vacation knits

Don't we look relaxed? We were sitting at a cafe in Long Beach, CA with one of my best friends. Soaking up the sunset and people watching. joy.

But you want to read about the knitting, right? Lets start back in MA, the night before the trip. All swatching was done past midnight and we were leaving our house at 5 am! I know some people pack early, plan projects, and get a good night's sleep before they go somewhere. not me. I pack at the last minute and then stay up half the night swatching, tracking down the needles i need, frantically looking through pattern books, printing patterns from the internet. it happens every time i go anywhere.

That Debbie Bliss Aran is supposed to be 18 st to 4 inches, but it just didn't work for me. I started with 15 st on the called-for needles. I could squish it to 16 st/4 in on much smaller needles, but the fabric wasn't very nice. The other yarn (ZarOne) was the right gauge, but i didn't have the right needles for the patterns. Instead of forcing the 'aran' to be something it didn't want to be, i decided it would be just as nice as Starsky. I brought socks for the airplane since i suppose its not polite to be stabbing your neighbors with 10" straight needles for 6 hours.

what was accomplished while travelling? one (1) jaywalker sock and two (2) starsky sleeves. fun!