We’re now on the west coast of Ireland, in a town called Kenmare, on the road to the Ring Of Kerry, which will be today’s adventure. Here are some photos from the past few days.

I was a little nervous about touching the standing stones, but didn’t go anywhere*.

There are lots of sheep here.

And a druid. I think he wanted to knit.

And some yarn, finally. I haven’t seen one yarn shop since I’ve been here, despite seeing flocks and flocks of sheep.

We’re off for the day!

*If you’re an Outlander fan, you’ll know of what I speak.

We’re on the road, having left Dublin after a three-day stay there. In every place we’ve been, we easily could spend a whole vacation seeing the sights and enjoying the local people and customs. But onward we go. It’s impossible to see everything in one vacation, even a relatively long one (16 days total for us).

Kilkenny was our first stop after Dublin. This is a very attractive medieval town with winding narrow streets and a huge castle that dominates the landscape. We took the castle tour, wandered the streets, and had a pint or two in a local pub.

We only spent one night there, then hit the road in the morning, headed for the Rock of Cashel. Driving in Ireland, on the “wrong” side of the road, is quite entertaining. So far, John hasn’t trusted me to drive, so he drives and I’m the navigator and map-reader. All I can say is thank God for Jill, the GPS lady who came with us on the trip. We’ve finally learned to just listen when she shouts “turn!  turn!”. We took the little winding back roads for this part of the trip, which was a bit hair-raising. The N roads are the wider roads, just wide enough for two cars to pass without taking off the side mirrors. The R roads are a bit narrower, and when you meet another car, you have to make a choice. You either stay where you are and lose the driver’s side mirror, or you pull over and put scratches in the finish on the passenger side.

The non-N, non-R roads are what we drove yesterday. Mostly they are big enough for one car, and you just pray that if you meet someone coming at you that they are not going the posted speed limit of 100 km/hour, and that it’s not on a blind curve. So far we still have mirrors and most of the paint on the car.

The Rock of Cashel is an old fortress/cathedral that is in ruins, and highly worth the trip.

We didn’t sleep in Cashel, but drove on to Kinsale for two nights, which is where we are now. No photos yet, but you can be certain there will be! This is a lovely little harbor town, with a lot of historical significance, so we’re off for the day to tour the village and see the ruins of the Fort. I also had no clue that the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk right off the coast here, so that was an interesting factoid.

John’s clamoring for his turn with Minnie* so I’m off for the day!

*Minnie Dell, of course. What were you thinking?

We found some other fun things in Dublin besides Guinness. Here I am, checking out the lunch options.

And then there was dinner:

In case you think we’ve done nothing but eat and drink, that’s not true. In between those things yesterday, we saw the National Gallery, the National History Museum, and last but not least, the Book of Kells and the Long Room Library at Trinity College. For a bibliophile, the Long Room was fabulous. We also got a nice nap in there somewhere.*

I’m posting from a tiny mini-Dell (named Minnie), with a tiny screen and somewhat sketchy internet access, so answering comments may be a bit limited while we’re here. I also have to share Minnie with John, who seems to think he gets equal computer time. Thanks for all your comments nonetheless!

We leave Dublin today, headed west. Our first stop will be Kilkenny. On to the adventure of driving on the wrong side of the road!

*Not in the Long Room. It was pointed out to me that the way I wrote that sentence made it sound like we took a nap in the Long Room.

Yes, we’re having a good time. Yesterday was Arthur’s Day, the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Guinness empire. And no, we didn’t drink all those ourselves.

Who knew? You can get the internets from an airplane, and our new Mini Dell takes photos. Here you go.

We’re on our way to Chicago, then we change planes for Dublin. As you can see, I started the new sock. John has changed the color name to Squashed Frog. Who knows, maybe Lowenzahn means Squashed Frog in German!

This time we’re off on a two-week vacation to Ireland. We leave tomorrow morning, so I’m frantically going through all the knitting bags to get stuff sorted out. Of course I have nothing else packed, but damn, I have the knitting ready. Here’s what I’m taking with me. This will also serve as sort of a mini-Project Update as well. Cool! Two posts in one!

First, here’s the spinning portion of the blog. If you don’t give a hoot about spinning, scroll down. I finished some pretty pretty yarn this week. A few months back, I scored a couple of Abby’s Batts. Here’s one of them all spun up. As usual, click to embiggen.

The fiber is 69% merino, 30% tussah silk, and 1% firestar (aka sparkle!). This is roughly a light fingering, and there’s about 600 yards of it, enough to make a pretty shawl. That’s not coming to Ireland with me, though. The color name is Green Green Grass.

