Off the grid.

Gina and I escaped off the radar last week for some wonderful R&R at her family's place in Naples, Florida. As you would expect, Gina has done a really charming job of decorating her Naples house - I was greeted by a knitted fish and a bumpy alligator scarf draped over the couch, plus countless other little Gina touches. There was a sign on the wall that commanded "Relax" - and I obeyed! We had four hedonistic days of eating, knitting, bargain shopping and wildlife-watching. We expected the gators frequently spotted in the backyard lake to appear. (Well, Gina calls it a lake. I say if there are gators, it's a swamp. A really pretty swamp.)

The gators were incognito, but we did see birds galore, including this hilarious scene on the beach, where a bunch of pretty white birds were being led by this Ugly Duckling kind of guy:

We also spotted this frog, who I first mistook for fake, and then for dead, on the mailbox at the condo of Gina's daughter, Marisa, who attends college in Naples. Marisa says he's just really lazy.

We got walk-in makeovers at MAC - Gina was trying out a look for the upcoming wedding of her son, Daniel. We went shopping after, and the salesladies fawned all over Gina's makeup - it really did look stunning! Then they sort of peered at me and said, "Yours is very subtle." (And I felt like it was caked on like a pole dancer.)

We also spotted two pods of dolphins at the Naples pier - they were too hard to capture with photos but we got a couple shots of ourselves!


Of course, there was much knitting to be done. Gina worked on a vest in Malabrigo, while I made great progress on my Featherweight Cardi in Alchemy Juniper (I think I'm going to finish in just 4 skeins!). After knitting the first sleeve on the flight down, I needed to take a break from the endless stockinette and make something quick. So I cast on for the Featherbed Beret from the Little Cake book #22, in Louisa Harding's new Thistle yarn (merino and baby suri alpaca). What a fun knit - and I love this yarn. Great stitch definition, loft and softness. Marisa was the lovely model - it's not every day you see someone wearing a merino/alpaca beret by the pool in Florida!



I re-entered the grid to discover a surprise in today's Tulsa World - a great article on the popularity of cowls featuring Gina's Snooty Snood original design.

Debbie, the model for our Snood pattern and the one who gave us the original idea, told me about this article in last week's Wall Street Journal. "Can the snood save Christmas?" was the title. Check out the photo of Lady Gaga, all snood-ified.

My motto for the week: Grid and bear it.

- Shelley
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