Tropical Knitting

It's taken me several years, but I think I finally understand how to choose a project for a tropical vacation.

2009 - Hawaii
I know I checked the weather before I left. I think I even knew it would be hot. I brought a shawl project because I figured I'd have a hard time finishing a whole shawl in a week. I started a Seraphim out of some beautiful Briar Rose Angel Face. I did not complete it in a week. In fact, it was rather gross to knit with in Hawaii. Don't get me wrong, I love the shawl and the yarn. But Alpaca yarn, even lace weight alpaca yarn is not the best yarn to knit with in 80 degree weather. I pretty much only knit in the room before bed or on the plane.



2011 - Cruise to the Bahamas
My needles were almost taken from me. Not just any needles, all of my Addi Clicks! At the last minute a different TSA officer came over, realized what they were and let me get on the boat. I brought all of those with me because I was planning on knitting an Ishbel with beads. I think I did manage to get all of the beads threaded onto the silk/cashmere yarn, but I think that might have been all I accomplished on that trip

2012 - Orlando, Disney World
Honestly, I know I brought a knitting project with me, but I don't even remember what it was or even knitting on it.

2014 - Jamaica
After our wedding, I was really excited to go to Jamaica and to do absolutely nothing. I remember reading a book on the beach, and I think I tried to finish knitting a pair of wool socks, but had the same experience as in Hawaii. It's pretty gross when your fingers start sweating.

2015 - Jamaica
This year, I got a bit smarter. I knit a sock of wool, silk, and a strand of sparkle. It made my fingers sweat a lot less, which was good. However, I guess they don't really need socks in Jamaica because the cabana boy was completely confused when I told him I wasn't knitting a bag!



2015 - Orlando, Disney World
Yeah, there was a lot of travel last year. I brought a hat with me to knit and really enjoyed knitting it, but finished it rather quickly. I also brought a sock with me this time, so i was fine. I managed to knit quite a bit while waiting in lines. It didn't seem as though we waited in as many lines in 2012. I could be misremembering, but I think it was busier there this past year than in 2012. I feel like I would have remembered knitting more.



All this leads to...

2016 - Jamaica
We're about to head back to Jamaica tomorrow morning and I think I've figured out the perfect project to knit on while there. This past summer I knit a couple of tees. I really LOVE the Flex I knit. The Kestrel from Quince and Co is so breezy! So instead of just bringing it with me to wear while I'm there, I thought I'd bring yarn and knit another to wear this summer. Kestrel is a knitted linen yarn and is rather affordable. I remember this to be a rather quick knit, too, so with any luck I'll come back with a whole new shirt (unless I get distracted with comics and Clara Parkes' Knitlandia...

The Story of EZ's Knitter's Almanac

Does anyone remember that group from the '90s called Sublime? They had a hit song "What I Got." I had a copy of their self-titled album. I los it somehow, or it was stolen. More importantly, everyone I knew at one point who had that album were having a hard time putting their hands on their copy of it. It was the one album that everyone but no one had.

I feel like the Knitter's Almanac is just like it. I was looking for a copy earlier this year. I thought i'd had a copy, and my Ravelry Library, which I keep pretty up to date, was also telling me I had a copy. I'd just moved here a few months ago at that point and I remembered seeing the small 5.5 x 8", paperback, green covered book when setting up my book case. But I couldn't find it. A friend of mine mentioned that she couldn't find her copy either.


Can you find my paperback copy of The Knitter's Almanac?
Sometime this summer, I think I had a credit somehow or a gift card to use on Amazon. I knew there was a newer edition of Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac
out, so even though I was so sure I had a copy, even though I couldn't find it, I decided to get the updated edition.

The new edition is 7 x 10", hardcover, and red. I have reason to believe that this change in format and color mean that I will not lose it on my shelf!

Last week, I went on vacation to Disney World. I did a travel knitting assessment (check out my posts on knitting and travelling here), and decided to bring some lovely Briar Rose Angelface with me to create a Pi Shawl from The Knitter's Almanac. Now, I looked at my shelf and really didn't feel like taking this large hardcover book that was sure to be heavy with me. Didn't I have a much smaller copy in paperback somewhere? I noticed some extra space between two books and I did what any normal person would do: I stuck my finger between them.

Lo! And behold! My paperback edition of The Knitter's Almanac! At last!

I started flipping through it, and realized that this might make a good reading book in addition to a good pattern book. So I decided to read it as well. However, my purse is already quite heavy with the iPad I carry around with me everywhere. So I didn't want to carry another paper item around with me everywhere. I bought the ebook on iBooks and am pretty confident that I can't lose that edition, since it's in the cloud.

And that's how I ended up with 3 editions of the Knitter's Almanac.

Oh! This is a knitting post too, so here's my progress on the Pi Shawl. I'm using size 0 needles with Briar Rose Angel Face and just a simple eyelet ring pattern. this is one I think will be picked up and put down a lot so I wanted to keep it relatively simple. I'm a little worried that the eyelets will actually get lost, but I think it will still be pretty.

A New Adventure

A few months ago, I picked up some Alchemy Yarns Silken Straw from Purl in Soho (right before they moved actually). The idea is to knit a t-shirt out of it. I felt the swatch at Purl and fell in love with the yarn maybe about a year ago. I just got to swatching it. I have a really comfortable v-neck t-shirt I got from Banana Republic that I want to model the shirt on. It's comfortable and flowy and kinda big actually. We'll see how it goes. I'm using Ann Budd's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns as a guide for a set in sleeve.
When I get back home, I'll take a photograph of the t-shirt, and I'll probably post a photo of the swatch sometime soon. For now, I've got to figure out what kind of edging I want. I was thinking of a hemmed edge, but I don't think I really want to use the yarn for the underside of the hem. I might do about an inch of ribbing, but I don't want it to be tight ribbing because then it'll make the sleeves look odd. Any ideas?

---

I want to get through row 21 of Seraphim before I really start this project, which is driving me nuts. I forgot to do double decreases at the end of each section, something I didn't realize until I got to the middle. Once I tinked back and re-did that section and moved on to the second half, I realized that all the yarn overs in the first section weren't lining up because my decreases weren't in the right spots. So now I'm tinking back AGAIN so I can make sure the damn row is right.