The Land of Enchantment

Well, we've finally arrived home from a trip to The Land of Enchantment.  Yes, that is one of the mottos of New Mexico.

I loved watching the dawn breaking over Sandia Peak.  In the middle ground can be seen a couple of tiny dots - those are hot air balloons lifting off for a morning flight.

My husband and I had such a wonderful visit and explored some of the major sights around Taos, Santa Fe and Albuquerque.  I have lots to show and tell about the Wool Festival at Taos, 

reviews of several awesome area knitting and spinning shops, new yarn and spinning fiber I discovered, and other adventures, in coming posts. 

First some knitting updates.  Of course, I packed way too much yarn for traveling.  I started 5 projects, and completed 4, so that's pretty good, but I hauled along enough yarn for ten!

I like to use vacation time to knit other people's patterns for a break from making up my own stuff and several were quite successful, one was less so, and another is still in the works, but looking good so far. 

The trip out went smoothly, but the trip home was delayed in Atlanta, and we did not roll into our own bed until after 2 AM.  

One project I worked on was a simple beret in a moss texture pattern, knit from some Nashua Creative Focus Worsted yarn I had in my stash.

Since I substituted yarns, I swatched and decided on US 5 needles for a firm ribbing, and US 8's for the body in seed stitch.  I mostly followed the pattern, but in my chosen yarn the hat was coming out a bit short, so I frogged back to the decrease section and began adding an additional plain, 2-round pattern repeat in between every decrease round repeat.  This modification made a nicely super-slouchy hat, but might not be to everyone's liking. 
 

I'll show photos of all my current FO's as soon as time permits, and notes on the projects, and my next pattern should be  posted here ASAP, hopefully in the next few days!