floating in paradise

We made it to the boat! Jeff's family is safe and sound and the boat made it through the storm. YAY! The 5 sailboats that stayed in Marsh Harbour are either sunk or crashed onto shore. Jeff's family made the right decision to move their boat to Man Of War's habour. Their boat was roughed up but safe and sound.

The islands have spotty power off & on. We've got a boat full of supplies, food, water and beer! Pretty weather and we should have a nice visit in paradise. I'm hoping there may be some gold doubloons washed ashore from the hurricane.

love to all, thanks for all your prayers for safety for us and our family!! ps, I'm casting off on the 2nd sleeve (I only had to make TWO this time!) I blocked the bulk of the sweater with some steam at our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale last night. I should be wearing it this evening over my sundress. YAY! Not shark bait AND with a FO of malabrigo lace!! How could this day get any better? Oh yeah, I'm in the BAHAMAS mammas!

Fort Lauderdale is Fabulous!

Ok, flights were fine, on time and all. We're in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and it's a beautiful calm evening, 93 degrees when we landed. Heard from Jeff's uncle and they weathered the storm in their friend's house fine. Boat is ok, just messy and everything inside was whirled up and thrown about. Minimal damage. Winds are still 40 mph today, so they're not able to get to Marsh Harbour Island, where we'll fly to tomorrow. We've got a friend of theirs to connect to on the island and we'll figure it out after that.

I didn't knit but a few rows on a very simple, yet lovely mohair & boucle scarf, garter stitch with a ruffle. I slept most of the way here and we even got to spend the evening with my cousin Mary, the Knitter! I'm feeling less like shark bait with every passing moment. It seems we'll have a lovely time in paradise after all, and we'll help clean up and patch up the boat, and live off canned goods (on the boat) and our beef jerky & bottled water (checked bag). If there happens to be a store with food left or a restaurant that reopens, even better. If not, I'll get to knit in paradise with the man that I love NOT on rolling seas. YAY!

I'll talk at you guys later!
Christine, the now only slightly freaked out knitter. :)

heading out

We're off to Ft. Lauderdale today (Friday). We'll make sure we hear from Jeff's uncle and that there's a boat to stay on still and that they can get to us on the airport. I'm not going over without that. We're supposed to fly from FL to Marsh Harbour, Bahamas tomorrow (Sat) around noon.

I'm sure it'll be a paradise after the hurricane goes by. I'm sure I won't be fish food. I'm sure there won't be monster swells even in the protected harbours. I'm sure there won't be looting or crime. I'm sure of it. mostly.

I love you guys. The blog has been such fun and I sure as hell hope I just come back with fabulous new yarny adventures. (Actually I'm pretty sure we'll spend a day and a half sitting in an airport somewhere). I packed rain gear, bikini, wool socks, sundresses, survival gear, food, water, batteries, toilet paper, dramamine and YARN!

I've got mohair, sockyarn and the in progress cardigan. I figure malabrigo & mohair will be calming. :)

PEACE people! I hope to be back Sept 1st with fabulous photos of sandy beaches & sunshine. I can dream, right?

ps, just in case, I gave my kids lots of hugs before I left, but make sure to knit socks for them to grow into and tell them their momma loved them more than yarn!

It's bananas!

My son loaded the image of my Zombie Message banana I gave him onto facebook. His description of the photo is "Evil message my mom wrote on a banana." HA! I didn't actually think it was evil, but when I asked him did he eat it, he said, "well, YEAH, what did you think?"

The magical how-to....just take a new banana and lightly scratch a message on it with a toothpick.


Then magically, it appears the next day. If you use a slightly ripe banana like I did, the writing shows up darker and quicker.


Photos from the Kitchn Blog, which has some great ideas and recipes!

Banana inspired fiber!! Ok, not really. It's actually lemon curd inspired, but it's the only yellow stuff I've got!

I should get an award for the best mom ever. seriously!

After being inspired by the Bloggess's post on bananas, and a few other mom blogs that send cute little notes to their kids in the lunchboxes, I realized there needed to be some middle ground.

You know, there really is a NEED for a way to get the kids to eat the lunch food you prepare for them. Silly uber-moms that pack raisins, tortilla wraps and other healthy things must smile with pride when they think of their healthy little children eating those lunches prepared with mom's love and growing strong little bones and such. Have you ever BEEN in a school lunchroom? Those things are either thrown in the trash or the whole lunch is traded away for a pudding cup.

A GOOD mom would want to ensure her child is actually EATING the food she sent, right? OK. Problem solved.

