Beach Knitting

The Collective will be going away on holiday to St. Augustine in early August. I can't wait. Though the sun and I aren't the best of friends, I adore swimming, and love walking along the beach. St. Augustine, in addition to being the site of the supposed Fountain of Youth, is over 15 miles of continuous beach, with a good 20-50 yard sand shelf that keeps the water about 4-5 ft. deep and WARM. (It all depends on the tides, of course, but sometimes I think you could walk forever.)

Once in awhile, we brave the possibility of sharks and swim out over the deeper part to the sandbar another 10 feet out or so. Walking on that is a trip. It's only about a foot deep, even at high tide, and you can watch fish swim back and forth over it, disappearing into the deep water on either side. The far side, the ocean side, drops suddenly and drastically- it's probably 8-12 feet deep, depending on where you are on the sand bar. I don't go on that side, because I have a healthy fear of the things that occasionally drive the huge schools of tiny fish to swim away very quickly.

As a matter of fact, I have a pretty healthy fear of just about anything I can't see swimming past me, which is why I'm a fan of the shallow water and tide pools. Even more, the house we've rented has a private pool and spa, and I can REALLY get behind that!

As vacation approaches though, I am faced with a true dilemma. What knitting do I take with me? I'm hoping that I'll be done with the little cotton baby shirt by then, so that's right out. I know I won't be done with Wicked, but do I really want to take a huge wool sweater with me? Not particularly. Nevermind the sand factor!

I'm tempted to take the Bordello socks. For one thing, the syncronisity of taking Sea Wool to the beach amuses me. (I am easily amused, and proud of it!) They are small, portable, and I have a couple of sock bags that would do nicely to keep the sand out. But they're small. What if I ran out of knitting? I haven't found a yarn store in St. Augustine!

Finally, there is no small part of me that wants to take a wheel with me. Rodney folds! Sitting there on the beach (on a beach mat!), spinning in the sun and fresh air....it holds a certain appeal. But again, there's the sand factor, and what fiber would I take, and would the rest of the Collective understand that it wasn't kosher to drip on my beloved Lendrum?

Such choices.