Time for a Mini Break

Greetings from the top of a mountain! We've escaped the city for a few days with my parents and my brother and his family (and his dog) in a rental house at a ski resort in the Laurel Highlands. Ruthie bounced back completely from her illness of last week and is boarding with the dog sitter while we're away. There will be other dogs for her to play with and a big yard for her to run around in. We're not going to have great weather (lots of rain is in the forecast), but frankly we brought so much food with us, we're going to need to just sit around and eat all day unless we want to schlep it home again!

We had a quiet 4th of July. I went for a short run in the morning, as I didn't get a chance to get out on Friday when I was at the vet with Ruthie, and then had a quiet afternoon of reading, knitting, and snuggling my puppy. We had my in-laws over for dinner as a thunderstorm moved through. Before I went to bed, I finished up the Baby Surprise Jacket. Once we get home, it will be blocked and two buttons will be sewn on.

I used a US 6/4.0 mm needle for this one, given that STR Mediumweight is more of a sport than fingering. After I sewed the shoulder seams, I did applied I-cord all around the neck, openings, and bottom edge and made a couple of loops on the front in lieu of buttonholes. According to the projects I've logged on Ravelry, this is the 11th BSJ I've knit! It continues to be a fun and engaging project, and I'm sure there will be more in the future.

Meanwhile, Tour de Fleece kicked off yesterday, and I've decided this is as good an excuse as any to get back into spinning. I brought a spindle project with me to work on while we're away, but yesterday I pulled out some precious fiber and split it up to go on the wheel when we get home.

This is some Southern Cross Fibre club from November 2015. I can't remember if I spun my shipment, but this one was acquired via a destash after David announced his retirement. This is a particularly luscious fiber blend: 50% South African superfine merino and 50% mulberry silk. I've split it for a two-ply fractal. I imagine it will want to be spun quite finely.

The plan for this week is to relax. I haven't slept well in the past several days because I've been worried about Ruthie and she's been barking early to wake me up, so I'm hoping I can sleep in a little (and not wake up completely at 4:30 a.m. for no apparent reason like I did the past two mornings). I've got knitting, spinning, a physical book, and my iPad and computer, plus we brought a jigsaw puzzle and my mahjongg set. And there is the aforementioned eating. I'm sure we'll all find plenty of ways to pass the time.

It's Sort of a Time Warp

Don't you love it when you're on such a relaxing vacation that you have trouble remembering what day it is? It doesn't happen often to me, but it does usually happen on this vacation -- yet another reason to look forward to it. I kept thinking that Christmas was falling on a Wednesday this year, so all week I've been a little mixed up. Luckily I haven't had anywhere to be at any particular time. We've been very lucky to have gotten consistently beautiful weather since we've arrived, around 80ºF and sunny, with low humidity and a light breeze. It's been great for exercising and sitting out by the pool -- though the pool heater was broken when we got here and didn't get repaired until Wednesday, so we didn't actually go in the pool until yesterday. I haven't minded one bit, as I've just been happy to be able to wear a single layer of clothing again and to need sunglasses!

I've spent most of my knitting time working on my cowl, which is now about 2/3 done:

I took some time to weave in ends after I'd finished the first repeat because there are an awful lot of ends, but I'm actually not minding it all that much. With so many short floats on the inside, it's actually pretty easy to hide those ends.

We had a quiet day yesterday, as you would expect. After a breakfast of waffles and fresh fruit, I went for an eight-mile walk while listening to an audiobook, and then I spent part of the afternoon floating in the pool and starting another book. We had a nice dinner and a relaxing evening. It was all very satisfactory.

This weekend we'll look forward to the arrival of my brother and his family, at which point the vacation will get slightly less relaxing because there will be two toddlers in the house. But I'm looking forward to spending more time with them and to seeing my aunt and uncle, who are going to drive over from the other side of the state for the day early next week.

I hope your holiday week has brought a much-needed pause and time for what matters -- being with those you love, whether they're family, friends, or both. I know it's been a rotten year for so many of us for a number of reasons, so I hope you're going out of your way to find joy wherever you can.

