back from the beach

When my week at the beach began, it looked a little like this:

the wind from the east = good

By Tuesday, however, it looked like this:

the wind from the west = not good

The difference in these shots? The direction of the wind. Because for all the pain of a 100+-degree day (not heat index), you could bear it if you could sit under an umbrella and chill out, going in the water when you wanted to.

But when the wind comes from the west, that is, off the land, it is not only hotter, it brings biting black flies. Flies that love the shade, making umbrellas little pockets of death. Even sitting in a chair is painful, as the flies congregate in the shade under you. So you stand. Or you lay in the searing heat. And then, when you can’t take it any longer, you run into the ocean, which was delightful and cool, but every afternoon it was high tide and there were no waves!

I’m not complaining, not really. I mean, I’d rather be lazing around the beach house or be at the beach than trudging the mile to work in that heat. But still? Not the most ideal beach week you could have asked for.

We did do a lot of crabbing—sad results this year compared with last year, but I did catch the largest crab of the week, one that measures 6 inches point to point! Oh, it was sooo yummy.

my crab

Wait, you want to hear about knitting? OK. I brought with me the baby sweater for my friend EH’s baby, and knit a bit on the drive to the beach as well as in the morning on Sunday. Then I sort of realized/became horrified to see that I wasn’t going to have enough yarn. So I lost a bit of hope, I prepared myself for a retooling upon my return, and I stopped all knitting. (Yesterday I took it out about a quarter of the way, and I think I’m back on track.) The other knitting I brought was my latest Summer of Socks socks. They’re Snowflake Lace socks, and I’m trying to do a toe-up heel flap with little success. Though I didn’t knit them one bit, I did take a shot from the upstairs balcony to prove they were at the beach.

socks at the beach

That is the ocean in the background! This shot was taken on Thursday, I believe, when it was about 102 degrees. No way I was doing any knitting, even in the house! I definitely became overly obsessed with the new blog/web site and lost a little steam on the knitting front. I hope to get back on track this week!

4 Responses to back from the beach

  1. Jen says:

    Try a no-flap gusset and short row heel. I don’t know what size your feet are, but say I’m making a 64-stitch sock. At the point where the sock joins the leg, I start increasing at the BOTTOM corners ONLY till I have 84 stitches (total). Then when I have 84 stitches, I turn it like a top-down heel – knit to 2 past the middle, ssk, k1, turn; sl1, p5, p2tog, p1, turn and keep working across the gap like that till you’re back down to 64 stitches.

    It’s an amazing heel and works very well. I like it best of all the toe-up heels.

  2. Rachel says:

    I was thinking last week about people on vacation — how on the one hand it was probably better for them that they were near water than at home, but on the other hand, it wasn’t exactly an ideal vacation week. I hope you managed to have a good week in spite of the heat and that you got to enjoy at least a bit of the nice weather on Saturday!

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