Off to the Beach

Tommorrow starts 10 whole days off from my normal paid employment. (Being female, I never say "Off work" since I tend to spend more than a few hours of my vaction time catching up on housekeeping and other chores). In about 3 more days, Thursday that is, we'll be heading off to the beach. We have rented a cabin on the ocean in Port Turton, South Australia, on the Yorke Penisula, for 3 nights. I simply can't wait.

As usual, I had my knitting projects planned well in advance for this adventure. I spent some time trying to decide just what I was going to take with me, but decided my "main project" for this free time in the sun will be a fairly simple cotton top, using the 8 ply cotton and a pattern I bought from Bendigo Woolen Mills during my last vacation. (Nice way to tie the vacations together, I suppose.) It's easy, almost entirely stockinette stitch, so 99% of it will be perfect for knitting on the long car rides or sitting on the beach, but with picot edging to give it a bit of a fancy touch. It's one of those tops you can wear alone or under a jacket or blazer. The color is a light pea green shade. Don't ask me the actual name of it, I really can't recall. Still, I reckon it will match up with lots of other colors.

When I'm sitting around knitting, non-knitters always make comments like: "You must be so patient to do that". Wrong! I don't think knitters are patient people at all. Doggedly persistent maybe, but not patient.

As mentioned, I had planned well in advance to work on this project during this vacation. Nevertheless, after finishing all my Christmas knitting, and having finished everything but the trim on the "Russian Blue Cat" scarf, I found myself at loose ends when it came to an easy, work on anywhere project. So, right before Christmas, I started casting on stitches for the cotton top. I reasoned with myself that it would be well and truly started and I wouldn't have to do all that pesky cast on, rib border counting stuff while in the car on the trip over. Yep, I convinced myself. Now, a week or so later, well, I have about a third of the front done already. That still leaves me alot to knit on while I'm gone, and I'm going to take my Alpaca jacket as well, but really, I had intended to save it.

What is it about knitting, really, that makes you more impatient to start a project than you are to finish one?

Speaking of the Alpaca jacket (I've posted pics of this project before, mentioned fondly in my UFO thread, I believe), I've finished the back, one front, and half of the other front. This is what I want to take just to switch up and give me a break from the cotton, as I much prefer working on Alpaca (or any wool) to knitting up cotton, which can be slippery and hard to keep tension on, at least for me. It is in a "counting" phase, as I'm shaping the front around the sleeve holes and the collar, so it will be great for quiet times when I can concentrate.

I might also take the "Russian Blue Cat" scarf, just to work the trim on, but that's a whole bunch of knitting up, and I'm not sure I'll have gaps of "concentration" time that big. We'll see. If nothing else, it might go along for the ride. I'd really like to finish it, cause it's going to my cousin in Texas, and I'd love to get it to her while it's still winter over there.

Knitting on the beach! I can't wait!!!