I’m still working on John’s True Blue sweater, and am partly through the first sleeve. The front and back are both done. This will come with me on the trip. I transferred it from straight needles to circulars, to make stuffing it into a travel bag a little easier.

And I’m still working on the Peony socks. These will go in checked luggage, because of those wicked sharp Signature double points. I’m not crazy enough to try to get those on a plane.

Last but not least, some green yarn for another pair of socks, just in case I finish the Peony socks. This is one of my treasured Wollmeise skeins, in the color Lowenzahn.

And I have a suspicion that I might find some yarn while I’m there. At least I can hope. If not, I’ll drink lots of Guinness to drown my sorrows. We leave in the morning, and will have a mini-computer with us, so there might be an update or two along the way. Otherwise, I’ll see you in a couple of weeks!

If I ever finish that True Blue sweater for John, here’s the yarn for the Faery Ring sweater that will be next.

This is Black Water Abbey yarn, in the color Haw. I think it will be perfect for this cardigan.

And what’s that little green velvet bag in the middle? Why, buttons, of course.

Those are just the most perfect thing for this pattern. They cost more than the yarn, but I could not resist.  If the sweater wears out, I’ll cut the buttons off and re-use them. The goldsmith who make these is Carolyn Kent, though she doesn’t have her website up and running yet. These are silver, with real garnets in the center.

I’m off to the farmers market for provisions. Don’t forget that it’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Arrrr!

One of the Wordpress features that I’ve discovered is that you can upload a thumbnail of a photo, but when you click on it, it opens a bigger photo in a new browser tab. Go ahead, click on that and see what happens.

Do you recognize that man? That’s my sweet husband, many many years ago when he was in Vietnam. He found an old box of slides from that era, and I convinced him to get them transferred to digital format. I have to say, he took some great photos while he was there. I’m trying to convince him to start a blog of his own, so I won’t post them all here, but here’s one more of my handsome soldier boy.

It’s finally done:

Project Details:

Yarn: Knitpicks City Tweed Aran weight, in Snowshoe and Brocade. I used 5 skeins of the former, less than 3 of the latter.

Pattern: Brooklyn Tweed’s Baby Blanket pattern, roughly. I started knitting based on a previous blog post, and then he released the pattern. The original pattern used the DK weight of the same yarn. I just started knitting away, and had finished most of the center before the “real” pattern was available. I just figured out how many pattern repeats would go around the outside and picked up that many stitches.

Needle size: Denise 10 1/2. Though when I got to the I-cord edging, I pitched them and used a large Addi instead. The Denise needle tips kept unscrewing as I was doing the edging, though I have never had them do that before. I suppose there was some twisting action of the I-cord that caused this.

Started: June 1, 2009

Finished: August 29, 2009

For: My first grand-nephew, Jacoby!

What I Learned: Start baby projects early. Seriously. They come faster than you think. Also, I love this yarn to pieces. We’ll see how it holds up. It’s softer than soft, so I’m thinking it might pill, but you could wrap it around a barenaked baby without any qualms. It’s not superwash, so those of you thinking this would make great baby clothes might think about that a bit.

I also learned that I’m not so fond of doing I-cord edging, though it is mighty pretty once it’s done.

Credits: Sweetpea, the stand-in baby model.

No, it’s not what you think. I head down the rabbit hole to work tomorrow morning, so I may or may not get a chance to post in my new blog for a week. So here’s a quickie post.

Did I mention that I have a new blog??

Oh, right, I did.

Never mind.

Here are a couple of photos to tide you over. I finished a project, but I’m not going to post details until it’s been mailed off. So you get cooking and spinning. You’ll have to make do.

We made gumbo this weekend. This might not sound all that exciting, but it’s sort of a major project around here. We use Crescent Dragonwagon’s* recipe for gumbo, which involves a whole lot of chopping and cooking, but results in lots of storage containers of gumbo base in the freezer. When we want gumbo, we thaw out a container of the base, then add the last few ingredients.

And the finished plates:

Then there’s the spinning. I’ve spun up a whole bunch of Abby’s Batts that I scored a month or so ago. This is a silk/merino/sparkle blend. I’ve finally got the whole bunch of fluff spun, and now I’m plying it. Here you go.

That’s roughly a light fingering weight, 2 ply. I have about six or seven ounces of this, but this is the first bobbin of plied stuff, so I don’t know the yardage yet. I think this will make a nice shawl. What do you think?

Down the rabbit hole I go. I’ll be back in a week.

*Yes, that’s her name. If you don’t have her cookbooks, you are really missing out. Go, now, and buy them. I highly recommend her Soup & Bread cookbook just for the gumbo and cornbread recipes, and The Passionate Vegetarian is one of my all time favorites.