back from vacation

We have just returned from vacation. We had a wonderful time - great weather, lots of boating time, a good amount of knitting time and a visit to the LYS in Montauk. We went out fishing every day, usually abut 2 PM and returned to the dock (with fish) at about 9 PM. We watched the sun set everyday from the water. I hope to post some photos in a few days. Both husband and I had a great time.

It did get rather chilly once the sun went down, but that gave me an excellent reason to wear my hand knitted wool socks and my hand knitted from hand spun Jacob and BFL hat much sooner than I would have at home. We went to the lighthouse every evening and used the binoculars to look out over the water to Block Island, Connecticut and Fishers Island. The lights blink and twinkle and look so beautiful. We tried to identify each one by it's color and blink frequency (light houses and buoys can be identified with a chart in that way). This year we went into the Lighthouse and climbed the stairs to the observation area. What views! I know that in practise, lighthouse keeping was very hard work, but those views must have been part of the reward.

I was very entertained by listening to the calls on the VHS radio to and from other boats and the Coast Guard. We could, at various time, receive calls from the Coast Guard stations in Montauk, NY, Atlantic City, Long Island Sound and South East New England.

In August I started to knit Tuscany (a shawl) from No Sheep for You, and on the drive home (a little less than 7 hours) I was able to complete it. Since I knit on multiple projects at once, that's a record for me! LOL. I usually take much longer than that to finish one thing. I did decide to add an edging to the long edge so it wouldn't roll, and I am still working on that. I detest knitting seed stitch, but that's what looked best, so that's what I am doing. Only an inch or so to be added - I knit on it while chatting or watching TV so as to avoid going crazy. This was a great project and I can see myself knitting it in a different yarn for a totally different look.

I hope to start knitting on my merging colors capelet: http://www.strickwear.com/cgi-bin/viewitem.pl?cat=1035
in the next day or so. I still have to divide some of the colors into multiple balls since you have to knit with 4 strands of yarn at once. I purchased the new Knit Picks Options Harmony Wood needle set and plan to use them to knit this kit. I'll let you know what I think of them. I currently have several of the metal Options needles and I really like the points. I do a lot of lace and cable work and those points really help. If I like them, I will probably get the new wood DPN's also, since I use DPN's a lot for sock and glove/mitten knitting.

I had hoped to finish my Twisted Flower sock (designed by Cookie A) while on vacation but I have to knit that with the pattern right in front of me. I just didn't have that much sit down and knit uninterrupted time. I am half way down the foot, so I am close. Maybe I will get if finished before I return to work on Monday.

Well, I am off to do another load of laundry and more unpacking. Happy Fall.