Knitting in Transit

I finished up the Marshmallow Bonnet yesterday! As with most of my knitting projects, I didn't check my gauge, so the sides seem a bit too long to me, but I still think it is pretty cute. I might do another one one in pink with white puffs. The specs: Pattern: Marshmallow Bonnet from Itty Bitty Hats by Susan Anderson Yarn: Cashsoft Baby DK and Kidsilk Aura Needles: Some good old aluminum size 7 (would use size 6 next time) I LOVE the way the Kidsilk Aura gives the hat a little loftiness. It's so soft and fluffy. I'm not sold on the bobble as a fastener...I think a button might be easier. I may try that with the next one. It was a fun knit and I think a pink one with white accents would be cute. I'd also like to try some changes other people on Ravelry have suggested. It was really hard to get that container of salt to sit still for the photo!

Yesterday was Snowmageddon! The snowpocalypze! The Snownami! A Snowicane! A Snownado! The roof of the Metrodome collapsed under the weight of all the snow ! Crazy! Well, we got a lot of snow. And a lot of wind. And a lot of cold. It was great. Why? It meant we were stuck at home and I was able to get my knit on! Finally! I almost finished the Marshmallow Bonnet from Itty Bitty Hats. I just need to get the right sized crochet hook to make the little loopy things. So, pics to come. D and I did venture a block up to Cupcake, just to check out how bad it really was. It was bad. It sealed the deal that we would not venture to Lea and Amit's house to meet with the On Tap group to start planning our fall trip to Spain and Portugal. Instead, we stayed in, ate cheese and crackers, watched movies and SNL, and I got some organizing done. One of my projects was to organize my yarn stash. Wow. It's pretty bad when you have yarn you forgot buying. Like this blue stuff I got...

We wrapped up our honeymoon in Vieques , Puerto Rico. This is a small island off the coast of the main island...about a 20 minute flight. We took one of those little 10-seater planes, where seat #1 is the pilot. I didn't really like that. ONE pilot? What if something had happened to him? Yikes! Anyway, we got to Vieques and it was beautiful. Wild horses everywhere. Beautiful beaches. Laid back bars and restaurants. This crazy tree . I almost wish we had had more time to spend there. It was while we were there that I realized that I really am one of those people who just wants to lay on the beach on vacation. We stayed at a place called Hector's by the Sea, which I loved. They have three casitas, are right on the water, and were just the friendliest people ever. They provided a cooler and beach chairs for us so each morning we headed to the store, filled the cooler with beer, and then just laid around the beach. PERFECT! We headed back to San Juan for one more night be...

So, we left Dominica and headed back to Puerto Rico. After a long wait going through customs, A LOT of traffic in Old San Juan, and a bit of drizzly rain, we made it to the Hotel El Convento where we stayed the two nights we were in Old San Juan. Beautiful hotel, lovely service. We made it just in time for the nightly wine and cheese reception. There was a pretty obnoxious group there, but we still enjoyed the wine and snacks after the traveling. We had dinner at the tapas restaurant at the hotel, more wine, yum! The next day we went to the two forts (or castles as they call them), San Cristobal and El Morro. It is about a 20 minute walk between the two of them. It was a great day. It was really hot, but there was enough shade here and there to cool off and we had plenty of water. The castles were so fascinating. Old San Juan was just really cool. I'd love to go back and explore some more, try some different restaurants. We also found a geocache while we were there! It was ...

But before we get there....Baby Goat! As we left Dominica, we saw the baby goat again. Isn't it cute? We had to check out of the hotel at 11 a.m., but our flight wasn't until about 4:00, so we had some time to kill. We stopped at this beach by the airport to catch a photo of David recreating a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean. Several scenes from the second and third movies were filmed on Dominica. Then we headed over to the Pagua Bay Bar and Grill where we had ceviche, fish tacos, and rum drinks. It was a nice place to relax for an hour or so before we headed to the airport. Great view, too. Pagua Bay from Michelle on Vimeo .

