Tag Archives: toe-up socks

Our Last Day at Sea

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Towelphant

Towelphant

Waaah! The cruise is almost over. That means no more drinkie-poos at sunset, no more towel animals awaiting us on our beds at night, no more endless Diet Pepsi from numerous fountain sources all day long, no more food, food, food that I do not have to shop for, prepare or clean up after. Damn.

Our fourth day on the cruise – our last day and our only full day at sea – started with a real treat. I woke up first and looked out the window and saw that our ship was being escorted by dolphins! How cool is that!? I could see them from my bed! When was the last time you woke up to dolphins? This definitely made my list of the top-ten coolest things about this cruise. I tried to take a picture, but dang those critters is fast! You’ll have to take my word for it. Also on the top-ten list was the breakfast buffet, which mom and I hit, keeping our usual focus on the lox and bagel spread. Weird – love the dolphins, eat the salmon. Hmmm. Then it was off to the first of two sessions on our toe-up socks.

I was pretty well along on my sock, as were most people. So we spent the day catching up on each other’s knitting and trying to finish at least one sock. I think everyone got something out of this workshop – whether it was an entirely new way to knit socks, or just a new crochet cast-on or a better familiarity with short rows. For my own part, I enjoyed the class – it was a challenge – but I think I like top-down socks better. I have never had trouble fitting socks to my feet – I just knit till the sock hits the crease between my big toe and my second toe and then start decreasing. I like the look of the top-down version better, I think. But I am glad I took this because it was really cool to see the whole thing take shape.

The K2Tog Cruisin' Toe-Uppers

The K2Tog Cruisin' Toe-Uppers

At the end, we all lined up for a group photo, and those of us who had finished a whole sock, paused to model.

Two Toes

Two Toes

On Thursday – if not exactly bright, then certainly early – we cruised under the Golden Gate Bridge and made our way under the Oakland Bay Bridge to a dock. All the K2Tog contingent exited the ship at this point, some of us catching rides home, others of us (like me and mom) taking BART. My husband, Terry, picked us up and drove us home, so that by 11 a.m. we had been in a ship, a cab, a train and a car. I had to work that day (I asked for it!) so in the afternoon, I was back behind the counter at K2Tog. Mom stayed another week and a half and we had a great visit. I’ll post of the other cool things we made while she was here. Now, I had better wrap this up, because this Friday I am off to the Skein Lane annual retreat and I’m gonna have to write about that here as well.

Astoria

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Custon Threads

Custon Threads

On the third morning of our cruise, mom and I woke up to find we were docked in Astoria, Oregon (which continues to think is in Washington). Right outside our window, we could see two lines of white tents – kind of like a farmer’s market. This turned out to be a great little outdoor market featuring local artists and other vendors who were selling locally-made jewelry, purses, soaps, edibles, etc. Don’t know if this market is the idea of Norwegian Cruise Line or the local folks, but it is an excellent one. I always want to buy local when I am on vacation, and this market made it easy. We passed through them on the way to the shuttle that would take us into downtown Astoria where we were headed for the one yarn store, Custom Threads, and promised to leave time before the ship’s departure to shop.

Astoria is small, but it is charming. Adorable. Resilient. Nice. We were greeted there by a phalanx of local volunteers, all intent on making sure we loved Astoria. I sure did. It was just a nice small town. The downtown seemed to

Inside

Inside

be one main street  – Commericial Street – and two parallel side streets. The bus dropped us off half a block from our destination and we eagerly headed over, hoping for another great local yarn experience.

Custom Threads divides its space between knitting, quilting and embroidery – and quilting comes out the winner, I think. But there were some nice yarns here and some very nice people who helped up. I bought two skeins of Plymouth Yarns lace-weight alpaca – even tho I could have bought almost the same yarn at K2Tog (and with a discount) because I believe in supporting local yarn stores. I’ll make a nice Astoria shawl or something.