Dispatches from Vacation

Good morning! I am amazed that I remember what day it is after the weekend we had and how upset my normal schedule was. I was up at 3:30 on Saturday morning and we were out the door an hour later for our 6:45 a.m. flight, which amazingly (or perhaps not; I have a feeling the scheduled departure and arrival times are padded on purpose) got in a few minutes early. My parents were waiting at the airport and took us to brunch before we headed home to unpack. I went for a walk and showered before we went out to dinner, and I finally crashed at 9:30, having not taken a nap. I slept until a little after 7 yesterday morning. The day of travel was exhausting but went as well as it could have, and I feel 100% more relaxed.

Before we left town, I was working almost up to the last minute to get my niece's gift done so I could deliver all of them to my brother. I won't win any prizes for my embroidery, but I think they turned out pretty cute!

Pattern: Cat Stack by Claire Slade (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Fibernymph Dye Works Bona Fide (100% superwash merino) in Light Silver Green and a light brown (colorway name unknown), Fibernymph Dye Works Beguiled (75% superwash merino/20% nylon/5% stellina) in Love Notes, and Knit Picks Palette (100% wool) in black for embroidery
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm
Started/Completed: December 8/December 19
Mods: simplified the ears

These were a fun little knit, if a bit fiddly. They're worked using a series of short row wedges and finished by seaming the bound-off and cast-on edges and cinching the short ends (which become the top and bottom) tight. Though you can't see them here, they have tails at the back. Other than failing pretty miserably with the face embroidery, the only real modification I made was to simplify the ears. The pattern calls for knitting up two sides, seaming them, and putting a bit of stuffing inside. I was running out of time and patience, so these cats' ears are a single layer. They've all got a pouch with some poly pellets inside the stuffing, so they have a bean bag sort of feeling to them, and I hope that means my niece will enjoy playing with them.

I cast on a new project before we left so I'd have something to work on while we were on the plane. Surprise -- it's another hat!

When I found this skein in a bin in my stash, it had a Fibernymph Dye Works ballband on it but no label, so it took me a minute to remember what it was. This is Lisa's Nyan Cat colorway, and though I don't remember exactly when it was that I bought it, I know I did so because she had said she wasn't likely to be dyeing it again for a while. This is on her sparkly Bedazzled base. I'm making my pattern again, and this time I've ensured that both needles I'm using are the same size.

Speaking of hats, there's one I didn't finish before we left town, and in fact I ripped it out and started it over again yesterday. This is for my father-in-law, for whom I've knit several hats in the past that he seems to have misplaced, because every time I've seen him out recently in a hat, it's either been a baseball cap or some ugly synthetic store-bought thing that is fuzzy and has seen much better days. I decided to try my had at crochet, using this pattern (Ravelry link).

I originally followed the pattern, which has you work double crochets through the front loop only. But I thought the fabric was way too loose for my taste, and for a winter hat, you don't really want fabric with a lot of holes, so I ripped it out and started over, working the DCs through both loops as you normally would. What you see here was done in just a couple of hours yesterday, which gives you an idea of how fast crochet is!

We've got very little on the schedule for our trip, and that's just the way I like it. I have plenty of books to read, plenty of yarn with me to knit up, and a perfect forecast for running and walking. I'll admit I am missing Ruthie a lot, and she did have a rough first night with the dog sitter, but I've gotten videos of her running and playing with her new dog friends and I know she's in good hands. I'm resting and relaxing now so that when we're home, I can give her my patience and attention!

Just Being Here

Somehow without having work and chores and all the usual stuff to do, the days seem to go by more quickly here. I'm trying to focus on the present and the moment as much as possible because I know that we'll be heading home before I know it. The weather hasn't been great, but that's not what really matters: We're here with family, we're taking a break from the usual grind, and we're recharging our proverbial batteries. I'm focused on making the most of all of that.

