Just a bunch of hats and scarves

I took a little spur of the moment trip to the Big Island to visit blogless Keoki in Hilo. She took me on a little scenic trip along the Hamakua Coast. It was typical Hilo...humid, overcast and misty. We stopped to overlook Onomea. At one time there was a natural arch but this has fallen into the sea.



The road went down to Hakalau, where a sugar mill once stood. A group of picnicers showed us much aloha, sharing poke, water and we talked story for awhile. While talking one of them pulled up an ulua and it was soon turned into more poke, seasoned with limu kohu. Talk about fresh fish! This group of people belong to Basic Image. Their mission statement: " Basic Image, Inc. is an organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of natural and cultural education and recreational resources for the benefit and inspiration of present and future generations".

I was too chicken to try the top shell, but if you want to make these, microwave 7 minutes and poke out with a nail. Actually, I don't eat fish raw either. I do like it fried, though:)

The Hilo Farmer's Market was full of food, flowers and color. We had the best green papaya salad!
















Kim is moving back to the Mainland soon. She has packed her house and shipped the poodles so it's for real. While I understand the move is a good one for her, I will miss the knit nights, the phone calls, the cupcakes, samurai werewolf flicks.... At least there is Facebook. I hope to hear continued stories of life in the fifth grade. I will also be losing one my my hat models:(




The knitting has been a series of hats and scarves. I'm a little tired of them. My nephew wanted a beanie the colors of the Jamaican flag. Plymouth Encore was not available in the brighter green and there is so much yardage, I can make a whole lot more hats. Perhaps I'll make some for donation. The scarf is a pattern I got in a Tacoma store and is called Julie's Fantastic Scarf. It is one row lace and very fast to knit. I used two skeins of Royal Llama Silk, a very nice yarn to work with.








On the work scene, I'm working a lot more due to a provider leaving and one being on vacation. I put in 24 hours this past week, will put in 40 hours next week, and 10 hours the following week before flying off to Camano Island and Seattle. All these hours have seriously impacted the "retired" feel. Oh well, the paycheck will be nice as I'm sure I'll find many treasures in the great state of Washington. I'm looking forward to Deception Pass, the strawberry farm, the lavender farm, and hanging with girls, and my favorite doggy, Ms. Ebony.

Yarn Acquisitions and the WIP, Baby February

I received a very nice package in the mail thanks to Claudia's MS ride. The package included some very squishy sock yarn from Lavendersheep, the cutest darn card with miniature knitting, sock needles and cable needle, and a sock pattern. As one who rarely win anything, I am elated! Maybe I'm ready for Vegas...there may be 1.3 million out there for me:)

I've gone on pink roll, and these are my latest splurges at Little Knits.

Cashwool is merino wool, no cashmere, and the laceweight gauge is quite scary looking . What was I thinking? The pink has a slight lavender tinge, and was difficult to photograph.



This cottonfine is more of a rose with s slight orange tinge. I wanted to try out this yarn that is 20% wool.


I'm encouraged by the progress of February Baby. I had such a block doing February Lady, but I may try again. After all, it's just a big February Baby.

Icarus is bound for the frog pond...maybe tomorrow.

PS: or maybe today for


Ball of seasilk formerly known as Icarus.

Projects and Pictures

Happy birthday, America! Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend.

The Landcaster (number 2 son) tried out his camera on the fireworks over Pearl Harbor. They came out very nice. It was a nice dark night for fireworks.
Two days ago, the moon was red ~3-4am.



On the knitting front, I'm going to try my hand at E. Zimmerman's Baby Sweater on Two Needles. I won an ebay auction and will use some of the Bernat Organic Cotton in muslin. I plan to dye it after it's knitted. The yarn is not as soft as Pakucho. I started with a size 6 needle, but I'm going to go down to a 5 to make a firmer fabric.

Alas, poor Icarus. I did not have enough Sea Silk. I don't know how to get more as I don't know what colorway this is and the monitor colors are difficult to compare. I did only two repeats of chart two instead of the 4 and had 65% of the yarn left by weight, but that was not enough. This project will hibernate until it's fate is decided.


Thanks to a visiting number 4, blogless sister, my bag stash was completely depleted. I have two new ones in the store (see side bar) As I just got called to work tomorrow more will have to wait. I may have to work Tuesday, too.