Start again or start over?

I look back on this blog with sadness.  I had great hopes that I would keep blogging about knitting and sailing.  I can’t believe it has sat unused AT ALL for nearly a year.  And it isn’t even that we didn’t have things to blog about!  Last year would have been an excellent year…and this year will be even better.  So, I am resolving to bring this back alive.  As tempting as it would be to just start over, I really like the name “Casting Away” and why lose all that I’ve already posted?  I’ll just pick up where I left off, sort of.

While I am here I will share the link to a blog that I love to read by friends of our who are living the dream!!  S/V Joint Venture  Maybe their blog will keep you busy until I can get a few entries here!  For my knitting friends, there is probably no knitting content…sorry.

Oh, boy…no excuses!

But can I share something that I’m working on right now? This will mean more to those of you that are in the Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey area.

Check out the Eastern Shore Yarn Crab Crawl website!

Thanks!!

I know its been awhile, but…

has WordPress changed something about the comments? It use to be that you would get an email that someone commented and then you could reply back to them directly. Now I see that when I tried to reply to them it just sends it to WordPress.com. Is it a setting I don’t know about? I looked but didn’t see anything. Anyone?

Only slightly distracted…

My apologies.

I have been knitting…a lot! Want proof? Well, first, let me tell you the method behind the madness. I was getting a little fed up with my WIP that were in time out. I should be better than that. So I made a deal with myself that I could still start new things as long as I pull something from the “time out basket” and worked on it, too.

So here is what I have finished from that basket:

Minimalist Cardigan by Ruthie Nussbaum (IK F07)
Cascade Sierra #60
According to my Rav entry, I started this on Aug 14, 07. I finished it Mar 17, 09. Sad, cause I think of all the time I lost that I could have been wearing it. It is definitely one of my favorite things that I have knitted for me.

Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A Clark (IK F06)
Schaefer Yarn Anne (not sure about the color)
03/12/08-04/11/09
This is my first real foray into lace. I’ve done a doily and all but not a shawl. I don’t intend to wear it over my shoulders in a traditional way but like the picture with it more like a scarf. It is very warm. I LOVE it!!

There are somethings that have been purged from the basket, too, either because I didn’t feel a connection to them or I thought of a better use of the yarn. One of these is the Jeanie shawl. I feel sad about it but I just don’t think that I would wear it and it is a lot of work to not actually use. I’m on the look out for the perfect top for this yarn. I’m thinking Pioneer, though I know that the yarn it calls for is sport and this is fingering. Ugh! Any suggestions? I like seamless things these days.

OK, you’ve gotten a taste of what I have been doing. I have more to share of what I have finished and what I have on the needle (some of which you can see on my Rav page). And I want to share what has been distracting me, too. All in good time (and not too much time, I hope).

All’s well in Kitty Land

Thank you to everyone that welcomed me back. And thank you for your compliments on Tang. I wore it today and love it even more!!!

I wanted to quickly respond about the cat news. Besides feeling that we are being taken over, all are well, so don’t worry.

Remember LK and Curly? They are doing well. This is a picture of them sleeping together a few weeks ago. A real Ying and Yang, aren’t they?

I noticed that Curly was limping a little so I took him into the vet. Yes, he had been into a couple of fights and had some wounds on his legs and was missing a couple of claws (ouch!), but the main thing that the vet was concerned about was a fungal infection on his skin. He was sent home newly bathed and with a bottle of special shampoo for me to continue to bath him once a week for 3 more weeks. Right! So that is what I have been doing, with a lot of help from a very, very, very good friend! Its not easy bathing a stray cat even if it is Curlique.

In the meantime, poor LK has been out on her own probably wondering where her man has run off to. And then another, Bob, starts coming around to take Curly’s place. I decide to catch LK and move her into the Florida room with Curly for a little vaca. Unfortunately, LK is not as dumb as she looks and she avoids the have-a-heart-trap. Bob is dumber than he looks and walks right in. Do you think Bob woke up that morning and said, “this seems like a good day to have my balls cut off!”? Hhhhmmmm. Yeah, well, it happened anyway. I eventually get LK into the FL room and she is none too happy but none the worse for it.

So that is all. The count stands that at my house there have been 6 neuterings and 4 spayings. Want to come hang out in my back yard?!?

Dexter says it is time for bed and to please turn off the lights as you leave.

