Knittin' and Road-Trippin'

Today was road-trip day. We had to take the boy up to Scout camp at the Haliburton Scout Reserve which is a bum-numbing 700 km round trip. The scenery is beautiful once you get off the main highway but 80kms of nothing but trees and rocks loses it's novelty after awhile.

The Scout troop he belongs to is so well-organized (at least from this parent's point of view) and the leaders are great at, well, leading these kids. While my husband went off to talk to the leaders I got a chance to watch how my Aspergian interacts with kids other than his usual friends. He does alright I must say and seems to fit in pretty well, joking and talking to the kids and looking relaxed and happy. I think he'll have a good time.
The trip back was quiet-just my husband and me and no one nattering on in the backseat. That kid can talk! We stopped for ice cream at the Thornton Ice Cream Parlour. I don't know too many ice cream parlours around and this is one I remember stopping at when I was a kid. It's in a tiny little place called, appropriately enough, Thornton.
We stopped again for an early poutine dinner at a little place tucked in a nook on a tiny street in Orangeville. You've got to love french fries drowning in gravy with cheese curds!
 It's nice to drive in peace and quiet and stop when you want to or just keep going.

For car knitting I brought along a big ball of possibly alpaca wool that my friend picked up for me in Peru. There was a bit of a language barrier when she bought it so she's not 100% sure it's alpaca. It's not hairy like alpaca usually is but it feels lovely and smells like natural fibres as opposed to acrylic.
I have Betsy Lee McCarthy's book Knit Socks! and I decided to give her Diamonds and Cables pattern a go with this possibly-alpaca wool and a pair of US 2/ 2.75mm dpns. I hate hate hate knitting a gauge swatch and instead just grab the needles I think will work and start knitting. If I like the tension I'm getting I keep going, if not I rip it out and start again with new needles. This is how I roll. I tell myself this method takes just as long as knitting a gauge swatch and if I guess right I'm ahead of the game and have a bunch of sock knitted instead of a useless piece of square knitting. So having said all that and knowing that many of you are cringing and getting all knotty in the stomach at my brazen ways I knit the ribbing and started on the pattern and figured out the needles were way too big for this fine wool. And of course I hadn't brought along other needles, I was feeling so confident.
The pride before the fall.
But fear not!! There is a knitting store in Haliburton where I picked up not new needles but a whole new ball of sock wool! My logic might be slightly skewed but keep in mind I'd been looking at rocks and trees for 100kms by then and it was 29C outside and our car is not air conditioned.

Isn't that a great colour??

The wool is from Nova yarns. It's called Nova Value Collection Sock Print and is 75% superwash wool and 25% nylon.

And this is the new sock I knitted. I think the needles are still too big and I'm going to rip it out again and try once more with 2.5mm dpns and see if that tightens things up. 

Once I get the needles and tension thing all sorted out I'll be ready for next Saturday when we do this all over again to pick him up. Maybe I'll have a whole pair done to show you after 9 hours in the car and 700kms! Knit on zen mother!