Panama - Day 1

After I posted that last entry, Dan and I spent a few hours packing and getting everything ready for us to be gone. We finally made it to bed at 2:45. The alarm went off at 3:30 and the taxi arrived at 4. So we got a bit of a nap. The first flight (to Houston) went by quickly since we were both dead asleep. The Houston-Panama flight seemed to take a little longer, but we got good views of the Yucatan, and our first view of the Canal (although it was in the section that's part of a lake, so it wasn't the typical view).

We got into Tocumen International Airport and found a taxi to our hotel. We took the toll road which goes on a causeway giving good views of the city and financial district. It's a very cosmopolitan feel with a very diverse population.
After checking in to our hotel (comparable to an American hotel, including the high speed internet, hooray!) we got a taxi to take us to the Metropolitan National Park. It's the only rainforest inside city limits, and a good place to see some wildlife. I also wanted to find some letterboxes.

We arranged for our taxi driver to come back in three hours and set off down one of the trails. Despite what the link above says, we found it pretty successful in terms of wildlife. The highlight of the visit was when we saw a band of foraging coatis! With their tails pointing straight up in the air we first thought they were a kind of goose-like bird with a very small head. We soon figured it out, though. We watched and took photos for about 5 minutes until they finally caught wind of us and took off. Here're the best photos of the lot:

We also saw an agouti, a monkey (red-backed squirrel monkey), a "Jesus Christ" lizard running across a pond, what may or may not have been a sloth, and several cool birds. We saw and touched some very cool Cuipo "tank" trees, which are hollow and echo when you tap on them. There was an overlook with a great view of Panama City, and I got two of the three letterboxes.

Afterward, we came back to the hotel and showered (lots of humidity!), and then decided to just take it easy and eat at the hotel restaurant, even though it's a TGI Fridays. And looks and makes the same food as the TGI Friday's at home. You don't get the patio with the view of the Bridge of the Americas at home, though. And then it was back to the room, where we watched a subtitled 8 Mile, and I knit a bit on the sock (look! A knitting reference! On a knitting blog! Gosh, how crazy!). Then early to bed - easy after the day we had.

Quick

OK, so there's a taxi coming to pick me up in 3.5 hours to go to the airport (to go to Panama) AND I haven't packed a thing yet, SO this will be a quick entry.

Just wanted to say that I did get to the beach (Virginia Beach for those who asked). And the sock went too.

I'm going to try to post pictures and travelogue stuff (possibly knitting as well!) from Panama, since our hotel has internet access. If I don't get a chance, though, have a great 4th of July weekend and I'll see you next week!

Shrug!

Remember that shrug I showed you a brief sneak peek in progress picture of? The one that I told you was finished and worn to a wedding (rehearsal dinner and wedding, actually) almost a month ago? Well, here she is! Isn't she purdy?

Details:
Pattern: Drop Stitch Shrug from the Summer 2005 Interweave Knits staff project. The photo was in the magazine, but the instructions are available in a pdf file from the website (linked directly above).
Yarn: Brooks Fiber Farm Duet in Warm Black (which can be slightly gray-black variegated in some light conditions)
Needles: Um, I've already forgotten. 8 sounds about right?
Completed: I finished sewing it up in the afternoon of May 27, 2005 (after finishing the knitting in the car on the drive up) and wore it to the rehearsal dinner that night.

Comments: I love this stitch pattern. It definitely looks like knot holes in bark, and I love this arrangement of them in an orderly pattern. It also makes the knitting go quicker when you're dropping a bunch of stitches every eighth row. The mohair was perhaps not the absolute best choice to deal with the stitch pattern, since it didn't really like to drop down, but with a little coaxing it worked out OK.
The corners of the arms in the back tend to pull and pucker a bit strangely, and I think that maybe I didn't sew the sleeves up as far as I might have (so it's a bit wider across the shoulders than it needs to be), but that's a simple fix. Also, I don't notice the puckering except in photographs!

One caution about the mohair: it's definitely a bad yarn to use next to the skin when wearing anything sleeveless under it. See, the mohair has a tendency to shed little black fuzzies everywhere, which I don't mind, except when they stick in my armpit and make me look like I have a couple of months worth of growth down there. (Luckily one of my friends said something to me in a non-embarrasing way so I could de-fuzz before too much of the night went on).
I love wearing this over a sleeveless dress or tank. It's also one of the perfect garments for me to take to work in the frigidaire that passes for an office (seriously, we're pretty sure the thermostat is broken in the Arctic range) because it covers my arms, thereby letting me wear the cute short-sleeved tops in the summer, but does not cause me to get too warm and overheat.
All in all, this was a great project. It's actually the perfect thing to make if you're just trying to move on from scarves and don't want to tackle anything too different yet. You do a bunch of increases and decreases, but the basic knitting is a long skinny rectangle. It's then miraculously turned into a garment (really a pair of sleeves) but just seaming up two of the sides and stopping before you get to the middle. Ingenious! I love it! I see lots more shrugs in my future... I'm thinking soft yarn like MicroSpun. These things had better stay in style for a long time!

