"Let's Twist Again"

I started "Intertwined Socks" designed by my BFF Mo (Maureen Foulds) a couple of days ago. I had thrown a ball of mystery sock yarn into my suitcase when I was packing for my holiday. The ball band is long gone but I think it was Cherry Tree Hill yarn that I purchased years ago.

I didn't print the pattern out before I left Canada and don't have access to a printer here so I just uploaded the .pdf onto my iPhone and have been using the phone to keep track of where I am on the chart.

Yesterday, I attended a Sit 'n Knit group that meets weekly at the local public library. They were all taken with the beautiful sock I was knitting.

We all loved how Maureen designed the ribbing to grow into the 'cables'.

The pattern calls for a slip stitch heel (sl1, K1) but I prefer the off-set slip stitch heel called 'Eye of Partridge' ( Mo and I sing it to "Eye of the Tiger" - LOL).

The panels of twisted stitches meet on the sides of the socks and additional reverse stocking stitches can be added to custom-size the leg.

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (Pictorial)

Yesterday Skip and I toured the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. It is one of the most comprehensive collections of orchids as well as other sub-tropical plants.

We saw lots of different trees, plants and flowers. Unfortunately, I left my good camera at the condo so these are shots I took with my iPhone.

The gardens are on the shore of Sarasota Bay. Here's a popular lookout view near the gazebo where many weddings are performed.

Here is a bunch of non-orchids.

Anthurium

Some type of Bromeliad in bloom

Blanket flower - gailliarda

 There was a very nice koi pond with fish up to 18" (45cm)  long.

The silk cotton Bombax tree had these large, red blooms that were about 7" in diameter.

The rest of these are various types of orchids, most of which were growing in a big conservatory or the greenhouse/gift shop.

 

 

 

 

Lady Slipper

Some type of 4-leaf clover

A Good Yarn

Last week, Skip and I ventured to a new (to us) part of Sarasota for a barbecue lunch at Sonny's Real Pit BBQ  and to visit the local yarn shop, A Good Yarn.

Sonny's has 4 types of BBQ sauce: mild, sweet, smokin' and sizzlin' sweet. The last two have jalapenos in them = slow burn. We like eating out for lunch because the lunch specials tend to be very reasonably priced.

Down the road, A Good Yarn was a comprehensive yarn shop. They carry almost every yarn one could think with the exception of Noro. They even had a wall of Koigu.

To the right with you come in the front door is the spinning and fibre room. They carry Schacht wheels and supplies.

Behind that room is a large classroom and video-viewing room. They run about 25 classes a month, almost every day of the week.

I liked this multi-coloured Prism sample sweater that was on display, 5001 Boogie Woogie Stripes.

I just walked around and snapped a few photos.

There was a stunning amount of yarn.

There were handpainted yarns sporting colours of the local NFL, NCAA and NBA teams (bottom right).

Considering the sub-tropical climate, there is a huge supply of wool and wool blend yarns.

I could have spent hours in there but didn't really have any patterns in mind. I did, however, buy some lovely Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light yarn in the lovely Mineral colourway - Probably enough to do a big, big shawl or a couple of medium size shawls.

I continue to plug away at the Spectra shawl.  I have completed 62 out of 86 wedges.

It's still pretty fun to knit. I'm not sure I'm going to block it unless I get my hands on some flexible blocking wires which would make blocking curves much easier.