Finally Damson

In my second but last post I wrote about the Damson shawlette and how I had run out of yarn, but how some kind ravelrist offered to send me some of her leftover yarn of cote d'azure malabrigo.... well, the deal didn't work out, because apparently the US Mail was unable to find the Naples Hotel or maybe someone at the mail office was also looking to finish a Damson and had confiscated the yarn?? Anyway, after long dithering and doubting I decided to buy a second skein, ordered it at Wolhemel, received it two days later and FINISHED the damn damson the same night!!!
It came out beautifully after blocking. Still, Constance managed to find a dropped stitch as soon as she held it at the Dudok knit cafe!
Anyway,here it is:

Florida

So I'm back from Florida where I had a great time! I was very happy to return to the Sunshine State, I was there two years ago and enjoyed it tremendously the first time around. Well, it was even better this time!
I had an uneventful journey and was able to nearly finish a sock and a half, having brought my bamboo dpns in my hand luggage on the flight with no problems at all.
I also brought my Golding spindle, yes indeed, and spindled. Funnily enough no-one on the flight, to my amazement, came to enquire what the heck I was doing..!

On arriving I had to queue for 45 mins at the Budget car rental office in a hot and sticky Ft Myers, but it was totally worth it, the compact car that I rented turned out to be a huge! Toyota, or at least that's what I thought when I saw it:
WOW this was a totally cool car, made me feel very American driving it!

Like last time, I stayed in the Hilton Naples, and again I found this a great place to stay. The staff are incredibly helpful and nice and the room (on the executive floor) everything I could wish for.


The very first morning there started out with a tropical storm, a dark rain, with darkish green light, heavy drenching showers, thunder and lightning and heavy winds. You'd think, living in Holland, I'd be used to some rain, but this was NOTHING like what we're used to!

The conference was great and so was the company (I hung out a lot with three great Dutch pathologist buddies)
and so was the food, the wine, the shopping, the weather and almost anything else you can think of.

Last but not least I went to a LYS. It;s called Gabriella's Yarn Shop and it's run by Gabriella, who turned out to have lived close to the Dutch border at some time in her life, and who has a wonderful shop full of yummy yarn! I bought yarn... needless to say, two Malabrigo skeins, a lovely soft lime green variegated Merino lace by Hilltop Handspun, and a metallic rayon yarn in a warm brown, copper and gold.. I know this sounds horribly glittery, but really it totally is NOT!
and this is the Hilltop Merino

Then, I also went to a local knitting group where I met Mara, Susan, Marian and Lauren from (around) Naples, and it was great fun! It made me feel so part of a global knitting community to meet them, laugh at their jokes, compare knitting patterns, discuss yarn, and so on. Afterwards, Mara and Susan invited me to come for a drink in a cafe somewhere close, where I also met Susans husband, who was a physician also, and so I had a wonderful night out in Naples, discussing about all my favorite things in life (knitting, medicine... oh yeah and a couple of other favorite things too!)

I cast on a Citron with the new Malabrigo as a souvenir of this wonderful trip and I'll always think of Naples when I wear it!

Then, after a very tiring flight it felt great to be met at the airport by my boyfriend! And I discovered I had really, really missed him!

Then it's back to business as usual and I'm happy to be back with the kids, the dog, the house and the boyfriend, but Oh, I do like travelling on my own and above all, I reaalllyy like Florida, I think I'll retire there when I"m old and grey....