Here’s my swatch. My size 5 needles made it to the perfect gauge, row and stitch.

Now to cast this baby on! Blümchen Cardigan by Anne Hanson.

This is based on the Sprossling pattern I knit last spring which turned into my favorite sweater. I’ve wanted a purple sweater since I started to knit again. This is going to be the one, I think.

The Fallberry pattern set has been released today! You can see the gorgeous photographs here on Knitspot.

You can buy the pattern here at the Knitspot Pattern Shop.

And you can get your Roast Carrots or From Dusk Til Dawn in Pathway Sport, plus ten other colors.

Use “fallberry” as a discount code to get 10% off of your yarn order, good through December 20th.

Anne Hanson is working on a pattern set using Pathway Sport in Roast Carrots.

Here’s a preview of the scarf from her blog.

She’s also made a hat!

Which has been tried on by everyone on her travels. There will be two color selections, Roast Carrots and From Dusk Til Dawn. I have already uploaded my first batch of both of these colors and I’ll be dyeing more this weekend, plus a few companion colors.

The pattern should be out in a week or two!

Plus, check out my Stalwart Sock collection! I have uploaded a big batch of blues, purples, and a bit of green.

I know the blog has been quiet, but it’s been months and months and months of 100 degree weather, and I have been doing zero knitting. Bad knitter, bad bad bad…

As usual I am behind on getting the second half of my vacation pictures up.

Day 4 was the Road to Hana tour. I took a tour because I did not want to drive that windy road all by myself. Here are a few pictures from this day-long tour.

Here’s an example of the road. Pretty much 127 miles of windy twisty bendy road with jungle on one side and ocean on the other. Some places are VERY high up in the air (along a cliff, even) and some places at sea level. It’s NOT a place to drive if you are afraid of heights.

See the black sand? Hana road in the background.

Ocean and lava rocks. This is on a pinennsula. I don’t have my map in front of me, so I forgot the name. It’s been populated for over 200 years, and the natives brought soil down from the mountain and created the land. It was all lava rock before that.

One of the many waterfalls on the road.

One of my favorite pictures from my trip. I put this on my background on my work computer. It is on the South side of the island, right before the dry side. It is a missionary church. Imagine being the minister who’s newly married and dropped off on this remote place in the 1800s…

And this is what the dry side of the island looks like. There are places where they have to have propane stoves and fridges, and tote water in 500 gallon canisters in a pickup.

Plus, the dry side is where they raised cattle. There was an area where the Hawaian cowboys swam the cattle out to the waiting ship, beating off sharks with their lariats. Now THAT’s a cowboy!

It was a fantastic tour given by Discover Hawaii. I learned tons of cool trivia about the island.

Day 5

Tired! I stayed home and read my book on the lanai (porch) while looking at the ocean.

I got up early on Tuesday to go to the Maui Ocean Center in Ma’akena right as it opened. I have never been to an aquarium where I didn’t have to battle through 50 kids to see an exhibit. It was marvelous. It wasn’t empty, but it had few people there. The center opens at 9 am, and I was third in line as the doors opened.

Ma’akena is across the harbor from Kihei. The photo shows the Kihei coastline.

The Ocean Center had the usual exhibits and a really big shark tank with really giant rays and hammer heads in it.

I discovered that my camera takes pretty good pictures through the glass of the aquarium. The hammerheads were difficult. They moved fast and seemed to turn away just as I got them into focus.

But I did manage to get one picture, this is a Scalloped Hammerhead.

After looking through the exhibits, I wandered around the Ocean Center Village (shopping ctr) and went into the Pacific Whale Foundation store. In there I signed up for a 5 hour cruise and snorkeling expediton on Friday morning (6 am yikes). They will take me to 2 sites for an hour’s snorkeling each, feed me breakfast and lunch, and I can even rent an underwater digital camera in order to take pictures of the reef.

This will be my second time going snorkeling, and I’m excited about it. I can take a memory chip to put in the rented digital camera. I hope to get some pictures I can print and frame. We’ll see…

After the Maui Ocean Center, I went to Lahaina and north on Hwy 30. I went far, FAR north and almost ended up on a 1 lane dirt road on the Northeast part of the island. I found a place to turn around. I got confused when the north/south road was labeled east/west. There’s a lot of that going on around here. But I figured it out when the ocean was on the wrong side of the car. It was just a matter of finding a place to turn around, which is not always easy. There were some spectacular views of ocean and cliffs but no place to stop and take pictures that weren’t already full of cars.

It was a great day, and I got back to the condo at about 4 pm. I rested for a bit and ate salad for supper. I was still full of a $18 Cuban pulled pork sandwich.

Today I got up sore and sunburned. I have not been swimming in a LONG time, and my SPF 50 works great, but I apparently missed quite a few spots. I’m Hot Lips Pink at the moment, or at least my shoulders are. Doesn’t hurt much anymore.

I took my morning swim and then came back for a shower. Then I hung out a bit and tried to figure out where to go today. I decided to take a drive down south to Wailea and then on to the Makena State Park. I took lots of pretty pictures.

This is the entrance to an estate. The gardeners were working out front. What would it be like to garden with such a lush and tropical pallete of plants? Boy the things I could do…

A fallen tree. The beach is over the rise just behind it. I just thought it looked cool.

Beach

Lava rock beach and tree. See the Kayaks? Lots of Eco-tours and rentals to be had here.

More lava rock beach.

Look at the color of that water. There are always clouds nearby, but it has not rained once yet. Not even an afternoon tropical rain.

I was taking pictures of the surf when the surfer walked by.

Makena State Park:

The mountain is behind everything. I think it’s a preserve, because I do not see any signs of habitation on it at all.

The lava rock here was a rusty dark reddish brown. I drove through on a tiny road with lava on both sides. Very alien landscape.

More lava rock in water.

and more

and that’s it for today! Came back to the condo, hung out and read my book. Cooked chicken for supper, which was very good. Aloha!

No pictures this time, unless you want a picture of a pineapple sitting on the counter. Maybe later.

I went for a walk down South Kihei (pronounced kee-hay) Road to look at the businesses and see what I could find. There are lots of tourist shops around. They are filled with Hawaian shirts, brightly colored print dresses, straw hats, and flip-flops. Lots and lots of flip-flops. I can no longer wear those comfortably, so I passed on them.

In one shop I found a very cheap pair of plastic sandal slides which will work just fine for wakling to the beach and back. They were $5. Cheap enough I could leave them here if my luggage gets too heavy.

That’s all I bought. Then lunch at a cyber-cafe, a huge Mediterranean salad (lettuce, olives, feta, red onion, red peppers, tomatoes, and a dollop of hummus). Lunch with drink was ten bucks. Not bad.

Then on my way back to the condo, I impulse bought a two-scoop waffle cone of ice cream for over $6. DOH! I didn’t check the price before ordering. Oh well, it was very good.

After reading a bunch of restaurant reviews, and seeing the lines already forming at some of the restaurants close to me, I went back to Foodland and bought a big sirloin and two chicken breasts. That’s dinner or lunch for four days, for the price of ONE steak dinner at any one of these restaurants, and I know I’ll cook my steak correctly to just the doneness I want (medium rare-more rare than medium).

So dinner tonight is steak and brocolli with some leaf lettuce. Pineapple for dessert.

Oh and did I tell you about my pineapple related injury? I was peeling it and dropped the knife… onto my foot. I got a small cut. Whoops.

Right now I’m kicked back reading a book on the sofa. I’ll start dinner in 1/2 an hour and eat out on the lanai. Ahh the good life.

Maui – Day 1

Morning

After a travel day from hell yesterday, which I will NOT discuss, I’m over it now, I landed in Maui after dark. The plan was descending at twilight and I did get to see some of the surrounding area, but it was pitch black by the time I landed. It was about 1 am Oklahoma time, and I discovered that even at my advanced age, I still can’t sleep on an airplane. I got a lot of reading done.

The unit I am renting is a 1 bedroom apartment with a little galley kitchen and living room all in one, with a nice big bedroom and double shower. It’s very nice.

I was NOT going to do the morning without coffee, so last night I drove to the nearest grocery store and bought coffee, skim milk, yogurt, bananas, cheese, ham, bread, bagels, cream cheese, and Fresca. This came to a whopping $56! The ham is Bar S Ham, an Oklahoma brand, LOL. I was shocked at the price. Double what we pay. I knew food would be expensive here, but man… S’aright. It will still be cheaper than restaurants 3 times a day. I feel into bed about 3 pm Oklahoma time, after what felt like 24 hours in planes and airports.

This morning I get up by 6:30, still sort of on Oklahoma time, which is 5 hours later than here. I grabbed my camera and stepped out on the porch and took this picture:

Yep, that’s the ocean out there, right across the street. The travel was so worth it and I hadn’t even left the complex yet.

After my coffee and breakfast internet surf, I put on my Capri pants over my bathing suit and wandered over to the beach to take some pictures.

Here is the beach facing north.

Lots of lava rocks around here. They look really cool in the surf.

More lava rocks with algae on them. I wanted to get a picture from the other side, but the surf would have swamped me.

And here is one that looks like a frog!
And finally, some vegetation. This picture was taken standing in the water looking towards the road. My condo complex is to the left of this picture.

After this photo session, I went back to the condo and grabbed a towel and went swimming. The clouds were burned off as soon as I covered my bright white legs… I swam and splashed in the waves for quite a while and then came back in. I can’t overdo the sun on my first day. I had my SPF 50 on my face and neck and ears, though.

I need to get a few supplies. I need some rubber sandals that can be washed off with a hose. So far I’ve kept the sand out, but it’s inevitable. A few more pairs of shorts wouldn’t be bad either, but I won’t go nuts there. I can always wash what I brought with me. My brown Capris are still dripping from the surf.

Now I’m going out to look around the shops near me. This is a pretty built up area with lots of little beach shops and cafes and such. There is even a tiny Dennys nearby, but I doubt I’ll eat there, hehe.

Here is the progress on my sweater up to this weekend. More of the lace design is showing.

Front:

This picture shows the colors more true to life. I am very happy with the Silky Wool yarn I’m using. The only thing is that it has a fair share of vegetable matter in it.

Back:

I’m still not sure what to do on the bottom edge. I may just do a diamond of diamonds on the back and keep it simple with that being the only lace on the sweater. Or I may do a row of smaller diamonds on the back. Still thinking about it.

I’m hosting a Top-Down Sweater Knitalong with my Thursday night knitting group. Here are two progress pictures of my sweater:

I’m using Elsebeth Lavold’s Silky Wool, and the diamond lattice pattern comes from Barbara Walker’s first stitch dictionary. I had to chart the pattern for ease of knitting, but I’m almost done with one repeat. The second repeat will be three across on the back, two on each front side.

The same lace diamond will go on the sleeves. I have not figured out if I will add more lace at the hem or not. That’s a decision for later, once I get down there. That is the beauty of top-down knitting. You can decide as you go.