SailingKnitter

Recently we had the pleasure of riding a first-class bus up to Guatemala City and back. A 5 1/2 - 6 hour trip costs just about $8 US. These coaches are not your common "chicken bus" scary rides, but are fully equipped for your comfort. See? Right there on the door is a series of icons showing you all the features of this bus:

1) MUSIC (of the driver's choice and often quite enjoyable)
2) MOVIES (of the driver's choice, last time it was 2 violent guns, blood, explosions, car-chasing "film noire" moves)

3) AIR CONDITIONING & HEAT which can both be needed on the same day at different altitudes

4) EJECTION SEATS ?? What ?? That's what Jonesy said this icon meant. Probably for those times when you see a mudslide roaring down the hillside and you need to eject before the bus is swamped in mud.

Seriously though, the mudslides (derrumbes) have been so tragic. We travelled those same roadways several weeks ago and saw all the damage and the progress which was being made towards correcting those areas. Now, new rainfall from another tropical storm has caused more sliding and many lives lost. The area is so mountainous (as in volcanoes). It's been a tremendous setback.
There is somebody in my life who keeps torturing me by sending me photos and links to photos of strange knitted hats and other objects. I've warned him NOT to encourage such wild behavior in a knitter with too much time on her hands, but Noooooo, he took it all one step too far.
The results? A Sock Monkey Hat that I'll make him wear in public.

Next up, are these Christmas Holiday Socks from a new design of mine. As I was working on the Christmas Stocking designs a few months back, I realized that they could easily, with some effort, be converted into "real-people" socks. This time I used quite traditional colors, but of course knitters can use whatever colors they desire. The pattern is for sale on Ravelry, and soon on Patternfish.com and my own SailingKnitter Liann Originals website.

Finally, here are the latest socks for the orphanage in Kazakhstan. These are for a big teenaged guy, so not only is the foot long, but I've ribbed both the leg and the top of the foot. Just because a guy's foot may be long in length, it doesn't necessarily mean that he has a correspondingly large calf or foot width. The ribbing stretchs and contracts to fit a multitude of sizes.

I finished this pair up while recovering in the hospital after surgery up in Guatemala City.

Yep. THAT's another story...