Looking Out my Front Door

There's no place like home when it comes to a vacation. One doesn't have to spend hours and hours traveling and effectively knocking 2 days off your relaxing vacation. If you're not flying, you don't have to perseverate on what kind of cooties your seatmates are hacking into the shared ventilation system. When finished commuting, you don't have to worry about whether your back will tolerate sleeping on a strange or inferior bed. You don't have to obsess think about how well (more likely not well) housekeeping cleaned your room, bed, bedspread, glassware, tub, toilet and doorknobs, and you don't have to inspect the room for signs of uninvited roommates like, Cimex lectularius (bedbugs). You know how well it was or wasn't cleaned because likely, you are housekeeping and you've only yourself to blame if it's less than perfect.

Not my house

Another highlight is that you don't have to kick yourself in the butt when TSA confiscates your mascara because it wasn't in a baggie, or you forgot something important at home. You are home and nothing is missing. I like it. I'm rested. I have a new attitude and a very scenic landscape to admire. The changes in the neighborhood make it seem like I'm away.


Sara's sweater is mostly done. I just need to seam the sleeves, find the perfect button and do a little blocking in order to cross it off the list. The thick and thin sweater hasn't been touched. I've been led astray. Again. Am I easily distracted, or what?


This is the Pretty as a Peacock Shawl by Some Knitting Required. I know it's not much yet, but I have plowed my way through all of chart A and half of chart B all since Saturday night. It's grown from the 23 stitch cast on to 184 stitches on the needles and is at a point where I can at least read the pattern that's emerging. The yarn is Louet Gems Sport in a natural color (all the better to see the stitches with, my dear) on a cone. I had to special order the cones through my local yarn store, but working this way is so worth it since I have no collapsing cakes of yarn to deal with and instead of 7 skeins and 7 joins, I'll only have 3 joins to fiddle with.


My friend Sarah will dye it a deep teal color when it's off the needles. She's a wonderful color artist, but a bit nervous about taking on this project. I keep assuring her that if the color isn't fabulous, she can always over dye the shawl with black. Over dyed yarns have beautiful depth and it's something I think we may want to consider doing. Maybe I'll knit her a couple of more swatches to fiddle with.

I didn't win the lottery while I was off work, so it's back to the daily grind for me. Sadly, my housekeeper is a slacker and didn't get any laundry done this week. I hope there's at least one set of scrubs that are clean.