South Dakota wants me to buy yarn

After our most recent trip I have come to the conclusion that South Dakota wants me to buy yarn there. Our flight was canceled the night before and as always I put the time to good use. My great Father in law allowed me an extra day of use on the car, Hubby and I headed off to the yarn shop. 

I don't feel comfortable taking pictures inside stores but I got one of the sign outside. Now I know I should have taken one of the building too. It is a big old house that started out as a parsonage. It was relocated from downtown Sioux Falls to its current location. It had been a Bed and Breakfast and a Tea Shop too. Hey if you're going to lose a tea shop it might as well be turned into a yarn store.

Hubby was very happy to have a large sitting area to relax in with a nice clerk to talk to. She kept him entertained while I shopped. Good thing too because I am an indecisive color picker. D says the sitting area was so nice because it was in a large pleasant room. Some yarn stores are no bigger than closets.

I managed to narrow down my choices and I will show them to you in another post. I'm still trying to decide if they will work with the patterns I thought or if I want to change it up a bit.

If you have to spend an extra day in South Dakota I know where you should go for stash enhancement.

Look what followed me home from SD

One of the things that I most enjoy about our visits home is how my sister and I connect over books now. We had to share a room while growing up, and it did not help us to see eye to eye. 

But now she is introducing me to books I never thought to read. And on the plus side she let me take home her duplicate books. She introduced me to Lawrence Block and now I will try Ed McBain. I don't think she will take up my victorian romance novels, but then again I've never offered them to her. Hmm, I wonder? Sis, you want me to send you a sample novel?

My lovely Mother in law was thinking of how I like to wear sweaters when she picked this out for me from her late Mother's jewelry box. This is a local type of jewelry called Black Hills Gold. It is usually three colors of gold (gold, green and pink) containing leaf and grape motifs. I think it is based on a prospector's dream, or at least that was the story I was once told.

I thought it was very nice to pass on a piece of Grandma's jewelry to me. I hope my hand knit sweaters can display it properly. She was such an elegant and lovely lady.

I said stop it!

Stop messing around and settle down OR ELSE!

Oh sorry, I was not talking to you I was threatening talking to my shawl. You remember my Holden Eggplant shawl? Well it seems I should forget it in a closet somewhere. With as many times as I've knit and ripped it back, I should have three shawls by now.

I started it back in May thinking I would have plenty of time to finish it and block it properly before a wedding in mid August. Well I was wrong, so very wrong. There is something about the yarn and pattern combo that makes me forget how to knit and count properly. 

I took it to South Dakota with me as a good on the plane knitting project. Many people talk about how lace is a great thing to knit while flying because it holds your attention and concentration. I now know I am not one of those people because I like to fly early in the morning and am still mostly groggy. I managed to knit a few lace rows before I gave up and gave into some sleeping.

I also knew that it was not a sit and visit with the relatives project either, so I did not even try that. I may have made some headway in the car but now we all know that I prefer to drive so the shawl made a meaningless trip to SD.

So I'm finally home and have an opportunity to do some meaningful lace knitting and the shawl is not working with me. After knitting, unknitting, knitting, ripping back and reknitting the same section this weekend I am throwing in the towel and have now accepted the fact I will not be wearing a new shawl next weekend.

So take that Eggplant, I'm going to go find a nice sock to knit on! Anybody on the needles have any Cashmere content? I need some comfort!

Drive across the state

Since our families live on opposite sides of South Dakota we end up driving to see one of them. I used to begrudge the time but now it is a little oasis of together time. Turns out it can be nice if you let it be. 

Hubby obliged me as my photographer while I did the driving. It cuts into my knitting but I think we both prefer me driving for some odd reason. 

We started out on the western side of the state which is mostly grassland and wheat crops. We actually have National Grasslands. 

There were plenty of hay bales along the interstate. You can always tell you're in a agriculture state when you see the bales. We usually make use of all the grass land we can, most people will cut and bale hay right up to the interstate. You never know, that may be one less bale that you have to buy from someone else. With the droughts everybody needs as much hay as they can get.

I must admit it makes my heart happy. I still think SD is its own kind of beautiful.

We passed a group of long distance bikers on the interstate but my photographer was a wee bit slow. It did not help that we were almost passing them before we realized what was going on. So it sparked a debate in the car, is it illegal to bike on the interstate or is that only on the east coast? I know I would not be comfortable with traffic whipping past me at 75 mph. Can you imagine what a semi truck feels like? Wow!

SD is cut vertically by the Missouri river. We just get to see a bit of it here.

But then you get to drive right over it, and let me tell you it is a big river. Well at least in this farm girl's eyes it is.

That is the railroad crossing out there. 

Once you cross the river the crops begin to change, you start to see corn fields. Wow was the corn suffering this year. We saw quite a few that looked like someone had toasted them. There is just no coming back from the scorching that some took. What do you do when a crop fails and there is nothing that you can do about it. 

Soybeans seem a bit more drought resistant but we even saw some suffering on that end too. 

See we do have trees on the prairie too. We need some thing that slows down the wind out there. I was struck by the wind there I had forgotten how strong it can blow. It takes your breath away and knocks you off your feet. Oh how the wind can blow across the prairie!

Well how did you enjoy your drive across the state with us? Much quicker this way, right?

Being missed

My G man is back and I don't know who is happier. Gus boarded with the vet while we were away visiting family. Now usually when we return from a trip he goes trough a couple of phases. Phase 1 is happy fun time, he loves us and missed us. Phase 2 is punishment, how dare we leave him! Phase 3 is a gradual change between Phase 2 anger and normalcy.

This time Phase 1 is lasting much longer. He is rubbing on legs and purring up a storm. Last night however it was too much. He kept waking us up by yowling and bringing us yarn. What can I say I really, really missed you guys!


Oddly enough Jack was the chatterbox the night before since he was home alone with us and kept asking us if we forgot someone and where is Gus? Poor lonely Jack. Jack was delighted to get treats from Auntie B while we were away, but still where was Gus? It was the first time Jack was separated for more than a couple of hours.

Gus looks great for having spent a considerable amount of time away from home for the first time. I have no doubt that the Vet's office did all they could for him but really don't we all just want to be home in our own beds? No wait, he had his own bed I took it in with him, and his favorite ball of yarn, toy mouse named yellow, and the fuzzy blanket that Grandma made for me but Gus claims. So really it was more of a spa treatment for him.


Spa treatment? Are you kidding me woman? Spa treatment my fuzzy grey butt! 


Phase 2 begins shortly! Nope I still missed them too much maybe tomorrow I will launch Phase 2.

South Dakota Sky

Sometimes I wonder why I still call South Dakota "home." It has been over ten years since I've lived there. Maybe it is because our families still live there. Or maybe it simply is because it feels like home.

It is hard not to love some place that can create skies like these.

These were all taken during the same time frame, the first two facing North and the last one facing South. Nothing I've ever seen can compare to a prairie sunset. When I was a kid I tried to draw a sunset. There were never enough crayons in the box to faithfully represent the sky. It does make me wonder how big God's crayon box is.

A bit more library love

If you've been here before you know of my love of the library system. Books that I can have for free? Yes please sign me up.

Part of the reason I love it so much is pictured below. I can look through many, many knitting books without having to buy them. While I love buying knitting books I do not need to own them all. 

I think we have a knitter on the purchasing committee because we have a lot of very nice new knitting books to peruse. A few I have fallen in love with and had to get my own copy to keep.

I've not had much time with these but I have managed to look through some of the patterns which are quite lovely. I do love the look of cables.