For all intents and purposes, I was off the grid last week. I was on
the east coast visiting Bob’s family and then I spent four days on the
Jersey shore. Bob’s brother and his wife have a lovely home that I
begged to borrow for a knitting retreat with a friend. My friend has
recently moved from Europe to Puerto Rico. That climate change
threatened to put a damper on Jody’s knitting passion for knitting.

I suggested she focus on socks. You can use practically any stitch
pattern on a sock that you would use on a sweater. No worry about
becoming bored. Jody and her husband also travel a lot – A LOT! What
could be more portable, or airport security friendly, than a sock(s)?
In the interest of full disclosure, Jody has not exactly had positive
experiences knitting socks. She is a relaxed knitter like me but she
gets even more relaxed as she knits. So the socks magically grew. I was
convinced that if she worked on her socks from the toe-up, she would be
more successful.

Usually Xena is curled up on my lap. But, when she realizes I’m having a “walk around the office” kind of day, she retreats to her bed. She doesn’t actually have an undercoat so she does get cold. The office was a bit chilly so I arranged one of my lace shawls around her. The next time I looked, I couldn’t resist snapping a photo. I would have liked to twist her bowl around because it says, “Princess”, but I was afraid I would wake her up.

So, she is going to continue napping while I catch up on a few projects away from my computer.

I took the ferry to Victoria, British Columbia yesterday for an extended Labor Day weekend.  I had a great time, walked all over town, and had tea at the Empress Hotel.  

But what was particularly cool were the shops that sold authentic Cowichan handknit sweaters, bulky yarn if you want to knit your own version, and unspun roving.  My friend snapped a picture of me holding a single skein of this bulky yarn.