Yesterday morning we went to the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, where we spent a couple of hours walking the 2.25-mile boardwalk and seeing what wildlife we could spot. I think we probably see more birds near the house (there are many more places for them to hide in the sanctuary), but we did see (and hear!) several hawks, though I didn't get any photos because they were too far away. We spotted an egret:

We saw a couple of anhingas (on the branch in this photo):

What's harder to see in this photo (click to make it larger) is there's an alligator below the bird! There was a sanctuary volunteer at the lookout point where we saw this who let us use his binoculars, which were powerful enough to be able to see the gator's teeth! Very freaky! The arrow I've crudely drawn in points to it -- it's that dark stripe.

Mo and I agreed, though, that our favorite animal in the sanctuary was this one:

This was one of the three babies with a mama raccoon who we saw scampering around. These were nothing like the fat urban raccoons you might be used to -- they were pretty small and could swim! I discovered that I apparently "speak" a little raccoon: I made a rolling R sound and this one looked right at me!

The knitting is continuing at a slow and steady pace. I've now got four inches of body on my sweater done, and I've joined the third skein of yarn. I'm also getting better at working the (k1 below, p1) rounds without having to constantly look at my work, which makes it easier to read while I'm knitting.

I've been working on this a ton and thinking that maybe I could get the body done before we go home, but this stitch pattern has such a dense row gauge that I'd say that's unlikely, especially if I want to do things other than knit. But I will make good progress on it, and now that I've picked it up again, I am highly motivated to finis, so it will be completed early in 2024.

Mo has started the raglan increases on her sweater and has required my assistance with only a few little hiccups. She seems motivated as well, and I'm hoping she can at least get through the yoke while we're on vacation because once we're home and school resumes, her focus on it is likely to wane. If she can at least get to the body, the knitting itself will be straightforward and easier to pick up.

I don't know whether or not I'll post on Monday; it's just a regular day for me, but I know that many of you will be offline celebrating the holiday with your loved ones. If you are celebrating, I wish you a very merry Christmas full of joy, good food, laughter, and contentment! At the very least, I'll be around next week for my last One Little Word check-in of 2023 and some end-of-year wrap-ups. Happy weekend!

And Relax!

Greetings from southwest Florida! It's a bit chilly for the location (currently 64ºF) but sunny, and I'll be headed out for a run soon to see how far I can go without having to deal with hills or much in the way of traffic.

We arrived, amazingly, on time on Saturday evening after a very bumpy flight down. There was so much turbulence that the flight attendants only managed to get up once to give out water and bags of snack mix because the captain kept telling them to sit down and buckle up. I am very thankful that Mo decided to try taking Dramamine on this trip (she often gets terrible headaches when we fly), and she actually ended up sleeping about half the flight and felt fine for the part that she was awake. Although I started a new pair of socks in the car on the way to the airport, I didn't end up knitting on the flight much of all, in part because of nerves and in part because I had a teenager leaning on my arm. But I got a bit more done on them yesterday, so I can share them with you:

This is the yarn I won from Lisa at Fibernymph Dye Works that she custom-dyed for me. I'd told her two colors I liked (blue and gold) and one color I didn't want in my skein (white/undyed), and this is what she came up with. I'm not in any rush to finish these socks, but I figured it would be good to have something easy and mindless for when we're out and about.

There were a couple of things I'd wanted to finish before we left, but I only managed one of them because I ended up getting a ton of work thrown my way on Friday (which isn't needed until we're back in January, so I'm not sure why there was such urgency). What was finished was all the mini skeins, which you saw plied but not yet all washed and tidied. I was able to throw the second half in to wash on Friday, and as they were dry Saturday morning, I measured them and twisted up all 24:

I am still showing the photo in black and white until all 24 days have passed, as I'd really hate to spoil anyone. My yarn looks to be overall in the neighborhood of sport weight, and I have approximately 700 yards total, which is really quite impressive. I'm thinking that these would make a great cozy shawl, so perhaps in the new year they'll get knit.

