Another 371 miles (plus approx 26!)

I made it. From Santa Clara back to Catalina Island in a day. If you are interested, here are the pictures:

The drive was much more pleasant this time, and I'm glad I waited out the stormy Sunday to get a nice day. But I was very aware of the fact that this meant I was driving into Los Angeles on a Monday, and it was crucial to the success of my homeward trip to get past the dreaded 405 freeway before rush hour traffic. But I made it, including the last little hitch of parking the truck in the garage in Long Beach, and taking a taxi over to San Pedro in time for the last boat. Because, man oh man, once you've made it that far, missing that last boat is just the worst!

My truck is just nasty lookin' now. Some sort of whitish stuff washed up on the hood from a passing semi and the windshield is nothing but an insect graveyard. But it performed like a trooper, and added on 750 miles in less than a week. That's a hell of a lot for a vehicle that often sits garaged for several weeks at a time or even longer. Since my decision to take it instead of a rental car was rather last minute, I didn't have time to take it in to get all of its fluids checked and innards reviewed, I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. To reward my faithful wheels though, I will go back overtown sometime in the next few weeks and finally take it in to be serviced and cleaned!

My first day home I was just sort of blotto all day. I meant to unpack, pay bills, spend some time on the computer - but nothing happened. Just a sort of blurry day spent with a cat plastered to me, watching the SciFi channel and knitting. On this:



It's a great little pattern and I've already completed the first itty-bitty sock and have started on it's itty-bitty mate. Looking at the itty-bitty ball of yarn remaining it seems impossible that that it could be enough, but I've heard sock yarn can be misleading that way - a tiny bit will go further than you expect.

My theory that this would be a good warm-up for sock knitting is turning out to be true. The only thing about the whole process that I struggled with at all was the Kitchener stitch toe. I could have wussed out and just threaded the working yarn through the last few live stitches and cinched it tight (what we refer to around here as "kitty butthole style") like at the top of a hat, but I persevered with the Kitchener and I'm glad I did. I've already decided that for my first sock I just want to do a simple ribbing pattern and to keep from being bored out of my mind with it, I'll use some of Spunky Eclectic's "Goblin Eyes" from my stash. That's got enough colors to keep me interested I think!