When you can't show your knitting . . .

it helps to knit somewhere with a good view.  Because at least you can show pictures of WHERE the knitting was done!

My knitting mojo returned with a vengeance while on our little anniversary get-away to Cape May.  And why not?  There was a great knitting store.  I was reading a fun knitting mystery to inspire me.  And there was the comfy porch swing to knit on while watching horse-drawn carriages wind their way through the town of painted Victorian houses.

And no cooking and cleaning to be done! Nothing like days of slackerism in a beautiful place to get some great knitting progress done. And what exactly did I knit? Well, I should be able to show you that very soon.

cue cliff-hanger music . . .

Still able to sniff out yarn . . .

A sane person would assume that a knitter going on a Caribbean cruise vacation might bring home some rum cake.  (I did.)  Or some jewelry.  (I didn't.)  But in all likelihood, she would not be bringing home any yarn.

Well, be prepared for the insane.  While wandering around St. George in Bermuda I happened to spy this little sign.

Oh yes. I just happened to stumble across a yarn store in Bermuda.  What are the chances of that?  Well, if you are obsessed with yarn, I guess the chances are pretty good!

It was a cute little store.  Fairly small by New England yarn store standards but pretty big for a tropical island.  In addition to all the yarn, they had a small but nice selection of cross-stitch kits, which was the perfect gift for my mom.  Since she retired she's been cross-stitching and embroidering for a few hours a day.  (Maybe I should teach her to knit??)

Anyway, the owner of Needles Etc. was friendly and very helpful.  I was pretty excited when she told me that they get their yarn from England!  That quickly faded when I looked around to see the only brand they carry is Patons.  Don't get me wrong, I like Patons yarn.  I've used it often, like for that gray sweater, and I have quite a bit more set aside for other projects.  But I can buy Patons in any of the Big Box Craft Stores here at home.  I guess I was hoping for something a bit more exotic and hard to come by.

Don't worry, I did find some yarn that was just calling out to come home with me!

Three skeins of Patons diploma Gold.  It's a wool, acrylic, nylon blend and DK weight.  I think it will be perfect for a pair of color-work socks.  Leave it to me to find wool sock yarn in Bermuda!

How to spot a bad blogger . . .

Well, she would be the one who blogs more when she's away on vacation than she does when she's at home!

That's right.  My last three posts were brought to you by the magic of Blogger's Advanced Scheduling.  The posts were pre-written, and published themselves while Pea and I were off on a fabulous cruise for our anniversary!

 

Yes, I did take that picture!!  Click on it if you'd like to see the rest of our vacation photos.

It was relaxing.  It was sunny.  It was so much fun.  We ate great food.  We drank yummy drinks.  We swam in the pool.  We gambled in the casino. We went to the gym almost every day - to try and compensate for some of the food and drink.  My blood sugars didn't misbehave too much, aside from a few highs and a few lows here and there.  And I even got a little bit of knitting in.

But now that we've been back for a week, I guess I can't use the Getting-Caught-Up-From-Vacation excuse anymore.  This bad blogger had better start writing some posts again!

Sweet, Sweet San Diego . . .

So, that cryptic last post?  I was "out of sorts" because I was in a whole new time zone, and I was "here" on my blog "but not here" because I wasn't home.  Pea got sent to San Diego for work last week.  I decided to tag along, and we managed to fit some play time in too.

San Diego is the sweetest city I've ever seen.  The weather is sweet.  The beach is sweet.

It was about 80 degrees and I got a bit sunburned, and I loved it.  I can now say I've touched the Pacific Ocean as well as the Atlantic.  And wwwaaaayyy out there?  It wasn't Long Island, like when I look out at home.  It was Mexico.  Wow.

The Trolley Tour was sweet.  We saw Old Town, where we ate the best Mexican food ever.

Yup, Mexican two days in a row. It was so good, we had to go back for more.

We saw the sweet Gas Lamp district, where we had many an awesome breakfast at Richard Walkers and found the most incredible cupcakes.

Seriously, these things were amazing. After a bite, I accidentally dropped mine on the hotel room floor.  And for one brief moment, OCD me was tempted to eat it anyway.  (I didn't, but I did walk the seven blocks back to buy a new one.)

