DH and I went on our first cruise to Canada this past summer. We had a blast and promised each other that we must do this again. We didn't go to the most exciting ports but it was fun nonetheless. We were in St. John, New Brunswick which was a very sedate place. It was a bit depressing but we saw the Bay of Fundy which was pretty amazing. Then we headed up to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where we felt it had more character. Poor Halifax. The Titanic sunk nearby. We saw the graves of the victims and I found it very interesting. In the late 1800's or early 1900's (I can't remember) there was a horrible explosion when a ship hit another one carrying explosives. Then when 9/11 happened and all airplanes were grounded in the United States, the planes coming from Europe landed in Halifax but there weren't enough hotels to handle all of these people. The citizens of Halifax put up strangers in there houses. We must have a warm and fuzzy feeling for Halifax.
I told DH that if I had to do one thing, it was to visit the yarn store, The Loop. We rushed to the store because we had to be back on the ship by 5 and it was 3:45. I walked ahead because DH walks a bit too slow for me. I asked someone on the street and she pointed me in the right direction. I was so excited. This would be a great souvenir from Halifax instead of those refrigerator magnets I got from St. John. I walked into the store and honestly, I was a bit disappointed. A lot of space and not a lot of yarn. The store carried some nice upscale stuff but I didn't feel compelled to touch anything. So I asked for solid sock yarn. (This has been difficult to find lately since everyone wants a self-patterning yarn). Lo and behold, there it was. The sage green sock yarn that I decided I had to have. And it was on sale. DH was so funny. He asked if I needed more. Wasn't that sweet? He doesn't know how much yarn is needed for socks and this pattern makes socks that come up to the ankles. I bought it and we rushed back to the ship. I was a happy camper.
The pattern comes from the Six Sox Knit-a-long. I like most of their patterns and this was a bit lacy. I was hoping to have them done to enter them into our local Grange Fair. (See my last entry) I worked on the first one without a problem but you know how it is with the second sock. It's as if you were starving and eat something but there's some more leftover and you don't have that same hungry feeling because it was sated by what you just ate. That's my second sock. However, I had a deadline. September 2nd, 6:00 PM! I started it the Thursday before. I was moving quite quickly on it until I compared it to the first sock. I made a giant mistake! On the foot, I knitted the pattern all around instead of just on the top. If I wanted to enter these, I had to rip it out and I did. Since these were made toe up, I ripped it back to the toe. On Sunday, I did the foot, the heel and made it up to one repeat before the next lace pattern. On Monday evening, I tried to finish the last repeat but kept making one mistake after another. I decided to go to the Grange Fair to enter my Clapotis. (another entry). There my scarf was greeted with oohs and aahs and I told them that I would be back the following day to enter my socks...if I finish them.
I went to work confident that I could find time during the day to work on the sock. It wasn't happening. I kept making mistakes and had to unknit the row or rows. Then I was hoping that I would finish the sock during DS#2's piano lesson. That didn't happen either. I asked DS#2 to sit in the car with me so I can finish up the picot edging and then run over to the fair to drop off the socks. I had my entry cards all ready. When I saw that I had only 20 minutes to the 6:00 deadline, I just took a deep breath and said to DS#2, "We're going home!" He asked about going to enter the socks but I told him that I wouldn't make it.
What did I learn from this experience? First, I can knit damn fast when I want to! I was shocked at how fast I knitted up this sock! Second, I sometimes can't multi-task, like talking and doing a lace pattern. It doesn't go very smoothly for this knitter. Finally, those last minute habits that I had in school which I thought I changed, came back as if they never left! But you know what? I have a new pair of socks ready for the cold weather!
We just got home from the Grange Fair. I only wanted to go to pick up my Clapotis but once the boys got wind of my plans, it became a family affair. We got there pretty late and since this was the last day, many exhibits with livestock cleared out already. I went into the exhibition building and there was my baby with a 2nd place ribbon on it. I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed because I thought the first prize went to a fuzzy scarf. Then I saw that the first prize went to a black lace shawl which was folded up. It had a more complex pattern than mine but it looked as if it had cat hair all over it. Anyway, I took a picture of my item and some stranger took a picture of me since my boys refused. There's always next year! 
