Last Friday my dad and I set out for the twelve hour journey to Tulsa. We drove so that I could have my car here, and boy was it a long one. We pulled out of our Jocelyn Hollow drive at 7am and into the Brander’s at 7pm. But really, the drive was great. We stopped every few hours and fueled up our tank and our bodies, stretched our legs, and spent the car ride singing our favorite country songs and admiring the scenery. Once we got to Shelley’s, we pretty much immediately headed to Los Cabos for our favorite: mexican and margs. I had the shrimp tacos yummm.
Later, we stopped in Arkansas when we saw a sign for an overlook. We thought it would be a nice opportunity to stretch our legs and take in a nice view, but we found the overlook to be fairly unexciting.
The next day my dad and I visited both of the amazing Loops locations (he was blown away) and both of the Ihloff locations. Ihloff’s is an Aveda salon here in Tulsa that we just had to check out as we are also Aveda salon owners. Afterwords, we ate lunch at Queenie’s (a Brander family favorite) in Utica Square, delicious chicken salad and lemonade :). I took my dad to the airport after lunch and as Trish would say, “I hate the leaving”. We said our goodbyes and it was time for me to say hello to Tulsa, my new t-town (Tuscaloosa is referred to as t-town).
That night, we all (and by all I mean me, Shelley, Brent, and their three kids: Sam, Cecily, and Mallory) went to the Shock game, courtside seats! The Tulsa Shock is the state’s WNBA team. On our way there they all warned me that the Shock hadn’t been doing so well, but not to worry the games were still a ton of fun. After an exciting victory by the Shock, the Brander’s had dubbed me their good luck charm...and so far, my good luck has not totally run out. We finished the night at Wolfgang Puck’s, which was fantastic. I had a bowl of french onion and a raspberry lemondrop, or as I ordered it - a laspberry remondrop - you’d think I’d already had a few.
All of Sunday, I spent knitting and relaxing and made great headway into the next cowl, “Mohair is Better”. Although I gotta say, Brushed Suri (Blue Sky’s mohair alternative) is better, and not as itchy. This cowl introduced a new stitch pattern to me, the trinity stitch. At first, I found it mildly frustrating as there are many P3togs with that fuzzy suri yarn. But as I relaxed and loosened my tension a little and ditched the continental, the pattern got easier and easier. It has been refreshing to have a slightly more complex cowl pattern and I always love to add new stitches and skills to my knitting repertoire.
I just love the volume of this cowl, it adds a bit of drama. In Cowlgirls, Cathy actually shows two of these stacked on top of each other, making it even more voluminous. Eventually, I may make a second, I really do like the effect. And what's so fantastic about this cowl is that it only takes ONE skein of Brushed Suri. Click here to buy Brushed Suri!
Monday was split between Loops South and Utica. I went to each store for a couple of hours and took some time to tidy up and familiarize myself with the store organization and inventory. I also had the opportunity to see some old friends from the Loops Troop, Gina and Cindy and Sherri and Harriet as well as meet some new ones, Pat and Emily. Everyone here in Tulsa is so warm and welcoming, it already feels like home sweet home :).
Yesterday was my first real day of training at South, and it was exciting! The store was crazy busy all morning and it was so fun to meet new people and help them with their projects. Shelley and I had a quick photoshoot with some great new quick and easy scarf patterns, and I already made the main page on the Loops website! I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the Bergere de France Origin display and this week we are featuring the Merinos and “Fit to be Tied” at Loops South. Come stop by so you can make my cowl!
Mariel.