And we hopped around sweet Seaport Village to see the sights and browse the shops.

 

We found a sweet spot in Balboa Park to enjoy some southern California scenery.

And of course, there were some visits to some sweet yarn stores.  Black Sheep, The Shepherdess, and Knitting in La Jolla (I guess they don't have a web-site).

Oh yes, even in a place where the temps are in the 70's year round, I can manage to find sock yarn!

But by far, the sweetest thing about San Diego was the fact that I was going to be meeting up with a California blog pal.  Not a knitting blog pal, although Karyn (& Noey) and I would have if we could have worked it out.  Instead I met with the diabetes blog communities self-proclaimed Ninjabetic, George!  As a surprise, he had another diabetes blogger with him, all the way from Minnesota. So Pea and I also got to meet Scott!

Trust me when I tell you, these guys are quite big in the diabetes blogging community, and it was an honor to meet them . Just like with knit-bloggers, there was an instant connection and we had more fun than I can tell you!  We caused such a scene, our waitress even agreed to take a picture with us.  (Yes, my sunburn is also featured prominantly!)

But now we are back home. The sun is still out, but the temperatures are about 50 degrees colder. I guess it's the perfect excuse to cuddle up with K.C. and get working on my socks and sweater!

Good to be home . . .

I guess I'm not the adventurous type, because it sure does feel good to be back home from vacation. Don't get me wrong, we had a wonderful time. But I'm always happy to get home, get the fridge stocked, get the laundry washed, and get back to "normal" life.

Our trip was to Colonial Williamsburg for a Family Reunion with my mother's side of the family. I was sure I had gotten a shot of the 25ish of us all posing together, but I guess my camera was hidden away when the picture was taken. Hopefully some relatives will upload their copies soon! The best I can do is a picture of me and my brother at Jamestown, with my aunt and uncle in the back.


How can you tell that's me, and that we are related? Why, by the way we are both desperately trying to ignore the camera (and Pea) in the hopes of not getting our picture taken!! Our conversation probably went something like this:
"Is he gone yet?"
"Nope, still there."
"Well for goodness sake, don't look - and certainly don't smile!"
"Why doesn't he just go take a shot of the scenery?"

Speaking of scenery, Virgina is gorgeous. Very very hot and very very humid, but also very very pretty. See . . .


Oh my, what's that in the left corner? Could it be a yarn shop? Why yes, it is a yarn shop!! In fact, we found a few yarn shops while there. And some yarn happened to follow me home, along with some beads and a sheep.


No silly, not a real sheep. Although that would be cool, wouldn't it? We'll have to see about that for the next vacation souvenir!!

Things I brought home from vacation . . .

stunning hand-embroidered place-mats from Bermuda . . . .


pretty sock yarn from Boston . . . .


a stuffy head, sore throat, fever, aches and chills from the cruise ship.

(Okay, this is actually a picture from our honeymoon, but we sailed on the same ship then too.)

Luckily, I didn't catch the flu until our last day on-board. Although it wasn't quite the souvenir I planned to bring home, I felt lucky that the germs held off until most of our vacation was complete. We also had a mishap on the first day - our ship boarded and sailed seven hours late because it was delayed by Hurricane Noel. However, it was all well worth it when I remember that at this time last week, I walked around in a tank top and didn't feel the least bit chilly. I sat in the sunshine in a Bermuda park and knit on a sock. And although Boston was very cold, my completed Sunrise Circle kept me toasty warm.

Today I'm back to feeling somewhat human and should be over the flu completely in the next couple of days. Spending more than two days on the couch allowed me to catch up on all the blog posts I missed while I was gone, but I didn't have a lot of energy to leave comments. (And I fear that most of the comments I did manage to leave were feverish, incoherent jumbles of words!!) For now, it's time for another nap - hopefully I'll awake with enough energy to finish off that pair of socks!

Just another in the LONG list of reasons why I'll never be consided cool . . .

I'm one of those weirdos who feels the need to attend a Renaissance Faire in costume.Not the best picture, but the day was so HOT and HUMID I instantly regretted dressing in layers. (Don't you love the glare coming from my pasty-white bosom? I shutter to think the blog hits that phrase will get me.)

