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Saturday, August 14, 2010

Summertime Socks & Knitting on the Beach

Our family was invited to spend a week in South Bethany Beach, Delaware this month.  The house was right off the beach, an easy walk to & from the ocean.  This meant carrying picnic lunches was easy, & so was running back to the house for the forgotten drinks.  Day one I fell asleep under the umbrella, but by day two I was rested & ready to break out my beach knitting.
I saw one other knitter that morning, a 9 year old who had just learned to knit the day before.  She was blazing her way through a garter stitch scarf on size 10 needles, & it looked pretty good.  Her aunt, who had taught her to knit, was nearby with a giant pair of sunglasses & a magazine.
I loved seeing so many people reading on the beach. Not a laptop or 'mobile device' in sight.  I guess there's no service on the beach.   I did see ipods & a couple of kindles & readers.  Most of them were carefully sealed into ziplock bags.  I thought I'd need a plastic bag for my knitting, but I used a small project bag instead & it worked out fine.
So, what did I take along for my beach knitting?  NOT the giant worsted weight, fair-isle cardigan I'm making for my August sweater-of-the-month! SOCKS, of course!  I cast on a pair of socks in a limited edition color way from Whorled Peace.  They're a gift, so pictures will be along in a few weeks.  I didn't get a lot of knitting done while we were on the beach, but there was one good stretch when I was sitting alone under the umbrella watching the waves & knitting.
Rather than carrying along a pattern, I'm just making up the socks as I go along.  Nothing fancy--I used the surprisingly stretchy cast on, a simple 2 X 2 rib for the cuff, & the leg is a K3,P1 rib.
We're home from the beach now & I've turned the heel & have the gusset under way.  Sock number two will have to be worked fairly quickly as I want these to be done by the end of the month.  What I'd give for another week knitting at the beach!

2 comments:

  1. So honored to hear you took Whorled Peace yarn with you to knit those socks. Sounds like a wonderful relaxing time! Wait until you see the new medium weight sock yarn I've just finished painting for Lancaster Yarn Shop...and a great new surprise pattern to go with it! I am knitting up a sample right now and it looks so beautiful! I will deliver it this week!

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  2. Can't wait to see the finished project of course. Glad you all had fun at the beach, great place to put yourself in another state of mind. Nice! Janet

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