Enjoying O’ahu Instead of Crochet Blog Posting

Yes indeed, it has been awhile.  But can you blame me?  I finally moved into a 3-bedroom house that I am renting.  Have I already talked about that?  I don’t think so.  It’s a block and a half away from where my daughter lives.  So we are close, but not too close, if you know what I mean.  I tried to persuade her to move in with me, but she wisely refused.  I think we would have each cramped the other’s style.  Here’s a photo of the Ko’olau Mountains viewed from the street that leads to my daughter’s house, right around the corner.

All my stuff, car included, arrived saftely around the last week in February.  I found the house around  the second week, I think, so I had to wait until my stuff arrived before I could move in.  Now I’ve just about finished unpacking.  Still have the books to do, and that’s about 15 or so boxes.

What else have I been doing?  I’ve been to the beach several times.  Here’s a photo of “Flagpole Beach.”  Actually, it’s a private beach that you can get to by walking down a little pathway between two properties.  It”s one of the many places that I wanted to know how to get to on my own.  Another is the big mall, Ala Moana Mall, in downtown Honolulu.  Haven’t gone there by myself yet.  The streets in downtown Honolulu are a little tricky.  I guess I could just drive around and get lost.  That’s always an option, especially since there is a yarn store in Honolulu that I want to check out.

And speaking of yarn stores, I’ve been to the Ben Franklin’s in Kailua, a little town on the windward (east) side of Oahu.  But there yarn selection leaves a lot to be desired — lots of novelty yarns, probably for making crocheted leis, something I’m going to try eventually, as well as the usual selection of Red Heart yarns.  They do have some nice wools and cottons, too.  There’s another yarn store in Kailua called Yarn and Needlecraft (I think) that I need to find.  So I’ve got my work cut out for me.

The weather here has been lovely.  It’s still the rainy season, but the rainfall has been less than the average.  For example, Kaneohe, the city where I live, usually gets 11 inches of rain during the rainy season.  So far, it’s only rained 4 inches.  I’m not complaining too much.  I’m finding that the rain doesn’t  bother me because there’s always some part of the island where it isn’t raining.  I’m up close to the mountains, so it’s cooler and rains more, which is fine, ’cause it can get REAL hot here.  The photo is of Kaneohe Bay from the Likelike (pronounced “li-KAY li-KAY) highway, just as you come out of the tunnel that takes you through the Ko’olau Mountains.

Crocheted Shrugs and a Camera Bag

At night, it gets chilly, so my blankets, afghans and lapghans come in handy, as well as these shrugs that I crocheted and knitted just before I left.  I was going to talk about them in a post entitled “Battle of the Shrugs,” but I just didn’t get to it.  But I wanted to say something about them and show some photos of them.  I knitted the peach one, following pattern that Myra Wood taught on Knitty Gritty.  It’s a sample of different lace stitches and was fun (and pretty easy) to make.

The fuchsia one is crocheted in an alternating sc/dc stitch with a picot edge (my own design – hmmm, maybe I’ll create a pattern for it).  Both were made from Lily Sugar n’ Cream cotton yarn.  I didn’t get the gauge exactly right on the knitted shrug, so it’s a bit small, but the crocheted shrug fits nicely.

I haven’t been doing too much crocheting or knitting since I got here.  I started a crocheted sweater, but I haven’t done much with it.  Oh, I did make this little case for my digital camera.  I was inspired by the one my daughter made for her camera.  I did it “freehand” and included a lot of textured stitches, like popcorn, puff, bullion, and seed.

But I think I’m still transitioning from the east coast to Hawaii.  Sometimes I feel so unsettled, like I don’t have a firm foundation or mooring yet, but I tell myself that it won’t last.  It may take a while to really feel like this is home, but that’s ok, too.  It’s all about trust, patience, and process.

And now that I have internet connectivity, I should be posting more.  Stay tuned!