Lorette

Sunbreak

Just a quick post to show my “Tuesday Sky”. What a difference from the photo yesterday.

Yes, that’s the same lake. With sunshine. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t rain all the time in the Pacific Northwest. It’s actually not the rain that gets to you, it’s the gloomy, gray skies, day after day, all winter. Every once in awhile we get one of these (the weather guy calls them “sunbreaks”), and it tides us over through another month of gray days. I have a feeling that this particular sunbreak isn’t going to last long, as the sky is mostly clouds, but I can enjoy it while it lasts.

So what am I going to do with that glorious sun? Well, it’s still only in the low 40’s outside, so I might just look at it from the comfort of my knitting chair. This is one of my “off” weeks in my work schedule, so I plan on getting lots of knitting done. I might even get dressed at some point today.

Pink Knitting

First, I joined Rebakah’s Yarn Focus Challenge again this year. That’s what the newest ticker is all about up there. So far, so good, though Madrona is this weekend, so I’m betting that one of my “free” days gets used up.

In pink knitting, I’m still working on those pink STR socks. The last few months have been sort of hopeless on the knitting front around here. I’ve made it to my “weekly” knitting night maybe twice, and haven’t started (or finished!) a project in ages. I made a bit of progress on these last night while catching up on Desperate Housewives and Battlestar Galactica.

A few more episodes worth of knitting, is what I’d guess. What we need around here is a good bluegrass festival, with lots of knitting time. (Guess what’s coming up, soon!)

And more pink:

That’s Cotton Ease, from the stash. It’s a swatch, in case you hadn’t guessed. I can’t tell you what it’s for, as it’s for a baby-on-the-way*, and her mom occasionally reads the blog. All I have to say is that they better be right about it being a girl. And that color is pretty accurate. It really is that shade of pink.

Here’s something I found on the camera that’s most decidedly not pink.

That’s Will. Isn’t he a handsome boy? Though I think he looks a little grumpy there, I must have woke him up for the photo.

Last but not least, my Monday Sky. I’ve missed Saturday Sky countless times, and usually don’t think about it until I’m making the blog rounds and see everybody else’s pictures. Yes, it really is that gloomy around here today.

I prefer to think of that as five days early, not two days late.

*See previous post. This is the Mystery Knitting Project For Baby Riley. Hereafter known as MKPFBR. Angie, I hope you like Pepto Pink!

Blog Update, Finally

We’re back from Arizona, just in time for more rain, snow, and ice. Ick. I am just ready for some nice weather. I’d even take some not-so-nice weather, as long as the ice was gone from my driveway.

The trip was lovely. It was warm and sunny in Phoenix, and we celebrated all the missed holidays in style. The first photo sort of sums up the week: wine, dominos, and knitting.

There was some serious Mexican Train competition that went on all week. We paused long enough to have a baby shower for my niece, Angie, who is due to give birth in April.

Note that there was bourbon involved. Now that’s my kind of baby shower. She is having a girl, and is naming her, and I’m not kidding about this, Riley. They swear that they’re not naming her after my dog. No matter, Riley the dog is quite excited about it.

Don’t let that photo fool you. She really is pretty excited.

To sum up the week since we got back: I worked all week, didn’t knit much. We got iced and snowed in (it doesn’t take much around here), and John drove to Kansas to help a friend move there. They drove a van there with all her belongings, then he flew back, getting sidetracked by weather and not arriving until 1:20 AM. After working a 15 hour day on Monday, I drove to the airport at midnight to get him. Tuesday I woke up with a cold. I hate being sick. That about covers it.

I also have a candidate for Customer Service Award for 2007. Sometime last year (I think it was in the early summer) I bought a knitting bag from Jordana Paige. It’s a lovely little thing, and I used it for a couple of months, until the metal ball clasp broke off the top of the bag. It sat around in my pantry for the past three or four months, and I finally got tired of tripping over it. I wasn’t sure that she would be able to do much about it, as I’d had it for awhile, but I emailed her and told her my sob story. She replied promptly (within hours!), telling me to pack it up and send it back. The UPS man brought me a new one today, at no charge. Lovely! It’s a beautiful bag, and very functional. Go check out her website, and get one of your very own. It comes in lots of lovely colors and styles. Here’s mine:

I’m off to get a bourbon and water. For medicinal purposes, of course, for my cough.

