Where the heck have I been the last three weeks? Just too busy with other stuff (and apologies for not keeping up with my blog reading/commenting as well). Here is a synopsis of what's been going on:

August 1: I post on my blog, intending to post again early the following week.
August 4-6: Annual girl's weekend camping trip to Sebago Lake.
August 6-7: Horribly busy at work; work late and collapse into relaxation mode at home.
August 8: Spend night doing laundry and drinking wine with a friend who is going through a emotionally trying period.
August 9: Intended to blog before leaving for our vacation. Wait for three hours for neighbor/alleged cat-sitter to show up so I can show her around house. She never shows up and then hides when I go knocking on her door. Finally give up and make dinner and go to bed.
August 10: Find a friend who agrees to take the cat while we're on vacation. Bowling league night. Get home at 10 PM and start packing for...
August 11-15: Vacation in Cape Cod! Woo hoo!
August 16-17: Crazy days catching up on work. Friday is bowling night again.
August 18: Drove down to the "big city" to get my haircut and do some shopping. End up watching a movie instead of blogging.

So after all that, here I am, finally! And still with not much knitting to show, unfortunately. As you will see, I've been stuck in SWATCHING HELL (said in a dramatic voice) for the last two weeks!

Shortly after my last post, my fears about the Classic Elite Waterlily were confirmed--the pattern called for DK weight yarn and the yarn shop owner steered me towards worsted weight instead! Talk about frustrating! I really wish I had just looked at the gauge myself, I wouldn't have made that mistake. Now I'm not sure what I will do with the yarn, which I still love. I'm toying with the idea of designing something myself, although I didn't really buy any extra yarn to make swatches with, so we'll see.

After that fiasco, I decided to instead start a lace project (with thanks to Jeanne for the yarn gift...more on that in a future post). I started swatching but soon discovered that none of the needles I own were going to work (not pointy enough). I ordered some better needles which showed up quickly but still not enough time to get a swatch finished and blocked before vacation.

Well, I knew that I had to bring something with me to knit on our trip (and not the baby wrap and booties I was working on. I really didn't want to spend my vacation doing finishing work, yuck!). Finally I decided that I would use some purple Rowan Handknit Cotton and make Arial, a lacy pullover from White Lies Designs. Once again, trouble struck when I discovered that even though Handknit Cotton is a DK weight yarn, it is a slightly heavier DK than what was used in the pattern. I swatched and swatched but couldn't make the proper gauge and hand. This was especially sad because I so wanted to make Arial in the purple color.

Lacking other options and in a desperate bid to have some project, any project to take on vacation, I finally settled on using the Handknit Cotton to make Nerissa from Rowan 41. Finally, so far so good (although I would have preferred making it in a different color):The color in this photo is completely off, it is really a medium heather-y purple.

Hopefully I can get back into my lace project shortly and not have to SWATCH anything for a long, long time!

I guess I should shut up now, and post a few pictures from Cape Cod, which I totally fell in love with. Here is a photo of this awesome, deserted beach where we saw a ton of seals in the water. They kept popping their heads up and looking at us!Another really nice beach, but no one was swimming due to reports of a shark in the area:We were cracking up because there were two news teams there filming reports for the local news on the "shark scare"...must've been a really slow news day.
And in honor of Project Spectrum, a shot of a pretty purple hydrangea which grow everywhere on the cape!More photos on Flickr!

Nothing left to do now but eat our salt-water taffy and wish we were back at the beach!