After the yarn store, we walked around. I was drawn into a small antiques store on a side street called Jonathon’s Ltd. What a find! Inside were all manner of wonderful treasures, all of them laid out neatly and cleanly in cases, on shelves and on the walls. Two very nice men helped us – the owners, I assume – and we must have been in there for 45 minutes or more, despite the fact it was only two small rooms. I came out with three treasures – a 1930s woodblock of a large tree set against the backdrop of a town that looked a lot like Astoria (this was a gift for my husband), a mosaic pin from Italy and a silver tea strainer from Holland that has a windmill with real turning blades on its handle. What fun we had in there – and I could have bought lots more. Be sure and drop in there if you go – it’s at 332 12th Street, 503-325-7600.

Mom and Fishy Friend

Mom and Fishy Friend

After that, mom and I had lunch at a really nice waterfront restaurant, Baked Alaska, where we sat outside and looked at a large bridge that goes between Astoria and Washington. A seal or sea lion came by. We could also see another cruise ship in town at another dock – the NCL’s Pearl. The food here was great – steamed mussels for mom and crab melt for me. The poor servers were swamped – two or three of them and three cruise ships in town! Soon, we were back on the shuttle to the ship and had time to shop at the outdoor market.

This was a really great market. One of my favorites was a woman who crocheted dozens and dozens of beaded bags. They were really creative (tho they would have been prettier if they had been made with higher quality yarn and materials). Mom bought a beautiful pair of earrings with freshwater pearls and blue semi-precious stones from one artist and we both bought some handmade soap from Woodland Scentsations. My favorite flavor was “blue spruce.” Smells reeeeeel gooooood on my husband.

Back on the ship, we headed for the London Room and another afternoon of toe-up socks. Mine is coming along:

I've Turned the Heel!

I've Turned the Heel!

Victoria Victoriana

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My Ma

My Ma

When we last left our intrepid sailors, they were making their way across downtown Victoria, B.C. from The Beehive Wool Shop (drool trailing from the corners of the their mouths after this most wonderful of yarn stores) and making their across a few blocks to the city’s other yarn store, Button & Needlework Boutique.

Though this store is tucked away in narrow (read: old and therefore historic) Trounce Alley, it would be both hard and a damn shame to miss. Hard because there is a big red button hanging above the store’s entrance and a damn shame because what the Beehive is to

Owner Michael

Owner Michael

yarn, this store is to all things needlework – crewel, goldwork, needlepoint, hardanger, and embroidery, etc. It was named one of the world’s best needlework shops in 2006 by Inspirations Magazine. It also has a respectable selection of yarns, including things I don’t see that often: Lanaknits, Shi Bui and Muench. But needlework is the real star here.

Inside the store, we were really taken with a wall of buttons, many of them handmade or handpainted or made from unusual things. We knitters

Wall O' Buttons

Wall O' Buttons

might be interested in the sheep buttons which I thought were a hoot and a half. Many of the buttons had a Victorian feel, in keeping with the framed and featured pieces of needlework, which were on display everywhere. This was just a lovely shop – I don’t know how else to describe it – and that pleasant sense was reflected by the store’s owner, a man named Michael, who greeted us when we moved to the register with our purchases (can’t tell you what I bought ’cause it’s a present for someone who reads this blog). Ellen was salivating over the store’s size – perhaps 50 percent more floor space than we have at K2Tog, and she really got jealous when Michael told her there was an upstairs and a full-length basement. We got none o’ that at our store. Sigh.

Pretty Redwork Sampler

Pretty Redwork Sampler

I took some pictures inside the store, but I have to say the ones on the store’s website, linked to above, are better. And they have an online catalogue. If you like needlework and knitting, this is the place. Don’t miss it when you visit Victoria.

And look – in one of the windows there was an embroidery picture of a cat that looked like our own K2Tog shop kitty, Bastet!

Bastet?

Bastet?

After we left that shop, we did a little souvenir shopping and then went in search of a Diet Coke for caffeine-starved moi. Only Diet Pepsi on the ship, and watered down at that. Then we all headed back to the ship for lunch. As the ship left Victoria that afternoon, we all convened in the London Room for our second afternoon of toe-up-sock knitting.

And it was going pretty well.