Reading, 2007

I’m blogging this from Arizona, where it hasn’t rained in, oh, at least 24 hours. The sun is shining, I haven’t had a wool sweater on since I got here, and there has been plenty of bourbon consumed. I suppose I might get bored living someplace where the weather stayed the same all the time, but at least it wouldn’t be rain all the time.

I joined TBR (To Be Read) as part of my NY resolution to read more. Here’s my list.

TBR List for 2007

Madison Smartt Bell, All Souls’ Rising
Dorothy Dunnett, Niccolo Rising
Louise Erdrich, The Master Butchers Singing Club
Margaret Atwood, The Robber Bride
A. S Byatt, Babel Tower
Carolyn Chute, Merry Men
Sebastian Faulks, Birdsong
Guy Gavriel Kay, Sailing To Sarantium
Peter Matthiessen, Lost Man’s River
Nuala O’Faolain, My Dream Of You
Joyce Carol Oates, The Falls
Orhan Pamuk, Snow

12 books, 12 months. These were chosen randomly from my shelves. I would note that a few of them are “firsts” in their series (the Bell, Dunnett, and Kay books), so I may end up sidetracked. Whatever. (Deb, note that Niccolo made the list!)

And,
An Alternate List, in case of fast reading, or if I despise a book and can’t finish it.
Italo Calvino, If on a winter’s night a traveler
John Updike, In the Beauty Of The Lilies
Ahdaf Soueif, The Map Of Love
Jane Smiley, Moo
John Cowper Powy, A Glastonbury Romance
Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country Of the Pointed Firs
Wallace Stegner, All The Little Live Things

If you want to join, there’s a Yahoo group. The rules are that you choose 12 books that have been hanging around your house collecting dust, and read them over 12 months. There are prizes along the way for those who keep up. They have to be new-to-you books, not re-reads. I think I can find 12 from that list that will work for me in the coming year.

Oh, and you have to sign up by the end of this month, or you’re out of luck.

And now it’s cocktail hour. Until next time…

Firsts

I was tagged by Denise to post a list of “firsts”. Here goes.

What is the first thing you did in the new year?

Cleaned up the kitchen from the NY Eve party. There were no wine bottles on the lawn this time, thankfully.

What is the first thing you ate in the new year?

I don’t remember. I think I had a banana and peanut butter for breakfast. The first “real” meal was those BEPs from the last post.

What is the first thing you knit in the new year?

See below.

What is your first ‘blessing’ of the new year?

Waking up next to my sweetiepie, the lovely man I’m married to.

What is the first thing you will do to make the world a better place in the new year?

Not tag anyone for this meme.*

Just kidding, I’m not really anti-meme. I just liked the whiskey part.

Post the first photo you took in the new year!

Those peas turned out just lovely, by the way. A little overdone, but I had an excuse. Kris came over yesterday afternoon to knit, and before we knew it, the peas were done and it was time to eat. So I shared our good-luck peas with her, and she took the leftovers home for her family. And yes, BEPs do bring good luck; I got to knit half the afternoon with a friend!

Here’s what I worked on. This is the Jo Sharp sweater that’s been in the timeout pile for a long while. I have the front finished, and started on the back yesterday.

The pattern directed me to bind off the shoulder stitches, then later sew the shoulders together. As these have no shaping, but are just straight across, that made no sense to me. Ever one to look for shortcuts, the shoulders are on string holders, to bind off together later.

Last but not least, my New Year’s Resolutions. They’re simple. Knit more, read more. And knit more from the stash, read more from the stacks. I have enough books and yarn around here to last more than one lifetime. I’m not outlawing purchases of either books or yarn, just resolving to at least look at the current stash before I buy more. There you go.

I’m off to Arizona to visit my sisters. One of them lives in Phoenix, the other is going there on a holiday. I’ve mentioned our rule previously, if any two of us get together, the third one has to show up, too. Otherwise the other two might talk about her. So we’re going for a few days, will get caught up on a lot of celebrations we’ve missed, and party a bit. Diane does have internet access, so if there’s a moment when we’re not either shopping or partying (or getting tattooed-remember the last trip?), I might get a post in.

Enough of this! Now let’s go have some whiskey!

*If you want to be tagged for this one, have at it. Leave me a comment so I can go gawk at your answers.

