Friday, May 9, 2014

The socks go on vacation

Remember how I was frantically knitting up all that Vesper Sock yarn so I'd have special new stripies to wear on my holiday to Boston?  Well, here's how that went:


Yeah, that last pair didn't quite make it.  Which is just as well because my new black walking shoes left dye marks on some of the socks I did take, and anyway, here's how much sock ended up showing:


Kind of sad, isn't it? after all that work.

Still, new socks are new socks, and they did keep my feet super comfortable as I walked pretty much all over Boston on the weekend plus a few days either side.  After a very important first outing to Fenway, of course, because you can't be in Boston and not go to Fenway Park to see a game.  (seriously, that place is amazing.)


I stayed in a hotel on Boston Harbour, just across from Logan Airport with a fantastic view of boats in between...


... and walked for maybe six hours every day, sometimes more.  Usually more?  It felt like more, and in Boston you can cover a lot of territory in that kind of time.  North End, South End, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Downtown, Chinatown... oh, and some of Harvard, as well.  In the end I got to a lot of places more than once.


Which means that mornings were pretty precious - those few wonderful minutes after putting on the socks, and before putting on the shoes and starting into that day's long trek.


I find it interesting, looking at this picture, that the little line you get at the start of the heel gusset is the part that shows at the top of the shoe.  Not sure I've ever noticed that before.

True Confessions: in news that may or may not shock you, I did not bring any knitting on this trip.

Which I sort of regretted during the five-plus hour delay at the airport in Toronto owing to fog, and also during the ball game, but not enough to cause, you know, physical pain.  I didn't listen to any audiobooks until I got home again either, but I did read most of a book on my tablet in the waiting lounge and all of another one in paperback form on the plane.  And you know what?  When the trip was over and I was back in my house I glanced at my desk and saw the sock I didn't finish lying there, and my heart flopped just a bit and I thought "Ohhhh, knitting!"  And it was still another whole day and a half before I had time to pick it up and do anything with it.

(and then I messed up the Kitchener stitch like somebody who hadn't closed a sock in ten or so years, so maybe it did more harm than I thought, not bringing knitting with me.)

The trip being done means that, technically, the frantic mad dash to finish off all the Vesper Socks is also done, something that has already had fallout here at Hugs in the form of Comparatively New Interests.  But I am still pretty pleased to report that on my return, the friend who looks after my house when I'm gone presented me with yarn that arrived in my absence.


I swear I am a glutton when it comes to this stripey Vesper stuff, I really am.  Can you believe that gorgeous Egg Hunt colourway in front?  But I'm not going to knit it yet.  Honest.

Next week I'll show you why, and also some of the cool things I saw in Boston because it's only fair for me to be allowed to show pictures of a trip I had to get on a plane to take.  Especially since it turns out that even after all the work I did on my fear of flying I still don't like turbulence, and had to live with rather a lot of it both ways.  Yech.

Okay - go have a wonderful weekend, and also a wonderful Mother's Day because even if you aren't one yourself, you've had one, and you almost certainly know some, and it's just a good day to remember good things about the positive bonds we form between generations, don't you think?  So take care and I'll see you again on Monday!

No comments: