Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Contest Clues (or, what I did on my vacation, part 1)

We got off to a late start on Saturday. We planned on leaving at 8 (ish), but I wasn't that upset when we weren't ready until 9. Then a problem with the DVD player and lots of people getting back out to go potty caused further delays. A couple stores later, we got out of town around 10, and drove and drove and drove until we finally stopped south of Macon, Georgia, on Saturday night.

There was, of course, lots of knitting. I brought the Pi shawl, and realized that it helps a lot with the pattern if you read the instructions where it says work rows 1-10 of the previous section, and spent nearly an hour ripping back 6 rows of lace and getting it safely back onto needles. I apparently felt no need to take pictures of this while trying desperately to keep merino laceweight from running away from me.

(In case you're wondering, re-knitting doesn't count toward the yardage in the contest. This will come into play again later as well.) Then I started over and a long while later I got it back where it was when we left and a couple rows further before putting it away. (For the record, these are rows in the 288 stitch section)

Then I decided lace might not be the ideal thing to knit in the car and I'd better at least get some other things going. The gorgeous purple jitterbug was wound and cast on for a plain jane ribbed sock. This yarn is so wonderful and the colorway so perfect that I loved every stitch of it.
I was a good girl and also wound and cast on for the custom order jeans sheepy pants I've got to get done. They are size large and the yarn is Peace Fleece Galooboy Blue. I saved these babies for after dark knitting, for which they were perfect. I have now made so many sheepy pants that I can even work short rows in the dark, a feat of which I am quite proud. I got to the gusset before having to stop, because I don't think it's possible to kitchener in the dark.

We stopped for the night at the Worst Motel Ever, ironically called the Deluxe Inn.

It seemed ok when we first came in. Cheap, nothing spectacular, but that's what we wanted since we were coming in to sleep, shower, drink coffee, and leave.

The problem came when we were all asleep and the train came that was surely going to plow right through our room and scared the shit out of Sean, and continued to do so a dozen more times. I looked at my watch to see how often it was and it was 20 minutes between once and 40 minutes later the next time. I'm sure I somehow slept through it a few times after becoming delerious.

The only plus is that Sean seems to have become desensitized from his fear of loud train noises. By morning when the train came he started to be scared and then realized, hey, it's just that stupid train, and went back about his business.

The best part of all was when I got up to take a shower in the morning and found someone else's wet towel crumpled up behind the door in the bathroom.

So we packed up and got the hell out of the "Deluxe Inn" and drove the rest of the way to Orlando. More sock knitting was accomplished, and the gusset on the jeans and the beginning of the first leg. Oh and a couple more rounds of shawl.
This is the resort we stayed in (thanks Dad!).
Molly spent the entire vacation calling it our Orange house, and it took us much longer than it should have to realize she was calling it that because it is Orange Lake Resorts. She's a smart girl.
There was swimming...

(That is an optical illusion, BTW. That pool is much bigger than it looks from this angle and Sean is not nearly so close to cracking his head open on the side of the pool as it looks like he is.)
There were toads


There were cranes. That is our back patio, and behind those trees is the golf course.




There was knitting (and beer)
(no they are not both mine)


This is the sock at the end of the second day, with a bit of heel flap worked. The color in this picture sucks. I took no pictures of the jeans.
Up next - New Year's Eve and a little jaunt to visit DH's relatives.

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