The project I didn't get a chance to finish (but which was wrapped up rather quickly yesterday morning) is the charity hat:

Though I did follow the pattern for the numbers, I ended up doing the brim completely differently the second time. The pattern has you work the brim using what is essentially single-color double-knitting: you slip every other stitch every round. It looks nice and creates fabric with a double thickness, but it doesn't stretch. At all. So for the second attempt, I did a provisional cast-on, knit until I had four inches of fabric, folded it up on the inside, and created a hem by undoing the provisional cast-on one stitch at a time and knitting it together with a stitch on the needle. The brim was technically supposed to be four inches, but as that meant I would have had to knit eight inches, I decided to make it half the length. I used up some mini skeins and some leftovers, about 450 yards total, holding the yarn double. This is going into the charity pile.

Although I still have to knit a gnome (and I may very well wait until the full pattern is out to start), my main focus for my vacation knitting is finishing up languishing WIPs. Specifically, I want to make a lot of progress on my Birch pullover, which I had not touched since Mo and I were in Florida for spring break. But I weighed and wound off yarn for the sleeves before we left so that I can blend the skeins on the entire sweater, and I have picked up the body again.

If you click to enlarge the photo, you'll see my mermaid progress keeper (though she's upside-down here) marking where I was when I started knitting again last night. I think I managed about an inch while we were watching "The Sound of Music" on TV -- which is really more knitting than you'd think because this sweater is knit in fisherman's rib, which is quite condensed vertically. Now that I've sorted the yarn issue, I'm hoping I can just cruise along on this; I really just have to knit the body until it's long enough minus the ribbing at this point, so there's nothing to pay attention to other than the stitch pattern. Apologies in advance, but you're going to be seeing a lot of this sweater over the next two weeks!

I hope your week is off to a good start and that it's a short week for those of you who are working. I will try my best to take some photos to try to share the sunshine and the warmth for those of you in the cold!

How I Spent My Summer Stay-cation

Isn't it always the case that time goes by faster than normal when you're on vacation? I feel like this week has flown by, but it's been a really good one with a lot of quality time with my kiddo. It hasn't been a complete vacation because I still had to do things like cook meals and stay on top of the laundry, but I haven't checked my work email since last Friday afternoon and have been focused on prioritizing pleasure over obligation. So here's a snapshot of what I've done this past week.

I've finished reading four books.

I knit a baby sweater (still unblocked):

Entrechat by Lisa Chemery

Rainbow and I did some sewing (to be finished this weekend):

Pepin Tote from Noodlehead Sewing Patterns

and some baking (not shown are zucchini bread and homemade pizza dough from earlier in the week:

Fresh raisin challah

All that and I still have two more days off! Be sure to check back on Monday for a long-awaited FO post. Happy weekend!

Encounters with Wildlife

If I were not on vacation, I'd be sitting at my desk at work right now, counting the minutes until 5 p.m. Instead, I am very thankful to be sitting outside with a view of palm trees and blue sky. I'm soaking up every bit of warmth and sun I can get!

Today is what I'm viewing as our penultimate day of vacation (we fly home early Saturday afternoon, but my father is a bit neurotic about leaving early, so that means we'll likely be leaving for the airport right after breakfast). We've been taking this vacation for a number of years, but as Rainbow has been fairly young for most of those years, our activities have mainly been limited to relaxing by the pool, going to the beach, going out to eat, and shopping. Today, however, we decided to do something completely different. We drove about 30 miles away to a marina and took a boat tour to see manatees, among other exotic wildlife.

It's very hard to see, but that lighter brownish blob just to the right of the pylons? That's a manatee! It was one of several we saw, including a mama manatee and her baby. This one was enjoying all the yellow leaves from the mangrove trees that had fallen on the surface of the water. The water in this spot was shallow enough that we could see it pretty clearly and watch it "crawl" along the bottom with its flippers.

We also saw quite a few alligators along the sides of the waterway, though we didn't get so close.

This guy seemed to be enjoying the sunshine.