It’s Not Too Late…

For New Year’s Black Eyed Peas, that is. I have a big pot simmering on the stove at the moment. Of course, I thought I’d document the event for the blog, in case some of you aren’t Southern, or married to a Southerner. My husband, being a good Carolina boy, has to have his BEPs for the New Year. And being the good wife that I am, I am cooking up a pot for supper tonight. Here’s my recipe, such as it is.

Get everything together for the photo shoot:

Saute up the veggies:

Toss in everything else, and take another picture:

While you wait for mine to finish, here’s the recipe.

1 large yellow onion
garlic, as much as you can stand (5 cloves in this batch)
3-4 stalks celery
1 large carrot
3 cups BEPs, picked over and rinsed
chicken stock (or veggie stock)
1 bottle beer, any variety
1 jar/can chopped tomatoes and juice (this was a 14 oz jar)
worcestershire, a splash
Dijon mustard, a teaspoon or two
thyme and oregano, about 1/2 tablespoon each
ground pepper
2 bay leaves
cayenne, to taste. I usually start with about 1/8 teaspoon, but generally add more later
Ham hock*
More liquid, as needed (I usually just add water at this point as necessary)

Chop up your veggies. Chopped bell peppers of any variety are good, too, I just didn’t have any. Saute in olive oil until the veggies are soft. Add everything else and bring to simmer. I usually start with a quart of chicken stock, the juice from the can of tomatoes, and the beer, and watch it as it simmers to see if it needs more liquid. You’re aiming for something that’s not too soupy, but juicy enough to ladle over rice later.
Cover and simmer until peas are soft, maybe 45-60 minutes. BEPs don’t take nearly as long as other beany varieties. Taste the juice somewhere along the middle, and adjust the seasonings. Add salt part-way into the cooking. Cook up a pot of white or brown rice, serve the peas over the rice, wish for good luck in the NY!

A good IPA beer goes nicely with this, though a fruity red wine or a Spanish white works as well.

Have a good NY!

* Added later: I actually used a smoked ham shank this time, so it was meatier, then picked the meat off the bone after it was done and tossed it back in with the peas. Not necessary, but very yummy.

Happy New Year Comment Graphics

And from Sweetpea:

Happy New Year Comment Graphics

And because I couldn’t decide which toast I liked best:

Happy New Year Comment Graphics

Have a great celebration, knit a few rows, eat lots of blackeyed peas, and drink responsibly!

Me, Weird?

I was tagged awhile ago by Jane for the “Six Weird Things About Me” meme. My first thought was, only six? But here goes.

1. I sleep with a teddybear named Sweetpea. She also travels with me when we go on vacation. She will only fly coach and up, never in cargo. She far prefers Princess class, as do I.

2. My family refers to me as the Queen. It’s taken me years to indoctrinate them in this practice. I secretly think they are only humoring me, or worse, mocking me. Every once in awhile one of them slips and calls me a Princess. I remind them, gently, that even a Princess has to answer to someone, and that would be the Queen.

3. I have a split personality. At work I am extraordinarily, compulsively obsessive-compulsive. (If your doctor has to be neurotic, obsessive-compulsiveness is a good neurosis to choose. My other neurosis is obsessive hand-washing, another fine choice for a doctor.) At home however, my organizational skills could best be described as slobbishness.

4. I am a world class klutz. We routinely clean coffee spills off carpets and walls around here. One might recall the walking and drinking episode. My second best, not involving any blood or surgery, was when I set my coffee go-cup on the roof of the car while I was getting stuff out to go to work. When I bent over, the coffee cup tipped over, dumping coffee down the back of my nice white doctor’s coat. It was entertaining explaining to the dry cleaners how I managed to dump coffee down my back.

5. I have a phobia about basements. Specifically, I am terrified of darkish basements with lots of exposed pipes and wiring in the ceiling. Give me bugs and dismembered body parts anytime. Water pipes in the ceiling? They reduce me to a whimpering wreck.

6. I hate talking on the phone. I think this is because I talk on the phone all day long at work. When the phone rings at home, my husband gets the “don’t you dare hand that phone to me” look from me.

I’m not tagging anyone, as I’m pretty sure everyone else in the blog world has done this. If you haven’t, have at it.

I hope everyone’s Christmas was lovely. Ours was, though it’s not quite over yet. We’re flying to Arizona to visit my sisters next week, and we’ll have another Christmas there. My family has always celebrated the holiday on whatever day we happen to be together, rather than be stuck to a specific date. I say, bring on the presents, no matter what the calendar says!

