Scotland Day 3: Pear and Toffee are Acceptable

  This morning we headed out and got our car.  This is where it really set in that we were in another country.  There were some worries about being on the wrong side of the road while doing it from the wrong side of the car.  Straightaways were easy but the turns were the real cause for worry.  We didn’t run into any real troubles though.

  St Andrews had an abbey and a cemetery to wonder around in.  There was a tower there.  The sign said there were 160 steps and the person who came down before we went up said it was off by about 5.  My legs were sore and it looked really tall, but I wanted to go and see the view.  The funny part was that even though it was spiral stairs, it was pretty closely enclosed, so I didn’t have any height issues.  Well, until the part of the stairs that were added later and were a more open metal spiral stairs.  It actually didn’t bother my legs as much as I thought.

  The real hard part was getting in.  To get into the tower you had to put a token in and go through a turn style.  To help keep it to only one person, it was a bit tight.  With backpacks it make it even more difficult.  We all managed to squeeze through though.

  In my usual fashion, I took a few pictures of the stone things and a ton of pictures of any critters I saw.  At the St Andrews castle ruins there were some big sea gulls and some other bird that was of a similar size but had different colors.  They also had a different call.

  There were a few more things that were in the plans, but didn’t work out because our next hotel was about a three hour drive away.  We got a lunch at Little Italy and headed out.  I got my knitting out, but didn’t get a lot done.  The back country roads we ended up on were really interesting and I was very distracted.

  All the farm animals in the area seem to have had babies recently.  I got to see a ton of tiny baby sheep, some baby cows, and even some baby horses.  I got a few pictures, but of course missed the babies scratching an itch or frolicking through a field.  One small sheep even managed to squeeze out of the fence and was nervously standing near its mom.  Hopefully it gets back in, there was no room for us to pull off and help it.

  Even with all the winding roads and adorable animals I managed to get a few more rows done.  I am really liking the design of the pattern.  Because it goes from the long edges in, it means that when you are getting tired of working on it, the rows are shorter and go faster.  The one downside is that I know some people who will go until they run out of yarn and that is not possible with this pattern.  I would also consider purling the slipped stitches through the back loop instead of keeping them straight, even if just on the first time you work them again after the set-up row.

  I have been carrying the small ball of the yarn I want to use for the Impulse Scallop Shawl and the needles, but have not had time to cast it on.  It was supposed to be my between car knitting, since I could fairly easily put it down and pick it back up when needed.  Since this is the first day we have had a car, that was not an option before.  Though the pattern is the length of a short story and there are many charts, Better Together is actually quite easy of a knit.  Just so long as you don’t leave in the wrong marker and take out the center marker by mistake.  I totally don’t know this because I did it on the way and wondered why my “center” stitch was only about 100 stitches away from one end.  Nope, not me.  You must be thinking of someone else.

  We had drinks in the sitting room of our next hotel while we blogged, chatted, and waited for our time slot in the dining room.  It was nice and dinner was also awesome.  I learned that pear and toffee is an acceptable topping for cheesecake for me.  I usually hate anything that isn’t straight up.
  Time to hope that later I will get a better night's rest.