The Trip Home

Well, this was left a bit late, but here it is.....

Left the house a bit after 1030am 21 Dec for the Honolulu airport for the trip back to Seattle. (My son lives less than 5 mins away from the HNL airport) Got through checking in my bag, paying the $15 to check it, getting my seat assignment, all the usual etc. Got through security, they didn't even blink at all the yarn and Addi Turbo's, and went to get a cup of coffee and a danish and a bottle of water.

Sat down at gate 58 and started to knit. At 12pm they made an annoucement. Gate changed to gate 31. Gate 31 is the farthest gate away from gate 58 that it is possible to go, minus 3. The gates go up to 60 in the wing that I was in. to get to the lower numbered gates you have to hoof it quite a distance. So pack up the knitting and start walking ..... got to the new gate at 12:30ish. Long hot walk. While waiting to board the news about the plane in Denver is being shown.. Lovely.

Anyhow, get on board, get my carry ons stowed and turn to sit in my seat 26G. There is a bag in the seat that wasn't there when I was putting my yarn under the chair; I assume the young fellow that put his bag there is waiting for me to get out of the way so that he can get to the middle seat. Nope. His boarding pass has him in the same seat as me. Hmm... and... HE IS NOT MOVING THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THIS IS HIS SEAT. We discuss it with a stewardess (there was a flight that was cancelled (HIS) and the pax have been put on our flight). She had me move to another seat since he was loud and vocal about his refusal to move, 3 rows up and in the next section. No problem, still an isle seat. I'm not going to complain. Little irritated about his attitude, but... I have a seat and it is an isle so it is all good. I had nice seat companions too. A lady from Eugene, OR and a fellow from Tacoma on the other isle seat. (we were in the center isle)

Got to SeaTac on time (9:10pm) give or take 5 mins. Snow. Lots of Snow. We are on the ground but stopped. Not moving to the terminal. Snow plows... have to plow us a way to the terminal First they tell us 15 mins. Ok, fine, no problem. I call my ride at the cell phone parking lot and tell them it will be a few mins probably. My ride has just pulled into the cell phone lot. Cool! Told her that I would call back as soon as I had my bags. As soon as I got off the phone, the Pilot comes on the intercom and says that the delay will mostlikely be another 45 mins. And so we wait. Then, we have a delay because they don't know what gate that we are going to get to go to. Mind you it is now well past 10pm and we are still on the plane. Finally they get the plane up to the drawbridge thingy. They can't get it all the way to the plane so there is a bit of a gap. And it is icy. Lots of people are grumbling. I am just glad we are on the ground and safely at the terminal. Get down to baggage claim. It is now about 10:45pm. Still snowing outside off and on. Get to Hawaiian's bag carousel;. Wait. Wait. Wait some more. Nothing new about the waiting ... heck, we have been waiting since 9 pm. Finaly a bag or two starts to show up. Then the carousel stops. About 5 mins later it starts back up and for the next 20 mins everthing is good. bags are starting to show up, slowly it's true but they are begining to show. Yea it is only a bit after 11:30pm and we should all be getting out of here soon. Right? Not so fast.... When there are still about 50 of us left standing around the carousel it grinds to a halt and this time it doesn't start back up in 5 mins. Not so good. Eventually we go enmass to the Hawiian bag agent... Poor, poor lady. It is Late, people are cranky and they want their stuff. She gets on the phone as she is clueless to why there are so many without baggage. She thought that all the baggage pods had been brought up and unloaded already. Her conversation with the ground crew: Is the plane empty? (yes it is.) Did some stuff get left behind in Hawaii because of the gate change? (No, all the pods made it.) Ok, then why do I have a crowd of people here with out their luggage? (Oh... Well a pod is stuck in the snow. We should have the bags there in about 15 mins.) Bag Agent Lady wants to know why she wasn't informed of this and who was the idiot that got it stuck in the snow? (She looks like she wants to rip someone a new one) Alright, so word is that the bags will be here in the terminal in about 15 mins. Ummm... It's after Midnight and still no bags. 15 mins? Someone can't tell time. 12:30 still no bags. One of the fellows from our plane said to the bag agent that he could probably get a group of pax together and go fetch our bags quicker. (He may have been correct) Another anouncement... Bags should really be here in 10 more minutes. Um yeah right. Ain't no body holding their breath. Finally got my bag off the carousel at 1:10. Called my ride who has been waiting at the cell phone lot all this time bless her heart, and let her know that we were (Finally) ready to roll. Knitting kept me sane through all the waiting around.

Did I mention that it was snowy out? Got home about 2:40ish; I had to go to work in a few hours. What a treat. Alarm clock set for 4:30am, so just stayed up and toughed it out. Went to bed at 5pm and slept for 12 hours. About 5 mins late for work the next day. I had hit my alarm off and went right back to sleep.

Oh, and Happy New Year Everyone!

I plan to Knit in the New Year... if I can stay awake that long.

Cute Dude in a Hand Knit Sweater

This is Little "K" in his hand knit Mexicali Ole. This is the newborn size. I had my doubts as to whether it would fit him or not. (So of course I made him another in a 12 month size) This one fits him perfectly, at least for the next few weeks. May not be practical when he goes out, but it is fine in the house as long as the AC is on. Woolies in Hawaii probably arent the most useful thing.

