I am still alive

Hello everyone. I have not abandon ship… I have been on vacation. I spent last week in beautiful sunny San Diego. The Girl and I were learning to surf. I really am not in any shape to do such strenuous activities. It was a good time, but exhausting. I never stood on the board, but I did come in on my knees a few times. The Girl was a natural, of course, all those years of skateboarding. I had thought I would have time to work on the mystery stole, but alas, I was far too tired to knit anything as complex as lace. I worked on dish cloths. I am still on clue 1 on the mystery stole …sigh. However, in my defense, this is the 1st project which I have tackled that uses actual lace weight yarn and it is far more complex than any other lace I have tried. Also, I did not knit on it while my hubby was reading Harry Potter to me. So it has been several weeks since I worked on it. In the mean time, I have made a pair of socks, low cut anklets made from Tofutsie. They only took me a week! I knit them while listening to the Deathly Hallows. They had short row heels and I loved making them. Next time, I will make the ribbing longer and have just regular length anklets. I might also make the top tighter. I am now working on the toe up socks that were in IK Summer ’07 magazine. We will see how those go.
I would like to make a couple of comments about the Tofutsie. On the upside, it is extremely soft and feels great against the feet. It is silky so you need to use wooden needles. On the downside, I found it a little splity, which I did not like. Also, the ribbing was kind of loose. I think it might be because the yarn is so slippery. I am not sure though. Also, I think it was supposed to stripe, but it didn’t. It was just sort of splotchy. I thought they were very pretty anyway, but The Girl wanted to know why I couldn’t wear normal socks when we got on the plane.
I am hoping to get caught up on some of my knitting. I will try to post some pictures of my new socks and the dishcloths I have been working on. I just wanted to post so people did not think I had left the country.
There have been a couple questions about the little critters I had posted a few weeks ago. They are knit, I only know how to knit. I can crochet a single crochet, but only as trim on my knitting etc. The bunny is a free pattern on Heartstring Fibers website. Here is the link: http://www.heartstringsfiberarts.com/bunny.shtm. I did not measure carefully and the head was a little smaller than the pattern so he looked really chubby. I still thought he was awful cute.
The lobster I bought on Esty from Crafty Alien: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=43812. She has a ton of other patterns too. I bought the Backyard Critters Vol I & III as well, but I have only managed to get the lobster done.