September and October have been very busy and will continue to be so right up until this weekend, when we will be hosting about 25 people for our family’s annual fall birthday get-together on Saturday, then helping our eldest son move out on Sunday (after that we will officially be empty-nesters!). Today feels like a bit of a catch-up day, working on some knitting this morning and updating Ravelry project pages and the blog this afternoon.
First things first, a secret project I alluded to way back at the beginning of September. A very kind Ravelry friend sent me some yummy sock yarn from her mother’s destash
so I thought it only fitting that I send my yarn fairy a gift in return.
River Grass socks made from some locally dyed yarn, purchased at one of my favourite LYS’s. I may have also sent along some Canadian chocolate because isn’t everything better with chocolate? Once again, Yarn Fairy, I want to say a huge thank you for your kindness and generosity.
Throughout September I worked on several other projects.
I made quite a lot of progress on my Strata Sphere but it still doesn’t look much like a sweater yet.
I finished up my last pair of socks from Chrissy Gardiner’s CSK, Memento Mori.
Unfortunately, this photo doesn’t do justice to the gorgeous yarn from Impulse of Delight. I salivate every time she updates her shop. I also cast on and completed Gordes, knit from Quince and Co.’s Tern.
This is the second pair I’ve made with this yarn and I really like it. I have plans to try out their sweater weights too. As if that weren’t enough I also cast on Cusp for the Cookie A. KAL and got as far as the gusset on the first sock.
I chose another new favourite yarn, Spud and Chloe Fine. Like the Tern, it is a wool and silk blend with a nice bounce. As if all of that weren’t enough, a few weeks before we left for holidays I decided that I really wanted a shrug to wear with my “little black dress”, one that would match the necklace I planned to wear with it. The result was the Lady Grey Lace Shrug in a deep red.
I finished it in plenty of time and It turned out exactly as I’d hoped but you’ll have to take my word for it when I tell you how elegant it looked since I neglected to get a picture.
We left for our trip on September 29th, a working holiday with my husband’s company that consisted of three days in Miami, followed by a weeklong cruise to the eastern Caribbean. Of course, the most important decision was what knitting I would pack for the plane. The Ennea Collective had released Clue 1 of a mystery shawl the week before and I had promptly jumped in—you know how I love a good KAL.
If Clue 2 was released in time I planned to work on that. If not, Plan B was to cast on for Andrew’s birthday sweater, Despite Lori’s valiant attempts on my and another knitter’s behalf, Plan B it was (in retrospect, it was probably a better choice anyway since all of the lace charts might have been a bit fiddly to manage). I worked on it all the way to Miami and by the time I arrived I had more than half a body. Then I put it away and didn’t knit a stitch for ten days.
Think about that for a minute. Ten whole days.
There simply wasn’t time. We were too busy participating in 70’s night and getting down with the World Class Rockers,
then enjoying the mellow sounds of Blue Rodeo the following night.
We golfed and did some sightseeing in Miami, then boarded The Allure, the world’s largest ship.
The ship was not only huge, it was also very beautiful with an aqua theatre and boardwalk area, complete with carousel, ice-cream parlour, and old-fashioned candy store,
a mini replica of Central Park,
a zip line,
a climbing wall,
and two flow riders,
in addition to numerous restaurants and shops and some amazing artwork.
Our first stop was Nassau, Bahamas
then it was on to St. Thomas, where we went on a sail ‘n’ snorkel on a pirate ship. We saw lots of turtles and tropical fish and got tattooed on our way back to port.
In St. Maarten, our final port-of-call, we attended a beach party hosted by my husband’s company. The beach was spectacular!
With that we said good-bye to the Caribbean and headed back to Ft. Lauderdale, sailing through some stormy seas on our way (I might have been a little queasy).
What a contrast!
A few days later we arrived home to find that October was already almost half over. Since then, real life has kicked in with a vengeance and our trip already seems like a distant memory—cliche, I know, but all too true. A post-vacation cold this past week allowed for plenty of knitting and I have several FO’s to show off but I’ll leave that for another post—this one is plenty long enough.
Note to self: Write shorter, more frequent posts so you don’t bore the poor blog readers to death.
