Sun and Sunscreen?

I just got back from a sunny week in Mexico. Not much knitting, other than at the airport and on the plane, but what a nice time we had. It was 87 F every day and we golfed every morning and swam in the pool and ocean every afternoon. The evenings were a balmy 74F, and the walk on the beach at night was wonderful. Here's a few non-knitting photos.... First Rick para-sailing...the pool...

This one is a shot of the crocodile we saw in the pond on the golf course. The Marina Vallarta golf course is home to lots of these guys but they were hard to find in the mornings. (too much tequilla the night before?)

one of many cool statues in old town Puerto Vallarta...Sunset over the Pacific Ocean....

Productive Knitting

The Christmas projects are coming along well, and of course I cannot fully disclose, but thought it may be fun to do teaser photos of the first two...

Not enough to give away the final results, but you can see I have been busy.

The patons Stretch Cotton socks are finished, and I enjoyed doing them on the one long circular needle. I will do a few more, now that the cold weather is here, they are pretty much all I wear.

Interlude...

Since I cannot show photos of knitting in progress (projects to become Christmas gifts, so not to be revealed here until later!) I will take this opportunity to show the latest art work...And I finally framed and hung on the wall, my bicycle painting from spring. I like it here.

And on a completely unrelated note....
This new game for Nintendo DS, came out recently. Prey the Stars. It is an all ages game of cool monsters eating everything in sight and competing against other cool monsters. The game is the first I have played since Intelevision in the eighties (not a game-junkie) but I mention it here because my son was part of the team that created this game for Koei Canada (his first game at his new job after graduation from UofW with a computer science degree).
Proud Mom moment...

Sock Talk

I was delighted to find Patons Stretch sock yarn on SALE at Michaels' this week. So I bought two more colours, a tan mix and a grey mix. I am already working on the green colour mix and like the results so far. The pattern is the same as my stand by sock pattern, but this yarn is 41% cotton, 39% wook, 13% nylon and 7% elastic (very stretchy) so these all year round socks hold their shape really well.

The other thing new to me is the abandoning of the traditional 4 double point needles for ONE circular in 3mm. It is a 36" Addi turbo, and I observed a clever knitter, standing, and knitting on one of these. I stared at the way she moved the cables to two big loops and the stitches to two halves of the sock, and I had a eureka moment.... no stitches slipping off the tips of the DPN's, no dropped into the sofa twilight zone needles.... miraculous really. I couldn't wait to get home and launch my first ONE NEEDLE sock...

Here are a few photos of how the sock looks at various stages...