Alternate title: A Weekend in Two Parts
Part 1
After my mother-in-law passed away, my father-in-law spent a lot of time at the beach. Specifically, South Shore beach in Little Compton, RI. He would go often after dark, listen to the waves, smell the ocean. It eventually became a larger family tradition, and Saturday we all went to the beach in the evening to spend some time together. The nice thing about South Shore is that it is small, not really crowded, and you are allowed to light a fire and cook on the beach. It was about 90 degrees when we left, but at the shore it had to be 30 degrees cooler and very overcast. As we cooked and ate, and some of us went in the ocean, the fog steadily rolled in. Even those of us who hadn't gone near the water were soaked by the time we left. I had forgotten my camera, but it didn't really matter - all the pictures would have been gray and misty.
I was very thankful for J's sense of direction on the way home. This was brought home even more when, as we drove down a foggy street, the taillights of the car in front of us (and that's all you could see, taillights) moved strangely - kind of up and down. We pulled over and there was the car, half in somebody's driveway, half perched on a stone wall. Both airbags had deployed, but the teenage girl inside was primarily concerned about her mother's reaction. "My mom's gonna kill me," were, I believe, her exact words. We stayed until the police arrived, told them what we had seen (not a whole hell of a lot), and went on our way. I'd say we did so a bit more carefully, but J is a pretty careful driver anyway. The kids, especially Little Brother, were wide-eyed and silent as they waited in the car. They seemed to feel better when we assured them nobody got hurt, but it was the first car accident they'd seen and it was admittedly pretty freaky. The dark, the dense fog, the near complete silence that exists at night in a place like Little Compton . . . ooooohh. Like Halloween come early.
Part 2
Knitting content!
I finished the toe-up socks I'd been working on. I called them "alpaca footies" on the sidebar and on Ravelry because they are very short one-skein socks. I like short socks, though, and the color and softness are quite nice.
yarn: J. Knits Softee Alpaca needles: size 1 Addis pattern: just swatched, measured, and went
Do you believe that the things you knit hold of bit of your experiences while knitting them? If so, these are very happy socks: I worked on them primarily while listening to the Yarn Harlot's talk and while driving around upstate New York.
Speaking of happy things, I scored a great deal at EJ Yarn's last weekend before they close on the 31st. I have to say I wasn't that surprised that the store isn't staying open. It always seemed to be empty, and it hadn't really kept upwith knitting trends - lots of novelty yarn but next to no sock yarn, a lot more acrylic than wool, etc. Still, they did have some nice yarns and I was happy to scoop some up at 60% off. I got a bunch of Cotton Fleece, 
some Blizzard,
and the last skein of purple Baruffa Maratona becasue I had one at home that might have been lonely. I used the purple right away to start Baby Sister's BSJ (sorry, no pictures yet) so I'd have something simple to work on at work. I've been teaching the Kaplan SAT test prep classes, as I mentioned before, and every few weeks they have a practice test for me to proctor. I figured this would be four hours of paid knitting time, (yay!) but I tell you, the total silence made me painfully aware of every tiny click my needles made and the fact that I make weird faces when I'm concentrating on knitting quietly. I gave up after about an hour and started writing that blogging rite of passage, a "100 Things About Me" post. I'm on #83 and wishing I was a bit more interesting.
Well, this post is pretty effing long, so I will quit now! Have a lovely day :) .
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