There! Any child seeing that in their lunchbox would not DARE trash or trade that banana, would they? You'd also be keeping their minds on the important things in life, like preparing for the zombie apocalypse. I was going to write "Zombies LOVE eating kids that eat pudding cups" but figured I'd save that note for another day.

Now this is actually a YARN ADVENTURER type blog, here's what's come out of my dye pots and off the spinning wheel lately.




Bahamas trip update...Jeff's uncle & aunt are on Man of War Island in the Sea of Abaco, the northern most bunch of islands when you look at all the hurricane maps. They're straight east of Ft. Lauderdale. We're waiting and watching updates. Right now flights are still scheduled to arrive 8/27 in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas (when we're scheduled). Flights through 8/26 have been cancelled. Jeff wants to check a bag full of survival supplies, food and water to be the relief effort. I said we're waiting to see what happens first as there's no way I'm flying there not knowing if we'd have a way off that island to find his family and WHO the HELL flies INTO a storm devastated economically poor country immediately after a hurricane anyway? Maybe I should send a message via banana to the husband... "Are you BSC? STAY the hell HOME!" (BSC= Bat Shit Crazy)

Stop it, Irene!!

Cripes almighty. My husband's uncle & aunt own a sailboat in the Bahamas and are currently tied up to a ball floating in Man of War Cay in the Sea of Abaco, waiting for the hurricane to come. They're expecting the storm to hit tomorrow (Wed) and they'll weather it on the water.

Our flights are of course non refundable or changeable. Guess we're waiting to see how bad the hurricane is and if it's passed through yet by Friday morning.

Hang in there Steve & Kim!! or should I say HANG ONTO SOMETHING!! Sure is different watching hurricanes brewing when you have people you know & love in the path. And, a bit selfishly I admit, when you may or may not be heading directly into the aftermath.

Sleevequest 2011

I'm leaving for the bahamas 3.5 days from now. I've slacked off a bit on my featherweight cardigan that I began just for this trip. It's a super fast vacation with my husband, a little 2nd honeymoon escape, and we're only bringing one carry-on bag and a small backpack. Good thing yarn squooshes, huh? I thought this would be the ideal cardi for this trip as it's soft, lightweight, squishes up to almost nothing since it was knit with laceweight yarn, is MALABRIGO BABY, and it matches all of my sundresses that I'm bringing. It can get a little chilly on the boat in the early morning and late evenings.



Only problem? NO SLEEVES. cripes. I kept thinking I had a couple more weeks, a couple more weeks, um HOLY CRAPAMOLY! SO I've got a few evenings ahead plus plane rides on the way. I have this ISSUE with sleeves. I don't like them and they don't like me. The last sweater I knit sleeves for had THREE by the time I was done. SO, I can either figure that there's no way in holy hell I will have 2 sleeves knit in laceweight yarn with 1X1 ribbed cuffs and just wear some crappy heavy thing. OR I could wear it as is, which quite honestly does look bad without actual sleeves. I think I'm just going to knit my living ass off and enjoy this floaty heavenly soft cardigan WITH SLEEVES!



Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it.

And, as always, we've got family staying at our house, so no freaky stash stealers come over please. PLUS we've got a new guard dog. Well, she guards my ankles as she sleeps at my feet while I knit, but I'm SURE if she knew my stash (or kids) were being threatened, she'd go insane.

mmmmmohair!

I think I must've just cooked my brain. I spent at least half the vacation at the lake carding mohair, spinning mohair (with a crap-ton sitting on my lap), mohair floating through the air, and then KNITTING with mohair. It was fabulous. Fabulously hair, fluffy and mohairy.





This scarf is my own design, but is VERY simple, basically just garter stitch forever and a ruffled edge at each end. I'll publish a free pattern for it shortly. :)

I will say I didn't break into any of the other batches of mohair to knit, I got distracted by some sunset colored hand painted 100% silk by Crafty in a Good Way Andrea. HOLY CRAP that woman could dye yarn!! Too bad she's off saving the world by being a nurse. *sigh* I'm now on a mission to unearth all the rest of her 100% silk yarn. If you have any sitting in your stash, it really REALLY wants to be knit up by me. I cast on, finished and then cast on a 2nd Citron. You haven't citron-ed until you've citron-ed in 100% silk. yummy doesn't even begin to describe it.





Color is most true in the close-up of the ruffled edge. Yes, there may be a theme going on, I just can't get enough of the ruffle!

I was just cranking out the knits at the lake. Here's the start of my Featherweight Cardigan out of malabrigo lace. It's so soft to knit that I'm loving just holding it in my hands as I knit. Plain old stockinette is a dream to knit along.





I should go to the lake for three weeks more often!