But oh, the Faire was so much fun. We saw horses and jousters and merchants and knife throwers and pickle sellers. And the Fiber Hut, where they were kind enough to teach me (again) how to use a drop spindle. I swear I'm going to get it this time. I was particularly interested in the shops selling costumes. From what I saw, skirts can go for about $50 and corsets run about $75. I couldn't scope out the prices on the under-dresses, but I'm more than satisfied already. You see, I made my own costume, with $20 worth of fabric from Wal-mart and a bunch of random notions I already had on hand. That puts me at least $100 ahead already.

But the absolute best part of the day was that I was escorted by my very own prince.
He'll always be my Knight in Shining Armour - even if he refused to wear the costume. :)

Location shoot

A few weeks ago, something came over me. I'm not quite sure what, but I bet you've felt it too. That unexplainable blah feeling towards all the lovely projects you have on the needles. It was accompanied by the feeling that I MUST start something new - something that I could finish QUICKLY - something that would use up some of my huge stockpile stash yarn - something I could wear that weekend. I had just the project waiting in my Ravelry queue and just the yarn in my stash. So I cast on, knit it up, and have been wearing it everywhere. The only thing I didn't remember to do was to have Pea get a picture of me modeling it for the blog. I've rectified that from an undisclosed location. (More about this at the end of the post!)

Anthropologie-inspired Capelet
Cast on: 31 July 2007
Completed: 2 August 2007
Yarn: Rowan Cotton Tape, White
Needles: US11 (8mm) Knit Picks Circular

I made a few minor modifications to this pattern. I cast on 45 stitches, and worked it so the right side would be the stockinette side instead of reverse stockinette. I also gave some more length to the body, and knit the sleeves in the round. Which meant no seaming at all. (Cool!!)

And now, on to the location of the shoot. Pea and I were out of town for a long-weekend get-away. Can you guess where we were? Leave me your guess in the comments and you'll earn a chance at a little prize. If your guess is correct, you'll earn two chances! I'm not sure exactly what the prize will be, but it will involve sock yarn. I'll draw the winner sometime after I unpack, tackle the mountain of laundry, get some groceries, answer all my e-mails and catch up on my blog reading. That should give you plenty of time to get your guess in - and I'll announce the winner in my next post.

6 ° Mittens

When we last left off, I was on my exciting jaunt with Christine. But there was much more fun (and yarn) in store for the weekend. On Friday, Pea and I packed up for a little get-away in upstate Connecticut. It was his Christmas present and I was glad the winter had been mild, because he loves to go hiking when we're away.

Of course, I'm run by Murphy's Law, so it was no surprise that this weekend brought the coldest weather we've seen all year. Although we didn't let it spoil our weekend, hiking was definitely out!! Also out were my Fetching mitts. When it's 6 degrees, bare fingers just don't cut it.

Luckily, there happened to be a couple of great yarn stores in the area, The Village Sheep and Enchanting Yarns & Things. We set out on a quest for yarn and a pattern for mittens. The yarn was an easy choice when I fell in love with some beautiful Manos del Uruguay. I'd never knit with this yarn before, but had heard great things about it. I sure wasn't disappointed!!

When I started to look for a pattern, a funny thought hit me. Maybe I didn't need a pattern. Mittens are pretty basic, right? I've knit tons of socks and a few Fetchings. How different can a pair of mittens be? So armed with my new Manos, some DPNs, a tape measure and a note-pad, I created these!!

6 ° Mittens
Cast On: January 26, 2007
Completed: January 28, 2007
Yarn: Manos del Uruguay, colorway 105
Needles: Inox US8 DPN's

I had such a good time writing my little pattern for these mittens. They knit up in a flash, and I was extra proud that I took the time to work out my own pattern !! I certainly have no aspirations of become a knitting designer, but I've typed up this little pattern in case any of you would like to try it! Click here for pdf file. I'll link it in my sidebar too. And if you knit it up, please let me know what you think. I'd love to see a picture of your mittens!!

Mystery Solved!!

