SailingKnitter

There I was at one of the local yarn stores hanging out with my buddies. We had just come back from the Fresno Art Museum which has an exhibit of the lace knitting of Mary Walker-Phillips and were enjoying visiting the new "Knitique" store in Elk Grove.

One of the regular gals came in with her husband and introduced him around. Wow! He was Patrick - an old friend from grad school who moved away before finishing the program because his job moved him! It was so good to see him again! If I wasn't a knitter I would never know what happened to him. This is a great example of networking.


On the knitting front - I couldn't resist buying some Frog Tree alpaca fingering weight yarn. See, I've been reading the book "Folk Knitting in Estonia" by Nancy Bush and had those beautiful mittens and gloves on the brain. Oh yes, of course I have other wool - but the alpaca just jumped out at me. I bought some red/cream/black for a traditional colored set, and then some moss/avocado/yellow for a brighter look. I know, I know - I am packing to leave, so it has already been placed (lovingly) in a "space bag" for transport onto the boat.

On the needles - routine knitting - another simple pair of socks, this time for my older son.

UPDATE: The kitchen remodel is done! Yippeee! I'm enjoying using the new appliances - especially the water spigot on the front door of the refrigerator. Such a simple pleasure.
Today the grout repair men are working on the two upstairs bathrooms. We just need to have the grout replaced in the shower & tub, plus they are going to clean the grout of the ceramic floor tiles. Such a yucky job!! It's worth every penny to me to have someone else do this.

I'm still working at a paying job, but retirement is just around the new year!! The current plan is to put the house up for sale the first part of January. We've been getting rid of "stuff" - lots taken to the local thrift store that sponsors hospice care in our area. Lots of stuff has been thrown out, and a few things have sold on eBay.

We have been cheering each other on as stuff leaves the house - measuring it by the square footage! Nothing but food basics (milk, beer, etc.) comes into the house.

We have moved all of our 401K, investments, etc. to our account guy at Smith Barney so that all our money is in one place. They are connected to Citibank so we will have access to money everyone we go. Not that we'll need much. So many of the anchorages are FREE even in California. In Mexico, the same is true.

Also, we have a "public mail box" at the local postal center. They will accumulate our mail for us, then forward the works to us with just a phonecall or email from us giving them our location. Shouldn't be too much mail as we won't have any bills (except for the boat insurance).

We sold our beloved little 22 foot boat to our friends a couple of weeks ago - so now we are boatless!!! Agh! But I know it has a good home now and will be well used. We have had so many good times using that boat - sailing, swimming, watching the sunsets, knitting...

So, our plan is to buy one of the boats we are looking at, and sail around southern California for the summer & early fall. Then we plan to join the Baja Ha Ha floatilla to sail from San Diego down to Cabo San Lucas next October. After that....who knows....the adventure begins.

Yep- those are roses blooming today, December 11th out by the lamp post in front of my house here in Northern California. It has been a super warm and dry fall so far. We had to get out there and WEED the front yard planted area because the weeds were growing!! Usually, we can kick back and ignore the yard this time of year - the frost kills the weeds and everything else just sleeps. But not this year.

I'm just not into yard work in December. Actually, I'm not into yard work much at all lately. Just wanna get on the sailboat and go.

So - on the knitting front...I finished the socks for my younger son. I was afraid that he wouldn't wear them because he is so picky about his clothes. But he was home visiting this weekend from college and he wore the socks!!! That's the nicest thing he could do!!! Who needs christmas gifts??? Not me...all I need is for one of my sons or husband to wear something that I've knitted.


So here are the lastest "warmy" socks! They are made from Regia yarn (self-patterning). I used a 4 x 2 ribbing for the leg and top of foot to give them some "hug" to the leg. Also, he likes his socks a little longer so I cast on 2 extra stitches at the cuff to fit his calf better (without squeezing). So I worked a tubular cast on, then 1 x 1 ribbing. Before starting the leg, I decreased the 2 stitches to 72 so that the 4 x 2 ribbing would fit.

I was kinda worried that I wouldn't have enough yarn, but each sock took only one 50g ball with a tiny amount left over. Now I need to dig out some sock yarn to begin another pair for my other son as I need a simple project to take to social knitting get togethers. Most of my sock yarn is packed away already in "Space Bags" for the boat! Hmmm...buy more or break open the bags? I think this qualifies for an "EMERGENCY" yarn purchase!! Whooo Yooo!