We don't have to travel far to see some other wildlife, though. I've been running or taking long walks (like 6+ miles!) almost every day, and in addition to seeing lots of birds like herons and egrets and ducks on or near the water features in the development and tons of little lizards sunning themselves on the sidewalks, I also spotted this guy as I was nearly back to the house the other day:

I was a bit worried he was going to get himself run over, but as you can see he was a bit scared by my being so close to him, so I didn't want to traumatize him more by lifting him up and carrying him the rest of the way to the grass. I decided he was close enough, and I didn't see any remnants of a squashed turtle the next day, so he must have been fine.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a break from the wild animals and go read a trashy book outside. Happy Thursday!

I've Been Waiting All Year

Ah, vacation. I take time off so infrequently that I think I appreciate it all the more. We've now been in Florida for almost a week (we arrived last Friday evening), and as usual it has flown by. But I've been completely enjoying it. I've been staying up late -- for me, anyway -- mostly reading and sleeping in. I've gone for long walks outside and a couple of runs, one outside and one on the treadmill because it was pouring. I've enjoyed leisurely cups of coffee and good dinners. And I've been knitting!

I started a new sock design sample just before we left but also brought another skein of sock yarn for movie knitting, because we always go to the movies on Christmas Day. Appropriately, the yarn I chose was Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce in the colorway 12 Days of Christmas, though I don't think the colors are particularly Christmas-y. This is a 12-stripe repeat, with each stripe's color representing the item(s) mentioned for that day in the song. I cast on Christmas Eve and knit up the ribbed cuff so I'd be all ready to go the next day and then knit nearly 4 inches of leg in the movie.

I'm really enjoying the colors! The movie we saw, by the way, was the new adaptation of Little Women. I really loved it, but Rainbow had some trouble following it because she wasn't familiar with the plot beforehand. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to tell you that this version departs from the story a bit in that it jumps back and forth in time, so unless you know the general order in which major events happen, you are likely to be a bit confused. The acting is, on the whole, quite wonderful, though I find Timothee Chalamet a little young to be playing Laurie, at least in the later part of the story. Still, if you're a fan of Little Women in general, I highly recommend it -- and I probably don't need to tell you to bring the tissues.

The other knitting I've been doing is secret knitting for Rainbow for her final Chanukah present, and that means I've only been able to work on it after she goes to bed -- which, when we're on vacation, is much later than normal. That means that it's taken me longer than it normally would, but as long as it's finished before Sunday, I'll be okay. I'm knitting the Neon hat using a one-of-a-kind skein of FDW Cozy (worsted weight), and I'm ready to start the crown decreases tonight. In fact, provided I can stay awake long enough, I might even finish it this evening.

My reading has been quite good this past week. First I finished reading The Starless Sea, which I'd been anxiously awaiting from the library. I absolutely loved Erin Morgenstern's first novel, The Night Circus, and was a bit worried that her follow-up wouldn't live up to my expectations -- but it did! I will add the caveat that you need to read it knowing that there won't be an answer to everything and a lot of it won't make sense (or won't make sense right away), but it was so beautifully written that I can't even fault its very minor shortcomings. It was definitely a 5-star review from me, and if you want to hear more, you can read my review here.

As soon as I finished that, I moved on to Alice Hoffman's The World That We Knew, which I know many of you have already read and recommended. I'm a little more than a third of the way through it, am enjoying it immensely, and hope to finish it up in the next couple of days.

I hope if you celebrated Christmas yesterday that you had a wonderful holiday, and whatever's on tap for the rest of the week, I hope it's bringing you joy! I'm signing off to try to finish a hat.

Adventures in Yarn Shopping

Our vacation is starting to wind down (we leave on Saturday), and after a very active first few days, we had a relatively quiet day today. We all slept in and then took a trip to the Cape Cod Potato Chip factory. It's a quick self-guided tour, but it was something we'd never done before. We had lunch at "home" (the rental condo) and relaxed a bit, and then this afternoon I convinced the Mister to take me and Rainbow to the nearest LYS, Adventures in Knitting, which I'd spotted the very first day we arrived when we went to the local supermarket to stock up on food for the week. Don't let the fairly mediocre Web site fool you -- it's a great shop!

