SHE KNITS! (who knew!?)

First another vacation picture, because it inspired a design and so must be included here. It will be the last one, I promise. Maybe. I think. Naah. There's a couple more in this post. This is Assateague Island with sun on it, taken Saturday morning as we were heading out for Pennsylvania. The day we biked it there was no sun, just wind (gusting to 35-40mph), cold (around 58), and rain (very light mostly), but I loved it there and would go back again in a heartbeat. I saw ponies. I saw mega-squirrels, some sort of Delmarva Monster Rodent (ok, ok, it's just a fox squirrel). But back to the marsh...as we drove up the peninsula I was struck by the resemblance of the blues and greens of the salt marshes to a skein of yarn I had hanging about in my bag. I pulled it
out and cast on for a sock. It was a top down sock. I hated it. So I ripped it out and started a toe up. Voila! The Assauteague Sock, a toe-up combination of salt-marsh layers and undulating wave pattern. The yarn is Panda from Seacoast Handpainted Yarns. It's a wonderful blend of 60% superwash merino, 30% bamboo and 10% nylon, put up at 400 yards a skein, and I adore it. Love it. Want more of it. The bamboo makes it drapey and lush, while the wool helps it to retain some boing - and I do need some boing in my sock yarn. Adore it. Pattern is my own and will eventually be on The Website for sale, along with three others, hopefully by the first of June. I have to-have to-have to return to Assateague. I'd like to stay on Chincoteague for a week and ride my bike all over it and the adjacent island. Wildlife everywhere. Beaches. Sand. Bike paths that used to accommodate auto traffic so they're wide and smooth and allow your mind to drift, giving you ten feet to recover before you hit a tree.
I was not going to talk about the vacation stuff any more. OK, ok, just one more thing, promise. If there is a sign on a roller coaster that says "You WILL lose your hat on this ride!", believe them. I had it in my hand, not even on my head and woosh, it was gone, right off the Wild Mouse coaster that made Mr. Wonderful green. Mr. Wonderful was not made to go high up in the air and perch perilously on the edge of a crazy mouse track. My lovely orange Gettysburg hat, lost and gone forever, imprisoned in hat-jail at Hersheypark. I like to think that after dark it escaped from the prison walls and ran to Chocolate World and ate all the Scharfen-Berger and Hershey's Cacao Reserve it could get it's little brim on. While we're on the topic of Hersheypark...they've got the nicest wooden coasters I have been on. I loved them. We skipped anything upside down (again. I
really just think I am not made for this activity), and the one that shoots you at about 70 mph straight up and straight down again. We stalked the exit to hear comments, but most people just walked off looking a little dazed and shell-shocked. The most commentary I heard was "You start up the hill and you don't see anything, nothing, man, and then...and then..." but the guy could not say what came next (a big drop? some barrel rolls? what?? His brain shut off at "straight up the hill". That's like getting so drunk that you black out and then try to tell everyone what a great time you had...even though you don't remember it. What's the point?) Give me a good wooden coaster with lots of airtime and a big drop and I am all over it. Hershey divides you into size categories. When you enter the park you stand in front of these measuring posts of varying heights, each labeled with a candy name. Your candy name limits the rides you can go on. Miniatures can go on kiddie rides only. Then there's Kisses, Reese's, Hershey bars, Twizzlers and Jolly Ranchers. I'm a Twizzler. And you know what? I am ok with that. I embrace my Twizzlerhood. The guy tried to make me a Jolly Rancher with a big wink, wink. But I love being a Twizzler. I can get into all sorts of places that Jolly Ranchers can't fit. I can snake through crowds unnoticed. It's all good.
Saddest thing about Pennsylvania Dutch Country: little barefooted Amish kids pimped out at a winery selling painted horseshoes and charging for photos of themselves. Best thing(s) - Hersheypark. Free samples at this place called Kitchen Kettle Village. An insane place called The Outhouse which really does make you laugh in spite of yourself, even if it's a living monument to groaners.More knitting, sort of, is happening here. There's something in this bag, but I
can't say what just yet. It's a surprise! It will be revealed soon, although probably not here first. It's first public debut will probably be at the store, in about a week. And I am swatching for two designs for Webs that should fly right along once my final decisions are made. But more on that later. The swatches are dull right now.
Best thing about coming home - Girl started her first pair of socks out of Franklin she dyed herself with Gail. She's using a pattern she stole from my computer while I was on vacation and she's making them for me. I cried.