Going Bush

Well, the day has arrived, or rather the night. We are leaving tonight, or rather, the wee hours of the morning, but closer to midnight than than dawn, on our trip to the Eyre Peninsula. We'll be leaving out at about 2AM, heading through Adelaide before there's any traffic, and then up towards Port Augusta. We should see the sunrise somewhere near there. We'll then go down to Cowell, and from there, head west across the Peninsula to Elliston. We'll be in Elliston for 4 nights, leaving there Saturday, and going down around the coast and Port Lincoln, then up the Eastern shores of the peninsula, where we will spend the night somewhere. We're just not sure where yet. We should be getting back home sometime Sunday night.

I've spent the last two days getting things together and packing. I've sorted through my knitting, and decided on the projects I will take.

Of course, I have two WIP's right now, and neither will take very long to finish. I'm still working on the entrelac jumper for my granddaughter. I didn't have enough yarn to finish it, so I dyed and spun up some more. That little project took some time, but the yarn is all ready now.



Knitting wise, I have the back completed, and am over half way finished with the front.

Once I finish the front, it will go quickly. The sleeves, done in simple stockingnet stitch and rather small, won't take much time at all. I plan on knitting on it on the trip there, and will likely have it ready to be sewn together by the time we reach Elliston.

I'm also taking along the "old fashioned" socks I'm knitting for my father-in-law. I'm a couple of inches up the leg on them, so the K2P1 knitting round and round will be good mindless knitting when that's what I need. I'll also carry it along up front with me, for when I finish the jumper, or maybe just when I need a change.


Once I finish these two projects, I'm going to start my Cleckheaton cardigan. I have brought the pattern and few skeins of yarn for that project. I still need to do guage squares, so I'm thinking I won't get far on that. I also plan on starting another pair of socks, because I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't have a pair of socks on the go. I just haven't figured out which pattern I want to use yet, so I've downloaded some on the laptop to look through, plus I'm taking a couple of sock pattern books and praying for inspiration.



I plan on having a fairly lazy holiday, full of beach walks, sitting on the beach knitting, a bit of getting my toes wet, and some lovely drives through the bush. It's a very peaceful place and peaceful is what I'm looking for.

I'll make a nice big post full of pictures shortly after I get back. Until then...

Down to the Wire

Well, the house is a shambles, but I think I'm as close as I'm going to get to being ready to go to the Bendigo Sheep and Wool show. The last minute things need shoved into bags tomorrow morning, and we plan to make as hasty an exit as possible, at 9AM tomorrow morning. But first, I must sleep a few hours (a very few, it appears), work 8 hours, drive home, shower, throw the straggling things in the bag, have a ciggy, and then off we go.

The trip, theoretically, is about 6 1/2 hours from here, maybe 7. For me, of course, it's longer. There's the stops so I can wee, and the stops so I can smoke, and the stops so Chris can eat sitting still. He refuses to eat while driving. Fair enough. For the most part, it's me that holds up our traveling progress. But, according to Chris, the world as we know it will cease to exist if we don't arrive at the caravan park before 8pm tomorrow. Yes, I did the math. That would mean we had 11 hours to get there, and even I shouldn't be able to delay things that much, so we should be fine. The worst part, of course, will be before we actually leave the house, watching Chris standing, tapping his foot and scowling while I smoke "One more" cigarette before we leave the house.

I did start the fingerless mittens yesterday, although I was trying to rush and kept flubbing up the cast on. I'm doing them two at once, using the Magic Loop, and casting on is always hard for me when doing two at a time. I don't know what I was doing. I think I started knitting back the way I had just came from or something. I'm not sure, but it was hideous. So I tore it all out and started over, I worked a couple of rows and then did a few more at work last night in my free time. I will work on them a bit more tonight at work, but for all intents and purposes, here they are before the trip:



Now all I have to do is have them finished by Saturday morning. It's certainly do-able, particularly on holiday.

Because I was getting the groundwork done on the smaller projects and doing all the preparations for the trip and such at home, I've only worked on the "Peace in the Hood" cardigan at work lately, and then, of course, not last night because I was working on the mitts. Even so, I'm making some progress. I'm about halfway thru the right front at this point.




The "Socks Ahoy are just about ready for me to start putting in the pattern. I've worked on the toe increases, done numerous calculations, and to the best of my knowledge, I like 4 rows before starting to knit in the "Widdershins" pattern. I like the way the colors are knitting up so far, but it will be interesting to see how they look in pattern.



So, with the exception of any progress I make on the mitts tonight at work, those are my WIP's that are going with me to Bendigo, and how they look when I leave. I wanted this as something of a yardstick with which to measure my progress on each project over the trip. Of course, I fully expect the mitts to be finished, but it will be interesting as a before and after shot of the other two projects.

Well, I'm wilting in my chair right now. My eyes are getting a bit furry, and I have a big day ahead. I should be returning Sunday night, and back online Monday. I will try my best to get a detailed and newsy post up Monday about the trip, along with lots of juicy pictures.

Until then...