Muntu Stitches

It’s been over a week and I still feel like I haven’t tied up the loose ends. The hold-up was mainly because I’ve switched computers. Buh bye windows…hello Mac OS. Anyway, I received a refurbished iBook courtesy of my geek boyfriend, upgraded and definitely a lot more compact than the hunk of brick laptop I used to own. But I digress…

I’ve uploaded and organized part of the photo stash I took on my trip and condensed it into a collage. The trip consisted of the Seasocks cruise that embarked from San Pedro, CA to Vancouver, Canada and with stops at San Francisco and Victoria, B.C. In addition, I also spent a day visiting friends near Seattle at the end of the trip.

So let’s start with the cruise, shall we?

Highlights were definitely the food, the yarn…and did I say, the food. I think I gained about five pounds on the trip, especially after all the eating and then the napping. It was so relaxing, the first couple days had me wondering what to do with myself as I wasn’t used to all that “free” time.

But here are the cruise visual highlights…

1. Relax and vacate, 2. Vision of the Seas Cruise, 3. Chocolate buffet, 4. Buffet goodies, 5. Chocolate sculpture, 6. Nature’s candy, 7. Desserts galore, 8. Cantaloupe bird, 9. Loungin’, 10. Ready, set, cruise…, 11. Vision of the Seas, 12. Gala buffet decor, 13. Yarn Pirate’s Crocus

Yes, so it was pretty much eating, napping and knitting for me. At some point, all that rockin’ and a swayin’ had me out for the count most of the ocean ride.

On the Seasock cruise side, there were classes and knit nights…but with the schedule around the boat and shore excursions, I only managed to go to one class, a toe-up heel knitting class which was really helpful. The size of the group of knitters was something of an issue for a few of the knitters I heard from, in terms of class sizes and group activities. Overall, it was well organized but the entire group didn’t get together until final night of the cruise, and half of the people I saw there, I didn’t even realize were knitters. It was a large group of knitters on the boat, that’s for sure. We were definitely well represented. I was quite intimidated by being around all these knitters. (Twas alot to take for a loner knitster like myself).

Anyway, despite all that…I met a really cool group of women who were sitting in my table in the main dining room.

Hello Deanna, Beverly, Jackie of the Knitting Hutch and Jackie’s friend…(I’m sorry, I forgot your name…yes, I really was on holiday mode). I hope you all got back home okay and enjoyed the trip. Also, a big hello to Noelle (of Noelle’s Noodles and her hubby.

Oh, and let’s not forget the “yarn” shore excursion in SF. Imagine over 50 yarn nuts all converging into one yarn store? We visited Marin Fiber Arts in San Rafael during a stop in San Francisco…where they welcomed us with open arms and trunk shows from Nature Palettes and Muench yarns. I made a beeline for the Nature Palette sock yarns and grabbed enough for a pair of socks in the Dusky Plum and Indian Summer colourways. Yum! Darlene, the yarn designer, was there and had a fresh batch of yarns in the store. All those colours were so tempting. I had pretty good restraint there, if I can say so myself. Although I didn’t take any photos…and I have no idea why?! Must have been a yarn blackout or something.

Anyway, I’ve got lots more photos from the trip, which I’ll add as soon as I get time. Wednesday, I think. For now…here are the green socks that I FINALLY finished up during the cruise. My first toe-up and short-row heel socks! Yeah baybeee!!!!

Project: Laburnum Socks from Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces in Carol Green
Needles: Size 1 DPN’s
New Techniques: toe-up, short-row heel.

I love how I don’t have to kitchener stitch and there are no ends to weave at the toe! I love how snug the heel is! (Heel flaps always bunch up in my shoes.) And although I didn’t use the magic loop here…gawd, I love the magic loop. Does this mean farewell to the DPN’s? And I love love Lorna’s Laces! (No wonder Grumperina raves about this yarn all the time).

This entry was posted on Monday, May 14th, 2007 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Ramblings, Knitting, Socks, Seasocks cruise. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.