Knit Sisters

It’s great to be back and have a chance to get caught up on the development of the Blue Bamboo and the fine points of copyleft vs. copyright. Thanks to Sarah and Alex for keeping the blog fires burning in my absence!

The Outer Banks of North Carolina was a magical place, replete with beautiful beaches,

wildlife refuges that doubled as refuges for derelict buildings,

delightful beach houses,

Our house, “No Regrets,” shown here with my young friends who, for national security purposes, shall be known only by their code names: Red and The Cardinal.

vicious mosquitos and biting flies,

The Cardinal slaps demonically persistent mosquitos who are thwarting his attempts to photograph the scenery.

state parks that looked remarkably like the Sahara Desert,

The Cardinal and Red at Jockey Ridge State Park. Although the heat index that day was 117 degrees, they appear cheerful and sprightly. Because that’s just the kind of really swell people they are.

handy clotheslines,

Because occasionally some of us had run-ins with ocean waves and ended up just the tiniest bit drenched and encrusted with sand and small stones. But we learned a valuable lesson: if you fight the sea, you will be schooled by the sea.

and picturesque paths to the beach.

Wait! Come back! I can explain everything!

Red took her first surfing lesson,

Laird Hamilton’s got nothing on her.

while The Cardinal, his mother, and I took photos and loafed on the beach.

During the week, we discovered a unique retail outlet for beer and various libations called The Brew Thru. I have not yet gotten over my amazement at the existence of not just one, but multiple Brew Thrus in the Outer Banks. Because what this is—and if you haven’t seen it you might be tempted to think I’m exaggerating (which heaven knows I would never do here on the blog)—is a drive-though beer store. I am not kidding.

There’s something more than a little Darwinian about allowing people to buy a case of Coors from the driver’s side window of their Ford Explorer.

Speaking of Coors (aka “Colorado Kool-Aid”), should you find that your favorite Outer Banks beach shop is fresh out of Confederate flag bikinis, there are still other tasteful and dignified options for beach wear:

Truly, there are no words.

But now, although the shame is very great, I must confess that I did not knit much at all while I was in North Carolina. I offer in my defense these two obstacles: (a) the heat index was always between 115 and 120 degrees and that’s the kind of meteorological figure that says “Brew Thru” rather than “wool” to me; and (b) I was experiencing some overuse, carpal-tunnel-style pain in my left wrist. I am pleased to report that the latter seems fine now after a week of rest.

Which is a darn good thing, too, because I’m about to go on the road for some dissertation research and after those long days in the archives, I’ll need knitting. I’ll need it badly. I’ll take those same projects—Icarus, the bamboo socks, and Rogue—and hope for better progress this time.

First stop, Tucson. I’ll be reporting from there on Wednesday…

This entry was posted on Monday, August 7th, 2006 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Pathological knitting or "I can quit any time". You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.