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...

Berkshire Trading Socks and Shania Twain's Sweater

It's kinda odd...I feel like now that all my stuff is on ravelry, I don't have as much of a reason to keep on top of the progress of my projects on my blog. Maybe it's just because I haven't felt much like writing either. Regardless, there's a lot more knitting stuff out there than I thought there was! Only thing is that when I take so long to post, I end up with these huge posts. Please forgive the verbosity!

The tattoo is almost completely healed and it looks GREAT!

I'm almost done with the second sleeve of the Berkshire Pullover as can be evidenced by the photo below...


I just have to do three more repeats of the decreasing pattern to get the sleeve
done, then sew down the cuff of the sleeve and the sweater.

Speaking of cuffs of the sweater, what do you think of this?


I'm not too fond of how the cuff is rolling up like that, but I'm not sure if that's something that will flatten out if I block it. The photo of the sweater has flat cuffs (both sleeve cuffs and the bottom cuff of the sweater), which is interesting because the sweater is knit in stockinette. I would like to maintain that look, so what I decided to do was to knit a couple extra rows, and purl a turning row. Then afterwards, to sew the cuff down. I tried to do this on the first sleeve, but I'm not sure it turned out ok. I'm afraid that the yarn is too bulky to do this method with. What do you folks think?

In other project related news, I finished the Jack Sparrows Favorite Socks


They were made out of Koigu on size 2 addis and will now reside with my roommate.

So to make up for the fact that I needed another sock going (have to have something to do while waiting for things!) I started a Monkey Sock.


I'm also knitting it on a pair of size two addis, but this time it's being knit out of Great Adirondack's Silky Sock in colorway Antique. I really love the feel of the yarn, and I have a feeling that it's going to end up being a strong pair. I'm feeling they could probably be smaller, but I think it'll be ok.

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In completely other news, my friend, after seeing the video for Forever and For Always by Shania Twain, decided his wife needed the sweater in the video. He actually asked me to knit it, for her, and I might actually do it, if I can figure it out. Probably even just for the challenge of it. Here's the video:



Hope that works for you. So I've googled to see if anyone on craftster or anywhere else has already figured this out with no success. Basically, what I think is that the cuffs are knitted. Then, there's a front piece that's knitted from picked up stitches from the cuffs. After that, I'd say there's a piece that's knitted for the back and sewed to the front piece around the bust to make it shirt like. It'd be much thinner than the front piece, and it'd have to be twisted as well.

Does that seem right from what you can see? seems like a rather bulky yarn with a 1x1 slip stitch rib or something.