Here’s to a Happy New Year to all! Good knitting, and lots of yarn for everyone.

Winter Solstice, 2006 Version

Or,

How We Survived The Winter Storm

A mighty wind blew through here last Thursday night, knocking out trees and power lines in its path. A million people lost power in western Washington, and we were two of them. Our lights went out Thursday early evening, and didn’t come back on until Saturday night. We had flashlights and candles at the ready, though, and we have a gas cooktop, so we figured we’d be OK for a little while at least. And we had running water, though by Friday it dawned on us that our septic pump, which pumps the bad stuff up to the street level, runs on electricity, and we better quit running water down the drain. (You’d think a smart girl who grew up on a farm would figure this one out faster, wouldn’t you?)

The fun part of all this is that we had our annual Solstice party planned for Friday night, complete with a huge standing rib roast and ten people around the table. We waffled a bit, then said, what the heck. And cooked a huge dinner with the benefit of only a gas cooktop and gas grill. I’m happy to report that you can indeed cook 15 pounds of prime rib on a grill with no problem. Ours has a temperature gauge, and it kept the interior temperature fairly constant during the cooking.

It occurred to all of us that this year’s party was symbolic of the whole Solstice thing, with the house lit only by dozens of candles (and a few flashlights at times). We were hoping the lights would come on at midnight, in a truly symbolic gesture, but no luck. We were still in the dark Saturday, and with the house getting colder, and temperatures due to drop further, we bailed out. We packed the cooler with everything from the freezer that would fit, and salvaged what we could from the refrigerator, and headed out to stay with electrically blessed friends. Our lights finally came back on late Saturday night, and we’re now home, and the kitchen is cleaned up. (We left all the dishes from the party out on the deck when we left!)

We’re lucky. All of our big trees survived the storm, nobody we know died or was injured, and we had a great meal in the bargain, and got to spend the whole weekend with friends. From the looks of our little neighborhood as we drive around, the region won’t be back in full swing for the rest of the week. There may even be some people without lights back on for Christmas.

Here are some photos of the event.

The table, before the feast began.

Mashing potatoes by flashlight. Note my husband with his handy-dandy headlamp. I love a man who is prepared for anything.

The main course:

Carving by flashlight:

A few guests enjoying themselves:

The aftermath. Note the little temperature thingie on the table in front of me. At this point it was still plenty warm in the house. Must have been all the candles.

I did make my traditional trifle for dessert, but didn’t get pictures of it. It looked just like it did the last two years, though. Without electricity, we had to whip the cream for it by hand, which was probably the most challenging part of the dinner.

When we got up on Saturday and started to clean up what we could without running water, we did the traditional “count the wine bottles to see how hungover we should be” thing. Hmmmm. Only three wine bottles on the table, along with a couple others opened and not finished. That’s pretty lame for this crowd. Then I looked outside. Apparently some of my guests decided that tossing the empties on the lawn was a good idea. Click on this one if you can’t see them. Four more on the lawn, that’s more like it.

All in all, a good way to survive the storm. I’m off to cook the formerly-known-as-frozen food in my refrigerator.

Bizarre

This one came via Celia.

I am unique, after all.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
0
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

There are 1500 people in the US with my first name, and 510 with my last name. There are 689 people with my husband’s name.

How many of you are there?

More Knitting, More Cruising

Well, not really more cruising, just more cruise pictures. Yes, there are more. In my last post, I left you on the coast of Africa. We sailed from there to the Canary Islands, to Lanzarote. We were just there long enough for a short tour of the island, and a camel ride. Touristy, yes, but it was worth a lot of laughs. I will admit that it was a bit like the pony rides at the carnival, but good for a few photos.

Doesn’t everybody knit socks on the back of a camel?

John made friends with the girl camel behind us. At least we think she was a girl.

We also made friends with the couple on the camel behind us, Bert and Suzie.

That photo also shows a little of the landscape of Lanzarote, which is more or less a volcanic rock pile. For the record, these animals are actually dromedaries. Check out the link for an explanation of what makes a dromedary a dromedary.

Our next stop was Funchal, on the island of Madeira. This was probably one of my favorite places on the trip, and we actually plan to go back (hopefully next year!). We took a little tour by bus up into the mountains for the day.

I even met another knitter. We didn’t share more than about three words in common (Madeira is Portuguese), but we spoke the universal language of the world, knitting.

