yarnful goodness

this past weekend i rode the train up to washington DC to see my friend karen (more on the trip later--promise!) who i have not seen in quite some time. there are worse things than 6 hours of knitting in two directions, time with a friend, patriotic stuff, and good food for a weekend! karen, a non-knitter, even tolerated the yarn lust from both me and her friend jan who joined us for brunch and a jaunt to stitch dc, which i think shows great fortitude and tolerance. as you know, it's rude to leave a new yarn store emty-handed, so i came away with 2 skeins of this beautiful purple manos del uraguay and 2 different colored skeins of kidsilk haze with which i will make myself a fabulous purl scarf (from last minute knitted gifts). i have long loved the texture of that scarf, but have never touched the manos in person until now--i admit i was chicken-shit to order it over the web, sight-unseen. wool can be so--well--wooly. anyway, it's AWESOME--very squishy! meanwhile, i also got some needles so i could start the (christmas?) hoodie for my friend's daughter, ella, with my wonderful noro silk garden. this picture is my train progress plus today's lunch--not too shabby. i really like the blending between colors and the pace at which they are changing. hopefully this will be cute on little ella and not oddly sized--i am hitting a couple of discrepancies in the pattern and am (somewhat dangerously) winging it! cross your fingers for me! oh, and if you haven't seen it, go look at this. (stephanie pearl-mcphee, you are amazing!)

i'll give the skinny on the rest of the trip tomorrow when i am not utterly fried. tuesdays suck.