He's fresh out of the bath in this photo. He'd done quite the number in his britches. A few measly diaper wipes just weren't going to cut it.

I have started on the heel flaps of the socks that I was working on before I left. I haven't really gone very far on them. Don't want to be fighting the dog for possession of the yarn. Also, holding little guy as often as I can. Sunday comes far too soon.

Knit on!

Sock Monkey

Monkey done. I like the ears... but the way I read the pattern or the way the pattern is written... not sure which at the moment... both ears are knit the same. Which makes one ear appear, at least to me, like one ear is upside down. Ah well. Perhaps I will figure it out for the next one. And there will be at least two more.






The blankie is finished as well.

Smaller than I liked... but I will use a needle size or two larger next time as well as a few more stitiches.

Knit on!

Stormy night

Had to wait till the rain died down and the sun(?) came up in order to take a photo. This and buckets of rain were what I noticed at 5:00 yesterday morning. I don't think that we saw the sun at all really here in Hawaii yesterday, it did get lighter but stayed overcast and rainy all day. Oahu was under a flash flood watch till a bit after 10 am. Several schools were closed. Not my eldest grandson's tho. Was however a wet and blustery drive to get him there. The dog had to be bathed after her morning constitutional. Luckily she is a little beagle so I was able to carry her through the house wrapped in a towel to the tub without too much trouble. She didn't get nearly as many walks yesterday as she would have liked. She absolutely loved being out in the rain and the wind. Leaves are very, very fun to chase after and pounce upon.

Sock monkey is knitted. Just have to attach his arms to his body and felt him on some eyes. I brought a felting needle with me, and some green Lopi scraps. If I don't totally mess him up there will be photos. If I do mess him up there will be whining and fussing till I figure out how to fix it. Can you pick off the felted on bits if you "F it up"? I am eager to get back to regular sock knitting and my sweater, but I have at least one more Monkey to knit. They are fairly fast tho, especially since I have pretty much made one. Not that you would know it from the speed that I have finished this one. The Grand puppy really is a terror when it comes to yarn. We had another episode two days ago involving a half knit monkey arm and the remaining ball of yarn. It wasn't pretty tho it did end well. No monkeys or doggies were harmed in the process, tho the monkey's arm was nearly pulled from the needles. Had to wind up the yarn from the needle end, then re ball it once I reached the end. After un knotting it of course. I was knitting from both ends of the ball at that point and the yarn cake was at the point of collapse already. No I didn't bring my ball winder with me. I did however consider it at one point. No room.

I have learned that it is possible to knit with a 4 year old on your lap. It does slow stuff up a bit more however, and little boys are wiggly. Ants in the pants wiggly. Not that I had forgotten that it is all but impossible for a healthy boy to sit still, but I had never tried to knit with a boy on my lap. Mine were past the sitting on the lap stage when I learned to knit. I haven't tried to knit whilst holding the baby tho. I can't seem to concentrate on anything but him when I am holding him.... ah well... they are only little for such a short time and I leave (boo hoo) in 9 days to go home. I can knit then. As much as I miss my hubby and my own animal family and my knitting buddies, it is going to be hard to leave here. This little guy looks so much like his daddy did when he was a babe.

Well, nearly time to hit the road with the big kiddo and get him to school. Thank goodness the rain is gone. Great big beautiful moon and a clear sky out there this morning.

Knit on

Wii

Learning how to play the Wii with my 4 yr old grandson. I'm not very good. I am also the only one that he can beat. :-) Good for him to be better than someone else at something. We had quite a few laughs about my spinning in circles and bouncing us back to the main menu because I kept pushing the wrong buttons. I think we were playing something called Rampage. Funny looking critters (ala godzilla) that had to destroy a city.

One sock monkey almost knitted. The 4 year old wants one as well... So his is next up on the needles. I am probably going to have to mail myself some items home. I bought enough stuffing for quite a few sock monkeys I think. I don't know if I will finish knitting the one for Middle K or not before I leave. Depends on how much knitting the grandpuppy lets me do. Most of my knitting is happening between 4 and 6 am.

Well, I get to feed the baby... so gotta go.

Knit on!

Unable to send

For some reason I am unable to send photos in an email... Keep getting a stupid error message. ARGH!

In Knitting news... there hasn't been much what with the new baby. I did however, finish knitting the baby blanket... still have to weave in the ends tho. The Grand puppy Coco doesn't like me to knit. She prefers to have me chase after her after she has snuck up and grabbed my yarn and run off. Granted she is only 6 months old, so is still a cute little beagle puppy... but I don't like playing chase and recovery, at least not when it is yarn. She has plenty of toys, and I would be happy to play the same game with those. Took me almost an hour to recover and restore the last ball of yarn to it's original untangled state. We won't speak about the drool. I am just glad that it happened to be a super wash yarn. And worsted weight, and the yarn was all still in one strand tho horrifically tangled. I have managed to squeeze in a few rounds of sock here and there, but other than that... Knitting deprived. :-)

Hopefully I will have the time to go out to the local yarn stores while I am here. We shall see.

Not wishing to return home, tho I miss my knitting buddies, my animals and of course the hubby. Would like to stay and snuggle grand babies and nothing else.

Knit on!

New Grand baby

Little K entered the world on 29 November after keeping his mommy awake for three nights in a row He's a cutie.... see....

Bye now... I'm busy being a granny.