She knits those hats on long double points, with the working yarn looped around her neck. The wool is from local sheep. We had a short stitch-n-bitch session together.

Of course, she wasn’t just standing there knitting. She was selling those hats, and I had to buy one as the price of the photos. It was worth it.

I didn’t have time to find a yarn shop in Funchal before we had to board the ship, but I know there must be one. Of course, that’s not the only reason I want to go back. They make wine there, too. Our last stop at the end of the tour was at the Old Blandy Wine Lodge, to taste some fine Madeira. Here I am with a couple of my cruise buddies, enjoying some of the local agricultural products.

Next up on the cruise: we set sail for America!

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And to prove that this is indeed a knitting blog, here are a couple photos of the finished Pippa sweater. I got the buttons sewn on this morning, and did one of those flash-in-the-mirror photos. I’ll try to get a better one when my photographer gets home. For now this will have to do.

It’s currently in the washing machine getting a much needed wash. I decided that this didn’t need blocking prior to seaming, so I didn’t wash the pieces before putting them together. Since this one got dragged all over Europe and parts of Africa, it really needed a good soak. Once it’s dry, I’ll get John to get a better modeling shot. Though I kind of like the flash over the face look. It hides the fact that I didn’t bother with makeup this morning.

Pippa Cardigan

I didn’t record all the details on this one. I started this one in May 2006, finished in November 2006. The yarn is Elann Luna, in Coppered Sienna. The pattern can be purchased here.

Lots of Pictures, Some Knitting

The knitting photos are at the bottom of the post, for those of you that are sick of the cruise photos.

In case you hadn’t guessed, the final photo in the last post was of Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca (there are actually two, neither of them authentic). We didn’t stop there, but drove by, and got one of those lovely out-the-bus-window photos. Casablanca was something of a letdown. It’s mostly a dirty, underdeveloped mess of a city, with a few exceptions. The new mosque is huge, probably one of the largest in the world (third-largest, actually, I just checked). We weren’t allowed to go in, but the next couple of photos give you an idea.

This out-the-bus-window photo gives you an idea of the contrasts in Morocco. It’s definitely a Muslim country, but one of the most liberal and diverse. There is extreme poverty, and later on we saw some of the poshest seaside resorts you can imagine. The three women on the street under that billboard made me giggle, for some reason.

We took a bus tour to Rabat, which took us through part of the Morocco countryside. I saw lots of sheep and goats, but no yarn shops. This handsome guy standing guard outside one of the local sights let us get photos, for a fee of course. I’d have handed him my sock for a photo, but I think he would have charged extra for that.

This one proves that we were in Morocco together. The royal palace is in the background.

The Hassan tower:

The next two photos are at the Mohammed V mausoleum.

And another whizzing-by-in-the-bus photo. The billboards here just cracked me up.

The next day we were in port at Agadir, a bit south of Casablanca. Agadir was destroyed by a tsunami in 1960, and has been completely rebuilt. It has very little local character, and mostly looks like a seaside playground for wealthy tourists. We took a little side tour to a smaller village, Taroudant, with a more traditional flavor, and got to see goats in trees on the way.

No yarn shops there, either.

On the way to the market we got to watch of couple of fine fellows playing and dancing. The guy in the red hat is our tour guide, Ahmed. You’ll see more of him later.

The market was fascinating. You can buy almost anything here, and bargaining is the order of the day. Taroudant is called “Little Marrakesh”; lots of shopping, less hectic than Marrakesh, which was too far to travel on a day-trip from the boat.

Here’s the seaside part of the bus drive.

When we got off our bus back “home” at our ship, I handed my sock to Ahmed for a photo. He reached up and took John’s hat, and put his on John’s head. Then he proceeded to put on a great show of knitting, wrapping the yarn around and around the needles. I was a bit worried about that sock and its survival, but figured the photo would be worth it. This is one of the few times that I wished I had a video feature on my camera.

And another sunset for all you sunset-lovers out there.

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Finally, the knitting part. There has been no button-sewing going on around here. I just want to knit warm wool sweaters, and have them done now. It has been just freaking cold here, with this stuff on the ground.

You’d think that I’d be able to handle a bit of snow and cold, given that I’m from one of those deep-freeze prairie states originally. Yesterday I had to put on two pairs of heavy wool socks just to get warm.

I grabbed an orphan ball of Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran out of the stash and started a hat. Yes, that’s homemade bread. Sometimes I’m so domestic that I can’t stand it.

