Less knitting, more "chumming" in Bodega

Spouse-o and I had a lovely weekend in Bodega Bay. We birded Saturday on land (highlights: first winter Chestnut-sided warbler at Owl Canyon. Pacific Loon in breeding colors at Spud's Point Marina. Dinner at the deliciously decadent Seaweed Cafe.) and Sunday on the ocean. Ocean-going birds are described as "pelagic" if they spend the majority of their time away from land. Except in rare circumstances, you have to go out on a boat to see 'em. We were on a Shearwater Journeys trip, and their approach is to basically toss popcorn or tortilla chips overboard to draw in the gulls, which draw in the more unusual species. This is known as chumming.

But there is another way to chum for birds.. or fish. Just give them back whatever you ate for breakfast. That's me, every time. I try to keep a positive attitude, considering the seasickness just another fee I am paying to see the beautiful sea birds. But I think I tossed my cookies about 4 or 5 times on Sunday in gorgeous weather and it is extra tiring to spend this much time bending over the rail. My whole neck is worn out from the experience. Despite how much I love a day on the water, this is just killing me. We've got to get better medical intervention before our next trip.

Still. As Debi says in her trip report for Sept. 25, it was a super-fantastic day of birding. Check out the killer photos by my darling husband (also sick as a dog) took of 3 species of shearwater, a fulmar, and a skua (yes, it's a word.) Best of all is this Black-footed Albatross.

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And that leadup explains why, of the 4 projects I took with me, I made a bit of progress on 3, but no FO's for ya yet. I was just too worn out to do much other than sleep when I wasn't birding. Still.. I've got some updates and some photos.

A: Anklets (the Double Trouble socks) - turned the heels of one sock over the weekend and the second one Wednesday afternoon. Need to try them on the recipient before I go much further. I love how the Lorna's Laces is making evenly spaced stripes with very little pooling at 9 sts/inch.

B: Boy-sweater Devan - I made progress on the seams, which go very slowly. After ripping out pretty much everything I did on the weekend, I invested 2 1/2 hours this evening on one sleeve seam. ONE! The side seams are even slower because I have to keep strict count of the rows. "One, two , three, four, five, skip one.." The mathematical approach to the side seams un-lumped a very crappy looking first attempt.

Every time I look at this sweater, I am grateful for the color advice I got from Janice and sis-in-law at TKGA. I love the nice army green with the denim colors.

C: Cuddly cardigan. In one week, I knit the shoulders of this sweater 4 times, the body 3 times, the collar 3 times, and the sleeves just once. The reknitting was always for a different reason: failure to read the pattern, using up too much yarn on the body, and running out of yarn 4 stitches before the end. I did figure out who needs this sweater though.. niece Sarah in Philly will be sporting this cardi as soon as I bring myself to cut the connecting strings & sew on some buttons.

That's all the news that's fit to print, except for a note that I am missing my knitting pals awfully. If anyone is planning a knitting lunch or coffee break, please drop me a line! Knit chat withdrawal has been a drag!