Gimme Shelter!

said knittergran, and here it is! Older daughter called me from Hill Country Weavers a week or so ago and said, "I'm standing in front of Shelter. Would you like some?" Well, yes, please! And here it is - it arrived in today's mail. Color: wool socks. I love it and it's going to be the Juneberry Triangle by Brooklyn Tweed.

BUT, it arrived just as I had finally conquered the Summit Shawl instructions. Yay! I ripped out what I had done over the weekend and started over. Success!


Now I'm sure that the Shelter yarn and the Tess Designer Yarns Raw Silk will have to battle for my attention. But this should be easy, juggling these two projects, since the Summit Shawl is said by some knitters on Ravelry to be boring, and the Juneberry Triangle has five different charts and looks pretty intimidating to me. So I can switch back and forth, as the spirit moves me, of course.

The Squirt Bottle Has Many Uses

and Tom Hanks shows us how to use it:




It seems to work better on his daughter than mine does with Baxter.

Blind Faith in Knitting Instructions

I'm not too sure I have enough of it.

I'm aiming for this: and so far, I have this:

Every time that the directions say drop next st and allow to unravel back to CO, I panic just a little. Once I have panicked 20 or so times, I'm on to the next sections, where the directions say things like: BO 3 sts purlwise (1 st on right needle), drop next stitch down to yo; place st just worked on crochet hook (What!!!! Crochet???) and chain 2, then return ch st to right needle; p next st on left needle then pass ch st on right needle over st just purled; drop next st and allow to unravel back to yo (panic, panic) AND the directions say that This project is ideal for using (or learning) the technique of knitting back backwards. HUH???

I have no idea if I am on the right track or not, but the stitch count keeps coming out right, so maybe I am. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Fingers crossed, but not while knitting.

What I Am Not Good At

1. All the other things

2. Painting rooms

I am actually OK at painting walls, but my painting walls necessitates painting ceilings and woodwork. Not because the ceilings and woodwork needed painting, but because no matter how hard I try, I get wall paint on them.

Rats.

BAXTER!!!!!

I'm painting the kitchen.

Baxter is NOT helping!!!

Not that it is going all that well anyway. I'm painting the kitchen portion of the kitchen a chocolate brown, which has to go over the yellow that is currently there. Then I mistakenly painted over a section of yellow that is supposed to remain yellow; then I had to re-paint the yellow over the chocolate brown that is going over the yellow.

Hello, Delta?

Key Scenes Seen in the Keys

(Sorry)

(Not really)

The Florida Keys were not what I had expected: miles and miles of almost-identical hotels, condos and resorts. I had not realized that there simply isn't enough land most of the way down Highway 1 to build much of anything on. So there are instead miles and miles of mangroves, walking and biking trails, and small beaches:

There were things I did expect however.

Beautiful houses:

Colorful houses:

All in a row:

Manatees:

Dolphins:

A four-point Key Deer, an endangered species with land set aside for its safety and survival. This deer wasn't even as tall as my shoulders.

Flocks of ibis, lots of pelicans, but almost no shorebirds or gulls. Apparently even they go farther south for the winter, although for us humans, the Keys were lovely.

Some tackiness....no, maybe it should be called vintage:

Roosters and chickens run loose in Key West, and everyone just seems to know to look out for them:

This rooster was chasing a female who had found a flattened lizard and who clearly did not want to share.

Signs I liked:

And how clever of Margaret to have opened a launderette, just a couple of blocks away from her Dad's winter White House:

Her Dad:

Pink taxis:

Beautiful boats:

Beautiful flowers---in FEBRUARY!

Sculpture for sink legs:

Mile zero marker for Highway One:

And the southernmost point in the US. (I could see Cuba! From my car!)

All in all, a lovely trip. Warm, soft salt air. Fish twice a day. Margaritas and pina coladas. (who's counting?) Sunshine every day but one.

Sigh............................................

Paradise Lost

Well, not really lost---just lost to me. I'm home. And I just discovered that my dryer doesn't heat up. And there is a full load of wet laundry in it.

Back-to-Reality sucks today.

Hello, Delta???

At the End of Another Perfect Day in Paradise

It Is A Dark and Stormy Night

But here in the Florida Keys, there is no snow, it is warm, and judging from my curly hair, it is humid. I may stay a long, long time...unless I run out of yarn.

Fetching WITH Thumbs!

Arrrrrgggggghhhhh.....

But for two yards of yarn, I would have had a pair of Fetching fingerless mitts. Instead I have a pair of fingerless mitts minus the thumbs. The purple yarn holds the live stitches I need to pick up to knit the thumbs with.

Off to the LYS for more Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran.

If I had to go to the grocery store for something I had run out of, I would be saying RATS! or something similar.

But off to the LYS?? YAY!

Socks! Socks! and More Socks!

We sock-knitters are so lucky!