Vacation Knitting 2010

We have been sitting at the wonderful beach house in Montague right on Lake Michigan for the past week.  As usual, I agonized over what knitting to bring.  Not too much, but enough to keep me busy.  Variety in case I ran into a snag, and something interesting.  This would have been the perfect location to bring all those unfinished projects, but that would have meant taking up more space in the car.  We had to have room for 3 adults, 1 dog, 2 bikes, some food, and clothes too.  Nobody seemed to want to have my knitting projects squished around them.  The only one who would not have complained is Lloyd.

I decided to bring a Hanne Falkenberg kit, Chess, with me.  It is a sweater for my husband.  I had purchased the kit a couple of years ago, and this seemed like a good thing to bring along.  Provided you have the right needles, her kits are very well written, and I can easily work on them even when I don’t feel like concentrating.  The hardest problem was finding a pair of size 2 needles not tied up on another project.  I ended up bringing a pair of straights, as all of the circulars were occupied.  Good thing I did too.  Her pattern called for a 3 – 3 1/2 mm needle.  American size 2 is usually a 2.75mm, and the size 3 is a 3.25mm. I say usually, as every manufacturer has their own standards, it is very frustrating at times with the lack of uniformity.

My progress was as follows:

• I  cast on 125 stitches with the size 3, knit a bit, realized it was too loose, so recast on with the size 2.
• Knit the entire rib, started the pattern and had difficulty with the # of stitches.  That is when I realized that my 3 1/2″ of ribbing was for the small size
• Started over AGAIN, with size 2 needles, and the correct # of stitches (135) for the ribbing.
• Changed to size 3 needles, worked the pattern for a few rows, and realized it was too loose, so ripped back to the ribbing.
• This time the entire sweater is knit with a size 2 needle, and no major issues since.  Lots of easily memorized pattern knitting.

So, after 5 days of knitting, I am not as far as I had hoped, but the gauge is correct, and I like the colors:

The weather has been gorgeous here.  Friday morning is the first bit of inclement weather, with a few sprinkles that are blowing away to give us another great beach day.  My sister Jill is up here for the week with us, and she brought 2 of her unfinished sweaters.  She completed one, and the second is almost done.  She has been very determined to get these done while I am here to help her.

Dan has spent his time reading, playing guitar, and swimming:

View from the deck:

View from the beach:

And gorgeous sunsets:

My son is here with friends.  I haven’t gotten photos of them yet though.

I also brought socks and a lace project which I have not worked on here…