There was a wide variety of yarn to be found -- Berroco, Plymouth, HiKoo, the Fibre Company, Swan's Island, Madelinetosh, and other more mainstream yarn companies in addition to some more rustic yarns spun from sheep from farms in Brewster, Mass., and Nantucket.

They also had a large selection of buttons, needles from Addi and Knitter's Pride, and a sizeable wall of tools and notions. I petted and squished many skeins but was determined to buy something local that I couldn't get at home or online. This fit the bill perfectly:

This skein of 90% superwash merino/10% nylon is from the Cape Cod Yarn Co. and is exclusive to this shop. The colorway is called Seaweed, and it's a generous 480 yards -- plenty for a decently sized shawl or a pair of socks. I also bought a little something for Rainbow:

We found these teeny skeins of My First Regia in the back, with the sale yarns (they're marked $4, but they were actually $3 each). Each skein is 25 g and about 115 yards, so that should be plenty to make Rainbow a pair of socks -- something she's been asking me to make her for a while. I think when we get home, I'll make a template of her foot and make her a pair of toe-up Fish Lips Kiss Heel socks. They'll probably only fit her for a month or two, but at least they should be fun to knit!

I'm moving right along on my projects. I now have one sock done and am well on my way on the leg of sock number two, and I'm more than halfway through the sleeve increases on my tee. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be not so great, so perhaps it will be a good excuse to get in a bit of extra knitting time. If not, we have the long drive back to Boston to catch our flight home on Saturday, plus the flight, plus the drive home from the airport. I'm determined to meet my Stash Dash goal, even if I have to spend every last minute knitting!

The Packing Dilemma

When this posts, I will officially be on vacation and won't have to be back at work until January 4. I will relax once we get to our final destination (and that won't be until after we get up extremely early tomorrow to leave for the airport), but for now there's the usual worry that I will forget to pack something. Now in the case of most things, like clothes or toiletry items, that's not a big deal -- there are lots of stores in Florida, after all. What there are not a lot of are yarn stores, however. I did find one about 10 miles away from where we're staying, but it does not look promising (I have a feeling I'd be likely to find a lot of cotton and novelty yarn), so that means any yarn I want to have available to me has to be packed in my suitcase.

Packing knitting and yarn for a vacation is always a challenge. There's a delicate balance that you want to achieve: You want to have enough so that you have options and you don't run out before the end of the trip, but you don't want to pack too much so that you end up just taking the yarn on a long trip. I know a skein of yarn doesn't take that much space, but we're going to be away for two weeks, so I'm taking more than a skein. Here's what I've allocated:

What you see here is three skeins of Cascade 220 for Rainbow's Romane and Roman, a skein of Fibernymph Dye Works Bounce for socks to be named later, two skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash for a double-knit cowl for Rainbow, a skein of handspun for socks, and ball of kitchen cotton should I feel the need to knit some dishcloths (which could be left at the house and thus free up a bit of space in the suitcase for the return trip). What you do not see here are the two WIPs, my handspun socks and the colorwork cowl. So that's enough yarn for at least seven projects. Realistically, I'd say it's unlikely I'll finish all of them -- so why do I still feel nervous about running out of yarn?

I didn't finish my last skein of handspun, but I at least got the singles done, so I'll be all ready to ply when we get back.

I'm off to finish up the packing and then to get to bed early (so that 4-something wake-up call doesn't seem quite so horrible). Have a good rest of the week and I'll "see" you again from Florida!

All Good Things Must Come to an End

After two warm, relaxing, blissful weeks, we are packing up and headed home. As much as I would have loved to stay another couple of days, it will take me those two days to get the house and my head back in order to get back to the normal schedule on Monday.

As far as knitting goes, it was a very productive two weeks. Here's what it looks like all packed up and ready to go in the suitcase:

I finished two hats and two cowls and made a good start on my Color Affection. The only yarn that I didn't use was the spare sock yarn, but I knew that it was probably not going to be touched -- still, it's never a bad idea to have some emergency sock yarn on hand.

