I’m finally caught up with posting from the honeymoon (except some underwater photos coming soon).

So, it was really cool to meet Stephanie, the Yarn Harlot, at Full Thread Ahead last weekend. It was also nice to see all the knitters, have lunch and knit before (and during) the event.

Here she is, checking on her crowd photos, determining the Los Altos knitters are not blurry.
 

And we weren’t!! Since I was sitting in the middle, I’m in both of the photos she took (sitting between Cookie and Randall, who won a prize for being the only male knitter who taught himself how to knit– $20 to Full Thread Ahead, with which he bought himself some alpaca to knit the Danica entrelac scarf).

Here Stephanie is simultaneously knitting and making us all laugh (not at the knitting, at the jokes!).
 

And here my Palau Pomatomus sock got to meet her and I got to hold the traveling sock!
 

It was a fun great distraction. I’m really glad I got to see her! She was hilarious.

P.S. I’m wearing the sweater I knit on the honeymoon…

...Comment [2]

There were lots of lizards in Palau, of many varieties. They were pretty loud, especially these two in their courtship ritual.
 
 

...Comment [2]

I knit a doily as a wedding present for my cousin while we were in Palau. I wanted to try a German pattern out before I make a shawl using one. I was going to make the doily that is the center of the shawl I want to make, but I accidentally read the wrong chart and made a different doily instead. That’s ok because I like it!

Since I didn’t bring any size 2 DPNs (and didn’t own any at the time), I started on circulars with the correct pattern, but messed up because I had a translation wrong, so I ripped it out. I didn’t really like the way the center was coming out either, so I tried again with toothpicks instead, with a pretty nice resulting center (although on the wrong pattern, but as I said before, that’s ok).
 

I still need to block it…
 

And as you can see, it’s about 8 inches in diameter before blocking.
 

The last project I started on the honeymoon was pomatomus socks out of the Palau-inspired yarn my Dye-O-Rama buddy dyed for me.  

They really did match the scenery…
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Except at sunrise
 

or sunset
 
 
 
 
 

...Comment [3]

Written in Palau, posted now! (last one)

To my surprise, I didn’t knit at all while we were living on a boat for a week, diving all day long. Diving takes a lot out of you, especially once you start getting cold. In 7 days I went on 27 dives and a snorkeling trip. It was exhausting, but great! I took 2.74 GB of photos with my underwater camera (Randall took a few of those on one or 2 dives). Anyway, it was an awesome week and this past week has been great too, in a very different way. We’ve been relaxing a lot, sleeping a ton, reading, and I’ve been knitting too! We went on a hike to see a waterfall and we went on a little trip to see stone monoliths and carved faces.

Here are some photos of the hike to the waterfall…
 
 

The old Japanese railroad…

 


 

The waterfall itself…

Here are some photos of the stone monoliths…
 

I love this tree!
 
 

An ancient carved face!

Today I finished up all the monkey parts I can for Claire’s monkey. I ran out of dark colored yarn on row 21 of the tail, so I need more Blue Sky Alpaca sport weight in dark brown before I can finish the tail and the backs of the ears, and sew all the dark brown pieces together. I finished all of the light brown pieces with plenty of light brown yarn to spare, but I’m waiting until I get home to sew any of the pieces together so I can stuff them at the same time.
 
 

Today I also finished up my Knit Picks Twist Picovoli-like short-sleeved sweater (Twist Tank). The color is Cotton Candy. I changed the gauge (size 6 needles) and added ribbing at the bottom so the fabric doesn’t curl up like it does on my original Picovoli (both are without the picot edging). Anyway, I love it! And I can wear it on the trip!

Yesterday I started a pair of socks for my dad. They’re very simple 2×2 ribbing socks, but that’s what he wants and it’s going pretty quickly. Top down I’ve got a little more than 4 inches done so far on one sock.
 

Having finished up 2 projects today, I think it’s time to start something new…
 
 

...Comment [4]

Here are some of the critters we saw on the beach in Palau…

...Comment [1]

When I said it was pouring rain our first week in Palau, I meant it.

Additionally, I saw a pineapple growing in the wild for the first time…

And we saw a nice sunset or two…

...Comment [2]