California Knitting

This past week I finally got to go on a bit of a vacation with the family. Not that not being in school for three months wasn't a vacation, but this is different. My dad goes on business trips to California every three weeks, which is excellent for us for two reasons. One, he has a million frequent flier miles, so we basically go for free. Two, he knows the area really well, so there's no figuring it out for us. The hotel that his company has him staying at right now is AMAZING. It's called the Renaissance Club Sport. It's half hotel, half gym. The gym is amazing in that it has everything you need and more, I took a hip hop class, and a pilates class with my mom. My dad and brother did the spinning classes and went on the treadmills and used the weights all the time. And of course, we all went swimming!

Now for the interesting bits, the knitting! I did a lot of it by the pool, getting a bit of a tan. This is my Casbah sweater. I have knit the whole first ball, which got me about 6.5 inches of the body.

For the ladies at Lettuce Knit, yes I did find a bikini! Good thing too, since it got up to 23 degrees by the last day. My dad picked me up from the airport and drove straight to the swimwear outlet store. He picked up jammers and some trunks and I got my bikini. In Toronto I was told that Roxy didn't do anything bigger than a large, and that they ran small, so it wasn't really a large anyway. However, I found a large that was specifically for D/DD boobies! I am fairly disproportionate in terms of top to bottom sizing, so I was really against buying a set. However, these bottoms had tie sides, so they were adjustable. Perfect!

Also, I can't help singing.... "it was and itsy bitsy, teeny weeny..."

I finished these socks on the plane on the way over. This is the first sock. I started them Christmas morning, out of Mirasol Hacho that I got at the In the Loop closing sale back in September. The first ball ran out three rows from the end of my short row toe. I think the ball must have been short a bit, as I had a walnut sized ball left over from the second one. I managed to find some Koigu scraps in my stash that were an almost perfect match though, so I just substituted that instead. If you squint, the Koigu is a little more purple.



I then started the Lakeside Knee-Highs, from the winter issue of Knotions. I'm loving them! The yarn is Malabrigo Sock, which is gorgeous.

Here's the crafty haul. On the first day we went for a drive up the Pacific Coast Highway. I knew that there was a yarn store along there as I checked Ravelry before I left, but I couldn't remember where. I have my mom to thank for spotting it. We convinced my dad to pull over to make a stop.

The shop was super cute, and organized for the most part by colour, which was really interesting to see. I got two skeins of sock yarn from the Capistrano Fiber Arts Studio, which is locally dyed. It looks and feels a lot like Koigu, with a lot of bounce. The other one is a skein of Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Baltic.


I also picked up A is for Aprons. I plan on trying to convert most of the aprons into skirts for the summer. The best thing though is the Pin-up Pop-up book, if only for it's Pushing Daisies connection. The Pin-Ups have the tabs to pull so that their legs go up and down, or the wind blows up a skirt. I love it!