My day in Sydney Feb 2020

I have been extremely fortunate to have been able to travel to Sydney this last winter in order to go on a Knitting Cruise though Australia and New Zealand.    Absolutely beautiful places and I'll share a bit of my travels in the future but today let's focus on knit stuff.  
Our groups boarded a van and traveled outside the city to visit Jane Slicer-Smith's home studio.  She is a prolific designer and wonderful hostess.   Her  book Swing, Swagger and Drape is lovey and you may have seen her designs before.   She has a line of wool (just knit my swatch yesterday and it is so soft and textured) www.sigknet.com

Although I had no intention of purchasing yarn...when there are so many samples to try-on and you fall in love with the details and workmanship, it very difficult to walk away.   I doubt I'll be in Australia any time soon>

I did chose the Windsor Jacket and hope to have it complete by my next knitting cruise  (www.Craftcruise.com)

Our next stop was a local yarn shop in the city of Sydney and again I did purchase yarn, but this time it was for one of the three patterns I brought with me to find a matching yarn.    This time around I made the decision to have a few patterns picked out prior to the trip in order to take some control of the amount of yarn I purchased.   I think my plan worked out well and I've completed one design since I arrived back home.   But more of that in another post. 

Knitting Life update 2020

A trip of a lifetime in the middle of a pandemic. Australia and New Zealand Feb 2020.  Yes, I had this voyage planned many months before the cruise date and yes at that time I was aware of what was happening in Asia and Europe.. but I was confident if I used safe practices things would be fine and it was.

I left the USA on Feb 22th for my flight to Sydney, Australia.   SFO was busy,  some people were wearing masks, most not. When I arrived in Sydney there were questions about where I had been in the last few weeks..but other then that, no mention of virus at all.

The cruise was lovely.  Ships crew did all they could to keep the ship sanitary and safe.  The places we visited are beautiful. expansive and breathtaking.  But more about that and all stuff knitting related in a future post(s).    We arrived back in the states on March 14th.   This time the airports were empty, very surreal.

I've been home sheltering in place, only going out for a daily early morning walk and to pick up groceries every 10 days to 2 weeks.   I'm very fortunate to live in an agricultural area of the country...so fresh vegetables have become my mainstay..and it helps to support our local farmers.

Zoom has become my meeting place to knit with friends. Have you tried it?  Many shops are offering Zoom meet-ups, so technically it's possible to knit with people from yarn shops across the country.   I
think I'm going to try that sometime soon..

I've been taking knitting/crochet classes, rewriting a pattern designed 10 years ago and knitting of course.  


Oh and this
Hope you are well, in this very sad time..yet I have optimism for the future.