Smoke and mittens the trip East

I'm really not stuck in September although the blog would seem to be as I slowly get the in the queue entries polished and published.

I dropped an in progress knitted cube into the carry on but the stitches kept jumping needle so while I was still waiting for the first flight, I turned it back in itself and created a sweet little sculptural piece that will make it's way to the blog at some point.

The original cube will get knit and delivered to its original intended recipient at some point, but where that project will fall in the line up is a TBD.

So, once into the air, leg one of the travel knitting was Miss Jean's smoke ring. I short rowed the top section just in garter to make it easier to wear as a hood or to tuck deeper into the front of a coat. It's a subtle shaping.

The prevailing winds that gave us a bit of bumpy ride over the desert also meant that we arrived in Vegas a bit ahead of schedule. That shouldn't have been a problem except for the fact that there wasn't any one home to get us off the plane. So, full flight, early arrival and we're just sitting.

Not as bad as some British Airways snafus or the memorable Amtrak to Albany Xmas fiasco but I didn't have a very long time on the ground before my next flight. As I hoofed it over to the next gate, I was grateful that I had an "A" boarding pass for the flight.

The Vegas to Cleveland flight was also near full -- who knew? Again we had a bit of a bumpy ride but with the smoke ring done, I turned to the matching mittens and just knit through it all.

The photo shows just how far I got with the project during the flight. All the way from cast on to thumb stitches on a holder.

The mitten was looking awfully big to me so I set it aside until I could match it up to recipient's hand for a sanity check

Once on the ground in Cleveland, I finally connected with my dear friend and agreed that I should probably sort out my rental car and book a hotel for the night before heading to Hudson in the morning.

At the rental car place, not only had my booking vanished, someone had made a serious staffing mistake -- two bodies on a Saturday night is way short handed. We got things sorted and I got upgraded since there were no mid-sized vehicles available. I was bummed to discover that I had just missed a hybrid SUV and went with the slightly more fuel efficient Chevy over the other SUV.

I was also a bit bummed out to hear that the Indians were losing to KC but the real disappointment on the night was the non room at the inn story. The suggested hotel was booked solid and with a Genesis concert in town there was shortage of hotel rooms.

I ended up driving well Southwest to Brunswick before finding shelter for the night. Although that's alien territory for me, it worked out because I wasn't too far from the 303 and the 303 is a fairly direct run into Hudson. On advice, I didn't try the 303 at that hour of night.

The next morning, I set out and enjoyed the scenic drive along the 303. While stopping to phone in, I spotted Cornerstone Yarns in a charming little building along the way in Richfield.

Being a Sunday morning, I wasn't incline to stop but it did look like an attractive place to at least put on my might visit on the way back short list.

I got into Hudson, bopped around the new down town redevelopment area where I discovered the wonderfully named Heather's Heat and Flavor where the sign swears that everything's better with Heather's Butt Rub.

After getting much needed coffee at Caribou Coffee, I got directions to the house and, armed with a nice little floral arrangement at the Greenhouse, made my way to my home away from home.