Monday, January 19, 2004

Hi Honey, I’m Ho-ooome!

Well, I finally made it home.  Having been in transit from 8:00 AM on Saturday to 4:00 AM on Sunday, I had some doubts that I would ever make it back.  It began to feel like a Sisyphus thing, you know?  You’re almost there and then something else happens and you’re thwarted again.  Eventually I did make it through my own front door - sans luggage, though.  Due to a customs error, it was all (save my carry-on) still languishing in Costa Rica.  Eh - the airport delivered it, finally, at 11:45 last night - so the luggage got a bit more vacation than I did :)

My profound thanks to Myria for her beautiful and excellent posts in my absence - a round of applause, please?  Don’t know what I’d do without her :)

I don’t intend this to be a “cruise” entry, but I will mention a couple of things. 

For the beginning of the trip, the moon was full and my stateroom had a perfect view of it.

This was taken just as we were pulling out of Ft. Lauderdale.

I have always loved the moon, a typically female reaction, I suppose, according to myth and lore.  I highly recommend it (and a couple of identifiable constellations - Orion is what I always look for) as a traveling companion.  It lends a sense of grounding.  You may be on the other side of the earth from your home, but the moon is there, just as it ordinarily is, so you’re not lost.

The night skies are truly splendid at sea because there’s no ambient light to get in the way.  On a cloudless night, there’s no perceptible division between the sky and the sea and the stars are just amazing.  I don’t know the last time I saw Orion shine with such splendor.  We even got close enough to the equator for me to pick out the Southern Cross!

The other thing I wanted to mention is the food.  There’s a joke about how you get onto a cruise ship as a passenger but you leave as cargo. It’s reference to the weight you’re apt to acquire as a result of the splendid and unabashedly rich cuisine most cruise ships serve.  I don’t think I smuggled off many more pounds than I boarded with, but it wasn’t thanks to any of this:

See that line of stuff in the center, the croissants?  I practically lived on the things.  They are just about the most perfect bread form, in my opinion, and I can’t get enough of them.  Fortunately, at home, there’s expense to consider and that works to keep me in check most of the time.  I can get English muffins, a dozen for $1.00 around here.  But a half dozen croissants will run $3.00 or more.  On board a ship though, it’s a different story.  As the food is part of the price of the trip, I can indulge in as many as I want, as often as I want.  I got into the habit of smuggling a couple of the crisp, buttery darlings (along with a bit of fresh pineapple or strawberries) into my stateroom to have as a midnight snack.  Heavenly!

Caviar?  Overrated :)

Knitting Knews

I did get my kimono cardigan started and have finished one front.  It is still packed, however, so more about that tomorrow.

I also worked on this…

...in airports, in transit and when I was bored with the cardigan.  As you can see, it’s grown some and in another few inches, I will be ready to start the increases for the body.  I’m thinking about doing some ribbing for an inch or so at the neck to kind of snug it up at that point...any suggestions?

I had brought a bag of fun yarn with me and looking through it one night, realized that I had the makings of a gorgeous and fancy scarf/stole sort of thing.  Some periwinkle Phildar DK chenille, a couple of balls of Binario railroad type stuff in blues and lavenders and a ball of deep blue-violet Fun Fur.  As I sat gazing at these gorgeous colors it occurred to me that the perfect showcase for them would be the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf (see post for 12/21/03 in the old site archives).  The chenille and railroad yarns would be paired for one set of trangles and the fun fur would be used for the opposing triangles.  It would be gorgeous!

I ran to the laptop and pulled up all my stored knitting patterns.

It wasn’t there!!!

Oh well… Now that I’m home, the urge has passed somewhat, but I may still try to put it together.  I have another trip coming up in March and would like to make something a little fancy fot it.  I’m ambivalent about it and though I deeply appreciate my father’s desire to share his cruising passion with me, it’s always a seriously mixed blessing.  I’ll talk more about this some other time.  The March trip should be the last one and that suits me just fine.

Can I just tell you how much I missed you all, missed the blogging - both the doing and the reading?  Internet access is available on board the ship, but it costs $30 per day for three hours of access.  I simply couldn’t afford that.  So I’m really glad to be home and back posting.

Tomorrow, the tale of the kimono cardigan!

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1. Welcome back! Glad to have you back in blogland again, although Myria did a great job in your absence.

   I agree - those yarns sounded perfect for the multi-directional scarf. But it’s amazing how many projects never get started when I apply the “think twice, start once” rule. Maybe it’s just as well you didn’t have the directions - I’m sure something even snazzier will occur to you now that you’re home. :)

   Posted by Bron  on  01/19  at  01:34 PM
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2. Welcome home, Robbyn! I second what Bron said, that Myria did a faboo job while you were gone. It was nice to get to know her a little better throughs some comments she left on my blog, and through, in turn, going to her blog and reading it. Hi, Myria!

   I came across this pattern today and immediately thought of you and our postings in our blogs about finding unique ways to generate patterns. In this pattern, the cabling is determined by throwing dice! http://www.fuzzygalore.biz/articles/probability.shtml

   Looking forward to hearing more about your trip!

   Posted by Ryan  on  01/20  at  01:14 PM
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3. Thank you both for the welcome back :)

   Bron - I’m still mulling over what to do with those yarns - except that were clearly born to go together!

   Ryan - I’ve seen that page and it’s an intruguing idea, isn’t it?  I even bought some dice to play with.  Don’t know if it will be cables or stripes or something else entirely, but the idea of introducing a “controlled” amount of chaos is an appealing one!

   Posted by Robbyn  on  01/20  at  03:03 PM
   Location :

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