If there’s yarn on Kaua’i, I’ll find it.

We’ve gone to Kaua’i for vacation, and we’ve taken some day trips around the island. We’re staying in Po’ipu at the South Shore, and drove up to the North Shore to Hanalei one day where I visited the only local yarn store on the island (not counting the Ben Franklin Crafts in Lihu’e). Hanalei Music’s Strings-Things is a small store of about 400 sq. ft. (located at 5-5190 Kuhio Highway, Hanalei, HI 96714, phone 808-826-9633)  and is split into two sections, a music store specializing in ukuleles and a yarn store. Most of the yarns carried are typical brands found in most U.S. stores, among which is Trendsetter and Plymouth. I sought the locally produced yarn, Kaua’i Botanicals, and opted for two skeins of a fingering weight in yellow, beige and white, comprised of bamboo, silk and merino, hand-dyed with ginger root and hibiscus blossoms. Yeah, yeah, I know I don’t need any more yarn, but come on, I’m in Hawaii, and there was a yarn store….

(This picture was taken using the free iPhone and iPad app. combo of Camera A – Camera B. With Camera B the iPhone camera is used to take the photo and then sends the image wirelessly via Camera A on the iPad and is added to the iPad’s photo album. It’s a great way of getting around the fact that iPad lacks a camera, although it’s a rather sketchy app set-up in it’s current format, but when it works, it’s not bad.)

Seeing Red

I’ve finished Lacy Serpentine Scarf and it’s so-so. Of all the things I’ve knitted in recent years, this is one among my disappointments.

The pattern itself is fine, but I just used the wrong yarn, and at the very least, not enough of it. The end result is a scarf that is narrower than I’d hoped for and not worthy of the gift I was going to make of it. I don’t know what I was thinking when I chose such thick yarn. Oh, well.

So, now I’ve added another project to my list and this one is a gift for my mother. She often drops hints about things she’d like, but when it comes to knitting, she makes actual requests. Last November she asked for a lace scarf in red, but I knew that with our adjusting to life with a second child, who herself was adjusting to life with a new family, in foreign land, in foreign surroundings, a foreign language and foreign food, and with Thanksgiving and Christmas looming, having such a project ready for my mother by Christmas would be extremely unrealistic. Now I hope to get to her by mid-May, but I’ll probably have to aim for sometime this summer. The project is Melon Pattern for a Shawl by Jane Sowerby. For this I’m using Alpaca Wool Fingering by Frog Tree, which is one of those yarns I just love feeling.

This is the central portion of the shawl with the melon stitch, which is really easy to memorize and is rather a pleasure to work, and the lace edging will be worked later.

True confession, and perhaps of no surprise to regular readers, since we got our first iPhones on the first day they became available in 2007: we got an iPad.

I can’t yet say it’s a life-changing device, but it’s great way to watch streamed Netflix movies and for watching TV off of our TiVo by way of application called Slingplayer Mobile paired with a Slingplayer device. After the iPhone, which I think is fair to say, revolutionized mobile phones, I can’t yet see that iPad will have that same effect, but it’s a fun new gadget. My husband is in Geek Heaven, although he maintains he bought it for me.

The deeper colored eggs were brown eggs...

Among other news, the best yet, our adoption of our daughter was finalized at the end of March, and it feels great knowing that she really is a member of our family forever, and just in time for Easter.

First egg hunt and she got right into it.

Big brother finding eggs in odd places.

On a note about adoption and some unhappy news circulating involving World Association for Children and Parents (WACAP), the same organization that facilitated the adoptions of our children: WACAP is a wonderful organization and the people who work there are dedicated to making the most appropriate placements, with sensitivity to the situation of each child, the child’s birth country, and the prospective adoptive parents. Isolated situations may happen, and I can’t speak for those, and they should not be weighed-in against WACAP. If you’re considering adoption, I have nothing but praise for WACAP and its staff.