Uhm, anyone there?

Don’t blame you if you aren’t. I’m not sure I would have kept coming back.

Where have I been? Nowhere and everywhere. Christmas and a few events after just took it all out of me. Plus, you really just get to the point where…oh, nevermind. Hopefully, I’m back. I know I certainly have a lot to talk about…both knitting and sailing related.

I’ve started a new page (see the tabs at the top) for items I have finished in 09. I would like to go back and catch up on all of that BUT let’s start small.

In the world of sailing, INDIGO sold! Yep, you heard that right! We’ve have already headed down to TX to pick out our new baby, a Valiant 42. We are told that it will take approximately 7 months. Its kind of a short gestation but I might get a few things knitted in there. I’d like to do an afghan and maybe a pillow or something.

I’ll share this with you…I finished it last night. Hopefully I will have some better pictures of it soon.

Tang by Wendy Bernard (from Custom Knits)
Twist by Laines du Nord #666

Wonderful book and wonderful pattern. All the patterns are top-down and seamless. It really spoils you cause when you are done, you are done! I’ve started a Crochet sweater (more about that later) and, while it is going quickly, I have to keep reminding myself that I am only working on the back right now. Bummer.

Other things I am working on…

Opart Blanket (from Knitty.com)
for SDC (Jennifer’s new baby)

I am much further along now…only 4 (?) more stripes to go. Of course the stripes get wider and you add 4 more stitches with every row, so it can be slow going right now.

I am also working on a scarf for my mom and a poncho for my niece. I can’t remember when I started them…oops.

Oh, and I have cat news. Remind me to tell you. But right now I have to run. Thanks for stopping by again!

Oh, you gotta love this!

For some reason I can’t get this to show up here so go here to see it.

Sorry…

but this had me rolling with laughter!

ps Thank you to everyone for the comments on the boat and the cats.

pss Since when did this become a cat blog and where is the knitting? I am busting my a$$ to get “Christmas” done by Thanksgiving!!

Inspired

With the announcement yesterday about INDIGO going on the market, I was inspired to write about our 9 day cruise this summer.

We headed out on a Thursday night around 6pm to head toward Annapolis, Maryland. We were going to the United Stated Boat Show (the link, of course, now has info about next year’s show). This was the first time we had done this by boat. In years past we always went by car and usually with others. We were excited to be able to see all this from the water. Jay wanted to get as far down the Bay as we could before dropping the hook. 4 hours later we anchored and got a good night’s sleep.

Friday morning was leisurely. We knew we were not going into the show that day and we knew all the moorings would be taken so no hurry. We had a very nice sail down.

sailing downwind

about to sail under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge

And what was I doing during most of this?

I get some of my best sleep on the boat!

We were able to anchor off the Naval Academy. Some friends of ours were there on Saturday by car and they met us for Pain Killers at Pusser’s. If you have never had the pleasure of a Pain Killer…well, they are named appropriately. A new friend of mine, Cindy, was also there. I met her at my LYS and we started talking about sailing. Come to find out that she and her husband have a sailboat that they keep a couple of rivers down from us. When I told her we were going to the boat show by boat they started thinking about it, too. So they had arrived around the same time we had. I hope that next season we will do a little sailing with them. It will be fun to have someone to knit with over cocktails.

Saturday we woke to beautiful weather and a boat that had anchored WAY TOO CLOSE to us the night before. As we were pulling our anchor up to drop back and “get out of HIS way,” I spotted a couple of moorings right off the boat show that had been vacated. You’ve seen that photo here.

We went into the boat show that morning with a long list of things that needed to be bought for INDIGO (dinghy, cockpit table, autopilot, etc). We stopped by the area where Pacific Seacraft were showing off all there newest boats. Earlier we had gone by with the boat and someone took this picture of Bart (the broker that sold us the boat) and Steve (PS new owner).

Pretty cool, huh? We had a great time talking to them.

I’m going to stop here for tonight. Its getting late and I still have 7 more days to go. More tomorrow.

“free wifi”

Anyone out there have an iPod touch? I get so confused by the ability to use wifi with this thing. It picks up a signal and I go to see which one and it says “free public wifi” but it won’t actually connect.

BTW, this email was mostly ready to go before midnight but due to the silly wifi thingy, it wasn’t sent until today. I’m just saying.