Thursday, January 11, 2007

Knitting in Panama

We're home! Coffeeboy and I had an amazing time in Panama. The weather was hot and humid - oh, so hot and humid. About 85 degrees and humid, although not as humid as Florida. It felt like Florida when we first arrived, but I think we both got relatively used to the humid heat by the time we left. Neither of us particularly likes hot and humid weather, which made some elements of the trip rather challenging.

Some of you probably know that I did have internet access while there (seeing as I left comments on some blogs over the course of the trip) but for some reason, I didn't do any blogging of my own. We were on vacation; I felt somewhat away from it all. Thus I'm left with tons to catch up on: New Year's, knitting, and of course, the trip! Thanks to all of you who stopped by, said hi, and wished us a good trip and a happy new year!

You're probably all wondering: was Lazuli able to knit despite the heat, humidity, and lack of air conditioning in her relatives' home? The answer lies here:

Clapotis lounging
Yes, I sure could!

Clapotis is about 2/3 of the way done, shown here louging on a hammock (lucky piece of knitting). I still need to give it considerably more length. Humidity made the yarn smell very woolly, but not damp.

However, I couldn't bear the thought of casting on for wool socks. I spent the entire time in sandals (except on hikes). About half way through, I considered putting some of the new Colinette Jitterbug yarn on the needles. See, I even took pictures of it for you, right before winding it into a ball!

Colinette Jitterbug yarn Colinette Jitterbug yarn
I thought I'd knit socks in the colors of tropical birds, but it was too hot to think about socks

Somehow, though, the socks never got started. Must have been the mental block against having warm, squishy wool covering my toes in 85-degree heat. Ugh! Nevermind that I wouldn't have worn the socks there, but I still couldn't knit them.

Probably given the climate, I didn't find any yarn stores. Of course, I didn't look too hard, and most of my google searches for yarn stores in Panama led me to Panama City, Florida - the wrong place by far!

I'm working on a longer post to tell you more about the trip. Panama confounded our expectations many times over, so I'm saving some of those observations for a separate post. Until then, I'll whet your appetites with a couple of pictures to give a flavor of the trip.

Paitilla Point, Panama City Miraflores locks.JPG
Paitilla Point in Panama City, and the Miraflores locks on the Pacific side of the canal

Happy (belated) New Year's, everyone!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Somehow I missed that you were going to Panama - can't wait to hear all about it. Hope you got a hat while you were there :-)

Anonymous said...

I totally missed that you were going to Panama. I can't wait to hear about it. Happy New Year.

Anonymous said...

Yea, you're back! Your trip sounds lovely, can't wait to see more pics. Clappy looks very happy on that hammock!

Sheepish Annie said...

Welcome home! It sounds like a wonderful trip and Clapotis looks quite relaxed in that hammock. All knitting should have it so good...

Anonymous said...

Wow! Looks like an amazing trip. Your clap looks great and I love the colors on the "parrot" yarn! Miss you on Wed. night. Hope to see you again soon!

Jessica
http://zarzuelaknitsandcrochets.com/blog

aija said...

Welcome back!