Back to Class

Back to Class

In addition to our socks, some folks brought other projects for show-and-tell. Lynn had this

Lynn's Sock

Lynn's Sock

beautiful blue sock. I wrote down what it was made from and what the pattern was somewhere, but am afraid I have misplaced it since the cruise. But trust me, it was stunning. Kathy brought a crocheted shawl her daughter,

Kathy's Shawl

Kathy's Shawl

Joyce, had made for her. It was stunning – wrought through with beads and very light. And Ellen showed off a jacket she is making for her daughter from the book Knitted Jackets. It was also beautiful – and nearly done, in a charcoal shade of Crystal Palace‘s Panda Silk.

Ellen's Jacket

Ellen's Jacket

And our socks were progressing.

Here’s mine:

Its a Foot!

Its a Foot!

and then, of course, it was off to the more important things of the vacation . . . . .

Cheers!

Cheers!

Cruisin’ and Knittin’

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Our big-ass ship

Our big-ass ship

I have not been a big fan of cruising. When I was a kid, I went on a Caribbean cruise with my mom, my grandmother and my great-aunt and that was a lot of fun, mostly because I was 10 and I had the run of the ship. But as an adult, I have been less than enthusiastic about the couple of cruises I have been on. I don’t like to be cooped up in relatively small places with relatively large numbers of people. I don’t like planned tours. And I don’t like drunken revelers I cannot get away from.

But when K2Tog, the yarn store where I work a couple of days a week, announced a

Ma

Ma

“knitting cruise” from Vancouver, B.C. to San Francisco I was tempted. A lot. The cruise was a repositioning cruise aboard the Norwegian Star, a ship in the Norwegian Cruise Line. The plan was for about 14 of us to go together and spend a couple of hours each day learning to knit toe-up socks with the store owner, Ellen Graves. We would disembark in Victoria, B.C and Astoria, Oregon to visit local yarn stores and then leave the cruise in San Francisco, a few miles from our homes, and let it continue down to Los Angeles without us.

Me

Me

I asked my mom if she’d like to take the cruise with me, and last week we met in Vancouver and boarded the ship. The weather was perfect – about 75 degrees and sunny.We spent the morning trying to find breakfast – long story, but with a happy ending. If you are ever in Vancouver, track down the Maple Leaf Delicatessen on Burrard Street.  Sounds like you’ll be eating Canadian bacon with maple syrup served by Mounties, right? nuh-uh. It was all Ukrainian and Russian food served by a man and a woman who could not have been nicer or better cooks! We both had sandwiches and salads with Russian flair. EXCELLENT!

The ship left on a Sunday afternoon, going out through the Burrard Inlet and under the

Lion's Gate Bridge

Lion's Gate Bridge

Lion’s Gate Bridge. Mom and I sat on the pool deck and watched Canada go by. Then we went to meet the other knitters in the “London” conference room, which the ship’s excellent group services person had set aside for our use every day. Inside were a half-dozen other knitters, besides mom and me – Lynn, from Oregon, and her friend Kim,a new knitter from the Bay Area, Kathy, a knitter from San Francisco and a frequent cruiser, and four sisters on their first cruise. None of us had done toe-up socks before.

Toe-up socks in the London Rom

Toe-up socks in the London Rom

Toe-up socks. This was my first time tackling them, as I have been a big fan of top-down socks for a number of years. Ellen told us she does not like to teach this class because the frustration level of the students can get high. Indeed, this was not easy – crochet cast-on, wrapping stitches, knitting a series of stitches and wraps together – but I like a challenge. I chose a Christmas yarn from our store – a Universal Yarns self-patterning sock yarn in Christmas red, green, maroon and white, all shot through with gold thread. After a couple of false starts, I had turned the toe at the end of the first day’s session. It was like magic, how that flat, weird piece of cast-on and stitches became a three-dimensional toe-cap. Crazy!

My toe!

My toe!

After class, mom and I set the standard for the rest of our cruise – we left the conference room and headed for the Spinnaker Lounge, a large room at the front of the ship that is wrapped in windows. We took a table at the front on the right, ordered a prosecco (for me) and a bloody Mary (for mom) and listened to the ship’s band – Melodious Jones (“The Family Band from Las Vegas”) – sing some oldies. The room was virtually empty, so mom and I sat and sang along, sipping our drinks. It wasn’t long before the knitting came out and there we were, heading into the sunset, knitting, singing and sipping. What could be better?

Vancouver Sunset

Vancouver Sunset