Clapotis Completed

I've been working on this scarf/shawl on and off since April. "Clapotis" was so much fun to knit! I really enjoyed the process...especially the dropped stitches. I also love the colors in the yarn. I used almost two skeins of hand-dyed Ranco Multy (color 301) by Araucania Yarns. I knitted it for someone special to give to them on their birthday, but as often happens, I wasn't finished in time. So now, I've decided to take it with me to Europe, take some pictures of it modeled while I'm sight seeing, and then send it to the someone special in California. It'll be a handmade gift with a story then. You can find the pattern by Kate Gilbert at Knitty.com

We leave for Europe the day after tomorrow and will land in Zurich on Wednesday. I think I'm ready to go...except for the actual packing, which I'll do tomorrow. I'm still not very confident with the foreign languages, but I know a little...hopefully enough to get by. We have a travel guide book and a phrase book covering German and French. The hardest part now will be leaving the kiddos. I will miss them very much. Can you see why? LOL

The Surprise is Revealed

OK. I just found out what my hubby has planned for the weekend. I can't even believe it. The surprise he's been planning is... that we are spending the weekend in PARIS!!!! I'm so excited that I can't sit still even to post this! I can't stop smiling. I've wanted to go to Paris for as long as I can remember. I'm going to Paris!

Basel, Switzerland

I'm going to Basel. I've been reading and looking at pictures of this beautiful city and I can't wait to see it in person. I'll only have one day there, so I'm trying to narrow down what I'm going to see and do. I'll be taking a train from Stein to Basel and walking a couple of miles to the old town. There I'll have several museums to choose from and many sights to see. Here's a link with more info if you are interested: http://wikitravel.org/en/Basel

life, love, and the pursuit of the perfect travel knitting project

Life here has kept me busy. This is not unusual, but the reason why is. My wonderful love-of-my-life hubby is taking me to Europe! He is going for work, but we are going to celebrate our 10-year anniversary while we are there, too. While he's at work, I'm doing some sight seeing. So, the last month I've been attempting to learn German and reviewing the French I learned in college. I applied for a passport (and got it much quicker than I expected). I've been shopping for decent, non t-shirt like clothing and trying to think of everything that I need to do to prepare myself and the kiddos for our departure. They are not going with us, but there's much to do before I leave them with Grandma.
We'll be flying into Zurich, staying just over the German border in Bad Sackingen. I'll be taking an excursion to Basel, Switzerland one day during the week that we'll be there. Over the weekend, Hubby is surprising me. He's been planning and planning, so I can't wait to see what he has in store for us. His surprises are usually very good.
So, I have the clothes, my passport, a book to read on the plane, my camera...I need a knitting project that I can take with me. I have two possible projects. One is a pair of socks knit with Koigu Painter's Pallette (the multi-colored yarn). The other is a pair of hand warmers knit with Cascade 220 yarn (forest green). My hubby says I won't have time to knit. Ha ha ha...