Vacation Loot

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I promise that this is my last post about my vacation, (unless I change my mind - it's my doggone blog, after all!). But I thought I'd share some of what came home with me after last week.

Shells

Shells collected from the beach at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
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Close-up of barnacle encrustations on inside of blue shell
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Bags

I admit it. I'm a bag 'ho. But the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. Hello, my name is Mary and I'm a bag-aholic. (Hi, Mary!!) Besides the purchase I shared previously, here are two more bags that came home with me after last week:

Back: Vera Bradley tote in Bermuda Blue (!!) -- birthday gift from my SIL Jenny
Front: another Endless Possibilities woven bag, perhaps a gift for ???

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In my defense, one of those bags was purchased for me by someone else, and the other was purchased by me for someone else. I'm thrilled about that Vera bag, though -- it's now my new knitting bag. Now that I own one, I can't believe how many others I've seen around town. Mine is the prettiest, though! ;-)


Love Notes

When we ate dinner at Colington Cafe last week, my six-year-old nephew, (my 'lil buddy), requested that I sit next to him (be still, my heart!). Our linen tablecloth was covered with paper (perhaps in preparation for five kids?), and the wait staff handed out crayons to each kid, and so 'lil buddy and I had a running love-fest conversation in crayon all evening,

(I'm "Aunt Kitty", if case you hadn't guessed)

Can you blame me for tearing out this section of our tablecloth and taking it home with me?
It now resides permanently on my refrigerator door.
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Before you gag on the cute overload, let me just tell you that for a good part of the week 'lil buddy was thoroughly entertained by bopping my knuckles with Lincoln Logs, which is surprisingly painful. How fickle are the hearts of six-year-olds! But he gave me the greatest bear hug as we were leaving to drive home on Saturday, so he's my buddy again. For maybe another year. He's #12 of my dozen nieces and nephews, and so I've learned a thing or two about kids, and I know that once they hit the age of seven or so, Aunt Kitty gets knocked off her pedestal of Auntly greatness, and she becomes just another boring adult. So I'll take my hugs while I can get them!


Knitting-related Loot

Sock Wizard software; size H crochet hook; yarn & WIP

The yarn is Ellyn Cooper's Yarn Sonnets "Potluck" (she has no website) purchased at Knitting Addiction in Southern Shores. It's a collection of six-foot lengths of various yarns (and quilt fabric strips!) tied together to make a (surprisingly expensive) 150-yard skein. I figure you're really paying for the labor to put this yarn together, as I can imagine it's quite time-consuming, especially for the one-woman show that is Ellyn Cooper. Knitting Addiction had a whole table of her gorgeous, hand-dyed yarns, and I wish I'd taken a picture, because they were just lovely - I kept being pulled back to them. What does it say about me that I ended up buying the most novelty-ish, blingy, expensive yarn she offers? Tacky white trash to the core, I guess.

close-up of the WIP -- lengthwise scarf on US 15 circulars (cast-on ~150 stitches)

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It took a village to get this scarf started -- the very gracious Mary Jane and Anne, owner and employee of Unraveled, came to knit with us at TNK Tuesday night and helped me figure out how many stitches to cast-on to get the length & width I wanted with that limited yardage. (In case you were wondering, it takes a 15-foot tail to cast-on ~150 stitches of this yarn on US 15 needles). I'm still worried that I'll run out of yarn before it's as wide as I want, but I think I can probably compensate with yarn from my stash. One thing about this yarn - it's is SO easy to drop stitches, and I think I've already dropped three or four, at least, so far. But I'm not worried about the holes or ladders - the yarn and the "fabric" it makes is so messy-fringy, I'll just weave in a piece of yarn and tie up the holes, leaving a little tail hangin' and it'll just look like the rest of the scarf.

So, anyway, even though this yarn is pricey and is the epitome of novelty frou-frou, I'm still pretty proud that I visited both yarn stores down there twice, (that's four yarn store visits, people!), and only purchased one skein of yarn.

Gratuitous, touristy gift shop items

socks and shirt for my parents from Big Al's diner

WRV hat for my nephew's 17th birthday

Barrel Fever by David Sedaris
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I picked that up at Manteo Booksellers because he's coming to Richmond in October and I had heard he was funny and wanted to see if his books were any good. I've only read part of the first essay so far but so far my review is - eh. Hoping the next ones are better.


A Humbling Gesture

Vernon Wingenroth painting
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My sister's mother-in-law wanted me to have this painting by her late husband because, according to my sister, she noticed me admiring some of his artwork after his funeral a month-and-a-half ago. I'm quite humbled by the gesture, and am still trying to formulate the words for my thank you note to her. I haven't yet decided where to put this, as it is in a fairly big frame. It may end up on the mantle. This particular painting is of unusual subject matter, as he has mainly done beach and ocean scenes. I feel blessed to own something he painted.

And thus ends this series on my beach vacation. Whew! Enough already!

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