My Electric Avenue socks are now about 75% complete; I turned the heel on the second sock last night and started the gusset this morning.

These will be coming in my carry-on, so I'll work on them while we wait for our flight and perhaps on the plane. I hope to have a finished pair in the next week to share with you!

We're Back!

It was a long day, but we made it. We left Hilton Head at 6 am and got back to the Pittsburgh area at about 6 pm. J and I went out for dinner on the way home, unpacked, and now we're ready to relax. It was a bit of a pain to do the trip in one day (my poor knees are still aching from not being able to stretch my legs in the back seat), but we're both glad to be back and still have a day of the weekend to catch up and run our errands before I have to go back to work and J has to go back to Virginia on Monday.

But you don't really care about that stuff, do you? I know, I know, you just want to know what the magic number of socks is after the whole trip, don't you? I won't keep you in suspense any longer -- here we are:


Left to right, we have the first Hedera I finished on the trip down; J's ankle socks; the mini Monkey socks for my Sockapalooza pal; the Autumn House Farm socks (you saw the first one yesterday; the second was finished in the car today); and finally a completed leg of the second Hedera, which is, unfortunately, all I was able to do today on account of not feeling well in the car.

The final count? According to the rules I originally laid out, that's a grand total of seven and one-third socks completed.

And we have a winner! Amanda correctly predicted that I would knit 7.33 socks over the course of vacation, apparently using a very advanced scientific technique. She will be receiving the skein of Colinette Jitterbug along with a souvenir I picked up on HHI, a measuring tape from the famous Salty Dog Cafe.

Tomorrow, the spoils of my trip to the Knit One sale, a full FO report on the socks I finished this morning, and more contest winners!

The Sixth Sock

Ladies and gents, we have a completed sock:

Finished last night during happy hour, its mate was started right away and is currently several inches into the foot. I fully expect to finish it tomorrow during our looooong day of driving home.

My favorite part about this sock, other than the colors? The Eye of Partridge heel. Look at how fetching it is:

An unfortunate incident occurred while knitting the leg of the second sock of this pair. I'd noticed that the tip of my left index finger had been getting dried out, what with all the handling of wool this past week, and in combination with directing the sharp points of my Knit Picks circs, I suffered a knitting-related injury -- a hole in my finger. The skin literally split open, much like a deep paper cut. You can all thank my poor abilities as a photographer for the fact that there isn't a picture of said injury posted here, because for the life of me I couldn't get the finger to get in focus. You'll be happy to hear, however, that I've quickly adjusted to having a bandaid on the finger and am now knitting as fast as ever.

Today being our last day in Hilton Head, I persuaded the group to let me stop at a yarn store in between stops this afternoon. I'd found two stores in my web searches, although one was a needlepoint store that also sold some yarn. We went to the other, a little place called the Courtyard that is also a used book store. J and I ducked in very briefly, and it did not take long to make some selections. There wasn't much in the way of yarn to choose from -- some Rowan, some Louisa Harding, some Plymouth, and only about two sparsely populated shelves of sock yarn -- but then I wouldn't have expected mass quantities of wool in a climate such as this. I, of course, went only for the sock yarn and was happy to add some that hasn't made it into my stash yet.

If you are a reader of Brooklyn Tweed, then you're probably familiar with his yarn portraits. I'm no photographer, by any stretch of the imagination, but I call this one "Yarn on Vacation":

Here's a close-up of what I picked up -- two skeins of Regia Bamboo in a blue/gray colorway and two skeins of Tofutsies (no, I haven't tried it yet, and I know I'm probably the last to the party), one in berry shades of pinks and magentas and one in a colorway very much likethat of the socks I'm currently knitting. And you know what? One of these skeins of Tofutsies could be yours! I'm offering up one of them as a prize for one of the participants in the contest, to be determined by random selection. And I'm still planning on going to the big sale at my LYS on Sunday, where I may pick up a few more fibery prizes.

