Well now, I’ve got the entrelac blanket in progress - temporarily halted because of warm weather.  I’ve also got the Dragon Wing Shawl which I will continue to work on because it’s about 2/3’s done anyway and just because I want to - but not today.  Today, the temperatures are supposed to rise into the low 80s and such being the case, I’d rather not have a lapful of Cascade 220, lovely as it is :)

So I’ve started another small-ish project to give my hands something to do while I think things over.

Remember, before I went on vacation, I talked about maybe making Aibhlinn?  I looked at it again (and again, and again, and again - we don’t make fast decisions around here!) and decided that it would work better in a similar cotton to the yarn that was used in the pattern.  What I had, and wanted to use, is Knitpicks Ambrosia in mulled wine.  So I shelved the Aibhlinn for the time being and started this:

This is the Wavy Feathers Wimple.  I’m really pleased with how it’s coming out, though it’s really just about as simple as it gets for lace :) And (fanfare please!) this was my very first successful cast on onto a circular needle!  Frankly if the needle hadn’t been almost exactly the same length as the cast on stitches (just a bit shorter, in fact) I probably wouldn’t have made it this time either.  And since the cast on was 143 stitches, I had to go an lie down once I’d gotten them joined and worked a couple of rows to make sure it wasn’t twisted!





This stitch pattern is fascinating.  The waves are created with major decreases first on one side of the pattern, then on the other and they are enhanced by a single purl stitch gutter on each side.  But all it is is SSKs, K2togs and YOs.  I’m glad I’m working this in the round because this would make (at least for me) a really awkward seam.

I’m through the second pattern repeat and have two more to go.  The totally serendipitous thing is that I actually had a size 4 circular the exact length needed for the cowl.  I don’t remember when, or why I bought it, but I’m sure glad it was there!

We had a grand time at Chatters last night (sorry I didn’t get the banner up until late - I was running around all day yesterday.  Didn’t even get home until about a half-hour before opening the chat).  Colleen over at Musings of a Silver Rose finished her Oompa Loompa socks (go have a look - they’re awesome!) and we hauled in a brass band, passed around celebratory drinks and threw confetti - virtually, of course :)

Jade seems to have settled down.  She was terribly confused when I came in Saturday night (I felt so bad) but has managed to adapt to the fact that I’m here again, and likely to remain so for a while.

Hope you all have a sensational weekend!  See you Monday :)

Come one, come all and have a ball :)

Still rainy and raw here in northern MA although, you know, after the heat and humidity of the equatorial region, it feels kind of nice for a change!

I did get some Dulaan knitting done while I was away:

Another Tychus hat - this one adult sized - in double strands of Classic Elite Waterspun (the hot pink) and Tahki New Tweed (the oatmeal).  I want to tell you this is a solid hat but it also has a nice, springy feel from the garter stitch which is enhanced, I think, by the double strand of yarn.  Fun to make but as with the child’s version, I only did four repeats of the basic pattern rather than the five the instructions recommend.  At four repeats, the hat fit me loosely and I have a larger-than-average skull.





Also, there are the standard socks :) The burnt orange ones are Classic Elite Wings and the violet ones are KnitPicks Merino Style, color Iris.  The Wings was, as usual, lovely and soft to work with and makes a nice cushy pair of socks.  The Merino Style was much firmer feeling and not quite as soft which leads me to hope these socks will be good and sturdy.

And there was a pair of not-so-standard stranded socks.  I have been wanting to try this for a while but was daunted by the small circumference of a child’s sock.  I didn’t really have anything to worry about - as is usually the case (I wish I could find a way to make the worry-wart who lives in my head just shut up sometimes!).  In typical Robbyn fashion, I flew by the seat of my pants until I was finished turning the heel.  Then, just because it kind of tickled me to do so, I decided to change the design at that point and simply knit the foot, changing colors every row.

These were also done with KnitPicks Merino Style, in colors Cornflower and Fog.  Both these colors are softer and loftier than the Iris was, despite them all being, putatively, the same yarn.  I love these socks and keep wondering how they’d look done in wilder shades and more than two colors per sock :) Heheh....

Most of my craft time on board the ship was taken up with this:

This is a circular, crocheted shawl based on this pattern.  The yarn is Madil Kid Seta, 70% kidmohair and 30% silk and I used a size F hook on the inner two thirds of the shawl and an H hook for the outer third.  I hadn’t realized how long this has been sitting around but I started it almost two years ago!  Myria had mentioned it once or twice since we started dieting and I realized I wanted to finish it for her...but I also wanted it to be a surprise :) So when I was packing for the trip, I sneaked it into my yarn/needle/hook supplies with Myria none the wiser.





I didn’t have enough yarn to complete the pattern as written so I changed the last 8 rounds (that I worked, not the last 8 rounds of the written pattern) or so to a sort of elongated shell ruffle to give it a finished look.  The piece is about 60” wide and while it’s not huge, it is surprisingly versatile and can be wrapped several ways.  It’s light as a feather and warm as a hug.  I’m very happy with how it turned out, but mostly happy that Myria loves it.  That was the idea :)

Knitting Chatters is tomorrow evening, from 7:30 - 11:00PM, EST.  Drop in if you can, we always have such a good time.  See you then! 