And I thought the roads in Dominica were bad! D and I got back to the Twin Cities last night about 10:30 but didn't get home until 12:30 because the roads were so bad. Sheer ice. I don't think our cabbie had ever driven on roads like that before. It doesn't instill a lot of confidence when the guy driving you keeps talking about how scared he is. We made it though! Home! So, I sort of dropped off the face if the earth for the second week of the honeymoon, blogwise. We had iffy WiFi at our hotel in Old San Juan, and then on Vieques, no WiFi at all. So....no blogging. I'll work on getting you all caught up over the next week. We loved Old San Juan and loved Vieques even more. The great thing about Vieques is that it has so many beaches, and they are all kind of in a row, so you can kind of beach hop all day long. It's a totally laid back place. And Old San Juan has so much history. We had a really great time. More details to come!

By popular demand, I bring you: Goat. Sadly, the baby goat was not out. We haven't seen the baby goat again. Oh my! It was so cute! Baby goats are just the cutest thing ever. So, here in Dominica, as you drive around you see goats and cows tied up on the side of the road. A goat here, a cow there. I'm not sure the protocol here...does someone bring the goat or cow out in the morning and tie it up? Do they come back for it that night? They MUST because it is so dark on the roads at night I would think a goat especially would get run down. Although, when David and I came back from dinner the other night, there was a goat sitting in the middle of the road and it got up and lazily moved out of the way. I really wish I had a picture of the cow we saw on the drive back from Chaudiere Pool. It was a pretty cow and David had to get out of the car and coax it to the other side of the road because the rope was stretched across the road about 2 feet high. My hero...the cow wran...

Sigh. But, we have a whole week of vacation left! Yay! This morning we walked down to the beach. When we went there Monday, I called it the most disappointing beach in the world. But, go there when the tide is right, and it was pretty cool! Black sand beach, warm water, gentle breeze, dude with machete walking our way...wait, what? I had read not to be alarmed by this, that many men carry around a cutlass for agricultural purposes. I said this in my head as D and I stood on a pretty much deserted strip of land with a guy with a very big knife walking towards us. I couldn't help but feel nervous. Turns out, Red Shirt Machete Dude was pretty nice. We chatted a bit and then headed back to our place to get the kayak. We saw Red Shirt Machete again as we kayaked. We kayaked from the same beach and they had a little camp set up there. Said hello again and we were off. We kayaked over to Treasure Island, which Red Shirt Machete Dude had told us you could also swim to. We hike...

Well, Hello! So nice of you to visit the blog! Sadly, I have no photos from today (Friday). I neglected to put the card back in my camera, so I cannot show you any photos of the mind-boggling scary road we drove on today. I really wish I could. Although the road really freaked me out, the hike at the end was lovely and there were some nice views along the way. Oh, and cows as well. And a baby goat (although I may get a picture of that later). So I will intersperse this blog post with random photos. So today we decided to hike to Chaudiere Pool, which we had heard many wonderful things about. After getting really good directions, we set out. We left the main road and climbed up through a little town, asking several times if we were going the right way. Then we got to a dirt road that got worse and worse and worse. We knew we would need 4-wheel drive, but I didn't really think it would be THAT bad. Deep ruts, up and down, one lane, bushes coming in through the car windows...

It is another beautiful day here in Dominica. 84 degrees, lovely breeze from the Atlantic, blue sky, white puffy clouds, and another day full or opportunity. Yesterday we went with a guide to Victoria Falls, Glasse Trail, and the Kalinago village by the sea (think of any park you have been to that recreates life in a bygone era...this of the original Amerindian population of Dominica). Victoria Falls was beautiful, but the hike freaked me out. We had to cross the river 5 times, which wasn't so bad. It was climbing up and over rocks, sometimes quite steep, that really freaked me out. We got to the falls and swam a bit, but the force from the falls was so strong it wasn't ideal for much swimming. We did see some freshwater crabs on the way, one of which was a female...the guide lifted up a little flap on her underside and we saw her babies scurrying around! By the end of it all, we were completely soaked. I hadn't expected to get quite so wet on the hike (I knew we woul...

The hubby and I are midway through the first week of our honeymoom. Dominica is lovely. It is called the Nature Island for a reason. (note...we are on the island country of Dominica, NOT the Dominican Republic) The island is mountainous and green, with many rivers and waterfalls. Today we went to Emerald Pool, where we also some some German butts (after the German tourists got out of the water they would change "discreetly" behind their towels) and boobs. The pool was beautiful and we had a nice drive arund the interior of the island. It was a much nicer drive than we had Tuesday when we went to Fort Shirley. We took a road on the way back that crosses the northern part of the island and it was VERY steep and VERY twisty. I kept my eyes closed quite a bit and reminded myself that people seem to make it up and down the streets of San Franciso which are also very steep. Seriously, some of those roads seemed like they were at a 45 degree angle. Even though my eyes were c...

