Okay, so I know I dropped off the face of the earth again. I'm sorry. At least it wasn't for as long as last time!

I do have an excuse, though. I got crazy sick on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Just laid flat out in bed and passed out. Fever over 103, sore throat, exhaustion. I got up to go to the doctor's and get my meds. Came home and went back to bed. Didn't feel well at all until halfway through the next day. Then I got another infection on top of that. Then BL got pinkeye. Then JH got sick. Then BL got sick. Then I got sick again. Now BL has a sinus infection, which I hope is the last of this plague that has fallen upon our house.

Knitting - I finished the alphabet blanket and started on a second alphabet blanket. I'm almost done with the second blanket. I'm debating whether to add the decorative triangles around the edge, but am leaning away from it - too many ends to weave in. I also started Honeysuckle. I'll probably take that with me next week when we go to Colorado.

I just returned from a fun me-only weekend in the San Francisco area. I was there for a baby shower - fraternal twin boys! - but I got to see most of my close college friends who live in the Bay Area. It was so nice to see everyone, and engage in adult conversation! I spent Saturday morning at the Farmers' Market at the Ferry Building and really wished I live there so I could buy all the delicious produce and offerings and go home and cook up a storm.

We're about to take off for our anniversary trip to Colorado. I'm so excited. We're spending a couple days in Boulder and a couple days in Denver. I really need finish our itinerary - right now, it's mostly just a skeleton with restaurants and hotels put in. We have a lot of fun on these trips, so I can't wait.

I'm pretty tired these days - I think my insomnia is catching up with me, so I'm going to sign off now. I promise I'll write more after we get back from CO. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures from San Francisco.

From the shower...

I will grudgingly admit that another thing that soCal has going for it is the proliferation of Meyer lemons in the springtime. And cheap too! I can remember paying beaucoup bucks for a handful last spring.

As of late, BL has become my baking buddy. We started out last fall with helping to make lemonade. Then he would help me wash apples or rice baked pumpkin. He's particularly helpful in pushing buttons on a food processor and monitoring the stand mixer. When I make my Ratatouille-inspired ratatouille, he inspects the vegetable slices as they come out of the mandoline and eats the imperfect ones.

His new preschool has a sign-up sheet for snacktime - parents bring snacks in to help out. Wednesday was our turn and when I asked him Tuesday morning what we should make for snack, he said, "Scones!" (He'd had one of those mini vanilla scones at Starbucks and was in love.) So while he went off to preschool, I bought Meyer lemons and dried blueberries for Meyer Lemon Blueberry Scones.

I pre-measured all the ingredients Tuesday night and we baked it Wednesday morning before school (nothing like fresh-baked!). BL helped with the mixing, pouring, stirring, brushing, sprinkling. Then he sat in front of the oven and watched them bake. (He dragged his sit-n-spin in front of the oven. Hilarious. Forgot to take a picture.)

Beautiful yarns! Cute animals! Friendly faces!

MDSW never seems to disappoint. And it was fun to take a weekend off from being a mom, too.

Thanks to knittish, for providing me a lovely place to stay while I was in town. I had a wonderful time, starting with hanging out at Knit Happens on Friday (we saw Aimee, knitgirl and The Knitting Nurse) and ending with a fun brunch on Sunday afternoon.

But on to the main event. We left early on Saturday morning, bummed that Travel Knitter couldn't join us, to beat the crowds and get a good parking spot. Some of you might have seen our balloon?

We walked around the festival and got our bearings while we waited for the booths to open.

Cute dwarf goats!

Pit lamb at eight in the morning? Ugh.

Then we camped in front of the Tess booth and ate strawberries and doughnuts while waiting for them to open. Darn them for pulling a tarp over the booth to prevent early browsing...

A utili-kilt!

As usual, I got a ton of Tess yarn. This year, I added Super Socks to the mix. Although I was so tempted to buy their new silk lace yarn. Ten dollars a skein! I restrained myself.

Sheep sharing a secret:

Then we headed to the Main Barn to walk around and check out the Cloverhill "co-op" of independents.

Goofy llama:

Cute alpacas:

We also couldn't resist the siren call of Socks That Rock this year, and we ended up in the line, after bumping into Kelly.

I wish I had my other camera lens, which gets better light and color, but I was on a yarn-shopping trip and didn't want to carry around two bulky camera lenses. Sigh.

Normally, we don't get a chance to walk around, but this year I didn't have to rush home to a baby/toddler, so we took our time. We ran into a lot of friends, including vibegrrl, fidgetknits, and small hands (aka chelsea). And we got to see the booth where Society for Creative Anachronism was holding court. Ha. Literally. I get such a kick out of their name.

Cute little felted sheep. His smile reflects how happy I was.

I wouldn't usually post a personal picture, so I'm just going to link to it and you can see me and knittish, tired and happy just before we left the festival.

Knittish and me

Where's our car?

Can't wait 'til next year. We're thinking of maybe doing a tailgate breakfast. Anyone interested?

I am getting on a plane in five hours!

See you at Maryland Sheep & Wool!

This is mostly about knitting.

But can I just say what a travesty the eliminations for American Idol have been? I mean, this is my first season watching (thanks to the writers' strike), and already my two favorites - MJ and CS - have been eliminated. Tonight was just wrong. JC not being eliminated even though he totally blew last night? Wrong wrong wrong.

Okay, back to knitting.

I'm totally powering through the alphabet baby blanket. I feel a sense of urgency here. Firstly, the mom-to-be had her baby shower three weeks ago and is due like yesterday. Second, I'm knitting at a pretty good clip and it's a fun pattern. Third, I've been putting off other things like, oh, household paperwork, to knit, because y'know, things like bills and filing are so much more fun than knitting - and knitting instead. Can you blame me?

I still have the baby cabled v-neck in pieces and ready to seam. I need to complete the back for the wildflower sweater - but I'm dreading the intarsia. (And weaving in all those loose ends!) I want to start Honeysuckle by Rowan instead! I have all the beads and everything.

I think I will have to make another Honeysuckle for the original recipient of the cabled v-neck because the original recipient is likely to outgrow it before I finish it. I'll just redirect it to one of the other many, many babies on my knit-for list.

My sister asked me this past weekend why I've only knit two sweaters for myself thus far. It's because I just love giving people knitted items. I love being a "giver." I'm actually quite a bad "givee," though. I don't know why...

Yes, my sis came to visit this past weekend! We had a great time. We spent Saturday morning at Common Threads and The Black Sheep. She admitted to me that she had never knit with silk before, so my mission was to get her some silk yarn for her birthday. She picked a beautiful cardigan out of Louisa Harding's Summer Classics - the Minnie cabled cardigan. I would have loved to have given her some Artyarns, but The Black Sheep didn't carry Artyarns, so we settled for Debbie Bliss Pure Silk. The gauge is slightly smaller than the pattern, so hopefully my sis knits loose enough that she can manage it. Or else I guess she could just make the next size up?

I am literally counting the days to Maryland Sheep & Wool! Not only is it my annual pilgrimage with knittish and other friends, it is my very first solo trip away from BL, and JH's first weekend alone taking care of him. I hope they manage all right. My only expectation is that they are both in one piece, with no broken bones or open gashes - JH can feed BL Fruit Loops and chocolate milk all weekend for all I care.