thank you Marly, I love them! You are so sweet to think of me. As if I have to point this out.. they are PURPLE!

Thank you Claudia, I Love them. These are the alphabet stitch markers that I will use to make the socks in Cat Bordhi’s book. Claudia is making these for several of the shops that she supplies to.

Thank you Nachaele. I love this. How did you know I would like the purple one!!

I received some new artisan sock yarn from Hazel Knits. It is very nice yarn and I only got two colors a couple of weeks ago, so I of course had to order more.  One color is called Denim Blue and the other color is Fireberry. Bet ya can guess which is which!

I love getting the personal note from Wendee along with a cute stitch marker.

I received some new Vesper Sock yarn from Knitterly Things. This one is called Monet’s Garden and is 100% superwash merino self striping yarn. The colors are just beautiful. I am a fan of Monet’s work so of course I had to get it. (remember I like to get culture along with my yarn!)

This one is brand new and is a 100% superwash merino variegated yarn in the color “Might as Well go for a Soda.”  Don’t you just love the name. I pretty much bought it because of the name. The bonus is I like the color! Julie only recently began doing the variegated yarns so I am interested in how this yarn will knit up.

Last but not least this week, I also received my Noro Kureyon from the Yarniverse Kureyon club. I am collecting skeins of Noro for the Lizard Ridge Blanket. This one is color 209 Lot A. Unexciting name; exciting color. When you are NORO you don’t have to be creative in naming the colors. They just are. 

All the way around I had a great week. I love to get new yarn and yarn related items; is it a sickness. a psychosis or just a passion. I can’t really answer that. I only know that it is great fun and lifts my mood. This weekend I will be on a mission to finish adding my stash to Ravely and possibly finish a sweater or two! Okay you know me, maybe start the finishing on one…