Let Me Tell You About My Knitting Vacation

I wish.

Monday.

After vacation.

At a job I still don't love yet.

When it rained and it poured on and off all day.

And no one else came to stitch and bitch tonight.

So, not the best day ever. Not actively terrible, but not great.

So, let's look at knitting on vacation, shall we?

Knitting at an awesome diner (with all of six booths and a counter, plus a sign on the register inviting me to like them on Facebook) on the way there, a week ago Saturday:


Knitting on the rocks on Sunday. (I have trouble with using the word "beach" when there isn't sand. It's a personal hangup. Say shore or water's edge or rocks ... but not beach. Beaches have sand.)

Knitting by Jordan Pond, in Acadia National Park, on Monday:
(I sat and knitted while my friends circumnavigated the pond. Another day, they climbed a large hill, while I relaxed, knitting, by the car. Postscript to that is below.)

That was sock two, and the pair was done by Monday night.

Next up! This much was done before I got there.

On Wednesday, I tried them on, on the beach (Sand Beach, in Acadia, to be precise).

(When we walked back to the car after the beach, we passed a woman who asked how the knitting was going, I was knitting earlier, wasn't I? Yup, it's going fine! Big, crowded park, but small world.)(Or else knitting is a really weird thing to do in public ... but I'll keep doing it.)

No pictures of me knitting on Thursday at the winery while my friends tasted ... but if you're going to bring a non-drinker to a winery, on a rainy day when sitting outside or looking at the garden is not an option, bringing a knitter is probably your best bet.

And driving home Friday, it was all-but-done (I kitchnered the toe on Saturday).

That was sock one, and I cast on sock two tonight.

I also worked on the striped scarf one night, but I haven't taken its picture again. I'll show you when I do. The colors blurred similar again, but seem to be going different once more. Very interesting!

At least, if you find that sort of thing interesting. And I do!

Florida Stories

When I was here last fall, it was just before season. No, not tourist season: orange season. And in orange season, this is part of breakfast:


Every day you're willing to crank up the juicer, as long as you've been to the grove. There is just nothing quite like taking the oranges, squeezing them, and drinking the juice within five minutes. If you've never had it fresh, you've never had real orange juice.

All that and it's good for you! Hard to beat that. I juiced six oranges this morning (while Mum was out), and I could have drunk more. Mmmm.

So here I am, on my second bonus day. Tomorrow, I fly home and start digging out again. I haven't forgotten what it's like. I left this, beautiful but cold and messy:


Took off last Friday as that storm blew out of town:


Which gave me some interesting cloud and snow-on-the-ground perspectives:





We flew through the afternoon, until the sunset was glowing across the sky:



And here I was. Warm (if not for here, for where I came from). With my mother.

With these! I've never seen the like.


Golden raspberries! I didn't know such a thing existed. They were delicious.


And endlessly amusing, for some reason. Like raspberries! Only not red!


I took this picture for the interesting tree, but now I see the greenness of the grass, too. You know, they take it for granted down here that the ground isn't white.


I am not complaining when I say that the weather hasn't been perfect. I'm okay with it. It doesn't have to be shorts weather to be better than home is. And I find the clouds and light patterns interesting.


Though more of this sky would be nice, too:


Anyway, we make our own fun. We spent about a whole day bargain shopping, plus stores here and there, and I have a nice new jacket ($20), a skirt ($6), eight new t-shirts (some to leave here for next time; $4 each):


And five new pair of jeans/khakis (for a combined total under $60):


Some stores have reminded me that I'm not at home, in case the lack of boots and coat wasn't enough of a hint. My local Walgreen's doesn't have one of these:


Though according to my mother, you really want to use fresh chum, not frozen.


I really liked this pelican painting:


And the zebra (she paints all sorts of animals on palm fronds, they're quite good).


In 3-D art, we found a recent addition of a manatee sculpture (which made me think of you!):



We've only made it down to the beach once, as it's been cooler and windier weather most days. It wasn't typical perfect beach weather, but it was still lovely:


And we picked up a ton of shells.


I threw these two back, as I suspected they were still occupied, but they had their kodak moment first.