Remember the yarn I bought last week at Modern Yarn? The pretty Handspun on the Web, that I couldn't find a web-site for? Well, as luck would have it, the gal who was working that night came searching for my blog (um, yeah, I mentioned I had a blog when I asked if I could take photos in the shop) and left me a comment with the web address!! Handspun on the Web is here! From what I can tell, they are only selling to yarn stores right now, but I was really glad to be able to check out the site and read more about that yarn. Thank you so much, Xtina. I didn't have an address to e-mail you back, but I'll leave a comment on your blog soon.

So, as you can guess, I was in New Jersey last week. I didn't blog much about it (I think I'm trying to block most of the week out), and the highlight of the trip was certainly Modern Yarn. I've re-read my post and realized I may not have sounded overly enthused about the store, but it really was a wonderful shop and if it were closer I would certainly be a regular. When I wrote the post last week, I was very home-sick! Pea was sent down to NJ for training, and I decided to go with him. I planned to spend my days in our hotel room, knitting, reading, blogging and working on graphics. As it turned out, the hotel was less than ideal. The high-speed internet was slower than my old dial-up. The rooms were not made up until 2 or 3 in the afternoon, thus making me feel like I should stay in the lobby so Housekeeping could get in there.( And one day, our room was not made up at all.) I got stuck in the elevator. And we had two (yes, TWO) ant infestations. The second was on Thursday night, interrupting my enjoyment of the Grey's Anatomy season opener. (Grrr) When we trudged down to the front desk (in my pajamas, I might add) to report that the wall NEXT TO OUR BED was crawling with ants, the manager (yes, MANAGER) on duty replied with "Well, you've been here all week. You're just having a problem now?" Why yes, because we thought it would be fun to pack up all our stuff the night before check out - in our pajamas - and move to a new room. That's how we get our kicks. He never even apologized for our inconvenience. Yeah, now that I've vented to all of you, I'm going to vent to their corporate headquarters.

So anyway, if my report of Modern Yarn was not as enthusiastic as it should have been, please know it was due to my frustration of being stuck in the Hotel from Hell. Hindsight is everything, and we should have begun complaining on Monday, but Pea and I aren't usually the kind to make waves. But next time, yeah, we'll be making a whole lot of waves. And one more note, I found out later that Kirsten had been at Modern Yarns just five hours before with her knitting group. I don't like to advertise on my blog when I'll be away, but I'm kicking myself for not finding a way to mention I'd be in the vicinity of Modern Yarns. I would have loved to have met up with her.

Well, enough whining. Many of you commented that you enjoyed seeing some of my stash in the background of my Ice Cream Man sock picture. Well, if you've got it, flaunt it, right? I thought I'd share a picture of my Out Of Control Sock Yarn Stash, so you can all understand why I shouldn't be buying any more sock yarn for at least five years.


What you see there, according to my Stash Spreadsheet, is enough yarn to knit . . . . are you ready? . . . FORTY THREE PAIRS OF SOCKS!!!! How did this happen? Do you remember when my sock stash looked like this ? (Scroll down a little) Or if you really want to laugh, like this? (Scroll down again) The funniest thing is if you read the second post, I thought I was out of control then. I had yarn for only nine pairs, and I thought I was out of control!! I was such a novice!!!

And right on cue, my evil lovely friend Nathalie has been tempting me with links to one of her favorite yarn sources and pointing out the great exchange rate from AUD to USD. Sweetie, you are killing me!! Must. Resist. No yarn until RHINEBECK!!!!

June 26, 2006 . . .

we were here!! (Are you getting tired of all these anniversary posts? I promise, this is the last one!!) Our second anniversary brought us back to lovely Cape May. We've gone a few times before, when Pea was living in NJ, just outside of Philadelphia. It was a tough time for us, being so far apart, so we took a couple seaside get-aways to Cape May.

Cape May is quite a beautiful and historic town, being the oldest seaside resort in the United States. Cape May's history includes several big fires, the largest happening in 1878 and ruining 35 acres of buildings. On the up-side, rebuilding brought the wealth of Victorian architecture that makes Cape May so charming today. The town has since been declared an historic landmark. Here are a few of the beautiful houses I was able to photograph before my camera batteries died. (I always forget to recharge them before vacation.)