P.S. Also to note - the super cute super short summer hair cut! Yay!

Hello

So much is happening and I have so little time to blog about it. I guess that's how it works sometimes, huh?

Since my last post, I have: finished that blue sock; started a Ballet T-Shirt (from Loop-d-Loop), realized that the Ballet T-Shirt was eating up my yarn and that I would either wind up with a crop, crop, cropped shirt or run out, ripped it out (3 slinky slithery strands held together, not good); decided that the yarn (Gedifra Marrakesch, which has the most unique texture of any yarn I've ever worked with - it's like tiny tubes of panty hose stuffed with fiberfill) will have to be reincarnated as either a NBaT or Tivoli (leaning towards Tivoli right now); signed up for a workshop with Teva Durham herself on designing my own shrug (yippee!); went to the best meetup ever; got all of my hair chopped off; worked some on my Clapotis; planned our next vacation (to Panama! In two weeks!); and cast on a new sock, ripped it out (too big), and knit until I'm past the point I ripped out at.

I also took the sock to a baseball game:

Yay! Nats wiiin!

And that's all I have time for tonight. I'll try and get pictures of various things taken and entries posted this week, if I manage to get home before dark, and my photographer and hair cooperate. I'm going to the beach this weekend - car knitting, woo-hoo!

Well, hello there!

Didja miss me? Unlike previous absences, there's no dramatic story or explanation this time... just a certain blog-ennui I guess. To make up for it, here's a fabulous entry for you - pictures, words and more. Unfortunately, no FO's. I've finished things, I just don't have pictures. That will have to wait...

[First - a sidebar to everyone googling "Sarah W." and winding up here. That happens to be my name, but I'm not the contestant on The Bachelor, as I'm sure you figured out from the photo up there. Sorry to disappoint you. However, if you like knitting and crafts, please feel free to look around!]

OK, remember way back when there was this Sheep & Wool Festival in Maryland? And I went to it and I bought things? And then I promised to show what I'd purchased on the blog? Yeah, I barely remember that too. Why is it that a month seems like such a long freaking time? Anyway... promises kept! The haul:

[General purchases on left; sock yarn on right; click for bigger pics]

The first picture has the "general" purchases. From left - the red and black are both from Brooks Fiber Farm. The black was wound up and the tail off to the side was already leading to a WIP by the time these photos were taken (which I'm quite proud of!). Here's a sneak peek progress photo of that WIP (anyone recognize the stitch markers?)... it's actually finished now (I wore it to a wedding last weekend), but FO photos are still not completed. Continuing around clockwise, there is some roving to make thrummy thrum thrums this winter, the pattern for orca mittens (I couldn't resist), and then some yarn from the bargain bin (50% off!) to play with - Soy Silk, Bamboo (possibly enough for a striped Honeymoon or something similar), and Rowan Plaid for a pair of mittens.
The second photo is the sock yarn haul (note: not all yarn is pictured; I bought enough for at least one pair from each). I did especially well at the bargain bin with several kinds of Regia... (and enabled several other bloggers to benefit as well!). I have enough of the plain red Silja and blue Regia on the top left for a baby sweater a la Devan. Then there are three more striped Regia, the orange is from Spirit Trail (the last two skeins were mine!), and the two on the right are Socks That Rock - Blarney Stone and Beryl (I think).

Speaking of socks, I know that Second Sock Syndrome is a well-documented phenomenon (that is, the reluctance to cast on and knit a second or mate sock once you've finished the first one of the pair). However, I seem to have a new, mutated form. You see, long ago, prior to the first Sockapalooza, I began my first real pair of socks - a practice pair in Blue Regia cotton. I finished the first one, then knit the pair of socks for my partner. Upon returning home from Sheep & Wool, I was burning to cast on and start knitting one of my new sock yarns... I knew that my Addi's were still in the bag with the first sock and the waiting ball of yarn. In true harloty fashion, I decided to just steal the needles and figured I'd get around to finishing the other blue sock someday. Until I went to the sock bag and grabbed the needles, and found...

this. A mostly completed sock. Which I had somehow entirely forgotten about. Seriously, how is that possible? I had a sock that was 75% done, and all it needed was a little cuff. Needless to say, I wasn't able to steal the needles, but it turned out for the best, because a few movies and some cuff-knitting later, and I have a pair of blue socks. And the Addis are now free and waiting for the next pair to be cast on guilt-free (well, it's not the needles that would be guilty, it's me, but you know what I mean)...

And a quick thank-you to Christine, my partner in Pinku's pink hair accessory swap. I got this great selection
all the way from Japan. The cherries have already been worn to work, as a perfect partner to my cherry shirt. Thanks, Christine!

Alrighty, then. I think that's all of the knitty news that I have without more photos. Next time, my new WIP... not yet cast on, but it's going to be from Loop-d-Loop (yay!).