Monday, June 5, 2006

Best InTentions

A rather nice camping trip with the homeschoolers this past weekend was made even more delightful with the completion of this:


Bouyed by my sucess, I immediately cast on with size 8 needles for the back. I knit merrily along, since the children were all occupied by one thing or another. This child-occupation is one of the good things about camping with a ton of families. That, and the fact that someone in the group will have mosquito repellent or sunblock or size 6 knitting needles or olive oil if you've forgotten it.

My knitting was enhanced by a slight impulse purchase for the trip:


You may not be able to see it, but that background is a camping hammock. Oh boy, was that a hit. Not only did my spouse get to rest on it with Thing 4 being a little chest bug napper, but most of the short crowd found it irresistable as a swing. And yes, that is the much-wept over green sweater rescued from the grass at the side of the hammock. [Today, she said, "That sweater might need a wash." No kidding, honey.]

I was on such a knitterly high that when all of the kids were being watched by People With Fewer Children, my spouse and I escaped to Point Reyes Station for a cup of coffee. He just said, "I wondered when you were going to get around to that" when I asked brightly, "I wonder if there's a yarn store in town?"

Fortunately, there is! Look here


At this store, the depth of my self-delusion became clear, because I bought this


It's not quite visible in the picture, but that's about 500 yards of hand-spun fingering weight spun from Lincoln sheep raised in the Chileno Valley from pin draft roving by Bo-Rage Yarns. Yes, a huge honking skein of yarn that can really only be a shawl. With yarn overs. Because, of course, having finally muddled my way through mastered the simple yarn overs on the front of that cotton cardigan, can a wedding-ring shawl be far behind? Oh, yeah. That's probably why I look so insanely happy. I'm in complete denial.

Back at the campsite, I reread the pattern for the back of that cotton sweater. "Cast on 78 stitches, do this, do that, then change to larger needles." Whoops. That triumphant camp knitting became this


I spent the rest of the trip doing this, pretty much.


That shawl may have to wait.

9 comments:

Rain said...

It looks and sounds like you had a fantastic time.

The sweater is coming along really well.

I'm glad to hear your DD is so laundry conscious ;)

amy said...

hahaha, People With Fewer Children is becoming a very large club, I think.

So nice to see YOU in your post today, and I love seeing the photos you take - I can see that you put some thought into making them beautiful. Easier to do with camping, I guess, than white out.

What did you read? I really hate to camp, but the busy kid thing surely appeals. Sounds like you had a really nice weekend.

meredith said...

what a great weekend.
i thought you'd want to know that the lace gods took revenge on me after my dorky offer to help you with the YOs. i got to row 5 of my print o'the wave stole and found that i had somehow managed to screw the whole thing up. i started my YOs one stitch too soon, messing up the pattern and leaving me with an extra stitch at the end. i'll be ripping back to the CO again for the 3rd time. remind me of this if i ever offer advice again!

Stefaneener said...

Oh, Meredith. . . I can truly relate, without as much justification, and I'm sorry. I forgot to add that the new yarn is as sticky as mohair; it's not going anywhere. So it will have a nice long time to age in stash. I am petting it regularly.

bfmomma said...

I wanna see pictures! Blogger sucks ;)

I'll come back and maybe the pictures will have re-surfaced. It all SOUNDS beautiful... ;)

aurora said...

Wow! Those are some lovely, lovely photos. Camping is tops, isn't it?

jen said...

A camping hammock? You're brilliant!

I am positive that is what has been missing from my camping life all this time. I will walk in the darkness no longer. Before next weekend comes and we camp in the park that has the buffalo inside it, a hammock will be mine!

Congratulations on solving the evil yarn over problem. The first one, anyway.

(I also like your boots.)

sewingsuzee said...

OK, for those who do not know Stefani in person: as lovely as she is in those photos, she is movie star gorgeous when she's had enough sleep/showered/not scary happy over a yarn purchase.

So all in favor of a post of her movie star photos, say "aye!"

String Bean said...

You sound like you had a great time. What luck! Finding a yarn shop without prior investigation!
A camping hammock? I'm envious. We have a hammock, but not a camping hammock.