We stayed at a lovely B&B, where we got quite used to being served big delicious breakfasts every day!! To alleviate the guilt (and any high blood sugar readings), we took long walks along the beach each morning after breakfast. In the afternoon, we browsed through the many cute shops, and sat on the porch of Captain Mey's to read . . . and knit!! In the evenings, it was a nice walk to tons of great restaurants. My favorite was Martini Beach, where we feasted on tapas while overlooking the beach on our anniversary. Alas, no sight of the ghost who haunts the building though!

As for the knitting, there was a wonderful yarn store right up the block from the B&B. I had planned to visit several times, but unfortunately we never made it back there after our first visit. Some pretty Fortissima sock yarn did manage to come home with me though. Good thing, because guess what I worked on in Cape May, and finished today??

Blues Power Socks
Yarn: Knit Picks Color Your Own
Cast On: June 9, 2006
Completed: June 30, 2006

This yarn did grow on me, and I guess the socks look pretty good for my first dye job. They are just a basic toe-up, stockinette stitch sock, with ten rows of K2, P1 ribbing on the top. They're so comfy that I almost wish it was cold enough to wear them all day!! Oh well, at least I slid them just under the wire for the Sock A Month KAL and Project Spectrum June!!

Home again, home again

Sweetpea and I went on a nice trip to Vermont this weekend - which is why I haven't been posting or commenting since Friday. I wondered if taking the weekends off from my computer addiction might be a good idea. Then I got home to find 91 UNREAD POSTS on Bloglines!!!! It will take me days to catch up. Please forgive me for not commenting until I get through them all - but I will read each and every one!

Anyway, our stay was courtesy of a late wedding present from a friend who missed our wedding and then fell off the face of the earth for 10 months. When he finally resurfaced, I guess he felt he had a lot to make up for . . . although I cared most about the friendship and was really not at all worried about a wedding gift. We did enjoy a lovely trip though.

We stayed in Killington at The Vermont Inn. It was just as quaint and lovely as it looks on the web-site. I liked that there was no TV in the room, because we tend to fall into the bad habit of clicking it on first thing. We did, however, have a fireplace which was so romantic! The views from every window were gorgeous - and yes, I did bring my camera. I'm always really good at remembering to pack the camera. The part I never remember though, is to unpack the camera and take pictures. Waaaa.

Pea was looking forward to some nice, long, snowy nature walks. That's not really my thing, but I was game since he loves it so . . . okay, and also because he promised to take me shopping after!!! Not only was there NO SNOW (when has there ever been no snow in Vermont in January????), but it rained most of the day Saturday, with gusty winds. Not good for nature walks. But very good for shopping!!!

We headed over to Rutland and started out at Mr. Twitters. It was really cute, but also kind of expensive. It was a wonderful place to poke around though, and they had free coffee and snack samples - Key Lime Tarts!!! Yum. We then headed further into Rutland and found Lamb's Yarn Shop (scroll down a bit for the shop's review). Since it's part of someone's house, we drove by three times before we found it (but how cool would it be to have a YARN STORE IN YOUR HOUSE!!!!). As we walked to the door, I was unbelievably excited to see a sign that read "All Yarn 20% Off". 20% OFF???? ALL YARN???? Seemed too good to be true.

Well, every silver cloud has a dark lining. (Isn't that how the saying goes??) I walked through the door and was greeted my "Mrs. Lamb's" friendly daughter. She reminded me that all yarn was 20% off (ha, like I would have forgotten). Then she explained that the reason all the yarn was marked down was because the store was closing. It had gotten to be too much work for her mother, who was a very cute, very small, very old lady who needed a walker to get around. It's sad, because just by listening to "Mrs. Lamb" answering questions for the other customers, it was so evident that she loves yarn and is an expert in the craft. I tried not to be too sad, she seemed to have had a good run with the yarn shop, and I'm hoping she's happy to close that door of her life and have more time to knit her own things, bake some more (she had a blueberry pie in the oven when we were there) and relax.

