Nice vacation, but no knitting

We left for Florida on last Monday and drove as far as Valdosta, Ga. After spending the night in a hotel, we continued to Orlando on Tuesday. Part one of our plan was to hang out at the pool for a few days. We stayed in the Disney All Star Music resort. Since we've done all the Disney theme parks in the past and we knew the temperature in Florida during July would be a killer, we decided to only hang out and swim. Three days of playing in water and catching a few rays. No need to worry, though. We all used SPF 50 sunscreen.

On Friday, we migrated a bit further south to just north of Naples, FL. We stayed at a time-share condo for three nights. Part of the deal was that we had to listen to a sales pitch. The condo was very, very nice but also very, very expensive. We declined their pitch and fortunately the salesperson knew we couldn't be swayed so he didn't press us. The resort had several nice pools including a lazy river to float in. We spent most of our time there. Here's some photos. This first was a fountain at the front of the resort.


One of the pools


The weather was alright. It rained every day, but allowed us to still get enough swimming in. By Sunday afternoon, the kids were starting to get homesick so we decided to check out a day early. On our drive home we stopped in Tennessee. My sister and her family were back at their lake house. We spent Tuesday with them and managed to get some tubing in. They had a brand new intertube to try out, one that you sat on instead laying. The kids liked it because they didn't bounce as much. I had one calm ride with Dash and one of his cousins. Ed and I then took a turn by ourselves. Dan made the ride much more intense. Here's a couple pictures of how it ended for us. Warning, these aren't pretty photos. We were being whipped around a turn and we had to hang on.



In the end, Dan won. Ed and I lost with a couple hard landings on the water.

Couldn't wait to get started

Last Saturday I bought some Ebony Zephyr wool silk and started the Mystery Stole 3. It was a rough start. I've never worked with laceweight before nor have I every tried beading. I found it difficult working with the fine yarn, especially with needles that were too blunt. Compounding my issues was the fact that my eyes had trouble focusing due to a muscle relaxer I was taking because of my back. I scrapped the idea of doing the beading and decided to just focus on the lace since this was my first project of laceweight. Thursday evening I went out and bought myself a set of lace needles. Nice and pointy. Now that I'm finished with the meds and I have better needles, I've been able to make some progress. What do you think?

I am up to row 71 of Clue #1. I know, I'm a little behind, but I'm happy with my progress. I'm a slow knitter and I want to make sure I do this right.

Over the next couple weeks, I should be able to finish up a few projects. We are leaving Monday for a vacation. Since we are driving, I'll be able to do some easier projects in the car. I'll save the MS3 for the evenings at the condo.

Discovering old UFOs

A lot of other bloggers and a couple friends have been discussing lace knitting. I've started a couple projects a few years ago and never finished them. Serious ADD issues. Some call it Startitis. Instead of giving in to the intense urge to start the Mystery Stole #3 from Pink Lemon Twist, I dug out one of my unfinished projects last evening. It is the Lavendar Linen Lace Shawl from Nancie M. Wiseman's Knitted Shawls, Stoles, & Scarves. The pattern calls for 11 repeats. I've finished 9 repeats and am a couple rows into the 10th. Last night I took the time to calculate how many repeats I could do with the amount of linen I purchased. I could do 16 repeats, but seriously doubt that I will. My 25th high school reunion is coming up in a month. If I stay committed to this I could get it finished for that event. The family and I are heading away later in the month for Florida for 10 days. If I devote the car time to knitting, I could probably make this 12-14 repeats and then finish it off. That will be my goal for July.