It was a strong shell-and-beach-stuff tide coming in.


I also suspected this guy was still in the land of the living, so back in the water he went. I hope he made it. I've never seen a starfish on the beach before!


This one was still hinged, and probably a broken part of something, but I don't know what kind of shell it is, other than a pretty one.


Shells often have little holes in them, not so often large ones. Do you see the heart?


Another day, we stopped in at the farmers market, and marveled at the beauty of it all.


It turns out that my flight got in close to on time yesterday, but I don't regret changing my plans. The uncertainty as to how it would go, plus the bonus days here with Mum, for no extra fare, is well worth it. I feel better fortified to deal with what awaits me at home, though I don't expect it will take long before I'm bitching about it again.

Hey, it's my blog; where better to whine? And today, at least, is whine-free. When Mum gets back from bridge, we'll go out to lunch, and then we're getting pedicures--my first! And after that, who knows? For now, the sun is shining, and the lanai calls to me. It's not warm, exactly (maybe 65), but the sun, the sun ... I feel like a reverse vampire. Must go to sun!

Very Merry

It's a quiet Christmas afternoon here, and I was not at all surprised to look at my family earlier and see all of them reading. It happens every time.

I'm having a wonderful time. It's so relaxing! I felt very fortunate to have no real delays getting here, and it's been great at every point since. Here are some travel photos, and there's knitting at the end.

The toe of the second sock bids farewell to snow.


We passed over interesting landscapes:


Until we reached "that's more like it":


Of course, you could still tell who had just arrived, and who was already there:


(Yes, I wore my boots on the plane, and I was glad I did: it was freezing! They look pretty silly in the closet here, though, as I run around barefoot in shorts and sleeveless shirts. Not that I'm complaining.)

When we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts, I had to pull out my camera for this:


Would you try a "Black Rasbery" donut?

The beach yesterday:


And the beach today. Some clouds blew through, but have since passed. It's about 80. Ahh. Merry Christmas.


We all agreed that being together was the present this year ... so we only had a reasonable amount of presents, instead of the usual, almost obscene amount.


You have to have decorations--and the wreath smells wonderful.


When we stopped at the farmers market yesterday, I enjoyed the tomato towers.


And I could drink fresh-squeezed OJ every day of my life.


My family continues to amuse me.


The turkey is in the oven, smelling wonderful. It's not actually the full bird, but an enormous breast. Wow, have we been eating well. Great food, plenty of sleep, surrounded by people who understand me (and vice versa) ... this is good. I needed this.

************

Now, knitting! Looky here, and read what I wrote months ago:


I'm writing this in September, but I won't post it until after Christmas, in order to preserve the surprise. After all, my brother has been known to read here, and if he does, his cat may do so as well. I'd hate to spoil Onramp's Christmas!

This was a fun little knitting project: it didn't take long, and it's pretty cute. The pattern is from Ravelry, and was quite easy to follow. While I was working on it, I didn't see the point of the body pattern, and thought that on the next one I would stick to plain and simple stockinette, but when it was done, I actually like the patterning, so well done designer!

My bobble ears don't match. I bet that happens to real mice too.


The tail is two stitches of i-cord.


Rear elevation.


Since I inadvertently grew lemon catnip this year in the garden and my cats turned out not to like the variant, I dried it and am using it here. Hope Onramp is more open-minded!

Back to today. I gave my brother 4 mice, enough that if his roommate's cat likes them, his cat will still get to play. I tested one back in October by giving it to my grandmother's cat, and the response was very positive. Yay!

I also made one of leftover sock yarn, for my mother (stuffed with stuffing, not catnip). Photo will have to come, but it's pretty cute.

Dad did not get a mouse. It didn't seem to suit him, somehow. Instead, I remembered how, as a child, I used to "help" him (poor man) put the lights on the Christmas tree, and of course there was a pattern on Ravelry.


It turned out larger than I was expecting, but still kind of cute.

I've also finished another small project recently, but as that hasn't been gifted yet, it's still in the show no photos stage. But this is probably enough for today. I need to get back in the sunshine.

Happy merry!