Phew!

So...one week left here. Lots of strange contradictory emotions about it all. Being honest, I'm not going to miss San Diego much - there's nothing particularly wrong with the place, it's just not my cup of tea. Too conservative, too suburban, too deserty. It's a nice place for a holiday, or perhaps to be stationed in the military, but not really for me.

I'm glad we lived in Altadena for a couple of years first. I loved being there. Our house was at the very bottom of the San Gabriel mountains, at the very end of Lake Avenue. It felt like we were part of the town, but could escape into the wild whenever we liked. It really was wild, too. A mountain lion came to visit our neighbourhood once. All we had to do was cross the road to get up into high, beautiful land.

Of course, that was before I'd lived through a serious fire season. I'm not sure how much peace of mind I'd have now.

Anyway, knitting has continued amidst the packing.



Someone loves the yarn stash more than me!

I decided on Monday that I needed a practical scarf - easy care, not too long, but kind of interesting. So I decided on an Adamas Shawl. I have history with this. I bought it from Knitpicks when I first started knitting, and it was one of the first things I ever knit. I remember pouring over the charts like they were some ancient grimoire. It took me weeks to struggle through, and in the end I still managed to screw up one of the pattern repeats because I blatantly didn't have a clue what I was doing.

Fast forward to last Monday night. I cast on using Ultra Alpaca Fine which I had hanging around. I didn't knit on Tuesday because I wasn't feeling well, but I still managed to cast off last night. That's four nights' work! To be fair, I only did 10 pattern repeats because I wanted it a manageable size, but still I impressed myself with the learning curve I must have undertaken in the intervening four years since my first attempt.



It might not be completely perfect, but it's perfect for me!

I've also got another two projects on the go - a jumper for F, and a dress for A. I want to see how much I can get done today on them both before I post photos.

I'm trying to get all the internet access I can at the moment. I'm not taking the laptop back with me (I figured 2 kids, a pushchair, 2 (large) carry-on bags and three planes might put me right at the edge, so taking a computer in and out a bag at security might push me over).R is coming back in October, so he'll bring it then.

Our plans have changed a bit - he's returning to stay in the US until February to finish a project. Needless to say, my fantasies of leisurely afternoons perusing the yarn in K1 have been dashed by my temporary single-parent status. Never mind, I can use up all the stash that A loves so much.