Oh boy is it good to be home!

The less said the better about the flight(s) down to Argentina.  I’ll just mention that 13 hours in the air in a cramped and full airplane isn’t good for one’s back, one’s rest or one’s outlook :) It’s a good thing Buenos Aires was sunny when we arrived because my disposition was anything but!  However, when I finally was able to stand up and walk around, my fanny smiled :)

The cruise line put us up at the Marriott Plaza Hotel (a beautiful place built in the old European style) for the day until the ship was ready to be boarded.  We were “housed” in one of the banquet halls - The Dorado Room - until around 12:30 PM (we had arrived just after 7:00 AM) when the ship started sending out shuttles busses to retrieve the new passengers.  There is a picture of the Dorado room at the site linked above but it’s most charming feature isn’t fully apparent in the photograph.  The ceiling of the room is domed and painted like a summer sky - light blue with wispy clouds.  If there weren’t chandeliers hanging from it, you might have thought it was some gorgeous and expansive skylight!  Please forgive the links; I had packed my camera rather than carrying it so I wasn’t able to take any pictures of my own and have relied, instead, “...on the kindness of strangers”.

Across from the hotel is the Plaza St. Martin.  Dad and I went out to get some fresh air and walk around for a while in the middle of the morning.  Plaza St. Martin is a park with tiled pathways and it is filled with Coconut palms and Banyan trees.  I had never seen a banyan before and was suitably impressed.  These things don’t grow quite as tall as the palms but they make up for it in width and general volume.  This Banyan in the plaza was utterly magnificent, nearly 60 feet tall with an in credible, root system that looked like nothing so much as the folds of a gigantic and voluminous skirt!

Once on board, things progressed as they usually do.  Our first stop was in Montevideo, Uruguay but I stayed aboard, both because I was still tired from the flight and because it was raining - a condition that had followed the ship for some time (according to passengers who were on for the previous leg of the journey, the weather had been so bad coming down the west coast that the ship had cancelled two port calls as it simply wasn’t safe to take her in!).

One nice thing about bad weather - nobody wants to sit up on deck.  There are some tables under an overhang, but since most cruisers are party people, they preferred one of the many indoor cafes, restaurants or bars.  That left me, in the peace and quiet, up on deck in the fresh air, reading or knitting and enjoying the sound of the rain hitting the deck.  Heavenly!

It was still raining when we docked in Rio de Janeiro a couple of days later but Dad and I went on a bus tour anyway.  My pictures aren’t very good, because most of them are taken through a window in the rain.

I enjoyed what I saw of Rio, certainly the reputation of the beaches (Ipanema, Copacabana, etc.) is well deserved - they are incredibly beautiful though that day, in the rain, they were deserted.  The sidewalks are paved in mosaics, marble tiles imported from Portugal and even in the rain, people were out and about their business.  The weather didn’t seem to bother anyone and the streets and sidewalks were full of umbrellas.





While Rio (good page of general photographs of Rio) struck me, for the most part, as being much more old world than new, there were some startlingly ultra-modern buildings sandwiched (and I do mean sandwiched!) between the older architectural structures - none more so than the Cathedral of St. Sebastian of Rio de Janeiro.





The cathedral resembles the Mayan pyramids in that it is truncated and has no peak at the top.  It is taller and leaner in appearance than the Mayan versions too.  In fact it is over 225 feet tall, more than 350 feet in diameter and can hold up to 20,000 people.  Inside, it is hollow - all that area is not occupied by room or offices but with the most astonishing stained glass panels that reach from the floor to the ceiling, converging in a cruciform skylight at the apex. (There is a good, fish-eye picture here.  Though this photo doesn’t give any real sense of the size, beauty and power of the panels, it is much better than my poor attempts.)








The floor is covered with benches for services (and for those who like a bit of quiet prayer or meditation) and all around you are those glorious, brilliant panels that soar up and up to the cross in the ceiling.  Off to one side, in an alcove, was this statue.





I think this is probably St. Francis of Assisi, but, as the bus was about to leave, I couldn’t investigate further.

We also went ashore in Barbados and walked around Bridgetown for a while in the morning.  It was an absolutely beautiful day, warm but not humid with a little breeze to keep things pleasant.  There was a steel band playing when we got off the shuttle…

...and the place was covered in this shrubbery with what I at first thought were flowers…





...but, upon closer inspection, decided were leaves.  I have no idea what this is except beautiful :)

Most of the rest of the trip was spent on board the ship where I ate (oh, the cheeses!) and played Trivia and Name-That-Tune with a truly splendid team, knitted and read and relaxed.  I did gain a little weight - but far less than I feared and am back on my diet.

I did get some knitting done - and some crocheting, and I’ll tell you all about that on Wednesday.  Right now, I am enjoying being home with my own bed, my cats and gerbils and, most especially, my Myria.  And all of you, of course :)