As we are heading out bright and early (at 6 am!) tomorrow, this will be my last post from Hilton Head. Depending on what time we get home and how exhausted we are, I will post the final number of completed socks either tomorrow night or on Sunday. Either way, I'll be sure to lay them all out and take a picture once we get home so that you can be assured I haven't snuck in any extra knitting time; J will vouch for the final count's accuracy and honesty.

The big yarn sale starts at 7 am on Sunday. What time do you think I should get there? Do you think there will actually be people there at 7?

Now Entering the Black Hole

I know there has been some discussion that I've been cheating as far as the contest goes by knitting ankle socks. While I certainly hope that your comments have been at least partly in jest, you'll be happy to know that my sock knitting has slowed down considerably because of this:

Yes, it's a plain old stockinette sock, but it's full length (7" leg) and, probably in large part due to the yarn I'm using, it's taking forever. This is Autumn House Farm Herdwick Fine sock yarn that I purchased back in February at the Pittsburgh knitting festival. It's indeed a very fine yarn, such that my row gauge has gone from the usual 10 rows per inch to a whopping 13 rows per inch. I guess that would explain why I seem to be knitting for hours and not getting anywhere.

This sock was started the night before last, though I only got in about half an inch of ribbing while wasting some time in a Barnes & Noble between dinner and going to see a movie. Then yesterday I knit on them a bit in the morning, while the guys and I drove to get lunch at the Salty Dog Cafe, most of the afternoon while some sunbathed and some napped, and then most of the evening while watching the last hockey game of the season. And yet still I seem to have made little progress.

The good news is that I have a big honkin' skein of yarn from which to knit:

Perhaps I should have included something else for scale here, but trust me when I tell you this is one large skein. What I've used has only just started to make a dent, so I think there will be plenty for a pair of socks for me and probably even another pair of socks for Aidan (this colorway is very boy-friendly, right?).

The more astute among you might have noticed that for this sock I'm using a technique that's new to me -- magic loop. It's working well, although I'm still not convinced that I like it any better than two circs. I certainly don't think it's any faster, as there's still rearranging of the needle to be done when switching from one half of the stitches to the other half, but it's good to know that I can maximize my usage of the needles I have.

For those of you have been wondering how it is that I've accomplished so much knitting, I think a little clarification of my vacation activities is in order. For one thing, this was not meant to be an adventurous vacation. Yes, we've gone for walks and done a little sightseeing, but the main object of this vacation was to just relax and be away from work. Most everyone else is sitting and reading or sitting in the sun. I've already mentioned that I did bring a couple books with me, but I wasn't really planning on reading much since I read for a living (and reading would kind of defeat the purpose of getting away from work, wouldn't it?). I've mostly been sitting inside and not tanning with the others because, for one thing, the medications I've been using make me much more susceptible to a sunburn and, perhaps more significantly, I'm wearing a strapless wedding gown in a little less than three months and I don't want any funky tan lines.

So while everyone else is reading or tanning, I've been sitting inside by the window or in the shade outside knitting. While I'm not actually reading, I have been listening to back episodes of Craftlit -- specifically to the episodes with readings of Pride and Prejudice, my favorite book. I'm normally not one to listen to audio books since, for me, the pleasure of reading largely comes from the experience of holding the book and turning the pages, but I've enjoyed listening to a book I know so well and can visualize so easily.

There's been a final development related to our trip that might come as a happy surprise to some of you. We'd originally intended to drive home over two days, just as we drove down over two, but it now seems that we're going to try to make it in one day on Saturday. That means I'll be home on Sunday and will be able to make it to the big sale at my LYS that I thought I was going to miss. And you know what that means, right? MORE PRIZES FOR THE CONTEST! I'll still award the Jitterbug to the person who correctly guesses the total number of completed socks (if there indeed is anyone), but I'll pick up some other fibery surprises and do some random drawings to include all of you who participated. Sound good? Anyone care to say I'm cheating now? ;-)