Monday 13 July 2009

For once there will be no pictures as I have some 'issues' with my laptop, however I decided to go ahead and post anyway. We are into the last week of school. I have just waved off the fourth of eight reward trips that I have organized/ coordinated & have a few minutes not to spare exactly, but without something screamingly urgent to do as I have just realized that my next class are involved in Sports Day!
We are putting a little more shape to our holiday plans. We are going to set off on Tuesday, aiming for Killin, near to Loch Tay, for our first night. We may hang around there for a day or so, but most likely Wednesday will see us heading for Uig on Skye & the ferry to North Uist. We will probably camp at Uig, make sure that we are fully ‘charged’ & topped up & then catch the early morning ferry to Lochmaddy –after that? Who knows? We may head south towards Eriskay & then spend the next few days working our way back northwards, returning to Skye in the middle of the next week. What we do will depend on a) our mood b) the weather c) the availability of nice places to tuck ‘Brian’ up for the night. There is only one ‘official’ campsite on Benbecula if we need to top up the battery etc so we plan to buy a spare so that we can be truly footloose & fancy free!
One thing that will not cut short the holiday is a shortage of knitting projects. I am favoring Evelyn Clarke’s ‘Heartland’ knitted in Kauni’s rainbow yarn (My rebel without a cause ‘ hippy’ shawl) for a ‘big’ project, then there are my ‘Sunshine Socks’ to finish, some ‘Manly Monkey socks for Mr. J, and the orange lily of the valley scarf, from Estonian Lace. The later project is ‘on the needles’ or should I say ‘on the second lot of needles’ because I snapped my harmony knit pros on the purl 5 tog bit of the nupps! I have had to opt for metal tips & although I am devoted to wooden needles in general I have to say these are quite nice. Infact where a sharp point is needed (i.e. nupps!) I will use them again. I cannot praise Lyn at P2Tog enough for the prompt replacement at no charge of the damaged needles (I didn’t ask, I just said why the order was urgent). Again, thank you! I know I will not complete all the projects, but different occasions/ locations call for different knits imho. The socks will be fine for slipping in a backpack for on the ferry, on a beach or picnic time. The shawl pattern doesn’t look too demanding (famous last words) so should be OK for straighter roads & at camp. The lily of the valley scarf needs a bit of concentration but is a fairly small project. This could be a good one for when Mr. J is off on a run (he is building up his mileage ready for ‘The Great North Run’ in September). I will also slip in my new Tunisian crochet hook so that I can practice my new …well skill might be stretching it a bit… but you know what I mean. If this booklet arrives in time, I would like to practice Tunisian entralac for some future throw or blanket. I will pack a few extra patterns/ lots of yarn incase the mood doesn’t send me in the direction of these projects! When I look back at last year’s holiday & the knitting I completed then perhaps this isn’t too ambitious. Last year the score was two pairs of socks, one scarf & two pairs of fingerless mitts I think.
This week I plan to finish my ‘Chewbacca’ Forest canopy shawl (Thanks Kath for the idea for the name!). It’s my hairy merino & bunny angora shawl. It’s scheduled for a good swill and a blow as part of the blocking process. I am sure it will be fine as long as I wear it with black!
Actually its evening time as I actually post this -Blogger wouldn't play earlier!

2 comments:

florencemary said...

Hope the visit to the Western Isles is good! We stayed in a traditional black-house cottage not far from Uig a few years ago; I so wanted to visit the outer Hebridean islands, but Igor put a veto on this. It took me a while to figure out (something that I'd never realised before) that he was too scared to go on a ferry.

Hope you have a wonderful time! X

Mandy said...

Have a lovely time with all of your projects. Hope the weather is kind to you.