Even though they were clearing out their inventory, they had a great selection of yarn. I immediately picked out a skein of Opal sock yarn, because I read on a comment to Chrissy's Socks Galore post that someone recommended it as their all-time favorite sock yarn. I guess I didn't notice the comment where someone said they didn't like Wildefoot, because I bought some of that too. They had a sample sock knit up in it, and I liked the thickness of it. Hopefully I won't find it bad to knit with. I also bought four skeins of Cascade 220 (which I've seen being knit up all over blogland) to make the Brioche Scarf and Hat from Weekend Knitting. I wanted to post pictures of my yarn haul, but it's been too dark and stormy today to get any good pictures. Maybe tomorrow?

On Sunday we headed home, which involved passing right by the New Hampshire exit where my best friend lives!!! So we were able to stop in and spend a few hours with her, her husband and my godson!! She is counting down the days until the new wee one is born, just two more months! I better get my little knitting needles flying!!

So, not much knitting got done, aside from working on another pair of slippers on the car ride home. Yes, I am sick to death of knitting slippers, but my thick warm pair has HUGE HOLES worn in the bottom and I am in dire need of a new pair. (It's still too cold to wear the worsted pair - New England winters need bulky!!!) Knitting for necessity, not for fun - I guess that's how my grandmother started.

Before I go, I just wanted to thank you all for your supportive comments on my Olympic Challenge!!! You are all much more confident in me than you should be - but I'm really just in it for the fun. I don't imagine I will master those socks in 16 days, but I'll enjoy having the challenge to work on - in between Figure Skating broadcasts, of course!!!

I wasn't kidding!!!

When I said we rode horses in the ocean in Jamaica . . .

I sure wasn't joking. When we showed this pictures to my parents, they said they assumed the horse went in up to his knees. Ha ha ha ha ha. The darn horses practically needed scuba gear. It was one of the most scary things I've done, but also one of the most awesome. I wouldn't trade it for the world. Of course, it was sheer terror that kept me on that horse - I cut off all circulation to my hands because I was clamped on so tight! But it was a blast.

I've made a new Flickr badge and uploaded the vacation pictures to it. Blogger wouldn't let me add it to this post (it won't take text/javascript) so I had to add it to my sidebar.

I'm having a problem deciding if I should spend my time blogging about my vacation, or reading all the posts I missed while I was away, or getting some knitting done. But since you've been asking for pictures (you are all so sweet) I figured I'd post some quick ones first!! (I will warn you that they are pretty boring - picture taking was never my strong suit - no artsey eye I guess.) As for how to prioritize my spare time from here on . . . any ideas?

A quick post from the high seas

This will be very short because the on-board computer is so darn slow, and it costs 42 cents a minute. So help me, if Blogger eats this post I'm gonna throw a hissy fit.

The cruise has been wonderful. Can't remember the last time I felt so relaxed and stress free. The food and service are ridiculously terrific and I wonder how I'll ever assimilate to life back home when we disembark. :( The islands are heavenly. We kayaked in Haiti, horseback rode (in the ocean) in Jamaica (and I have a photo disk of pictures of me looking petrified to post when we get back home) and yesterday we snorkeled in Grand Caymen. Tomorrow is SHOPPING on Grand Bahama Island. I don't want to come back. (I would throw in some exclamation points - but that key doesn't work . . . so imagine them at your will).

In knitting news, I started my first sock for Socktoberfest. I successfully knitted in the round on five size 2 DPN . . . but then made so many bad mistakes I frogged the whole thing and will start again soon. I also have almost finished the body of Tie One On (which I wasn't planning to pack, but did at the last minute). I hope to finish binding off and knit one tie today. Then if I can do the second tie on Saturday I can wear it to dinner on Saturday night. That's the plan, but we've really been too busy to knit . . . which I know is a good thing. Not to mention it's too windy on deck to do any knitting.

Okay, I'm off to find Sweetpea and go lie by the pool and read. More on the trip and lots of pictures to post when we get back. Oh, and did I mention, I DON'T WANT TO GO HOME (insert 12 exclamation points here).

