SailingKnitter

So, of course y'all know that I brought back to Mexico massive quantities of yarn that I had been ordering on the internet and had shipped to my son's house in the US. Oh, er, and some yarn and new DPNs and Addi Lace needles that I purchased at some of the yarn shops that my friend, Sandi, drove me around to see. Well, yes, and the yarn and books from knitting camp. But what else did I carry back?

There must have been something else in those two giant overweight (80-100lb ea) pieces of luggage, the backpack, and the Meg Swansen's Knitting Camp 2007 tote bag besides yarn and a few clothes, right? Oh yeah. First, I got my own laptop computer!! Whooo-hooo!! It makes safety sense to have two on the boat anyway ("well Jonesy if you really think I should buy one...")

Then there are the food items that we love and can't find anywhere here in Mexico. There are so many gringos in the coastal cities, that we can find some of the strangest stuff; soy sauce, the nori wrappers for sushi, fancy British canned goods, all sorts of imported goodies. But believe it or not - NO GREEN CHILIES. Nope - there are no fresh or canned green (aka Anaheim or California) chilies to be found down here. Lots of the other fresh or dried chilies, but none of these mild beauties.

So, I packed a couple of cans in my bag, along with the Fat-Free salad dressing mix, Curry Powder, Poultry Seasoning, Dried Beef (for Jonesy's creamed chip beef on toast), natural no-butter popcorn and....Candy. Yep, Jonesy's favorite candies are Big Hunk, Abba-Zaba and Bit-o-Honey. These are even hard to find in the states as the manufacturer of Big Hunk and Abba-Zaba is a small California company - Annabelle's. My new found knitting friend, Elizabeth, just happened to own a candy store in Old Sacramento and the rest is history.


The largest and heaviest item (34 lbs) was a new ShadeTree brand boat cover for the Niki Wiki ! I had to buy a giant duffel bag and stuff this monster into it so that I could check it as "luggage". What a difference this "tent" has made!!! With temperatures in the upper 90's and high humidity, this cover has made the boat much cooler. We don't have to turn the air conditioning on until late in the afternoon - and then run it all night to sleep. Electricity is expensive here at the marina so we need to conserve as much as possible.

Shoes - I brought back 3 pairs of shoes for Jonesy and 2 pairs for me. Check out his new "Keen" brand shoes!! These were originally designed for boat people; to protect our toes and be able to get wet and to dry fast. Very cool indeed.

And the knitting continues... I've finished the black beanie in Cascade Fixation for the Socks for Soldiers group and am ready to work the heel flap in the pair#3 socks.

Progress on the Lacy Socks (aka Pomatomus) has been slow. The yarn is a Regia that I got from Germany with subtle shading of an olive green color. I've started these 3 times now and am just not happy with the results - the YO eyelet holes. My holes seem way too big compared to some of the other finished socks I've seen on folks' blogs. I've tried tweaking my yarnovers before a purl stitch to shorten it and that makes them look a little better. Any ideas? Should I just go with the flow?

I promise, photos, and links to other folks' photos of knitting camp will be on my next blog.