Friday, July 31, 2009

Back from Myrtle Beach

We are back from our family vacation in Myrtle Beach. It was a fun time, with walks along the beach, good food, and meeting family members I had never met and Mr. Batty hadn't seen in a very long time. I even got to knit on the beach, which I'd always meant to do. It's just as much fun as you think.

From our room, we had a perfect view of the Slingshot, which is essentially a loveseat-like thing suspended from cables between two 100+ foot high structures -- we were on the 7th floor of the hotel, and were by no means looking down at the thing.
People get on, and are then flung into the sky, about as high again as the structures supporting the cables... higher up than the 7th floor of our hotel! Oh, and to make it even more interesting, the seat spins you head-over-heels...
It was fun watching people get flung and hear the screams. You couldn't pay me to get on that thing!

Now, it's back to work and knitting. Torrents of rain are coming down outside, and it's supposed to get stormy later, which figures, as I have an appointment to get my hair done today. Oh, well.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Happy, Knitty 4th!

Happy 4th of July to all my American readers! I hope everyone is enjoying a couple of days off and spending some quality time with knitting, pets, family, or any other grouping or occupation you particularly enjoy.

Mr. Batty and I mostly stayed around the house, with the exception of a trip to the local game store, a trip to a restaurant, and a walk to the bakery. It's been very relaxing. Not much in the way of fascinating pictures, I'm afraid, but we both very much needed the quiet time.
We did not make it out to see the fireworks. We did watch the HBO miniseries about John Adams, though, and it just so happened that we'd gotten to the Independence episode on the 4th, so this worked out very nicely.

In other news, the recipients of my knits are away from the Internet, so I can now show you the socks I've been working on -- Marlene, by Cookie A. Fun socks. Not the best lighting (it's crazy bright out), but you can see the pattern.


The color is very slightly variegated, the stitch definition is wonderful, and I'm loving this project -- it's knitting up a bit more slowly than expected, but then again, I've been distracted.


Last Sunday, I started Abrazo from knitty. I've had my eye on it for a while, and it knit up incredibly quickly -- I almost finished it last Sunday, but then got distracted by work. I'm loving the outcome, the yarn is dreamy soft, it's black (yay, black!), and I did the cabling without a cable needle. New skill, how cool is that?


Details:
Pattern: Abrazo
Needles: US #10 and #11
Yarn: Malabrigo Chunky
Color: Black (it's a deep, rich black, but it still shows the cables, yay!)
Size: I knit the length for the small size and the number of stitches from the medium size to compensate for the thinner yarn -- Malabrigo is thinner than the actual yarn I subbed it for
Comments: Great quick vest. I need to block it to even out the crochet edgings around the neck and armholes. Note on doing single crochet: It's surprisingly difficult to get the knit stitches/crochet stitches ration quite right. I used a hook that corresponds to the smaller needle size, but still had to skip the occasional knit stitch to keep the edge from flaring.

Modeled shot coming up after I block this vest. I think I'm addicted... I can't stop knitting vests!

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Long Weekend

Happy almost-4th of July to all of my US readers, and Happy Canada Day to all you Canadians!
My holiday starts at 5 pm today. I get tomorrow off, so it's a 4 day weekend. Knitting, cooking, relaxing, and watching the rain. It'll be great.
It will also give me the time to finish the vest I'm knitting. Don't know what it is about them, but I can't stop knitting vests. I'm turning into a veritable vestomaniac.

BTW, the English word vest covers both the German concepts of Weste and Aermelloser Pulli. ; )