I’ve been busy.  I’ve been stressed with work. I’ve been trying to sell and buy a new home. I’ve not had any time off work since Christmas because I thought I’d be moving. 🙁

I was coping with all this.

My  house purchase/sale falling apart for the second time and putting right back at square one was too much to take. I could either get very depressed or take positive, decisive action.

Positive action it was. I marched Ben to the nearest Travel Agents and booked us a luxury holiday in Mexico!

Fear not,  I’m getting to the knitting related parts – this isn’t a “look at my holiday snaps” post.

I decided to treat myself to a brand spanking new project for the trip – no stash busting, no trying to finish off other projects – this holiday was to be indulgence all the way…

I decided on Iris from Rowan 45. A beautiful lace cardigan in Rowan Cotton Glace.

Here she is…

I love knitting cotton on holiday – hot damp hands and suncream don’t seem to affect it too much. I found out the hard way once that hot sunny beaches and Kidsilk Haze are a match made in hell!

You see that couple of inches of knitting in the picture? You think that was all I did?

Ha! Of course not. I cast on the back on the airplane, using an addi circular so as not to upset airport security with pointy, long, evil terrorist death sticks (or knitting needles as they sometimes are called) and knit for most of the 10 hour flight.

I knit by the pool. (note the rather large cocktail on the table in the foreground)

In fact, I knit in the pool!

Note the ball of yarn tucked in my bikini strap!

This was a technique that was a little ungainly and fraught with constant danger of drowning my knitting so it was an experiment which didn’t last too long.

If you think people looked at me knitting under a sun shade, you should have seen their faces when I knit in the pool! 😀

So how much of Iris did I complete?

Less than I thought I might…

One back…

And one left front…

The top of this left front again because I was drinking too many yummy cocktails by the pool 😯

Not bad huh?

I guess I should show your the stitch detail too…

And the edging at the bottom….

Pretty, pretty pattern isn’t it? and surprisingly easy to do.

Well it’s midnight and I’m wide awake with Jetlag and I have work tomorrow.

Maybe just a few more rows before bed…. 😉