things to recommend about the Twin Cities

I am on row 43 of More than Circular, from Knitter's Magazine's book of Best Shawls and Scarves. I love this yarn: it's a fairly thick, but not too thick, bamboo that I hand dyed a few weeks ago. The shawl is for one of my assistants. She is such a warm person that I have seen her break a sweat while leading a mary Kay makeup group in an air conditioned house.

Most of the knitting was done on the way to and from the Twin Cities, to visit one of my daughters. And this is doable lace in a moving car. I followed the designer's suggestion that you separate each repeat with markers, and I'm working my way up from double pointed size four needles, to a 16 inch circular number 5, to a 2 inch number 5. The pattern calls for you to increase the needle size by two about every quarter of the way through. But, for me, the 5 creates a very open structure, and I'm thinking that anything larger would lead to a shawl that looks more like a fishing net than lace.

We stayed with my daughter, who was housesitting for the weekend for a colleague. The house was eerily reminiscent of ours: the bedroom was the same color blue as my study and upstairs bathroom, their study was the same color as our bedroom, same watering can on the front porch, and same mailbox. Very odd. Maybe that's why I found it such a restful house. While my husband and daughter took the dog for a walk, I sat on the front porch and knitted. Ahhhhhh.

Things to recommend about St. Paul and Minneapolis: Dunn Brothers coffee shops (so much better than you-know-where - the lattes here have about an inch of foam on top),the farmers' market at the Mill City Park, fresh basil in summertime, meeting your kids' friends and enjoying conversation with them just for your own sake, seeing your children grow into amazing young adults (well, I guess that's not limited to a geographic region), going to see an outdoor showing of "PeeWee Herman's Big Adventure" at the Bike Film Fest (in the middle of the movie, which is awesome, I had a University of Chicago moment and suddenly thought "fetishization of objects"), and the wide streets with actual bike lanes that are actually for bikes and runners, and not just an excuse for a wider car lane.

And I'm pleased to be writing again.

Here's my first attempt to put a picture in my blog - let me know if you can see it!