A quick vacation

In the spirit of timeliness, I'm forgoing a few FO posts to blog about more recent events.

In a rather spur-of-the-moment decision, we spent Labor Day weekend up north at the grandparents' cottage near Kalkaska, MI. We brought our friends Phil and Maureen along and had a great time. The weather was awesome all weekend. On Saturday we drove up to Tahquamenon Falls and got some great photos.

Sunday we drove into the tiny little town of Alden, MI just to show Phil and Mo Torch Lake, one of our favorite vacation destinations. Torch is one of the best lakes in the country. I forgot if it's 2nd, 3rd, 4th or whatever, but it is really, really beautiful. There are tons of $1,000,000+ homes on the lake and it's always jammed with people.

After visiting the lake we puttered around in the kitsch shops and I found some local yarn! Stonehedge Fiber Mill is located in East Jordan, MI, which was actually not very far from where we were staying. Unfortunately I didn't find that out until we got home, otherwise I would've visited. The yarn is surprisingly soft, but I wasn't too impressed with the color selection. Lots of bright solid colors, not many heathers. Although, after checking out their website, it looks like that was an issue with stock and not supply.

I also started two new socks on the drive up. My wife and I have a deal, she drives to where we're staying and I drive around once we get there. So, I got about 5 hours of knitting time. We left at 6:30 on Sunday, so it got dark halfway through our trip home.

These are simply 2x2 ribbing and they will be for my wife. She's been bugging me for another pair of socks and I thought this yarn would be perfect. It's Knitterly Things Vesper and it's only about 387 yards, perfect for little socks. I went with a 2x2 rib since the last pair of socks I knit in stockinette for her didn't both fit the same. She says one is tighter than the other.

I also started a pair of Shur-tugal (no idea how to pronounce that) socks for myself. These are knit with Socks That Rock - Mediumweight, which I wanted to use to know whether I like it or not. I have some birthday money to spend and if I like it, I may get some more. I chose this pattern because I thought the heavier yarn and larger needles would counteract the pull of the cables, but now that I'm into it, I'm worried they'll be too big. I shall try them on tonight and find out. I like the cable pattern and I really like the special "double-tail" cast on. Check it out for yourself.