Yarn Porn and Bon Voyage

Since I won't have computer access on "Yarn Porn Monday", I figured I'd mix things up a little with a special edition of Yarn Porn Friday. However, I've decided that compared to other yarn porn postings I've seen, mine is pretty sad. I guess I'm just going to have to start ordering / buying more yarn. Oh, by the way, I stumbled upon a bog I had never read before called Major Knitter and found a link to this cool looking yarn store that is so close to me and I didn't even know existed!! How can that be? I can't wait to check it out after we get back from the cruise. (Yes, I did try to figure out if I had time to squeeze in a trip this morning, but I've decided some restraint would be better . . . . or else Sweetpea might put me in restraints!!!)

Okay, on to the yarn porn, courtesy of Knit Picks!!

The top two balls are Essential in Ash . . . for my very first pair of socks. If all goes well, they will be FO's by the time I disembark from the ship and I'll post them upon my return!!! By the way, thanks Keohinani for the suggestion to knit them on two circular needles. Unfortunately, I don't have one circular needle in the correct size for socks - let alone two - but I'll order some when I get back and try that for my next pair!! The yarn on the bottom is Wool of the Andes in Cranberry. I thought the color was great and ordered it thinking I could surely make some pretty nice Christmas presents with it!!

However, after receiving the gifts from my Secret Pal, I couldn't help but notice how nice it looks with the Debbie Bliss SoHo yarn. So I may have to "steal" some of it to knit something for myself!! I know, I'm just shameless.

This last yarn is Sierra, one skein in Coal and one skein in Tide. I have some good plans for this here yarn . . . plans that can not yet be divulged. You understand, right? I mean, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you . . . and I like you all far to much!!

All of these yarns are really nice. Soft and cuddly (especially the sock yarn) and the colors are all beautiful. I'm really starting to get into this yarn buying thing, and I think I'm becoming more and more of a yarn snob. I was at the craft store the other day, and wasn't even tempted to buy any of the yarn there . . . . because it just didn't seem as nice as the yarns you see here. Oh no, it's all downhill from here!!

By the way, I just wanted to mention that I posted the pictures for my last couple of posts using Hello from Picasa and it works really well. It take a little figuring out, but it gives you so much more control over the pictures than blogger does. You can size them to any size (not just the three options on blogger) and also add borders and captions. The only downside is that when you send them, they immediately publish as a new post, which I then remove by re-saving as a draft until I've added my post text. (But maybe you can send them as a draft and I just haven't figured that out yet??)

Well, blog pals, that's it for me. My dad will be here in four hours to drive us to the ship. I'm not done packing. And I need to get to the eye doctor to pick up new glasses (that I might actually wear in public - that's a new thing for me). So I'm off on vacation. I'll miss you guys!!

Vacation planning

So, we're coming into the home stretch before the cruise and it's time to start thinking about packing. Foremost in my mind is this . . . just how many knitting projects should I bring? I probably won't have the shawl finished by Friday . . . although I've been making some good progress considering I've been too busy to knit much lately. (The bottom picture is supposed to show you the details - like the ribbed rows and the color subtleties - but they didn't really come out anyway.)

So I'll need to bring that, along with the straight needles I'll need when I knit the ties.

I think I'll also bring the yarn and needles for Tempting. But I've never knit in the round before . . . so do I need to photocopy instructions to stick in my knitting bag in case I get stuck? (Hey, at least I'm resisting the temptation - no pun intended- to bring the whole knitting book!!)

On Friday I went out at lunch-time and bought this yarn to make a baby raglan for Heidi's baby.

So I'll probably bring this - I might even be able to get the whole think knit on the cruise. Yes, I did resist the temptation to buy pink . . . just in case my hunch is off. However, Heidi's thinking it's a girl too, because this pregnancy has been so different than when she was pregnant with the Z-man.

I should also have some Knit Picks yarn coming tomorrow or Wednesday. I ordered some sock yarn so I can give sock knitting a try. Maybe I'll bring that. Oh yeah, and I ordered some yarn to make a hat for Sweetpea . . . but I'm not sure I have the right size needles and I probably won't have time to go buy some before we leave. But if I do . . . maybe I should bring that!

Okay, maybe I'm going a bit over-board. (Pun definitely intended there!!!) Please give me some opinions and help me decide how many projects (and which ones) to bring. I'm starting to run out of room for my clothes!

****Airy Scarf!!! I forgot about Airy Scarf!! That's one more to add to the list.