k.o.v.

No pictures from vacation yet. Mostly because I can't find the box with the disk to load the software. Hopefully soon. Bear with me as we struggle with the technical difficulties.

But I thought I would at least talk about Knitting On Vacation.

I managed to get quite a bit done, I was rather proud of myself. This was, of course helped by the fact that the ride was a long one and I wasn't driving. Hard to drive and purl at the same time.

My first project was a cute scarf with a glitzy yarn. Nothing fancy, just knit, knit, knit. No picture because a) see above, and b) it's a gift for someone who reads this so I don't want them to see it in advance.

Second project was a cute little purse with an i-cord handle out of the other skein of the same yarn. I really like this yarn so much, it's from Joanne's, called Radiance (their store brand). Good for cute little projects. When I set out on vacation although I invested serious time in planning for knitting projects I failed to consider all options and did not bring any dpns. So I had to make one with regular needles. For some reason this really bothered my hands. Instructions are: cast on 3/4/whatever. Knit. Transfer to other needle. Knit. Repeat. Bleah.

Third project started out as a fibonacci blue hat. It didn't last long for two reasons. One, duh! I was working with scraps of blue. Hard to plan for longer stretches with that. Two, I forgot part way in what I was doing. Three (okay I can't count), I made an error (I so forgot what I was doing -- I blame it on the vacation air) and doubled back on myself. Did I discover this error? Not until a good 5 or 6 rows later. Did I frog it? NO WAY! This is vacation man, no knit cursing allowed to despoil the idyllic environs. I simply made the same mistake in the opposite direction. Still working on this hat though because I got tired of it after a while.

Project number four was a hat (okay this was crochet but I was still fiberworking here) with white yarn and stripes of leftover purples, ranging from dark down to light. I realized after I did this that I probably should have made the stripes in the other direction but that's okay, it's done now. This is another hat for the Stitch Sisters 100 Hats for the Homeless Project. It will still function to keep somebody warm.

Lessons learned on vacation?

1) Pointing out every knitting/yarn/possible fiber shop to the driver does NOT endear you to them. Nor does it make them willing to stop and investigate if there really is a yarn shop 1/2 mile before where you currently are. Pity that GPS systems don't have a LYS button.

2) Never open the door to let the oven repair man in without putting away your knitting. Otherwise the dog will grab your project, playfully throw in in the air a few times, dropping half the stitches in the process, and then drag/unwind it while bringing it to you for praise and affection.

3) If you are packing at the crack of dawn and put your stitch markers in the way back of the mini-van, when you need one for project #4 a bobby pin will suffice since the aforesaid driver doesn't seem to want to stop the minivan and unpack the whole thing just to find your stitch markers. Neither does he want to stop at a passing yarn shop (see #1 above) to allow you to buy more.

All in all it was a good and relaxing vacation and I did get a lot of knitting in.