Is it sad to blog on vacation?  I don’t know… for me this is a relaxing sort of trip, while for Marc it is a work trip – he has classes 8:30-6:00 every day.  I love our tiny (but cute!) hotel room.  Everything is my favorite color of green!

Yesterday I explored the downtown area on my own, and then we drove out to Ikea – we didn’t buy anything since there is one in Cincinnati now, but I love looking!  Exploring a city by myself is an accomplishment for me, because I tend to be really nervous when I don’t know exactly where I am.  I spent way too much money at Lush yesterday, because we still don’t have one at home (the salesgirl said “We have on in Memphis, is that close?”  Um… no.)  I know you can order online, but I like the way the store smells.  I got some of the Afterlife moisturizer, which smells so nice that I don’t even care if it works, a nice toner, Angels on bare skin scrub, and Soak and Float shampoo bar (it smells like a campfire, but I have psoriasis of the scalp and this is the only product I have found that really takes away the flakes.)  I use the American Cream conditioner afterwards and it removes the smoky smell.

I also bought shoes (really cheap!) and a bag to use for my summer knitting bag from H&M – another store we don’t have… come on, even Indianapolis has one – aren’t we coming up soon?  I spent 6 months living in Austria, and I got so addicted to H&M that it’s crazy.  I miss it!  Today I met Marc for lunch (Noodles & Co) and then I’ve been relaxing and knitting.  There’s a Starbucks across the street… heaven!

In a bit I’m going to head off to a yarn store or two… I firmly believe that yarn bought on vacation does not count as stash.  Then I promised Marc we could get pizza, although I don’t love Chicago pizza (I don’t like chunky sauce.)  I’m not sure where we will go, apparently Marc has a favorite (he has been here lots for business.)

Ah yes… knitting.  Thanks to everyone for their votes on what sweater to start.  Coraline was the clear winner, so I sat down and cast on all 190 provisional stitches, which took quite awhile let me tell you.  I decided that it would make me crazy to only work on that, so I also started Something Red.  I’m planning to make the raglan length much shorter – I’m wearing my “Not so shrunken” cardigan today, which has a raglan length of 9.5″, and it’s really too large for my spindly arms.  Something red calls for 10.5″, which… not so much.  8.5-9″ would be more reasonable to me.  We will see.  Here is a photo of my progress – no photo of Coraline, because it doesn’t look like anything yet.

I apologize for the bad photos – there is no real natural light in our room!

Last time I knit with Blue Sky cotton I knit to a gauge of 4 st/in on US 7s.  This time I’m using US 5s and knitting to 4.5 st/in and the experience is so much more pleasant!  It doesn’t hurt my hands, and stitches are much more even.  So far I’m glad that I gave the yarn another chance!