. I know, I know. I shouldn't be blogging on my honeymoom. But, I don't get cell phone reception here in Dominica and since I want to update my sis on all the fun, blogging it is. Yup, no cell phone, but there is WiFi here! We left Saturday morning and spent a day and a half in San Juan. It was lovely. We swam in the ocean, shared a hammock while we read, had sushi for dinner. We left Sunday morning in a rainstorm for Dominica. I suppose for some people a flight that resembles a roller-coaster holds a certain appeal, but not for me. Fortunately, it was warm and sunny when we got to Dominica. We got our car and drove the skinny, windy roads to our home for the week. We had a lovely dinner of jerk chicken and then went up on the roof and gazed at the stars. It was amazing. So many stars! The guide book the owners left us stated that the sun rises "triumphantly" around 6 - 6:15 a.m. And so it did! That's all I have to say for now. I'll update more in b...

Well, look at me. I actually knit something. It isn't quite done yet. Obviously, it still needs to be blocked. I may take it over to my mom's house to do this, since our condo doesn't really have any space at the moment to spread out even this little shawlette. It is quite small, and yes, I do intend to wear it backwards around my neck like a kerchief. Then I can pull it over my face and...INSTANT OUTLAW! Can't wait. I'll post details once it is actually blocked and looks less like a scrunched up straw wrapper before you've dripped water on it. Less like ramen noodles before you've boiled them. Less like those crazy shirts that were all the rage several years ago (and are still sold at airports) that start out tiny yet can still be worn by adults of all sizes. Thank goodness I never gave in to the pressure and bought one of those. Life is humming along nicely here at Casa de Knitting in Transit. We are now the proud owners of a storage unit (Well, I...

Today I totally wiped out on my bike. Not my new bike...the "white Porsche" as one of my co-workers called it. No, I wiped out on my "old" bike. Perhaps this was its way of asserting its jealousy, but one minute I was riding peacefully along and the next I was sliding across the pavement. It's funny how those things happen so fast. Upright one minute, the next the feeling of, "oh...I'm falling. Crap. Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap . My hands! My head! Oh good...my head didn't really hit the ground. owowowowowowow ." Then I sat up and used a different word to describe the experience. And then I was just kind of pissed off. Ten minutes later as the hubby and I biked through campus I was laughing about it. And now I sit here, not even a scratch to show for all my trouble since it's October and I was wearing a lot of clothes. My elbow took the brunt of the impact and I am hoping tomorrow it will have a bruise or something. My way of saying to...

It's true! It's the busiest time of year at work and there are many baseball games and such to attend. Here's a quick rundown for anyone who cares on what's been happening. I started knitting a shawl. I made a mistake and ripped it out. I haven't started again yet. I completed both the St. Paul Triathlon and the St. Croix Valley Triathlon. I bought a road bike. It is this one , only mine is white and I got it at a great sale so I did NOT spend that much for it. It is a Specialized Ruby Elite Compact. It's a carbon frame and light as a feather. Love it. That's about it! I've been doing more cooking, D and I are still trying to get our house in order, still have thank you cards to write, and are finalizing honeymoon plans. Hopefully more interesting content to come!

Now that it has been several weeks since the wedding, I should probably get around to posting about all the cool wedding stuff we got on Etsy. It started with the invitations. I hadn't spent too much time on Etsy, but once I got the invitations there, I started checking it just about every day. So many wonderful, beautiful things! A few weeks before the wedding, I had to stop myself from looking! I've already shown off the invitations we got from Stelie Designs . They were the olive tree wedding invitation. She also did programs for us. I was so happy with how they turned out, and glad I followed her advice to only order one per couple/party. We still had a bunch left over. I particularly enjoyed shopping for my bridesmaids on Etsy. The showcase on Etsy is a great place to browse and find some of the best of Etsy. That's where I found tagodesign . This shop is located in Japan. In addition to her bags being lovely, how cool was it to get gifts from Japan? I bou...

We did it! We got married. Saturday was perfect. Here are some pictures and snippets of memory. A lovely setting. With my dad at the rehearsal. The Little Guy gives me a wedding present. Me and the ladies. Reading A Lovely Love Story by Edward Monkton to the kids at the ceremony. After the first kiss as husband and wife. All done!