I'm back and finally caught up on sleep! But I'm apparently still unaware of what day of the week it is, so I missed putting out the trash and will have to live with stinky garbage for another week. On the cruise ship there was a rug with the day of the week in each elevator, so you could remember, but my servants apparently forgot to do this in my mansion.
This was my first cruise experience, and probably my last. I liked the destinations, but not so much the cruising. I'm not into the onboard activities - casino, pools, jewelry shopping, shows, not interesting to me, but I did spend many hours knitting in the library, watching the sea pass by the windows. I got to see a glacier, many mountains, sea otters, harbor seals, sea lions, harbor porpoises, humpback whales, and zillions of bald eagles and ravens. Who knew eagles could be as common as sparrows? I managed to find gluten-free things to eat, but the variety was limited compared to what everyone else ate. At least I didn't bring home any extra weight.
What was I working on? I got through 2 sleeves and 8 inches of the back of my sweater. As simple as the pattern is (I added the lace strip from the front to the middle of each sleeve and twice on the back), I still managed to get it wrong sometimes and had to unknit to fix it. This is where the Craftsy class on how to fix lace mistakes actually pays for itself - by knowing how to reach down a row or two and undo/redo something, I saved myself from having to pull out whole rows. I'd pat myself on the back if my hands weren't full of yarn. I left one mistake uncorrected because it's not noticeable to most people and you have to keep one mistake, right?
The second project I worked on was a pair of socks from a Vogue publication, and I can't believe the number of mistakes in this pattern. First, all of the pattern charts are numbered wrong and I had to work out which was which by comparing the number of stitches on the needles to the number of stitches in the pattern repeat. One of the charts had a mistake, which I caught by comparing it to another chart with a similar pattern and by noticing that it should have been a mirror image and wasn't. I have notes and crossed-out things all over this pattern. It's a bit tricky to keep track of, and there were times when my first half hour was spent carefully unknitting something I did wrong, but I turned the heel and am working down the foot, so that's progress. But then I have to make a second sock…
Only once or twice did someone stop to talk to me about my knitting, and once I stopped in a lap around the deck to talk to a woman with a ball of yarn and a crochet hook. But it was lovely scenery for knitting. I decided to crochet a sea otter for the fundraiser and found a nice pattern on Ravelry. I think I could probably figure it out myself, but in case I get stuck with shaping, this is probably worth paying for.
Did I buy yarn in Alaska? Our first port was Juneau, and after the excursion to see whales and other critters, there was enough time before the ship sailed to check out the town, and I found Seaside Yarns, which I had looked up before we left (internet on the ship was $0.75 a minute and verrrrry slow, and I had no phone service up there). It carried the same things you would find around here, except for some locally raised and spun qiviut, which is the down of musk ox. There was 100% qiviut, and some mixed with merino, hand dyed. 1 oz, 203 yards. What could I do with that? Cleverly, they had two patterns and a sample of a cowl to make, which came with purchase. I bit the bullet and handed over my Visa card. At $100 a skein, this is for me, not the fundraiser. It's not the softest yarn I have ever felt (that's still yak/silk), but it's a souvenir - Alaska made, in the color Sitka Spruce. Here's the maker: A Tree Huggers Wife Yarns. I had looked up yarn stores in our other stops, Sitka and Ketchikan, but didn't have time to find them. And I think that's my yarn budget for a while anyway.
Now I'm home and getting things reorganized. Tomorrow is my thumb surgery, and I'm trying to plan ahead to simplify not having full use of my right hand for a while. I'll see you at the next Yarnworks.
No comments:
Post a Comment