After a few inches, I decided it wasn’t warm enough, so I ripped it out and started over, adding more yarn. I am knitting it together with a strand of King Cole mohair from a past project. This will fit an adult with a small head, or better yet, a cold kid someplace. I have three more skeins of that mohair stuff in the stash, so I’m going to see what else I have in the orphan ball stash to combine it with.

Last but not least, is the Jo Sharp sweater that’s been in time-out for months. This is the back. Or the front. It’s a boxy sweater with no shaping, so it doesn’t matter, as long as I remember to knit two of them.

I’m off to find more warm stuff to wear.

Concessions

Miss Pearl would like to thank everyone who voted for her in the 2006 Midterm Button Elections. It wasn’t even a close race, and she graciously concedes to the jubilant winner, Ms. Rosie, who never quite got around to getting a good campaign photo taken.

The Roses will be stitched on very soon, and the Inaugural Ball will be photographed shortly thereafter. Miss Pearl promises to run for reelection in the near future.
——————————————————————————

And now, what you really came for, more travelogue photos. After Barcelona, we had a short (half-day) stop in Valencia. I was feeling the severe effects of jetlag, and didn’t even bother to get off the ship that day. After another night at sea, we arrived in Malaga, on the southern coast of Spain. Although we had been to Granada, and the Alhambra, on our last Spain trip, we couldn’t pass up a bus tour that was offered by the cruise line. Here are just a couple of photos. The Alhambra, a 13th-14th century fortress and palace built by the Moorish rulers of Spain, is just exquisite, and well-worth a second trip.

The long bus ride home provided ample opportunity for sock knitting.

More on those socks in a future post. I promised a bear tale a few posts ago. Sweetpea is a rather unadventurous bear, at least up until now. Generally, she’s been satisfied to hang out in hotel rooms and ship cabins. Occasionally we get a room/cabin attendant with a sense of humor, and we find her perched in different places in our room when we get “home” at the end of the day. But that’s about as much fun as she usually has.

Until now. One day on the cruise we came back to our cabin after being out and around the ship, and found our room all cleaned up, as usual. Don’t ask me how, but the cabin attendants unerringly know when you’ve left the room, and whiz right in to tidy up and make the bed. This particular day I was rummaging around to find my knitting, and noticed that Sweetpea was gone. She was nowhere to be found. I rather frantically called the number listed on the card that our attendant had left. I found that she was on a break, and I had reached room service. They listened quite patiently to my rather lunatic-sounding story of the missing teddy bear, and I could almost hear the eye-rolling and snickering in the background, though the man on the phone was well-trained enough to not laugh out loud. He said he would look into it.

Not five minutes later there was a knock on the door. A young woman had rescued Sweetpea from the laundry, where she had apparently arrived wrapped up in our sheets. She was very happy to be home, and did not even think about having any more adventures for the entire rest of the trip.

Next stop:

You Guessed It…

More Pictures!

This handy landmark stands right at the harbor in Barcelona. Good old Chris pointed the way back to our ship so we didn’t get lost while wandering the city. Unfortunately, the main problem with cruises is that you don’t get to spend much time in any one city. Of all the stops on the trip, Barcelona was one of the places that I would love to revisit.

While wandering the warren of city streets, we found these cool guys.

We did the required ramble down the main pedestrian walkway, La Rambla. This is not for the claustrophobic, or for those paranoid about pickpockets.

The next day (we spent the night in harbor on the ship), we went back into the city for a cooking class. There were a dozen of us that learned how to make gazpacho, potato tortilla, and paella, as well as a custard dessert. Here’s John showing off in the kitchen.

And the finished paella. If it seems like none of us look very excited in this photo, we’d already eaten two courses, and had several glasses of wine.

Back on the ship, I’d been on vacation long enough to have to wash socks. Fortunately, there was a clothesline in our bathroom.

And sunset as we sailed back out into the Mediterranean.

On to knitting content. The buttons came! And the neckband is finished!

Closer….

Finally, you can actually see them.

Here’s where you all can help. Vote on which ones you like better. I’m partial to the middle one, though those sharp little edges aren’t going to work very well with the buttonholes I made. So which is it, the pearl ones, or the gold roses?

Edited later: I removed the poll, as it was screwing with my blog colors. If you’re reading this after the fact, the antique rose buttons won, by a landslide.