Hawaiian Vacation

We are back from vacation (as of Saturday evening) and it was a lot of fun! For the most part we had a great time – there were a few traveling snafus and some tiffs among traveling companions, but we pulled through and moved on. We did many of the typical Hawaiian vacation-y things like snorkeling, swimming with dolphins, & attending a luau, however…..
Even cooler were the unplanned things like hiking down a cliff to an amazing canyon and coastal view,

holding a baby octopus, and getting within touching distance to a sea turtle. Close encounters with nature!

On the snorkeling cruise we also saw a HUGE school of dolphins (like 30-40 of them) swimming along our boat and doing corkscrew jumps in the air. They seemed so happy and playful; they were so beautiful. I didn't know wild dophins could jump like that - it was a huge surprise to me and shows how agile they naturally are. The most amazing thing of all was seeing several "full breech" jumps by a humpback 30 yards from our boat – SO COOL. Everyone on the cruise turned into little kids running around the upper deck trying to get it on their digital cameras and gasping at each jump!

PICTURE TO BE POSTED (I couldn't leave my post to grab the camera, so I will have to rely on our traveling buddies to provide the dolphin & whale photos!)

On the knitting front, my biggest accomplishment over the week was finishing a red cabled hat for my MIL – I’m just not sure its her style. I’m not sure she’s even much of a hat person, but she specifically asked me for one, so what can I do? It was made from Lamb’s Pride and the pattern is coronet from knitty.com. Cute, easy pattern for gifts.

Last night I CO for a fair-isle (FI) mitten from Knitty as well. I’m trying to use yarn from my stash and chose a purple from the Vogue shawl for the MC and a variegated koigu for the CC. I just worry a little that the pattern will look weird, but I’m just experimenting with FI more than anything else….see? I like it, the variegation makes it look like i did more work than I actually did!

I did get to wear the Vogue Shawl on our trip on SEVERAL occasions (see prom-like photo below) – a very useful FO that I would totally make again! In solid black with white ruffles I think…
A high school friend just let me know she’s expecting, so I’m thinking about making her a baby blanket, but I haven’t decided. I’m not sure when the baby is due, but I think I have some time to put off making a decision right now. Somewhere between 1 and 9 months I guess =) Phew!!

That’s all for now