What I Did on my Vacation

Question: is it possible to be on vacation from retirement? I was in Delaware and Maryland last week while everyone in my previous job was at work. How’s that for cool! This week they are all on spring break and I’m here at home “working” on knitting, cooking, putting away all my stuff that overflowed from my suitcases, and all the other stuff that a retired lunch lady does.

So, did I accomplish anything while I was gone besides playing with baby Abigail? I depends on whether you count going to outlet malls, knitting stores and watching endless episodes of Law and Order and Mythbusters. (We don’t have those shows at home because we refuse to pay the outrageous prices that Comcast wants).

The weather was really too cold for walking the beaches except for Wednesday when we did go to Ocean City and walk the boardwalk. I can only guess from the miles of mostly closed trinket shops how crowded it must be during the “on” season. But we found stuff to do. My sister had scoped out the yarn/needlework shops ahead of time and we were able to find them without trouble. We even went to one of them twice! The outlet shops in Rehoboth Beach were a serendipitous discovery. My sister and I both needed new jeans and she loves L.L. Bean and I love the VF Factory Outlet. She did much better than I did at finding her size but I did get one new pair of jeans and one pair of shorts that fit perfectly. Another Question: why is it so hard to find jeans in sizes for slightly larger than average women that actually come up to the waist? Don’t the manufacturers know that older women also buy jeans? That’s why I was so excited to see the outlet stores because we knew that they’d have something in our size. Then there was the Carter’s and Oshgosh outlet stores! Abigail is now going to be the best dressed 6 month old this summer courtesy of her Grandma and Great Aunt!


So between shopping and beach walking and watching TV (I can’t work on something while watching TV because I can’t hear it without watching it) I made a string bag with one skein of Hempathy, finished a soap sock that is the prototype for the class I’m teaching at Double Ewe, tatted two crosses, and started a pair of baby Uggs. Oh, and I brought my stitch marker stuff along so I could make markers for Amy. Of course I had many more things along to work on – I always am waaay more optimistic about what I can accomplish. I actually brought enough yarn to make a sweater! My daughter Amy though, is much more single minded about her knitting and gets much more done than I do. She made this pile of 9 bears for the Mother Bear Project (3 of them on this trip), a pair of child size socks in the Coriolis pattern from Cat Bordhi’s new book (sorry I didn’t get a picture but they are very cute), and worked on the second of a pair of socks. She is a fearless knitter – she started the sock with a tubular cast on and found the coriolis socks to be easy.


One other thing that Amy and I did. We taught my nephew to knit! I started a hat in the round on a circular needle for him and he is knitting along like a pro. As with most new knitters he’s knitting a little tightly so I’m not sure about the size of the hat but with practice he’ll even that out. He’s a fast learner! Great job Peter. And I just wasn’t thinking – I didn’t get a picture of him with his knitting. But he did hold Abigail for a while…

I’ll fill you in on what I bought at the three yarn shops and one quilt shop that I went to, tomorrow. I’m a little worried about putting it all out in photos for the Compadre to see!