As Kendra stated in her last posting, I went to visit her. However, I count that I was there 10 days, not 9 - maybe she has forgotten one of the days? (Or maybe she slept through it, and that's why she didn't get as much knitting done as she had expected!) I flew to visit her, and my airport knitting was Cedar Dancing Socks, from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. The yarn is Claudia Handpainted Puffy Fingering Weight in the color Passionfruit, and the yarn was donated by Claudia to Socks for Soldiers, so the socks will go to SFS when they are completed. 
(please note - the photo shows my progress once I returned home - the foot of the first sock and the cuff of the second were done on the trip. Also note that the color is brighter, and more coral and tan than pink)
Unfortunately, one of the size 1 Brittney Birch needles broke in the airport, so on Friday, the day after I arrived, we (fortunately) had to go to Knit On! across the river in Kentucky, so I could buy another set of needles, as I need the full set of 5 to do the interesting heel in this pattern. I think the construction is very interesting, although it took reading the pattern a couple of times to understand what was supposed to go where. And the pattern works really well with the color changes in the yarn. While we were in Knit On!, I bought some gray Maizey, which I plan (at least right now - all plans subject to change) to use for Tiennie Knits' Fascine Braid socks. 
That night we went to see a production of Emma at Playhouse in the Park; a well-performed musical that was amusing, with good costuming, but whose music, while good, sometimes stood out as too anachronistic, especially in the performing style of the actor playing Mr. Knightly. I wore my new Hey Lisa that Kendra made for me - here is the obligatory bathroom photo that Kendra requested - suitably headless for Halowe'en. 
Kendra and I took off on a road trip to the north - the first stop was the Limberlost State Historic Site in Geneva, Indiana, the home of early 20th century naturalist and novelist Gene Stratton Porter. 
I have read all of her fiction, and two of her books on birds. The house has a wonderful Arts & Crafts era library, with lots of light in each room, and a wonderful conservatory. If you have read Freckles, her best-known book, you may recognize the house and the conservatory, which you can just see in the bow-window area below, as the home of the Bird Woman. 
The day continued at a related site in Rome City, Indiana, at the Gene Stratton Porter State Historic Site, where she build a larger house after she was a best-selling author.
Her house is by a lake in the woods, 
filled with ducks, 
surrounded by a garden. 
It was a beautiful day for a drive in the country. I did get some knitting done on the socks in the car, but not a lot, as there was too much to look at along the road.
p.s. - Kendra took the photos from the trip, but since they were on my camera, I could use them here, since I beat her to getting them up. But maybe she'll beat me with news about the rest of our trip.
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