So what does a knitter do with just a few more days before my workplace Teradata becomes not a division of NCR but a public company and I get on a plane to Cleveland?

In my case -- work, workout, knit, throw in a volunteer stint for HOSD (Hands on San Diego). and then there's a bit of shopping at a what will soon be a bit of an Diego knitting history.

The volunteer gig was removing non-native plants a from Ruffin Canyon with co-workers and people from Friends of Ruffin Canyon.

The workout bit has been part of the whole see less of me more often effort and so far it doesn't seem to be getting the desired result. My guess is that my body is just being stubborn and things will shift sooner or later if I just keep it going.

The history part of the equation is the closing of Helga's. She closed down a few years back but was persuaded to start the business back up again but according to Helga, 24 years is enough. She's never been crazy about the business side of running a LYS so perhaps in retiring from that aspect of the business she can do more of the teaching and designing that she clearly loves.

After cleaning up from manhandling ice plant on a fairly steep slope and other stupid knitter tricks, I packed up a few things and drove to La Jolla.

The shop wasn't very busy and although I have this general sense that I'm needing to control the money bleeding, I bought a lot of fine gauge silk and had a really good chat with Helga.

Popoki shawl is a ends need to be woven in FO.

I've washed it once and I did not treat it with the gentle care suggested by the ball band. Since the linen is short staple, it is pretty fuzzy. The fuzz will abate as I wash and abuse it into softness.

I don't believe I've ever seen or heard of anyone using my turn the corner and mirror my edges solution to working a shawl but I believe it has legs.

The photo at left gives a glimpse of how I put this thing together. Since it is for me, it isn't perfectly executed but the design elements are well documented and will doubtless show up in later designs.

I wanted this done in time to take and not still be knitting on it while on route to Cleveland. I know myself well enough to also know that if I didn't finish it before the trip I'd be highly unlikely to pick it up and finish it after the trip.

I've also been shopping the STASH room of travel knitting. Most of the stuff I'm selecting is slated to stay in Cleveland. So there's yarn assembled for the Milanese Lave smoke ring and its companion mittens. Also in the mix is the cream coloured brushed alpaca and 2 ply I set aside for a Borjana beret & mittens as is the pink and green yarn I bought with an eye toward projects for Libby & Abby.

In other knitting, the Milanese Lace smoke ring is finally starting to work. The fingers, brain, yarn and needles are co-operating and I'm making good progress. I suspect that this will be the travel knitting.

Speaking of travel, I've made a few out reach emails to Cleveland to see if I can connect up with knitters while I'm out there.

Hey, it doesn't look like the whole law school reunion thing is coming together so I may as well see about making some knitting connection.

So far I know that the Cleveland Knit & Crochet out will be happening on the 7th of October which is the same day the San Diego event takes place at UTC. So I'm hoping to get at least a little group knitting going.