Tag Archives: road trip knitting

On the Road Again

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We just got back from another road trip! This time, to Mt Rainier National Park.  My folks came to visit last weekend, and we drove to the mountain and stayed in the lodge at the top (well… the lodge is about a third of the way up the mountain, but it’s as far as you can get with a car).  The weather was… wet… but the park is absolutely gorgeous, nonetheless.

I mean, look at it!  It’s absolutely stunningWe spent the day hiking around, checking out waterfalls and finding tiny wildflowers.  (We even spotted a fox and a few deer-but they were too fast to get a picture.)And, in the evening we hung out in the lodge, playing cribbage and playing the ukulele.  It was absolutely delightful.

Unfortunately, the road to Rainier is narrow and twisty, so I wasn’t able to make that much headway on my Road Trip Socks (dang motion sickness!).  I had hoped I would be able to finish them last weekend, but it looks like I’ll just have to keep working on them at home.  Oh well- we still had a fantastic trip.

Have you spent any time in National Parks?  Which is your favorite?

Road Trip Knitting

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Summer’s Road Trip Season, and this year I’ve got a bunch of trips coming up.  We’re flying to California to visit friends, we’re driving to Mt. Rainier with my folks and we’re going to a family reunion waaaaay up in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan.

Of course, we’re not doing all this at the same time (we do have to work, after all).  But, I want to get ready for all that car/plane downtime.  That means stocking up on Dramamine, filling my Kindle with new books, and planning out some simple-yet-interesting knitting projects.

I’m a big fan of socks as travel knitting.  They’re small enough to fit into a purse or cary-on, but take long enough to fill up a whole week of travel.  And, other than turning the heel, they’re easy enough that you don’t really have to focus on what you’re doing.

They’re the best!

Anyway, I dug into my stash, and found a bunch of little ends of sock yarn.  So, I was thinking of doing something to use up that yarn.  Stripes seem too boring, and colorwork would make me carsick (simple is the name of the game, after all).

I poked around on Ravelry, until I found these beauties!

Broken Seed Stitch Socks by Hanna LevaniemiHer original pattern (it’s not a formal pattern, exactly, more like a design suggestion that I can use with my standard Socks by the Numbers pattern) uses a lovely cream color with a pretty variegated yarn. The little stripes combined with the knit/purl pattern make the colors blend together really nicely.

But, what I really love is the idea that Ravelry User mckr had.  Stripes!  But when the stripe colors are mixed with the background color, the whole thing looks gorgeous and cohesive.So, I picked out six mini balls of leftover sock yarn, and a full 50g skein of a lovely navy blue.  I think they’ll look great together.  (One of the mini-skeins even has sparkles!)

I’m making myself wait until our road trips are officially going before I start knitting these bad boys.  Vacation can’t start soon enough!

Are you looking forward to any upcoming projects?

 

Home Again, Home Again

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Jiggity-jig.

(What? I’m the only one who says that?)

I’m back home, and I’m exhausted.

It was great to see our families (both mine and my husband’s), and I had a fabulous time.  We played cards, ate lots of great food, and explored Pennsylvania, Cleveland and Chicago.  All in a week!  A real whirlwind tour.

And, of course, I did a ton of knitting.  You can’t expect me to spend all that time in cars, airplanes and the Chicago L and not get out my knitting.  I’ll tell you about everything I worked on (I can finish a surprising amount of knitting when I’m cooped up in the back of a minivan for 12 hours) over the next couple weeks.  But, I want to start with what might have been my favorite project.

You remember this brightly-colored beauty (the one on the right)?  It’s Knitted Wit Victory DK in Fairy Garden… Swoon.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWell, a few hours of work (and approximately 1 million ends to weave in later… no wonder I’ve never made gloves before… what a pain!), I’ve got my own crazy-lady riding gloves  (Also known as the Ringwood Gloves from Rebecca Blair- a very well-written pattern!)OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI love them!  And I love that their coloring is just slightly different.  It’s hand-painted yarn, after all.

I also love the very cool, but surprisingly simple stitch pattern.  It’s two rows of stockinette, and one of k1p1 rib.  Easy!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe gloves are dense and squishy and lovely, and I can’t wait for the weather to get cool enough to wear them.

Now I just have to find buttons for the cuffs… I’m thinking little, white shell buttons, or maybe faux pearls.  I’ll have to go through my big button jar and see what I have.

What kind of buttons would you use?