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I am very fortunate that I'm traveling with people far more important than I am. We got to fly in business class to India,

This was the appetizer for lunch, on the leg to Frankfurt.

I was more pleased than an adult should be.

The seats fully reclined but I didn't take advantage of this until the second flight because I was forcing myself onto India time. There's a 12.5 hour time difference between LA and all of India, which means that 8PM on Monday night (right now in LA) is 8:30 AM on Tuesday morning in India.

It wasn’t hard to stay awake, though. I started knitting a sock and had my pick and choose of in-flight movies to watch on my personal TV.

If you were wondering, I watched Rumor Has It with Arabic subtitles and Walk the Line with Japanese subtitles.

Flying over Germany, there was a part of me that ached to get off there and ditch the rest of my party. It looked so beautiful from above. This is what most of Germany looked like from the direction we came. Obviously, this wasn't the city itself.

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about the trip, but my focus will be work and all I want to do is see the world.

But we arrived without a hitch, exhausted, hot, slightly on edge but no worse for the wear.

At the hotel they greeted us with incense and placed the red dot on our forehead. I'm sure they told us why, but as I wasn't sure my name at the time, the message was lost on me. I've cropped out the exhausted to protect their innocence.

The sight of our hotel rooms was enough to bring a small tear to my eye. The rooms are beautiful, the bath was a delight and the bed had only 2 things missing.

Do you see it? That's right, no Leo or Panda. *sigh*

Alas, we don't stay here. We head to our final destination after breakfast. If the accommodations are half as nice, it'll be an easy stay (with due consideration that there'll be much work to do) and I should be able to post more pictures.

What do you say when someone whose blog you love writes you and says she'd love to work on a book with you?
You say, "SURE!"
What do you then say when she asks if you can design the ugliest patterns known to man... out of acrylic yarn circa 1965?
Well, I still said yes and am now looking into various witness protection programs. I hear the French have an excellent one. Oui Oui!
The result is that I have my name in one of the most hilarious books out there.

It's like her blog on paper. What would you call that? A plog? Darn new fangled contraptions!
For those whose sarcasm-dar is malfunctioning, that was a joke
You can click on the image to go get yourself a copy, just promise me that you won't judge me by the patterns, except to conclude that sometimes, it takes a certain skill to make something truly ugly. That's what I tell myself so I can sleep at night. It's my mantra.

On another note, I leave for India on Sunday, so if I haven't replied to your comments, it's not because I'm rude or hate you, I'm just scurrying around all day, trying to get things in order. Expect light or non-existent blogging and emailing all next week. If I can get a good connection during my "me" time, I'll post updates. Otherwise, you'll hear all about it upon my return.

As I knit away on sock number two, the question arises, can a knee length sock with no shaping, whatsoever, possibly fit a relatively shapely leg?

All signs point to yes! Sock number two is actually a bit further along than shown in the pic. These socks will be perplexing passersby in no time.

Oh and thank you to everyone who left my blog a happy birthday note. It's so sweet to hear from first time commenter, old friends and everyone in between. Being the insanely shy person I am, I know I'd never have gotten to meet you all (even if it's only virtually) without this glorious interweb thingy.

It's my little blog's birthday, and she's two! Only 19 more years until she can drink, and I can take her out for a margarita.

So what has happened around here since my last anniversary? Catch a year in review, after the bump.

They've got HUGE socks.

Well, my feet are pretty average, but check out this sock, baby. I've just started the ribbing portion which will run three color stripes deep, ending in a red stripe.

I don't know, maybe I'm getting subliminal messages about stripes but I'm really smitten with these socks. I should note that I own no (appropriate) skirts or shorts with which I could wear these and display them to best advantage, and yet I simply cannot wait to finish knitting both socks so I can wear them. There's a little twisted part of me that thinks I should wear them with one of my official work outfits, you know blazer, long trousers, ankle length boots, and the most crazy arse socks ever. The likelihood is that no one would know I had on my peppy long stockings, but if someone did catch a glimpse it'd definitely confirm my "not quite right in the head" status with them.

I've got some new handspun too.

Same technique as the redwood colorway, but in pine instead. This particular batch of roving has tended to leave a little dye on my fingers, and lost a bit of blue in the bath, but is otherwise lovely and really does spin up to look like a pine forest.