Assume Nothing at Home or Abroad

This latest stretch of blog silence was brought to you by my vacation to Martha's Vineyard. We (me, Dan & Lorax) spent a week in a house with 8 other adults and one child. Dan went to college with and roomed with 3 of the guys who were there, the 4th guy went to my college, and the girls we've known equally as long. The little boy is two weeks older than the Lorax. It was crazy, it was fun and I'm glad it is done!

We figured when friends of ours started talking about this that it would never come to pass. We would never get everyone on the same page, schedules are all different, money is tight for everyone. Well, back in February there was a flurry of emails all in one day and tah-dah. Our trip was arranged and we were all in.


This was "home" for the week. We stayed in Edgartown, across from the Katama Airfield. It was a pretty good spot - the backyard was big and open and the kids stayed where the adults were. It was a quiet area, half mile from the water, 3 miles from the center of town.

Lorelai likes to review where her chin is.

The first night there was a bit of a challenge. After the car ride (maybe 2.5 hours - amazingly, no traffic) to Woods Hole, we found a playground for L to run around a bit. She was getting overtired and the ferry ride was not so much fun. Once we were at the house we tried to stick to our "routine" but there was just too much that was new and different. We put her in the pack and play and she did not sleep. Not at all. When we went in to go to bed we heard "mama? mama? mama? hi mama? hi daddy?" We tried to ignore it and hope she would go to sleep but she's determined. Eventually I brought her into bed with us where she promptly passed out and so the rest of the week she slept stuck to my shoulder or kicking me in the side.

On Monday we laid low as Dan and I were zonked but did go for a drive to see the island. Tuesday we hit the beach (a "real" beach compared to what's here in town) and L loved it. She's such a waterbug, I can't wait to get her swim lessons.

(I'm too lazy to edit the photo right now to get rid of that spot. There's something funky going on with the lens or inside the camera. Cleaned it multiple times. It's not even something crazy like a shark. They did film parts of Jaws where we were.)



It was really nice to get out to the water - I'm a beach girl at heart, Dan is not. (Again, another reason why we thought this wouldn't happen - he's not a beach guy). On Wednesday I nudged us out to the West Tisbury's Farmer's Market - I knew that's where I could find yarn! (This is still a knitting blog after all). Time was short as Lorelai was tired and cranky, and the tables / stalls were busy, but I did meet Susie, of Martha's VIneyard Fiber Farm - I babbled a bit about Ravelry and LibrarySarie and tried not to drool too much on the yarns (which are so very very pretty!)


I think that green skein is the skein I bought! Ireland, worsted weight, pretty - I'm thinking cowl. And a no-tag skein of purples. A little heavier than worsted. hat maybe?



Pretty flowers - another customer at the MVFF booth was holding these as she made her purchase, so pretty!

Thursday it rained so we took the little ones to the Library for storytime with Curious George. I have to say I was a bit disappointed with this - certainly it was not the first rainy day on the Island. The staff just seemed a bit unorganized and kerfloofled by the turnout. And apparently who ever was Curious George could only be in the suit for a few minutes at a time. We left without a photo there and that's ok, L is still a bit too young for it. We walked around town a bit before the rain started.

Look, there's a lighthouse in the background!

Friday I found another yarn option on the Island, Island Alpaca - this place was neat. (We should have taken Lorelai here - there were more animals to see than at the Farm institute again, I think it was more that she was too young. She liked the goats, though she thought they were sheep.) Those alpacas have great faces! I didn't think it would be such a great photo op, so the photos are from the iPhone.

If I lived closer I would totally sign up for this.


I think one of the yarns I bought is from that black alpaca with the white face, Zora!
You walk along the alpaca pasture area, in through the barn (where many of them were staying cool) and into the farmhouse / shop.

This is a grey/tweedy color, soft, alpaca / silk blend. Says it's ~300 yards, but I'm a bit skeptical.

This brown fingering weight is made from the fleece of their fiber co-op. Nifty! I have no idea what to do with it. Need advice!

I did visit one more yarn / sewing shop but the yarns there were nothing I hadn't seen before. They did have some local wool, but it was quite scratchy, so I passed as I did have the lovely MVFF skeins.

We took L to the Flying Horse Carousel - she watched very closely until it was her turn and when I went to put her on the horse she screamed. So we sat in the seat for our ride.

And then she screamed to when it was time to get off as well.

So, traveling with a 20.5 month old is quite trying. The time when I thought I would be knitting was spent chasing her to be sure she wasn't getting into trouble or trying to get her to sleep.

(Took this when I went in to get her up from a nap. Heaven.)

I brought 3 projects with me out of fear I would finish something and not know what to do with myself. Figures. I worked on one hush-hush project (sock test & sample knit) on the car ride there and one afternoon on my first grown-up-toe-up sock:

(View from the porch, looking at Katama Airfield)

Better photo of the sock. I have really enjoyed knitting this - maybe because it was toe-up so my brain didn't go on autopilot. Another knitter from SnB wrote the pattern, the yarn is Sunshine Yarns "Fresh" colorway from a sock club a few years back - it makes me think of farmer's markets and vegetable gardens (all that green with the colors popping out). I'm quite pleased with it, and it's just about done. Time will tell if I will suffer second sock syndrome.

And now we're back home. I've not knit any more stitches on my sweater for the KAL so I might be working on that at SnB to ensure that I do it! I finished the back of the Malabrigo Children's dress, have to do the front and I'm dreading the bobbles that are waiting for me there. I've had a job interview that I'm waiting to hear back on, in the meantime I've been looking into day care for L (the job is part time, one day a week. Pay is pretty good for part time, but day care is $$$$). Anyone looking to hire a knitter / technical editor / proofreader / science tutor? Life moves onward.